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Bill Phillips (author)

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William Nathaniel "Bill" Phillips is an American entrepreneur and author. He is the author of the fitness book Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength. Bill and Shawn, his brother, made a video called Body of Work which was filmed on location in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is also the author Eating for Life, founder and former editor in chief of Muscle Media magazine (now defunct) and the former CEO of EAS, a performance nutritional supplement company.

Personal life

Born in September 1964, Phillips was raised in Golden, Colorado, where he lived with his father Bill (often referred to as BP), mother Suzanne, sister Shelly and brother Shawn. His father, William Phillips Sr., worked for the Coors Brewing Company while taking law classes at night. He reached the level of corporate analyst at Coors, then quit to open his own law practice.[1]

Bill started bodybuilding in 1982, then moved to Gold's Gym Venice beach (known as the Mecca of bodybuilding) in 1983, remaining until 1986, a period during which Phillips admits to steroid use. After not succeeding as a bodybuilder, the 21 year-old Phillips moved back to Colorado where he took classes at the University of Colorado at Denver, specifically the study of exercise physiology and sports nutrition - with an emphasis on steroid chemistry. He then began his publishing career.[2]

On November 11, 2005, Bill married Amy Molen, an anorexia survivor and a success story from his documentary.[citation needed]

Business achievements

In 1985 Mile High Publishing began with a small newsletter teaching bodybuilders how to use anabolic steroids. The newsletter was written and printed in his mother's garage.[3] Funded with $180 he and his brother had made from mowing lawns, its original name was The Anabolic Reference Update. [4][5]

Muscle Media 2000 ("MM2K")

In 1992, Phillips moved out of his mother's home and changed the publication's format and its name to Muscle Media 2000 (usually referred to as "MM2K"). The magazine used frank discussion of the underground aspects of bodybuilding such as the use of and even how-to smuggle steroids, and columns by writers such as The Steroid Guru Dan Duchaine, Editor-in-Chief TC Luoma, Charles Poliquin, Mike Mooney, and "Dr. X." [2][6][7]

MET-Rx

In MM2K Phillips highly endorsed MET-Rx (a meal replacement supplement), and this relationship with readers helped it become the highest selling bodybuilding supplement ever at that time. It was later revealed however, that Phillips and the creator of MET-Rx, Dr. A. Scott Connelly, were in fact business partners, and the endorsements clever marketing. [8] This partnership also included bodybuilders Lee Labrada and Jeff Everson. It was around this time that Phillips began working with convicted felon James Bradshaw. Bradshaw was considered at the time to be the largest steroid dealer on the West Coast, grossing over $40,000 a week. This eventually would lead to Bradshaw serving four years in a Louisiana prison, where he educated himself on marketing. It was Bradshaw who reportedly convinced Phillips to market MET-Rx heavily in the Natural Supplement Review, Phillips' supposed unbiased review of numerous bodybuilding supplements. He also had the idea for Phillips to give the Review away for free to readers of Muscle Media 2000 providing the MET-Rx with addresses of potential buyers, and a large amount of advertising. Sales of MET-Rx rose exponentially. Bradshaw and Phillips had stumbled upon a very successful method of marketing to bodybuilders, and they, and original investors Everson and Connelly, got very wealthy. Their partnership was short-lived however.[9]


Phillips and Connelly had an agreement that distribution of MET-Rx would be controlled, and that they would not sell it to retail outlets in order to keep supply low during the period of high demand created by the advertisements in Muscle Media 2000. Connelly however, had other ideas and began selling it to mainstream distributors and department stores. Phillips believed this move lessened its appeal to bodybuilders, and destroyed the "mystique" of the product.[9] The two parted ways, and as part of the settlement, Phillips was legally bound not to mention the name of MET-Rx in his magazines (thereafter he would refer to it as "the leading brand"). But by then Phillips had his eye on another venture that would eclipse MET-Rx altogether - EAS.[9]

EAS

Phillips acquired Experimental and Applied Sciences (EAS) from founders Anthony Almada and Ed Byrd in 1996. He promoted the company's products through heavy editorial-style advertisements in MM2K, and led by flagship products like Myoplex (a MET-Rx copy), Phosphagen and HMB this would eventually put him at the forefront of the nutritional supplement industry for more than five years.

