 What's up, coaches? Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we have Saul Isaacson Hearst. He's the owner of MyPersonalFootballCoach.com. He is an international trainer. He's worked with some of the top professionals in the world, and he's worked with several youth academies that are tied to the English Premier League. There's so much to learn in this interview. He talks about how he starts one-on-one training business and how he expanded that into an online virtual training business. So if you are a trainer, pay close attention to this interview. I think you can learn so much with just how he thinks, how he operates, and he shares a lot of wisdom in this interview. I started coaching really properly after university. I went to America for a couple of years to do coaching in America. So I didn't know what to do after uni. I was captain of the university team. A friend of mine had gone out there. So I went out there originally for a summer, and that's been two years in America. I really loved it. Coaching every day, all different age groups, a lot of time on the grass really sort of honed my skills as a coach. He taught me pretty much the basis of a lot what I know. While I was out there, everyone in America does privates as they call that individual training. So when I came back to England, sort of brought that with me. I started a company called PDA Football and was doing some camps and stuff, and then quickly realized that it was a real saturated market. You compete with a lot of like clubs and that sort of thing and problems with venue hire and nightmares like that. And I was just, this wasn't really working then. But the individual stuff, my one-to-one stuff, was really picking up. So I just sort of pivoted to really focus on that really, and I sort of became, carved that niche out and became quite good at it. It became known as like getting a lot of players signed to academies, and then got a job at Tottenham as well. I worked my way up into the academy and then spent six years there and then four and a half years at Chelsea as like an individual skills specialist while always doing an individual coaching. And then about five, six years ago, I started My Personal Football Coach, which was just really an extension of PDA Football. PDA Football was really individual one-to-one coaching. My Personal Football Coach is like online, you know, an app basically. It started as well as like an app, like remote online individual coaching. So specifically for individual players. And then left Chelsea just to really focus on the business because I was too busy because I was traveling a lot around the world. I couldn't really commit. And now I see My Personal Football Coach used all around the world, tens of thousands of users, clubs such as Arsenal Wolves, Middlesbrough, West Brom, Birmingham, several other clubs using hundreds of grass street clubs around the world use it. Obviously individuals and that sort of thing. So now I pretty much do that. I do a lot of consultancy as well with clubs through the app. And I still have a small client base of individual staff and mostly pros and aspiring academy players. So are most of your clients in person or are they remotely on through the app? No, no. The app is basically, you know, you sign up, it's a free app. You can use it for free and you download all the challenges and you can then, you know, buy courses on there and stuff like that. So I don't work online with players. It's just you go there and you download the practices and you're trained by yourself basically in a lot of different things in there. The stuff I do individually with players is still, you know, in person when I do it. Perfect. Excellent. So you that have been coaching at quite a high level and for a while now, what would you say a really good quality private training session looks like? Listen, I mean it's just like a team session really. I mean, you know, you've got to try and engage the player. It's a lot of bits about tempo. You know, what I mean by that is that, you know, making sure it's really the speed of the progressions and the player never gets opportunity to get bored. You know, you've got to train particularly when you train individually at high intensity. I think if you're a better player because, you know, you don't have that opposition. So you really got to challenge yourself another way. So that's really about speed and spaces and stuff like that. So in terms of what it looks like, I mean, you know, the main thing of, you know, I, you know, I'm a big advocate of trying to link it to the game as much as possible, make it specific or make it, you know, for example, if I'm doing receiving or turning or dribbling, it generally ends with a shot or a pass or something like that. I don't use ladders because I think they're a gimmick. I think, you know, if you look at the highest level in an academy, no one uses ladders anymore. Do you know what I mean? They're just a gimmick for social media. So if you're serious about training, you know, throw away ladders away and look, you know, work with a ball all the time. I'm in England. I'm just out here doing some consultation. And if you haven't think about here, Ty, I travel around the world quite a lot, obviously pre-COVID all the time. And now I'm just obviously just did here. So I'm doing a bit of a couple of things out here and obviously running the app from out here as well. I'll be back in England in the next month. Okay, perfect. So how have you seen private training on your travels? Like, is it growing worldwide? Yeah, it's growing everywhere. And it's funny, because even like in England, like, you know, when COVID struck, it was almost like everyone became an individual trainer because, and that was maybe out of necessity because, you know, a lot of coaches were out of work, you know, a lot of people, you're only allowed to train individual stuff, that sort of stuff. And then there's just been a massive, you know, explosion in individual training all around the world. Basically, man, you know, everyone does it. And, you know, it's good, you know, because it's an additional way to, you know, do your coaches to get income. Do you know what I mean? So there's a lot, you know, there's so many individual clubs and there's a lot of good people out there and there's a lot of clowns out there as well. I mean, as in any industry. Yep, definitely. So let me take you back to when you first started your business then. How long have you been in business at the moment? About 20 years. 