One Tweet: The Story of How Tara Gentile & Brigitte Lyons Changed My Life

5 Minute Read

First off, I had no intentions of being a writer at all.  All I wanted was to get paid talking to people and get free tickets to events.

I have been known to make outlandish comments like, “I want to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger,” or “I want to be on the Med Team for the USA Weightlifting Team,” and even said “I would love to work for ESPN one day.”   And within 10 months of listening to two incredible speakers, I did all of those things.

Nearly 18 months later I cofounded a branding agency exclusively to help athletes build their platform & connect with their audiences.

How’d it happen:
I was watching Creativelive as I usually did during the day.  I was fascinated with watching all the free live classes they offered.  It didn’t matter the topic: I was always watching the Craft and Maker channel even though that had nothing to do with what my focus was.  They just had such dynamic speakers I couldn’t get enough!

I stumbled upon Tara Gentile class Market, Launch, and Sell Your Next Big Thing.  During the class she mentioned how to offer solutions potential influencers on Twitter.  During the class, she referenced Brigitte Lyons.  I then took her class on PR for Creatives and I wrote pages of notes.  With those two classes, I crafted my plan of attack.  I was going to find some major sports outlet.  I listened to Tara’s strategies about creating value for the influencer and crafted something topical from Brigitte’s course.

Research
I first set up lists to only see the focused tweets from writers and outlets for my target influencers.  I saw what they were tweeting about, who they were following and what projects they were working on.  I looked for specific topics they were interested in and created 4 pitches to help them solve their problems.

Having a background in CrossFit for over 9 years, I focused on upcoming CrossFit Games.

I then retweeted a few of their thoughts and followed some of the brands they were interested in. Instead of merely following the other brands, I made notes of possible reasons why they chose those brands. Were other athletes sponsored by that brand? Was it the brand’s message or layout that was attractive?

Execution
After seeing what seemed to be off days in sports media, I sent messages to all the writers and editors I had gathered for about two weeks.  I sent each one a varied pitch based on the 4 options to solve their problem or to provide a story for the Games. The hard part was trying to make a concise 140 word pitch. But after rephrasing it a lot, I finally got it down.

And after tons of different rejections or “I’ll keep your info on file,” I got a response to send a sample of my writing and the idea for the story.

Results
My first ESPN article was published a few months later. That was the first of five articles I did for the year. I was the main beat writer for CrossFit and then went on to work for Sweat RX as a writer for the print and digital magazine, and now serve as the social media manager as well.

Key Takeaway:
Don’t ever stop believing in your dreams. Take the time to find great mentors and resources to get you closer to your dreams.

Check out Tara Gentile and her Creativelive podcast here. For PR help, check out Brigitte Lyons’ here.

Want more tips on how you can connect with influencers? Get the 2016 Guide to Creating a Fitness Business.

P.S. That was just one of the great adventures that happened because of those Creativelive classes. I also ended up on two crazy reality shows (one show ended up suing Sylvester Stallone!).  But that story is for another day…

Bio:
DaKari “Doc” Williams

Cofounder of the Toolkit and writer for Sweat RX and former freelance journalist for ESPN.  At the 2015 Arnold Sports Fest, DaKari was a finalist and third-place winner of the reality show America’s Next Great Trainer challenge, which brought together leading personal trainers from across the country. DaKari also serves as the massage therapist for an NPGL team, the DC Brawlers.