9) Keep Knocking

Knocking. Knocking. 

The Arnold Classic Sports Festival is one of the largest in the world. My first Arnold Classic was in 1999. When I started going to the Classic with an intention, that’s when things started to change. Each year, I got better by the Arnold Classic. I tried to look better, have better photos, and develop a better strategy. I would go to every magazine and every supplement company for about a decade.

Straight up, I went to these companies and told them that I have the workout game, I can speak well on camera, and I outlined what I could do to make their business more valuable.

I was ahead of the game. I was knocking on everyone’s door.

Years and years go by. I’m paying out of my own pocket for my photo shoots. No one is giving me shit. I’m paying local people, I’m trying to get better, I’m competing, I’m building a personal training business, and five years later I’m still knocking. Six years later I’m still knocking.

I’m up at 2 am emailing anyone I can to tell them what I offer. Knocking and knocking. Two people actually received the emails that night. One was to sponsor me with an unknown company which had an ad in a magazine that I got for free at the Arnold Classic.

One email makes it all the way to Jeremy Deluca, one of the co-founders of Bodybuilding.com. He sees pictures that I paid $200 for in Columbus, Ohio. He says, “You know what? I’m going to buy one of these for $500.” Little did I know, he was going to put a full-page ad in Muscle & Fitness, Fitness RX, Men’s Fitness, etc. A full-page ad with CoryG. Boom. It was crazy. The second email comes back telling me that a small company in Colorado wants to sponsor me. That became the initial relationship with my business partner for MusclePharm.

A no-name magazine, from a no-name company, that I got at the Arnold Classic. It’s all because I was there looking to be this person.

Some get the door answered right away, some don’t. The point is I didn’t get discouraged after year 1, 2, 3, etc. I realized that I had to build my own motherfuckin’ house. No one understood my value. No one understood what I believed. So, I took shit into my own hands. I was going to build my own company.

I’m going to make them wish that they asked me to be affiliated with their brand. I wasn’t meant to fit in someone else’s system. I was meant to create my own. Nothing has changed my entire career. No one was going to put me on. No one was going to show me love. I had to create the opportunity myself.

You have to keep knocking. At some point, if doors aren’t opened, you have to create your own.