I will be in Florida December 14 – December 17th to hang out with our Sweat4health members there. I will definitely be in Orlando, and possibly Ft. Lauderdale and other cities as well. Unlike my 14 day European tour where I had open meet and greets virtually every day, the meet and greets in Florida will be for Sweat4health members only. Why? Great question!
I had the most amazing time meeting fans on the European tour and people drove, biked, and took trains from all over Europe to spend evenings chatting with me. Many people travelled up to 6 hours and crossed many borders just to spend an hour with me in the evening. We had awesome discussions about working out, shared our triumphs, commiserated our woes, and shared our funny experiences. Over 60 people showed up in Vienna, and the most remote locations had a full turnout. Many of them brought very thoughtful gifts as well to remind me of our journey. So why don’t I do that in the USA? I have, and with a completely different experience. I have done this twice, and each time the turnout has been completely underwhelming. At Stanford, two people came and each only could stay less than 10 minutes. At my Hanger Party after the FitExpo last year, only two people came in addition to the sweat4health members. Dozens of people complained about the time not being convenient, the place not being convenient, or that they were just too busy.
We had a great discussion about this disparity between USA and Europe meet and greets at Sweat4health. The conclusion we came to was that the reason that well known fitness people from YouTube do not often leave the comfort of the USA, and if they do, they dont push their comfort zone too much and stick to places like London. Nothing at all wrong with London, I love London, but its where Americans who are afraid to travel anywhere else visit. So anyway, when someone like myself is willing to go to Myanmar, Borneo, Vietnam, China, or even into central Europe, its a rarity so people really appreciate the effort – funny, I consider it a privilege rather than an ‘effort’ :)
Here in America, everyone is a star. In California, its not that uncommon to see hollywood stars, famous recording artists, or sitcom stars. Then we have the stars who were hot in the last few decades. Then almost everywhere, we have reality TV shows that churn out hundreds of stars every month. Then on YouTube, tens of thousands get their 15 seconds of fame. In any case, America is over being star struck because there are just too many of them. If I was willing to hold American meet and greets at sports bars and only talk during commercial breaks, then I might get people to come … but I dont have time to watch football :)
In any case, that is a long winded explanation of why my America meet and greets will be for sweat4health members only. International meet and greets will be open to all just like the European tour was. Upcoming international meet and greets:
- Bangkok Thailand (29th of Jan 2016)
- Siem Reap Cambodia (5th of February)
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia (8th of Feb 2016)
- Sydney Australia ( 26th of Feb 2016)
- Cairns Australia ( 2nd of March 2016)
- Melbourne, Australia (8th of March 2016)
Not all of these will happen, it depends on biking schedules. I will publish announcements on facebook an here on my website as soon as I know for sure.
