3 Levels of Influence That Make You Stand Out and Attract Clients Effortlessly
The 3 Levels of Influence: How to Stand Out, Get Clients, and Become Unstoppable
If you want to stand out in your niche, get clients consistently, and become freaking unstoppable in today’s market, then listen closely—because what I’m about to break down can literally change the trajectory of your business and your life.
There are three levels of influence that every top performer, every successful entrepreneur, every elite athlete, and every impactful leader installs into their life and operating system.
These aren’t just ideas or motivational fluff.
They’re the difference between the top 5% and the bottom 95%.
And over the last 15 years—after building a gym to 300+ members, franchising it, selling it, launching a thriving online fitness business, and now helping everyone from new coaches to 8- and 9-figure brands grow—I’ve become obsessed with this question:
What makes the top 5% succeed while the rest stay stuck, struggling, and invisible?
When I failed in business… when I spent years trying to get on American Ninja Warrior and kept coming up short… when I finally did make it—something clicked. I realized there’s a formula behind influence, success, and growth.
And when you understand these three levels—and install them into your daily life—you’ll tap into potential you didn’t even know existed.
Why the Top 5% Think Differently
Let’s get real for a second.
There’s a reason why the top 5% of entrepreneurs, athletes, and creators dominate—and it’s not luck, connections, or fancy marketing tricks. It’s how they think.
The average business owner never breaks through because they’re being influenced by everything around them—without even realizing it.
Their phones.
Social media.
Comparison.
Fear.
Clients complaining.
The news cycle.
All of it seeps into their mind and rewires their behavior.
But the top 5%?
They flip the script.
They become the influencer—of themselves, others, and their business.
Let’s break it down.
Level 1: Influence Yourself
This is where everything begins.
If you can’t influence yourself, your thoughts, your behaviors, your beliefs, and your habits—you’ll never influence anyone else. Period.
Most people are walking around letting the world program their mind like a phone app running in the background.
Scroll social media → instantly compare
See someone “doing better” → feel behind
Get a negative comment → spiral mentally
Client cancels → doubt yourself
And all of this happens subconsciously. You don’t even realize it’s running your life.
But the moment you become aware, everything changes.
Choose Your Beliefs Intentionally
Influence starts by asking:
What beliefs are holding me back?
And what beliefs do I need to install to become the person capable of my next level?
There’s a reason why the formula is Be → Do → Have.
You don’t “have” the life you want and then become the person who can handle it. You become that person first.
If your beliefs are influencing thoughts that drive weak actions…
You’ll keep getting weak results.
But when you choose empowering beliefs, you shift the entire chain:
Beliefs → Thoughts → Actions → Results → Feelings → Reinforced Beliefs.
That’s the Belief Cascade.
And it’s how you take back control of your operating system.
Environment = Energy
If you want to influence yourself effectively, you’ve got to put yourself in the right environments—mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Hang around people who challenge your standards.
Consume content that elevates you.
And stop letting your phone dictate your dopamine.
Seriously.
If you find yourself constantly scrolling, delete your apps for a bit or use something like the Dumb Phone App. It literally locks your social media when you need a detox.
Small changes like that can completely shift your mental state.
When you learn to influence your own beliefs, behaviors, and actions—you become the cause of your results instead of the effect of your environment.
That’s Level 1.
Level 2: Influence Others
Once you can influence yourself, the next step is to influence others.
And the #1 way to do that in business is through your message.
Influence Through a Compelling Message
You have to know how to communicate your message in a way that connects, captivates, and converts.
That’s how you attract clients.
That’s how you become the obvious choice in your niche.
There’s a quote from marketing legend Dan Kennedy:
“Enter the conversation already going on in your customer’s mind.”
That’s the secret.
You need to know your audience so deeply that you can step right into their thoughts and feelings—and speak to them better than they can articulate to themselves.
Imagine you had a hidden camera following your ideal client all day—recording not just what they do, but what they think.
That’s the level of empathy and understanding you want in your messaging.
Connection. Captivation. Conversion.
To influence others, you have to master three things:
Connect: Understand your audience’s pain, desires, fears, and beliefs.
Captivate: Emotionally hook them through storytelling and perspective shifts.
Convert: Inspire them to take action through clear, compelling calls-to-action.
You can have the best product in the world, but if you can’t communicate it in a way that moves people emotionally—you’ll never reach them.
This is why your message matters more than your marketing tactics.
Because words move worlds.
When you know how to communicate a message that makes people feel something, you can shift beliefs, change behavior, and move people into transformation.