By 1995 Phillips was a multi-millionaire, and was well known in celebrity and sports circles. Athletes like José Canseco would contact Phillips for advice on steroids,[10] and he also consulted with celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, John Elway, Sylvester Stallone and Demi Moore.[11][12] However it was that year that he had a medical scare when a tumor in his jaw and neck was discovered. Phillips promptly proposed to then-girlfriend Ami Cusack. The tumor turned out to be benign, and was removed from around his salivary gland. Some employees at the time of MM2K later noted in Testosterone Magazine that by that time Phillips had become rather eccentric. Reportedly, after the tumor was removed, he returned to "hanging up survey sheets from MM2K that showed Bill was our most popular writer. Each one had the words, 'Bill knows his audience!' written on them." Soon Phillips and Cusack's wedding was postponed and Phillips was regularly seen at strip clubs and in his magazine with fitness models and Playboy bunnies.[13]

Muscle Media

In 1997 Phillips was eager to expand his empire beyond the bodybuilding industry. MM2K changed from targeting the hardcore bodybuilder to the more mainstream exercise participant, and the July 1997 issue saw the magazine redubbed simply as Muscle Media. [14] While Muscle Media 2000 at its peak had a distribution of 500,000 copies per issue[15], the change in direction alienated many traditional readers, and sales numbers reportedly declined sharply afterwards. Publication finally ceased in 2004 after the EAS company was sold a second time.

High Point Media

In 1999, Phillips sold his majority interest in EAS (though he remained on the Board of Directors for a number of years afterward) to North Castle Partners for 160 million dollars and concentrated on his writing and on promotion of his books through his publishing company, High Point Media, as well as Value Creation, a branch of EAS.[16][17] In 2004, he completely sold his remaining interest and is no longer involved with EAS.

Phillips' more recent work, Eating for Life: Your Guide to Great Health, Fat Loss and Increased Energy!, offers his plan "to help inspire and guide even more people to improve their health and lift their quality of life to new heights."

In February 2006 Phillips announced his "Great American Transformation Experience" (GATE) with a goal to transform America's fitness from world's worst to first within 10 years.[2]

Awards

Phillips has also received many honors for his work, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation's highest award after he donated all the proceeds of the documentary Body of Work. He was also honored by Paul Newman and by John F. Kennedy Jr. as one of America's most generous business leaders.[11] The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce honored Phillips in January 2000 as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans. Phillips was also chosen to help carry the Olympic torch on its relay across the United States for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Bill Phillips books

  • Phillips, Bill. Anabolic Reference Guide. Mile High Publishing, 1991.
  • Phillips, Bill. Sports Supplement Review. Mile High Publishing, 1997.
  • Phillips, Bill. Body-for-LIFE: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength. HarperCollins, 1999. (ISBN 0-06-019339-5)
  • Phillips, Bill. * Phillips, Bill. Body for Life Success Journal. HarperCollins, 2002. (ISBN 0-06-051559-7)
  • Phillips, Bill. Eating for Life: Your Guide to Great Health, Fat Loss and Increased Energy! High Point Media, 2003 (ISBN 0-9720184-1-7)
  • Phillips, Bill. Transformation: A Path from Physical to Spiritual Well-Being Coming April 2010

References

  1. ^ [1] Bill Phillips - Body For Life
  2. ^ a b Mr. Big By Nick Heil, Outside Magazine September 2003
  3. ^ Meet The Press Our TC Luoma: The man behind the Dog by Chris Shugart
  4. ^ Mr. Big By Nick Heil, Outside Magazine September 2003
  5. ^ Bestabs.com Bill Phillips' Foreword to ABSolution by Shawn Phillips
  6. ^ http://www.brinkzone.com/general-brinkzone-stuff/the-muscle-media-audio-tape-series-and-other-ramblings/ Looking Back On The Muscle Media 2000 days of Bodybuilding
  7. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/21/nyregion/despite-the-dangers-of-steroids-bodybuilders-are-still-tempted.html?pagewanted=2 Despite the Dangers of Steroids, Bodybuilders Are Still Tempted
  8. ^ Bodybuilding Success Blueprint: Top 10 Supplements By: Jerry Brainium
  9. ^ a b c The History of the Supplement Industry Part II
  10. ^ Atomic Dog 'Roid Ball by TC
  11. ^ a b Body For Life Author Bill Phillips Partners with Denver Marathon as Official Sponsor
  12. ^ Abbott Labs to buy EAS Kristi Arellano, The Denver Post, October 12, 2004
  13. ^ ATOMIC DOG Smelling Your Piss—A Sappy Thanksgiving Sermon by TC Luoma
  14. ^ MM2K and EAS: An Insider's View: An interview with TC Luoma
  15. ^ Mr. Big By Nick Heil, Outside Magazine September 2003
  16. ^ http://www.ergogenics.org/231.html Abbott Labs to buy EAS Kristi Arellano, The Denver Post, October 12, 2004
  17. ^ EAS CHIEF TO DIRECT NEW BRANCH.(Business)
  • Bestabs.com Foreword to ABSolution by Shawn Phillips
  • News and Tidbits (Phillips Acquires EAS). Muscle Media 2000. 1996 (August) 52:20-7.
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