- Welcome back you beautiful people.
Do you know I get asked this question a hell of a lot.
And that is, how do you become pro?
How do you do the thing you love the most as a job?
Well, you know what, today's your lucky day.
I am going to give you an outline,
a blueprint as such,
on how I become pro.
Follow me.
(upbeat music)
The earlier you start riding bikes,
the better you're going to get if you stick with it.
Simple, but it helps.
The simplest way to explain this
just riding loads.
The more you ride, the more you learn.
And in effect, the better you get.
Progression is the name of the game.
Concentrate on what you what.
If it's dirt jumping, downhill, XC,
enduro, road cycling, anything.
But the main thing is you're having fun
in what you're doing.
'Cause that's going to fill you and your career.
(upbeat music)
(brakes screeching)
So you're running like, so much
and you want to get to the next stage.
How are you going to do that?
How are you going to progress your skills?
I'll show you how.
Getting noticed is always good to showcase your skills.
Getting yourself out there on social media
filming a few cool video clips, putting them together,
to make a rad edit would always be a good idea.
By this point, you're probably thinking,
man this is such hard work.
Why in the hell do I have to keep doing this?
Yes, yes, yes, it is going to be hard,
like I said in the beginning,
you want a good foundation to build your career.
Building your reputation and getting yourself out there,
will help you get noticed in the cycling world,
which in favor will draw attention to bike brands
and you'll be on their radar, which is a good thing.
Again, this is just you having fun on your bike.
(brakes screeching)
All right, when it comes to filming a video
for social media, you don't have to go out there
and hire a big camera to film a video.
All you need to do, is film it on one of these.
This, you carry with you all the time.
And the camera quality on now a day phones are insane.
You can get a lot out of it.
I know a few UK athletes,
and athletes abroad wherever you are,
have made a career just by getting their friends
to film them on their mobile phone,
quickly edit together,
check it on social media.
gets lots of views, everything like that,
and start to get noticed that way.
That's if you don't like contests,
you become a social media star.
(upbeat music)
Competition time.
If you're competitive and entering a few events
to get results, will help you climb that career ladder
to become a pro.
Now, there are two ways that you can do this.
And that is find out what local events you have in your area
and enter them.
Small events are a great way to gain experience
before you hit up the biggest ones out there.
Hell, if I want to get sponsored and get my free bike,
I need to enter a pro.
So I entered my first competition
and I was the underdog and I came up on top.
I got third place behind Sam Pilgrim at the time
and basically the next time I got to the next event,
I picked up my first sponsorship.
But, that's in dirt jumping.
When it comes to cross country or road cycling
or anywhere else, you have to go through the categories
to get points to get to where you need to be.
Hell, that's how Neil did it.
He had to work his way up through the categories
to get points to get to category one,
to become a professional.
With everything braced, (cheering)
filmed, and you've got the results,
you'll find a few brands knocking at your door
with a few deals in their hand.
Just remember, when you sign on that dotted line,
yes you, it's just the beginning.
(upbeat music)
Just because you got a deal,
you can't sit back and relax.
You got to think twice.
(upbeat music)
You got to keep doing it.
Yes, that's you I'm talking
to with your feet up on the desk.
Get out of there!
(bicycle chain moving)
(brakes screeching)
But you can't live just on free products.
There's a number of other steps
within the process for you to get to the top.
And once this is all going on, you're learning.
You're learning marketing, sales, people skills,
planning, filming, all of that's going on,
and you didn't even know it.
And just because you just want to have fun
on your bike at the end of the day.
But it does come with a little hardship.
At the start you might just be getting product only,
which is great, and it's a big help when it comes
to breaking a few parts on your bike.
You can replace them with free ones,
without digging into your own pocket and paying for them.
But, all of this is not free.
It has to come out of someone's pocket
at the end of the day.
You got to make sure you got to keep your sponsors happy
because you got to make sure
that you're a good investment for them.
So keep on doing what you're doing.
At the end of the day,
you're there because you love it.
You're in the right frame of mind.
You are passionate and you want to embrace those emotions
to push forward to get what you want to achieve
at the end of the day.
And that is, making your goal mountain biking
or whatever sport you're in.
Now it brings me back again
to having fun on your bike.
You're always having fun.
But I'm not going to lie.
I'm not going to lie.
It's a job at the end of the day
and sometimes in that job,
there's some bits in there you hate
and you do not want to do.
Some days you don't even want to get on your bike.
But still, a rest day, whatever, you get back on your bike
and you still love what you do.
Okay, with all that said, it sounds like it's hard work
and yes it is hard work,
but hard work does pay off.
Just think of yourself as a company in itself.
Your name is your company.
You want to build that company to be successful.
And that's the same thing as being sponsored
and getting sponsored and being pro.
It comes with a lot of hard work.
For me, I really wanted to get a free bike.
So I thought, hell, I need to go do a contest.
So I did a contest, I came up on top knowing
that my skills were pretty good,
I did crash a lot at the time,
but it does pay off when it comes to it.
And then I moved through the ranks.
I got in FMB, I got to the top of FMB,
not to number one, but I got to a point
where I felt comfortable where I got noticed
so other companies could see me
and I could start to promote the companies
that I rode for.
That's the thing, you get free stuff
but it does not come free.
You have to work for it.
You have to promote the products you actually ride for.
And that's where all that hard work comes from.
And it's never ending.
You don't have a day off.
You kind of do.
You do have a day off or two.
But that's it.
I moved all the way
and then I started getting into the social media.
I started getting into the media world
where I started working with a number
of great film makers out there.
Good friends of mine, very good friends today
and I started working with them,
started making good video content
and then I started moving into that.
I started making it myself.
I started filming myself.
Hell, I even started my own channel.
And then, I came to GMBN where I used all those skills
I learned throughout the years
and I brought them here,
and now I work with some great people
and I still make it my job.
And I'm traveling the world, but it doesn't come easy.
It's super hard work.
Hopefully you've enjoyed this video.
Hopefully this has given you a little bit more
of an understanding, a little blueprint as such,
on how to become pro or how it is to be a pro
and how hard it is.
It does look like we're living the life.
It is, a little bit.
But it comes with hard work.
If you want to stick around
and you want to see a day in the life of a pro,
just click over here.
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