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#considering Sanderson's years of added writing experience
whisperofthewaves · 3 years
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one thing I can say for sure, rereading Elantris ten years later after all the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive books so far, it is so refreshing to finally understand what the hell was going on there magic-wise.
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Drakken/Shego ficlet
I started writing this a few days ago. Not sure if I’m happy about it. What do you guys think? If you all like it, I want to add a scene with Commodore Puddles and Mama Lipsky. Still kinda rough, so don’t hate me too much.
Janice Sanderson considered herself a good neighbor. She baked cookies for the neighborhood, her hubby Hank kept the yards clean and tidy and noise levels low. Janice never allowed her boys to shoot off fireworks unless it was the Fourth of July between the hours of 7 and 8:30. She was mindful of their German Shepard, Moe and didn’t let him roam free throughout the neighborhood.
Janice took pride in her home and her boys (which included Hank). She was a stay at home mom to five boys who ranged in age from six to fifteen and homeschooled them all. Between that and biweekly church services, she was a busy momma, but she still had time to keep her eye on things.
One Saturday morning, a moving van followed by a black town car, a grey SUV and one last town car pulled into the neighborhood as she made her morning coffee. Well, her day just filled up, between Isiah coming down with the measles and her essential oils party that night, now this, she’d be up to her eyeballs in things she needed to do! The moving van pulled up to the side of the grey three-story craftsmen at the end of the street (she always thought that house was ugly. No wonder it took so long to sell). The SUV pulled into the driveway, one town car pulled up behind the moving van but left a gap between them for driveway access. The second town car drove around the cul-de-sac and parked at the end of the street, opposite side. No one got out of the town cars, almost like they were protecting the new homeowners.
Was the President moving in down the street?! Wouldn’t that just be a treat?!
Her phone rang. That was Mary-Alice calling for their weekly gab sessions. Janice didn’t want to stop watching the scene going on down the street, but Mary-Alice’s daughter started listening to this unholy band fronted by a man dressed as a cardinal with mismatching eyes that totally and completely appropriated religious iconography in the name of Satan! She had to be saved before it was too late!
Around noon and one ticket to a ‘boarding school’ later, Janice checked on the house down the street. The moving truck was half empty and the town cars still in there respectively places, engines running. Janice didn’t think of what she was doing as snooping, rather just being a vigilant American looking for any unsavory types. She decided it was time to introduce herself and baked a fresh batch of cookies and homemade lemon aide. She’d save a whole family introduction when the new neighbors had settled and Isiah was better.
Luckily, the husband was unloading the SUV when she came up, making him easy to distinguish from the movers.
“Hello there!” Janice chirped happily, trying to get his attention. He pulled himself from deep in the car, trying to reach the other side without actually walking all that way.
She was able to get a good look at her new neighbor for the first time. She was surprised to see that he was blue, blue all over. Well, stranger things were happening; there was a teenage girl fighting crime in the next city over! The scar under his eye and long black hair pulled into a ponytail were unsightly in her eyes, but he was dressed nice enough, had a nice car and bought this (ugly) house in her neighborhood so he couldn’t be that bad.
“I’m Janice Sanderson from down the street, house 3782,”
“Oh, uh, hello. I’m Dr. Drew Lipsky.” He replied, cordially. He preferred his ‘alter ego’ Dr. Drakken, who for the last twenty years sought to take over the world. Nowadays, he was more interested in getting his wife Shego to stop teasing him and building things.
Ever since the Lowardian incident, Global Justice secured Drakken and Shego with a cushy job with the government defense contract. Drakken could build anything he wanted, experiment on anything he wanted as long as the government could use it. Did he wake up one morning and decide he wanted to make a new nerve agent worse than novichok then the next day build a truth discerning AI that could fit in the palm of your hand, then the day after that build his own working lightsaber? He totally could. Shego? Well, she still got paid to punch people, so she was happy.
“Oh, a doctor, bet you’ll come in handy around the neighborhood.”
Drakken waved his hand dismissively, “I’m not that kind of doctor.”
Janice watched as a young, very pale, almost green tinted woman bounded with energy from the house and back into the van to grab more things. She had to restrain herself from gawking at the woman, at how immodestly she was dressed! She was dressed in a green tank top, frayed, black denim shorts that did not come to her knees, but mid-thigh and dirty black converse. Her thick, raven colored hair was pulled into a tight and high ponytail. Well, she certainly would not her boys around her unsupervised!
“Is that your…daughter?”
Drakken spurted. Shego was only ten years his junior! Was this old bat blind? Did he look that old?
“I’m his wife,” She corrected, walking gracefully down the ramp with heavy looking side table in her hands that she carried with ease.
“That’s my wife, Stephanie,” Drakken added.
Eager to change the subject, Janice asked, “So what do you do for a living?”
“I’m uh,” Drakken stumbled for a moment. How did he describe what he did without blowing his cover? “a government contractor.” It had a grain of truth, so it was easy to remember but vague enough to keep any secrets just that, secret.
“That’s fascinating! Stephanie, what about you?”
She draped herself over her husband, “I’m his…secretary.” She gave a small laugh as though only herself and Drakken were in on the joke. Truthfully, she was head of security. Had been for years, now it was only official.
“Oh, well, that’s nice. Welcome to the neighborhood! I’ll let you get back to work!” Janice bid a hasty a goodbye and handed them their treats.
That couple went too against the grain for her taste. Why can’t everyone just be normal?
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thebooksaidthat · 3 years
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20 Favorite Books of 2020 Recommendation List!
Phew, 2020 is about to end. What a year, isn’t it? It’s been a long, tiring and bad year all round for a lot of people in different aspects and reading is a way for all of us to escape our realities. I’ve never had a year like this at all, in terms of my reading habits. The lock downs and time off from school allowed me to read probably the number of books in my entire childhood in less than a year. I read 100+ books this year, varying in pages and formats but it still surprises me that I managed to read that much. This probably won’t happen again in the coming years because of college and etc but I had a good time reading. So, I thought I would share some of my favorite books/series’ that I’ve read this year and give a short description/opinion on it. Hope something catches your eye here! 
side note:
most of these fall under the fantasy category but there are some other genre’s too like romance/contemporaries/non-fiction
the books are listed only based off their category and not in any specific preference order but if you’re interested to see a review/rating on it you can visit my Goodreads profile.
 1. Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
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Do you enjoy reading fantasy books with powerful female protagonists? Do you like dragons? How about a queer F/F pairing as the main couple within the story? Priory of the Orange Tree was a book which I didn’t expect I would enjoy when I read the first few chapters. It’s a book that requires quite a bit of commitment considering the sheer page count of it (though if you read any Stormlight Archive it shouldn’t be a problem) but I grew on the plot line and characters after a bit. There’s classic tropes thrown in here and there but what made me enjoy it was that it focuses on female characters as the heroes rather than male ones. Don’t get me wrong though, I enjoy some books with male-centered characters too but it’s nice to see some good ol’ fantasy with protagonists I can identify with. 2. Beyond the Ruby Veil by Mara Fitzgerald 
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The first book of a series(unsure how many books atm), this debut was just a fun read. I love strong and rule-defying characters and this book gave us just that and more. Although I think the storyline might be a bit bumpy for me, I found that this book perfect for my reading slump and I really liked how it ends too. It might be worth waiting till 2021 to read this because the ending is pretty cliff-hangery in my opinion. I’m hopeful for the sequel to be even better because there are hints of a slow burn, enemies to lovers(F/F) pairing for this one! 3. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
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This was one of my earliest reads of 2020 and I really enjoyed it. The premise of the story is not one I’ve seen before in YA books and it should appeal to many readers. In a world where the ruling king ‘captures’ beautiful women from around the nation to be made his concubines, we follow Lei as she experiences all of that and her journey in going against everything. This is the 1st book out of 3 and its definitely a strong start to a series. There’s some great topics touched upon that is great for discussion like sexual-abuse and the aftermaths of it. Romance(F/F) also plays a big part in this book so if you’re into fantasy + romance that is done well, add this to your long TBR list! 4. Crier’s War by Nina Varela
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Another debut book but this time make it sci-fi! Crier’s War is a fast-paced book set in an era where Automae(robots?) are the rulers and humans are their servants. It’s about how a female Automae, Crier, goes against her father’s opinions about the humans and basically overruling all the norms of Automae being prejudiced. It’s hard to describe the book much without spoiling but this is 1/2 of a duology and the second book picks up right where the 1st ends so make sure you read that too because it gets even better in its sequel!  5. The Weight of the Stars by K. Ankrum
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Sometimes all I want is a quiet, character-driven book. This checked off those wants for me in the best ways. In a story where I believe focuses more on character relationships, I found that I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It’s a comfort read packed with some occasional twists and the writing style is immaculate! The book is about how two misfits get entangled into each other’s business when an accident happens to one of them. It’s a slow burn(F/F) romance which I think was written very well and the characters had good chemistry. This includes their other friends in the circle too which is nice to see! 6. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 
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If you want to read a different kind of fantasy/sci-fi book, you’ll have to check GtN out! It’s a humor-filled necromancy book with great characters and such an interesting premise. The 1st out of 3 books from The Locked Tomb Trilogy, GtN follows a murder-mystery plot line, similar to And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie but much more fun of course. The main character is also a lesbian which is always nice to see more of in the crowded space of books. Make sure you check out Harrow the Ninth too after GtN because that picks up right after this one and is so different but still does an incredibly good job of hooking readers in. 7. The Poppy War Series by R.F. Kuang
