Training Gary Matthews Jr. for his MLB comeback.

Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of their work and for advice on how men can live their dream.

You’re a guy who’s passionate about health and fitness, and you want to make that passion a career. You’ll probably start out being a trainer, working with clients at someone else’s gym. But after years of that, you might want to take it to the next level and create an environment you completely design and run yourself. By opening up your own gym.

That’s what Brad Davidson did. After gaining experience as a trainer, Davidson opened up his own gym: Stark in Orange County, California. Today he shares his advice on how he’s turned his dream into a premier gym for high-level athletes and clients.

1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, etc.).

I was born in Honolulu, HI, where my father was stationed in the Navy, and then spent my childhood growing up in McMinnville, Oregon.  I am 36 years old.  I am co-owner and Head LEAN Braniac at Stark–“The Coolest Little Gym in America”–located in Irvine, CA.  My job consists of developing results-oriented training, diet, and lifestyle programs for successful business men and high-level athletes who want to get lean and enhance their competitive edge with optimal performance.  I’ve been enhancing the lives of executives and athletes for the past 13 years.

2. Why did you want to become a gym owner? When did you know it was what you wanted to do?

I’ve been fascinated with weight training ever since my dad bought me my first weight set and taught me how to lift weights in my room when I was in 6^th grade.  The fascination stuck through high school when I tried using weights to give me an athletic advantage when I was small compared to my competition.  By the time I was in college playing sports, I began to quickly see the shortcomings in our strength coaches from all my own studies.  I remember arguing with a professor in an Exercise Physiology class about a theory I knew didn’t work in the real world through trial and error.  That was the day I knew I was going to dedicate my life to enhancing others through health and fitness.  I wanted to help people squeeze the most out of life with proven methods–not these ridiculous theories that are still running the commercial gyms today.

3. I imagine that starting a gym comes with many of the same considerations as opening other kinds of businesses—finding a location, getting a loan, etc. Are there any considerations unique to opening a gym that would-be gym owners should know about?

The most important thing I think would-be gym owners should be cautious of is going big too soon.   I am a true believer in starting small and growing to the point of blowing out your seams before opening a larger location.  There is going to be growing pains, and the only reason we survived was by maintaining a low enough overhead to make it through those times. I see it over and over–a trainer opens an amazing gym but doesn’t have the business to support it and the clients don’t show up soon enough, leading to an inability to cover the overhead.

4. Here where I live, it seems like a lot of the independent gyms started by trainers and bodybuilders open and then close relatively quickly due to mismanagement, while one of the most successful independent gyms is owned not by a fitness guy, but someone who also owns a bunch of restaurants. What’s most important in running a successful gym—fitness experience and enthusiasm, or business savvy?

I hate to say it, but you can be the greatest mind in the fitness industry but if you don’t possess business savvy you are doomed!  This is where a majority of gym owners go wrong–they have no real clue how to run a business.  I’ve notice most high-level trainers (this included myself years ago) think we know everything there is to know about running a business because we have read all the books on it, but I got lucky and partnered up with a great business man after barely surviving for 5 years, and it was amazing the difference it made in our success.  Funny thing was the first 6 months of changes were strictly business stuff (cash flow management, proper pricing etc.), and yet we doubled our bottom line in that 6 month period without adding any new clients.

5. What are the keys for successfully competing against the big gym chains?

To be successful against the big gym chains I believe you must have a niche and you must produce results!  Our niche is enhancing high-level executives and athletes by getting them lean first and providing a competitive edge in their careers.  We measure and monitor everything they do every month.  We are paid to get a result and we get the result!

Training Olympic Hopeful Ryan Mertens, USA Bobsled Pilot

6. What’s a typical day like for you?

My days are long and start early, but it truly is what I love doing in life.  I get to play with my passion all day every day, and I am now surrounded by the who’s who of Orange County.  I usually train clients from 5:30 am to 1 pm and will mix my own workout in there somewhere.  I have lunch at 1 pm and then spend my afternoons studying ways to get clients more efficient results and overseeing the development of all our clients’ program layouts.  My main role is to make sure everyone in our system is progressing and the team we have constructed–which is actually scattered throughout the world–does an amazing job meeting each client’s individualized needs and desires.

7. What is the best part of your job?

Best part of my job is watching people’s lives transform.  There is nothing better than watching someone look, feel, and perform at a level they never dreamed possible.  It’s also really cool to watch men enhance their lives at a deeper level; they become better fathers, husbands, employers etc. from being through our program.

8. What is the worst part of your job?

Worst part of my job is the focus on detail and paperwork.  Detail is the major difference between great client results and meager results.  It has to be done, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. :)

9. What is the work/family/life balance like for you?

Work/ family/ life are very easy to get out of balance with this career.  I’ve really had to put a lot of effort into this area now that I am married with kids.  It is very easy for me to get swept away with research and trying to meet our clients’ needs.  I have forced myself to leave the office every night by 6:15 pm to give my kids plenty of dad time and my wife relationship time.  I also have forced myself to not check my phone or email once I pick up the kids until after they go to bed.  The funny thing is I actually get more work done with time restraints than I ever did working crazy hours.

10. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?

To be honest I hate telling people I am a trainer–they immediately throw me into this stigma of meathead womanizer.  I know the majority of male trainers at the large commercial gyms use their role as trainers to meet women, but there is a small group of us that really take pride in what we do.  My family’s livelihood depends on my gym’s ability to change people’s lives.  There is a lot at stake when a client walks into my gym.  Some of us take your health very seriously!

11. Any other advice, tips, commentary or anecdotes you’d like to share?

This career is incredibly rewarding but is very hard to stand out in.  Be patient and do whatever you have to do to stand out from the crowd.  You walk into most gyms and you will see the same things going on.  Be different and you will be noticed.  Get results and you will be noticed. I am a true believer that one of the things we do well that helps us stand out is the use of technology.  Most trainers don’t document anything they do with their clients. We not only document everything a client does, we have it all built into a cloud system and we use iPads.  So the first thing you will notice at our gym is all our trainers walking around documenting sets, reps, and weights with iPads.  This is a very simple use of technology and an incredible way to stand out.

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Photo by Alex Harris

Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of their work and for advice on how men can live their dream.

Do you love to listen to yourself talk? Wouldn’t you love to not only make other people listen to you, but to get paid bookoodles of money to do it, all while traveling the world? Such is the sweet, sweet life of the public speaker. I know this is a job that a lot of gents aspire to, so I’m really pleased that Alex Hunter graciously offered us a fascinating and comprehensive look behind the scenes of this line of work. You can read more of Alex’s musing on his blog; for a fee he’ll even read the entries out loud to you!

1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, etc.).

I’m 32 years old and currently split my time between the middle-of-nowhere in England and Northern California. I was born in the US to British parents and have been fortunate enough to live all over the world. I started my career in the web world with an airline in Hong Kong before moving back to California. I worked my way through various jobs before landing the sweetest gig of my career, running digital marketing for a startup airline, Virgin America. After 2 years of doing that I was called up to the big leagues and asked to run the global digital strategy for the entire Virgin brand back in London. A couple of exhausting years later, I turned 30 and decided to take some time off and then go out on my own. And that’s where I am today: an angel investor, branding nerd, and career public speaker. I speak about marketing, branding and brand psychology, loyalty, the startup world, and travel. I officially love my job.

2. Public speaking seems like a job opportunity that only opens up once you’ve become successful at something else. Is public speaking something you’ve always wanted to do, or something that came along unexpectedly in your life?

Completely and totally unexpectedly. We were doing some cool things at Virgin at the time and a guy called Ryan Carson (a fellow American in the UK) was just starting to ramp up his outstanding conference company and, well, he took a chance on me. He asked me to speak at a small conference to talk about what Virgin what was working on. I was actually in New York on business at the time and flew in to London on the day of the conference. I got straight off the plane and onto the stage. I opened with a joke, it got good laughs, and I was completely hooked from then on.

3. Once you’ve become successful in something, how to you segue into public speaking? How do you go about getting the word out that you’re available and start getting your first bookings?

The easiest route is to get in touch with conference organizers via email and introduce yourself. Give them a quick sense of who you are, what you’ve done, a brief synopsis of what you’d talk about, how their audience would benefit from your expertise, etc. Oh and that you’re willing to talk for free! You’d be surprised how often this works as conferences are always looking for fresh, new speakers to include in their lineups. Getting that first gig is always the hardest but it gets much easier after that because an audience has heard you, reacted to you, tweeted about you. The word about you is now officially out.

4. When people invite you to speak, how do you know how much to charge for your rate? What is the average rate of pay for speakers?

The very first thing I do is determine if the event organizers are willing to pay anything at all. A lot of conference speakers are happy to speak for free for a number of reasons; their employer doesn’t allow them to take a fee, they’re just starting out in speaking, the value of the exposure to their company or product is worth doing the speech for free. That’s not the case for me as I don’t have a service or product to promote so I get no value from “free publicity.” After that, I take a look at everything from the size of the event, where it is in the world, how many days I’ll have to be away from home, the topic, and the industry.

To be completely honest, once you’re established, public speaking can be very lucrative. I know people who charge anywhere between $25-40k for a single appearance. Some former CEOs, politicians, retired athletes, and “celebrities” charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single appearance. But it takes years and years of speaking and a hell of a reputation before you can start charging that much. If you’re curious, browse some of the speaking bureau websites–they often have price ranges listed for each speaker. Oh and just to be clear, high fee does NOT equal great speaker. I’ve seen some lousy speakers who charge an absolute fortune on the back of their previous career or accomplishments.

5. Some speakers are represented by agencies that book gigs for them. Do you recommend this?

When I first started out speaking professionally (i.e. being paid to speak) I was doing everything myself. Finding gigs, responding to inquiries, negotiating, planning travel, invoicing, chasing payment, etc. It was time consuming and really frustrating, especially anything to do with money. I didn’t know what I should be charging, how to structure the contracts to protect myself, when to say no to a gig, or what to do if an event organizer didn’t pay. The latter happened often, surprisingly–I’m still owed a pretty sizable fee for a gig I did 2 years ago.

