Creating Fitness Ads That Get Clients

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6 Responses to “Creating Fitness Ads That Get Clients”

1. Jeff says:

   August 28, 2011 at 6:52 am

   First off Big C, great post! I read every word and loved it. But I want to go back and ask you about something you said near the beginning of the post. “I can STILL slip into negative thinking as easy as the next guy…" Now I can't really ask the question without a bit of back-story and I HATE talking about myself… especially my 'head trash' but since head trash IS the question, here goes. About ten years ago after losing my Dad and my sister within 9 months of each other, a crash and burn relationship with a crash and burn woman, and three ugly, protracted, and (worst of all) concurrent lawsuits, I was a wreck. At 5’4” I was weighing 205 lbs (and sooo not all muscle), drinking heavily, eating junk, and hating the world and most everything in it… especially myself. But, like you I turned things around. I used all the things you mentioned, “Positive Mental Attitude + Focus on a Clear and Definite Purpose + Action + Helping Others” and I also changed my peer group to reflect what I wanted my life to be. And great things did happen. I had a “Reasonably Happy and Successful Life”.
   Until the crash of ‘08. I lost clients, lost money, had more family tragedies, blah, blah, blah. The economic problems have effected us all and we’re all in the same boat. My situation is not unique. And I went back to the basics “Positive Mental Attitude + Focus on a Clear and Definite Purpose + Action + Helping Others”. And to my OUTSTANDING peer group. But, (you know there was a ‘but’ comin’) all my tools, all the meditation, incantations, affirmations feel hollow… and EVERYONE in my formerly outstanding peer group is experiencing the same thing.
   So Big C, my question to you is this, what are your specific tools for staying with “Positive Mental Attitude + Focus on a Clear and Definite Purpose + Action + Helping Others”? And what do YOU do specifically when those tools aren’t working? I know, you know, and I’m sure all of your readers know that mental game is the game.
   If you’re looking for subject matter for future blog posts, this is the Holey Grail.
   Thanks for reading this incredibly long comment.
2. Chris McCombs says:

   August 28, 2011 at 10:17 am

   Hey Jeff, I appreciate your honesty and really feel for you

   This is a question I have pondered in my own life as many times as well, as I have been through what felt like to hell and back many times… even recently

   Here's the only answer I feel will do your comment justice

   It seems to me these challenges are to bring me closer to God… I've tried EVERYTHING, positive thinking, affirmations, visualizations, the whole deal…

   But it seems for me personally if I don't rely on my Creator, then I really have no strength at all

   it seems to me to be the foundation for which everything needs to built on

   The tools are important, and we all should have and use different tools that work for us personally, but without the foundation is seems that their benefit is only temporary

   This is a business blog so I stay away from talking about GOD as to not isolate large portions of my market… however it's PARAMOUNT in my life, even if I don't mention it in my posts

   Ive proven time and again when I rely on myself I end up making a mess of life and don't have ANY idea of how to cope with the real challenges that can pop up from time… especially the serious stuff like the loss of loved ones

   I've drifted in and out of faith for some time now… God was the only thing capable of getting me off drugs years ago and when my path swayed, I ended up making more bad decisions…

   Today I feel fortunate that while goin through some really rough shit that was getting the best of me, I turned back to GOD, knowing its the only way for me to lead a happy and peaceful life

   Im pretty convinced that in my own life, all the nasty shit that has happened has happened ( at least in part) so could realize that I cant' do it on my own and that I needed to turn to the ONE who created me

   Your comment is very timely for me BTW, hope this helps

   Recently on my right inner forearm I had a tattoo put on of the bible verse REV 12:11

   They triumphed over him
   by the blood of the Lamb
   and by the word of their testimony;
   they did not love their lives so much
   as to shrink from death.

   To me it's a constant reminder of how God is more important than life itself
3. Jacob Mcluskie says:

   August 28, 2011 at 1:57 pm

   Thanks Chris, great post!
4. Larry Clay says:

   August 28, 2011 at 4:51 pm

   Hey Chris…thanks for pointing this blog and the comments out.