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The Poppy War series holds a special place in my heart. I binged all 3 books this year and let me tell you this: I usually find sequels in a series to become less interesting/loses its magic but this is definitely not the case for this. With a very different setting from what we usually see in the fantasy genre, TPW is set in ancient historical China and the books are heavily influenced by real events that happened before. It’s a grim-dark type of series for sure and the protagonist, Rin, is sort of morally-grey in many ways which made it a much more compelling read to me. The final book for me was and iis one of the best ways I’ve seen a writer end a series. If you’re looking for a fantasy series with a fascinating magic system with a grim-dark plot, you’re up for a treat here! 8.  To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
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I rarely read novellas but when I do, they usually leave me fairly unsatisfied at the end because I find them to be hard to connect to because of its length. To Be Taught if Fortunate is another book which I would describe as ‘quiet’ and just overall a comforting read. It’s hopeful, filled with a diverse group of characters which is always welcomed in the books I read. I think one of the best parts of the book is the way its written which had a very soothing feel to it. It’s hard to describe but reading this made me really interested in reading other works by the author. The ending is also excellent too and leaves you thinking for a while. 9. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
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Is political intrigue something you enjoy in your books? Do you like your characters interestingly named like Six Helicopter or Three Seagrass? How about analytical banters/discussions between characters about language? If that’s so, AMCE is a space-opera that will check all those boxes. Seriously, this is a well-built world with fun characters and I loved them so much! There will be a sequel coming out early next year but the book ends with a fairly satisfactory ending so you can jump into this without a commitment to the series (a duology if I remember correctly). 10. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
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The 1st book out of a currently 6 book series(with more to come), The Final Empire is an action-packed, female-lead book in a world where slavery still exists. The magic system here is one of the more interesting ones I’ve seen too. The thing about Sanderson books is that they are typically written in a straightforward, non-prosey, type of style. I appreciate that especially right after reading a book filled with purple-prose and I think this added to my enjoyment, for sure. In a fairly long first book, the world building here was done well and I think it does a good job of not pushing everything into your face all at once and instead, builds the world up slowly in different interactions between the characters. Although a tad bit cheesy, especially when it comes to the romance, I enjoyed this greatly and will probably continue with the rest of Era 1 in 2021. 11. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
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I’ve read a few of LaCour’s work but I still find myself enjoying this the most. When I read contemporaries, I like characters who I can identify with and drives the story well. In a fairly short novel, the book made me cry several times and I still think about the book once in a while nowadays. The story centers around Marin’s relationship with her grandfather and her best friend Mabel. There’s a mystery regarding her grandfather which is the main plot line of the book but its definitely a more character-driven type of book for sure. It’s a book where you’ll need to read it to understand the hype surrounding it so try this one out if you’re in a mood for an emotional contemporary with good mental health representation.
12. The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth
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The Falling in Love Montage is hands down one of my favorite romance novels that I had read recently. It’s funny, romantic and also touching in all sorts of ways. The main character is a queer,sarcastic mess which frankly, I relate to a whole lot. It’s a book to read if you like your romance novels not entirely very light but also pulls on your emotional strings when you’re reading it. The writing style is also commendable for sure for a debut! I’m very much looking forward to future works from this author for sure. 13. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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I rarely read historical fiction but when I saw this recommended in a Goodreads article/list, I was intrigued! This is one that surprised me a lot just cause of how it all ties together at the end. Some things didn’t feel very relevant at first but once  it was revealed, I couldn’t contain my surprise. Also, Evelyn Hugo as a protagonist was such a delight to read about! She’s an empowering woman who’s ambitious and did a lot of things to achieve her goals and she’s an amazing role model in that and many other regards. Besides that, I think this also had great representation on bisexuality too and Madam Evelyn will always remain as one of my favorite fictional bisexual queens! 
14. Loveless by Alice Oseman
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It’s rare to have a book which includes asexual characters in general and it is even rarer to find a book with the topic of asexuality as a whole be the main theme of it. Loveless was such a delightful and insightful read into a character who although I don’t identify with, I could understand her frustrations a lot. This is a book about self-discovery and accepting oneself and one another for their identity and I think the author did a great job tackling this topic. If you’re looking for a contemporary book to diversify the type of characters you read about, Loveless is a good choice.
15. You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
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If you liked books such as The Falling in Love Montage, You Should See Me in a Crown is another you should definitely try! This light and fun romance(F/F) follows Liz and her journey trying to win her school’s prom. It’s a great title to pick up if you’re in a middle of a reading slump because of it’s pacing and it’s overall just a book I enjoyed a lot. 
16. Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
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Do you sense a pattern here? I love reading these light-hearted queer romances which doesn’t go through a series of stressful moments like coming out or homophobia etc. It’s important for books to have representation like that because it still exists and needs to be acknowledged but taking a break from that feels good too. Written in the Stars is an adult romance novel which I can see being a Hallmark-type of cheesy movie for sure and for good reasons! It has all those tropes that people love, enemies-to-lovers(sort of), fake-dating and the whole refusal of feelings for each other even though it’s obvious to the reads type of stuff. Hoping to see more adult romances like these in the future! 17. Who I Was with Her by Nita Tyndall
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Who I Was with Her is an emotional roller coaster of a read, in a good way, of course. This book reminds me a lot of Hold Still by Nina LaCour mainly because of the way both the author’s dealt with the topics of death and grief. It’s a book that should be read when in a good mental-state as it might trigger some people as there are discussions on a character’s death. One of the main reasons I like this book is how the main character dealt with her attachment to her ex-girlfriend and her associating running with their relationship. It was a book that was difficult to get through but ended with a meaningful tone.
18. They Never Learn by Layne Fargo 
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I love empowering and strong female characters. Even when they’re kind of morally-ambiguous like Scarlett Clark. A woman who goes around killing men who sexually abuse others? Sign me up for that heroic Killing Eve shit! In all serious notes though, this was a great read and I loved the whole alternating viewpoints which seems unrelated at first but ties together well at the end. It’s not exactly super thriller-y like its advertised but its for sure a character-driven book with a bonus romance(F/F) plot too plus bisexuality rep! So if you want to read about a kick-ass lady and don’t mind some murder involved in your books, read this ASAP! 
19. One Life by Megan Rapinoe
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I’m not a soccer fan or anything like that but Megan Rapinoe’s advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community and racism intrigued me about her. I listened to this over a few days and I think anyone that wants to have an insight/experience with topics like sexism in the soccer industry, sexuality and racism, this is a must-read. I didn’t find her to be self-flattered or anything like that which I have encountered in some memoirs and I respect her humbleness a lot. 
20. Becoming by Michelle Obama
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Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, was an incredibly fascinating read about her life from her childhood to becoming the First Lady of America. I found her writing to be pleasant and flows very well for a memoir too. It’s a fairly long read but I enjoyed learning about all these experiences she’s had such as her time being a lawyer and her life when Barack Obama, decided to run for president. It gave me a different perspective on her and I have new profound respect for her so much as a person. 
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velkynkarma · 6 years
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Get to Know the Author
@bosstoaster has been tagging me all night :P
1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?
I’ve had the name ‘Karma’ for about 17 years now? I don’t even remember where it came from. The ‘Velkyn’ got added a little over 10 years ago when I decided I wanted to get back into fic writing. But I was still in that phase where you think you’re supposed to ‘grow out’ of fandoms and writing fanfiction, so I didn’t want any of my friends to know I was doing it. I was embarrassed. It was silly. I picked a different handle, VelkynKarma, which actually means ‘hidden Karma.’ Later I just liked the name and also got over my embarrassment for fic writing and just started using it everywhere.
2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).
No matter what statistic you look at, Routine Maintenance wins across the board by a large margin. Parasite Knight only has 1 less subscription, though, so I guess it’s a fair contender on subs.
3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?
Same as my tumblr icon, it’s one of my OC’s, Morrigu Lovel. He is a little smartass and I love him.
4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?
Oh for sure, there’s a few lovely readers that come back every time and always have something to say. I love you guys :) And a few others that don’t comment on every chapter or every work, but the comments they leave are always phenomenal and make my day.
5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?
Depends on my mood, and I don’t necessarily read the entire fic, just the paragraphs/scenes/chapters that really stick out to me. But yeah, I’ve got some favorites I return to a lot.
6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?
Oh geez. This one’s hard to say since I watch stuff on AO3 and FF.net. A lot? I think a lot of those fics are dead now though.
7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?
Mmmm I don’t really have a tendency to stick to any particular series or AU for very long? I guess in terms of general themes I’ve done zombie AU’s the most, between Age of Heroes for Young Justice and Road Trip to End Times for Voltron...something about zombie apocalypse scenarios just fascinates me, especially since it can be done so many different ways.
8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)
252 user subs, 444 work subs, 2039 bookmarks. I didn’t even know that until now, huh
9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)
There’s some character interactions that are such hot-button topics in the VLD fandom I’m cautious about approaching them because I don’t want to deal with people complaining or begging for things to get escalated. Like, I love Keith and Lance’s interactions in canon, but don’t have much fic centered around them because ship lashback is real.