20 years. So when you first started, what was your biggest obstacle? Like anything. I remember, yeah, I mean, it's like any business, like any, any products, it's brand awareness, isn't it really? It's getting your brand out there. So I think when I first started, I've given examples of example, you know, I'm lucky to travel around the world. But me, you know, when I was at Tottenham in my early days, I was, you know, contacting a lot of clubs and people around the world and saying, look, I want to come out and do camps there and we're negotiating. And you know, people are saying, well, what's PDA football? I was lucky because I was at Tottenham. So I was selling the brand, but it was difficult because I couldn't directly sell the brand because, you know, allowed to because obviously, you know, you get in trouble. And actually, it was in Thailand. Actually, the first time I came out here, the guy who was, was, I was doing a camp with, I said he wasn't going to sell the brand, but then put the Tottenham logo all over the, the flyers and actually got like a written warning, a verbal warning because obviously that, but that's just reality. That stuff happens. So the tricky thing was for me was that, you know, I was a very experienced coach and working with top players, working at the top academy, but it was almost you got to try and sell that indirectly, you know, and my USP, obviously even now is that, you know, my background at working at Chelsea and Tottenham and also Arsenal do some stuff as well and consultation. But now I've managed to build over like, you know, many years my brand, my USP that I can sell myself through my personal football coach, if that makes sense. So like any business about getting out there, getting brand awareness, getting people a product. And also, you know, remember 20 years ago, a lot of people were saying like individual training, what's that? You know, that doesn't make sense. It was a big sort of information gap because there wasn't that many of us out there doing it really. So that was another challenge is to try and introduce it to people say, actually, this is what you do, you know, now you've got talent, you know, if you want to, you know, you want your kid to get better at maths, you might send them back to a maths tutor, you want to get better at football, send them to a local football trainer. Okay, yeah, perfect. Perfect. So how do you build those partnerships with those big clubs? Because I'm sure a lot of trainers watching this will be thinking the same, how can I build a partnership with a big brand? Yeah, I mean, necessarily, you know, that's, you know, for example, Arsenal's only, they're only using my app because they trust me to, you know, I'm doing consultation with them and I'm going in there and supporting their coaches and working with their players. And they trust me because I've had 20 years in the industry because of my track record of working with the best academy and with the best players. So there's no shortcuts to that, do you know what I mean? So that's taken a lot of time. It's a lot of time to do that build up and build my reputation through that. And that's why now they trust me to do that to, you know, they trust me to come in and work with their players and for my personal football coach to be their choice. So that's a long road, basically. Do you know what I mean? It's that you can't do it overnight and, you know, you just got to keep working away, building yourself up, keep, you know, building your own CV and developing yourself and then developing your own brand as well. So essentially, when you go into a club, how does it work then? Do you give players access to the app or how does that, that plan out there? Yeah, so basically like a club partnership, you know, pro club looks a bit different to a grassroot club because, like I say, we've got over a hundred grassroot clubs around the world using it. But generally, yeah, so the club will go in, we give all the players access to the app. The app is white label, so it's got the logo on stuff like that with the big clubs like Arsenal and they all go in and I'll film their players doing the technical challenges in the Arsenal kits and then we post those and then kids can, you know, download them and then upload their own challenges and stuff like that. And, you know, then also do stuff maybe with the coaches in terms of session design and how to maximize ball mastery on 1v1 and that sort of thing. So it looks different in all different environments, but I mean, that really gives you a bit of a taste of it. A lot of coaches that we work with, they want to start their own app, like that seems to be like the trend at the moment. Everyone needs to have an app to be successful. What's your opinion on that? Do you need an app to be a successful private trainer? It depends what the app is and it's like, you know, some know it's like everyone's releasing app now, but my question would be like, why am I going to, you know, give you know, the old dog and duck app? You know, why am I going to, if I'm a parent or, you know, I say to everyone like, why am I downloading the app? Do you know what I mean? So that's why it's important you build your own brand. What's your USP? Like every man and his dog's got, you know, an app these days, software companies ripping off my idea, you know, producing apps and just, you know, calling it another name, but they're probably, they can't rip off my USP. They can't rip off me and my experience. So like clubs don't trust them because they're just another, just another app. So I think you've got apps always good and they're always useful. It depends how you utilize them. But if you're looking, you know, mass market, you've got to first try and build your brand and build your own identity. Because, you know, what's, you know, that guy in Australia or here in Thailand or wherever in Delhi, like, why are they going to download that app? Why are they going to trust you with their development or their kids development? Because, you know, then you'll just, maybe you don't have that identity yet. I think it's important to first