Who do you trust?

By Fiona Boyd |

A couple of weeks ago I was reading Kirsty Dunphey’s Blog and she put into words the exact reason why I’ve been so squeamish lately at marketing claims of internet dudes who say they are gurus and will make me very rich this very next minute.

Her blog post is called “What to look for in a coach” and whilst it is just a short and sharp post, it cracks to the point and wastes no energy on equivocation. Maybe it’s my job to do that.

Basically Kirsty is saying that in a world where the buyer needs to beware when purchasing services, you have every right to ask the person seeking to sell something to you, what their specific experience and credentials are in that area. It’s okay to be cautious, it’s okay to not jump on the bandwagon. Maybe you’ll miss out on the next big thing, or maybe you won’t – but at least you are in control of your decisions and deciding who you will trust.

Dr Wayne Dyer also calls into question this notion of trust in his audio book, Inspiration Your Ultimate Calling – a rather great listen that I had on replay for pretty much the first half of this year. Dyer at one point talks about when you really need to get clear and honest information about or for yourself, who do you go to? Is it someone who will tell you you’re fine, all’s great, just sign here and your anxieties will fade, or is it the person who tells you the truth as they see it? His years as a psychologist led him to the answer that those in need actually want to hear the truth about the reality of things – not someone’s comforting dismissal. That when life counts in large amounts, we can handle the unpalatable truth if it’s what we need to hear in order to change or correct course and get back towards our true purpose.

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As Kirsty highlights, she wouldn’t ever hire a business coach who hadn’t run a business themselves, or a trainer who wasn’t fit. Her point is that with franchise systems, people with no background in an area can simply set up their business and start selling an expertise that there is no guarantee that they truly have. And as someone who loves Twitter a lot, and spends a heap of time there looking for people with similar interests and worldviews, I’m constantly astounded at the claims of some Twitter profiles. I mean, if you are 19 you really don’t have enough real world experience to advise anyone on anything much, let alone really important life-changing stuff. So why claim to be a guru, why not say you’re just starting out and learning?

I still remember the days when I worked with ABC Radio and old hands were endlessly quizzing me on my background and training. In fact, because there was little formal training available in the 1980s, most were gobsmacked that I’d received hundreds of hours of on-camera studio experience while studying in the first intake ever of Media Performance students at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). I must admit it was disconcerting to be endlessly grilled by those hoping to slip up the next generation of broadcasters, but it seemed to come with the patch in dealing with ageing broadcasters who believed the industry was born with them, and would die with them too.

It is quite different now, people with very little training in anything have no sense that calling themselves a master of something actually might require some proof. This is not to discourage anyone who is just starting out online and wanting to make it in the niche they’ve chosen – everyone starts somewhere, but hey, why not be honest about that? If you’re just starting out, say so, and tell us that this is an experiment for you, let us in on the secret of what you find out along the way, and do that in a way that makes sense, has the ring-of-truth to it, and is your honest account, and guess what? We’re probably going to love you for it!

Now, one of the big bugbears in my life is the fact that BC (before children) I weighed a certain amount, did a bit of exercise, ate way more than I do now and was generally in much better physical shape than today. After children, I’m carrying 12 kg more weight, exercise enormous amounts with not great results and get through most days feeling like a sack of potatoes. Don’t get me wrong, with a BMI of 23.1% I am neither technically overweight or obese, I’m just lugging too much extra around the middle to feel truly comfortable. I’m also creaking a lot – bending down is a pain, I can hear my hips crunch when I get up from a chair.

In 2004 at the Adelaide Arts Festival I was having a chat with Stephen Page, the then festival Director and the genius behind Bangarra Dance Theatre. As a former dancer he had a number of moves he used to keep fit. I bemoaned the fact that Pilates was the best I’d been able to come up with and that I really longed for those days in my teens at ballet doing endless matwork. I was sure all those really tough stretches and the resistance involved contributed enormously to a great muscle structure which in turn kept my weight down. He agreed that matwork and barre work were probably all you needed to keep a really limber body and we both moved on and forgot about our discussion. By the way, Stephen is the only person on the planet I have met to date who is born on the same day, in the same year. Our difference was we were born 12 hours apart, I think he was the elder.

Where am I going with this? Well I wish I could say that I’ve tried a million diets and have found the ‘one’ that works. This isn’t true, I’ve not tried many, the only one that worked was the CSIRO Diet, but the problem is there’s a lot of first quality protein involved and that makes it an expensive diet to follow. I lost about 6kg on the CSIRO Diet, but that was it, and it was only halfway to my goal. Since then I just really eat what I like and try not to overeat too often – and I’m 3kg heavier. So, mmmh all the restriction and extra protein, maybe it wasn’t necessary?

I’ve long had the sneaking suspicion that my weight gain is about movement or more correctly, my lack of moving through a full range of movement. In my teens I used to frequent a nightclub called the Red Parrot and many of us would dance all night in the wildest, most alternative ways, I’m sure this is what made me super fit.

So, let’s now intro someone who I do trust and my reason for trusting her. Tracy Anderson is a personal trainer to Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow, that’s it, just two clients. She also runs a dance studio in New York and in the summer of 2008 ran a bootcamp for local women who did a three-hour session with her after work, five nights a week for two weeks. She makes no massive claims beyond saying that in real-life research she’s done on herself and with other women over the past 12 years, she’s figured out how to create a dancer’s body for a woman who’s willing to do the work. That’s right, there’s work involved, this is not done without putting in a serious amount of effort. You can find out more about her story here in the About section, but I’d like to mention that Tracy’s credibility for me is way more than the fact she has famous clients, it’s that her own personal journey in her late teens as a dancer, led her on a mission to find out what the mechanics of creating a dancer’s body were, and developing a system around this. Hats off to Tracy because isn’t that what so many women want? And she figured this out because she was intrigued, curious and needed to sort her own shape out or she could keep her dance scholarship.

I have now purchased two of Tracy Anderson’s dvd’s and have made my way only through the mat work one. It is the closest thing to an extreme ballet matwork session, the sort of thing Stephen Page and I spoke of years ago, that I have come across. It is the real deal, after two sessions I am sore, I can’t get all the way through, it is difficult, but my muscles are pulling back into shape and I feel strength coming back into my limbs and core. I’m going to stick with this because given Tracy’s journey and her quest I believe her when she says if you do the work, her method will help you create your own version of a dancer’s body. Plus, Stephen and I sort of had the same idea back in 2004, so maybe we’re all on the same page, so to speak!

Give me three months and I’ll let you know whether the Tracy Anderson Method works or not. One thing I do know, Tracey Anderson has exactly the sort of credentials I’m looking for when I’m seeking advice from someone. Passion, curiosity, her own skin in the game, some science or discovery learning, and no claims of how easy it will be. It won’t, she’s clear, this method requires ‘hard work’.

I guess that’s my point really, if you’re going to take advice from anyone, make sure they’ve put the work in and got some results to show you.

If you’d like to share the stories of those who you really trust and why, make sure you comment. Likewise if there’s someone with no experience and no track history claiming to be a guru – uncloak them here at www.nichecontentmillionaire.com

Want to test out Tracy Anderson’s excercises? Have a go at this.

Image: Flickr Phauly

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