   Hey, Jeff. I'm a good long time friend of Chris' and bro, let me first say, you are not alone in this. Ya know, I can't agree with Chris enough on his entire reply to you. We will ALL go through rough times. The 'Word' itself tells us that it shall rain on the wicked and righteous alike… I guess here's my point with that…. GOD makes it clear that while HE is totally sovereign over all of the universe, HE is not in charge of the hardships that come in this world. Now granted, HE will give us a good ol' pop in the back of the head if we make decisions that don't line up with the guidelines HE's given us in the Word to have a better life, and/or let us reap what we sow so to speak, BUT HE's not here to let our lives be destroyed. Actually, what you're doin as far as meditation is concerned is far more Biblical than what most people even understand. Habakuk 2:2 tells us to not only see the vision (meditate) but also to write it out (make a plan). Even the verbal affirmations are there… Proverbs 18:21…There is power of life and death in the tongue. Literally, every word we speak plants something into motion either towards our benefit or towards harder times.

   This will give you another bit of insight. I really encourage you to check out my site. http://www.allworksforgood.com and check out the 'Clay's story' page. It's a site about my life testimony. I'm gonna be pretty transparent with you (and the entire world on the world wide web) for a second and tell you a bit about myself.

   I was born into a world where the enemy (aka the devil) has tried LITERALLY from day one to kill me. Whether it be by killing me physically or literally by killing my spirit, he has tried and never succeeded. Here's the short quick version (as quick as it can be anyway) and Chris actually has heard the full version.

   My Dad was gone by the time I was born. He left my sister and I both with a mother who really could've cared less about us, with exception of having us to take her fury out on. That stopped momentarily while my mother remarried another man named John. Although walking without the Lord, he was a good man who did a lot for us as his stepkids. Unfortunately, after finding out my mother was cheating on him, and from his mother just dying a week or so before, John killed himself. It was pretty common that we would be beaten to points of not being able to stand up at least weekly if not daily. There were other times I vaguely remember (thank GOD) about having been fed alcohol or drugs so others around my mother could be entertained. I was also raped by two teenage boys in my neighborhood for about 4-6 months……..while my mother knew about it. When she first found out, I got beat for it even though at 5 years old there was no way I could fight my way away from two 17 year old teenagers. I was actually beaten so bad that when she dropped me off at school the following day, she told me to tell people I was in a car accident, as I was literally black and blue all over, and she knew I couldn't miss anymore school from that kinda thing or she would be in trouble herself. I really did look as if I'd been in a horrible accident, with exception of one thing…..her name was imprinted clearly down the right side of my face from the back of her old western belt. The teacher called the counselor and the counselor called CPS. No luck there though as the CPS couldn't even come close to getting near me. My mother knew every trick in the book to make sure they couldn't touch me with a ten foot pole. so…on the story goes. Even after she found out about the two boys in the neighborhood and what was going on, she still had no problem pushing me outside even while she knew the two boys waited practically right outside the front door like a couple of wolves waiting to be fed a live sheep for the slaughter. This finally ended when my Sister found out (who I was threatened to not say a word to about it) and went down and literally beat one of the guys in the mouth until his braces popped off of his teeth. (I still get a bit of a chuckle out of that…hee hee).

