Rich Ryan is a far cry from your average recreational runner — or your stereotypical “Coach Hardass.”
That’s why he needed custom coaching to get his online business to the next level.
As a freshman on his college’s track team, Rich learned firsthand how a bad coach can have a negative impact on what every runner wants most: PRs.
“My experience with my coach in college gave me the idea of what a coach should NOT be,” says Ryan. “There was an apparent lack of empathy.”
“I wanted to become a coach to be the coach that I’d always wanted myself. Someone who understands that behind the performance there is a person with real issues that may be unseen. A coach should help athletes beyond race day performance.”
Ryan has been a competitive runner since the age of 14. Sixteen years later, he still runs 80 miles a week. He knows it is crucial from a credibility and athlete relationship standpoint to have vast training experience.
What Rich Needed To Get His Business To The Next Level
Training for many running and Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) events, Rich understands what it takes to get to the starting line healthy and in peak condition. He emphasizes strength training, something many runners, triathletes, and OCR athletes neglect.
But what Ryan didn’t know was how to communicate effectively with potential online clients about how he could help improve their PRs.
So he signed up for the Hybrid Fitness Business Mentorship Program that helped him focus on his writing and spreading the word about his coaching through his website.
“Daniel and Eric understood what I needed to do to create a better online presence,” he says. “They pointed me in the right direction to focus on creating content and to become a more confident writer.”
The Results Rich Got
Two months after completing the Hybrid Fitness Business Mentorship Program, Ryan was informed his blog was ranked Number 58 on the Feedspot.com Top 75 Running Coach Blogs’ list.
This is the most comprehensive list of best Running Coach Blogs on the internet.
Upon getting the news, Ryan sent this text to Daniel and Eric: “Thanks again for getting my shit together and pointing me in the right direction.”
Ryan says the Hybrid Fitness Business Mentorship Program put him in the right mindset to make it easier for him to focus on his writing. “I know when things get messy or when I’m feeling lost that I should sit my ass down and write. This is what is most important.”
Many of his new clients discovered Ryan online because of his new and improved website and blog. “Before it was word of mouth that generated business. Now the website is driving traffic from people outside my network of friends and fellow runners.”
How Rich Did It And What He Says Now
Ryan says he worked on the course about an hour a day, three to five days a week.
“The workload was heavy upfront, but we started to find our groove and create some sustainability. Sometimes the work was hard because it was all new. Writing copy is mentally taxing and learning how to sell and develop systems online is a tall order.”
“If I had a problem or a question, Daniel and Eric were incredibly responsive to emails and requests. You could tell that these guys were busting their asses for the clients. There was never any doubt that if I needed help in a pinch that they would hook me up”
“The number one piece of advice I got from Daniel and Eric is the importance of being consistent and sometimes you have to grind. I think they wanted to gently relay that this is not an easy fix. It’s about putting in the work.”
Before joining the program, Ryan says it was like throwing darts at the board to make business decisions. “I was spinning my tires making all these dead-end decisions about coaching programs no one wanted.”
The Hybrid Fitness Business Mentorship Program changed all that for Ryan. It provided him with a clear direction, a roadmap on how to succeed.
“Eric preaches about having the right mindset to succeed. Persistence is the key to moving forward. Having the right mindset has made me more comfortable and less anxious to try something else to be successful.”
Rich’s New Life
All this prompted Rich to walk away from one of his two classes at the gym to free up time more time for online clients and business development. And it worked. Rich was able to improve his coaching programs and attract the competitive athletes he was targeting.
“It gave me more time to know my clients better and to offer them what they needed to improve their PR. I developed programs that helped improve their running time and running form.”
Rich parlayed all this into more clients and higher revenue.
Rich says he is now coaching many more of the competitive athletes he finds most fulfilling.
Retention and repeat business has jumped 50 percent because competitive athletes prefer to sign up for six-month contracts instead of the minimum three months.
Ryan believes the program was a good investment because “it’s easy to get lost and not know what to do day to day.”
But now Rich is exactly where he wants to be, doing what he loves most.
It all begins with a free coaching call to see if we might have a match.