Endurance coaches have a lot on their plates already. They are physiologists, psychologists, nutritionists, motivators, voices of reason, scheduling experts, and friends. So, how are they supposed to fit “marketer” onto the list, too?
Dave sat down with triathlon coach, social media influencer, and business coach Jen Rulon to find out how she helps other coaches find their voice online while maintaining her own. They discussed how she built her online coaching brand, how she fits marketing tasks into her coaching schedule, and why she is dedicating herself to help other coaches build their businesses.
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Transcript
INTRODUCTION: 00:00
On today’s episode of the TrainingPeaks CoachCast, your source for the latest information about the art, science, and business of coaching. You already have a lot on your plate. As a coach, you’re a physiologist, nutritionist, psychologist, motivator, scheduling, expert, and even frenemy, but if you’re looking to grow your business, you should consider adding marketer to that list of titles as well.
Dave Schell: 00:27
Hi everyone, Dave Schell here. And on this episode of the TrainingPeaks CoachCast, I had the pleasure to sit down with Jen Rulon of JenRulon.com. We talked about Jen’s tips for getting yourself out there, finding new athletes, and taking a leap of faith to turn your hobby into a viable business. Hope you enjoy.
Dave Schell: 00:49
Welcome to the TrainingPeaks CoachCast. I’m your host, Dave Schell, and today I have the pleasure of being joined by Jen Rulon. Jen is a triathlon coach with over 16 years of experience and owner of JenRulon.com. Jen, thanks for joining us today.
Jen Rulon: 01:03
Thanks for having me, Dave. I appreciate it.
Dave Schell: 01:06
So before we get into it, could you tell us a little bit more about yourself in your own words?
Jen Rulon: 01:11
Sure. I am, well on the athlete side, I’m a 14 time IRONMAN triathlete. I made it to Kona. It was a 28 year old dream, so I was very focused to get to Kona and that was in 2017. As a coach, I’ve been coaching, gosh, I got my certification in 2001 and then I was coaching triathletes more as a hobby and then when the full-time job started to become an actual job and I wasn’t enjoying it as much, I really realized that I wanted to take my coaching to a different level. And so I went back to school at the age of 39 and received my masters in kinesiology at the University of Texas State Antonio. And it was an emphasis in exercise science because as a triathlete I knew what was going on. I knew how to apply things. But as a coach I wanted to know the “why” and so that’s why I went back to school. And then, I graduated and then when I when I graduated I was at a point where I was applying for jobs and I was doing all this stuff and then I realized I was like, oh my gosh, like none of these jobs are fitting my description because I need to start my own company and that’s when I started JenRulon.com.
Dave Schell: 02:38
Really the reason I wanted to have you on today is to focus more on the business side of coaching, which I know a lot of our coaches listening maybe don’t focus too much on that or it might be something scary, and, more specifically, the marketing and kind of social media marketing aspect of that. So you attended the Endurance Coaching Summit back in 2017 and at that time you heard a lot of coaches talking about marketing and those sorts of things. And you kind of had an epiphany at that point. Is that correct?
Jen Rulon: 03:11
I did, I did. I was, it was interesting. I was sitting there and it was, it was Joe Friel and he was up on the platform and people were asking him how, how did you get out there? And he’s like, I went to running clubs, I went to, I wrote articles in the newspaper and it was just funny because it’s like, well, we really don’t have those newspapers as much as we used to anymore. Right? And it was, it was, it was a common question that everybody was asking, how do you get yourself out there as a coach? And that light bulb came on and I realized that I wanted to start helping coaches understand about how to market themselves and how to brand themselves.
Dave Schell: 04:01
Gotcha. And, a big part of that is having an online presence, is that correct?
Jen Rulon: 04:06
Yes, that is very correct. And yeah, and I think a lot of people as coaches, a lot of people don’t like that self promotion, but that is what you need to do. I mean, you could go out and hire somebody, but whoever’s going to do the best of your self promotion is you as the coach. And so you have to be reckless out there, you have to throw yourself out there and be that coach, be that athlete, be that person that you want to be those people that you want to attract to you as you’re coaching.
Dave Schell: 04:38
So when you were first starting out, getting yourself out there, are there, did you make any mistakes that you kind of learned from that help to refine your process going forward?
