|
SEMINAR COMMENTS
"I want to sincerely thank you again for the outstanding, highly-motivational seminar you put on in Bellevue, Washington. My name is Terry Doulas, and I want to suggest again that you consider springboarding your bodybuilding endeavors towards motivational speaking. I believe what I told you today, that Anthony Robbins has NOTHING on you, my friend. I will be hanging up an enlarged copy of the picture my friend took of us shaking hands in my own gym, where I've been training many others for 2 1/2 years now. I've found in my aerospace machining business that knowing your business is only one key to becoming successful. It has to be coupled with the ability to communicate with your audience in a way that helps them identify with you. Your success in competing against other bodybuilders is obvious. I believe your ability to communicate puts you in a class with few other competitors. From what I saw today, I believe your "gift" is in helping people. I am an admirer of Bill Phillips of EAS, not because of his supplements, not because of his talent in business, but because he has put it all together to help so many tens of thousands of regular people to get up and come alive again. I believe you will have that same impact as time goes on. All the best to you, Skip. Keep up the great work." Terry Doulas "Firstly, I just want to congratulate you on everything that you've done for the sport of bodybuilding. In my mind, there is nothing more for you to achieve as you've done it all and are a true athlete—the best of the best. Not only are you my inspiration in bodybuilding, you are my role model too. One of the highlights in my bodybuilding career was meeting you earlier this year and having my photo taken with you on your visit down under to Australia. I bought a photo of you that day and that photo now hangs on the wall above my bed. Every time I look at it, it is a reminder to me of the reward that is available to each and everyone of us if we are willing to dedicate and commit ourselves to what we truly believe in and want to achieve in our lives. In Sydney, when you got up on stage and spoke to the audience you said that if your life as a bodybuilder could be used to inspire and help just one person in the audience to recognize and achieve their goals, then you'd have done what you set out to do. I honestly believe I was that person whose life you inspired that day. I have made a promise to myself and to you as well to achieve my goals which are to stay drug free and compete in a bodybuilding competition. I believe I have the right mentality to do well and maybe even win a few competitions, but just to get up on stage and be competitive would mean achieving my goal. I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, Skip, for stirring the pot in side me and setting me on a path to achieving my goals." Hadley Fredericks "I attended your seminar at VPI&SU in Blacksburg, VA. Since then, I have started to take my workouts more seriously and pay attention to my food/supplement intake. I added 20 pounds to my bench in the first month after hearing you. This is after nearly a decade without significant gains. You are the real deal." Robert Wade Bess "I was recently in Barron, WI to watch a bodybuilding competition in which you were the guest speaker and guest poser. I think it was really an inspiration for everyone to see someone like yourself who is definitely in the right mental mind-frame to be a natural bodybuilder. Your information was incredible and I am even more encouraged to Think Big and improve myself every day by living up to the words of a true champion! Thanks again, Skip, for everything at the seminar and for signing my Thinking Big book that I purchased. I will take advantage of it the information in the book." Jon Huehn "I appreciated your focus on belief system rather than strategies and gimmicks. Achieving anything in life has much more to do with one’s belief and drive. Most people were probably looking for specific answers to their training but you focused instead on the fact that everyone has to first look inside themselves and determine their mindset or paradigm. Keep going after what you are passionate about. Thanks again. Nice job! Joel Roberts "I attended your seminar and guest posing at the Barron Power and Grace show. I wanted to thank you for coming up. I got so much out of your seminar. You really targeted the problem area that I didn't even know I had. I went in thinking that I was going to get another form and nutrition counseling (which I also need, but....) I came out so juiced I could hardly sleep that night. I know the crowd was small, but you had a profound effect on us. If anyone will help keep natural bodybuilding alive, its people like you. Thanks a million." Matthew T. Schroeder "The seminar and guest posing were awesome and inspiring! You asked me if I thought that you looked bigger in photographs than in person, but I think that you looked bigger in person! You really inspired Jason and myself to take our training and belief structures to the next level!" Jeremy Guenther "I realize you are a busy man. If you don't get time to read this I totally understand. I just wanted to thank you for being such an inspiration to my husband. I'm a personal trainer, and I still don't get him motivated the way you do. We attended one of your seminars in Ft. Worth Texas on May 8, 1999. I must say I was very impressed. You are totally dedicated and so down to earth. My husband Derek is preparing for a contest. I'm training him, but you make my job so much easier with your motivational tips. I also wanted to thank you for taking a picture with my husband and I at Ft. Worth. I doubt you remember us, but I wanted to thank you anyway. Of course the picture didn't come out, but that was really nice of you. I just wanted to let you know that you are reaching people. Thanks for everything. Good Luck in your future contests." Shelly Robertson "Primarily, I wanted to thank you for the inspiring words that you gave at the seminar at the Southwest Natural this weekend. It was a great honor for me to listen to you and the great things that you were saying. Incidentally, I am part of the Optimum Fitness Committee. As a matter of fact, I stood next to you while you gave the seminar. Skip, one of the first comments that you addressed to the audience was that you wanted to touch one person. You also wanted to hear from them in letter form a year from now on the way that maybe you made a difference in their lives. What if you touch a person the same day? You see Skip, I also have a VH1 story. I can truly understand what you went through and what you stand for. I just wanted to tell you how our sport has made me see and feel about things differently in the last 8 years. I will rewind a little to my childhood years. I grew up here in Texas and as you may have heard, Texas has bad weather. I am asthmatic and growing up with asthma was difficult for me. I can remember one summer being hospitalized almost