Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - What’s New and Exciting in April? Legion Rebranding, Thinner Leaner Stronger Launch, and More...

Episode Date: May 6, 2019

“When’s your next book coming out?” “What kind of supplements are you going to release next?” “What would you name your boat if you had one?” I’m asked questions like these all the time and so I thought I’d start doing monthly updates about what’s new and exciting here at Legion and MFL HQ. So here’s a quick hosedown of what me and my jolly band of pirates and bums have been up to lately. Enjoy! Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fitness book for women, thinner, leaner, stronger. Now this book has sold over 150,000 copies in the last several years, and it has helped thousands of women build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 1,200 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that keep women from ever achieving the lean, sexy, strong, and healthy bodies they truly desire. And if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate female body, then you want to read Thinner,

Leaner, Stronger today, which you can find on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can actually get the audiobook 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audiobooks. I myself love them because they let me make the time that I spend doing things like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth into more valuable and productive activities. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free, simply go to www.bitly.com slash free TLS book. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just have to click the sign up today and save button,

create your account. And voila, you get to listen to Thinner, Leaner you just have to click the sign up today and save button, create your account, and voila, you get to listen to Thinner, Leaner, Stronger for free. All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now, at least. Let's get to the show. Well, well, well, April is in the books. And as I reflect on my journey as an internet entrepreneur, it is plain to see that I've made plenty of mistakes in building my companies and in building Legion in particular. And some of these mistakes have been dumber than others. For example, dumb was spending six figures on Instagram influencers for no appreciable return, as in $150,000 for what appeared to be nothing. That was pretty cool. Dumber was creating our first several formulations without a full and proper costing analysis, which stuck me with a cost of goods so high that we could barely make a profit in the beginning. That was neat. And dumbest actually goes all the way back to the birth

of the brand. Specifically, while the name Legion is decent and the logo is passable, the look and the feel of the products themselves is an absolute howler. Why? Well, let's just start here. What do you think exactly the response that I want from the gender that collectively spends over $20 trillion per year and accounts for 85% of all consumer purchases. I'm a genius. I know. Who wants to join my mastermind for a small to life-ruining fee? Or not. But hey, you know, who could have predicted that women would be turned off by hyper-masculine packaging that screams deranged bodybuilder? I mean, what am I, a wizard? Regardless, it is time to fix this obnoxiously silly, costly, and obvious oversight, and that's why I've hired a slick marketing and branding firm to overhaul the entirety of Legion's branding, including the logo and packaging. And by the time we're done,

Legion is going to look a whole lot more premium and gender neutral, which isn't just a buzzword in this case, it actually matters. And the work is already underway. So I should have some concepts to share within the next month or so. I think the easiest place to share them will probably be our Facebook group. So if you want to keep tabs on the entire process and share your thoughts and opinions along the way, I'd love to have you. So please do join our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash Legion Athletics and keep them grapes peeled. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of

word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life and Facebook at muscle for life fitness. All right, moving on, moving on. The new third edition of thinner, leaner, stronger is finally alive. Yes. And yes, it took way too long to get here. I am months late as usual. I'm sorry. And yes, I definitely wanted to crucify a couple freelancers along the way, learned a couple lessons there. But as I am a deplorable white male of my word,

and I deliver what I promise, I am excited to announce that the new third edition of the Purple Book for Women is live on all online retailers, including the audiobook that I read myself. And I'll be officially announcing its release once Bigger, Leaner, Stronger is also fully available in all formats on all retailers, which should be in the next week or so. More or less everything is done. I'm just waiting for the new audiobook to be approved and then for it to get WhisperSync approval so people who want to listen to the audiobook and have it track along in the Kindle version can. So that'll be soon. But as it is news that the women's book is fully here,

it goes into the monthly update. And if you want to see for yourself why I am unironically saying that these new books are my magnum opuses or opi, I don't think so, opuses, you can find Thinner, Leaner, Stronger 3.0 right now over at Amazon, iTunes, or iBooks, whichever it's called, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble or bn.com. And don't worry, I will send a raven when Bigger, Leaner, Stronger goes live, followed by updated workout journals for men and women. I'm also updating the year one challenge for women and the year one challenge for men. All right. Next on my list is writer. I want a writer to work with me at Legion. So one of the main reasons Legion has done as well as it has is I have personally written and

published over a thousand articles, videos, and podcasts, probably approaching 1500 at this point with science-based know-how on almost every facet of getting healthy and fit. Now, as a result of all of that work, or excuse me, all of that white privilege, I am hashtag blessed 365 with over 2 million website visits and hundreds of thousands of podcasts and video plays per month. And enough of those eyeballs and ears turn into customers to keep my kids clothed and fed. Now, one of the major growth initiatives I want to accomplish next is greatly increasing the output over at Legion's hugely popular blog. It currently gets over a million visits per month and it is growing. And specifically by the end of

the year, what I want to happen is I want to be publishing one article per day. And that means I have to do one of two things. I either have to do a shitload of meth or I have to hire some people to help. And real talk, number one, actually sounds pretty metal, but me thinks I should save my nervous system and teeth for better things like exposing myself at JC Penney's every Tuesday and snacking on boogers because it's just not quite the same without your chompers. So door number two, it is. And that's why I'm looking for a writer to help me publish more is. And that's why I'm looking for a writer to help me publish more great stuff. And specifically, I'm looking for someone who has a minimum of three

years of writing experience, preferably on health and fitness topics. Someone who has recent writing samples that showcase their abilities, someone who has a high level of understanding of evidence based fitness and a strong desire to keep learning more. And someone who has a high level of understanding of evidence-based fitness and a strong desire to keep learning more and someone who has a meticulous attention to detail and a strong desire to become a better and better writer and communicator. And if that's you, if I have just described you, then let's talk my lovely head over to legionathletics.com slash blog and click on the article that has this monthly update information in it. And in that article, you will find this, what I'm talking about, and you'll find a link to a Google forms questionnaire to fill out.

And you know, that's actually not meant to be some obnoxious test to see if you can follow simple instructions. It's just that the link to the Google form is super long and me reading it out here would be even more annoying. All right, what else? What else? Oh, we also launched Blue Raspberry Stem Free Pulse. That's exciting. We launched Salted Caramel Whey Plus, which is very tasty. I really like it mixed with the chocolate peanut butter. That's exciting. We launched salted caramel way plus, which is very tasty. I really like it mixed with the chocolate peanut butter. That's how I'm doing it. So feel free to buy those RTFN because come on, you know, you need them and I know I need your money. And so that sounds like a classic win-win to me. And let's see, lastly, I actually do have

some other rather intriguing bits boiling in my cauldron of trouble. Muscle for Life is going to merge with Legion and I'm going to launch another supplement line next year. Mums the word for now. Oh yeah. And very lastly, I leave you with this. While visually stunning, the Battle of Winterfell sucked hot rhino farts. Do not disagree with me. To learn why, just head over to YouTube and search for a video, Game of Thrones and Unbridled Rage, and then try to convince yourself otherwise. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet,

then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening

to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fitness book for women, thinner, leaner, stronger. Now this book has sold over 150,000 copies in the last several years, and it has helped thousands of women build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 1,200 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that keep women from ever achieving the lean, sexy, strong, and healthy

bodies they truly desire. And if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate female body, then you want to read Thinner, Leaner, Stronger today, which you can find on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can actually get the audio book 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audio books.

I myself love them because they let me make the time that I spend doing things like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth into more valuable and productive activities. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free, simply go to www.bitly.com slash free TLS book. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just have to click the sign up today and save button, create your account. And voila, you get to listen to thinner, leaner, stronger

for free.