 For me, it starts with, goes back to being a player. I grew up playing soccer in New York. I played for local clubs, and then around the age of 12 or 13, I went to Red Bull Academy. I was there until the age of U17, U18. At that point, I ended up getting a scholarship to go off to play division one soccer in college, down at Loyola University of Maryland. And so I spent a few years at Loyola studying finance and playing soccer. I got injured my junior year. I tore my ACL, my lateral meniscus during a game in college. It was really hard trying to come back from that injury. I had one surgery done that I had a second and a third one. So what ended up happening was I decided to take some time off from school. I came back home, had a few surgeries done, and that's kind of the point of time when I started getting into coaching because I couldn't play at a competitive level anymore. And I still have a deep passion for the game. And so I went back to where I played soccer in high school at Don Bosco Prep, and I started coaching there with the freshman team and helping out a little bit with the varsity group. So at that point, I think I was around 21 years old, 27 now. So that's kind of my first time getting into coaching. And yeah, I spent a few years at Don Bosco Prep, and then I started getting introduced into the club soccer world in the US. And I joined the club called World Class FC. It's a really large program in New York. They had me working with middle school and high school age boys club teams. And then I wanna say around COVID, I wanted to really stay active and in touch with my players because all training and all games had stopped. So I started working on a little social media page and a little business model where I could train kids on the side, I could train in small groups, and I could provide content for younger players to just little training ideas to train on their own. So I would say that's kind of how my business started. And also because I wanted to have supplemental income because the coaching salaries, when you're starting out, they're not that high. And then I would say one of the second reasons too was I wanted something that was of my own and I wanted to be able to train different types of players, right? So at the high school and the club that I was at, it's a lot more middle class and upper class light soccer players, but I also wanted to work with different demographics. I wanted to work with lower income disadvantaged players, minority players. And so that's also one of the reasons I kind of created my own business as well. I think that kind of wraps most of the coaching journey up so far. And then most recently, I've been coaching at the college level for two years now and I'm also getting my masters in organizational leadership, which is really exciting too. Awesome. Good luck with that. So John, tell us a bit about your coaching company then. What do you guys specialize in? How to consider myself a bit of a Swiss army knife, right? So at the moment, I coach three teams. I coach a college team, a U-19 boys team and a U-10 boys team. I do a lot of private and individual sessions, position specific sessions, and I can also do small group, whether it's like with a group of strikers and a couple of goalkeepers or what have you. So in terms of specialization, it's an interesting question because right now I'm at a point in my career where I'm trying to build the most well-rounded resume possible. So when I send my resume or when I'm applying for jobs, I can write down 10 to 15 skill sets in there. I can put goalkeeping training, position specific training, individual development plan. I can put scouting and recruiting. I've done camps and clinics. So in terms of specialization with my program, I would say it's probably small group. That's where I'm probably best. But I would also say that I can do a little bit of everything and I'm good at engaging with my clients and the community around me. I recently posted information about a pickup game and I got a whole bunch of feedback, like probably five to 10 people reached out. So I'm fortunate because now I'm in a position where I have enough of the following where I can kind of create events and stuff like that too. That's really cool, really cool. So currently how many clients are you working with? So at the moment, I've contracted myself out to two teams. That's roughly probably 20 players per team there. So I'd say yeah, about 40 players for the two teams. And then I work about with, I'd say about 10 to 15 players on the side. So if I was gonna do a rough estimate, I'd say about 50 clients in total. And I would say most of the private and small group training takes place over the winter and the summer. Obviously a lot of the team training is during season, which is the fall and spring over here. So like I said, I'm more team-based in the fall and the spring. And then I definitely have session, do supplemental work during the off seasons here, which is the winter and the summer. Love that, love that. So when you decided to start your own coaching business, training business, what did you feel was your biggest obstacle when you first started? The moment you said, do you know what, I wanna start this. I think in the beginning, I'm the type of person who can be a bit impatient. I think for a lot of people, they want immediate success. They want 10, 20, 30 clients right off the bat. So I think for me, it was about the belief that if I stick with this long enough, eventually I'm gonna gain notoriety and a following and people will start to come to me. So the biggest obstacle for me and my personality probably was staying patient, staying consistent and having a bit of faith that it was gonna work out. I think a lot of coaches, they get nervous or they get worried when they don't have a bunch of people reaching out to