Dylan Rose Fitness: Interview #2

The rise of bodybuilding has been delicately intertwined with the rise of photo-based social media. Get on your Instagram and go to your explore page or even to your personal newsfeed and you’ll see countless inspirational quotes and posts that are masked as promotional pieces. They show us that amazing aesthetics are no longer something of myth that are only obtained by the Arnolds of the world, but that there is in fact a fitness and meal plan for everyone out there. Saying that physique social media accounts are a flooded market would be an understatement. Just like any other social media market, there are ways to separate from the white noise. One young up and coming bodybuilder is defining the path to success by such a simple method that it shocks me that more people aren’t doing the same.

Enter Dylan Rose, a 22-year-old from the greater Nashville area. His obsession with physical fitness and mental discipline started on the soccer pitch, slowly crafting his skill to become an on-field general. Little by little, Dylan climbed his way up from youth recreational teams to become a premier college athlete. He has always believed that playing soccer was his call in life growing up, but as of late he has transformed his destiny by embracing his passions outside of the beautiful game.

Dylan defines success as the ability to be content with what you have, while also knowing that you always have the potential to grow as a person. This mindset has lead him to his new-found bodybuilding career. He began taking his personal fitness more seriously as his collegiate soccer career slowed down, making sure that he could continue his athletic career elsewhere. After a while, he noticed gains with his physique and other people did as well.

People wanted his personal advice and opinions regarding their fitness. The inquiries became so numerous that the only way to keep up with everything was to create a sort of visual blog through social media accounts. Dylan’s Instagram account has been the most successful, with over 8,000 followers in 6 months. The growth of his account was slow at first, with only his friends and young bodybuilding friends keeping up with his advice and inspirational pieces. During his work, he came to realize that people were most intrigued by the relatable content he posted. He decided to focus on that.

Most of his followers were not truly visiting his social media accounts to see how big or defined his body was, but rather to see how his process was going. That was the key to gaining a dedicated following: being a realistic and relatable source in which people could look for encouragement in their own fitness process. The market of physique social media accounts is flooded with post-success individuals. Users are saturated with people that have gained incredible results that are seemingly unattainable, leaving them with a sense of disconnect. This is where Dylan’s Instagram sets itself apart. He creates an interactive bond with his followers by making sure they know that he struggles daily and has to overcome the simplest of things just like them.

One of the most important things Dylan learned from his soccer career was the incredible ROI of teamwork. He applied the same sort of team significance to his bodybuilding platforms, inviting other young physique pages to become a part of a loosely held team which allowed for them to grow together. They can connect with each other over the simplest of issues from physique plateaus to creating a community of people that genuinely care about helping people reach their full fitness-potential. Yes, this is sort of a dry cliché; but often success lies within those clichés we experience daily. This community that he and his fellow young bodybuilders have created has allowed for them to grow together and yield positive results for their users, which is their primary goal. Dylan’s realization that social media doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game embodies that he isn’t a mean guy, and that’ll do him and his brand well in the future.

Dylan wants to use his future social media success to bring an extremely affordable fitness brand to his dedicated consumers. He preaches that he wants to make sure his followers aren’t just numbers, but rather people that he can help every single day, and his business plans reflect that. His future fitness brand will give average joes the ability to transform into their ideal bodies through personalized workouts and meal plans while dressing the part all under his company’s brand. This seems massively unscalable, which is why I think it has such promise.

Every single one of his followers can message Dylan directly and get insight into the fitness world, and this has become an immensely consuming trait of his account. The amount of inquiries seems to grow almost directly with the growth of his follower base, and that will become a point of contention for his brand growth. If he is able to combat the issues of scalability and create a system where every one of his followers can still reach out to him personally, he will continue to grow at an obscene rate.

Not only will his personal connection with his followers lead to even more of followers in the future, but this will also create an absurdly dedicated base for him to create his brand under. People will become so intimately involved with his brand, they will feel comfortable enough to give their genuine feedback as how Dylan can better his products. He will have an arsenal of resources eagerly wanting to make their immersive community that much better, and that sort of relationship with his followers is utterly priceless.

What surprised me most about the conversation I had with Dylan was his lack of a business approach to his whole bodybuilding career. He knew that eventually he wanted to do something to expand what he currently has going, but he didn’t know what exactly. At first, this was sort of off-setting and seemed as if he was not focused on the future. That isn’t the case at all. Dylan doesn’t truly have to think in a big picture way for what he is doing with his bodybuilding community. He simply is providing a thorough service for everyday people crafted by an everyday person in himself; and as his craft is becoming more honed daily, his product that his followers are receiving is as well.

He isn’t approaching this as a business, because for him it’s not. It’s just a passion that is slowly transforming into something great. The fact that he doesn’t view it as a business means that his followers believe the same thing. They aren’t buying into this physique industry but rather they are buying into the story of Dylan Rose and how he can help them. When he transforms his social media accounts from an extremely helpful community to a more monetary driven lifestyle brand, his intimate customer service and overall good will is what is going to set him apart from the white noise in his sector. People crave feeling like people again, it’s as simple as that. We are all made out to be numbers on a follower list, unique users per month, likes on a post; and it’s refreshing to see someone taking the proper care to make sure his followers have their voices heard and their opinions validated.

I see Dylan Rose’s social media accounts transforming into a unique lifestyle brand, which allows everyday people who are concerned about their fitness levels connect with a personal consultant to craft a well-balanced diet plan and workout regimen that is unique  to their daily lives. I see a brand where people are interactive, from comments on social media posts, to actually seeing someone in the gym and being able to connect over a T-shirt with his brand on it. I see a dedicated following that spreads their experiences with his brand daily, from Instagram tags to explaining their diet to their questioning partners. The potential is seemingly endless if Dylan stays to his truest of core value: treat others how you want to be treated--how simple it is yet how rare it is in today’s business environment.

Keep up with Dylan’s progress on his Instagram and Snapchat @dylanrosefit. Be sure to follow him if you want personal advice on your fitness or diet plan. Help him grow his community today.

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-Memento Mori