Balance Jan Issue 2018 - 31

T H E B I G I N T E RV I E W

W

When you've got an eight-book deal, 2 million
followers on Instagram and a whole country hanging
on your every 15-second cooking video, fame comes
with the territory. Joe Wicks has just flown in from
Los Angeles and is claiming jet-lag, yet remains
ridiculously well-groomed, charming... and just so
nice. Here at 'The Body Coach HQ' - a huge room
split down the middle with a short running track -
there's a full gym, fancy glass partitions, and an army
of workers on laptops. His publicist tells me he has
40 people working with him on split shifts - though
you'd never guess it from the authentic, selfie-style
videos he posts on Instagram and Snapchat.
'You know what we do here?' he asks. 'We
transform lives. We really do. We save people from
the diet industry, get them eating better food and
exercising, and we're doing it all over the world.'
Only four years ago, Joe was, in his own words,
making 'a grand a month' and followed by a
smattering of social media devotees. Now, The Body
Coach is a serious business, turning over more than
a million pounds a month, and the entire country
is seemingly tossing midget trees (broccoli) into a
pan alongside the Lucy Bee (coconut oil). The whole
operation revolves around Joe and his perky persona.
Does he ever feel the pressure?
'I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel. You know, digital
content and social media never sleeps so even when
you're having a day off, you're not really having a day
off.' But isn't that quite hard to deal with? 'I love it so
I don't see it as work. I'm gonna cook anyway so why
don't I just have my phone there and record it, put it
on Instagram, and have a bit of content out of it?'
Joe uses words like 'content' and 'platforms' a
lot. He puts a great deal of thought into the way he
documents his day online. He tells me he recently
went to Soho Farmhouse and left his phone in the car
park. Did that feel like cold turkey? 'No, not really.

I DID THIS MAD
THING WHEN I WROTE
DOWN WHAT I WANTED IN
FIVE YEARS. OPENING IT
UP AFTER FIVE YEARS, I
HAD DONE EVERYTHING
I HAD WRITTEN DOWN

JOE
BY
NUMBERS

MILLION
THE NUMBER
OF INSTA
FOLLOWERS
HE HAS NOW,
THE HIGHEST
UK FITNESS
INFLUENCER,
21ST IN THE
WORLD

42,000
THE NUMBER
OF INSTA
FOLLOWERS
HE HAD WHEN
HE SIGNED HIS
FIRST BOOK
DEAL IN 2014

MILLION
THE AMOUNT
IN £ JOE IS
ESTIMATED TO
HAVE EARNED
LAST YEAR

111,830
COPIES OF
LEAN IN 15
SOLD IN WEEK 1,
MAKING IT THE
FASTEST SELLING
DIET BOOK EVER

THE %
INCREASE IN
TENDERSTEM
BROCCOLI SALES
ATTRIBUTED TO
JOE BY
ONE MAJOR
PRODUCER

January 2018 BA LA N CE

The community talks to itself now,' he says. Which
isn't quite what I meant - I wanted to know how Joe
felt when he switched off, not his followers. What
about meditation? 'I'm mindful, but not that mindful,'
he says. 'On holiday, I tried the Headspace thing.
I did that for a little while.'

STARTING A FAMILY
It's clear he's got to where he is through a relentless
work ethic combined with an 'insta-ready' formula
of being attractive, unthreatening and likeable. You
can't follow Joe on social media and not know that
he's one of life's nice guys, and while I'm with him he
obligingly poses for photos, selfies and 'insta-stories'
with everyone who crosses his path.
In the middle of being fussed over during his
photoshoot for this month's Balance cover, he
stops to share a funny video with his staff. They
clearly love him, too. The office vibe is relaxed and,
surprisingly, Joe has no ego. But I've been wondering
what motivates him apart from his work. I suggest we
do some Joe Wicks future goal-setting. He's keen.
'I did this mad thing where I wrote down what I
wanted in five years,' he says. 'It's weird, you know,
like The Secret and all that. Opening it up after five
years, I literally had done everything I had written
down. So I feel like I need to do another one of those.'
Great. In that case, as a starting point, I suggest the
technique of focusing on what he'd like in the different
areas of his life in five years. For someone famous for
not talking about his private life, his first suggestion
comes as a surprise. 'Well,' he says, 'I'd like a family.'
So we've got a future Wicks clan on the list. What
else? 'Hmm. I've got a lovely house which I'm really,
really happy in. I'm not obsessed with having
properties all over the world, and I'm not that driven
by money. It is a nice perk of being successful, but I
don't think you should chase money.'
He continues: 'Holidays are my thing. I just love
going somewhere new. I'd like to visit New Zealand.
I haven't been to New Zealand. I'd like global success
but most of my audience is in the UK at the moment.'

THE PRICE OF FAME
We quickly start to veer back to career goals. So would
he put 'global success' forward as one of his New Year's
Resolutions? Apparently not.

31



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Balance Jan Issue 2018

Balance Jan Issue 2018 - 1
Balance Jan Issue 2018 - 2
Balance Jan Issue 2018 - 3
Balance Jan Issue 2018 - 4
Balance Jan Issue 2018 - 5
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