Lesson learned. But for the last year I’ve been represented by a London-based agency called JLA (JLA.co.uk) who are awesome. They were recommended to me by a friend who is also represented by them. They take care of everything for me: finding gigs, negotiating on my behalf, all the contractual work, taking care of logistics, etc. They pay me directly, too, so I never have to worry about not getting paid.

6. How does getting representation work—do you reach out to them or do they reach out to you?

I got in touch with JLA, mentioning my friend’s recommendation, and we arranged to meet at their office. The meeting was mainly to see if my speaking style, content, etc would be a good fit for their client base and whether I felt they would be a good fit for the market I was going after. It’s been a fantastic relationship since Day 1.

All that said, I’ve been approached a number of times by other agencies who either want to represent me or want to feature me on their site. The latter happens often as agencies work together to cross-promote speakers. So it can work in both directions, but the key is to find an agent or agency that you can have a good, honest, open working relationship with and who really understands your style and content.

7. How many speaking engagements do you do a year?

My busiest year was 2010 when I did close to 30 engagements all over the world and racked up 103,000 miles of travel. I pulled back dramatically in 2011 so I could spend time with my newborn son. Right now I do about 1-2 paid events a month. That includes everything from full-day workshops to keynote speeches to MC’ing events for private organizations.

8. What do you think are the keys of being a successful public speaker?

You have to know your stuff. Inside and out. And I don’t just mean your subject matter, I mean your material. You have to know every slide, every transition, every image. That way you can present without notes or prompts which makes you seem conversational but knowledgeable– which is what all good speakers should be aiming for. It’s also super important to have simple, clean slides. In my most recent keynotes, over 80% of my slides only have one line OR graphic/chart on them. That way you’re not asking the audience to listen to you AND read an essay at the same time. Speaking of essays, avoid reading from a prepared script–so many people trip up on this one. They spend hours and hours writing out every word of their speech and then stand up and recite it verbatim. Snoozefest. It’s also lazy and a disservice to your audience and to you as a speaker. Finally, have fun! Relax, enjoy, go a little nuts and march around the stage–people will dig your energy and enthusiasm.

9. What is the best part of your job?

The people. I can’t think of many jobs where I would get to meet such a broad range of people in such a short space of time. And I’m not just talking about job roles or even industries, I’m talking about entirely different cultures. Whenever I go to an event I make it a point to hang out with as many people attending the event as possible, and I’ve made some great friends as a result. Another great thing about my job is that I’m exposed to a broad variety of new subjects. Each time I speak I spend several days researching the industry, the country, the attending companies, etc and since I speak at trade events for industries I know absolutely nothing about, several times a year I get to learn an entirely new subject. They have all been, without exception, fascinating.

10. What is the worst part of your job?

Apart from being away from home, I would say the worst part is the unpredictable nature of the speaking industry. You never know when your next event is going to be, so it can make it quite hard to plan around, both financially and logistically. It’s hard to factor in speaking work to your annual budget because while events pop up throughout the year, it would be a mistake to assume you’ll get a certain number of events during a given period. I’ve been doing this professionally for 2 years now and haven’t seen any patterns to how and when events come my way.

11. What is the work/family/life balance like for you?

It’s a series of extremes. Since I work from home I get to spend a lot of time with my wife and 15 month old son. But speaking frequently takes me all over the world, and I’m certainly grateful for that, but being away from my family really sucks. It got so bad that I started trying to figure out the shortest possible amount of time I could be away. So I’d fly from San Francisco to Singapore for 20 hours or back to London for a day and a half. Not healthy or fun. But I’ve been working on that and try to bring my wife and son with me when I visit new places or just turn the gig down if I think I’ll be gone for too long. On the flip side, the income means I can focus on other projects (my latest project is here www.plonkr.net) and not have to worry too much about paying the bills, as long as the speaking events come in reasonably regularly.

12. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?

People are often surprised to hear that I’m paid a fee to speak at events. They assume that my expenses (travel, accommodation, etc) are covered but that the only people who are paid to speak are celebrities and ex-politicians. They’re even more surprised when I tell them the upper fee range that some people in the industry are commanding. But the world of professional public speaking is absolutely open to anyone who is knowledgeable and passionate about their subject. If you can relay your thoughts with enthusiasm and clarity, people will pay good money to hear what you have to say.

13. Any other advice, tips, commentary or anecdotes you’d like to share?

A couple of years ago I wrote down 10 tips for being an engaging public speaker. I live by these and they’ve served me well so far. You can find them here: http://thinkvitamin.com/web-industry/10-kick-ass-presentation-techniques/ To ultimately be successful as a public speaker, you need to be an entertainer AND educator. You have to hold hundreds of people’s attention for 30-60 minutes while giving them interesting, useful information to go home with. I won’t lie, it’s exhausting. But a hell of a lot of fun.

