Jake Steinfeld is probably best known to the people who visit this website as "Body By Jake." Heck, Jake even explained that so many people know him as Body By Jake that "Body By," might as well be his first name. This is a good thing because Jake has created a brand that is internationally known with his Body By Jake fitness equipment. He is considered the father of personal training and is considered an entrepreneurial genius by many. Jake is now sharing his business knowledge with a new book titled "I've Seen A Lot of Famous People Naked And They've Got Nothing On You!"

Talking to Jake was so awesome and inspiring. I am a person who is creative and has a million ideas (like this website) but have yet to figure out how to make them profitable. So I am definitely going to study his book and I recommend it to others!
Dorrie -www.dorriefans.com & Thabiz.com webmaster

You are known as the inventor of the personal trainer concept. Do you still work in fitness?
Jake Steinfeld-Yeah fitness is my life, Dorrie. Yes, I was the first guy to do personal training and make it a business. But just doing the actual physical training going to someone's home now I sort of do it for the world using television as my medium instead of a car.

Tell me about the contest related to the book?
Jake Steinfeld-What I am doing I am going to give to you in a nutshell. What is the American dream? To have your own dream. Not getting a job working for Donald Trump or working for me for that matter. Having your own idea and being in control of your own destiny. So I thought why don't I make this really good book with really good information and a really cool title different and make some noise in the marketplace. I thought what better way than to put a contest together.

This is the first time in all of publishing that there's this contest with a money prize associated with a business book. My marketing partners are AOL. Where you are going to go to AOL.com/bizbyjake and fill out the street smart essay question after you read the book. I partnered with Fox and Friends with Fox News channel so every two weeks I am going to choose a finalist. The contest will end January 31st 2006 and we'll have ten finalist. I am going to choose one street smart entrepreneur. You know like the World Series of Poker I'm going to have $200,000 on the table with a marquee jet card worth 50 grand. I wont take any part of your company I will just stand there and I'll say, "Dorrie just don't forget me when you are rich and famous." Basically it's one street smart entrepreneur giving back to another street smart entrepreneur. It's a really interesting and fun way to not only promote the book but to give back to the entrepreneurial community.

Listen to Jake

It sounds great. I've been telling a lot of people about it and I know my readers are really going to be interested. When you say "street smart qualities" what exactly are you looking for?
Jake Steinfeld-That's a great question Dorrie. Really what I'm looking for is this. Obviously it's important that you read the book because I will get the tone of how you answer this essay question. The contest has begun but the website is lit up tonight at 10. I'm looking for someone who has a kick ass idea and the passion and a don't quit attitude and a real love of what they want to accomplish. Throughout this book you hear everyone has a dream. You do, everybody does, your readers do. They might be stuck at a job now. They are sitting in a cubicle thinking, "I'm a whole lot smarter than my boss." "I just don't how to get going," or "I'm afraid to make a move."

If you've read the book, the reviews have been great. Reviewers have said, "The advice is basic." Yes you're right because business is basic. People over think things. If you over think things too much you end up frightening yourself, overwhelming yourself and then paralyze yourself and not make a move. I want to show you by example through successes and failures that the worse anyone can say to you is no. And the worse anyone can do to you is throw you out of a room. You know what you have to do? If you have the belief in yourself and you have a don't quit attitude and you have the passion, you are going to succeed. I mean what I want you to get out of this book is not the stories that I tell about being the first guy to do personal training, launching the first fitness television network, and the first professional outdoor Lacrosse league but the stories that I tell people that I meet is if this guy Jake can do it, I can do it.

Listen to Jake speak about the contest

You are so extremely successful and have done so many things what made you decide to write a business book. Was it wanting to share the knowledge?
Jake Steinfeld-Absolutely. It also came to a head it was 2002 I was speaking at Stanford University at their entrepreneurial business school. It was a great speech.. I was having a great time. After every speech I always open up the floor. I have to tell you something Dorrie, here some really smart kids and all they wanted to know, they didn't want to know about successes I had, they wanted to know how I dealt with failure. What do you do when someone tells you no? I said you know what? I'm going to tell my story. I'm a champion of the word no. I hear it all the time. If people understand that you've gotta start somewhere. People like Howard Schultz didn't just come up with Starbucks. People like Tommy Hilfiger, whose a good buddy, started out opening a clothing store in upstate New York. You just don't all of a sudden roll out of the bed and you are a worldwide brand.

You are sort of coming back to the title of the book. In essence I haven't physically seen famous people naked but here I am working out with all these famous people and going to their homes, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Priscilla Presley, Bette Midler, Madonna, and I found out one unbelievable lesson Dorrie. They are just like us. The only difference is they have a dream and they never took no for an answer and that gave me all the incentive in the world to say to myself, "I might never direct E.T. but I am going to have my own successes in life." I teach you in essence how to formulate your idea and the one that you know is going to be unbelievable and how to put a street smart business plan together and how to get started. Isn't it always the toughest thing in the world just getting started? And I think that's what this book is all about. It's how do you get started.

You might have answered this but how did you come up with the provocative title for the book?
Jake Steinfeld-That's it. It was basically a title that I've had for seven years Dorrie and I've wanted to put it on something. Then finally the book just happened and everything became so organic from that speech at Stanford I just said I finally have a title that is just so awesome and breaks through all the clutter. I think you will agree it makes you think, "What's this all about?"

Let's talk about branding. I know every time I hear Body by Jake I know what it is. I may not have seen it yesterday but it's embedded in my head. Why is it important to find the right brand name.
Jake Steinfeld-I think first and foremost before you have a product that you are going to brand it starts out with Dorrie, you are your brand. You're the product. You've gotta be everything that your product needs to be or wants to be. Before this product materializes you are going to have to have to walk into a room, pitch your idea to whether it be a banker for a loan, you have to sell them on your dream. They are buying into you. You are your brand. You are your product. And everything from you, everything after that is basically a lifeline to you. I am Body By Jake. We have products all around the world now, all around the world with that logo. And I walk down the street, down Fifth Avenue and people are like, "Hey Body By Jake," they think that's my first name "Body By."

I think people will pick up on this. If a person has an idea for a business and they don't have a lot of collateral or people they know to give them the money to start the business where can a typical person with limited resources find the money to start their own business?
Jake Steinfeld-Aol.com/bizbyjake. You set me up Dorrie. That was great. Here's what's going to happen. Even if you don't win. Even if I don't read the business plan on television, if I have inspired you enough after you read the book to fill out this street smart essay question you have put your dream, your idea on a piece of paper and from your head to the paper it now becomes real. It's like 5 billion light years ahead of you just lying in your bed looking up at the stars like, "I have this great idea."

Then you think about ways you are going to get this business off the ground and you go to bed all pumped up and you are making your coffee and reading the paper and you think of all the reasons you cant do this and before you walk out the door you have destroyed your own dream. What I want to do with this book is when you fill out the street smart essay it will be in writing. Even if I don't pick you, you now have a blueprint and a mind map of how you have to get there. It's not about a zillion dollar idea. I loved fitness and I loved working out. So me working out with people in their homes, fortunately I did it when no one else did it it was a lot of fun. The money came after it. So it's not so much abut making the dough. As I say in the book the dough shouldn't lead it should follow. It's gotta follow the passion. If you're passionate and the idea is great. The dough is going to follow.

Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is the founder of Thabiz.com and Imissthe80s.com and writes for the Rap, Teen, and 1980s section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights, paying entertainment jobs, or general comments.
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com or e-mail her at webmaster@thabiz.com.

May not be reprinted, copied or distributed.
Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com Sept. 2005