Over a few weeks in Summer 2019 I ran a low-tech (and low-budget $0) test to see if I could help athletes, users of WODwell, who were looking for “remote coaching.” 30 coaches signed up. 100 athletes asked us to match them with a coach. What we learned excited us about the way remote coaching can make fitness available to anyone, anywhere — and how we can help.
UPDATE: In September, 2020 we launched our “Find a Coach” tool to help athletes find the right remote coach for them.
Athletes Want Remote Coaches
As WODwell’s audience grew to over 3 million fitness fanatics in 150+ countries, we increasingly received requests from athletes asking for a referral to a coach.
I responded to each of these requests myself and referred most of them to map.crossfit.com where they could “find a local CrossFit gym.” I’d tell them I hoped they’d find a coach they liked.
But lots of athletes replied that a local gym wasn’t an option for them. Some preferred to (or had to) work out at home; some traveled too much; some weren’t comfortable in a gym setting; some didn’t have a gym nearby at all.
Half of the requests were for coaches with specific expertise (cardio, strength, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, nutrition, weight loss, sport-specific, etc.) because the athlete didn’t know any local specialists.
I wanted to help but WODwell is a workout database, I thought. Not a coach referral service. These requests were “out of scope.”
Then, in early 2019, my wife Lisa, who coaches at CrossFit SOMA in San Francisco, started offering remote coaching to friends. I decided to refer the next few athletes’ inquiries to her. And…some of them hired her.
Later we learned through surveys that ~25% of WODwell’s users are coaches, and 1/3 of them have at least one remote client. Lightbulb. Maybe we should expand our scope!
Coaches Want Remote Clients
If we wanted to make coach referrals, first we had to see if we could build a “supply” of coaches looking for remote athletes (clients). So, we put a note on WODwell and asked coaches if they wanted to be connected with potential clients. By the next day we had 10 coaches signed up. Not surprisingly, drumming up new clients is a pain point for these entrepreneurs.
Over the next couple of weeks I interviewed, screened, and on-boarded nearly 30 coaches on 5 continents — independent coaches as well as a few from The Juice Compound, Training Think Tank, Modern Strength, The Forge Method, and JKs Masters. I noted each coach’s certifications, specialties, preferences, cost, languages, offerings, etc. And I told them if I found an athlete who looked like a fit, I’d send them their way. No cost, no catch.
Matching Athletes & Coaches: The Prototype
Next, I launched a page on WODwell that offered athletes to “match” them with a remote coach.
Each time an athlete filled out that form, I reviewed the request and forwarded the athlete’s inquiry to 1–3 coaches who I thought could be a fit.
If a coach replied with interest, I introduced them to the athlete via email and asked the coach to take it from there.
Within 6 weeks I had processed 101 athletes’ requests.
All it took to spin up this prototype was a contact form on a WordPress site, a couple of Google Docs, and Gmail.
What I Learned
After the first couple of weeks we started to see the patterns.
But there was a lot of room for improvement. I sent an email to the coaches I had on-boarded to tell them what “key learnings” we had and how I thought we could improve — and asked for their feedback.
(1) First of all, some athletes were hiring the coaches we introduced them to. This was great!
(2) Athletes didn’t always respond after an introduction
Introductions were taking too long. I manually reviewed each inquiry; manually requested coaches let me know they were interested; manually introduced coach(es) to each athlete — across multiple timezones. Depending on the time of day, the whole process could take 1–12 hours.
I committed to streamlining the process as much as I could and recommended some best practices to coaches who weren’t used to following up with leads by email (such as automating replies to help improve response rates).
(3) Athletes didn’t know what kinds of cost to expect
Some athletes were surprised coaching wasn’t free (!?). Each coach set their own rates so WODwell wasn’t involved in pricing or billing, but we were able to post a rough guide on our site to help set athletes’ expectations.
(4) Importantly, all of the issues were solvable with better processes and technology.
So, What Next?
Based on the success of the “coach match” prototype, as measured by the 35% of coaches who told us they got hired by at least one athlete, we’re designing a slightly more high-tech solution. One that that will improve each of the issues we found with the prototype. One that doesn’t require me to manually review each athlete’s request!
We’re designing a way for remote coaches to showcase their craft and expertise through their original workouts —so they can get discovered (and potentially hired) by WODwell’s millions of users.
This next version won’t be perfect or fully polished on day-1, but it will improve on the biggest issues we found in the prototype. And we’ll continue to use feedback from coaches and athletes to make it better.
Join us
We’re inviting select coaches to be a part of this solution. Join the waitlist.
UPDATE:
- In September, 2020 we launched our “Find a Coach” tool to help athletes find the right remote coach for them.
- Are you a remote coach? Join WODwell.
Remote coaching will play a meaningful role in the future of fitness and we want to help develop and accelerate this trend.
—
Jeremy Reither
wodwell.com | co-creator