10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.
Short fic. What is brevity even? I can’t do zines or commissions because I can’t figure out how to manage a damn word count.
11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?
Nope! I don’t write any ships at all. I just write platonic interaction. Though I guess I wouldn’t be adverse to a platonic ‘rarepair’ as long as I liked the characters’ interaction potential.
12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?
So far, 25. 23 of those are Voltron, 1 is Young Justice, and 1 is Supernatural (experimenting with cross-posting on both of those last two, some fandoms are just hard to break into or not on certain sites).
13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?
Oh boy. In progress? I wanna say 3. Notes? A lot, lot more.
14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?
I jot down notes! Or email myself ideas if I’m at work/out and about. Or speak them into a little portable digital tape recorder I keep next to my bed, if it’s the middle of the night and I have an idea, but lack dexterity to type.
15. Have you ever co-authored a story?
Not in a long, looong time.
16. How did you discover AO3?
Through TVTropes. Every time I finished a new series I’d swing by to read tropes pages and see if there were any decent fic recs. At first they all went to Fanfiction.net or livejournal but, over time, this ‘Archive’ thing kept showing up. I made an account to lurk or subscribe to things but didn’t actually start posting to it until at least a year later.
17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?
Moderately well known in the platonic corner of it probably assuming people know bosstoaster and I are not actually the same person lol but probably not well known outside of that. Once upon a time I was a Big Name in the One Piece fandom, but after the timeskip I fell out of the fandom and lost my pirate king throne. That’s okay, it was fun while it lasted.
18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?
No but you all are too kind
19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?
In terms of ‘official’ authors, Brandon Sanderson is everything I ever aspire to be as a writer, and I take a lot of inspiration from that. For fic? My buddy BlackFriar was super helpful during the Young Justice era. More recently in the VLD fandom, @maychorian was big for just...getting me to stay in the fandom at all? One of her fics got me hooked and I stuck around, and then felt compelled to write, instead of just drifting off to the next interesting thing. And the Think Tank ( @bosstoaster @butteredonions @ashinan @mumblefox ) have all been huge for getting me to keep writing, between writing sprints and interesting discussions and a lot of encouragement, so that’s been huge for me this past year.
20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?
At the risk of sounding like that one video...just do it. It’s scary to put yourself out there, but just do it. You learn by doing. You also learn by absorbing new things around you, so read a lot and try new stuff; you never know when something completely random or a personal experience might actually add a lot to your story. And finally, write for you, first. Write the stories you want to see. Writing for comments/bookmarks/reblogs only goes so far. It means your motivation is reliant solely on people liking your work, which means you start writing for other people and not for yourself...and if reception is lackluster, it can kill your ability to finish a project, which hurts your practice at follow-through. It’s a slippery slope and starts to make the whole thing a lot less fun and a lot more of a chore. Write things you want to read, and if you feel like sharing them after, other people might like them too, but it’s important that you like it, first.
21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?
Has to be plotted completely. If I try to wing it I meander or get hung up on trying to keep track of details. Turns into total garbage.
22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?
A few times, sure. Happens to everyone. Most often, it’s people begging, demanding, or insinuating that my platonic fics should include a ship, especially if the fic focuses on the interactions of two specific characters. Those are very frustrating because I’m always upfront about the fic being friendship only, and there are usually a million other ship fics already out there. Leave my platonic fic alone! I usually ignore the comments, or just politely remind people it’s friendship only and will remain that way. In one bewildering instance in a different fandom I had somebody who had been thoroughly enjoying the fic up until the climactic battle, whereupon they were furious at how it was resolved, and took great pains to tell me just what they thought. That one stung. I had to sit on it for a few days before I worked up the nerve to respond, and chatted with a few friends over it too. In the end I realized that it was more comparable to a fan really enjoying a canon work but being mad about a sudden twist that just didn’t seem right to them. It happens. I thanked them for reading, explained that I disagreed with their comments but did hear them, and thanked them for their time. Best I could do.
23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)
I am straight-up incapable of romance, period. Even so far as to slide into ‘fake’ romance (I once got prompted for fake marriage/dating and literally couldn’t envision how to do it? It’s just so foreign to me). Or flirting. I can’t even identify flirting IRL. Basically anything in that general area of writing is completely out of my league. I can write intense scenes that are intimate in non-romantic, non-sexual ways, but those are really difficult for me to do too and I’m constantly second-guessing myself in case it’s maybe too much.
24. What story(s) are you working on now?
If I told you I’d have to kill you. But no, srsly, I don’t like to share ideas in progress until it’s almost done, just in case. Sometimes I share and then immediately lose interest, but I’ve already raised peoples’ hopes, and that’s just a dick move.
25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?
I’ll have outlines, or sometimes need to plan around prompts. I don’t usually do series, so I never really need to plan too far ahead though. Sometimes if I’m plotting a crossover/AU I’ll obtain the source material and read/watch/play it to start gathering notes for that fic while working on a different fic, so that by the time I’m done writing the current story, the AU’s skeleton is plotted out and I have a place to slot in all the characters.
26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?
No. I’ve gotten better habits since working with the Think Tank but I still tend to be more of a ‘burst’ writer (no activity for days or weeks, and then suddenly word vomiting 100K in a month).
27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?
By a HUGE margin
28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?
Oooh, that’s a toss-up between Phantasmagoria and Prince of Memory. The former because I love writing horror and it’s an idea I’d wanted to tackle for a while. The latter because it was a personal writing challenge to myself that I honestly wasn’t sure was going to go over all that well, but the response was stunning, and I was quietly surprised.
29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?
Caged Bird, from a different fandom. I make it a personal rule to never delete stories that I’ve posted, but ooh man, I wanted to get rid of this one really bad. I was happy when LJ gutted it. I actually don’t have any real dislike for any of my Voltron stuff.
30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?
Still writing because I’d die if I stopped. Like a shark. But with writing.
31. What is the easiest thing about writing?
That flash of inspiration, when you get an idea and suddenly it’s building itself almost too fast for you to keep up. Dialogue. Action sequences.
32. What is the hardest thing about writing?
Getting started. Titles. Editing. Research. Any particularly emotional moment.
33. Why do you write?
Because fandoms are fun but I have so many questions after. “What if X happened? What if Y was a factor? Why not Z?” I try to hunt down answers to these questions in fandoms and if the fic isn’t already written, I write it. Also to challenge myself to do things that haven’t been done in the fandom yet, or to tackle things I haven’t tried yet.
I think everyone’s been tagged already so...feel free to play if you want, I guess!
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ocalaplumberfl-blog · 6 years
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Ocala Plumber Best Service To Choose
Plumbing offers industry-best standards in quality, design, and service. With more than 50,000 products online, always make Ferguson your first choice! For the best Ocala plumber in Florida take a look at the guide below.
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Whether you're coping with plumbing emergency or you've just realized that the water is draining slowly from your tub or sink, obtaining a drain clearing expert is a thing you will want to do carefully. While there are many of plumbers around, not every one of them should be able to fit the bill and provide the comprehensive service that you need. As such, you will have to do a little work to obtain the absolute best plumber that may help you maintain drains and pipes clear.
Water pressure affects the degree of your consumption. The higher the pressure, the higher the volume of water usage. The recommended water pressure level is about only 60 pounds per square in . so anything above that is not good. You can contact the community's water authority to discover the actual water pressure level in your town. If it's more than 60, let professional plumbers put in a pressure valve in your home to solve the situation.
Ocala Plumber:
But when you rush to get out your plunger and drain opener liquid, or immediately grab the telephone to call a plumber? It depends about the situation-and in your knowledge of plumbing ins and outs. Weigh the seriousness of the situation, your experience level in resolving similar issues, plus your financial situation to make a decision.
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BIG CHANGES IN WATER HEATERS began April 2015. Is your water heater 8 years old or older? Changes in how water heaters are now made may effect you. The Department of Energy made new laws for water heaters starting April 2015. While the more energy efficient units will be better for the environment they could be very challenging for home owners, especially condo owners and where the water heater is in a small space or closet. New units will be larger, more complicated to install and costlier. Call MGR Plumbing Services to see what options are best for you - changing your water heater NOW with a current, cheaper unit, if available, that will fit into your existing space, or considering a tankless water heater, or using the new energy efficient units that are just out. Don't wait for a problem, the new changes will make a quick fix unlikely.
A plumber is really a skilled, licensed educated professional. The plumber opens a small business hires several general labors and does well. Training and schooling several team players. They all work tirelessly, make a fare wage and so are content. But, one of these simple team players had a concept... The Idea was, how I might make money using what I find utilizing this professional plumber. So, this employee began to consider what it really would take to accomplish one of several services the professional plumber agreed to the city. As he looked into exactly what it takes to start a business he found out that some of the plumber's skills could possibly be done legally without each of the years of schooling and special license. You need a small business name & license, insurance, a bond, had to buy a little equipment, set some money aside for advertising, each of the while working for the professional plumber. After almost a year of conserving money, buying equipment and preparing to accept the entire world. He gives his notice for the professional plumber. I am going out on my very own; this is it, the danger, the task, the adventure a person can have.
