A Fitness Video Blogging Post by Chris McCombs and  Zach Even-Esh… Well MOSTLY Zach Even-Esh

Hey there, hope you’re great…

…ya know a lot of trainers can’t stand writing…

They say it feels like they’re doin’ homework or something

No worries, you can still KILL IT with your blog… even if you don’t wanna write, aren’t gonna write and would rather eat a Lima Bean / Road Kill / Soy-Based Smoothie

The answer…

Video

There are PLENTY of successful video blogs out there…

…and video blogs are actually easier, quicker and more fun to create than typical text bogs

And videos are a great GREAT way to bond with your audience… Gary Vaynerchuk does it and the dude pulls in $60 million a year.

Me personally – I actually love to write, so most of MY posts are written.

But YOUR blog can be video or written or a fusion of both… whatever works best for you

Lot’s of video blogs are making a fortune these days…

And you can do a post in like five minutes… and guess what, the crazier, more authentic, flawed and down to earth you are the better…

..so it’s PERFECT for most trainers.

And all you need is a Flip Cam or Kodak ZI8 ( both under $200) and you’re all set… and you if you really wanna go all out you can invest in a $30 tri-pod

One of my good friends Zach Even-Esh does real well with his video based blog…

His readers love him… and he’s literally built a tribe with his blog

His blog allowed him to quit a 93k a year job and focus on building his info-product business, mentoring program and underground gym

Zach is one of the coolest, most down to earth “tell it like is” dudes around

Recently I interviewed him about video blogging… and he had so much to say to had to break the post into two parts.

So here’s part one, but before you check it out, if you haven’t entered to win the contest to win Fitness Blogging Profits yet, so do that right now, it’s worth your time… Enter Here For Your Chance to Win Fitness Blogging Profits

Ok, now that you’ve got that outta the way… Here’s part one from a two part series Zach’s doing about video blogging

Here’s what my buddy Zach Even-Esh says about video blogging…

“My blog is really what has I would say changed my life or even gave me a life.

The blog is where the main amount of my income is coming from.

It’s how people find out about me and connect with me.

I originally started blogging cuz it was so easy for me… and blogs are just easy to edit; it’s like a Word document.

And I have never had any good technical skills, so for me it was like, boom, this is the easiest thing. It’s a great way for me to let my personality out. And it was fun for me and I was also seeing results from it. I always found that people connected with me more through the blog.

So right now the “why do I blog,”… not only is it easy for me but I see the power of it. I see how I could connect with people and what it has done for people. So I’m basically — you go by what gives you the most bang for your buck, what gives you the most results. And for me, my blog is really like that hub that directs all my business.

One thing I found is that people connect with me much better through my video. You know, you can write in a certain way and be pretty influential, but sometimes the point doesn’t get across. With a video they could look you in the eyes. There’s so much more of a deeper connection through video.

Example… I just had my mentorship weekend and I always find out why people signed up or why they came to me or why they invested in programs. I always ask them why. And it almost always — 90-plus percent of the time — they’re like, “Dude, you spoke in this one video how you were in debt.” They were in debt. That’s all they needed to know and suddenly they connected with me on this grand level, this really high level, and they really were basically connected to everything I did.

One guy told me he came because he saw some of my athletes doing like a plyometric type jump from their knees. And he’s like, “Man, I saw that video and I said, that’s the way I want to train and that’s what I’ve got to do.”

Somebody else saw the videos and saw the gym and how small it was. Or they heard me talking about my depression through my high school years and maybe that person was depressed and, boom, that person becomes a customer for life.

It has been the best way for me to do what I love to do and to help other people.

Video blogging has been a very powerful tool for me. I’m helping people change lives through the blog and I’m creating the business and the life of my dreams. That blog has just made it so much easier, video specifically, and that shit’s just easy for me.

And when I look at other people doing certain videos, I see they’re kind of nervous or they’re trying to be someone or something they’re not, or they’re trying to make it perfect.

Like, yesterday somebody had sent me a link about their new product they were launching and they did a video and they were sitting down in front of a white wall like it was some friggin’ casting couch or something.

And I was like, damn, dude. Nobody will connect with you like that.

Like your video on your bike Chris, you’re outside, you’ve got your Harley shirt on, you’re talking all chill.

That probably increases their opt-in or response rate and the connection rate.

Like, for me, the way I see a guy who’s just kind of not dressed up, you’re not worried about, “I’ve got to comb my hair and look good.” A lot more people connect with that. That’s real. Not many people are going to connect with a video where you’re sitting in a white wall like you’re in the confession booth. Nobody’s going to trust you that way.

So the video allows me to bring my energy and to bring my craziness and to bring basically all my personality traits.

It’s so powerful. I’ve got programs on the blog — products that sell as low as I think like $19, but then you’ve got my mentorship weekend which is over $1,000. And the blog has been the driving factor as to why people invest in any of my stuff. It’s because of the video and they relate to it.