   Later, my mother started to date a guy named Walter…otherwise known by his peers as "Uncle Nasty"…not just because of his perverted ways, talk, and actions, but also because the guy was absolutely ferocious and fought more "nasty" then you'd ever imagine anyone could fight. They dated for a while, all the while my mother would leave my Sister and I deserted without food, and in total fear that if we told anyone we would be beaten to a pulp. My GrandMother ( an amazingly GODly woman who was married for 65 years to my GrandFather who was a Pastor for over 67 years) actually found out because my Sister finally had to call her as I was laying on the kitchen floor screaming in starvation, and started sneaking us food over. She had to sneak because again, if she got caught, my Sister and I would be in for some serious damage. Sure enough, one day as my Grandmother was leaving, my mother was pulling up. This was another bad one. Thank God for my GrandMother, as she continued to get more and more sneaky in delivering us food. It actually got to where we would have to run outside and eat on the corner and then run back in and leave the dishes for my GrandMother who would typically watch us from the end of the street and then drive back by and snag up the dishes as quick as she could and drive off. This went great for a while until my mother announced we (she and I …not my Sister) would be moving in with Walter. She allowed my Grandparents to adopt my Sister because she just wasn't making enough money off of her anymore. Yeah that's a little tid bit I haven't unveiled yet either. My mother claimed that John, who was in the military before, actually adopted us so it made it pretty easy for her to make a claim to the Government…illegally… that John adopted us. That enabled her to not only be paid the massive amount of child support that she was from my Dad, but also she was collecting Social Security on me, illegally. On with the story. We moved in with Walter who would later become my stepdad and you would think this would be a chance for a "Man" to step into the picture and turn this family around. Walter, although gave me gifts like three wheelers, four wheelers, bicycles, etc was absolutely as violent as my mother and furthermore, so demeaning that I literally had no self worth by the time I was 8 years old or so. They ended up getting married and he had nothing to lose anymore…. I was in for it. The relentless beatings began. This carried on for the rest of the time I lived with them. He was actually the first adult I fought, as when I hit 13 I decided to stand up for myself and fight back. From that day on, there was a physical battle weekly (and again) sometimes daily. One thing I'm thankful for, is the fact that my Dad started me in Martial Arts when I was 4. It's one of the only things he gave me, but it's something I've always had in my life since that day. I've been training every since he started me, and for "whatever reason" (the prayers of my GrandParents and the hidden influence of GOD in my mother's mind I'm sure) my mother kept me in Martial Arts, and I still have yet to get away from it. I know Walter liked me being in it, because A), it gave him something new to fight against from time to time, and B) I told he and my mother that I used it while fighting the kids of other races at my school (which for the most part was true) as I was literally one of the few white kids at my school and both, he and my mother were extremely racist. So, the fighting with Walter went on until one day I day I finally had enough and taunted him into what would be our last fight. I was about 16 years old almost and the day before I had actually gotten the best of Walter, far better than I ever had. What was crazy also is that I used to be SHORT! I actually grew DRAMATICALLY over that summer from 5'7" to 6'2". SEVEN INCHES IN THREE MONTHS! I could now look Walter eye to eye as he was 6'1" and 192 pounds. Although I was still only 140+ pounds drippin wet because I grew so fast, what was actually funny about this is that I threatened Walter not too long before that summer that one day I was gonna grow and be bigger than him. The height almost didn't matter as Walter and my mother got his revenge against me. I woke up that night being strapped down with a nylon strap going across my chest, while being beaten from one side of my bed with a stick and from the other side with a belt. As I said, I was 16 at the time….I'm 36 years old now, and still have the scars across my biceps from where the nylon straps were cutting into my arms as I tried so hard to pull away from them. That next day I woke up ready to make sure this was gonna be the last fight Walter and I would ever have. I found a hammer and smashed him in the teeth while he slept. That morning, he forgot and left their bedroom door unlocked that night. After he got his thoughts together, he chased me out the front door, where I gladly waited with full intention of murder in my mind if needed…and it may have been needed because I just