For potable drinking water, plumbers in North Port used copper pipe. The copper pipe water lines were used for routing potable drinking water to the various fixtures throughout a new home. Those copper water lines were joined together using a lead solder. Copper water lines are still used today, however; the solder used to join the pipes no longer contains lead.
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If everyone in the United States could manage to use just one less gallon of water per shower every day, we could save some 85 billion gallons per year. How do you do it? By keeping the shower pressure lower or by making your showers a few seconds shorter.
Joe the Plumber service the following areas of northeast Florida: Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fernandina, Amelia Island, Callahan, Yulee, Hillard, Macclenny, St George, St Marys, Kingsland, Orange Park, Middleburg, Green Cove Springs, Penny Farms, St Augustine, Hastings, Palatka, Keystone Heights, Starke, Lake City, Waldo, Baldwin, St Augustine Beach, Crescent Beach, Palm Coast, Daytona, Holly Hill, Titusville, Daytona Shores, Ormond Beach, Bunnell, Deland, Orange City, Port Orange, Orlando, New Smyrna Beach, Sanford, Palm Valley, Fruitcove, Mandarin, Lawtey, St. Augustine Beach, Switzerland, Vilano Beach, Marineland, Flagler Beach, Beverly Beach, Sanderson, and Glen St. Mary.
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If a plumber needs to do major repairs to your house, the work could call for a permit. You'll want this since a permit provides added assurance that the work is done correctly. Having this added measure in place means an inspector will check the work your contractor or plumber does to ensure he or she did the job correctly. If you ever plan on putting your house or commercial building on the market, a real estate agent and prospective buyers will also want to check any large work you did to make sure it was done properly.
So, I decided to use the old approach of participant observer for a Ocala plumber and try and write what I am gathering from many people I really do not know.  It saves energy too. Most systems have a very timer that you can program the machine to change don and doff at certain points of the day, like when you find yourself sleeping or at the job, that can turn off capacity to the unit. It will just use power if it's programmed to run. Some units run continuously and will utilize a large amount of one's, but installing a unit that features a timer will save you on your own electricity bill also, making the house much more efficient and greener.
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The goal of a lot of capitalistic minded individuals is usually to go ahead and take knowledge learned because you age, and transform it into a life's dream. You can work with the Man, as people say, but that's the Man? My notion of the man is someone plus some say Government, but anyone who has taken danger, and has been an established Entrepreneur, the owner of a large company, sometimes termed as a money machine. These are many of the saviors in our country. Yes, sometimes greed and power assume control and manipulate folks depressed by the device. From a young age we are programed to benefit someone, paying high taxes and held back from your unlimited opportunities this Nation will give to us.
Finding a plumber must not be a problem, since there are so many around prepared to handle your assignment. The problem however is getting the right person to do the job. In most cases, people begin their search by asking around off their family and friends. Recommended plumbers are usually the best especially in emergencies.
In order to become a plumber, anyone should apply for a plumbing license. This license is disseminated from the county or city the person resides in. Therefore, each city inside state might have its plumbing license requirements. However, all counties and cities from the state of Pennsylvania agree that the plumber must have work experience just as one apprentice. Before you can become licensed, work experience might need to be completed within plumber that is already licensed by the state.
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A plumber is really a skilled, licensed educated professional. The plumber opens an enterprise hires several general labors and does well. Training and schooling a group of team players. They all give your very best, make a fare wage and therefore are content. But, one of these team players had a concept... The Idea was, how I may make cash with what I discovered working with this professional plumber. So, this employee started to explore what it really would decide to try accomplish one of several services the professional plumber provided to the community. As he searched into exactly what it takes to begin a company he discovered that a number of the plumber's skills could possibly be done legally without all the many years of schooling and special license. You need a small business name & license, insurance, a bond, were required to get a little bit of equipment, set some funds aside for advertising, every one of the while being employed by the professional plumber. After many months of conserving money, buying equipment and preparing to accept the planet. He gives his notice towards the professional plumber. I am going from my own; this is it, the chance, the process, the adventure of your life.
Under-slab plumbing issues occur in old homes where galvanized pipes were used for plumbing. As well, lead piping is another issue as it is a health hazard. Plumbing companies can remove old pipes and replace them with modern piping. Proper drainage is another concern with old plumbing. After a while, the old pipes can become damaged or clogged. Plumbing companies are able to clean the drain and sewer lines and make any repairs or replacements.
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Typical factors of slab leaks for example the shifting of the groundwork (because of bad design or ground situations), inferior water supply lines, water supply pressure that's excessively high, and the water chemistry(when the pH scale of the water supply is excessively high, then the incoming copper pipeworks may begin to rust and you'll have pinhole leakages). You may also figure out if you get a slab leak by examining the water supply meter in the home. If the small arrow moves within a few minutes, that implies that there is a slab leak.
Plumbing Nightmare on the First Day of School
How to Find a Competent Local Plumber
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Let's face it, if you aren't a professional plumber you are going to without doubt have reason to call one eventually in your life
You do not always know when a plumbing emergency will probably strike, for example the tub getting blocked up, or perhaps a pipe that has burst and is threatening to flood you out of house and home
These plumbing disasters use a way of happening unexpectedly and also at inconvenient hours through the day and night
When a plumbing emergency strikes there's a chance you're wanting a round the clock plumber
If you have never dealt with one before, there are several stuff you should bear in mind
The Pros And Cons For a Career As a Plumber
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Understanding how to fix a leaking toilet you will save large sums of money in calls towards the plumber, and slash hundreds more away from your annual water bill
The first thing is to see whether there is a leak or not
To do this, you need to use sometimes a dye tablet purchased at any shop, or you may use the usual food coloring
Six Tips on How to Maintain Your Plumbing System
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If following the designated time, the drain is still clogged, utilize a toilet plunger to make use of pressure on the clogged area
You will need to securely plug the other sinks in addition to the one you utilize to plunge
Place the plunger within the drain opening and push the rubber plunger down and up in the hole
The pressure made up of this method will usually work well
Sweating copper pipe - In the world of recent plumbing, this really is probably the most important skill you need to learn. Knowing how to sweat copper pipe is a vital skill essential for small fixes and adding valves. To begin with, all you have to do is make a solder, flux, a small torch, and a few items of copper pipe. In the process, you first need to completely clean the copper, add the flux, heat the joint, and apply the solder.
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A professional plumber is able to appraise the situation immediately and be able to handle any plumbing problem. Finding your plumber online has numerous advantages most famously of which is that you may view their profile. Depending upon the standard of your website, the plumber's profile will even provide important info to assist you make your mind up. Hiring one associated with a business is usually the better option for a Ocala plumber.
Resources:
Joe The Ocala Plumber - Residential and Commercial Ocala Plumbing
Plumbing Drains Waste and Vents - how to articles from wikiHow
OCALA PLUMBER TOP RATED OPTIONS - WEEBLY
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gyrlversion · 5 years
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Paid Meet-And-Greets Are A Staple Of Concert Experiences — But For How Much Longer?
By Larisha Paul
What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a concert ticket? My answer used to be just over $125 — the cost of a face-value ticket to see Harry Styles at Radio City Music Hall — until that number jumped to $175, the resale price to be graced by Lorde’s presence on the Melodrama tour. Somehow, this doesn’t even feel too outrageous. As the general cost of concert tickets has risen over 27 percent in just the past three years, with the average ticket price jumping from $74.25 in 2015 to $94.31 in 2018, according to Pollstar, fans have found themselves paying in the mid-hundreds or higher for certain top-tier live entertainment experiences (even as much as $2,850, if you’re a BTS fan buying resale).
A significant jump in pricing, however, comes alongside the option to purchase VIP meet-and-greet packages. These opportunities often include early entry into the venue, a soundcheck experience, tour merchandise, and a meet-and-greet where guests will be treated to a photo opportunity and a chance to chat briefly with the artist. The length of these interactions largely depends on the artist’s schedule as well as how many guests purchased the package. It can be exhausting to speak with dozens of people back-to-back and maintain the same level of enthusiasm and attention for each of them.
But when The 1975’s Matty Healy took to Twitter earlier this year to question the origin and motivation of paid meet-and-greets, he raised a number of critical points about the monetization of human connection and the costs of touring. “The problem is that a lot of artists don’t understand how brutal [paying for meet-and-greets] is, because MAJOR LABELS have normalised it,” he tweeted. Fans have as well.
“I feel like the more you love and support an artist, the harder it is to say a certain price ‘isn’t worth the experience,’” said Jared Green, a 20-year-old Tori Kelly fan who dropped $125 on a meet-and-greet package for the singer’s Unbreakable Tour. He recalls Kelly coming across as both open and genuinely appreciative of the relationship she has with her fans. “As a huge fan of an artist, we’re only going to want the best VIP package each tour,” he continued. “With that being said, I do feel like sometimes artists and their managers understand that and take advantage of fans by setting VIP packages very high.”
Emmy Levine, a tour manager currently working with rising artist Lauren Sanderson, believes that the prices of many VIP packages are fair when you consider the often overlooked costs that go into putting on a tour. Artists are creatively involved in the development process, but entertainment companies such as Live Nation are tasked with organizing the packages themselves. In exchange for their curation and coordination, these companies take a percentage of the income, Levine told MTV News.
