Bevan James Eyles is one of the world’s leading fitness instructors. He has won awards for his work in the industry, he became an Ironman triathlete, and started New Zealand’s #1 running training business. He talks to NZ Booklovers.
Tell us a little about I Will Make You Passionate About Exercise?
This is a fitness book for people that aren’t exercising or who struggle with it - it’s not a book for fit people. The aim of this book is to safely and wisely guide those that aren’t exercising learn how to not only bring it into their lives but to develop a lifetime love of it, so they are fitter, healthier and experience all the benefits that regular exercise can bring to your life.
It’s designed to guide these people through a journey where they learn the right lessons, both physically and mentally, at the right time so they build the framework to successfully have exercise in their lives for the long-term.
What inspired you to write this book?
Around 2008 I was an award winning fitness instructor that got confronted by a hard truth. I wasn’t helping people who weren’t exercising and I actually didn’t know how to. This moment led me to start a total beginner running group. While at first I failed in helping these people, I stuck at it and eventually figured out how to create massive shifts for people who are brand new to exercise and for many fearful of it.
After 10 years of successfully working with beginner runners I wanted to help more people, so I decided to write this book. I wanted to take all of the lessons I had learnt and create a model that could help anyone love exercise.
My mission in life is to get as many people moving as possible and this book has been a passion project that can hopefully help me achieve my mission.
What research was involved?
While I’m an avid reader and always learning, most of the lessons in this book come from working with real people going through the beginner experience. Since we started our beginner running group, we have trained over 4000 people to go from doing absolutely nothing to achieving fitness goals, with a 90% success rate. Through learning from these people I’ve gained deep insights into the hurdles they face each step of the way and how they can overcome these. This experience has taught me what lessons I need to give to people at each stage and how to wisely guide them through this often challenging journey.
What was your routine or process when writing this book?
The whole process has been about a two year process. The first year, I treated it like a part time job, each week I would schedule in 5-10 hours of development, thought and writing. I started by breaking down the lessons people need to learn, then developed the framework for the book, then I spent time developing the stories and lessons. Once I had all of this in place I got to the actual writing. I made sure I used good time management and focus tools so that each week the project was progressing. After 12 months I had this stage finished. The second year was about production and working on our business model. On the book side of things we worked with Mary Egan Publishing, who I highly recommend. They make sure the product was produced to the highest standard. I have also created an online course that sits on top of the book so a lot of time went into the creation of that and from there, it was all of the other bits, like websites, the creation of the e-book, audiobook and so on.
If a soundtrack was made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.
Tough question, nothing instantly comes to mind but if there’s a song about believing in people that would be the one.
What did you enjoy the most about writing this book?
I hope this will actually come in the future. In my career I’ve been lucky to help a lot of people create massive change and for this reason I often get amazing emails from people talking about the impact my work has had on them, and how it’s changed them in powerful ways. Receiving this type of feedback is the best reward of my work. I hope that in the next period of time I receive messages like this about this book.
What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?
At this stage we haven’t done anything but I think that my wife, Jo and I will go out for a nice dinner as she’s been a massive part of this project.
What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?
I’ll give you two. For non fiction I highly recommend Chatter by Ethan Kross. He gives you a brilliant tool to help you with the voice in your head. And for fiction, while I haven’t finished it yet I’m really enjoying Two Nights In Lisbon by Chris Pavone.
What’s next on the agenda for you?
Making the book a success. The book is doing amazingly well in this first stage and massively exceeding our first goals but I know that the real work happens when the initial hit stops. From here we’ll go into stage two of our plan, which is about getting more people to get the book, which ultimately means we’ll get more people moving.
Mary Egan Publishing