Getting Started in Coaching
I have a degree in Sport and Exercise science. I’ve long thought of using my degree for a career focus which I haven't done yet. I want to start a business of online coaching and I am looking for advice on the steps to go forward. I'm particularly interested in coaching athletes who need to balance endurance or strength based goals with demanding physical jobs.
How did you build credibility as a coach when you were just starting out and didn't have a long track record of coaching success?
How did you manage to get your first coaching clients?
How did you decide on a pricing strategy for your services?
What advice would you give someone with a sports science background but limited coaching experience about positioning themselves in the market?
Before we cover specifics:
Brainstorm your why.
Know your opportunity cost.
Know Your Why
Take time to define the problem. I don’t mean problem in a bad sense. Write down what you are seeking from this new journey. I could be anything at all.1
Connect to athletes I respect.
Make new friends with similar interests.
Generate $1,000 per week net cash flow from a business I can do anywhere in the world.
Perform case studies to gather data and test my methods.
Be respected.
Help people solve the puzzle of performance.
As you engage with your business, you will discover things you do not like to do.
Provide psychological counseling services.
Repeat the same message over, and over, and over.
Drag boxes across TrainingPeaks plans.
Manage associate coaches.
Billing, admin and insurance.
Some of these are essential. Some of these are the reason your clients have come to you. Some of these can be subcontracted to people who will do them better than you.
I write everything down so I’m on the lookout for people who can help me work smarter and athletes know exactly what to expect from me.
Seminar on the Business of Coaching
Apologies for the quality of the audio. This seminar on The Business of Coaching comes from the dawn of podcasting.
Know Your Opportunity Cost
It is going to take time and emotion to get your (coaching) business up and running. We don’t get the time back.
Once you have written down your goals, are there other ways to meet those needs?
I ask because endurance coaching has:
Low barriers to entry.
Limited ability to scale.
A requirement for continuous active involvement.
High churn in the new customer base.
You want to explore alternatives.
Alternatives for me to earn money:
Writing: my writing earns >5x coaching, on an hourly basis.
Finance: my work outside of endurance sport earns >20x coaching, on an hourly basis.
If my coaching goals were purely financial then I would be better served by a different income stream.
Alternative uses for time:
When I’m thinking about an athlete’s training plan, I am not thinking about: my own plan, my family, my marriage or new business opportunities. On my other publication (True Wealth), I share examples of how mind share has hidden costs in our lives.
The coaching business will take time. Are there other (more important) uses of time? For example, my parenting window is starting to close. In six years, we will be empty nesters.
My friends who have successfully coached for 20+ years keep their commitments at a level where they can bring excellence to all areas of their lives. Being an excellent coach is more fun than being an over scheduled coach. A lesson I had to constantly remind myself when I was coaching full-time.
Resources:
The nuts & bolts of building a coaching business are covered in my Building A Side Gig series.
Want to work with interesting people? See my Live Like A Billionaire Series, Part One, Part Two and Part Three.
Money — Time — Emotion — Trade Offs
Build Credibility By Association
How did you build credibility as a coach when you were just starting out and didn't have a long track record of coaching success?
I associated with the best people who would hang out with me.
I’ve been coached by more world champions than anyone I know.2
Get to know: elites, olympians and top coaches.
I gave my best effort to everything I did.
I shared my best advice, for free, widely.
I co-authored a book with Joe Friel
At the time we published Going Long, Joe’s Tri Bible was the manual for coaching certification in the US. Joe was the most credible triathlon coach in the world, and he’s a great person.
I was prolific when the sport was growing rapidly and athletes were hungry for information.
Posts.
Articles.
Books.
Today, I’ve added podcasts and videos.
I coached elite performers, not elite athletes. I focused on helping successful amateurs experience rapid gains in performance. These athletes became stars in their local communities, and referred their friends.
I didn’t need a long track record, or famous athletes. My athletes’ performances did the marketing. People loved the product.