There’s also the cost to produce the merchandise usually included in these packages, as well as fees to hold more time at a venue for the meet-and-greets. Levine specifically cited the added issue of “paying for the production of the tour, which could be anything from the lights and the sound and tour buses to backstage catering [and] the crew.”
In short, tours are expensive. And one way to recoup some of those costs is to charge music fans hundreds of dollars, in addition to the price of a ticket, for a chance to interact with their favorite artist.
“It is hard to turn down the kind of money you can make by charging people to shake your hand,” drummer Pat Kitch, who plays in pop-punk band The Maine, told MTV News. “I can only see it going more and more in the direction it is headed now.” But not for his band. In The Maine’s more than 10 years on the road together, they’ve never charged fans an interaction fee. Instead, they make an effort to stick around after their shows each night to meet as many people as they can manage.
“It’s always been our position that music should never be about your position of monetary privilege,” added frontman John O’Callaghan. In previous years, those attending the Vans Warped Tour could find The Maine perched under a tent with a backdrop that asked in all caps, “Why would you pay money to meet a human being?” It’s the tactic that’s helped them build the diehard following they have now. Four stops on their current tour have sold out, and low ticket warnings are in place for a few others.
When founder Kevin Lyman started up Warped Tour in 1995, he immediately implemented the event’s “no paid meet-and-greets” policy. “Once the bands start charging to meet fans, it just changes the role. It’s just a transaction,” he told MTV News. Though Lyman was told monetizing these interactions would be more financially beneficial for the bands, he decided he’d sooner walk away from the festival. “It might solve some financial issues you might be having. But in the long term will those people be there for you when you maybe really need them?” Lyman asks.
Warped Tour’s controlled outdoor environment makes it easier for fans to meet bands than it would be if they tried to do so at larger-capacity spaces and arenas. Recently, artists have created personalized systems of their own to get around this issue, while assuring that they’re able to meet their fans at no additional cost apart from a ticket.
On their current North American tour, pop band LANY are randomly selecting 15 to 20 fans each date to attend soundcheck and hang out with the group. “We want it to be as fair and open as possible,” LANY manager Rupert Lincoln told MTV News. He first brought the idea to LANY in 2018 as a means of connecting with fans safely; they were immediately on board.
With the band’s growing popularity, it’s no longer plausible for them to hang around and meet fans after shows like they used to. This new method preserves the fan-to-artist connection they’ve always had. Similarly, Troye Sivan had members of his team scout fans in the audience to bring backstage after the show on his Bloom tour for a free meet-and-greet experience.
One of them was 16-year-old Liza Tijerina, who met Troye at his Denver stop. As opposed to the usual rush of formal meet-and-greets, she had the chance to actually talk to him, and he even humored a request that he write out a tattoo for her. These randomized processes also counteract the hierarchy that can form within fandoms when access is dependent on how much disposable income a fan has.
“Being on stan Twitter over the years, I’ve seen people who have the chance to meet their favorite artists often and people definitely tend to feel and say that those fans act more superior,” Tijerina said.
Maybe Matty Healy was right when he sardonically suggested, “They should make all fans pay in cash — directly to the artist.” Or maybe, like Tijerina points out, the mere presence of money changing hands can taint an otherwise positive experience. “[If I had to pay to meet Sivan], I feel like it definitely wouldn’t have been as intimate and special.”
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wakingwriter · 7 years
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When and why did you begin writing?
My first story was in third grade, where Mario, Link, and Zelda had to stop an evil wizard. Sadly, I never finished it. As a teenager, I wrote a narrative/humorous diary of a few family vacations. Then I started on a novel, which was terrible, put it down, picked it up again in college, put it down again, and started seriously writing after I had been working a couple years. After reading so much science fiction and fantasy growing up, I needed a way to process what I had read, which turned into novels of my own.
What are some day jobs you have held?
For my day job, I’m a mechanical engineer working at a large construction company doing performance engineering. I also teach karate. I studied Wado-Ryu Karate in college, and now teach a group of about 16-18 students. The elements of my other interests influence my writing. You can usually find some cool physics or martial arts in what I write! In my spare time, I play video and board games. My wife and I cosplay at a few cons each year and also force our pets to cosplay for the annual Christmas card.
What have you written so far?
I have two novellas out Tuning the Symphony and Merchants and Maji both in the same universe.
The Dissolutionverse is a society of ten planets connected by music-based magic instead of space flight. Merchants step from one planet to another to sell their goods. Alien cultures and languages spill from one world to another. Members of all ten species gather inside the Nether, the center of the society, to debate trade, law, and the economy of the Great Assembly. Only the maji can make the portals that link the planets together, and so the maji are central to keeping the economy going. Some of the stories focus on the maji, some on regular folks.
Remember that first terrible novel I wrote? After about 20 years and 4 or 5 complete rewrites, the ideas behind that original story have become “The Seeds of Dissolution.” After so many rewrites (and a lot of great alpha and beta reader feedback), I think it’s good enough to publish, and I’m running a Kickstarter from August 15th to September 16th to raise funds for adding more art, maps, and better editing. You can read the first two chapters here, and the Kickstarter is here.
I also have a couple works of flash fiction and I’ve written a couple (unpublished) YA books. One is about a boy whose father is killed, and he and his mother decide to change history to get him back, with his father’s time machine. The other I bill as “X-Men Evolution meets High School Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
I’ve completed an epic fantasy, which I’m currently subbing to agents, where magic comes from eating seasonal fruit. The story uses Babylonian names and architecture, and in it two sisters escape slavery with a box marked by the gods. They work to discover the secret of a fifth godfruit where there should only be four when each fruit is blessed by the god of the corresponding season.
Tell us more about your main character. What makes him or her unique?
The main character for Seeds of Dissolution is Sam van Oen, who comes from Earth, and is accidentally thrust into the society of the Dissolutionverse. As such, he’s unfamiliar with it, which means he can learn along with the reader.
What makes Sam unique is that he has anxiety issues with crowds and new places, so showing up in the Nether is really freaking him out. There aren’t a lot of SFF main characters I’ve found that not only have anxiety issues but have to cope with them, rather than something magicking them away. I specifically show that magic can’t just cure him, and if it’s used to help, there are side effects, just like any medication.
In addition, Sam is bisexual (or pansexual, as this book contains species with multiple gender norms). I try not to make a big point of him deciding whether he “is” or “is not” bisexual. It’s a part of his character, and it comes out in the people he meets and the friends he makes. In the rare case of a bisexual main character, I’ve read of only a few males, and their sexual orientation is usually a main point of the book. I prefer it to be just one part of the experience of reading, like when you meet someone in real life.
What is your next project?
Most likely, one or two Dissolutionverse novellas, and after that, the next full novel. I have several novella ideas, ranging from a Sherlock Holmes-type mystery to a heist story, to a romance, or a Jules Verne-like adventure story.
Non-Dissolutionverse, I have two other novels outlined, one about colonists who land on a planet completely occupied by a sentient fungus, and the other about a society based on Incan culture, where body kinesthetics (like martial arts) create magic.
What are some ways in which you promote your work? 
I’m slowly working through all the ways I can find!
I have a website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. I may have driven a couple sales from Twitter, but I’m not sure. I also belong to a few indie author groups, and when a bunch of authors put together a group event, that gets the most attention and sales by far. Paid services will promote books, but I’ve never actually made money on a promo. Generally, they’re good for attention and a few sales, but probably not worth the price. I’ve also run ads on Goodreads and Amazon. Both generate clicks, but only a couple books sales. Finally, I go to various cons, both to sell books at a booth, and to be on panels. The con booths actually make some money.
Finally, there’s Kickstarter! For my latest novel, I’m attempting to offset the printing cost, and hopefully pay for some cool additions to the book while also giving some extras to the backers, like a new short story, wallpapers, buttons, maps, and even original artwork. If this is successful, I’ll likely do the same for my future self-published works.
As an independent publisher, it’s important to try a lot of methods, however, it’s also important to realize that any work you do on marketing is taking away from time you could be writing.
Do you work to an outline or plot sketch, or do you prefer to let a general idea guide your writing?
When I start a new full-length story, I’ll take a few days to type out connected thoughts about the story. When I hit an interesting thread, I start a bulleted list of events. I usually end up with 9-12 pages in the overall outline.
While writing, I paste sections of my outline below to guide how I write. So far I have not written a story that followed my original outline all the way, because I end up writing something that works so much better. Somewhere in the middle, I will stop to readjust the path of the story to reflect that and keep going.
Usually, I have several major changes to the story during the first edit, and less during the 2nd and 3rd.
How do you feel about indie/alternative vs. conventional publishing?
Self-publishing means you control everything about your book. It also means you have to do everything for your book. It takes a lot of work, and you won’t sell as many copies as a traditional publishing house, but you keep a lot more of the profit.
