A Liverpool entrepreneur has revealed how he went from competing as an 18-stone bodybuilder to working his personal SEO, automation and social media consultancy.
Daniel Luke solely launched his Royal Albert Dock-based agency Hedge Socials final 12 months, however has seen appreciable success already, producing a whole lot of 1000’s of kilos in income for dozens of shoppers.
Daniel has advised BusinessLive how his journey led him from growing up in Rotherham to changing into a profitable private coach (PT) and bodybuilder in Manchester, to formally launching his personal agency in Liverpool. And in accordance to Daniel, 31, his expertise in health gave him the entrepreneurial abilities required to reach enterprise.
“Growing up, I had zero readability and no actual imaginative and prescient as to the place I wished to be. I had no thought about enterprise, and leaving faculty, it was nearly getting a job right here and there,” he mentioned.
“Then I found this ardour for the health club, and that’s what took me on this private coaching journey.”
Moving from PT to a stint as an assistant supervisor with PureGym, Daniel quickly started bodybuilding.
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And by way of that passion, which concerned attending and competing in physique exhibits, he quickly realised individuals had been eager to hear extra about his health regime so they might replicate it for themselves.
He defined: “Bodybuilding is how issues took off for me, actually, as a result of individuals noticed that I observe what I preach.
“I did 12 months as an assistant supervisor at PureGym and that’s once I began to compete.
“I began to take images of what I used to be doing on a regular basis – what I used to be consuming, how I used to be coaching, then individuals simply began to get in contact on social media wanting me to assist them with their very own health journeys.
“Leaving PureGym, I then went fully on-line, and folks would ship me their photos of how they wished to look, and each week ship me an replace. I’d then give them their coaching and weight loss program plans till they had been the place they wished to be.”
With a large social media following, Daniel was managing 150 on-line shoppers, and upon shifting to Manchester, he leased workplace area at a posh in Spinningfields.
During this time, he launched his personal agency known as Disciplined, an app-based coaching regime.
His work additionally concerned serving to different PTs develop their enterprise, utilizing the methods he had developed for himself. And he quickly discovered shoppers had been reaching extra success from his strategies and recommendation than he was for his personal PT agency.
He mentioned: “I used to be slowly letting my private coaching enterprise fade off as a result of I used to be so centered on attempting out new issues with these new trainers.
“Seeing the outcomes that they had been reaching, I used to be changing into extra captivated with enterprise than I used to be about health.”
He quickly started to eye a profession away from the PT sector.
Daniel mentioned: “I used to be surrounded by individuals and training individuals who had been rich. And this actually started to open my eyes as to what was doable in enterprise.
“This is the place I began considering, ‘properly, the place am I going with this as a result of I’m joyful doing what I’m doing and I actually take pleasure in health, however what’s the long run plan?’”
He launched his consultancy Hedge Socials on the finish of final 12 months – a enterprise consultancy specialising in SEO, automation and social media serving to companies – and never simply PTs.
“I grew a following on Instagram and Facebook, speaking about my bodybuilding journey and received individuals messaging me and many curiosity in my posts. Before I knew it, individuals had been reserving calls with me.
“I feel perhaps at occasions I assumed ‘who am I to educate these individuals?’
“But I used to be actually good at planning techniques and serving to individuals perceive who it’s that they need to work with and the way they’ll talk with them.
“It wasn’t simply PTs, it was sole merchants, freelancers, anybody who wanted assist managing shoppers.”
One of Hedge Socials’ principal specialisms helps firms adapt to automation – one thing Daniel mentioned must be embraced and never feared.
He mentioned: “Why do you want a gross sales workforce of 15 when you possibly can have two or three individuals managing a system that does the gross sales outreach for you?
“It’s about serving to companies be extra environment friendly and lowering human error.
“If there are going to be 10 jobs in danger due to a transfer to automation, it is about how can these individuals be repositioned inside corporations doing work that really issues?
“I like numbers, however I do not need to do spreadsheets all day – so if meaning we are able to transfer individuals to do work that they really care about, then that is fairly highly effective.
“So it makes full sense to introduce AI automation right into a enterprise in order that we are able to have it work for us – taking a step again and dealing on what different issues are which are going to assist us develop.”
