Matt Choi on Content, Brand Deals, and Not Being Afraid to Fail in Public
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Matt Choi played D1 football, walked away from corporate sales, got laid off as a personal trainer during the pandemic, and became one of the first running influencers on social media. He joined a recent Founders Only member call to talk content strategy, brand partnerships, and training for a full Ironman two weeks after a half.
From football field to race bib
Matt grew up with a single mom, moving schools constantly. That became his normal. New city, new room, new people. Starting over built what he now calls his superpower: not being afraid to look dumb in front of an audience.
He played football from age 10 to 24. Went into corporate sales after college, lasted a year, moved into personal training. Started posting content to build a local client list in Maryland. The pandemic hit. He got laid off. Content was all he had left.
He committed to it. Six years later, he is one of the most-followed creators in the endurance space. Not because he is the fastest. Because he is willing to show the work.
"I'm not afraid to make mistakes. I'm not afraid of failing. I think that's part of my superpower."
The trial reel playbook
Most creators post and hope. Matt tests first.
He runs five to ten trial reels before deciding what goes on his feed. Trial reels on Instagram are served almost entirely to non-followers. Regular feed posts go mainly to people who already follow you. The gap in new audience reach is significant.
He also recycles old content as trials. A video that hit six months ago often hits again as a trial reel with a tweaked hook. Same video. Different first five seconds.
By the numbers:
- ~99% of a trial reel's audience does not follow you
- 5 to 10 trials run before a post goes on the feed
- About half his feed posts started as trial reels
The takeaway for founders: treat organic content like paid ads. Run variations. Find what converts. Then scale.
Where to put what
- Feed = mass appeal. If most people wouldn't understand the topic, it stays off the feed. "Everything I ate to run 26 miles" works. Running cadence metrics don't.
- Story = niche depth. Your most engaged followers live here. Training splits, bike wattage data, behind-the-scenes. Serve the obsessives.
- Trial = growth engine. New hooks on old content. A/B testing before it costs reach. A reel can live in trial indefinitely and keep pulling new eyes.
- TikTok = looser. Less curated. More personal. A platform where people share more than they do anywhere else. Use it to talk, not just produce.
The yapping shift
Short-form content built Matt's audience. It also created a problem: people knew what he did. They didn't know who he was.
The "yapping" format is fixing that. Film in the car. Walk and talk. No tripod, no lighting setup, no edit. A point of view delivered directly to camera. Michael Smoke does it well. Joe Rogan built a nine-figure business on a longer version of the same thing.
The shift happening in social right now: with the boom in short-form content, there is a disconnect between knowing a creator's output and knowing the person. Talking-head content closes that gap. It makes people feel like they are actually there.
"It feels like you're really more there and you're able to build a stronger creator-to-human connection versus just someone who's just training."
For any founder building a personal brand: your audience follows the work. They stay for the person. If you never show them the person, you are one algorithm shift away from losing them.
How to think about brand deals
Matt breaks brand partnerships into three tiers. The tier determines what you ask for.
Tier A: Large, established brands. Cash only. No equity conversation to have. Take the fee, do the work well. The upside is reputation and reach, not ownership.
Tier B: Growth-stage brands. Mix of cash retainer and equity or options. More room to negotiate. More upside if the company exits. This is where the interesting deals are.
Tier C: Early-stage brands. Low cash, potentially high equity. Only makes sense when the audience match is tight and you actually use the product. If the fit is genuine, the equity can be the point.
His general rule: be a consumer first. He was using Cain before they approached him. He met the founder at the Austin Marathon Expo, stood near the booth, helped drive traffic organically. That turned into an ambassador deal, then a full athlete partnership.
"If it fits seamlessly, that's typically a win-win."
Equity over retainer
Work with a brand for three or four months first. Confirm the fit. Then have the equity conversation. Monthly retainers compound as cash. Equity compounds differently when there is an exit.
Most creators still choose the retainer. The smarter play is cash and equity where the brand's stage allows it. The creator's distribution is valuable. A founder's equity structure has flexibility early on. That is where the overlap lives.
For founders on the other side of that table: if your marketing budget is thin, equity is how you afford a larger creator. A creator who believes in the company early is also a creator who sells it honestly. That alignment matters.
Brands: stop over-indexing on video
Matt sees it constantly. A brand sends a two-minute script. They want a polished testimonial. They expect it to perform. It doesn't.
The brands doing best in performance marketing right now run 50% photo, 50% video. A clean product photo with three text callouts outperforms a produced video ad in most channels. Photo is faster to iterate and still converts.
"Do a photo and just convey three things about the product. People's attention spans are so short, you need to get the message across as fast as possible."
Carousels are also coming back. Instagram added per-slide captions. Very few brands are using them. That is the gap.
For founders managing a marketing team: give your creator a photo brief alongside the video brief. Run both. See what the data says. The answer is probably already in the numbers; most teams just aren't looking.
The series model
Instagram is moving toward a Netflix model. The platform added a Series tab so creators can organize repeatable content as an ongoing show. Algorithms want people to stay. A series gives them a reason to come back.
Matt's mile challenge series worked because it was predictable. Same format. New guest. Same outcome: someone runs their hardest mile. The Ironman build is working for the same reason. It is episodic. People are following a character through an unknown journey.
"The best creators of the future are essentially going to be television networks."
For founders: what is the series you could run? One repeatable format, week over week. It does not need to be daily. It needs to be consistent enough that people come back for the next episode.
25 hours a week, seven weeks to Berlin
Matt is training for a full Ironman at Sacramento, two weeks after the Waco half. The Berlin Marathon is in seven weeks. His coach, Natasha, thinks the fitness is there to PR Berlin and carry it straight into Ironman prep.
His weekly training volume:
- 160 to 200 miles on the bike
- 45 miles of running
- 10,000 yards in the pool
- Around 25 hours total
The aerobic base from cycling is doing the heavy lifting. Low impact. High output. Three to five hour rides build an engine that most run training programs simply cannot match without the injury risk. That is the cycling advantage most runners overlook.
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