I’m not yet published traditionally, but I am still submitting and one day hope to be. Having books available by both methods means you can develop your brand in different ways. Your traditionally published books can boost your name further, whereas with self-publishing, you have the opportunity to write experimental stories and subject matter or genres that are not considered “marketable.” More and more traditionally published authors are using indie publishing as a way to make a little extra on the side and to give their readers something more for being loyal.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Keep writing. I’ve heard, at least for self-published authors, that you need about five books out before they start to really get noticed. When my second novella came out, I sold more of my first novella than my second, though that sounds contrary. Of course, if you land a deal with a publisher, they take care of a lot of the marketing work, but that’s why they also get a cut of the profit!
Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work?
I started out with Tolkien, C.S.Lewis, and Moorcock, and worked through Piers Anthony, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, and David Eddings. These inspired me to start writing and to branch out in my reading.
Some of my current favorite authors are N.K.Jemisin and Brandon Sanderson, for their sheer imagination and worldbuilding. Lois McMaster Bujold and Mary Robinette Kowal have awesome characters, Jim Butcher has incredible plotting and sense of timing, and folks like Larry Niven, Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross, and James S.A. Corey obviously put a lot of research into showing how real science fiction can be.
If it’s not clear by now, I try to learn a little from each book I read, whether in style, art, or prose, and apply that to my own writing.
How can you learn more about William and his work?
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Kickstarter
Book Links:
Tuning the Symphony | Merchants and Maji
  William C. Tracy, author of Tuning the Symphony @wctracy When and why did you begin writing? My first story was in third grade, where Mario, Link, and Zelda had to stop an evil wizard.
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fitnetpro · 7 years
Text
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this 🙂 
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness 🙂
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond 🙂
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go 🙂
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies 🙂
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are intentionally no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. 🙂 If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person. 🙂
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too 🙂
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have. 🙂
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article reader or member of several of our communities – you are welcome here.
And we hope you’ll reach out. Let us know what you are struggling with. Let us know what you love about the community or wish we could offer you in a better way.
You’re never alone
Harry potter lived under a staircase until he found his people at Hogwarts. Rogue struggled with her powers and identity until she discovered there was a school for people like her run by Professor Xavier.
Depending on where you are at in your life, what your job or family situation looks like, you might feel like a misfit toy or a mutant that is misunderstood.
I want you to know that you’re not alone. This community will welcome you with open arms, and do whatever we can to help you – as long as you are willing to commit to helping yourself too.
We know most people arrive on the proverbial doorsteps of the Nerd Fitness School for Gifted Youngsters with a lot of baggage: a rough upbringing, a shitty home situation, poor genetics, years of bad habits, and mental challenges that need to be overcome. Fighting these battles can be ugly, messy, and scary.
Welcome home, friend.
Although we have 11 official Rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I can simplify things even further.
If you believe or embrace the following, we’re glad to have you:
We don’t care where you came from, only where you’re going. 400 pounds, 100 pounds, male, female, young, old, olympic athlete or newbie. Welcome. I don’t care what got you here, only how we can help you get you where you want to go.
We need to take personal responsibility. We all have baggage and crap we’re dealing with. Nerd Fitness and this community wants to help. It starts by accepting that no matter where you are in life, you and you alone are responsible for taking ownership and responsibility for that (even if it’s not your fault). This means you also already have all the tools and permission you need to change your life!
We don’t say “This doesn’t work for me because [excuse].” Instead, we say “Okay, this is my situation, how can I make this work for me?” It’s easy to take the easy path and decide your problems are unique and unsolvable…we don’t have room for those people! We are looking for people who step up and take the challenge: “Okay, I’m a single mom with 3 kids and 2 jobs and a busted leg…here’s how I can make this advice work for me.”
Play nice. We have a zero-tolerance policy for asshats – our moderators on the boards wield a heavy Ban Hammer 🙂 Remember that we all start somewhere, and that there are different ways to get in shape. We help those that want to be helped, but we don’t force our opinions on somebody that isn’t interested. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean you get to be a jerk. We have no problem telling people “thanks for being here up until now, but you need to find a new community moving forward.”
Ask for help. Whether it’s dealing with a mental illness, feeling silly for being afraid of going to the gym, or worrying about looking foolish when attending your first dance class, this is a community of people you can lean on. You will get out of it what you put into it.
TL:DR – Thank you for being here, for being weird, and for reading this. I hope you continue to be a part of this amazing group of people – in person or just online. Ask for help, and help those that ask.
In other words, come for the push-ups, stay for the feels 🙂
If you already have a NF Facebook group with at least 5 members in it, please leave a comment below with the link to it and what your group represents so others can join!
I’d love to hear from you: what makes you a unique member of Nerd Fitness?
Here’s mine again:
I nerd out passionately about video games, economics, playing music (piano, guitar, and violin), and for some reason think Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” is one of the best songs of the past decade. I read 1-2 books per week. I break out into spontaneous solo dance parties and sing at the top of my lungs in my apartment at least once a week.
I also hit the gym four days a week. I’m working towards a 405 lb deadlift, a 60-second handstand, and can knock out sets of strict ring muscle-ups. I love discussing strength training tactics at the same time as discussing the brilliance of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Your turn. Leave a message in the comments!
See you around the Rebellion!
-Steve
###
all photos courtesy of Will Byington Photography.
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home. published first on http://ift.tt/2kRppy7
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johnclapperne · 7 years
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Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this  
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person.
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have.
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article..
http://ift.tt/2okKTCP
0 notes
albertcaldwellne · 7 years
Text
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this  
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person.
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have.
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article..
http://ift.tt/2okKTCP
0 notes
joshuabradleyn · 7 years
Text
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this  
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person.
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have.
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article..
http://ift.tt/2okKTCP
0 notes
neilmillerne · 7 years
Text
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this  
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person.
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have.
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article..
http://ift.tt/2okKTCP
0 notes
almajonesnjna · 7 years
Text
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this  
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person.
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have.
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article..
http://ift.tt/2okKTCP
0 notes
ruthellisneda · 7 years
Text
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this  
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person.
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have.
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article..
http://ift.tt/2okKTCP
0 notes
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New Post has been published on http://fitnessandhealthpros.com/fitness/calling-all-misfits-and-mutants-welcome-home/
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this 🙂 
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
youtube
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
And here are a few focused on interests:
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies 🙂
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $ 100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. 🙂 If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person. 🙂
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too 🙂
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have. 🙂
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article reader or member of several of our communities – you are welcome here.
And we hope you’ll reach out. Let us know what you are struggling with. Let us know what you love about the community or wish we could offer you in a better way.
You’re never alone
Harry potter lived under a staircase until he found his people at Hogwarts. Rogue struggled with her powers and identity until she discovered there was a school for people like her run by Professor Xavier.
Depending on where you are at in your life, what your job or family situation looks like, you might feel like a misfit toy or a mutant that is misunderstood.
I want you to know that you’re not alone. This community will welcome you with open arms, and do whatever we can to help you – as long as you are willing to commit to helping yourself too.
We know most people arrive on the proverbial doorsteps of the Nerd Fitness School for Gifted Youngsters with a lot of baggage: a rough upbringing, a shitty home situation, poor genetics, years of bad habits, and mental challenges that need to be overcome. Fighting these battles can be ugly, messy, and scary.
Welcome home, friend.
Although we have 11 official Rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I can simplify things even further.
If you believe or embrace the following, we’re glad to have you:
We don’t care where you came from, only where you’re going. 400 pounds, 100 pounds, male, female, young, old, olympic athlete or newbie. Welcome. I don’t care what got you here, only how we can help you get you where you want to go.
We need to take personal responsibility. We all have baggage and crap we’re dealing with. Nerd Fitness and this community wants to help. It starts by accepting that no matter where you are in life, you and you alone are responsible for taking ownership and responsibility for that (even if it’s not your fault). This means you also already have all the tools and permission you need to change your life!
We don’t say “This doesn’t work for me because [excuse].” Instead, we say “Okay, this is my situation, how can I make this work for me?” It’s easy to take the easy path and decide your problems are unique and unsolvable…we don’t have room for those people! We are looking for people who step up and take the challenge: “Okay, I’m a single mom with 3 kids and 2 jobs and a busted leg…here’s how I can make this advice work for me.”
Play nice. We have a zero-tolerance policy for asshats – our moderators on the boards wield a heavy Ban Hammer 🙂 Remember that we all start somewhere, and that there are different ways to get in shape. We help those that want to be helped, but we don’t force our opinions on somebody that isn’t interested. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean you get to be a jerk. We have no problem telling people “thanks for being here up until now, but you need to find a new community moving forward.”
Ask for help. Whether it’s dealing with a mental illness, feeling silly for being afraid of going to the gym, or worrying about looking foolish when attending your first dance class, this is a community of people you can lean on. You will get out of it what you put into it.
TL:DR – Thank you for being here, for being weird, and for reading this. I hope you continue to be a part of this amazing group of people – in person or just online. Ask for help, and help those that ask.
In other words, come for the push-ups, stay for the feels 🙂
If you already have a NF Facebook group with at least 5 members in it, please leave a comment below with the link to it and what your group represents so others can join!
I’d love to hear from you: what makes you a unique member of Nerd Fitness?
Here’s mine again:
I nerd out passionately about video games, economics, playing music (piano, guitar, and violin), and for some reason think Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” is one of the best songs of the past decade. I read 1-2 books per week. I break out into spontaneous solo dance parties and sing at the top of my lungs in my apartment at least once a week.