Jen Rulon: 04:50
One hundred percent. Yeah, of course I made mistakes. I think that’s the best way to learn. Right? You know, the very first thing that I tell clients that I work with or coaches that I work with is that you really want to find your specific niche. And what I was doing when I first started, I was doing everything and anything to make a dollar. So I was, you know, I was coaching CrossFit classes. Yes, I drank the Koolaid. I did cross the back in the day I was coaching CrossFit classes and then I was teaching at Texas A&M in San Antonio and then I was teaching pose method running courses and along with one-on-one coaching, so I was doing all of this stuff but I was sort of half-assing all of it and there was no money coming into the bank because I didn’t have time to really focus on the one thing that I’m good at and that was coaching triathletes. And once I got really specific with who I wanted to coach, then everything came into place.
Dave Schell: 06:02
I feel like as a new coach. It’s kind of, I don’t know if scary is the right word, but you almost have this feeling that you can’t turn anybody down and so anytime you get a lead you feel like you need to coach that person and so it’s scary to turn somebody away. But would you say that sometimes it’s important that maybe you’re not a good fit and that you do need to be a little bit more selective with that?
Jen Rulon: 06:27
I think, you know, I’ve gotten to a point where I do an interview process before I bring somebody on before I take their credit card because I don’t want to pick the wrong person that’s for me. And I don’t want the athlete to have a wrong coach either and some of the clients that I’ve worked with or coaches that I’ve worked with recently. Like I’ve told them, I go, you have to stop saying yes to everything because you’re going to get burnt out quick. And that’s what happened to me. I got burned out real quick.
Dave Schell: 07:04
And I know that really the focus of this is to talk about the marketing, but I just want to ask one more question here is another common mistake I see with coaches is they undervalue their time almost and so you end up coaching, let’s say you’re coaching 10 people for $100 a month or a hundred and $50 a month, and it’s like if you would’ve said no to a few of them, maybe you could have coached five people for $200 each a month.
Jen Rulon: 07:28
Yes, it’s interesting because when I was starting off in my business, it was the same thing. I was nickel and diming everything. I was like, oh, I’ll just do that for free or I’ll do that, or I’ll do that, but then once I broke it down and I look at my return of investment, I realized I was like, you know what? I can just go work at Starbucks and make a lot more money and get a pound of coffee a week. If you break it down, if you look at $150 a month for 30 days, that’s five bucks a day. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that their knowledge is power, but there’s a price tag to it too, because if you have that master’s degree or something, it’s worth a lot.
Dave Schell: 08:24
Sometimes it’s hard for a coach to put a price tag on that because it’s not tangible, but you’re absolutely right and what we see a lot of times here at training peaks is in the beginning of a new athlete or an athlete that’s new to working with a coach— in the beginning, they’re just window shopping and comparing prices and it might be scary to price yourself higher. But, what we found is that over time athletes start to see the value in that experience and those coaches that have been coaching longer and have more expertise and so definitely shouldn’t be afraid to value that. Correct?
Jen Rulon: 08:58
Correct. Correct. And athletes will start realizing how valuable a coach is once they pay for a little bit lesser value coach versus somebody that’s a little bit more experienced. They’ll see the difference.
Dave Schell: 09:15
That’s a great point. So now let’s get back to marketing. I’m sure as you, as you said when you were at the Endurance Coaching Summit, the thing you kept hearing is how do you get started? How do you get yourself out there? So right now there’s so many different things you could do. Right? And as you said, sometimes the biggest challenge is deciding what to do. So do you have any tips, like, what are some of the highest returns on investment for a coach to focus on?
Jen Rulon: 09:42
Um, first and foremost get on social media. I know a lot of people, a lot of coaches may think it’s scary, they don’t have time, but that is free marketing. That is you getting out there on a platform that’s going to help you grow your business and grow your brand. And the key thing that I tell people is pick to social media outlets. Don’t feel like you have to be on every social media outlet out there because there’s a lot. Yeah, but definitely pick the two social media outlets and then always provide value to your followers that are starting to follow you on social media.
Dave Schell: 10:26
I was just going to comment that says one of the biggest mistakes that I made and I would just try to do everything and I was posting very infrequently. And one thing I’ve kind of heard that it’s better to post regularly in one area rather than posting infrequently across multiple areas. Is that accurate?
