 Originally, when I was in high school, I had committed to play soccer and attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, and I attended there after graduating high school. However, once I decided I wanted to take a different path from the army, I wanted to go in to try to become a professional soccer player. I transferred back home to Florida International University here in Miami. And living at home, I wanted to have some type of way to make money for myself and stuff like that. So I looked into doing personal training for soccer and I had one of my good friends that we ended up starting it together and working together. And mainly, it was just seen as something to do on the side. While I was playing soccer at FIU at the Division I level. And that's how it started. Perfect. So tell us a bit about your business then. What does your company specialise in? So as I said before, I had started with my best friend at the time and we grew a company together called Prodigy Soccer Training. And I worked there for about three years. And then towards the end, we had a tech kind of a falling out. So I decided to go on my own and do my own thing. And that's where I created a Premier Soccer Academy. And my business specialises in one-on-one group training for soccer. Very technical-based training with game-like experiences and a lot of position-based training in order to improve the player on and off the field. Not only make them a better player, but also make them a better person and try to improve all aspects of who they are as a player and as a person. Love that. So you that have been coaching and training for a while now, what does a high-quality session look like for you then? What should it include? Well, for me, I think to high-quality session always starts with a good warm-up, some type of just active stretching, active warm-up, to then go into some type of agility, speed and agility, some type of drill like that. And then a lot of 20 to 30 minutes of technical work, focused on first touch, passing, dribbling, small spaces, big spaces, ball mastery. And then towards the end, bring some of the stuff that you did in that technical training into something that's position-based. If a player is a right back, how can you work on their first touch going forward to play down the line? Or if they're centre-mid, can you work on having them turn and play into a space? For me, that's my high-level training. Love that. So with your current clients, what type of clients do you work with? Are they normally beginners? Are they intermediate or are they players that are striving to play at a higher level? I think for the most part, I have players that are striving to play at a higher level. I think I have mainly intermediate to those players striving to be at a higher level. Even at a very young age, I have kids that are eight, nine years old, but that already have that mindset of wanting to go pro, wanting to go try out in different places. But I also have older players that are 14, 15 that want to just be better on their team to then possibly go play at a college level or something like that. But for the most part, I don't only choose them, but I've been thankful and having the clients tell to be always at a good high level in the sessions. What's the number one thing you look for when you bring on a new client into your business? I think the hunger to improve the commitment and the discipline. I think those are the three main things I look for in a client because I rather much rather have a player that's a beginner to intermediate that's willing to put in the work and willing to get better and willing to commit to the process rather than a high level player that thinks he knows it all and just there because his parents want him to be or something like that. Love that, love that. So let me take you back to when you first started a Premier Soccer Academy. What was your biggest obstacle when you started and do you currently have obstacles today? So my biggest obstacle was definitely managing my time between being a Division 1 athlete and running the business. I think that trying to find the time and the energy to do it after being in training, lifting weights, going to class and then having to go and put in a high quality session was one of my main obstacles. And then I started right after COVID hit. So that was another obstacle for me, having to deal with COVID and having to deal with all the regulations at the time easing into normalcy and then having to maintain all the CDC guidelines and stuff like that while trying to be a coach, having a one-on-one session was quite difficult. So how do you manage playing and managing a business? So at the beginning it was very difficult because it's not just being a coach. It's a big part, but it's not the only part. I've realized over the last few months that being very active on social media is very important. Being active with the parents, communicating with them, going to see the player play, dedicating that undivided attention to them is very important, which I didn't have before. And now that I do, I've seen a very big difference in my amount of clientele and then the commitment of the clientele. Awesome. So how many clients are you currently working with at the moment? I think about 20 to 30 clients per week. That's awesome. Excellent. Congrats. I hope that continues to grow as well. Yes, I hope so as well. Awesome. So Andrei, where do you see private training going in the US in the next two to five years then? I think it's only going to get bigger, get more people trying to get into this business. It's a very high risk, high reward. If you're willing to put in the effort into yourself and you're willing to believe in yourself and put in the work, and I think it's very rewarding. I think people are starting to see that more and more and are starting to get that. So I think it's only going to increase, especially in those high populated areas, high soccer areas in the US. Love that. So for any coach watching this interview or listening to it, what would you say to them if they want to start a business, but they're either hesitant or they have a fear of starting, what would be your number one advice for them? I think the number one advice to me for myself when I was doing this, I had just moved into a new place. I just had a one-year-old son. So I had a lot of things, a lot of people depending on me. And for me, this is something I love. And if it's something that the other coaches love and they've devoted their almost their entire lives to the sport that they have been doing, I think, what do you have to lose in betting on yourself? It's something that you've loved since you were a kid, possibly. And in my situation, I've been playing soccer since I was four. And I never imagined myself doing anything else. So if you just have to believe in yourself and, no, don't look back and don't look to only look to people that are going to encourage you, not diminish you. Love that. Love that. So what skills that you've developed in coaching, have you taken into business then? I think definitely being a leader, I brought in a few other coaches to work with me. Learning how to lead these kids and how to manage them is helping me manage the coaches I work with. And also just the discipline of keeping up with planning sessions, reflecting on my sessions, and trying to become a better coach every day is the same thing I do with business. I graduated an international business at Florida International University, and that's helped me out as well, you know, having that background and going into my own business. Love that. So how many coaches do you have working for you then at the moment? I have two other coaches. One is with works with me in this location in Miami, and then I have another coach in Fort Lauderdale. Oh, awesome. And how have you found managing other coaches then? I think it's been easy for me at least, because they're