That’s real influence.
Level 3: Influence Change in Your Business
The third level is about scaling your influence beyond yourself—into your business, your systems, and your team.
Here’s the truth:
Your business growth will always be in direct proportion to your personal growth.
If you stop growing, your business plateaus.
Build Skills. Install Systems.
Every entrepreneur eventually hits a ceiling. The only way to break it is to build better skills and install better systems.
Let’s talk about the skills first.
Core High-Income Skills
These are the skills that separate amateurs from pros:
Writing compelling copy that gets people to stop scrolling
Crafting hooks and headlines that make people pay attention
Telling stories that emotionally hook your audience
Speaking with confidence and influence
Selling high-ticket offers with authenticity and power
Leading, delegating, and creating SOPs that remove bottlenecks
Each skill you build compounds.
When you learn how to sell, you’ll never go broke.
When you learn how to communicate, you’ll never be ignored.
When you learn how to lead, you’ll never be stuck doing it all alone.
The 5 Core Systems of Every Business
Every business—whether online coaching, service-based, or brick-and-mortar—runs on these five systems:
Lead Generation – Getting consistent quality leads.
Lead Nurture – Building trust, authority, and connection.
Conversion – Turning conversations into clients.
Delivery & Fulfillment – Getting clients amazing results.
Retention & Referrals – Keeping clients long-term and multiplying impact.
When you have these systems running smoothly, your business becomes predictable and scalable.
Otherwise, you’re just hoping things work out.
And hope is not a strategy.
My Story: From Firefighter to 300-Member Gym
When I first started out, I knew nothing about marketing.
I had just retired from the fire department after a near-death electrocution incident. I was working odd jobs, personal training, just trying to figure it out.
I opened a gym in South Florida—my dojo of pain and learning—and my “marketing strategy” was literally walking around shopping plazas handing out flyers.
One day this huge dude—looked like The Rock (but wasn’t)—knocked all the flyers out of my hand and said, “Nobody wants these.”
That was my lead generation system.
But that moment flipped a switch.
I realized if I didn’t learn real influence—how to speak, how to sell, how to lead—I’d stay stuck.
So I learned.
I went to speaking events.
I studied marketing and storytelling.
I started running ads and posting content.
Slowly but surely, the skills compounded.
Within a few years, that gym grew to over 300 members. Then I built an online fitness business using the same skills—and it exploded.
And that’s what led me to build In-Demand Coach and now The School of Impact—teaching other coaches how to do the same.
Why Most Stay in the 95%
Here’s the harsh truth:
Most people won’t do what it takes to become the top 5%.
They’ll dabble. They’ll consume content. They’ll compare. But they won’t actually build the skills or install the systems that create freedom.
They stay stuck because they’re influenced by everything outside of them instead of mastering what’s inside of them.
If that’s you right now—good news: you can change it.
Delete the apps that drain you.
Build the habits that strengthen you.
Install the beliefs that elevate you.
The Power of Focused Influence
You don’t need to influence millions of people.
To build a 6- or even 7-figure business, all you really need are about 1,000 true fans.
That’s it.
Kevin Kelly wrote a legendary article about this years ago—showing how artists, musicians, and creators could make a full-time living with just 1,000 true fans.
And the same applies to you.
If you learn to influence a small tribe—your sub-niche, your micro-community—and serve them powerfully…
You’ll make an incredible living doing what you love.
So stop comparing yourself to people with massive followings.
Focus on becoming irresistible to the right few hundred or thousand people who align with your message.
That’s how you build an in-demand brand.
Final Thoughts: Influence is Everything
Influence isn’t manipulation.
It’s leadership.
It’s alignment.
It’s ownership.
When you influence yourself, you control your beliefs, emotions, and actions.
When you influence others, you communicate with clarity and power.
When you influence change in your business, you create predictable growth.
These are the 3 Levels of Influence that separate the top 5% from the rest.
Influence yourself.
Influence others.
Influence growth.
If you do that, you’ll unlock your full potential, become the obvious choice in your market, and create a business that truly changes lives—including your own.
So get out there…
Change some lives.
Make some money.
And be freaking unstoppable.
Who Is Jason Meland?
I am a value creator, mentor, and entrepreneur. I help online coaches master their messaging, attract dream clients, and build thriving high profit, high impact businesses.
When You’re Ready, Here’s How I Can Help You:
Grab a copy for the 5 posts responsible for 7 figures in online fitness sales: https://www.indemandcoach.com/5-posts-ebook-2505
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