Personal Branding Interview: Roy S. Johnson

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Today, I spoke to Roy S. Johnson, who is the VP/ Editor-in-Chief of Men’s Fitness magazine and MensFitness.com, the nation’s premier fitness publication and website for men. His latest article for LifeGoesStrong.com’s health vertical is called “Want to Succeed at Work and in Life? Get Off Your Butt!” In this interview, Roy talks about how personal fitness and workplace success are related, gives some tips for job seekers, and more.

Why is it that personal fitness can help you succeed in work?

A sound body allows you to be more alert both at the peak of the day, and longer. Also, self-confidence extends beyond the gym, as does the discipline required to maintain a rigorous regiment.

What types of stress are job seekers encountering right now and how do they lower it?

How about fear of being fired too? You deal with it by communicating with your boss and ensuring that you are doing all that is asked. Also, by preparing for the possibility.

  • Keep your resume up-to-date.
  • Explore opportunities in your field and beyond.
  • Start looking at how a hobby or passion might become a career.
  • Take control rather than allow it to control you.

What types of work outs do you recommend?

It depends on your goals. For muscle-building, all-body moves that emphasize strength and balance, along with cardio. For weight loss, more cardio and plyo moves (body-weight). Everyone should do core work (who doesn’t want great abs!) and stretch for flexibility.

How have you built your personal brand?

By trying to maintain excellence and integrity in all of my work, and ensuring that I am prepared to work in any of the myriad media platforms that exist. I also established areas of expertise (sports, fitness) that allowed me to be among the first “experts” that editors and producers think of when they have a need in those areas.

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Roy S. Johnson is VP/ Editor-in-Chief of Men’s Fitness magazine and MensFitness.com, the nation’s premier fitness publication and website for men. He’s an award-winning multi-media journalist, television commentator, media consultant, professor and author. Since joining the magazine in 2007, Johnson has led the publication and website to monumental growth, helping to increase its profile by working with notables such as Jeremy Piven, Jaime Foxx, Reggie Bush and more. He was also responsible for overseeing the development of American Media special projects such as the “Get Fit, Stay Fit 2009 Guide” and “America’s Hope: Barack Obama How He will Change Our World.”

Picture of Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages.

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