Jen Rulon: 10:43
Yes, yes. One hundred percent. I think. Here’s the thing, Instagram is probably one of the biggest social media platforms that’s out there. I think there’s over a billion people on there. Don’t quote me, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there and it’s going to get bigger. And so if people are not on Instagram or Facebook, you know, and posting consistently, then you’re gonna start to get lost in the feed and in the hoopla of everybody else posting as well. So yeah, it’s all about the consistency. I have to admit I’m not as consistent on Facebook, but, but I haven’t seen the return of investment on Facebook like I have on Instagram.
Dave Schell: 11:29
And, I want to come back to that. But before we do, you had mentioned, so first you said choose two platforms. The second thing you said is to always provide value. What do you mean by that?
Jen Rulon: 11:40
Yeah. Um, when I say provide value, you want to look at how you want to educate your followers, but you want to also entertain your followers. So you’re providing free content, you’re providing free tips, you are providing free access to your brain as a coach to your, to your potential clients. Those people that are following you are your potential clients that you can be coaching in the next two or three months. There’s a saying out there in the online space, it’s the “know, like, and trust factor”. People need to get to know who you are as a coach. Then they need to like you. And then once they do that, they can actually start trusting you and thinking, Hey, this coach is really cool. Maybe I’ll look into them and start working with them.
Dave Schell: 12:38
That’s great. I like that. Know, like, and trust factor.
Jen Rulon: 12:42
You got it. Yep. And I don’t know who came up with that. There’s somebody out there in the online space came up with that.
Dave Schell: 12:50
We’ll credit you with it. I have to admit that I’m pretty surprised that you found that Instagram is one of the highest returns on investment because for at least the way I interact with Instagram, I’m just scrolling through looking at pictures and liking pictures. So with that, how do you find that Instagram differs from Facebook or Twitter in allowing you to connect with that potential customer?
Jen Rulon: 13:16
Instagram, I feel, is that you could tell a story. You tell a story, you share, you share an idea, you share a motivational quote, but then why does that motivational quote inspire you? To me, Instagram is all about the photo, but they’re also about the story behind that photo. Facebook, I think there’s a lot of things out there that can get lost in space, you know, on Facebook and then Twitter, I think, I’m on Twitter and it’s actually really hard to maintain because tweets coming up left and right. So I feel like Instagram, I mean, here’s the thing, I’ve received athletes from Mexico, Sweden, New York, Canada, California, all based on instagram.
Dave Schell: 14:13
Wow, that’s impressive. You were recently named one of the most popular coaching companies on Instagram. Is that correct?
Jen Rulon: 14:21
I was. It was with the Multisport Research Company. Pretty exciting.
Dave Schell: 14:29
That’s fantastic. So aside from Instagram, are there any other platforms? We talked about Twitter, we’ve talked about Facebook. Do you ever dabble in Linkedin at all?
Jen Rulon: 14:41
You know, I do jump on Linkedin. I will post something once a week on Linkedin just saying, you know, maybe it’s my blogs of the week. Maybe it’s something that I talked about over the years, but yes, I will post on Linkedin. I am definitely not as active on Linkedin, but what I will do is I do a lot of automation and when I say automate, I will go in on the beginning of the month on Monday, and I will upload three or four posts on Linkedin, I will upload post on Twitter, and I’ll upload on some of my Facebook groups. And so then they automatically upload and I don’t have to do anything about it. At least so I’m out there and people know, oh, every Wednesday Jen’s going to post on Linkedin or, you know, every day I’m going to post on Twitter. What is she going to talk about today?
Dave Schell: 15:37
So it sounds like you’ve kind of set aside or scheduled some social media time. And did you say that’s weekly or monthly that you’re doing that?
Jen Rulon: 15:44
For Linkedin, for my Facebook group it’s monthly. For Twitter, I usually try to tweet about five times a day. That’s usually about a weekly thing I’ll do. But, the cool thing about Twitter is I will use a program called Buffer, and I will actually follow and I will take some of your guys’ post and retweet them just because people don’t want to hear what I have to say all the time. So I want to take stuff from experts such as TrainingPeaks, IRONMAN, whatever that might be that is out there that will help other coaches and other athletes. So I tweet a lot of your guys’ and stuff.
