Make a Career out of Bodybuilding

Turn your passion into your career.

This article is about how to get into the bodybuilding industry. Learn how bodybuilders earn an income here.

How to turn you love for bodybuilding into a full time job

It is possible to get rich doing what you love - and bodybuilding is no different. 

There are too many people trying to make a career out of this sport, however, and the industry is not big enough to support everybody that simply works out. 

You need to do a lot more than a few bodybuilding competitions to turn it into something that can support your current lifestyle.

A bodybuilding career is different to other careers for many reasons

It is not, and can't be regarded as, a normal job where you get paid a monthly salary for performing a pre-set list of tasks or duties.

Your success depends on working with as many different companies and organizations as possible. It’s not like you simply pass one interview and you’re set for the rest of your life.

Unlike other careers, you will be discriminated against according to the way you look.

More so than other careers, you need to develop your personal brand (both physically and in the industry). You are the actual product that you trying to sell. 

The people that will pay you are typically more interested in how you will be able to influence the public to buy their products or support their own brands.

Create what other will pay for.

Make a career out of bodybuilding

Get obsessed

Many people wait for years until they finally feel like they're big enough to compete. They then compete once a year and hope that someone is going to spot them and throw money at their face. The chances are almost definite that they aren't going to make a single cent in this industry. 

There are millions of people around the world that hunt down companies that use brand ambassadors - and you’re sitting in the locker room hoping that they will come to you?  Don't waiting for a good opportunity to come by before you actually do something about what you want.

You might not be ready for a sponsorship yet. Start doing certain things now so that when you are ready. Get all the preparation stuff done so that you can attack the market, head on. Become a lot more aggressive in your attempt to succeed. 

Obsession means that you are prepared to sacrifice a large part of your life for this. If you aren't going to put in the work, stop now. Don’t waste your time thinking that you’ll get anywhere. 

Every day that doesn't bring you closer to your goal is a day wasted. If you only do something about your dreams once a week, you will take 7 times as long as it could take to get you where you want to be. Not only that, but you will be 7 times slower than anybody else.

You can get closer to your goal everyday by doing things that you wouldn't think you needed to do until it’s too late. 

It's all or nothing.

What skills do you need that you currently do not have? 

Have you practiced your poses in front of the mirror so much that its second nature, preventing disastrous slip-ups on stage? 

Have you practiced your facial expressions for when you get that envious magazine shoot? 

Have you worked on building your confidence so that your nerves don’t destroy your chances of winning? 

Are you constantly building up your social media platforms so that you are slowly but surely becoming the influential icon that companies would want on their books?

Bookmark this page and refer to it often to make sure you are constantly improving to get better and better than the next bodybuilder.

Know the key players in the bodybuilding industry

Study the people who have made it.

What do you want to become? Who are the people that currently hold the positions that you want? 

It is important to know their stories and how they got to where they are. If the guy that is currently doing what you dream of doing walks past you in the gym or at an event, would you even know?

Knowledge about the key players will help you to direct and steer your networking attempts towards the right people. 

You need to know the organizers of events, bodybuilding competitions and their judges. 

Extreme measures for success

Some top performers even research who the judges of a competition will be and change their stage approaches accordingly. 

How nice would it be to know that the current judges of a competition generally score higher on athletes wearing red? It sounds crazy, but it works. 

Do you know which companies currently sponsor bodybuilding events? Which organizations sponsor athletes like you? Know what they look for in brand ambassadors. Discover who the people are that they hire to scout for the few sponsored individuals. 

Have contacts in other industries that could complement your career goals. This will be of monumental help to you. Imagine knowing the journalist or editors that could cover your story in a magazine or newspaper!

You need to do your research and know your story. Knowledge is power. Unfortunately, the world isn't going to open up to you once your biceps grow to a certain size.

What are you pouring yourself into?

Learn everything that you can about the bodybuilding industry

Who are the top 5 most successful players in the supplements industry of your country? How did they get there? The chances are high that you can’t answer these questions - and neither can the other 98% of people who want to make it in our industry.

Those top 5 knew the answers to questions like that before they made it big. Knowing the industry is a requirement to getting through the door. Being obsessed with it helps you get further than the rest. 

