We should all think about leaving a legacy. For me it’s basically doing work you’re proud of. If you are not proud of what you are creating every day in this world, whatever it is, something is wrong, something is not working. For me, that is the premise.
— Marcos Vazquez
Marcos Vazquez (@FiTrebelde) is the creator of Revolutionary Fitnessone of the most read blogs in Spanish on health and fitness with more than 500,000 monthly readers, and also the author of 7 books on nutrition and exercise, of which he has already sold more than 40,000 copies.
Marcos has been fighting the dogmas that exist in the world of nutrition, health and exercise since 2011, and his ideas have changed the way hundreds of thousands of people eat and train around the world.
In our conversation, Marcos and I talk about literally everything: from his career as a consultant and the beginnings of Revolutionary Fitness, to much more philosophical topics such as critical thinking, the importance of having a purpose or what it really means to be healthy.
In fact, we talk about so many things that the talk gets a bit out of hand and we spend almost 4 hours straight talking, so in order not to overload you, I have decided to divide our conversation into two parts.
In the first part (episode #6), I talk to Marcos about his professional career, about Revolutionary Fitness and about the unconventional decisions he has made in his business that have led to his success, and we cover topics as interesting as …
- Why Marcos liked his job as a consultant in a multinational, despite being a job that almost everyone hates
- What was Marcos’ experience being vegan for several months?
- What all those people who are thinking of starting a project within the health and fitness niche should take into account
- How Marcos organizes himself to be able to create 7 books and 2 mobile training programs in less than 5 years while continuing to publish quality posts on his blog
- Or what are the reasons why Marcos has decided not to apply many of the latest marketing tactics in his business
In the second part (episode #7), which is a bit more philosophical, we talk, among other things, about the difficulties you will encounter if you decide to go against what is established, about the importance of thinking for yourself, or about how to be healthier, and we deal with points as interesting as…
- How to develop critical thinking to avoid getting carried away by what everyone else is doing
- What is the best way to change the way of thinking of others and get them to join our cause
- What does “being healthy” or “being fit” really mean?
- What measures would Marcos implement in Spain if he were elected Minister of Health?
- Or what is success for Marcos
As you can see right away, Marcos is a brilliant guy with very clear ideas, and you can always learn a lot from him, so I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed recording it.
listen in itunes | iVoox | Spotify
listen in itunes | iVoox | Spotify
Episode #6 Links
Where to find Mark:
Mentioned in the episode:
Mentioned books:
Mentioned people:
Quick index of episode #6
0:48 – Presentation of the guest
3:15 – Start of the interview
4:26 – What does Marcos, an expert in nutrition, have for breakfast?
6:15 – What did you study and why?
8:18 – What made you like your job as a consultant in a large company
12:35 p.m. – What was the most important thing you learned and the most useful skills you developed during your years working in consultancies
16:22 – When did you first become interested in health and fitness and why?
17:12 – What diet and what type of training you followed at the time you began to be interested in health and fitness
18:56 – What did he attribute the lack of results to when he followed the recommendations to the letter and still could not gain muscle
20:14 – How was your experience being vegan for 6 months, what did you learn and what were the results?
22:28 – What is the Atkins diet
25:20 – He led a conventional life until, visiting a museum, he had a revelation. What happened
27:24 – What explanation did you give to get better results when you started training differently?
30:29 – What did you discover when you began to investigate the diet of the past?
33:50 – How people reacted when I told them these new ideas
38:27 – Why you decide to create Revolutionary Fitness and start sharing everything you have discovered with the world
40:50 – He started his blog without any official training title and this is a world in which, if you don’t have a title, people give a lot of shit. How did you overcome this obstacle?
46:21 – The health, fitness and nutrition niche is one of the most competitive on the internet and he started from scratch. How did you deal with this problem and how did you plan to open a gap in the sector?
48:49 – Do you think it is still possible to open a niche in the health, fitness and nutrition niche?
51:28 – Tips for people who want to start in this niche
54:53 – How were the first months of Revolutionary Fitness
59:50 – During the first months I did not sell any product, but I did have several clients that I advised, despite the fact that it is not a service that I offer on the blog. How did these clients come about?
1:02:55 – At the time you started Revolutionary Fitness, you still had another job: you were a partner in a large consulting firm. How he juggled everything and where he got the strength to keep his blog
1:08:55 – In October 2012 he launched his first product: Unchained. How the idea of creating it came about and why, even though it was not going to make a big financial difference in his life
1:13:56 – How the sale of Unchained began, what strategy he followed and what fears he had
1:18:54 – How the sale of Unchained changed the way I saw and approached Revolutionary Fitness
1:20:25 – A year after launching Unchained, you quit your job as a partner to dedicate yourself completely to your blog. What prompted you to make that decision?
1:23:24 – What fears did you have when leaving your job and how did you manage them?
1:24:56 – A month after leaving his job, he won the Bitácoras Award for the best health blog. How he managed to win and what the award meant for Revolutionary Fitness
1:29:19 – Many experts say that you should not spend too much time on free content. Why doesn’t Marcos follow these recommendations and spend so much time posting quality content for free?
1:36:57 – In order to write good articles, is it necessary first to read, experiment, and do things outside of the blog?
1:40:00 – Where do you get the data and studies for your articles?
1:43:16 – Why he decided to respond to the comments and emails of his followers himself instead of hiring someone
1:46:37 – What is Marcos’ secret to being so productive and to organize himself
1:54:06 – What are your products, what do they consist of and in what order do you recommend applying them?
1:59:15 – Why you have opted for the ebook format for your products, with which you earn less money
2:05:10 – What is your approach to designing a good product and how do you make the buyer experience so good?
2:10:28 – Why you have decided to continue with your Spartan approach to marketing instead of applying more aggressive techniques
2:17:13 – What is a purpose, why is it important, how did it help him and how listeners can find theirs
Episode #7 Links
Where to find Mark:
Mentioned in the episode:
Mentioned books:
Mentioned people:
Quick index of episode #7
0:48 – Presentation of the guest
2:03 – Start of the interview
2:03 – How we can avoid going with the flow and how we can realize that something is not right even if everyone does it
09:59 – How to discover alternatives that might be right for you
17:20 – How to know what is true and avoid stumbling around believing everything you hear
27:37 – Books recommended by Marcos to define your mental models
30:24 – How to deal with people who attack you because you do something different from normal: how to get other people not to feel attacked and attack you and how to manage the situation so that social pressure doesn’t get to you
34:52 – What is Marcos’ strategy to ensure that someone who has spent his whole life thinking in one way is open to listening to someone who thinks in another way?
41:15 – What is it for Marcos to be healthy
44:35 – How to know if you are fit
52:40 – How can you have more energy?
57:26 – If you don’t have a lot of time to train, what should you do to get the most out of that time?
1:01:23 – Why it is bad to sit in a chair for a long time, what problems it can cause us and how to avoid these problems
1:05:47 – How to get to touch the balls of your feet without bending your knees
1:09:08 – If Marcos were elected Minister of Health tomorrow, what would be the first measures he would implement?
1:16:32 – Can you be successful in life without having good health?
1:20:02 – How is the day to day of Marcos
1:24:35 – Plans for Revolutionary Fitness
1:26:13 – Marcos’ plans on a personal level
1:28:39 – If you could go back and give 18-year-old Marcos some advice, what advice would you give him?
1:30:07 – Where to find Mark
1:30:35 – Farewell
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