Patrick Moore explains how the “eat, sleep, train” mentality is not enough to earn money in bodybuilding. Marketability is now vital.
Patrick Moore is not simply a pro bodybuilder. He’s a pro bodybuilder that started over from one sport to the next. Originally a boxer, he eventually restarted from the ground up in competitive bodybuilding. Now he’s a highlight athlete with much promise to become a legendary champion.
Seeking athletic success is hard from the start, doing it twice by starting over in a different sport is even harder. That’s why we asked Moore to share his advice on how to be successful starting out in bodybuilding. In our latest GI exclusive, Patrick Moore explains that excelling at building muscle and shred is not enough. It is now necessary to sell yourself, and sell yourself well, as a marketable personality.
There is no doubt that the internet age has changed bodybuilding significantly. Not only has it changed the way fans interact with the sport and its athletes. It’s also completely revolutionized how sponsorships work. Gone are the days of the Weider contract. This is something that many bodybuilders and industry professionals have spoken about over the past decade. Patrick Moore believes it hasn’t been stated enough. He cannot express just how important it is to become marketable as a personality in order to earn financial success in bodybuilding.
During our conversation with Patrick Moore, he makes one thing very clear. Essentially, being good at just bodybuilding is no longer enough to succeed financially in the sport. Only a select few of competitions award high level prize money. And even then, statistically your odds of being that champion to win the $400,000 Olympia prize money is very slim. It’s not something that can be relied on.
The internet era and social media has put the tools directly in the athlete’s hands now. Massive multi-year contracts don’t get offered the same way anymore. Now, it’s just as vital to have an online presence as it is to win bodybuilding shows. This doesn’t mean you have to be a schmoozing online influencer. But it does mean you need to find a way to market your personality into engagement online.
Of course, marketability is not a replacement for passion and hard work in the sport. But it just might be a more vital aspect of being a pro bodybuilder than most people realize going into the sport.
“The first thing you have to do is love the sport or the training,” Patrick Moore states in our interview. He continues:
“Because anything that comes subsequently from that is going to be based off of your placing at shows. The amount of attention you are able to generate online. You have to be an athlete. You have to be a representative of the sport. And you have to marketable. And I say that because marketability is one thing I think a lot of people do not realize has to be present in this day and age.”
Patrick Moore continues to express that the old school days of only focusing on training and dieting are gone.
“You can’t just be the guy who goes into the gym with your hoodie on and train and then leave out and then think that you’re going to make money. It just doesn’t happen like that. Because you have to think what generates ticket sales, merchandise sales, whatever it is – you have to be a hard worker. So I would tell new guys coming up. don’t expect the sponsorships, don’t expect anything… you have brands that monitor. They’ll watch how you interact online so if they see that you get a lot of engagement, they may then be inclined to extend your sponsorship. So where guys will say I’m not going to do online stuff because that’s stupid and it’s a waste of time. Okay, well you’re just leaving an opportunity on the table for an athlete who is willing to do that… you can’t just eat, sleep, and train. That’s a dream. That’s not going to happen. Not if you want to be successful.”
Ultimately, there are various paths to success. No one single mold will be the mandatory subset needed to 100% succeed. But it’s also foolish to believe that investing time and energy into these strategies is a waste of time. A person passionate about bodybuilding should be willing to do whatever it takes to become successful and a champion.
To leave an entire option on the table, as Patrick Moore puts it, is lowering your odds. If bodybuilding is your life – even if you hate social media – you might have to make that kind of sacrifice and learn to engage with these tools. Otherwise, you’ll be significantly cutting your chances short in the modern playing field.
You can watch Patrick Moore go into full detail on his experiences building his brand in bodybuilding and his vital tips in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above.