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Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of their work and for advice on how men can live their dream.

Some people think that growing up means leaving behind all your boyish ways. On the contrary, one of the great things about becoming an adult is that you can take the things you could only imagine and dream about as a boy, and bring them to life. That’s the line of work Francis Manapul is in. He’s a comic book artist for DC Comics who is currently working on The Flash comics that are coming out next month as part of DC’s ambitious re-launch of all 52 of their characters (all the comics are starting back at issue #1). Francis gets to create the Flash’s world and his adventures–pretty cool. Now you just need to attain the “landing an awesome job” superpower!

1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, etc).

I was born in the Philippines, but grew up in Toronto, Canada. I’m currently the writer and artist on The Flash which is part of The New 52 for DC Comics this upcoming September. I’m 31 years old and have been working as an artist for the past 11 years.

2. Why did you want to become a comic book artist? When did you know it was what you wanted to do?

When I was a kid my dad used to buy me Superman comic books, so the interest was always there. However it was my discovery of an issue of X-Men, which had Captain America, Black Widow, and Wolverine teaming up and was drawn by Jim Lee, that really sparked the fire for me. The art was dynamic and exciting; I remember thinking to myself: “I never knew comics could look so cool!” Prior to that I was just a casual comic reader, but after that I became a rabid comic fan. I followed artists more than the characters. My passion for comic arts cemented itself when I was around 14; it was then and there that I made it my life mission to become a comic book artist.

3. How does a man become a comic book artist? Is it something you can go to school for? How should a man prepare and learn the requisite skills?

I never went but going to school certainly helps you hone your skills as an artist. Learning the basics and focusing on anatomy, figure drawing, and storytelling is a good start. There are plenty of books available on those subjects, and I know this through experience. This part of your artistic journey doesn’t really stop; the learning will always continue on how to make yourself a better artist. As a comic book artist you really need to learn how to draw just about everything. After all you want to make the story seem believable. Early on in my development I really focused on improving as an illustrator, but in the past few years my focus has been on storytelling. The ability to do both well is really what separates the men from the boys in this industry.

4. How competitive is the job market for comic book artists? How does a man find his way into the job and what sets an applicant apart from others?

It’s pretty competitive in that most editors are more likely to hire a tried and true professional rather than a young hot shot which is too much of an unknown quantity. Not only are you competing with aspiring artists, you’re also competing with working professionals. A way to really separate yourself from the pack is to have a good combination of illustrative skills along with a strong storytelling ability, and to be able to produce in a timely manner. It also helps to be a nice guy. This is a collaborative medium, and quality work really is a result of team synchronicity.

Cover of the new Flash, drawn by Francis.

5. What is the best part of your job?

There are so many great things about this job I don’t even know where to start. Aside from doing what I love to do, which is draw, I get to play with these big iconic characters. I get paid to make my imagination come to life. It also opened up many doors for me which was completely unexpected. Before working in the industry, the furthest I had traveled outside of Toronto was Buffalo, New York. Since then I’ve been all over the world and have gotten to see and experience many things. I even got to co-host a tv show which combined my love of travel and drawing. With this job it really does feel like the skies the limit.

6. What is the worst part of your job?

It’s all consuming. When I’m relaxing all I can think about is work. From how to improve my craft as an artist, to where to take the characters that I’m writing. The social aspect of your life really does take a hit, since those timelines can move, but not deadlines.

7. What’s the work/family/life balance like?

It’s really tough to balance all of that. I would say that my time is predominantly consumed by work. The blessing and the curse of this job is that your passion for it doesn’t allow you to stop. But the negative is that at times you do miss out on some family events, or simple movie nights with my girlfriend. It really helps to have very understanding people in your life. Finding the balance is still a work in progress for me. Hopefully I’ll have it figured out soon!

8. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?

The biggest misconception about my job is that the general population thinks what we produce is just for kids. What we create are entertaining stories that can be enjoyed at any age. Comics are a storytelling medium, so much like music, movies, and novels, it is capable of covering any subject matter and genre. The limitation is really only up to the creators.

9. Any other advice, tips, commentary, or anecdotes you’d like to share?

To survive and thrive in this industry you really have to be passionate about this job. At the risk of sounding cheesy, you really have to give it your all, 110%. If you’re not exhausted and ready to pass out, it means you’ve been slacking and should keep working and drawing. As much as it takes out of you physically and mentally, it’s really worth the tears and pain.

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Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of their work and for advice on how men can live their dream.

Are you a guy who loves athletics, working out, and learning about health and fitness? Did you always dream of playing professional sports, but weren’t blessed with the talent or body to compete at the highest levels? While you may not be able to play yourself, you do have a shot at becoming the guy who trains those world class athletes. Of course, as Shawn Windle, strength and conditioning coach for the Indiana Pacers explains, that shot is nearly as slim as being drafted by the NBA: this is an incredibly competitive career path. Do you have what it takes? Read on.

1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, etc).

