My first Arnold Classic was in 1999
For those who don’t know, the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio is one of the biggest fitness and sports expos in the world. Everyone in the industry shows up. Supplement companies, magazines, athletes, brands, fans.
At the time, I wasn’t anybody in the industry.
My wife knew someone who knew someone who helped me get a gig selling workout programs outside. That was my ticket in.
And because I was working the booth, I could get into the expo for free. That alone felt like a win.
While I was there, I managed to get a Polaroid picture with Arnold. I remember thinking I was about to actually talk with him. You know… shake his hand, chop it up for a minute. Nope. I walked up, they snapped the picture and that was it. Took just a second.
But something happened that weekend.
I started looking around. I saw the magazines, the supplement companies, the athletes, the photographers, and the rows & rows of booths.
I knew that this is where I belonged. Not as a fan, but as someone inside the industry.
I wanted to be on magazine covers.
I wanted to produce workouts and programs.
I wanted to build something.
So every year after that, I came back.
Knocking on doors
From about 2000 to 2008, the Arnold Classic became my checkpoint every year.
Every March, I’d show up with intention.
I’d walk booth to booth introducing myself. Magazines, supplement companies, anyone who would listen.
Gaspari. Optimum. BSN. MuscleTech. Men’s Health. FitnessRx. You name it.
And I’d say the same thing: “I’m a 180-pound, drug-free athlete. I can create workouts. I can talk on camera. I can produce content.”
Everyone passed, but I kept knocking.
Building while I waited
At the same time, I was building my life back home.
I was running my personal training business, paying local photographers a couple hundred bucks to shoot photos, and trying to look better, train better, and present myself better every year.
Every Arnold, I wanted to show improvement. Better physique, better photos, and better strategy.
I believed eventually someone would see the value.
The email that changed everything
Eventually, one of the emails I sent reached Jeremy DeLuca, one of the co-founders of Bodybuilding.com.
He saw the photos I had taken locally in Ohio for $200. He emailed me back and said he’d buy one of them for $500. That picture ended up running full page in magazines like:
- Muscle & Fitness
- Men’s Health
- FitnessRx
Around that same time, I got another email.
A supplement company out of Colorado wanted to sponsor me. One I had never heard of before. That company eventually turned into a company I co-founded called MusclePharm.
And both of those things started because of the Arnold.
The real lesson
But the biggest lesson wasn’t about getting noticed.
It was this: Nobody was coming to put me on. Nobody was going to magically open a door.
So I decided to build my own house. I started building my own brand. My own business. My own platform.
My mindset shifted to this: One day these companies are going to wish they hired me.
I was going to build the biggest house on the block. And I wasn’t going to stop knocking.