Me around my 31st birthday
Tuesday was my first time on National TV. Hopefully it won’t be my last.
It was fast and furious. My 5 minutes of fame felt like lasted it 30 seconds.
I was on a show that was notorious for absolutely destroying “fad diets”. They used all the classic techniques: having an expert panel that ignored scientific consensus, cherry picked research, and used classic vague definitions of the ‘right’ way to eat.
The two authors who went on before me were absolutely DESTROYED on live television. When they came back to the green room they were pale, sweating and visibly upset.
To use a cliché – The doctor and the dietitian on the expert panel ate these people for breakfast.
But my time in the spotlight was a little different.
Sure the expert panel was combative, but if you watch the tape you will notice something – they were definitely easy on me, much easier than the other diets. Not only that, but someone who studies human behavior might even say that their body language suggested that they actually liked me.
For the most part the show was a success. A small win for the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle. And a win that I owe a large thanks to the Adonis Index for helping to make it happen.
Don’t get me wrong; I was prepared and confident. And the fact that Eat Stop Eat is not a fad and is supported by some amazingly consistent research helped a lot. But, it was the first impressions that saved me.
Put simply, I was taken seriously, and well, they liked me.
From the moment I walked into the green room I knew that it was going to turn out all right. I don’t mean for this to sound arrogant, cocky or pretentious, but from the first moment I scanned the room, I knew I was getting the right kind of attention.
I can only imagine what would have happened if I didn’t train to improve my AI.
Would they have taken me seriously if, while in the green room, they saw 20 inch arms?
NO.
Coming from the world of sports supplements, I can tell you that even bodybuilding companies don’t take bodybuilders seriously.
Would they have believed my theories if I was 30 pounds heavier? Probably not. Even if this extra weight was mostly muscle it would not have mattered. To the untrained eye, heavy is heavy – And nobody wants diet advice from someone who is overweight.
If I had been skinny, then the argument that fasting causes muscle loss would not have gone so well for me. I would have looked like just another pencil-necked-geek-know-it-all.
The bottom line was that from the moment I walked on set, I had a good rapport with the people involved. Even after my 5 minutes of fame, I was laughing and joking with the dietitian and medical doctor back stage (as well as the women who ran the behind the scenes part of the show).
Your physical appearance sells your story. No matter how ‘unfair’ that sounds, it is the truth.