I am a 38 year old strength & conditioning coach for the Indiana Pacers, which for those of you that do not know, means I am responsible for the building and rebuilding of NBA bodies.  I am responsible for the performance of nearly 60 million dollars of annual assets.  My duties include the design and implementation of programs to improve strength, speed/agility, power, nutrition, recuperation, and rehabilitation.

I was born and raised in Auburn, Maine or as my friends like call it, Southern Canada.  While building my resume, my wife and I have lived in Florida (Lehigh Senior High School), Massachusetts (Auburn High School), New York (Minor League Baseball), Connecticut (University of Connecticut), New Jersey (Rutgers University) and now here in Indiana.  My career is at 15 years and counting, 6 of which have been with the Pacers.

2. Why did you want to become a strength coach? When did you know it was what you wanted to do?

I really stumbled upon this career path.  I bounced around to a few colleges trying to find what was right for me, even being told by one to not return.  It took being asked by a boss at a pool store to clean the floor with a handheld brush that was about eight inches long for the light bulb to really go off for me, and I decided that if I did not go back to college, scrubbing floors would be my lifelong vocation.

I began taking courses to improve my grade point average so that I could get back into college as a full-time student.  I really enjoyed lifting weights in the typical meathead sort of way, and I loved athletics, so when I went on a college visit to the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the athletic training program director mentioned Strength & Conditioning as a related field, I was hooked. In my first class back in college (History of Physical Education) I listed being the head strength coach of an Olympic Team as my career goal.  Although I have trained Olympic athletes, I have not been a strength coach for an Olympic team. Which is okay…the government doesn’t pay as well as the NBA.  LOL!

3. If a man wants to become a strength coach how should he prepare? Should he go to college, and if so, what should he major in?

Although nearly anybody can be a personal trainer and there are many courses online to do so, to be a strength & conditioning coach, a 4 year college degree is the first step.  Not all strength coaches have degrees in kinesiology, athletic training, or exercise science, but most do, and having a degree in one of those areas will help your chances of getting hired.  There are numerous certifications that are either mandatory or highly recommended.  The National Strength & Conditioning Association is one of the most prominent entry-level requirements to becoming a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist.  The College Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association offers a certification process that is steadily gaining in popularity.  Once those “baseline” requirements are met, there are numerous parallel certifications that employers look for.  For example in addition to the NSCA certification, I am also certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine as a Performance Enhancement Specialist and also as a Corrective Exercise Specialist, a USA Weightlifting Level One Club Coach, Certified Athletic Trainer by the National Athletic Trainers Association, Certified in CPR and AED, and finally in the Functional Movement Screen.  Each certification obviously adds to your toolbox of knowledge but also improves your likelihood of landing a job.  Many strength coaches also attend graduate school to seek a master’s degree since some jobs strongly encourage applicants to have an advanced degree.  Coursework includes a heavy dose of science, and if that scares you, take a deep breath.  I did not enjoy or do well at biology or chemistry because they seemed very abstract to me considering my career goals; however, when it came to exercise science, kinesiology, and motor learning, I found the movement sciences much more interesting and actually easier because I knew those courses would directly affect my future.

4. Once you have the necessary skills, how do you go about getting your foot in the door and landing your first job? How do you go from the bottom of the ladder to becoming a strength coach for a professional sports team?

Volunteering!!!  Nobody wants to hear it, but you must be willing to work for free.  I was fortunate in that I have received at least some form of payment throughout my career, but I know plenty of people that are professional interns.  Jobs working with athletes are hard to find, jobs working with really good athletes are really hard to find, and working with elite athletes is nearly impossible.  Many young coaches build their resumes by interning with well known strength coaches at well known universities to increase their visibility and to prove that they are capable of handling the stress of working in a pressure cooker.  We have seen the stakes grow each year in college sports, and new coaches usually have 4-5 years to make a significant impact in the win column (2-3 years in professional sports); therefore, the will to win and prepare to win are extremely high on the priority list.  Losses can be very tense times for everybody involved from the head coach all the way down to the interns.  Higher profile jobs generally lead to other high profile jobs.  A great deal of effort, determination, networking, and preparation help move you through the field just like any other profession.  Most strength coaches I know have moved around the country quite a bit with the intention of building their resumes and sometimes because they are forced to move.  If you are a strength coach in the NFL, you could have a short shelf life since many are directly linked to the head football coach.  When that coach gets fired, many times the strength & conditioning staff is released as well.  The ideal situation is to be hired by the owner or general manager since these positions do not experience as much turnover.

5. How competitive is it to land a job as a strength coach at the top levels? What separates a candidate for a job from the other guys?

The numbers are stacked against you if you think you are going to fast track to professional sports.  If my memory serves me right, there are over 20,000 members in the National Strength and Conditioning Association and last time I checked there are only 30 NBA teams and about the same in the NFL, NHL and MLB respectively.  Do the math!  My profession is like any other profession in the sense that you have some people in my position because they are the owner’s cousin, and you have some great strength coaches, and some down right head scratching bad ones.  I think most things function on the bell curve, and I would say most professions follow that distribution from terrible to great.  I feel like I prepared myself through education, certifications, and practical experience while meeting the right people along the way.  Everything in life comes down to your relationships with people.  I have seen a lot of great strength coaches never advance in their career because they didn’t understand relationships or refused to play a game that they felt involved too much ass kissing.  If meeting people, being nice to them, and working hard is called ass kissing, then I puckered up long ago.  If you treat people with respect and show a genuine interest in them, I call that being a man.