Reading articles like this when you have nothing to do at work or because you’re bored and browsing the internet is just not good enough to get to the top. 

People think your body simply looks good by going to the gym. They don’t know about all the work that you actually put in; like training programs, research, eating plans, supplements and the like.

Similarly, people don’t just train until they are big enough, walk onto a stage and become world famous. It takes a whole lot a research and planning. 

How many bodybuilding competitions are there in your area? Who would sponsor you? How much do athletes get sponsored for? What opportunities exist in the market right now? How will you add value to this industry that people, companies or organizations are willing to pay for? What streams of revenue are you going to earn from?

Know your environment.

Network like crazy

The more people you know and the more contacts you can make in the industry, the higher your chances of success are. 

Many people overlook this point and assume that they can make the right contacts when they need to. People assume that they can Google who they need to know or they just don’t need to meet more people to further their careers.

The percentage of top players who got to where they are because of the people that they know is phenomenal. It is very unlikely that you will get anywhere without knowing the right people and without the right relationships.

Notice how people on the bottom don't know anybody. People at the top of their industries are well connected. Is this a coincidence?

How to network

Start by making friendships with whomever you can. Make friends with the people who want to make a career out of bodybuilding as well. They might just know of a great opportunity that you don’t.

It might sound silly to make friends with the guy who is reselling supplements on the corner. Months later he asks you to be the face of his brand in the shop that he just took over. He launches an online empire with all of his marketing.

A good friend of mine scored a big deal through the above example.

It is very important to prioritize networking as one of the core strategies for success.

Start wherever you can. Here are a few ways that you can make friends at your local gym without irritating them.

Network your way to the top

Get involved

If doing bodybuilding competitions is just a fun hobby of yours that you do every now and then, there is nothing wrong with that. But if you want to make an actual career out of it, you are going to need to do a lot more. 

You need to get intensely involved in the industry. Go to competitions - even when you do not compete. Go to the finalist events - even if you didn't make it. Attending all the events associated with this trade. This will give you have a greater chance of getting in on what is happening. 

You will learn a lot of valuable information in these places. Meet with important people, make surprisingly helpful contacts, find out about great opportunities, discover other ways to achieve your goals and reinforce the burning fire that you need to push your way upwards. 

I've met some great contacts in events I didn't even take part in. For example, I met a journalist who does stories on up and coming stars in the industry. Imagine getting a significant interview that will help your career, at an event you weren't even competing in! 

You hear about success stories about people who got lucky by meeting the right person at the right time that jump-started their path to success. What you don’t hear is that they were so obsessed that they were constantly at events like these. 

You’re not going to meet anyone worthwhile when watching TV at home on your rest days.

Procrastination is the enemy of progress.

Get a relevant job

You probably want to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. You need to start right at the bottom. It is not essential to get a job in the bodybuilding, nutrition, health or fitness world - but it will definitely help a lot.

Many people who compete are personal trainers - and you will especially do better with your personal training job as you increase your rank in bodybuilding competitions. Plenty of people who are relatively successful on stage use their success to exponentially increase their earnings with their personal training jobs or fitness businesses.

Their pro-status means that they can charge a lot more for personal training sessions and even coach other people on how to compete in the same type of events. 

Try to get whatever job you can in the industry, so that you have a steady stream of income until you cash in the mega bucks. 

Stay in the industry on a nine-to-five basis to give you a better competitive edge than the people who spend most of each day outside of the industry. 

This means that your chances of making great contacts, learning about current opportunities, getting sponsored etc. are much, much higher.

How much time can you dedicate to your dream?

Enter as many bodybuilding competitions as possible

This should be obvious, but you want as much exposure as possible. 

You can enter as many competitions as you want until you do well in one of them and you get a pro card. 

When you become a pro at a competition, they will issue you with a pro card. This pro card is coveted by many competitors. You cannot enter bodybuilding competitions by other organizations when you have a pro card. You are then restricted to only entering into that specific competition. 

Enter into as many competitions as you can until you get your pro card.

Enter into bodybuilding competitions even when you are on your off season

It is a good idea to enter these competitions even when you don’t feel like you are at your best or ready yet. Your off season (or bulking phase) is a great time for practice.

This is because the more competitions you do, the better you will be at it.