I also hit the gym four days a week. I’m working towards a 405 lb deadlift, a 60-second handstand, and can knock out sets of strict ring muscle-ups. I love discussing strength training tactics at the same time as discussing the brilliance of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Your turn. Leave a message in the comments!
See you around the Rebellion!
-Steve
###
all photos courtesy of Will Byington Photography.
Originally at :Blog – Nerd Fitness Written By : Steve
#Calling, #Home, #Misfits, #Mutants, #Welcome #Fitness
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fitnetpro · 7 years
Text
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home.
Welcome to the quirkiest, most supportive community on the Internet.
If you consider yourself a nerd, misfit, mutant, oddball, goof, or somebody that doesn’t quite fit the mold, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re interested in living a better life but can’t seem to find others that think the way you do or want the same things you do, I want you to know two things:
You are never alone.
Welcome home.
Whether you’ve been reading this site for a day or 8+ years (hi mom), I appreciate you. Whether you just want to eat better and learn how to do pushups, or you’re interested in deep diving into a community that encourages both healthy and nerdy behavior equally, I’m thankful you’re here.
Actually, the fact that anybody is here is very exciting to me. I started this site in 2008 simply because I couldn’t find anything like it on the internet: a home for nerds that provided no-nonsense, unbiased fitness information. Since then, Nerd Fitness has taken on a life of its own and I couldn’t be more proud of the quality and caliber of the people who embody the NF philosophies and ideals.
This past fall, we had 450 misfits and mutants from 10+ countries attend Camp Nerd Fitness (our big in-person event), and it felt like a giant family reunion. Whether it was people that had been to Camp NF previously, or newbies meeting other members of the community for the first time, it cemented how powerful this community/force-of-nature has become.
People have gotten married as a result of meeting at Camp NF. At least 4 people have the NF logo tattooed on themselves (shout-outs to Amanda M, Chris J, Chris P, and Hannah P). There are 100+ member-led Nerd Fitness groups throughout the world.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a special group of people, and today I want to invite you to get more involved. I know only good things can come of this 🙂 
Welcome home.
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Island of Misfit Toys.
The Nerd Fitness Rebellion?
I started Nerd Fitness as a simple blog back in 2009 – I published articles about push-ups, Star Wars, vegetables, and LEGO, trying my best to help other nerds get started with exercise or eating slightly better. I hoped one day this side-project hobby could become my day job and support me financially so I could focus on it. I never expected it to become a community of people that I would lean on emotionally!
Sure, I absolutely love sharing fitness and nutrition tips, deep diving into topics like The Truth About Belly Fat, How to Get Started in the Gym, or even helping others acknowledge that Being Flawed is a Good Thing.
However, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.
Somebody at Camp NF last year said something that I’ve taken to heart: “Come for the push-ups, stay for the feels.”
We know a lot of people stumble upon Nerd Fitness through an unemotional topic like a Beginner Bodyweight Workout or the Paleo Diet or Intermittent Fasting, but it isn’t just the information that keeps them around: it’s the camaraderie of the community that ends up keeping them here for years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why and how the Nerd Fitness Rebellion became what it is, and I think it’s because we’re all a bunch of weirdos that never get to truly be ourselves.
We often don’t get to nerd out about our favorite nerd things with our work friends. At the same time, we don’t get to be our true selves amongst some of our nerdy friends either! They’re not interested (yet) in getting healthier, and they don’t understand that we can’t start up another game of D&D or Overwatch because we have an early run or workout the next morning.
You might be working on getting in shape, but you’re intimidated by training in a commercial gym full of good looking in-shape people. Maybe you’re sick of getting bombarded with “fitspiration” ads on Instagram that show a genetically flawless person who is promoting supplements or skinny tea or cleanses.
You might feel like you’re on your own island, alone on this journey, with nobody that understands your struggles, supports your passions, and gives you permission to both love yourself AND want more for yourself.
This is what the Nerd Fitness Rebellion (our community name, paying homage to the Star Wars rebel alliance) represents: A place you get to be 100% yourself.
You can debate Star Trek vs Star Wars, discuss which Brandon Sanderson series you like the best, join a crochet group, write fan fiction as a group, or anything in between, and be heralded for your nerdy quirks.
At the same time, you can ask questions about eating better, what to do on a first date, have somebody check your deadlift form, find someone to support you on your quest to run your first 5k, or ask somebody to call you on your excuses and keep you honest!
People joked at Camp NF, after they had crowd-surfed me against my will (all in good fun though), that I had become the accidental leader of an actual cult.
I laughed and shrugged it off, and then I looked around at one group of people training with swords, another group scaling a wall, another breaking boards, another playing board games, and hundreds rocking the Nerd Fitness logo on their chests, cheering for everybody with passion, and I realized something:
We’re not a cult…we’re an army!
An army of passionate people dedicated to helping each other live a happier, healthier life.
And we need your help!
How to get involved with Nerd FItness
“Steve, I read your emails, and I’ve done the bodyweight workout, but this Rebellion thing sounds kind of fun. How do I get involved?”
You might be asking yourself this right now.
That is a fantastic question! Also, you look nice today.
Let me break down the different places you can get more involved and supported by this community.
Free Nerd Fitness Message Boards: We have a free message board community that’s home to tens of thousands of members from all over the planet. We’re lucky to have 40+ volunteer moderators that help keep the community rocking and rolling.
A quick note that your Message Board account is different than the NF Character account you might have made (or you might have if you own one of our products). If you look at the message boards and get overwhelmed, it’s okay! Start here, introduce yourself, and begin sharing your stories and struggles.
Community-Led Facebook Groups: Thanks to the growth of Facebook, although we do have an official Nerd Fitness page and private Facebook groups for each of our paid products or experiences (Camp, Rising Heroes, Academy, Yoga, Rings and Handstands), many community members have taken it upon themselves to set up their own Facebook groups for certain things as well.
Many people in these groups coordinate regular meetups or events, and I cannot tell you how cool that is for me. Here are just SOME of the communities, some based around geographical locations or others based on interests.
Here are just a FEW of the location-based ones:
Austin NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Austin, TX area
Boston NF Adventures: For Rebels living in the Boston, MA area
NF Rebels of California: For Rebels living in California!
NF Rebels – Virginia: Rebels living in the Virginia area
NF Rebels – Wisconsin: The cheeseheads of Nerd Fitness 🙂
NF Rebels of the Pacific Northwest: Rainy Rebels reuniting regularly
NF Rebels of the Southeast: Serving the states of NC, SC, GA, and FL!
NF Rebels – Aussies Unite: For Rebels living in Australia!
NF Rebels – London: Our Rebel friends across the pond 🙂
NF Rebels – Europe: For all members of NF Europe!
And here are a few focused on interests:
Nerd Fitness – LGBTQAI: For members of the LGBTQAI community!
Nerd Fitness – Invisible Illness: For Rebels dealing with illnesses not on the surface
Nerd Fitness – Pokemon Go! Trainers: For Rebels playing Pokemon Go 🙂
NF Rebels – Martial Arts: for Rebels interested in martial arts
The Nerd Fitness Book Club: For Rebels that love to read!
A simple search on Facebook for a city or state and Nerd Fitness should reveal a group you might be on the hunt for!
What’s that? You don’t see a group for your particular special interest or location? Make one! Post a comment on this post, join the Message Boards and let people know you’re starting a group, share it with the community, leave it as a comment in this article, and get your group up and running! It only takes two to tango!
What’s that? You want to host a meet-up? Go for it, and let us know so we can share the details! I know the Austin NF group, the Boston group, Europe, and Aussies get together at least a few times a year, and it’s all community-led.
We hope to be able to support and make these groups and events more official in the future, but for the time being I am so thankful for the men and women and robots that have set up these groups and are embracing the NF Rebellion, hosting events, and facilitating the support. You have my thanks.
Who works for Team Nerd Fitness?
Although Nerd Fitness started as a part-time hobby that I worked on after my day job every night, it’s really become a beast to manage and support.
We now have 9 full-time employees (that live in 9 different states) and a dozen contractors that work all day to improve the experience around here!
You probably know some of them:
Staci Ardison was a community member who found NF at a low point in her life (and chain smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day) and now deadlifts 430 pounds. She also champions our community to the world and encourages women to not be afraid to lift heavy, teaches how to batch cook, and has the cutest dog on the planet. You should probably follow her on Instagram at @StaciArdison if you want to see deadlifts and doggies 🙂
Jim Bathurst taught me how to do handstands and muscle-ups back in 2011. A few years later, I sheepishly asked if he wanted to train our nerds at Camp NF, and then I learned that he’s even nerdier than I am! Since then, Jim has joined the team full time and creates workout experiences and provides expert fitness advice to our communities. He also has an amazing dog named Scooter, and you should follow both Jim (@BeastSkills) and Scooter (@ScooterpomDC).
In addition to those two knuckleheads above, we have a ton of people that operate behind the scenes. From Darryl who does all of our design to Alek who builds all of our websites, Baker who develops our products and coordinates everybody, and Lauren who runs Camp, we also have Noel who is helping take care of people in our monthly adventure Rising Heroes along with making sure our emails make it safely to your inboxes, and Simone who is in charge of Rebel Support.