two months straight out of a three month summer vacation. My asthma kept me from doing sports all through life. Because I feared having an asthma attack, sports for me were forbidden. I remember in my middle school years trying out for various teams (basketball, baseball, track) and making the team and then turning around and quitting the team before the first game for fear and embarrassment of having an asthma attack on the court or field. So in high school, I never tried out for any teams. I was not fat or anything, but my esteem was somewhat lower than my friends because they did what I could only dream of doing. At nineteen, I was married. We were very happy, as a married couple should be. I started college a year later. I was lucky because at Baylor University I got the opportunity to be the aquatics director. Skip, this was hard for me because even though I had keys to every door (football team weight room, track, and Olympic size swimming pool), my fear of having an asthma attack still lingered. I was determined then to beat the beast within. So I went to the store and bought every bodybuilding magazine that I could find. I studied these magazines and pictures diligently. I trained with the workouts the magazines suggested to the best of my ability. It made me feel good about myself because my genetics quickly showed me what weight training could do for me. My wife then quickly developed leukemia. She died when I was close to graduating. I was devastated! She was gone in four months. I was a widower at 25 years old. I thought to myself, no one is supposed to be a widower at 25. Some people are just barely finding themselves. I looked within and decided to keep working out. I was determined to beat my physical disease and the devastating loss of my wife. I didn't know then, what supplements to take, how much or how often. For crying out loud I didn't know what HMB was much less how to spell it. It took me a year to beat the beast within. In that time, I learned how to run a mile, swim a mile and my physique and esteem were increasing each and everyday. So I know and understand the things that you were talking about. I mean as you were standing there, I pictured myself giving the same speech. Now I feel like a champion every time I step into the gym. Even though there is nothing glamorous about sweating like a pig on the stepmill, I know that I am doing some good. I too compete in various local shows here in Texas. I do it for the glory of doing so and the pictures because to me it is recorded history. Skip, thanks for telling me I am doing the right thing! You signed my Think Big book and even though I too have all my short and long term goals written down, it was nice to see that you stood by the same concepts and ideas. Robert Vela "I attended your seminar in Ft. Worth a couple of days ago. I thought it was very good for me being a natural bodybuilder. I just wanted to thank you for the weekly motivational tips on the Internet...it really makes a difference on what I do in the gym and how I re-analyze things when they are going right and wrong. Thank you!" Vin "My wife and I just wanted to say thanks for a GREAT seminar and guest posing. I am in the Air Force and we came from Portugal to see you. It was well worth the trip. You said during the seminar that someone would tell you a year from now that you changed their life. Well, you don't have to wait quite that long. Your articles, books, and now that seminar have changed mine. You have provided me with the motivation and mindset I have been sorely lacking. I was always one of those thousands of people that would go to the gym regularly only to get discouraged and not return for long periods of time. Thanks to you, all that has changed. I am even thinking of competing later this year or early next year. Thanks for taking the time to have a picture taken with my wife and I. I planned to hang it in our house for motivation but it didn't come out. They could have thrown away the other 26 pictures on the roll in exchange for that 1. Maybe next time. We also wanted to say you looked awesome! You are even bigger in person. Just a year ago, I would have said your size wasn't possible without drugs! You are an inspiration to drug-free bodybuilders everywhere. You were even more down to earth and approachable than I imagined. Thanks for a wonderful seminar. Anyone who didn't attend really missed out." Derek and Shelly Robertson "I saw you last Saturday night in Ft. Worth. My decision to go to the show was a last minute decision. All I knew was that it was a "Natural" competition...nothing else. I was more concerned with finding the auditorium...much less anything else. I had seen you in various publications and you looked great! You've become one of my icons! I did not even know you were going to be there. It was not until intermission when I was walking around...looking at the table with the photos...looked down and saw your 8x10's...looked up...saw you...looked back down at the prints...and just thought to myself "DAMN!". There you were! I had to laugh at myself. It was great to see you there! I am still laughing at myself over it. I will be competing on May 29th in Arlington in the SW USA Masters and Novice (middle weight). It will be my first attempt. I will also do the Ronnie Coleman two weeks after that. I am expecting the Masters trophy...and REALISTICALLY expecting to be, at best, a finalist in the Novice class. I already know some of my competition in the Novice ...and it is stiff. I am still not giving up the dream though! I've taken enough of your time here. Again, it was a great surprise to see you there Saturday…(I am completely shaved as well...one of the reasons I identified with your pictures so well.") Glenn Britt "13 or 14 months ago, I attended your seminar in Blacksburg, VA (VA Tech). Today at 27 years old I am about to enter my first contest. A year ago I would have never dreamed it possible, but here it is. I remember in the beginning of the seminar several people got up and walked out. They were expecting the typical 'I do this many sets of this exercise for this body part' and 'One of my secrets to building great arms is ...' . They were disappointed and they left. Well, I stayed and it couldn't have made a bigger impact on me. I was the reason I had not reached my bodybuilding goals! Not my genetics or my lack of training and nutritional knowledge. You made me realize that. I bought your book, read it, performed the exercises in it, and also read some of the other books you had suggested. My family members and friends have told me how different I am from before. The way I look and act, all in the positive sense. I now have many people that I look to for information, inspiration, and advice in addition to yourself. The thing I want you to realize is that you, Skip LaCour, were the catalyst. I hope you can realize the magnitude of that for me. Please continue to do what you do for others, as I will try to do the same as by your example. Scott Ludwig
|