See the competitions that you don’t feel too confident about as practice for the big ones. Having a few competitions under your belt and attending them regularly to keep in the swing of things will add to your overall performance and placement in the long run.

Do not limit yourself to bodybuilding competitions. Try some modelling competitions as well. These might open new doors and opportunities for you.

Here are the bodybuilding competitions in South Africa.

You do best when you choose to stay active.

Attack the media

Try to get into the media whenever you can. You can definitely use this coverage as good leverage later on for further success. 

Make friends with journalists and editors from different forms of media like TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines. 

The media is often very open to doing articles on new athletes who are entering into competitions.

This exposure might lead to greater exposure or even land you the sponsorship that you want. A judge who reads your article in the newspaper will more likely notice you on stage than the other contenders. 

Self-promotion is essential to building and establishing your brand above the rest and should be done right from the beginning. 

Your wins look a lot bigger if your journey has been in the eye of the media from the start. It is often too late to try to attract extra media attention if you only start after doing well in a competition.

How to get into the media

Don't contact one newspaper. Search for all the media outlets in your area and get hold of them all. Chances are that one of them will do a story on you if you contact enough of them. Use this story as leverage for other people that you approach.

Use social media. Start building your following. Most sponsorship companies look at your social media profiles to gauge whether they are sponsoring somebody with influential pull or some random Joe.

Look at this guy. He has Crohn's disease and he is pursuing a career in bodybuilding. He uses the fact that he struggles with Crohn's as an advantage by writing articles for online sites like SA Spotters to build his personal brand.

Our door is always open to aspiring athletes who want to gain some exposure for themselves. Here is how you can make your name known among our readers.

Build your momentum now.

Build a portfolio

There won’t be anybody else to promote you in the beginning. Nobody who you want to reach will know of you. It is your job to change that. 

Build a portfolio with your information, pictures and past successes. This portfolio is basically an advert with the goal of persuading the reader to buy into the product you are selling (you are that product). 

Keep copies of this portfolio on hand and take it with you wherever you go. Try to get this in front of as many people as possible. 

It is your job to somehow get the right people to see your portfolio. You should make sure that it is so good that after seeing it they can’t resist not paying you to promote their brand.

Self-promote yourself as much as you can and wherever you can! 

Make a Facebook and Twitter page at bear minimum and get as many followers as possible. You want to try and build your name into an authority that people want to emulate. 

You need to build yourself into the person that others want to be like. As soon as you do this, sponsors might even start looking for you.

Promote yourself.

Contact as many companies and people as possible

Single out the companies that you would like to be sponsored by and get stuck in their faces. They should be forced to see your portfolio just to shut you up. 

If somebody sees your portfolio and rejects it, found out why. If you can find out what is wrong or missing, you can make the right changes to increase your chances of success the next time. 

People tend to send their portfolio to one company that they like through an email and stop there, waiting for a reply. Don’t be that guy. That guy gets nowhere. 

Getting accepted is a numbers game. You should have a list of your favorite companies that you would like to work with. You need to submit your portfolio to as many companies as possible.

Chasing your dream should be done like a full time job - and that means putting some serious effort into contacting as many companies as possible. 

Try as many ways as you can to get your foot in the door. Keep your eye on these companies and see whether and when they have competitions with sponsorships as prizes. 

Offer to volunteer with the events these companies hold. This is another great way to get you noticed above the masses of the other people who are trying to grab their attention.

Establish good relationships with photographers

Try to establish good working relationships with photographers. When they build their own portfolios, photographers often ask for models to pose for free. 

This is a good idea because you can also use these professionally taken photos for your own portfolio - and you will appear in the photographers’ portfolios when they show them to their clients.

Volunteer as a model. This is also very good experience to learn how to pose in photo shoots.

Rather mess up in front of an amateur than right in the middle of your dream shoot! Contact many photographers - it is better to work with a number of them than just one.

Final words about making a career out of bodybuilding

Take a moment to imagine two people. One person tried everything on this list. The other one read through the list and found a few interesting points but didn't really implement anything.

One of them became world famous. Who do you think it was?

If this article gives you a daunting sense of what needs to be done, I've done my job. Success isn't easy. 

Please share any other ideas or strategies you might have in the comments below. STAY STRONG!

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