We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniel Kenary a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Daniel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

Early internships are the best opportunities to learn what you really want to do.

I remember applying to college, for an Athletic Training concentration. As a senior in college I thought I was training people ‘athletically’. But, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Soon to find out, after completing a full year of an Athletic Training Internship, I hated it. I was working with a community of patients that were already hurt or post surgery. I wanted to work with athletes; athletes who I’d coach in a strength and conditioning setting.

I moved on from the Athletic Training concentration to the Exercise Science path. After another attempt with an internship, I realized I love what I could do after college. The internship lasted the last 3 years of my college career. I would have never known that I wanted to coach in a Strength & Conditioning setting, helping athletes become stronger and faster.

I learned so much and gained a vast amount of experience, I pursued my career to a Master’s Degree level working at the Division 1 level.

Internships not only teach you the ins and outs of what you may want to do, but they also can teach you what you don’t want to do.

Daniel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I understand how much information regarding fitness, nutrition, and health is out there. It’s extremely overwhelming. I want to be the middle man between the disparate information and an individual filtering out the ‘BS’. My business model is unique. I want to ensure I’m the last investment someone needs to make in a trainer, because i want to educate them in how to write up their own strength program and create a nutritional protocol they can adhere to for the rest of their life. I find it’s my purpose to empower each of my clients with knowledge they can use to create a protocol they can write for themselves. What good is a trainer if you haven’t learned how to be independent in your own training, right? Clients presenting me with a strength or nutrition program THEY WROTE after our time together is where I find the most success and feeling of happiness. Having clients reach out with health goals they’ve always wanted to accomplish, working with them over weeks, and then being presented a program they made for themselves is where I see progress. The student becomes the teacher. With an investment Dan Kenary Performance, is an investment in you for the rest of your life.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Value starts with you, the business owner. I’ve never been great at posting on social media; let alone being savvy enough to learn ‘algorithms’. My success has been concentrating on each individual client at a time.

The best piece of marketing is word of mouth. That’s why most of my business has been through referrals, not so much social media.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Covid. I believe the Covid-19 Pandemic changed everyone’s perception on how to optimize their business . I had trained people for years in person. The pandemic allowed me to sit back and create a new perspective on training with an Online Presence.

Creating a website lead to a podcast, interviews, YouTube videos, and more.

I had to pivot when everyone was home which opened me up to new opportunities. Driving more traffic to my business from multiple avenues.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dankenaryperformance.com/
• Instagram: d._j._k
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt3kq0ka7CEwNvLktHEQp7Q