them. And I would add another little thing to that too. I think in the beginning, I was a little afraid to share on social media as well. Because the fear of failure or the fear of, maybe not looking great on film or maybe the session doesn't look that good on film, but I had to get over that. I had to be willing to put myself out there on a consistent basis. I had to be willing to try new things and experiment. And sometimes I would post something on social and it wouldn't get a lot of clicks or views, but it eventually got me better at the craft of social media marketing. And yeah, I think in the beginning, it was almost like I was trying to force things too much. I was trying to network too much. I was trying to create something completely out of nothing. Sometimes you have to let things happen a little bit organically, right? Yeah, absolutely. Awesome, so how did you, or how do you still? Because it's funny you said patience because that's something I sometimes struggle with even today and relationship to patience. I think one thing that I did was I would speak to people I was close with, whether it's friends or family. And a lot of the times, it was reassuring. They would say, they'd say, John, you're doing fine. You're moving at a really good pace. You're growing. So I think relying on your inner circle to kind of keep you grounded was really important for me. And I know my parents play a really important role in that for me, you know, like they see how hard I work kind of behind the scenes. So they're able to say, you're putting in the effort because a lot of the times when we reflect and we're very self-critical of ourselves, you know, I'm always trying to think, what else can I do? How much more can I do? How do I become more productive? How do I get my name more out there? But, you know, in reality, when someone else is looking at you, you get another set of eyes, another point of view. So I would say what the patience is asking for feedback from friends and family and also even from clients. And I think that really helped me, you know, kind of trust what I was doing, trust the process. And it made me feel better about the journey that it's a long-term plan instead of something that, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect in six months. I love that, I love that. So when you bring in a new client, whether that be a team or whether that be an individual, what is it you look for in an athlete? What do you look for as a coach? Yeah, I would say my training isn't for everybody, right? So like I'm fairly, you know, I'm firm and I'm strict and I'm a disciplinarian. But I also, you know, I also love the game. I love celebrating goals. I love enjoying training too. But for me, a lot of it comes down to attitude, effort, really the willingness to want to improve. Those are the type of clients and teams that I usually work with for an extended period of time. I would say those are the big ones for me. I'm trying to think of what else that I look for when I'm speaking to a new client. Consistency too, you know, to be honest, sometimes I'll see one client like once a month, which is fine. But obviously the results are improved and they're better when the client is consistent and they want to do training once a week. So I do factor that in as well. Like how consistent is the client that I'm working with? Are they always showing up? Do they cancel occasionally? Or I think that's an important factor for me too. So yeah, those are the three or four things that I look for. Love that. So where do you see private training going in the US in the next two to five years then? Yeah, I think the youth sports industry is, I'm not exactly sure on the figures, but it has to be massive. It's probably like a billion dollar industry if I had to guess, but there's a lot of money that is put into youth sports in the United States. I think private training has grown over the past, you know, three, four, five years. And I think it actually has raised the level of player that we're developing, right? There's a lot of coaches that work on the technical aspects of the game. There's a lot of coaches that are working on position-specific stuff, whether that's goalkeeping training or, you know, striker training, things like this. One trend that I've seen that I'm starting to see, and I think I'm seeing it in Europe as well, there's a coach, I think his name is Nate Weiss. He's really big on Instagram. He's a brilliant trainer. And from my understanding, he's like the position-specific trainer at an academy and a professional team. So I think we're gonna get to, and the other position I heard about too is a substitutes coach. I think there's a team somewhere in England, maybe in the second or third division. I heard a story about it. They have a coach who works with the subs, you know, the day after a game or during a game too while they're warming up. You know, he'll do a 10-minute really hard session at halftime, you know, getting the players ready for the match. So I think at the highest level, we're gonna see individual and private coaches for first teams. And then we're probably gonna start seeing club teams, you know, large club teams experiment and try it as well, where, you know, a lot of clubs right now, they have a goalkeeping coach, right? So I think eventually too, we're gonna see clubs have like a forward coach, a midfield coach, a defending coach. Or you might just have a coach that is able to work within those three zones, you know, you might not need a coach for each area. And I think it's not always easy navigating the club and college world for coaching here. There's a lot of obstacles that you have to deal with. So I have seen a lot of my close friends or colleagues of mine, they've left those areas and they've got into starting their own training program, their own business. So I