As I reflect back on this weekend’s Emerald Cup, I can’t help but focus on the most asked question, “How many competitors do you have here?”

When we replied with “Just one” the excitement on people’s faces dulled slightly as they politely ended the conversation. This happens with fellow coaches, other competitors, and just your average spectators.

QUANTITY IS BEST, OR IS IT?

The assumption always seems to be that quantity is where it’s at.

I get it. If I’m scouting out the best place to eat, and spot a parking lot filled to the brim, I am going to assume the place is pretty tasty. When I see one with a few cars in it, my first thought is it’s just not that great so that’s why the lot isn’t full.

Ironically those little dive burger joints and holes in the wall are typically where you will find the best food you’ve ever had. Did you ever wonder why? That is some small business owner’s pride and joy! They love what they do and they are going to do it to the best of their ability even if there aren’t packed seats.

It’s about a quality product.

I miss out in that sense because my stomach wants what everyone else is having. So it’s not until after my mediocre meal that I read some review on the mom and pop operation and find out that it was AMAZING fare that I wouldn’t find anywhere else.

(Pictured: our client 2019 Emerald Cup Bikini Overall Champion Jessica Roy)

QUALITY FOCUSES ON DETAILS, AND DETAILS WIN

What do family owned restaurants have to do with physique coaching?

Since we don’t deal in numbers and we deal in real people, we operate with the same mindset. We LOVE what we do and we LOVE watching you grow. Our families are even invested in you because you become part of ours. When numbers are kept low we can give you all of us and that’s what it takes to build a quality physique. The kind that wins championships.

When the focus is filling the stage with bodies, and it is a numbers game (bodies and money), a crucial element gets lost. Just think about this for a moment. Have you ever been spread so thin that you could only half ass all the projects you had going on so that you could at least meet deadlines? Most of us have…there is only so many hours in a day. But better to finish somehow than to let something go undone, right?

Actually no. Not here. Not with Team USA Physique.

We believe it is better to limit your projects and ensure that you can be hyper focused on all of the minutiae and produce the highest quality product possible. This applies to projects around the house. Or food that you’re cooking for guests and work efforts you take on. And in our case, it applies to the clients we bring into our fold.

Mass production works well for inanimate objects like t-shirts or dishes not people who are as different as night and day. I find that people don’t do well in a mass production sort of environment. Time management is great. Automation makes the world go round. Making money is nice. But being able to make a profound impact on an individual person?  That’s something that can’t be had in a “throw ‘em at the wall and see what sticks” kind of scenario.

When you can focus on the few, rather just glimpse at the many, you can find that diamond in the rough, smooth out the rough edges, and allow it to do what it does best…SHINE! And in a sport where details matter and can be the difference in 1st place and third call-outs…quality will win in the end.

So yes. We just had the one…the perfect representation of today’s Bikini Competitor, an Elite Physique. The one that put the work in, day and night. She fought through all the blood, sweat and tears and never gave an inch. Sick…she showed up. Tired…she showed up. Hurt…she showed up. And we saw it all as she had an entire team (including 3 coaches…Chet, Eric and myself) supporting her. Invested in her. Devoted to her success. And feeling with her.

It was her win. It was our win. And it was worth it. Any athlete willing to put their everything into this sport deserves nothing less.

Find your people and you will be amazed at the obstacles that you can overcome together.

And what about that “one” person we had that people wanted to brush off? Well, Jessica…our “one” and only client at the largest NPC show in the Pacific Northwest, our family, was the only “one” standing on the stage having won the Overall Bikini Championship. And I have seldom been so proud.

Imagine that. Quality won…again!