The proof is in the numbers. And because I’m kicking butt with it and I love doing it, it’s so much fun — video is like bringing Broadway to people.

So I think if you learn to do it without any rules — and that’s the key; don’t think there’s any rules to this — you will really win because people look you straight in the eye and see, boom, Chris McCombs cares about what I’m saying. Zach Even-Esh cares about what I’m saying. Like, Jimmy Joe cares about me. It’s huge.

And I know people could go big with text and specific keywords and all that. But you can mix that in with videos and make a way, way bigger connection if you’re doing videos mixed in with good keywords as opposed to being all text.

You’ve got to really think big and that’s why I love those videos, man.

Like, you and I always talk about… you wanna be human, admit stuff and talk about your back story… like you talking about your history with addiction and being in jail. And even though you and I — even though before I knew that about you, you and I just connected real well.

You’ve been interviewing me for a few years. But my brother had gone through all that shit. So when you and I met in person last June, I swear to you, like, we were hanging out and I was like, “This guy is my brother.”

Like, we’ve met in person once, yet we had that connection of best friend or like blood brothers. And that, like you’re saying, is huge.

And I’ve also been doing this with — aside just from blogging, but I’m using video to create my sales pages for all of my products because it connects and hits home way friggin’ bigger than pure text. And I just did like a big blog post that got — I think it may have over 80 comments but it has really nothing to do with fitness. And here’s where we talk about breaking the rules.

If anybody’s listening they might be saying, “Well, Zach’s supposed to be teaching people how to dead lift and bench press and flip tires.” But instead I was talking about how I use the power of my mind to improve my body, to score hot chicks, to meet my wife, to do all that shit.

That got the biggest connection. And a lot of the comments from that blog post started with, “I’ve never commented on your blog before but this one really hit home.” And now they’re like, boom, that was the connector. You know, I got them to think and feel something.

And I think words could get you to think. They could get you to feel. But video takes you to a whole other level. And we could look at some of those most popular YouTube videos; they have to do with either they’re extremely educational, like, kick-ass content, or they’re extremely hilarious or they’re extremely touching.

So I remember there was that video on YouTube with several million hits literally in a few days of this guy that raised a lion and then he tried to release it back into nature and the thing was starving itself but then he took care of it. And finally, he taught the lion to go and hunt.

And some years, years, years down the road he’s traveling through a safari in Africa and he friggin’ runs into the lion and the lion runs up to him and tackles him. And it would look like it’s going to eat him alive but it starts licking him and hugging him.

Dude, it was a crazy-ass tear-jerker and it had millions and millions of hits.

That’s going to get a huge amount of hits compared to, “Let me show you how to do crunches and how to burn fat.” Like, nobody f*cking cares. That doesn’t hit any kind of emotional bond.

If you’re going to teach somebody about abs or anything like that, you’re better off starting a video saying, “Not long ago I used to be so f*cking fat and out of shape I could not stand it anymore. What I want to do for you guys is in the next three minutes is I want to take you inside how I use my mind to change the way I eat and to say, screw all these stupid crunches and ab gimmicks. This is what I did. This is the training that I did that empowered my mind and body and now I’ve lost over 150 pounds.”

That kind of video is going to be huge and will dominate any video that’s like, “I’m going to take you through an ab circuit and my name is John Smith and I’m an XYZ certified –” like nobody gives a shit about that. WIIFM. What’s in it for me? That’s the radio station everyone cares about and that’s the shit that people need to really start thinking about.

I’m also going for emotional triggers; the educational content, like I said; and making stuff fun and just cracking people up. Because you know what I’m also learning, Chris? That a blog like yours, a blog like mine, is sometimes the best thing in that person’s day. They wake up and they’re like, “Dude, I wonder what the hell is on KickbackLife.com today.” Or, “I wonder what kind of funny-ass video is on Zach’s blog today.”

And I got a lot of e-mails today from an audio interview I did with Matt Furey. They were like, “Zach, that is exactly what I needed today. I needed that pick-me-up. I’ve been going through a rough three-month patch in my life and I needed to hear somebody say that I could do it.” Because everywhere else is negativity.

You come to ZachEven-Esh.com and I’m going to f*ckin’ light it up for you and I’m going to tell you straight up that, you know what? Ninety-nine percent of people are telling you you can’t f*ckin’ do it. But I’m the man that’s tell you to say, “F*ck you, everybody.” You can do it.

So they’re, like, connecting with me on this emotional level. They’re connecting with me by seeing, okay, Zach went through that. And it makes a way, way better ability to create a living from the stuff that you and I do compared to watch me do this kettlebell; watch me do that.

But I’m not going to say that there’s no need for that or there’s no desire for that and there’s no money there. I’m driven to a lot of people who have awesome content and they’re not funny at all and they don’t really strike me emotionally but their content is so goddamn awesome that it’s like, boom, I’m really driven to them. But you will be better off if you’re connecting emotionally. That’s really my driving home point right now.