6. What is the best part of your job?

I wear shorts to work! Enough said!  Seriously that is one of the many perks.  If you like shorts, sneakers, socks, sweat suits, or virtually any athletic apparel, the NBA is for you.  I have more “gear” than I know what to do with, and it is hard to pass it on to family and friends because at 6’ 6” and 250 pounds it is pretty hard to find people that wear my size.  If you are a basketball junkie, you have a courtside seat to the best basketball players in the world for an 82 game regular season schedule.  We travel on chartered planes that have outlets for our electronics (everybody is attached to something whether it’s an ipad or a laptop), and first class seating throughout the plane.  In my position, I have had some great opportunities to go to concerts in suites, the Indy 500 in a suite and have met countless celebrities/athletes/actors.  We stay in the top hotels in the country and every time you turn around there is food.  Remember the freshman 15?  Watch a rookie staff member relive his freshman year.  It takes a lot of discipline to lay off all the food, and it can easily get out of hand.

Outside of the peripheral perks of the job, you also get to be part of a team.  Not a cliché team, but an actual group of men working toward ONE goal.  Living in close proximity of one another.  It is a bond that many people will never grasp.  Being a part of the process and helping each player reach his potential can be very rewarding.  I see my role as a strength coach as more than just telling them to lift weights.  These are pretty young guys and many do not have strong guidance.  They have never been asked to grow up, so I like to talk to them about the importance of developing a daily routine and leadership.  Great teams understand that none of what we do is really about basketball.  It is about developing men.  When you teach respect, discipline, accountability, and hard work, everything else falls into place.

7. What is the worst part of your job?

People see the lights and the glamour of the NBA, but what people don’t stop and consider is what we do when the final buzzer sounds.  If we are on the road, we usually spend an hour in the locker room while media comes in and guys shower before we even leave the arena.  Most games start at 7 pm and end at about 9:30 pm, meaning that we start making our way to the airport at 10:30 pm.  The average time in most cities is 20 minutes to the airport, then add in another 30 minutes for the bags to get loaded and get airborne.  Usually we get in the air about 11:30 pm if all goes according to plan.  Sometimes things don’t run so smoothly like overtime, post game x-rays, stitches, the bus breaks down (oh yes I have seen it), and don’t forget we play mostly in the winter and that means de-icing which can add 20-45 minutes to our departure time.  If we are going home, we get to sleep in our own beds, and those of us with kids can expect an early wake up call, so there are plenty of nights I get 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep because when my kids know that Daddy is home from a trip, they usually come in and jump on me bright and early. Sometimes we are on the road, and we get into a city like Denver at 3:00 am, unload the plane, and take the longest ride in the NBA to get downtown. The job can be physically and mentally draining.  During the fall the only way we know what day it is depends on if we are watching college football, NFL football, or Monday Night Football.  I also always know when it is Thursday because that is trash day at home.

I paint a bad picture, but those are some of the realities of working in the NBA.  It is certainly not for everyone.

8. What’s the work/family/life balance like?

With all the travel and home games included I missed 110 dinners and bedtimes at home, causing my wife to function as a single parent from October until April.  When I am in my house my phone stays on vibrate, and I only check it a couple of times during the night, only responding to emergencies.  I want my kids to have my undivided attention since we have so little time together during the season.  That means my wife gets whatever is left over and most times we are so exhausted at the end of the day that leaves our free time to be spent side by side, sound asleep.  Family balance does not exist during the season.  You do the best you can to make amends during the summer since we don’t work as many hours, and we get to sleep in our own bed almost every night.

9. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?

I have heard a lot of people tell me that they would not want to deal with overpaid prima donnas all day long.  Dealing with rich young men that don’t want to work.  In six years I have really only worked with a couple of divas; the majority of the players are appreciative of everybody on staff and understand that each staff member is there to help them succeed.  These guys did not make it to the NBA by simply being tall, and although that helps, it takes countless hours in a gym while nobody else is around working on their skills.  Nobody sees these guys come to the arena 3-4 hours before a game.  Or come back after the game when the crowd is gone to shoot extra shots.   Of course not everybody works like this, but isn’t that why coaches have jobs?  I view myself as more of a teacher than anything.

10. Any other advice, tips, commentary or anecdotes you’d like to share?

As a side note, this interview took me almost four weeks to complete.  During that time I have visited current players in New York, Los Angeles (twice), and North Carolina in addition to helping with the draft process where we have injected, inspected, and detected nearly 50 draft eligible draft prospects in Indiana alone not to mention a week spent at the NBA Pre Draft Camp in Chicago where the evaluation process includes height, weight, wingspan, body fat, upper body strength, lower body power, speed, and agility.  Welcome to the OFF-Season where you spend time with your family!