Along with this full-time team, we also have a dozen contractors and partners that handle everything from HR to bookkeeping to accounting to forecasting to legal to servers to analytics and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff. (All the adult stuff, gross.)
I wanted to share with you these things for a few reasons:
Nearly everybody on Team NF is somebody that started as a community member at Nerd Fitness. They were asked to join the team thanks to their commitment to improving the lives of those around them, doing so just because they wanted to. These are people leveling up their lives too, and their infectious and supportive behavior is what makes them great Team NF Members.
We’re just like you: misfits and oddballs and goofs who are trying to figure out life, fitness, and business. Nerd Fitness has been bootstrapped since day one (my initial investment was $100 to buy a domain and a year of hosting), and our focus is on creating an experience and environment that helps you live better.
Depending on how long you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you might not be aware of some of the following:
1) There are purposefully no ads on Nerd Fitness. Before I started this site, I really struggled to find a fitness website that gave me honest information. Most of them tried to sell me on proprietary workouts (scientists hate this one weird trick!), supplements (fat blaster!), or shamed me into thinking I was unworthy unless I joined their service.
There are no ads on Nerd Fitness because I want you to know the information presented here is unbiased and untainted by advertising dollars.
I have no problems with companies needing to make a living; I just wanted Nerd Fitness to be a safe haven from all of that stuff. If you read something on Nerd Fitness, it’s because we believe in it wholeheartedly, we’ve experimented on ourselves and can share the results, or we’ve seen the strategy work for OUR people (busy nerds who struggle with their health).
This might lead you to ask the question: “Steve, how do you pay 9 people and 12 contractors if there are no ads?”
2) Nerd Fitness builds its own courses and experiences. Nerd Fitness is both a community and a business. We know that probably 95% of people that read this site or join our community will never buy anything we sell, and that’s okay!
At the same time, we have built some damn good products and experiences that have helped tens of thousands of customers dramatically transform their lives.
We know not everybody can afford them, which is why we offer everything else on this site for free and ad-free. We have published 800+ free articles, we have free message boards, encourage free community-led events, and more.
We are confident that the free stuff we offer is better than most people’s paid offerings, and that our paid experiences or products are a better value than anything out there in the fitness space.
In short, we create things that get results for our people. We break down the problems busy nerds have, and create experiences – both digital and in person – that remove all barriers between that person and success.
When we put out something new, we’re going to tell you about it! We believe very strongly that our products are the best in the industry, and that they will get you the results you’re after in the environment you need to succeed – provided you follow the instructions and do the work (which is always the tough part)!
Right now, the things we have for sale:
The Nerd Fitness Academy: Think of this like a digital bootcamp for the first 12 months of your fitness journey. The Academy includes quests, workouts, nutritional plans, and mindset strategies to finally overcome the obstacles of getting in shape.
Rising Heroes: Our monthly habit-building, team-based, story-driven adventure. We open the doors to enlist for a few days each month and take the entire community through an experience that changes based on the actions the group takes or the decisions made from week to week. Doors open again next week for a few days!
Nerd Fitness Yoga: Yoga for people who don’t do yoga. 🙂 If you have a sore back, poor posture, or you just want to finally be able to touch your toes, NF Yoga is your thing. No zen or woo-woo stuff, just fun approachable routines you can follow in the comfort of your home (or download and watch anywhere) with the NF Style you love.
Nerd Fitness Rings and Nerd Fitness Handstands: A beginner’s guide to getting you from doing simple movements to advanced movements like handstands, front levers, and muscle-ups. We built a proprietary leveling system to let you know exactly when to level up for each movement so you always know what to do next.
Camp Nerd Fitness (next Camp in 2018): An in-person, long weekend experience of training, costume parties, gaming, and everything in between. I could try to explain it to you, and this video does a pretty damn good job, but you really have to experience it in person. 🙂
Here’s something super important to know: we don’t think every person should join every single premium experience we offer! We also don’t think they’re courses “that scientists don’t want you to know about!” We don’t build our courses or communities like this.
Instead, we believe this should be a choose-your-own-adventure, and that our courses might be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. Our goal is that anything we build for sale solves a specific set of problems for rebels in a specific situation.
Many people do love the Academy for their mindset, diet, and workout quests – but on their off days love to pop on one of the NF Yoga videos and stretch their sore muscles. It’s great that these work together for many people, but no single course is required for any other.
Obviously we’d love for you to check out the ones that pique your interest; it’s how we keep the lights on. Or don’t! That’s cool too 🙂
3) We’re a small team. We make mistakes! We spend all day every day trying to serve this community better.
This community is everything to me, it’s everything to our team, and I know it’s everything for a lot of people in it.
Every member of this team has the same passion and the same love for serving the Rebellion. We work hard to provide an amazing free community experience AND also be a valuable company that can sustain itself and grow the number of people our message can impact.
We read pretty much every email, facebook comment, thread, discussion, argument and success story that happens in our community.
Some people are fanatical about what we do and how we offer to help people. Other people would prefer that we take a different approach (in slightly less nice terms, ha!). It’s part of having a large, diverse community – and many members feel a BIG stake in the future of the Rebellion (and thus also have passionate opinions). It’s a good problem to have. 🙂
We have big plans to evolve, adapt, improve, change, fail, flop, grow, and learn in the coming years.
We’ll continue to provide free resources on topics that can help nerds around the world live happier, healthy lives. We’ll continue to invest in creating or improving premium experiences that a portion of our community embrace and leverage to get better, more sustainable results.
And we’ll also continue to mess up! And then we’ll continue to lean on the community for advice and suggestions on how to balance being a free, open, supportive community and a sustainable, long-term business.
No matter what your current role in the Rebellion is – new or old, active or passive, occasional article reader or member of several of our communities – you are welcome here.
And we hope you’ll reach out. Let us know what you are struggling with. Let us know what you love about the community or wish we could offer you in a better way.
You’re never alone
Harry potter lived under a staircase until he found his people at Hogwarts. Rogue struggled with her powers and identity until she discovered there was a school for people like her run by Professor Xavier.
Depending on where you are at in your life, what your job or family situation looks like, you might feel like a misfit toy or a mutant that is misunderstood.
I want you to know that you’re not alone. This community will welcome you with open arms, and do whatever we can to help you – as long as you are willing to commit to helping yourself too.
We know most people arrive on the proverbial doorsteps of the Nerd Fitness School for Gifted Youngsters with a lot of baggage: a rough upbringing, a shitty home situation, poor genetics, years of bad habits, and mental challenges that need to be overcome. Fighting these battles can be ugly, messy, and scary.
Welcome home, friend.
Although we have 11 official Rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I can simplify things even further.
If you believe or embrace the following, we’re glad to have you:
We don’t care where you came from, only where you’re going. 400 pounds, 100 pounds, male, female, young, old, olympic athlete or newbie. Welcome. I don’t care what got you here, only how we can help you get you where you want to go.
We need to take personal responsibility. We all have baggage and crap we’re dealing with. Nerd Fitness and this community wants to help. It starts by accepting that no matter where you are in life, you and you alone are responsible for taking ownership and responsibility for that (even if it’s not your fault). This means you also already have all the tools and permission you need to change your life!
We don’t say “This doesn’t work for me because [excuse].” Instead, we say “Okay, this is my situation, how can I make this work for me?” It’s easy to take the easy path and decide your problems are unique and unsolvable…we don’t have room for those people! We are looking for people who step up and take the challenge: “Okay, I’m a single mom with 3 kids and 2 jobs and a busted leg…here’s how I can make this advice work for me.”
Play nice. We have a zero-tolerance policy for asshats – our moderators on the boards wield a heavy Ban Hammer 🙂 Remember that we all start somewhere, and that there are different ways to get in shape. We help those that want to be helped, but we don’t force our opinions on somebody that isn’t interested. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean you get to be a jerk. We have no problem telling people “thanks for being here up until now, but you need to find a new community moving forward.”
Ask for help. Whether it’s dealing with a mental illness, feeling silly for being afraid of going to the gym, or worrying about looking foolish when attending your first dance class, this is a community of people you can lean on. You will get out of it what you put into it.
TL:DR – Thank you for being here, for being weird, and for reading this. I hope you continue to be a part of this amazing group of people – in person or just online. Ask for help, and help those that ask.
In other words, come for the push-ups, stay for the feels 🙂
If you already have a NF Facebook group with at least 5 members in it, please leave a comment below with the link to it and what your group represents so others can join!
I’d love to hear from you: what makes you a unique member of Nerd Fitness?
Here’s mine again:
I nerd out passionately about video games, economics, playing music (piano, guitar, and violin), and for some reason think Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” is one of the best songs of the past decade. I read 1-2 books per week. I break out into spontaneous solo dance parties and sing at the top of my lungs in my apartment at least once a week.
I also hit the gym four days a week. I’m working towards a 405 lb deadlift, a 60-second handstand, and can knock out sets of strict ring muscle-ups. I love discussing strength training tactics at the same time as discussing the brilliance of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Your turn. Leave a message in the comments!
See you around the Rebellion!
-Steve
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all photos courtesy of Will Byington Photography.
Calling all Misfits and Mutants: Welcome Home. published first on http://ift.tt/2kRppy7
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