build up your experience, your identity. And then you'll then you're saying, okay, this is what you're bringing to the table unless you've got an amazing app, which is like AI or something or something of that. You know what I mean? And listen, there are some, you know, good trainers out there who are doing some really good things. And I know they've got some apps out as well. Love that. So let me tell you back 20 years ago then. How did you get your first client then? Well, when I was in America, I've got my first client. This is someone who's asked me, I was coaching and I was working for a company. Obviously, you weren't allowed to if you just did it and you know, chucking 50 bucks. And I was like, wow, 50 bucks. You know, I was drinking money. It's great. So when I came back to England, it was like, I think, you know, I think, because I started off running camps. And then someone asked me through that and then I started advertising and sort of it was, you know, it sort of filtered through that. And then word of mouth was always the most effective way of getting new business. You know, it's probably as always is unless you know, talk really about mass market, advertising, selling. But I mean, yeah, so then there's just sort of built gradually from that, people come back and say, look, he's doing a really good job. And now you build up from that way really. And what do you look for when you bring on a new client into your business? Well, it depends. Because obviously now really rallies us, you know, when I'm working individually with players, I'm only really working with pros and that sort of thing. And you know, players who are the highest level, because obviously that's because I've been very, I don't have an infinite time to dedicate to it. I mean, but in terms of like, when I'm just working with clubs, I mean, that sort of thing, you know, has to be why, you know, they, it depends because my coach is a bit different. They're coming in looking at clubs and then, you know, as a club got the philosophy, they want to use it, that sort of thing. You work with players at like quite a high level. How do you keep a client accountable for their own development when they're away from you? Yeah, I mean, listen, the reality is at the very highest level, it's a challenge to, you know, it's a challenge to put extra work in because the demands of the modern game at the highest level are so high. So this got to do what they do, what they can do, you know, they got to keep on reflecting, you know, looking what they're doing, of course, going well, and just try and work as hard as much as hard as possible and try and squeeze as much in as they can, basically. I mean, listen, proof's always in the pudding, you know, I mean, if you're in the first 11 and you're doing well and, you know, people are talking about you, then things are going well, you know, and then that's very easy for that to shift and go the other way. And then I think that's the time you just got to try and think about, right, maybe reevaluate, take a breath, think about what was I doing well previously, what can I then do well now, what can I work on, those extras are so important to put in and, you know, develop myself as a player and a person. Love that, love that. So where do you see private training going in the next two to five years then? Yeah, I think there'd be like, I think it's becoming more and more, I think like, more like, more main clubs will have it, I think it'll become more of, you know, a main-state academies and first-team level, I think it's the individual training becoming a lot more prevalent, if you like, as it becomes more, people will understand it more, because what you see, what you see is that all players are doing it anyway, and then all academies are waiting on like, you know, a lot of academies are doing that now, now academies are offering it, you know, so they will come side for us, we've got individual trainers and all the top level players are doing extras, especially particularly the younger generation. So then, you know, clubs like to want to control everything, it's fair enough, so now I think you'll just see them, they'll try and, you know, use their own and, you know, recruit their own individual trainers to work with the players. Any in-person players are you currently working with? It depends, but I mean, so obviously pre-season is the busiest time of the year for me, so that's one of the reasons I'm going back to London next month, so I'll go about end of May and then, you know, the month, like the three or four weeks before the season starts, my busiest time of year, and I'll work with, you know, many players approached before they go back in for pre-season, and then that's the busiest time of the year starts, and then basically throughout the year, depending on the timing, we'll try and get as many sessions as possible, but it's a small, you know, portfolio of players really. And what would you say to any trainer or other coach who's watching this or listening, and they aren't running a business or they want to get into business? What would be the number one advice you would give them? Yeah, listen, like saying when I started my business, you know, I did a lot of research, listened to podcasts like this, and like, you know, the entrepreneurial podcast, you know, and there's certain things that you've got to do, you know, like any business, you know, same thing as like, you know, you have your social media, create your own podcast, I've got my podcast, you know, I've had a million, million listens, you know, you do like blogs and vlogs and that sort of thing, and to go understand it, it's like, well, it is a full-time job, obviously, but it's non-stop, so just content is king, you know, and the more content I put out, the more, you know, the more money the company makes, it's like, it's not, there's no sort of real secret to it, so the challenge is obviously getting good content out there, so just be, try and be, you know, use your initiative, try and be creative, and you just got to grind at, grind basically, grind as hard as you can, and try and work hard on everybody else, and while still remembering that you're a coach, and it's about, you still got to provide, you know, you can be the greatest businessman in the world, you know, if you're a crack coach