** editors note, I don’t know what is with wordpress sometimes….this post is now 24 hours into trying to be published. I hope it is this time**
When is it time to say enough is just e-freaking-nough?? (Sure the language is not as cantankerous as possible but we have to have some family decorum. Like it or don’t.)
So I am on today about people who push themselves to be “Guru’s” in their field. Now I know that this is the idea behind muchof the business we are in with blogging and product creation. We have to make people respect us and want to pay for our opinions on things. That is fine, go forth and create. Just don’t fill us with bull crap along the way.
Now, this will make my wife mad but here is what has been bugging me. Jillian Freaking Michaels. Now it doesn’tmatter what her real qualifications are, she has set herself up to be the know-all, be-all of fitness and training. Now I am not saying that this necessarily a bad thing. That is what we are trying to do. But there are extremes.
Ms. Michaels is just about EVERYWHERE now. She is on 2 TV shows, has food supplements, a web site, a ton of fitness equipment and video games. All geared toward making you feel bad about yourself. I mean getting a person to lose weight because in her world, if you are not like her, you are a fat pig.
I guess what has really gotten me going about her is the smug, airbrushed, windblown poses that grace every product she puts her grimy name on. I was listening to one of her radio show podcasts at the insistence of my wife and there was a caller who was on saying how she worshipped Jillian Michaels and how she was the best ever and how the sun rose and set in her pants, blah blah blah.
This is the problem I have with “guru’s”. People get so star struck with the “big” names that they forget to be their own person. That is a future Coots lesson by the way.
My biggest issue, just sticking your name on anything associated with your niche is not necessarily a good thing and tends to dilute credibility. True cantankerosity comes when you can say, “Screw it, I am doing what I want and you can take all of this superfluous crap and shove it.”
Take hold of your stuff. Make something great and quit trying to prove how great you are by branding everything you can think of. The first Jillian Michaels jock strap that I see….somebody dies.
Now, go do something useful.
-Justin
I am blissfully ignorant about Jillian Michaels but in her favor, you have to respect someone who can have such an impact.
that is the damndest thing about it, she (or her people) are very good at promoting her as a brand. She is a huge brand right now, everywhere. I still don’t have to like it
Or you could live n a bubble as I apparently do.
Justin,
That is one driving force for COC. We are the anti-gurss!
Oh, thank God some one had the courage to rant out about Jillian Michaels!Thank you!!!!!!!!! She is very self centered and egotistical- I don’t care what her brand is. Or her “guru-ness”! I hear all the time-experts this, experts that whether it is on a news report or on an online article without establishing any credibility. The worse thing is that nobody ever calls them on it.
Glad we could entertain you Anne, even now, a year and a half since this post was first written it holds true. We here at the Coots feel it is our duty to call out society and experts as they may be called. We welcome your voice to not be a sheep and say what you think!