Joe Wicks – saviour or just savvy?

Like many home schooling mums, when lockdown 1.0 kicked in last year, my daughter and I joined Joe Wicks with earnest every morning. Already aware of Joe within the fitness industry, I was eager to see how he would convert his online PT format to cater for a younger audience, whilst at the same time thankful for a reason to get my child moving every morning (well every other morning) in the absence of her daily mile at school. 

I’m not going to lie, he’s workouts definitely got the blood pumping and left us both flushed but it was great fun to do together. Joes personality, pop-y playlist and fun moves made it easy for anyone to take part – so it’s no surprise that he quickly became a household name, with an MBE from the Queen following to boot.  

This got me thinking and fuelled many a debate over dinner with my husband. 

Did Joe do this purely out of the goodness of his heart, genuinely wanting to help and support parents and teachers across the country? OR, did his business mind and entrepreneurial spirit see this as a fantastic opportunity to take his profile to the next level whilst in lockdown? 

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe Joe genuinely is a nice person who wanted to do something good, getting people moving whilst raising loads of money for NHS Charities Together…but I do also believe he saw and took the opportunity. Clever man! 

Joe went from a popular author and a PT with an established following online, and infrequent TV appearances, to household name in a matter of weeks. PE with Joe amassed 7.2M viewers on day one and his youtube channel now has 2.2M subscribers, making him a social media advertising dream for brands wanting to reach families at home. So much so, Yougov now cite Mr Wicks as the most popular and indeed famous influencer in the UK. Whilst best-selling author lists for 2020 are yet to appear, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Joe’s name in the top 10 non-fiction authors as household across the country discovered his back catalogue of healthy eating plans in an attempt to shift the covid pounds. And there’s also the reported £1M book deal to write a series of children’s books. He’s now reported to be worth around £6M. 

In a way, Joe was left with no choice but to bring back PE with Joe for the current lockdown if he wanted to maintain his Mr Nice Guy public image, the cynics would have crucified him otherwise.  

But what’s next for Mr Wicks? Let’s hope he continues to do things that benefit others as well as himself, that he doesn’t let things go to his head. Only time will tell…