Ok, now’s here’s how I do my posts… the beginning thing and the whole body of the video and the blog post is basically delivering awesome content.

So I want to introduce them. I want to also remind them who I am and where I’m from, because some people may be coming for the first time or they may be seeing my video on YouTube or Yahoo! or another video area. So I want to mention my name, mention my website. I also want to plug my gym. But I won’t plug it so it’s totally obvious. I’ll be like, “You know where I’m at. I’m at the Underground Strength Gym in the Dirty Jersey.” So I have kind of like that connector that rings with them.

Then I want to give them some awesome content. And in my mind — like, I’m just going to keep going back to it, bro — is I’m always thinking of giving them awesome content, entertain the hell out of them.

And then when I’m done with it I want to remind them to comment, ask me a question, drop me a line.

Because what I’m doing is getting a way from being a dictator and creating my — whatever you call it — tribe, cult, family.

So they’re not like, “Oh, Zach always has to say, do this, do that.” They’re like, “Finally, here’s somebody that wants to listen to me. Here’s somebody that wants me to take part in what he’s doing. Here’s somebody that’s bringing me into his family,” even if they live in Guatemala, Australia, Belize. I’m f*ckin’ getting e-mails from all kinds of places. So the end always have a — I call it like the QOD, the question of the day. What am I doing to bring them in, drop a comment?

Like, the last one I did, bro, was I brought them in on a video and I was talking about how I’m about to train the best wrestling team in the country. And Paul Reddick was there and I dropped your name.

I’m talking about big hair bands, Van Halen’s pumping. So I’m doing all these things to connect with them. They’re seeing my energy. So I’m trying to get them to live in my footsteps and in my shoes to make them want to become sort of like me or to be where I’m at.

And then I f*ckin’ do some crazy stuff, like I made Paulie do air guitar, then I do air guitar. And then it’s like, that was a dumb question. I’m like, “If you’ve got questions about training, nutrition or air guitar, drop a comment.” So that thing had like 20 comments. Some dudes were like, “Does air guitar get my biceps peaked up?” And I’m like, “Only if you supinate at the top.” Then some people were serious; they were asking training questions for baseball, this and that.

Here’ s the video BTW…

So I’m showing that, hey, I’m a real person. It’s funny. That keeps them coming back because, think about it. People wake up — right, Chris? They wake up. They’re probably going to a job they hate, more than likely. I’d probably say that we could say 75 percent of people are going somewhere they hate, right? Round about that. So in the morning it’s like dead man walking.

But then they’ve got their whole day 9 to 5 where they’ve got all this shit. So maybe on lunch time or whatever, or who knows when, they’re going to be watching that blog. So I’m really making them connect. And during their time at work where they’re doing what they don’t enjoy, what’s going to be on their mind was the shit that I was getting to do while they were at work, and things like that.

So I’m constantly thinking of ways to bring them in to the world I’m in to show them it can be done and building that family. I want them to take part and comments on the blog.

And I think I learned it from you…. when people comment on your blog, Google sees that as fresh content. And what happens often is the comments they leave are very often keyword-oriented.

So if my blog video is about kettlebells, I have a keyword-oriented title. I sprinkle it in throughout the blog post; even though there’s a video, I throw text in there. And then people comment and are always saying “kettlebell workout,” kettlebell this, kettlebells. So it’s picking up a lot.

The main thing is you have to care. And I can’t do the caring for you. You’ve got to genuinely want people to win and you want to help them. And if you could show that, you’ll stand out in this industry because, dude, there’s a lot of boring stuff out there. People need to bust out their personalities.

Chris, you’re my brother… so I’m really indebted to you and I really hope that everybody listening — if you follow Chris’s advice, there’s just no way that you can’t win.

And Chris is a big reason why I was able to leave my job, which was a real high-paying job, and he gave me the confidence.

Like the last bit, like, you also have two kids, like me. You had a hard past. Even though my past wasn’t the same as you, it was hard. So the simple that you were a guy doing it, even though you’re doing the marketing end and I’m doing more like the mind/body side, I just connected to you and you really — the fact that I connected with you was enough for me — another reason for me to believe that, boom, it was the time to do it.

So listen to Chris.

Listening to Chris and everything on his blog and investing in this program and you will win absolutely. And anybody listening, if they want me to do any Q&A with Chris to help out — whatever Chris asks me to help you guys out with, I’ll do it. You mention his name, it’s like gold.

Check out zach’s site at UndergoundStrengthShow.Tv

Keep an eye out for part two of this special video blogging series from Zach Even-Esh coming soon

Big Chris again, hope you liked what Zach had to say… check it out… in a few days I’m releasing something called Fitness Blogging Profits

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In fact, I’ve been working on this product on and off for the last six months, and I can tell you I’ve put more time, blood, sweat, tears, heart, soul and knowledge into it than anything I’ve ever created.

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