Dave Schell: 16:38
So with Instagram, you’re posting a picture or maybe it’s a video of doing an exercise or something like that, but you had mentioned a blog and it sounds like some of these things you might have to have content. Do you have any recommendations as far as creating content? What should a coach focus on? How frequently and do you see a good return on that?
Jen Rulon: 17:00
Yeah. Here’s the thing about social media. Social media is a great tool for athletes or your potential clients to go back to your website to see what you’re all about. On your website, needs to be your blog needs to talk about your services and what you provide. It seeds to talk about maybe your team that you have running. Social media needs to go back to your website. That’s the key about social media because I think a lot of people will post on social media just sort of haphazardly and not really connect the two to post about the blog. When you’re looking at, whether it’s blogging, whether it’s talking know, being on a podcast or whatever, coaches need to do what’s best for them. When you’re starting, and this is what I tell my potential clients that I work with, is that when you are starting out like building your business, building your brand, look at blogging one time a month or twice a month because if you start overdoing it then the quality is going to go down versus you know, I would much rather have quality than quantity blogs. So when I, when I suggest that people try to at least blog and put content out at least two times a week. When I started, and we were talking about mistakes, right? I was trying to post three times a week. It was ridiculous. It was too much.
Dave Schell: 18:39
You had mentioned the quality, but I imagine it just gets hard to keep up with as well.
Jen Rulon: 18:45
Yes, very much so. And I think the biggest thing too is that coaches need to ask their athletes that they are coaching now and their potential clients, “Hey, what are you all interested in learning about?” And then, if you survey your audience on a yearly basis or every six months, that’s where you can get your content and where you can get your blogs and where you can figure out about writing. And here’s the thing, if people hate writing, then do video and if people hate video, then do writing or you know, jump on a podcast or interview people, that type of thing. There’s so many options for coaches to provide content to potential athletes.
Dave Schell: 19:30
You had mentioned when you were starting out, there were so many different things you were trying to do everything and so with this content piece, it might be a little scary because you’re putting in all this time and essentially just giving this stuff away. So what is the benefit of that? What might a coach hope to gain by providing this free content?
Jen Rulon: 19:53
A client, a potential athlete. I think, you know, I think the biggest thing about online marketing or online trying to market yourself out there, you’re not going to go in for the kill right away, right? You know, think about going out on date with your husband, your wife or your potential partner or whatever that might be. You’re not going to go in and be like, “hey, nice to meet you. Can I have a kiss?” It’s the exact same thing as being a coach. You’re not going to jump on social media and be like, “hey, I’m a coach. You want to hire me?” You can’t do that. You’ve got to really get to get those potential clients need to get to know you. So yeah, throw out free content and don’t be scared if somebody takes it, you know, oh well let them take it. That’s not your issue. That’s their issue. So throw it out there, put yourself out there. It’s okay, I’m not going to steal your stuff and vice versa.
Dave Schell: 20:54
I guess kind of what I’ve seen in my experience, a lot of times the newer coaches are the ones that are more afraid to share information. And so they’re kind of guarding it, but I’ve seen that the more experienced coaches that over time you, you realize how much you don’t know. So you’re wanting to share, but also prior to the podcast you and I were talking about operating in a vacuum and how great it is to be able to talk to other coaches and hear what they’re doing. And so, on your website, you not only offer things for athletes but you also have resources for coaches as well. Is that correct?
Jen Rulon: 21:33
Last year at the conference with y’all, I realized that it was something that needed to be done to really help coaches. So you know, prior to this I was doing blogs and stuff like that for athletes, but once a month now I am blogging for coaches and just talking about different tips and tricks that, you know, I’m talking maybe about taxes or talking about, you know, ways to market yourself, things like that. I do once a month blogs for coaches, correct.
Dave Schell: 22:10
That’s great. That’s awesome. And that can be found at JenRulon.com.
Jen Rulon: 22:15
That’s right. And I’m actually revamping my website so stay tuned. I’m calling it Jen Rulon 2.0.
Dave Schell: 22:23
Very nice. Very nice.
