The marketing definition of an influencer, according to Google, is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. To Canadian Instagram influencer, Sydney Zeller, known as “sydprogress”, being an influencer is so much more.
“Being able to meet people and being able to help people is definitely my number one,” The 22-year old said. “I’m happy that people want to come to me for advice and trust in my knowledge.”
Zeller is based in Vancouver, Canada. With 149,000 followers, a college course schedule, personal training clients and a growing online community, Zeller has her hands full.
Michelle, Zeller’s mother, has helped her daughter along the way in various ways and continues to support her.
“I’ve taken photos, I’ve helped her sort the products,” Michelle said. “I was able to contribute as far as lessons learned.”
Michelle also said she wants to help expand Zeller’s education to help her succeed all around by paying for some business courses if she’s interested.
With less than two years to complete her undergraduate degree in Sports Science at Douglas College, Zeller is anticipating the growth of her business before making any major career decisions.
“I’m just kind of letting things happen,” she said. “I would love to continue this business and train and then when I’m a bit older go into teaching just because I’m not as passionate about teaching as I am doing this. I feel like I have a lot of opportunities and a lot of room to grow off of this, so I’m just trying to be patient.”
Zeller started her Instagram page in January 2018. She started it after consistently being in the gym and constantly having people ask her for advice and tips.
“I was like you know what? I feel like I have something to share,” Zeller shared. “So why not start a page, record my workouts, and track my progress. That’s why it’s “sydprogress; I didn’t want to make this strictly a fitness account so I can see where this goes.”
Gradually, but without a doubt, Zeller began to develop more followers as her recipes, workouts and photos were getting noticed.
However, within the last six months, Zeller says she has lost about 6,000 followers on Instagram.
“In the beginning of quarantine it shot up because I feel like everyone was looking for home workouts and that’s what I was posting,” she said. “I had really good feedback and then the past four-to-six months it’s just been either stuck or dropping.”
Zeller’s first experience working with a brand dates back to earlier this year when she worked with VTAE Apparel and Popeyes, a Canada-based supplement company, earlier this year. VTAE would send her legging and Popeyes gave her 25% off of their products.
“I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” she said. “I felt very excited.”
Transitioning from local brands to an internationally-recognized brand like Womensbest gave Zeller the confidence to grow into her position as an influencer.
“I went from just being supported by them to making an income by them,” she said. “It’s like a big chunk of my monthly income now.”
Zeller advances the brand by making posts in their clothing, promoting sales and new products, and giving her honest feedback on the brand as a whole.
The Womensbest-sponsor also used the extra time at home during the pandemic to work on becoming a certified personal trainer. She one day hopes to come out with her own workout guide, and the best way to start is by getting qualified to train clients.
“I have a home gym where I would train my clients.” Zeller said. She had her first clients during the pandemic, but she took proper precautions to ensure safety on both ends.
Ally Neufield has been a consistent client of Zeller’s since she started training a few months back. Neufield and Zeller were co workers prior to Zeller opening her own business, so they’ve been friends for a while.
“It just made sense to have her be my personal trainer,” Neufield said. “It can be hard to find someone you can trust, especially right now, that you mesh with well.”
Zeller would send her clients a COVID screening prior to their session, take their temperature, and regularly wipe down her home-gym equipment with sanitizer.
“Them taking the extra step to go onto my website and fill out an application shows they want to work with me, so it feels more fulfilling,” Zeller said. “It’s not like I’m getting thrown random clients at a gym. Many of them are my friends now, too!”
Zeller also released her own merchandise for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To be honest, I didn’t make any money,” she admitted. “All of the money went to shipping and handling and buying the product. But that wasn’t the goal: the goal was that I wanted to create a product that is mine that people can wear and be proud to wear. To rep “sydprogress.”
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has brought its individual challenges to Zeller’s experience as an influencer, she has definitely been able to succumb to the struggles and expand as an influencer and a person.
On top of dropping her workout guide, Zeller has a few long-term goals she wishes to pursue, including more merchandise and growing her clients.
“I want to keep doing what I’m doing and be more consistent with my posts and put more effort into what I’m saying,” she said. “I would also like to be more engaging. When you said you knew I’d answer you that made me happy because I love talking to people.”