my friends. One of them was my teammate at FIU, and then one of them was an old teammate of mine when I played in club soccer when I was younger. So they're not strangers to me. At the end of the day, you have to keep a business relationship with them. You have to put the friendship aside for certain things, but if for other things, it's easier to talk to them. It's easier for them to understand where they're coming from because they know you, they know me at least on a personal level. Love that, love that. So let me take you back to the beginning when you first started. How did you get your first client? So my first client, my very first client when I got back from West Point, was a friend of mine, his little brother was playing soccer. And he just told me, like, look, you want to, you know, I know you're trying to start training. You want to train my brother? And I was like, Yeah, sure. He just, yeah, he offered me 20 bucks to train him. And I was like, Yeah, I'll train him. And then he started liking it a lot and he started to improve. And then I started to realize that I liked it as well. And then from then on, it was just, you know, just trying to look for more clients and trying to build my name. Love that. And what would you say is the number one thing kids today need? I think depending on the age level and, you know, their knowledge of the game and stuff like that, most of all, they need, you know, open-minded number, open-minded coach, a motivational coach. And then someone that understands what it's like to be in their shoes. I think that's very, you know, have that empathy for them. You know, what it's like to be a kid, you know, that's in third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade or above. And being going to school, having friends, you know, realizing and also realizing that soccer isn't everything. I think trying to teach them that is very big. Yeah, I try and teach myself that every day, but I struggle. Trust me, I do, I do too. There's a part of me that understands it. And there's another part of me that doesn't understand it at all. Yeah, exactly. 100%. Perfect. So let me ask you a bit about your sales and marketing process then. So how do you sell and market your business then? It's come to a point where a lot of my references lately have been, you know, word of mouth. You know, the kids I've been training from before talk to the other people and recommend me, which has been very good. That's kind of what you want to look for as a personal trainer. But also, I've been very active on social media. And then I don't try to, you know, negotiate my prices. You know, I try to keep always a steady price. And I think my prices have been very fair and manageable. You know, going with the society that we live in, especially here in Miami, that everything's only getting more expensive. But I'm trying to, you know, market myself, posting my sessions on social media. And then, you know, just in person, you know, trying to, with all the different avenues I work with soccer, just trying to promote my personal training business as well. Love that. Love that. So something we teach our coaches in our program is how to add value away from the training session. So what's a couple of things that you do in your business to add value to your clients away from training? So apart from training, I do also, for example, game film analysis. I, you know, I'll have a kid send me, you know, his game film and try to analyze it for him, see what he could do better, see what he did well. I'll go to games to watch. And then also just having, you know, that one-on-one time, I think, you know, parents have really seemed to value it, you know, like I'll have the kid arrive 15 minutes early and, you know, just not do anything related to soccer. Just have a nice conversation. As the post school went, you know, what do they like to do outside of soccer? Just have them not just feel like, you know, their only value is as a player, but teach them that their value is as a person as well. I love that. So now you mentioned communication. How important is it to have good communication with parents? Oh, it's vital. I think it's the most important thing with your, with, if you want to keep those clients, you know, if you want to really keep those clients and see the clients stay for a long time, I think the number one thing is to have a good relationship with the parents, especially for players that are, you know, high, like, you know, about eighth grade and below where the parents are still, but like, you know, they have a very big relationship. Like I have certain kids that, you know, I will pick them up and take them to practice because they're already, you know, in high school, they're homeschooled, you know, and they're already more independent. So the relationship is more important with them. But I have eight or nine year olds that, you know, I have a very good relationship with their parents and, you know, the kids, the parents are always going to want, you know, talk to other parents about me. And that's where, that's where it gets even better. Perfect. Love that. Love that. So where, where do you see your, your business in the next five years from now then? Five years from now. God willing, I'll have my own facility, my own indoor facility because Miami is too hot. But yeah, it's, I hope to have my own indoor facility where I can have, you know, training sessions day and night. And then to also have, you know, my own leagues, you know, like a six to six, five to five leagues being played at my facility as well. So where, you know, I'm organizing all that and then having, you know, players from all over just come and train and have a place to where they can call a home. Yeah, love that. And we've, we've a lot of air conditioning, right? Yes. Especially in Miami. Yes. That's awesome. Love that. So two, two last questions for you. These are more of a personal ones and these are ones that I like to ask. So the first one is what does failure mean to you? And the second one, how important is risk in business? So failure to me means that you're not learning from your mistakes because I don't, I don't see failure as, you know, you're making a mistake. I think it's a failure when you don't learn from your mistake. I feel that, you know, it's normal. It's not, no one's perfect. And, you know, you're not, you're, everyone's going to make mistakes. But being a failure, you know, that, that connotation to it, I feel like is something that you're not learning from your mistakes and you continuing to make mistakes. And utterly you think you're over yourself as a failure. For the second, I think it's, it's, you know, it all depends on how much you want to grow. If you want to grow, then there's going to be a lot of risk because no scared money doesn't make money. And if you, if you're not willing, if you're not willing to put in the risk, if you're not willing to put better on yourself and go all the way, then you're, you're going to plateau and you're going to stay at a certain level. If you want to get to the highest level, then you're going to have to work in the risk. Love that. Love those two answers. Perfect. All right, Andre, it's been an absolute pleasure. You've got a really fantastic story. Now, if any coach watching this or listening wants to follow your business or wants to get in contact with you, what would be the best way to do so? You can follow my Instagram page, Premier Soccer Academy. And I'll show my email is deco917 at gmail.com. No, if you have any questions that they have or want to get in contact with me, those are the best two. Awesome. Fantastic. All right, Andre, I wish you the very best in the future with your business. I hope your program grows and I hope you get your indoor facility with lots of air conditioning. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. All right. Take care. We'll connect soon. Thank you. Have a great day.