Jen Rulon: 22:26
No, and I was going to say when coaches are all concerned about, oh my God, they’re going to steal my stuff. Guess what? 10×100 with a ten second rest isn’t new to anybody. You know, like if you have a fun swim workout that you put together but you want to protect it still, don’t protect it. Throw it out there. And then the cool thing is, is that as a coach I might say, hh my God, that’s a great workout. I’m going to use that. And then somebody will be like, Oh, where did you get that? Oh, I got that from coach Bobby, you know, like, there’s nothing new in our world. And, it’s just how you package it and throw it out there is new.
Dave Schell: 23:12
But I’m pretty sure that I’m the one that came up with 2×20. I’ve got that trademarked. In addition to the free content that’s available on your site, do you have, are there any books that you recommend or any podcasts you’ve listened to radio that you would recommend?
Jen Rulon: 23:30
I am a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. And if you don’t know Gary V., start listening to him today. He will drop the F-bomb. But the dude is so passionate about how help other entrepreneurs build their brand and really grow. And he’s all about free content too. He’s great. So Gary Vaynerchuk is a great podcast. I think Lewis Howes is a very good podcast just about learning how to be a better human being. And then of course, Tim Ferris, if you guys have heard of Tim Ferris and then bookwise: Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It”, it is phenomenal as well.
Dave Schell: 24:17
So Gary Vaynerchuk is for entrepreneurs. Correct? And it’s a really interesting distinction that a lot of coaches maybe don’t view themselves as entrepreneurs. I think that’s so important. And I know Joe Friel, he, when he had his coaching business, he always had coaches read “The E-Myth” which stood for entrepreneur, and the premise is that we get into coaching because we enjoy the craft of it, but in order to grow, you need to find other technologists, I guess, so that you can step back and be the entrepreneur and grow that business. And so what would be your advice, like you said in the beginning, you were trying to get yourself out there, things like that. What about these coaches that are maybe still on the cusp? They haven’t made the leap yet to becoming a full-time coach and that’s pretty scary, right? If I’ve got a full-time job that pays well and I’ve got insurance, but I really love coaching, what are some steps I might be able to take to bridge that gap?
Jen Rulon: 25:21
That’s a great question. I think the biggest thing that you have to recognize is that your coaching, if you want to become a coach, a triathlon coach, you’re not making it a hobby, you’re making it as your business. So you have to switch the mindset of I don’t want to be a hobby coach anymore, I want to be a triathlon coach, I want to be a business owner because that’s exactly what you’re going to be.
Dave Schell: 25:49
So what does being a business owner look like?
Jen Rulon: 25:52
A lot of hard work. I feel like the triathlon coaching is the easy part, and usually what happens in my world and my weeks, I usually do all my stuff on TrainingPeaks on Friday. And you know, shoot out everybody’s workouts. But all during the week I’m working on the behind the scenes, working on the business, I’m working on the accounting, I’m working on the marketing piece, I’m working on social media, I’m working on new, um, new platforms to grow or build my brand to help other coaches. So I’m, I’m out there as an entrepreneur, not as a triathlon coach.
Dave Schell: 26:35
That can be pretty scary.
Jen Rulon: 26:37
Very scary. Yes.
Dave Schell: 26:40
When you were looking to leave your other job, you knew that you to be a triathlon coach? Was it, did you just know like, oh, these are the things that I needed to do, or did you take that leap and learn it over time?
Jen Rulon: 26:51
No, I took a leap. I took a leap of faith because I started coaching, like I said, I got my USAT coaching certification in 2001 and I was doing I had a full time job up until 2009, so eight years. And then that’s when I realized, okay, I really want to be a triathlon coach. I want to figure this out. And my husband and I talked about it and we, we wrote out a plan and we said, okay, you’re going to go to back to school, blah, blah blah. And when I was looking for like a job to work somewhere and all that stuff, I realized, wait a minute, I can make my own job, I can have my own business. And that’s when JenRulon.com came up and it was interesting. It was 2012. I was sitting on the Kona pier while the gun went off at Hawaii and my husband was out there and it was like literally that gun went off and a light bulb went off because I was like, why am I trying to work for everybody else when I could actually be working for myself because that’s what I wanted to do. So, yeah.
Dave Schell: 27:58
And, with all the other stuff you have going on, how do you find time to train?
Jen Rulon: 28:05
I make time to train, because that’s a priority for me in my life. And I am a coach but I am also a coach that walks the walk and talks the talk and that’s just who I am.