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Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of their work and for advice on how men can live their dream.

Warning: The reading of this post may cause extreme pangs of restlessness to all cubicle dwellers. Side effects may include the quitting of one’s job and the booking of flights to Australia.

Seriously though, this interview is a fun one–and offers a nice bit of inspiration about hustling and going after your dreams to any man.

The provider of that inspiration is Andrew Collins, who guides motorcycle expeditions across the vast expanses of Australia. If his stories whet your appetite, you can read more about his adventures at his blog: RoadRoving.com.

1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, etc).

I’m Andrew Collins, 23-year-old American raised in the Boston suburbs and educated at the University of Vermont.  I’ve also lived in Stockholm briefly, and have traveled all over the U.S., Europe, and Australia.  I’m currently employed as an Expedition Guide for a motorcycle tour company called Outback Adventure Treks based in Australia.

Since April of this year I’ve been spinning wrenches, driving trucks, and riding motorcycles in some of the wildest places you can do such things.  Our company sets up off-road endurance challenges for clients in the form of multi-day tours.  We bring bikers across deserts, jungles, and mountains for one to four consecutive weeks of extreme riding.  As a guide, I’m either riding ahead of the group scouting the route and making sure our clients are okay on the trail, or bringing up the rear in our massive 4×4 support vehicle.  This truck serves as our “life support system” carrying food, fuel, tools, and a satellite connection to civilization.  It’s primarily a two-man operation; the boss and I swap riding and driving as he sees fit.  I also prepare food, help make and break camp, and assist in any medical or mechanical situations that invariably arise while on tour.

In addition to touring, we compete in desert races all over Australia including the massive “Australian Safari”–a seven day navigation rally in which racers and support teams don’t know where they’re going until they’re on the course, reading directions from a real-time turn by turn “road book” just like the (in)famous Dakar Rally.

2. Why did you want to become a motorcycle expedition guide? When did you know it was what you wanted to do?

I had a passion for adventure, a passion for vehicles, and a determination to combine both into a job.  You’ve seen those black-and-white pictures of scholarly types leaning out of Land Rovers in pith helmets?  That’s what I wanted to be: a gentleman on a quest for something important, in a cool outfit and an even cooler vehicle.

Of course, that kind of thing doesn’t really exist the way it did in Rudyard Kipling novels.  Not now, maybe not ever.  But I just couldn’t see myself sitting in a cubicle and writing Excel formulas eight hours a day for the rest of my life.  So instead of finishing school with a degree in business like I had originally planned, I started branding myself as something of a “modern adventure scholar” about halfway through college.  I studied anthropology, archaeology, became certified in CPR and wilderness medicine.  I also did some off-road driver training days with Land Rover and various 4×4 clubs.  In winters I worked as a ski instructor at a nearby resort, that being my first foray into the tourism industry.

But New England didn’t really have the backdrops I had in mind for my adventures; I had to get somewhere exotic.  So I looked to Australia–far away, conveniently English speaking, and of course the off-roading capital of the world.  Nowhere else can you travel the distances you can in Australia without seeing another person and still enjoy political stability.  Besides that, the whole country is crazy for adventure driving and even the “shelias” have upgraded suspension on their SUVs.

So I tried to get in touch with as many people as I could who had anything to do with adventure tourism in Australia, who I found through the magic of the internet.  I hadn’t heard many (any) encouraging responses but decided to take a stab anyway.  After liquidating most of my property, and begging Grandma for some post-collegiate financial aid, I bought a temporary working visa plus a one-way ticket to Sydney.

A few weeks later I was sweating bollocks in the Australian summer with a gym bag holding all my worldly possessions and a massive hangover from sucking down about twelve of those mini scotch bottles over the Pacific.

I traveled up the east coast for a few weeks until finally, I got the attention of the right person.  After striking up a conversation about motorcycles with a guy I saw leaning on a Honda Dominator, he mentioned a company that led “crazy tours” on motorbikes through the outback.  I went straight to an internet café, found the website, emailed the owner and sure enough he was interested in meeting and vetting me out for a job.

I hopped the next bus to his location and met the guy at a bar.  I had to use every scrap of energy I had to contain my excitement as he described his operation; phrases like “most extreme motorcycle tours in existence,” “helicopter rescues,” and “desert racing” were casually coming out of his mouth between sips of ale.

I was deep in my imagination picturing myself blasting over a sand dune in body armor and aviator sunglasses when I heard him say; “That sound alright?”

Later I figured out that last question was referring to the paltry salary, but it mattered not–I was shaking his hand and signing up for a season of riding motorcycles, driving off-roaders, and traversing the desert for a living.  Needless to stay, I couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty.

3. This is a pretty unique job that involves several unique skills sets. How does a man become a motorcycle expedition guide, learn the requisite skills, and find his way into this line of work?

Ultimately, it was my willingness to go to the end of the Earth (literally) that got me where I am.  My now-boss took a chance on a guy with lots of theoretical training but not much actual experience (hell, I had never been to Australia) and for that I’m still extremely grateful.  I think the fact that I had just come 10,000 miles for a chance to do what he did helped make the point that I was serious.