caused some SERIOUS damage. I again started getting the best of Walter and we were on the ground right next to the edge of the concrete porch and I raised my stepdad's head up off of the ground ready to shove the side of his head down onto the corner in hopes of killing him. Just as his head came up, while my mother's tone changed (as she was just before this laughingly rooting Walter on), and all of a sudden my Uncle tackled me off of the top of Walter, and kept us separated until I had the chance to get my stuff and go on to school. I knew I couldn't live there anymore and while at school decided to go and get all of my things while they were gone to work, and lived out of my truck for a couple months, until one of my friends figured that out and offered me a place to live with he and his Dad and later told my Grandparents and eventually went and lived with them. Nobody else knew, as I had money to eat because I was already working and driving AND had a job. I would basically shower twice a day and eat at school, go to work and then go to sleep in my vehicle. From that point on, I made an inner vow….a very dangerous and violent inner vow…. to never give anyone the chance to hurt me ever again. That vow became engrossed in violence almost immediately. I began fighting ALL of the time. Although still ridiculously skinny, I had a fury of hate like you literally could never imagine. The girls LOVED me because they knew they were safe, and although VERY jumpy about new guys I never met, and being more than willing to fight them because inside I was driven so hard by fear that they thought they could hurt me if they wanted to, that I had to fight them upon the first half way cockeyed look I could get from them. Basically, if you knew me and I knew you, everything was fine, but if not and if you wern't with someone I knew, (and sometimes even still if you were with someone I knew) it was almost sure i would be looking for a reason to make you uncomfortable enough to leave, and if you didn't leave you would be taunted until you absolutely could not back down and had to fight. I've got a coule of stories that would literally make you cringe…including one where I literally stomped a guys teeth out of his mouth. This kind of violence still went on through College, until I guy on another team during a Basketball game "had my number". He hit me, and HIT ME HARD and I went crazy to the point to where I was fighting the majority of his team and causing some pretty serious damage to try to get back to him. Everyone thought I finally calmed down as I went over tho the bench and began gathering up my stuff. I was letting everyone get their attention off of me for a second so I could see where the coaches were walking the other kid. When I finally saw, I ran across the courts and chased them all down into the foryer only to have cops run in on me. I ended up going first to student court and then to County court. I was looking at potentially over $25,000 in fines. Nervous doesn't even describe how I felt. I told the Judge what happened, and he told me some story about how he knew how I felt because he had a similar experience when he was younger trying to defend himself from all of his cousins at once for a misunderstanding, and laughingly said "pay court costs and get out of here. If you come back in here for so much as a parking ticket in the next 6 months you can guarantee I WILL lock you up though…understood?" What's crazy, is in student court, I had also seen a TON of grace that was greatly undeserved. As the other kids I got in a fight with, were expelled indefinitely from any Texas state school, I was only suspended for the rest of the year! I could even come back and play basketball still if I wanted. That night, as I refused to tell my Grandparents what had happened until I knew what was GOING to happen to me, I called and told my Grandmother the whole story. This is where my story changes….where my life absolutely changes. I told my Grandmother what happened and as I did, she told me "Larry…(with tears coming through her voice) last night your GrandDad was in mid-stride and fell straight to his knees in tears, NOT knowing why, but felt the Lord urging him to pray for you. Now we know why. You can't do this anymore…you have to change"….So I did. I turned down the chance to come back to school, went back to my hometown and opened my first Martial Arts facility inside of a local gym there until I had enough people to get out on my own. I also met a guy who would later become one of my best friends, among several others thatI still see and talk to from time to time. That friend introduced me into a church where I later got baptized and my process BEGAN. I emphasize began, because our process is LIFELONG. I also emphasize began because I still had a TON that the Lord wanted to burn off of me including so much anger and even shame about my life, where I had been, and what had happened to me, to the point that I even told a lot of people that I had no parents, and even that I was adopted.