personally think it's a good thing because it creates more competition, it creates a higher competitive level where trainers, you know, they're only gonna be able to attract players if they're providing a high quality service. So I think it's gonna continue to grow. I think there'll be more coaches and trainers starting their own businesses, training businesses. And I think we're gonna see youth clubs and professional clubs begin to experiment with the idea of creating, you know, part-time or full-time positions for these individuals as well. So if an American coach was watching or listening to this interview and they wanna start working with players privately. So they wanna start even on, it might be a part-time business or they wanna try and push that part-time into full-time. Well, they're just having forced, you know, I wanna start something. What would be the number one piece of advice you would give a coach watching or listening? I would say start simple and keep it simple, right? A lot of the times it begins with one client, one player. And I would just say enjoy the experiment of working with one individual player, you know, prepare the session well, execute to the best of your ability, enjoy yourself while you're running the training session. And that's kind of what I did. I started with one client and I had that one client for about two or three months. And then I was able to find someone else and then eventually a group. So I would say start simple, keep it simple, just stay patient. And I would say to kind of add onto that, try to document it a little bit as well. It's really hard, especially when you're starting, especially if you're the only person training. A lot of the times I would have to try to film with my phone, which could be a little bit of a distraction during a session. But I think those would be my one or two pieces of advice for someone to start out. I love that. And it's good you say that about documenting because when you can look back on it, when you have, I don't know, when you've reached 15 or 30 clients, you can look back at that one you had and think this is where I started. Look how much I've grown. Yeah, and I think I've read in a lot of coaching books and a lot of coaching courses that filming yourself running training sessions or filming yourself coaching a game, you're able to, it makes you more self-aware. You're able to see all the extra words that you use. You're able to see, did the player really pick up on what I was trying to teach him or did he kind of miss the message I was giving him? Was I giving too many messages at once? Did I give him four or five tips at once and overload him? So I think a lot of people thought it was a little goofy in the beginning. And I was a little uncomfortable too. I was outside my comfort zone filming myself. I almost felt like a little bit of a narcissist. When I would set up the camera or whatever, but there's a reason for it. The reason I was doing it was to document the training sessions, see what they look like, and then I would watch them. I would watch the film and I'd be able to say, wow, I really liked this moment or I really liked this exercise, I'm gonna log this one, I'm gonna save it. Or, wow, this is one or two areas where I need to start improving. I don't always need to give feedback after every single touch, every single play. So I think a lot of coaches are uncomfortable documenting themselves, but I know for a fact that it's certainly made me a better coach. It's added a lot of value to my clients. And they like to see it too, like a lot of my clients, I'll take a film of a session or a finishing activity we're doing. And they're scoring these amazing goals. I'm able to share it with them as well. And then when I share it on social, they'll send it to other people or they'll reshare it. So it's multi-purpose, so it's great. Yeah, that's awesome. So a question we get a lot from individual trainers is they want to partner with local clubs in their area because they wanna go and as you do, coach teams. So how do you build a partnership with a local club or organization? What's a few things you need? Yeah, that's a really, that's a fantastic question. It's a really good question and it's something that I've worked on and I'm still in the process of working on that. I know in the beginning, one of the things I did was I just emailed a few local clubs saying, introducing myself, offering to do a free session or a free clinic for a specific team or a group of players. I think that's a good place to start. The other thing that has helped me as well is my resume. So having the status of being a college coach and coaching at world-class FC, which is a really well-known soccer program in the area. People kind of perk up and they tend to be a bit more attentive when you have these credentials. And the other thing I would add to is it can be hard getting in touch with the president or leaders of the clubs. Find out when they have tryouts. Find out when they have training sessions and I would say, show up and go watch and maybe have a conversation with a parent or maybe offer to run a session. If a parent is meeting a session or a volunteer coach, maybe offer to kind of jump in and help out. I was able to get one of my teams through my network. Basically, a coach in the area told me that some parents were looking for a trainer and that's kind of how I got connected. So obviously that's a bit of word of mouth and also having a good network. And yeah, I think those, if you try to do those things, you might not get success right away. You might have, it could take a year for you to kind of establish yourself, but definitely try to come from a point of view that you're looking to help grow their program. You're looking to help grow soccer in this area. You think that you have a skill set that can enhance