So, if you’re looking to score a job in extreme off-roading or adventure tourism:

• Start with “less extreme” jobs in sports/tourism, like coaching or teaching a sport to kids.
• Get as many vehicle licenses as you can.
• Practice improvising.  Adventure travel is all about staying positive when things go awry, because they inevitably do.  For your next vacation buy a one-way flight somewhere interesting and see how you get on; adventure tourism is the one industry where such behavior would impress an employer.
• Go to sporting events/trade shows.  People who run adventure sports companies have their entire livelihoods wrapped up in their sport–you better believe they’ll be at every major event they can get to.  If you want to get into motorbike touring, check out some shows or races.  Everybody loves talking about his or her passions so chat anybody up who looks like a potential employer.  Just make sure you know what you’re talking about.
• Get as much medical training as you can, especially anything related to First Response.

But most of all:

• Be committed to the lifestyle.  To be in a tour-guide position you have to live and breathe the activity you’re doing, because you will be doing it every waking hour while you’re on-duty, then promoting it when you’re off.  You’ll be expected to know everything about everything related to the sport, so make sure you do–or be quick to fake it if you draw a blank.

4. This seems like a young man’s job. Is this something you can do until your golden years, and if not, what do you have planned for your second act?

Actually, my boss is almost 50 and he can out-ride, out-drive, and out-heave me all day.  In fact, many of our clients are in the 40-50 year old age range.  Despite the physical nature of what we do, experience is more valuable than the vivacity of youth.  I’m learning that’s actually the case for many things in life–Finesse triumphs over Force in most scenarios, and extreme overlanding is no exception.

That being said, my Australian visa will expire after the year’s end so I’ll be moving on to a new enterprise by 2012.  I’ll try to keep riding or pursue my other passions professionally as I take the “long way” home to America through Asia, India, and the Middle East.  After that I hope to make something of the stories I’ve created and collected by finding a way to make a living as a writer.

Driving the support vechicle.

5. What is the best part of your job?

The drama.  Every tour could be made into a movie, and people would actually watch it.  Between the social dynamic of the group, the splashes, crashes, challenges and unbelievable backdrops we ride through, each trip is a surreal experience.  I wake up every morning with no idea of what’s going to happen that day–only that it’s going to be epic.  I love that.  Even the disasters have their up-sides; once the dust settles there’s always a great story left behind.

It also gives you plenty to talk about to chicks at the bar.

Repairing bikes at the Northeastern Most Point of Australia.

6. What is the worst part of your job?

When we’re touring or racing, the work is literally nonstop.  If I’m awake, I’m on-duty.  It’s fun at first and makes the days whip by, but after a couple consecutive months it wears on you.  While clients are lounging around the campfire enjoying post-ride beers and laughs, I might have ten motorcycles that need oil changes, tires fitted, handlebars straightened, or all the above.

7. What’s the work/family/life balance like?

In that sense it’s military style–when you’re away working, you’re away working.  You don’t go home at night to watch The Office with your girlfriend or anything.  But when you do get time off it’s not just a weekend–it’s weeks.  The tour season is from about April to October, so our staff has the Australian summer to pursue other endeavors.  Personally I don’t have a special lady or family in this country, so I haven’t seen my clan in quite awhile, but my boss has a big flock and he does a good job of making the most of his time with them when he’s off.

The crew after scaling "Big Red," a famous dune in the Simpson Desert.

8. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?

People don’t seem to realize the scale of what we do.  A three-week motorbiking trip isn’t like leaving your house and going for a ride every day for three weeks…it’s an endurance event, breaking camp in the morning, five to eight hours of grueling riding, then setting up camp at night, every single day.  Plus whatever crashes, injuries, and mishaps take place between Point A and Point B.  And while our clients come out for a week or three then fly home, we have another group to take out as soon as we see them off and repair our equipment.

For the last three months of my employment I’ve been on-duty, and sleeping in a “swag” (Australian mini-tent the size of a coffin) every night, and I’ll do so again until the season ends in November.

Non-Aussies tend to not realize how vast and empty this country is.  It’s near the size of the Continental U.S., except America has over 300 million people in it while Australia has less than 25 million.  When we cross the nation we leave the last traffic lights on Day 1 and don’t see another until we hit the other coast on Day 17.

In the back of an ambulance after a collision with a kangaroo.

9.  Any other advice, tips, commentary, or anecdotes you’d like to share?

“Fortune favors the brave.”  I say that to myself every single time I face a decision.  That motto’s brought me to some amazing places, but it’s also cost me a lot of destroyed equipment and hospital bills–because that “fortune” doesn’t always manifest itself the way you imagine.  If you’re looking to take on an extreme sports lifestyle, you’ve got to be committed enough to take the bad times with the good and learn from your mistakes.

As far as anecdotes, the place to go is my blog at RoadRoving.com.  I add new adventure stories from behind the handlebars as often as I can.

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