   So….long story short… We shouldn't look SO hardly (even though it's hard not to) on the "bad times" of our lives, as even though the enemy tries to break us and tear us down, GOD, as promised in Romans 8:28 fulfills HIS promises through our hard times.

   Here are just a few that you can take out of my life, by itself.

   John 14:13
   Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
   *Without the CONSTANT (and I mean "constant") prayers of my Grandparents, since I was a baby, I should have been far more damaged than one could have ever imagined ……if not dead.

   Psalms 27:10 When your Mother and Father forsake you, I (The Lord) shall take you in.
   *This one is obvious

   Deuteronomy 28: 12
   The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
   *Did I mention that even though my life story was obviously one that many call horrific and tragic, that small Martial Arts facility grew from that local gym into the first Martial Arts facility EVER in my home town to have to full time facilities in my hometown that grossed near $50,000 per month and also had a small sattelite facility that added to it regardless of how I was told all of my life I would be a failure and regardless of what most people thought was a severe learning disorder ?

   Psalm 23:2
   He made me to lie down in pastures of green….
   *More to come on this but I can tell you, especially with mistakes I made with my business where I put it at a higher level of importance than what GOD was being to me (much like most do with their career, job, image of their marriage, self image, busniess, etc) my image was yanked right out from underneath me and I was BROKE AS A JOKE for a LONG time, yet in those times I was pushed down so low that the only thing I could do was look up to HIM. And even as bad as my situation looked from the outside, it was soooo amazing on the inside as HE made me know and forced me into a position where I would see HIM provide for me, so that HE could fully have my trust.

   Matthew 6:34)
   Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
   *Do not concentrate on the problem. Look up and away from it. God is bigger than any of our problems. He can and will easily help us solve them as he stilled the storm for the disciples. A solution will become clear as we pray and believe God and exercise faith.

   Psalm 55:22
   *Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.
   Guess what…after all the mess and much more that I haven;t even listed, including fighting underground for about seven years (which most people still don't even know about), I AM YET ALIVE MY FRIEND!

   Psalm 55:22
   Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.
   * A BIT OF THE SAME AND SELF EXPLANATORY

   Psalm 144:1
   Praise be to GOD who prepares my fingers for battle, and my hands for war.
   *There was no logical I should have been kept in Martial Arts…NONE. Not with the way my mother and stepdad loved money, and spent not a dime if they could keep from it.

   Romans 8:28
   And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
   *With everything the enemy throws at us in our life, you can guarantee that as we yield and let GOD HIMself defend us, HE…WILL…MAKE…ALL…WORK …FOR GOOD………PERIOD.

   And of course
   Rev 12:11
   They shall overcome HIM (the devil) by the power of the blood of The Lamb, and by the word of their testimony
   *I do it every chance I get…..so what's your story and how can it help others, Jeff? You have a choice….dwell in those hard times, or rejoice and know that every time something GREAT AND AMAZING that GOD Himself has planned for you is about to birth, the enemy will try to take our focus off of GOD and GOD's plan for us.
   Prime example for me… As I was scheduled to speak for the first time ever about my History/Testimony, 5 days before I was supposed to speak, the devil killed my Uncle….the one who kept me from killing my stepdad. I went and spoke anyway…..THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE PEOPLE GAVE THEIR LIVES TO GOD AFTER I SPOKE IN A REVIVAL THAT THE PASTOR WILL TELL YOU WAS THE LARGEST BAPTISM THEY'D HAD SINCE THE DOORS OF THE CHURCH OPENED IN 1964. Don't tell me GOD doesn't have purpose or perfect timing for everyone. I could have turned away from speaking about my testimony that weekend because of the hurt I felt from my Uncle dying, but the plans GOD had for that weekend after would've never taken place in the people's lives that it did.

   Jeff, be blessed bro….and know that GOD is in control.

   Have faith, because my GOD's answers, are "YES" and "AMEN"…that means for you too, bro.
   (2 Corinthians 1:20)

   Coach Larry Clay

   PS….Sorry so long winded with something I intended to just be a fe paragraphs. Ha ha ha
5. Wilson Mayer says:

   August 30, 2011 at 3:42 pm

   @Jeff,

   Sometimes, when "negative" feelings are blocking you from feeling positive, the only thing to do is let them wash over you. Just sit with them, and let them do their worst to you.

   Usually… it gets very intense for a few minutes. You might feel like your'e going crazy as these bottled up emotions make their way up.

   And then, right when you think you can' take it anymore, something happens.

   They suddenly begin to dissolve, and positivity effortlessly flows from you.

   A lot of new age teachings preach to NEVER think a negative thought… but the truth is we're very complex, multi-dimensional beings. We have negative thoughts – it's a fact of life. Suppressing them is suppressing a natural part of yourself.

   Let them flow, and positivity becomes easy.

   Hope this helped,
   Wilson
6. Buff Gyal says:

   September 15, 2011 at 11:53 am

   I enjoyed reading this immensely. The part about making it about THEM and not you, is something I think I have been focusing on a little too much. Even though I put THEM first, I always seem to involve myself somehow. Will be reading more of your posts and bookmarked your site for future reading! =)