Over the past 12 months, I've listened to the gurus and...
Fitness & Thinking Fridays with a dash of vulnerability
‘ey up!
How’s your week going?
In the past seven days, Beth and I have driven from the southwest of Cambodia, through to the northeast of the country where we crossed the border into Laos and have just landed about a third of the way up the country in Thakek, a small sunset-soaked town on the banks of the now cool blue Mekong River.
In this time, my clients have gone from strength to strength, recovering from major surgery, getting to the gym for the first time (and the second and third), building steps into their days despite the shorter days and learning to fall in love with the process.
I know how lucky I am to live and work as I currently do, and a big part of how I’m able to is: you.
Since 2022, I’ve personally spoken with hundreds of you, taken you through a training block or three – and maybe even caught up with your friends and family to chat about their health and fitness goals too.
And, like all coaches, and indeed businesses, I’d be lost without your support and this word of mouth.
You see, I’ve invested thousands of pounds into mentors and coaches for coachjackmann as an idea online – its marketing, its systems, the written and visual content I put out multiple times a week – and, definitely since leaving the UK but really since this time last year, social media platforms have removed videos I’ve created for copyright infringements against the owner (me!), told me that my requests to report spam comments from bots and hacked accounts were unfounded and that my appeals were dismissed essentially without consideration, and, most recently, have throttled my reach to 20-40 views per video, we think – because they’ll never tell us directly – because I named one platform on another.
And, to be honest, I’m tired of it.
I’ve invested time and money and trust in the mentors, sought out further gurus and, it feels, wasted an unbelievable amount of time on putting out algorithm-friendly content because the format I enjoy watching and enjoyed making wasn’t being pushed in the same way across mine and my peers’ pages.
And yet, two years ago as it is now, my business sustains and grows because of great conversations and experiences and results. And while I won’t be hard on myself for trying something different and listening to people further along than me – I’d be a right hypocrite if that were the case eh – I could have cared less about the whims of impersonal algorithms that nobody really understands.
Honestly, on one platform, the videos that did best were of me just looking at something for six seconds – statues, temples or clifftop views – and 1000s of people would see it and engage with it; a 30 second video, condensing research, facts and techniques, while using pro editing tools on the other hand, frequently was shown to maybe 100 people if I was lucky…and yet other mediums supported it without issue.
Anyway, we’re done with that platform for now.
Instead, I’ll put my efforts into writing more scripts and essays in the ways that connected a lot of us in the first place.
So what’s next?
Starting from next week, technology allowing, I’ll be serialising a lot of my fat loss tips and tricks for free so that, in the run up to Christmas, you can feel less like a pudding than years past and definitely not revenge exercise as most people do in January to make up for the over-over-indulgence the time of year is known for!
You’ll need to opt-in if you’re interested and if you enjoy it there’ll even be rewards and incentives for investing in my 1 to 1 coaching later down the line. But let me entertain and educate you some more before you make any life-changing decisions, yeah?
Between now and then, I’ll check in with my clients this weekend and tackle some of my longest drives in southeast Asia. Summat summat balance(!).
And that’s it from me!
Much love and I’ll see yas in the next one
Jack x