If you have been using Create Freedom content and/or courses as a resource for any amount of time, then you are most certainly familiar with myself; Dan Garner, Strength Coach and Nutrition Specialist.
Maybe you first learned of me as the author of Eat-Sleep-Burn, or as the head performance coach for HockeyTraining.com which gets hundreds of thousands of content engagements every month, or maybe from one of my lab-based nutrition coaching programs that I have done with some of the best athletes in the world.
Or, maybe you have heard about me from the hundreds of podcasts I have done, or even seen me speak at an event in your city.
Sometimes it feels like I’m everywhere.
I am regarded as a real industry influencer in the world of performance nutrition, and although it’s taken me many years and hard work to accumulate the knowledge I have in that domain, I actually became an industry influencer very quickly.
I was decades younger than my competition and only 3.5 years into personal training when I decided to quit the gym and have a go at it myself from home in an online setting.
The best part?
It’s not that complicated and it is definitely a repeatable process, and that’s what I want to show you today — exactly how you can become an industry influencer is less time than you ever thought.
Three Steps To Celebrity Status
I share a large part of my journey to becoming an industry influencer in this free lecture here as well as all of the accompanying content on that page (scroll down to the bottom and hit “preview” on the first video to see a full 1-Hour presentation on building your online business for free).
But, here are three tips to fast track your rise to industry influencer status.
#1: Become A Specialist
I entered the health and fitness industry as a pretty average dude with a pretty average college education.
I knew I needed to pivot and get some letters attached to my name if I was ever going to be taken seriously as a coach and/or education provider.
The last thing I wanted was to be “just another” personal trainer in the industry, I wanted to be the best, and I still do my best to strive for that every day.
So, while the other trainers at my gym were comfortable getting the bare minimum of education credits each year to maintain their certification, I made sure to get as much education and certifications as I possibly could.
Soon after I was seen as the “go-to” guy at my gym because:
- I knew more than my competition
- I had more credentials than my competition
Knowledge is power.
You will have an instant edge over your competition when you flex your brain game.
Become a specialist in your niche and you will have people knocking your door down to do a consult with you.
#2: Who Cares What They’re Doing
Even know I had an edge over my competitors being a big fish in a small pond, I never hide my expertise from the other trainers at the gym.
In fact, I constantly taught them everything I knew for free.
One of my friends thought I was insane for doing this because he felt I was “helping the competition”, but the exact opposite happened.
The other trainers respected me more and talked about me very positively around the gym which built up my reputation and got me more referrals than I could even handle (which felt pretty good since I was only at that gym for probably a year when this happened).
At the time, all I cared about was getting as many clients as possible.
I wasn’t in the education game yet for actual trainers.
But, what I didn’t know was happening behind the scenes through educating my competition was that I was taking my first steps towards becoming a legitimate influencer in the community.
If you think about it, becoming an influencer isn’t much more than educating everyone who comes into contact with you to the best of your ability.
#3: If You Don’t Take A Stand, No One Can Stand With You
When I finally started gaining some momentum with my online following it came as a direct result of pushing against the industry norms.
I consistently challenged (and continue to challenge) many of the long-standing beliefs about nutrition, training, and becoming the healthiest version of yourself.
I call out what’s BS and I’m not afraid to stand up for what I believe is right.
My posts struck a nerve with some other coaches and organizations in the industry that were saying the opposite, but, this was a good thing and ultimately lead to me gaining more momentum than ever before in both revenue and media attention.
Think about it, what news media source would ever want to interview you if you’re saying the same thing as everyone else?
Or, saying the same thing that people have been saying for the past few decades?
You’ll blend in with the rest, and because of that you will suffer.
Take a stand and post confidently about what you think is right.
Your Journey To Becoming An Overnight Success
Look, the online world has a ton of people trying to do the exact same thing as you so it’s really easy to get lost in the crowd.
You can try and some a boatload on advertising and hope you gain momentum that way, but sometimes it’s both easier and more rewarding to stick out from the crowd by becoming a thought leader and industry influencer.
I have created real freedom in my life and so has Kevin (co-founder of Create Freedom), we built highly successful businesses before we ever got into the game of business coaching.
We are both living proof that even in your 20’s you can be considered an industry thought leader and influencer.
So, if you’re interested in finally allowing all of your years of hard work to turn into your “overnight success” story who gets more referrals, attention, free advertising, and customers than anyone else in your marketplace, here are three actionable tips to get started.
The Fitness Industry Influencer Blueprint
Step 1 – Look for ways to become a specialist in your field. I first gained a reputation as an expert in the community by knowing a few things about nutrition and mastering the art of meal plan design.
What can you do?
Where are you most knowledgeable and confident?
By specializing in an area that your competition isn’t you instantly become the expert.
And because of this, your competition will send you referrals because you provide something that no one else can.
Step 2 – Stop seeing your competition as competition. If there is one thing that I KNOW is true in the online world it’s the fact that the more you give away for free the more you will receive in return.
Too many of you have a scarcity mindset, but a real influencer has an abundance mindset.
This mindset shift leads to you not seeing your competition as competition at all, instead, they are someone to work with and get more customers from.
Step 3 – Start making definitive statements. Coaches have a real problem sometimes because they talk a lot but don’t really say anything.
You know your beliefs and experience, so it’s time to start sharing them in an unfiltered way with everyone around you.
And if you want more help, there’s no better resource on the web than Kevin and I’s How To Be A Successful Online Coach course.
Check out the curriculum and you’ll see what I mean.
But in the meantime, start taking action on those three steps and let’s get after it!
Dan Garner
Kevin McClelland
