In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast we explore the four attributes of being a power influencer.
Welcome To The Show!
Welcome to The Dive Locker Podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that make you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management and dive business.
So today we explore how to be a power influencer. Now what is a power influencer – well my definition is a little different than societies. First, let me tell you what my definition is not – the term influencer has popped up recently mostly in the social media space. YouTubers, Instagram, Twitter have been platforms for people to emerge as influencers – those that have a substantial following. Not talking about that. Nor do I mean power influencers are people of power. Sure they CAN be, but there are far more no-name people being true influencers every minute of every day, than there are people with power to their names.
My definition of a power influencer is someone who possesses the strong ability to make positive change in others. This works in life and in your scuba profession. Are you interested in having more students in your classes? Or selling more gear, or having more group sales for your trips and travel? If so, you need to be a power influencer. So today I’m gonna share my four attributes for you to be a power influencer.
Four Attributes of Power Influencers
Okay so step one of becoming a power influencer is you have to have expertise. Now, expertise is pretty easy actually if you think about it as a dive professional you’re holding a rating that’s a dive master or higher. So think of this, anybody that is a lower level rating, especially beginners or non divers, they’re looking at you in this huge area of expertise. Because they know how much training or certifications you had to go to to get that level. So that makes you automatically an expert in your area.
The second area that you’re gonna need is experience. Experience, now if you wanna be a free diving instructor great, but you better have what it takes to be that. That means you gotta have the experience. You need to be talking abut the masks, the fins, the locations you’ve been to. It doesn’t matter if its free diving, if its technical diving, whatever it is, you need to bring to the table your experience. So that you can tell the stories, that you can do the dialogue of what works, what didn’t work for you, what went right, what went wrong, what you like, what you don’t like. That’s all a part of your experience, and that is also necessary to be a power influencer.
The third area to be a power influencer is going to be encouragement. You have to be an encourager, and that means somebody that is absolutely giving, giving, giving all the time encouragement. Telling people what they’re doing great, telling people where they can go next, how to improve. Always encouraging pushing someone to the next level in a responsible, caring manner that really shows that you want them to succeed. Remember encouragement is free. Give it freely, and consider what life would be like without it.
And the fourth area to be a power influencer, is going to be engagement, you have to be present. You have to engage with people. Now that can be in person, it can even be social, virtual. You need to be present to be a part of dialogues, to be a part of peoples lives and part of their stories. You have to engage with people so that they know you, so that you have a relationship, and so that you connect with them.
Be An Influencer
By the way, many talk about how videos have replaced the instructor in the classroom and how that lessens bonding and relationship building. Well think about this, videos and social media – that is part of our life folks. So I encourage you to be really creative on how you engage regularly with people. Not mass emails, but personal emails, personal phone calls, personal texts, invitations to coffee, tea or beer. Engage and encourage are the two top areas to be a power influencer.
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Thanks For Listening!
That’s it for today, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher, that way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes Page at scubaguru.com . There you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care of my friends.
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