Meet Adam Waring, Aussie Ninja Warrior

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Adam Waring is training to be the first Australian Ninja Warrior and the first Aussie to compete on American Ninja Warrior. He created his Aussie Ninja Warrior website to help create the amazingly supportive community in Australia that American currently has.

1. How did you first hear about American Ninja Warrior--is it popular in Australia?

Bizarrely, it was a young Olivia Munn that got me into American Ninja Warrior. The original Ninja Warrior show from Japan is called Sasuke, and I used to love it with all my heart. Eventually they had a couple of American competitors who were interesting, but I never really thought a lot about it until they showed Ms. Munn coming back a second time after training all year to pass the first obstacle--and that lead me to investigate and find American Ninja Warrior which promptly became my favourite.

American Ninja Warrior has only just started airing on Australian television, so for years and years I tried hard to track down episodes Due to regional constraints you couldn't watch them on Youtube or buy them from Amazon, so I had to convince overseas family friends to help me out. Now that Australian Ninja Warrior has been announced to air its first season in 2017, I think interest is very definitely rising. I think Australian Ninja Warrior could be absolutely massive. Aussies are extremely sporty and competitive, so I'm guessing it should fit into our cultural identity more than any other reality TV show.

2. What made you decide that you wanted to be on the show?

I've always been hugely into computers, even as a young kid. I'm an IT guy by trade and loved computer games and programming more than anything else. Predictably, I developed extremely severe RSI in my hands and was suddenly faced with not being able to do any of the things I loved and was good at.

I was devastated for a long time, especially after a huge number of specialists would each promise resolution, and my condition would get worse as time moved along. Eventually, while moping around and feeling sorry for myself, I found the Japanese Sasuke and became a massive fan, and that got me out and training and excited about obstacle courses. I was always terrible at sports, but obstacle courses I was actually really good at really quickly.

A year ago, my partner and I were ready to change life up and decided to move overseas. America became our destination and so it was decided by everyone who had ever met me that I should train and try out for American Ninja Warrior. Then a couple of months ago they announced Australian Ninja Warrior, so looks like I'll be heading back home for a bit of fun.

3. What's your training regimen been like?

Training has been really fun, but actually extremely difficult. Unlike most other sports and disciplines, you have to be good at everything because you have no idea what is going to be thrown at you. So, rock climbing and parkour are a good start, which I started learning last November, and then it's just a heap of exercises. I don't do weights at all because I want to be light and agile, so a lot of body weight exercises and then a heap of training on obstacles where I can and swinging off all the things.

I actually developed a few tendonitis/overuse injuries because I just threw myself into training trying to develop all the muscles and all the skills. Now I'm a lot smarter and have structured three rest days a week into my training week so that I give myself a chance to recover and give all the tendons and fascia around the muscles to develop.

4. Why did you need to move to Portland, Oregon, and what are your plans leading up to appearing on the show in 2017?

I ended up in Portland, Oregon purely by accident. We had no idea it might be the fittest city in America when we moved here. We had no idea there was so much rock climbing and snowboarding and cycling to do here. We only knew of Portland from the television show Portlandia, so really, we had no idea what we were in for. I love it here now; it's such a fun city, and everyone is so active and health conscious. It's amazing.

5. Would you tell us a bit about your website and anything else you'd like readers to know about you?

I initially started www.australianninjawarrior.com.au just as a way to keep track of my own training for American Ninja Warrior. In my training, I've found that America has such a vibrant and supportive community of Ninja Warriors--it's the course versus everyone, so all the Ninja Trainers, Rock Climbers and Parkour Freerunners I've met have been so generous with their time and knowledge that I wanted to share that with my fellow Australian Ninja Warriors, so I’ve changed www.australianninjawarrior.com.au to be a one-stop shop for this budding community and sharing my experiences and training tips. When I first started training, I found it really hard to find any information on how to start, what do to, how to tackle anything, so I'm trying to remove that barrier for my Aussie Ninjas.

Thanks, Adam!

Meet Aaron S. Robertson, Freelance Journalist

Aaron S. Robertson, MSM, currently serves as both a trainer and the head of online marketing at Spectrum Communications, an award-winning and industry-recognized answering service and call center in the metro-Milwaukee area. Additionally, he is a freelance journalist primarily concentrating in the realm of music, and has interviewed a number of nationally-known artists from the classic rock and pop genres of the 1960s and 70s.

Learn more about Aaron on his IMDB page, and read some great interviews by visiting his blog.

1. As someone with a background in management and marketing, how did you first become interested in writing and publishing interviews?

Well, the interest in writing and interviewing actually came along first. I've been working as a freelance writer and journalist since graduating from college in 2007. These days, though, I mostly just stick to self-publishing my works through my blog. And for the last two and a half years or so, since late 2011, I've focused primarily on interviewing musicians from the classic rock era. That's become a fun niche for me. But I've had stints in the past with the Muskego, Wisconsin (my hometown) affiliate of Patch.com, as well as the Muskego Chronicle, a traditional print newspaper. With both of those publications, I covered anything from local city government news to business and human interest stories. Occasionally, I would write an editorial.

Simultaneously, for a six-year stretch that spanned the end of 2007 to the end of 2013, I served as president of Intrepid Innovations Inc., a small Internet marketing firm consisting of myself and two old college buddies. This experience in online marketing came to complement my writing/journalism quite well, since a lot of my work was, and remains to be, published for an online audience. So the two largely went hand-in-hand.