Dave Schell: 28:18
And does that part of the marketing piece as well? Do you feel like that helps you in putting yourself out there?
Jen Rulon: 28:25
One hundred percent it does. Because I can talk about being an athlete and I could talk about, like, just last night I jumped in the pool for the first time in over three weeks. And I literally had a conversation with the swimming pool before I jumped in and I talked to people about that on Instagram and people are like, oh my God, I do the same thing. You know, like people love to see that you are human, that there are days where you don’t want to train, there are days where you’re going to crush your run, but then there’s days where you’re going to call it quits, you know? So yeah, 100 percent, being an athlete has helped me tremendously being a coach. And when I first started my business, someone said to me, well, you should pull back, you know, being an athlete and focus on your business. And I said, but being an athlete is my business.
Dave Schell: 29:22
How do you leverage that? Aside from connecting with your potential clients and saying, you know, showing that you have the same struggles they do, how do you leverage, let’s say, great performances and results to attract new athletes?
Jen Rulon: 29:37
I don’t know how I leverage it. I think I just, I think I talk about, you know, after I did Kona, I’m thinking, oh my God, this is going to be awesome. I’m going to get clients. But I did it, you know, I mean, I think people saw more of my struggle at IRONMAN Florida as a, as a win than I saw it. You know, like, I had a flat tire two minutes into the bike at IRONMAN Florida and it took me 25 minutes to change the flat because I’m not an expert at changing flats, you know, let’s be real. So I think that’s where people saw the realness of me. They, you know, here I was thinking, oh my God, I’m in Kona, you know, my 28 year old dream. I finally made it. I finally got those words, you know, Mike Riley asking me if I wanted to go to Kona, but I think I got more of the more feedback on struggling than I did on a win.
Dave Schell: 30:34
And I imagine that you’re posting. Like, If you are on the podium, it’s things like that. But it’s interesting to hear you say that maybe that’s not what people connect with as much as you struggling to change a tire. And so my next question to you would be for myself, sometimes it’s hard to… I’d almost be afraid to put that stuff out there because I almost feel like there’s this pressure as a coach that you need to be the expert in everything. You need to be a physiologist and bike fitter and psychologist, expert tire changer. I would, like, me personally, I might be afraid to put something out there like that, but you found that people connected with that
Jen Rulon: 31:14
100 percent. I think this is something that I talk about in the course that I do. You have to, you have to be vulnerable. You have to get out there and be vulnerable. And that could be a very scary thing, especially for coaches that maybe have a little bit bigger ego, you know, you have to just be like, you know what, I messed up and you know, somebody asked me, they go, what would you have done differently going into IRONMAN, Florida? I’m like, well I would have asked the hurricane not to come, you know, that’s the one thing I could have talked to the universe, but I would have practiced fixing a flat tire. But I mean, but honestly like flate flat tire, I had in a race was like 2003. So I think getting out there and being vulnerable and being open to, to just throwing yourself out there is the key that I’ve seen on social media.
Dave Schell: 32:18
That is a perfect takeaway. We only have a few minutes left here before I let you go. You mentioned a course. Is that a course for coaches? Where might they find that?
Jen Rulon: 32:31
So it’s on my website. I am doing, it’s called Mastering Your Coaching Business. And so I have a course and I have a program. So the course is an eight-week course that you could just dive in and do it yourself. It’s like do it on your own type of thing. I give you all a whole bunch of content. We talk about the niche, we talk about social media, we talk about website, we talk about everything on that. That’s your do it yourself, and then the program that I have is that you’ll get the course, but you’ll get me as accountability as well. So we’ll get to talk every couple weeks. We’ll do an onboarding, you know, really dive in and dig deep about your, your coaching business and really about what you want to achieve. And that’s going to be a three-month program. It’s something new that I’m really loving it.
Dave Schell: 33:23
Very cool. That’s awesome. So that sounds like a great course. Do you have any sort of special promotion or anything for the podcast listeners?
Jen Rulon: 33:32
I do. I normally charge $597 for that eight week, do-it-yourself course. But I would love to get more people into that program, into that course. So I will actually do a $100 off with the code, MYCBTP, so think about “Master Your Coaching Business, TrainingPeaks. So MYCBTP, on-hundred dollars off.
