Hanging out in the muscle dude section

A month or so ago, Matt won five free personal training sessions at the Monon Center. Matt didn’t particularly need those sessions - the gym is his second home, and he seems to think exercise is a fabulous pastime. Me, on the other hand, could use a jump start. Matt set me up with a trainer, who designed a personal exercise program for me. 

A confession - I don’t particularly love the gym. I don’t play well in exercise classes, and I feel uncomfortable when I have to mix up my exercise machine order because someone’s hogging the leg crunch machine. Then my trainer takes it a step further by designing an exercise program that involves spending time in the free weight section of the gym. You know exactly what I’m talking about - it’s the place where mostly guys congregate to lift really big weights. The  trainer expects me to venture into that area and work out alongside the muscle dudes. He claims the muscle dudes don’t care that I’m in their section. They’re not going to the locker room and saying, “Hey, did you see that pudgy gray-haired lady in our section?” (If the gym is anything like the job market, they probably don’t even see the gray-haired lady, because age often renders us invisible, I fear.) But, my fear of disappointing the trainer outweighs my fear of the muscle dudes, so I am dutifully hitting the muscle dude side of the gym.

I think I’m hitting the muscle dude portion of my job search. Applying for Linked In jobs isn’t cutting it. According to some amazing people in my network, it’s time to start approaching people directly, giving them my elevator pitch and asking them where I fit in their organization. This is a lot harder than hanging out with the muscle dudes. I’ll take muscle dudes over cold calling anytime.

I’m asking my network to pretend they’re my personal trainer this week. Tell me I can do this. Tell me your personal elevator pitches and how you became comfortable with them. Tell me about the times you took a risk and succeeded. Hold me accountable.  I appreciate you.