Today I’m talking to trainer, writer, and speaker Andrew Coates. I met Andrew in person about a month ago at Strong New York, but he’s been on my radar for years. Andrew has built a following online and also contributes to some of the biggest publications in fitness, including — you guessed it — BarBend. In this episode, Andrew gives his playbook for building an online fitness following and talks about how to separate influencer hype from real, valuable fitness knowledge. I hope you enjoy.

Before we get into that, I want to give a quick shoutout to today’s episode sponsor, Thirdzy. Thirdzy’s PM Recovery Collagen is formulated to help you sleep deeper and recover faster. It’s got collagen peptides to support muscle, bone, and ligament health, plus sleep-promoters like magnesium, L-theanine, and tryptophan to help you fall asleep and stay asleep for better recovery. I’m personally a huge fan of magnesium before bed to help with relaxation. Wake up feeling energized and ready for the day and training ahead. Use code BarBendZzz — that’s BarBend with three Zs after it — for 25% off today.