I joined the team at Spectrum Communications, a Milwaukee-area answering service and call center, during the summer of 2012. In addition to taking calls from time to time, I handle the company's online marketing efforts and also serve as a trainer, training our operators on our various client accounts. I earned a master's degree in management this past December from Milwaukee's Cardinal Stritch University, where I also earned my bachelor's in 2007.

2. You've done a number of interviews with musicians from 1960s and 70s bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Buckinghams. What sparked your interest in music of this era, and how did you start making contact with the musicians themselves?

I would largely credit listening to the local oldies and classic rock stations as a kid, thanks to my parents and other relatives. And I love just about the whole package, just about the entire deal--most of the surf rock, southern rock, R&B and soul, pop, blues and blues rock, folk rock, British Invasion material, some disco, etc.--that came out of that period. As I grew older, I naturally started attending concerts with my parents, their friends, and other relatives that featured groups from this era.

The thing about this period, it's simply good music. And good music is timeless. It doesn't really know what time and age is. I'm 31 right now, and CCR, The Steve Miller Band, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, Grand Funk Railroad, Canned Heat, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers Band, The Kinks, Spencer Davis Group, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Motown material, among countless other groups and artists of the 60s and 70s, were still being played in college dorm rooms and at parties when I graduated in 2007. We hear this music in movies and commercials to this day. It's all around us, and that's a testament to the quality that came out of the era. It really resonates with people. Both Doug Clifford and Stu Cook of CCR described the era as a renaissance in my interviews with them. All the musicians I've interviewed have commented on how they're seeing many younger fans coming out to shows. Doug told me he's even noticing fourth-generation fans emerging at CCR shows, kids that are seven, eight, nine years old.

As far as making contact with the musicians themselves, a lot of it is centered around e-mail or even Facebook communications, believe it or not. I've become personal Facebook friends with a number of my interviewees, some before the interview, some after. Some added me first, some I added first. When Facebook is not much of an option, I'll start looking around for e-mail addresses. In many cases, I've found the musicians I'm interested in talking with to be pretty accessible--the e-mail really goes to them. In other cases, I've had to work through publicists at first. But that's to be expected.

The above photo shows Aaron on the left with Nick Fortuna of The Buckinghams, taken in December 2012.

3. One of your most popular interviews was with Rebecca Romney of Pawn Stars. How did that interview come to be, and what did you find most interesting (or surprising?) in talking with her?

I'm a big fan of the show. Not only is it entertaining, but, for me, I also take the educational opportunity it presents very seriously. For me, it's a history lesson on the go. I get a lot out of the show in that regard. So one evening, while watching an episode, I thought to myself how neat it would be to interview any of the show's visiting experts. They all bring such valuable experiences and insights to the table in their respective lines of work.

Rebecca works for the Las Vegas gallery of Bauman Rare Books. One day, I just e-mailed her at her Bauman e-mail address requesting an interview, and the rest is history, no pun intended. It was really as simple as that. I was somewhat surprised, admittedly, that I received a quick and personal reply agreeing to the interview. I guess I expected maybe a publicist and/or some other vetting process at the beginning. And then again, there was always the chance that I would not hear back. But I would never know had I not tried.

Rebecca was very friendly and down to earth. It was a great conversation. She's a top-notch professional, and I could tell right away at the beginning of the interview that she truly loves her work and is genuinely interested in sharing her thoughts and insights with others.

I've put out requests to some of the show's other experts, but so far, Rebecca has been the only one to respond. I'm happy it worked out with her. Out of all of the show's experts, I'm probably a little more partial to her anyway because I serve on my hometown's library board and love to read every chance I get, which, ironically, is pretty rare these days.

The interview with her is definitely my most popular so far, in terms of sheer traffic. It averages around 1,000 hits per month.

4. In addition to providing a home for your interviews, does your blog also provide your perspective on living and working in Milwaukee?

Not as much as I would like it to, and that's largely due to time constraints. I'm working on that. I like to do the occasional business review. From time to time, I'll put together lists of fun places or events to try based around certain themes. I like to share my online marketing expertise when I get the chance. I'll share my thoughts on major economic development projects and initiatives happening around the metro area once in a while. Additionally, I post information on business networking groups and events around the greater area, and I have feeds that draw from other news sources. It's a nice mix I have, overall. But I would love to do a lot more with it. Like I said, time is a big factor.

5. Who are some of your "dream" interviewees, and what are some of the questions you'd most like to ask them?

There are too many to count! Off the top of my head, I would say Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Gregg Allman, and Derek Trucks. I'd ask each of them about influences growing up, how they came to the realization that music was their calling, and what advice they have for aspiring musicians.

Thanks, Aaron!

An Insightful Blog from an Experienced Writer, Director, and Producer

Melissa Jo Peltier is one of those people where you may not recognize her name at first, but you've surely seen some of her work. She's the co-author of five best-selling books with the "Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan. She directed and co-wrote a documentary about child abuse that was narrated by Oprah Winfrey. She was co-executive producer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. These are just a few of the items on her resume.

Peltier's latest project is a novel called Reality Boulevard, which is grounded in her own experiences in Hollywood as the reality TV industry has taken over a bigger and bigger share of TV programming.

For readers who'd like to know more about Peltier's perspectives on reality TV (hint: she's not a fan), she's created an engaging blog on her website where she shares her reflections on the realities (and unrealities) of reality TV. Peltier does a lot of reading/research, especially about media and kids, and recent blog entries referred to studies done by the Girl Scouts council and other organizations.

For more about her novel, check out the Amazon page for Reality Boulevard, available as an ebook for Kindle.