Big-Butt Frankkie Personal Training & Nutrition™

Several years ago, I had a longtime client-friend who I trained early in the morning, like I often do in my profession. She used to playfully tease me all the time that I had a 'big butt', so then one day she just started calling me 'Big-Butt Frankkie.'  I told her that it was just naturally big, I guess, and doing a lot of heavy barbell squats just made it even bigger lol.

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So on the previous night of her next morning training session, I decided to do something funny and a little risque to play a joke with her. Somehow I mustered up the courage, and I took a photo/selfie of my 'big' naked butt in the mirror, and made a business card on my computer, just for her, with that picture on it (this is the same exact photo on the 'Original Logo' - #2 version of the kitchen magnets that I give out for free), along with all my other regular business information. I then put, 'Big-Butt Frankkie Personal Training & Nutrition' as my business name at the top; at the time it was simply called, 'Frankkie Rizzo Personal Training & Nutrition.'

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Well, that next morning I had the new funny business card all prepared to present to her. When I met her at the gym bright and early, after a few minutes, I said, “what do you think of my new business name and logo,” and then handed her the card. She took one look at it and literally fell to the floor laughing, holding her stomach for at least five minutes – I actually thought she was going to die laughing, and that we would never get to her training session that morning, haha.

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She finally was able to catch her breath and asked me if that was really a photo of me, and I told her yes, I took it that same morning just for her special business card.  Then she said, "That's the funniest thing ever, but you know, you should TOTALLY go with it! Plus you have a great looking big butt so nobody should mind!" I laughed, then immediately answered, “What?? I'm not going to do that, I'm a professional, and people will think bad of me and tell me that I'm a pervert or something! But thanks for the compliment.” She responded, “Who cares what some people will think, because it will grab attention, and you'll end up getting more customers because of that.” I still told her, no I can't do that, and laughed again.

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Then a few months later, I was trying to come up with some new marketing plans to acquire more client-trainees, and what she said just stuck in my head. Then something came over me, so I just said the heck with it, I'm going to go for it and see how it works, because sometimes you just need to take risks to get ahead. I always believe in the motto, “You'll never know unless you try.” To start, for my logo, I actually used that same exact photo I took for her a couple of months prior, and then changed my business name accordingly. Well, if you believe it, she was TOTALLY RIGHT, and my business tripled in about two months; so as they say, the rest is history lol.

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As you have probably guessed, I do catch some slack for it from time to time because it's something you don't see every day from a fitness professional, but the number of new prospects I intrigue as a result of it's 'attention grabbing' factor, far outnumbers the ones who shun upon it, which is exactly like my client predicted. Needless to say, it was the greatest move I've ever made with my business so far. It's really crazy how some things happen when you're not planning it, and even totally expecting opposite results. So my advice to anyone is to put aside your fears, don't worry about what people might think, and just GO for it in life!

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I hope you enjoyed this story, and that it brightened your day in some way with a little laughter.  Maybe it even shed some light as a life-lesson that could be of benefit someday in the future. Thanks for reading. 

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~Frankkie Rizzo

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