My own rapid gains helped. 2000-2005 were similar to 2022-2025 => my race results sparked interest in the demographic who were most likely to hire my services. It’s a demographic who are highly intelligent and willing to spend money to improve their performance. I have a lot in common with my ideal athlete. I’ve coached most of my best friends.
By the way, my market presence faded quickly when I took my break from racing. In 2022, it felt like I was (re)starting from scratch. However, many readers have memories of my early days and have returned to support me.
Excuse me, Who are you?
How did you manage to get your first coaching clients?
There is no better marketing than turning up at a big race and smoking everyone within ten years of your age.
My best early opportunity was a monthly column with the first online triathlon magazine. The editor let me write about anything I wanted.
Later, I had a successful relationship with Triathlete Magazine. They’d reach out with specific assignments.
Starting out, I always said yes to any sort of exposure and didn’t worry about getting paid. I knew the exposure was worth more than they could afford to pay me. We were a young sport, then, and triathlon remains a niche sport, now.
These days, my content is hosted here. My best stuff does its own marketing when athletes apply it and enjoy rapid improvement.
Use Dynamic Pricing
How did you decide on a pricing strategy for your services?
My first clients hired me at an effective hourly rate equivalent to 1% of what I was earning in finance. It quickly became apparent that I had grossly underpriced the value I was delivering. So I raised prices for new signups.
In a supply constrained consulting business, with a star consultant… raise prices. It’s a luxury good (see next section).
Avoid long term pricing commitments. I always regretted those.
Establish a separate bank account early in the process. It will let you see your true cash flow.
But… who do you really want to coach?
What if you put the same effort into improving yourself?
What if you put the same effort into your family?
Or finding a spouse then building a family?
One of the best things about financial stability is the gift of being able to coach my family. When I stopped 1-on-1 coaching, I redirected the time into my kids. My family gets a huge return from my choice.
People Buy Connection
What advice would you give someone with a sports science background but limited coaching experience about positioning themselves in the market?
Coaching is a luxury good. The quality of the product is important but there is more going on than the details of the product itself.
Initially, the coach is being bought — be likable.
The plan needs to work — know your stuff.
Ultimately, it’s about the relationship.
With this in mind, I think a weekly video clip is one of the best things you can do (as a remote coach). It gives people an opportunity to get familiar with you. Spend a bit of money to boost the quality of your setup. It doesn’t take much.
I did weekly phone calls. The athlete and I would add items to a shared document that became the agenda, as well as a record of what we discussed. Today, I’d do that via video — again for connection and also because it’s more effective.
But… I come back to opportunity costs.
The skill set that makes me a potential coach to CEOs, doctors and business owners… that skill set makes me appealing to manage their finances, and the investments of their pension funds.
The return on advising Other People’s Money is higher than dragging boxes for Other People’s Training.
Know your why and know your opportunity costs.
Hope this helps.
Whenever I meet with a new coach, I ask, What are your goals from coaching?
I encourage them to brainstorm and I wrote down everything they say. Often, it’s the first time they have been asked the question. This is a fun exercise when you have a group of coaches in the same room. You’ll quickly learn many different reasons .
This process is essential because it’s the only way you will know:
You’ve won.
You’ve achieved your goals.
Your business is enough.
The flip side of coaching being a low-return occupation is we can access the best minds in the world at a fraction of the cost we would have to pay in other domains. Allow me to explain. If you want to sit down with a personal finance guru then they are not going to let you bombard them with questions for ~$1,000 per month. Those individuals charge closer to ~$1,000 per hour and the very best… you can’t access them at any price.
But what if you flipped the script? What if you became a world-renown coach of X. There are a lot of interesting people who want to tap your knowledge of X. These people will pay to spend time with you. They are grateful to have the opportunity to allow you to learn about their lives. More on this strategy in my True Wealth series on The Wealth Ladder, which is being published in August and September 2025.