the players at that club. I think if you come from that point of view, you have a better chance of connecting and working alongside clubs. Here in the States, programs can be a little bit territorial. They don't want to lose players and teams, which is totally understandable. So it also helps if you have a little bit of a personal connection as well, whether it's like a family or a friend that is a part of that club, or you know, you know, somebody within that club, it definitely helps having a little personal connection as well. So talk us through a bit about your sales and marketing process then. So how do you market and sell yourself? Yeah, I would say, like I said before, word of mouth is super important. And then, you know, the social media marketing has been really good for me as well. I think having clean, professional, and sharp social media pages goes a long way. A lot of players or families have reached out to me through that avenue. Second thing that another trainer told me is having a Google business page. I think that really helps a lot. And for my clients that have been with me a long time, I asked them nicely to leave a review and nine times out of 10, they do. And I've been lucky enough that people have left some really nice reviews for me. That creates traffic online. So when people type soccer training, you're me, my page, my Google business page will pop up. So obviously that helps having a website, you know, all this stuff, it took me, you know, six, seven, you know, nine months to set up. But now once you have that foundation, you don't have to worry about it too much. So I also have a website, you know, the website is pretty clean. I've had some family and friends look at it and give me feedback. And then what else in terms of sales and marketing? The other thing that I try to do as well is once in a while, I'll have a free clinic in the community, you know, kind of anybody can show up. I usually try to have those in lower income communities, you know, high minority communities. That's kind of a way of, you know, building trust and building relationships. I know some coaches think that that's kind of going above and beyond, but that's something, if I have a little bit of time, I try to offer, I try to do that. So yeah, I think, yeah, using the social media pages to market yourself and your program and the personality is really important. I'm really big on staying engaged with clients, right? So when people text or email or send a message on social media, I really try to respond within the first couple of hours. Yeah, I think those would be my main points. Perfect, love that. Perfect, so John, tell us, where do you see your training business in the next five years from now? That's a good question. I think I'm in a point in my career where coaching a high level college team, I'm coaching high level youth, you know, I'm coaching a grassroots UTEM team. I do a lot of private and group training. I'm getting my masters, you know, I have my UEFA, I'm sorry, my USC C license. I'm getting my UEFA C license in Scotland coming up in December. Who knows, maybe we could link up. Well, absolutely. I would say I'm not exactly sure where this program's gonna be in three to five years. It could be gone. You know, I could be working as a head coach at a college. I could be a director of coaching at a club. You know, I've had one or two full-time offers from other programs where, you know, I probably wouldn't be able to sustain JT Soccer School. So I think in the next three to five years, it's possible that I'm still in the same place. But I think I'm kind of using my program almost as like a portfolio that I can share when I'm applying to certain jobs. But if I happen to be in a similar position now, I think it's totally possible that I'm kind of having and building my own teams. I kind of have my own training program on the side. And I think I could hopefully sustain myself financially just from doing that instead of having a bunch of other, you know, coaching roles and stuff on the side too. I love that. So essentially you're going to be in soccer in the next five years. You'll still be in the game. Yeah, you really never know what these things, but I think I've positioned myself and I've built a really strong resume I have. And I'm just, I'm the type of individual, I'm the type of person that I'm big on continuous learning. Right? Like I have one more year until my master's is completed. I plan on taking the UA for sea license in December. I'm positioning myself to be in soccer full-time. I'm hoping, you know, I'm hoping in the next, I already am in soccer full-time, but I'm really hoping to make a full-time financial career out of it, hopefully in the next year or two for sure. Perfect. Awesome. And well, wish you good luck with all your future adventures. Now, if anyone is watching this or listening, how can they follow your company or getting contact with you? What would be the best way to do so? Yeah, I would say I'm probably most active on my Instagram page. The handle is at JT underscore soccer underscore school. I'm really big on there. And then also you can always shoot me an email at John J-O-H-N period T-O-H-E-R john.tower at yahoo.com. Perfect. And what we'll do is we'll put the Instagram link at the bottom of the video. So anyone watching or listening can go and follow, follow your journey and keep up to date with what you're doing. Leo, thank you so much for your time today. You know, it's not every day that you get to do a Zoom interview and kind of talk about your business. So it's been a great experience for me. And I think it's gonna kind of continue to teach me where I need to take my business. It's good stuff. Perfect. All right, John. Well, thank you very much for jumping on here and sharing your story with us. Thank you, Leo. Have a great day. See you later.