Dave Schell: 34:03
Very cool. And I’m sure everybody will appreciate that and we will put it in the show notes as well with a link to that course for them. So thank you for that. We’ve talked about so much over the last 30 minutes or so. Let’s say that I just did my coaching certification recently or that I’ve been coaching for a couple years, but I’ve been the hobby coach and I’m ready to take it to the next step. What should that next step be for me?
Jen Rulon: 34:32
Jump. You know, I honestly, like, I think, I think a lot of us are, we deal with fear a lot because it’s the fear of failure and I think people don’t trust in why they’re doing what they’re doing. And so I say jump, take the leap, and you won’t look back.
Dave Schell: 34:55
Okay, that’s a scary prospect, but I can see how it’d be beneficial.
Jen Rulon: 34:59
I mean, I get emotional just thinking about that jump that I took. I mean I left my dream job, I left a full-time job with benefits, and you know, it got to a point where it wasn’t a dream anymore and I was like, how can I get 10,000 triathletes to cross the finish line with a smile. And I was like, “I need to start my own business, let’s do this.” And I have a wonderful husband that supports me as well. So that helps too.
Dave Schell: 35:26
I feel like that’s a common theme I’ve heard from several coaches now and I’m thinking that just did this a couple of years ago, but Joe Friel, same thing. He was a teacher at the time and he realized that he really enjoyed the coaching, and he had running store as well. So it was like, for him, he came up with a number that this is how many coaches or how many athletes I need if I was going to make a living. Um, another coach was a teacher in the UK, same thing, and he decided he didn’t want to teach anymore and so he basically forced himself, he took that leap and quit his job and it was basically, if he didn’t make it, he wasn’t going to eat. And so I think, I think not having that safety net maybe is the catalyst that you need sometimes.
Jen Rulon: 36:12
Right. Right. And you know, I mean that’s the thing, my husband and I sat down and we said, all right, this is what I’m going to do, this is how I’m going to do it. And he’s like, “okay, here you go, you know, let’s do it.” And you know, I mean there’s times where I’m like, I need to borrow money, you know, like, it’s scary, you know, I mean, it was scary. It was, it wasn’t fun. It was like, what am I doing, why am I doing this, you know? And, but when I realized I was just doing too much and when I got really focused on who I wanted to serve, then that was when things happened.
Dave Schell: 36:49
And now for the next level, let’s say that there’s a coach who has been coaching full time, but they’ve just been kind of maintaining, you know, they’re doing just enough to get by. What would be your advice for them to take it to the next level for them?
Jen Rulon: 37:05
Hire a business coach.
Dave Schell: 37:10
Shameless plug! Fantastic!
Jen Rulon: 37:13
Well, and here’s the thing. It doesn’t have to be me either. Like there are so many great business coaches out there that really know how to do the online space as well, you know? But, I mean, yeah, if you’ve been doing this for awhile, I would start looking to work with either other coaches or look at ways to start automating things that people can buy from you. So I wrote so many blogs about strength training that that was the biggest thing that a lot of people ask me about because I had that background and I had that, you know, that masters degree. I started putting together a book and I put together a book and so every month Amazon sends me like 9, 10 bucks a month. But hey, it’s something, you know. No, but I do think coaches need coaches, right? Um, I am a triathlon coach, I have my own coach for my triathlon coaching, you know, because I don’t want to coach myself, but, but I do think people also need to get help and the accountability is always nice.
Dave Schell: 38:22
Right. And that’s what I was just thinking as you were saying that you have a triathlon coach. It’s not that you don’t know what to do. The accountability, I think, is a big part of that.
Jen Rulon: 38:33
100 percent. Yeah. And that’s the big thing about the program. Like, the course that I have is just you do it yourself, but the program is me keeping you accountable with that course as well. Yeah.
Dave Schell: 38:45
That’s invaluable. Well, thank you very much for your time. I know that I got a bunch of takeaways from that. We will add notes to the show notes with links and the code for the course. Thanks for joining us and look for more from Jen Rulon in the coming months.
Jen Rulon: 39:00
Sounds good. Thanks Dave. I appreciate you.
Dave Schell: 39:03
Yeah, thank you. Take care.
Dave Schell: 39:04
