What’s Holding You Back From Building a Business as a Strength and Performance Coach?

While I don’t have specific statistics, if I were a betting man, I’d put down a hefty bet that at least 50% of those looking to start a business as a strength and performance coach never do. While there are many reasons for this, I believe the number one reason is fear. 

I totally get it! As someone who owns my own businesses, I know the fear of pulling the trigger on launching something new. Starting a business is hard, and it’s scary.

Fear can take different forms. For some, fear can totally paralyze them, and they never take even the smallest step to start. For others, fear may appear as perfectionism. An individual may wait for the perfect logo to be created or exhaustively research every coaching platform before making a decision. This perfectionism may also show up as procrastination. But whether it’s perfectionism or procrastination, the genesis of these actions, or lack thereof, is often fear.

Imposter Syndrome Is Normal 

Have you ever felt as if you don’t know what the heck you’re doing, or that you’re not really qualified for a job? I’ve felt this many times in my career!

Here’s a scenario that I hear a lot: An individual studied and passed the exam to become a certified strength and performance coach, and yet, they still feel unqualified to coach others. 

To some degree, this is normal. The individual likely does not have any experience coaching others. However, they are not unqualified; they’re just new at it. And everyone is new at one point in their careers. 

Imposter syndrome is common. If you’re experiencing it, know that you’re not alone. A few things that can help overcome imposter syndrome include finding a mentor in the fitness industry who you can learn from and ask questions, shadowing your peers during their training sessions, and getting in the reps. The more you do something, and the more you learn from how others do it, the more you’ll feel like you belong in the industry. 

Read about the key skills for success as a fitness coach. 

A Little Anxiety Is Normal, Too

Anxiety is often a fear of something that could happen in the future. As athletes, we often have anxiety about competition: How will the field conditions be? Will the weather hold up? 

These are things that are largely out of our control. 

Anxiety, to a degree, is a good thing. It shows that you care about what you are about to do. However, too much anxiety can cause paralysis. At that point, it is no longer beneficial.

It’s been my experience (and I’m guessing yours as well) that when I push past my fear and anxiety to face whatever challenge I’m undertaking, the end result is almost always much less catastrophic than how I played it out in my mind.

Here’s a new trainer scenario: “What if I don’t know the answer to something that an athlete asks me, or what if I say an incorrect answer and the athlete calls me out on it? They will tell their friends that I’m a fraud, and no one will hire me.”

First of all, it’s normal and expected to not know everything. Second, it is highly unlikely that the athlete will talk poorly about you to their friends, especially if you’ve taken steps to find the answer for them or correct your mistake. Try not to envision the most catastrophic result!  

Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

We can likely all agree that in order to become performance athletes, we need to push ourselves. That often requires pain and suffering. 

Why don’t we apply the same thought process to starting and building a business? 

In talking to quite a few people who want to start their own business as a strength and performance coach, they often expect it to go smoothly and painlessly. Now, I’m not going to say that the pain you should expect to feel when starting a coaching business is the same as doing max effort deadlifts, but you definitely shouldn’t expect it to feel like a walk in the park. 

The discomfort might be in breaking out of your shell to network with fellow fitness professionals, marketing your business online or simply getting in the reps leading training sessions as a new strength and performance coach. The more you do each of these things, the more comfortable they will get.

It Won’t Always Be Easy, But It Will Be Worth It

Not being good at something new isn’t bad. It’s to be expected. 

The goal for any business is to grow and evolve, and each time you grow, you’re going to have to try something new. That will likely result in some degree of fear and trepidation. Point being, even after you’ve started a business as a strength and performance coach and you’ve gotten comfortable in your routine, in order to progress, you’re going to have more periods of being new—and not great—at something again and again.

In order to experience these growing pains, however, you have to start! 

When I look back at my life, I can honestly say that the most impactful and meaningful areas of growth are almost always associated with fear.

Fear and anxiety are normal and to be expected when starting something new. The goal is to not let them prevent you from doing what you dream of. Don’t get overly focused on what could go wrong. Instead, focus on what could go right, and then take the first step! 

Read how to establish and promote a specialization as a fitness coach. 

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