or a crack coach, don't forget the art of coaching is the most important thing, you know, be a student of the game, go and learn of other coaches, see what top-level coaches are doing, see what happens, and what it looks like at the highest level, because obviously that's the end game, that's the end product, if you like, and then try and remember to create your sessions to try and deliver that. So essentially, what is the journey you take your client on in your business? So when they join you, what's the end result you're looking for? Yeah, so for instance, like player comes to me, is very much just, you know, look at what position they play, so then my job is to basically try and look at their position, break that position down into microcosmic examples, what you're going to see in the game, and what's going to make the difference in the game, that's what's key with practicing, what's going to make the difference in the game, and generally that's around 1v1 dominations, and my whole philosophy is built around 1v1 domination, the 1v1 duel, can we build the end to, like I say, game-like practices to really break it down, a bit like doing American sports, you really break that down into those essential factors you're going to get, and then really hammer those different movements, those different skills, those different tactics, those 1v1 tactics until the player can't get it wrong, if you like, and then that prepares them to make an impact on the game, because that's the reality, you see, you know, you can do all these little one-touch passing, pop, pop, random mannequin, or daylight, do you know what I mean? But the reality is that what really changes games, it's like, you know, it's been at the break lines with the ball, either at your feet, or, you know, with the pass, or running off the ball, and obviously shots and passes, and shots and four passes and crosses, that sort of thing, end product, so really break those down, focus on those things, on those key areas, that position, and then just do it and hammer it, and then they can't get it wrong. Perfect, love that, love that. So for a lot of trainers watching this, and they want to add value to their local club, say, what's a couple of things that a trainer can do in order to build a partnership with a local grassroots club and add value? It's difficult, really, because I think in pre, you know, before I had my personal football coach, you know, my contact with clubs, basically, I was just coaching the clubs, so I mean, you've got to try and think, what, like, you know, what are you providing, so what's your unique offering, what's your USP, if you're an individual trainer, maybe you're going in and saying, can I, you know, I can offer my individual training services to your clubs, that sort of thing, potentially, you know, so you just got to see, be creative, see, you know, see what you can offer and, you know, take from there, I suppose. Love that, perfect. So where do you see your business in the next five years from now then? Yeah, I think, look, for me, it's just about growing, getting into more clubs, I want to try and work with some federations as well, so we're working across the whole, you know, the development pyramid, keep on growing, you know, so we've got tens of thousands of players on there, not 100s of thousands, potentially millions of players on there, because they're basically making that like a freemium model, so it's free at the point of access, you can use it free, there's weekly challenges, you know, that sort of thing, and then we can upsell from that, so then, you know, that's the real key, so, yeah, I mean, just keep on growing really, keep on growing and see where we can get it. Love that, perfect. So last question for you, it's a bit of a personal one, but it's a two-part, so first one is what does failure mean to you, and the second one, how important is taking risks in business? What does failure mean? Listen, well, go start the second point first, take you, I think you've got to take risks, like, you know, in your career, my career, I've always taken risks because, you know, you know, fortune favors a braze, you know, that sort of thing, are you dare's wins, rudders, that, you know, those sorts of phrases, I think if you don't step out of your comfort zone, and then what's the point really of life and anything really, so you've got to take risks in whatever you do in terms of life, or as your career, because you've got to, because other people are doing it, and you've got to think of what's going to set you apart from all these other people, do you know what I mean, everyone's got an Instagram page now, everyone's got, you know, those videos and then doing sessions, blah, blah, blah, do you know what I mean, so what's going to set you, you know, from what's going to separate you and keep you above the curve, in terms of what's a fate, I think fate is that, it's fate is not taking the risk for me, do you know what I mean, being that steady, and that's what I say to players as well, when I'm training players, I say, you know, if you're going in there and you're the steady, you're not willing to go and implement what we've been doing and take risks and try and do that, you're not going to get noticed, so whether you're a college player, you know, you're a school player, you're a first team level player, you've got to be courageous, you're a business player, in no real life because otherwise, you know, you're not going to be able to get that, you know, pot of gold at the end of the rainbow where you want to put it. Love that, love that. Well, so thank you, thank you so much for taking the time out to jump on here, share with us a bit of your journey, your business. Now, if there's any coach that wants to get in contact with you, wants to either follow your business or reach out to you, what's the best way to do that? Yeah, so I'm on Instagram, my football coach one, Twitter, my football coach, mypersonfootballcoach.com, check out the website, the app, don't know the app for free, you can email me directly, so at mypersonfootballcoach.com, always willing to chat with coaches and give any advice if they want it. Perfect, all right, excellent. Well, good luck with everything in the future and I hope to connect again with you. Help me know. Cheers mate, thanks for having me.