 Yeah, so pretty much I play soccer my entire life. I grew up with my father being my personal trainer and we'll go to the field twice a week to work on the things I needed to work on. And that's how we bonded. I saw the difference in my performance compared to my teammates. And at a young age, I knew how important it was to do extra training sessions outside of your club training to get better. I always knew I wanted to do something relating to soccer, have a career in soccer. At first, of course, I wanted to play professional, which I did for a small time, but after that I didn't know what and how I was going to have a career in soccer. I knew that it was the only thing I care about. Everything else was pretty much in the way of soccer. And my senior year of college, I was coaching some local clubs and did some private sessions here and there, just pretty much like a side household. And I enjoyed private training the most because I was able to connect with players on a deeper level. And I felt like they benefited from it more compared to club training. Awesome. So how did you end up getting into business then? So my first client was from CoachUp. He reached out to me. He had two sons and we pretty much came into agreement. Okay, we're going to train. I can't remember the day Friday this week. We had our first session. He loved it. We continued training for two years and a half. And that parents refer me to other parents from the team and that's pretty much how the domino effect started. So I was able to get a lot of clients from that specific client. And I was spending more time on the field. So more parents were able to see what I was doing. So they will approach me during the sessions or after just asking for more information. And that's how I started with private trainings. So pretty much word of mouth. Yeah, word of mouth, cool. So tell us a bit about your business then. What is your company specializing? Yeah, so my business is in Miami, Florida. I started specializing with one-on-one training and little by little, we've been transitioning more to group training. My company focuses on the technical and tactical aspects of the game. But most importantly, I like to take high into consideration building relationship with my players, like knowing what they like to do outside of soccer, how school is going for them, how they get motivated. I've realized that the more time you spend to get to know your players, the more they will respect you and pretty much the more they respect you, the more serious they will take you in your training sessions. Mm-hmm, yeah, love. So do you have a specific favorite age group you like to train? Age group? I like middle schoolers. Middle schoolers, so that's ages, anything around eight to 10, around there. Eight, 12 is my favorite age group. Why is that age group? I think that at that age, they are old enough to understand if they want to improve in soccer, they need to put in the work and they need to do extra sessions outside of their club. Also at that age, they have more availability. The older they get, the more competitive, the higher commitment to their club. They train more days during the week. They have tournaments where they train, where they play three to four times a weekend. So they have more availability. It's a good age. Also they're beginners for the most part, so I feel that I make more of an impact on their development at that age. Okay, love that. So you've been in our coaching program for a while now, and how has your business changed since you joined? So I've been in business now for four years or so, and my business has changed tremendously. I honestly would have never thought I'd be where I'm at when I started. I now have systems in place that allow me to think more strategically and focus merely on helping my players. So for example, before I started the program, I didn't have any sort of agreements in place with my clients. This led me to always having to remind parents to complete payments for the session, which was after the session, I got paid after sessions. I didn't know if my sessions were going to be canceled last minute, which happened quite often, and if they canceled last minute, I didn't get paid for those. So my income was really inconsistent, but now I have everyone on recurring billing, I have them on contract. So I don't feel really comfortable talking about money with people, but now since I joined the program, I only talk money with my clients in the beginning of the process, and that's it. Any other conversation from there is just talking about the players' progress, their development and what they need to work on. So I can focus all my energy is on helping them and not thinking, oh, this parent owns me money. So I know also the biggest thing, well, of course the payment situation is huge, but I know my schedule way in advance. I know exactly who I'm going to train this week, the next week and the following. I know my schedule once in advance, yeah. So that is a huge difference compared to when I wasn't in the program. And Ben, the program Ben has helped me so much with organization, understanding my business, and he has offered so many ideas of what I can do next to continue building and expanding the business, which allows me to have more confidence in what I do, knowing that I have someone to guide me and mentor me through it all. And yeah, I'm just happy that this program really exists because I wouldn't be near where I'm at right now. And since I joined the program, my revenue has doubled in a year and a half. And I hope to continue improving those numbers, of course, but yeah, it has changed tremendously. Awesome. So tell us a bit about, so in 2022, what has been your business month so far? Now you don't have to give a number, but in terms of how many clients you added within that, within the year? My best month surprisingly was summer, which usually in the previous years, summer is the slowest because players are traveling, their schedule has a little bit consistent because they travel like either twice or three times during the summer or they're away for the entire summer. But this summer was the best one because I started doing clinics. I had four clinics. I also was able to take a trip myself and my business did not get hurt because I was away for two weeks. So just by having systems and being organized, I was able to do that trip and still keep all my clients, which before, and I think a lot of coaches can relate to this, you will either feel guilty or you will be afraid to take some time off thinking that everyone is going to leave. So just having that security that everyone is still there, you just have to make sure you stay organized and make up those sessions in advance. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So talk to us a little bit. How was the transition from going paper session to a subscription model? So that was the best part of starting the program. That transition, you just have to take the time to learn the system, the software, how it works and just have the confidence to sell that to prospects. First, I found it intimidating because the easy thing is just to get paid by the session. But now you have clients that have to pay you a month in advance and there are a recurring billing where they have to complete payments every 30 days where my hardest part was having that mentality and that confidence that parents, clients will pay for that and they will commit to your program if you believe in it. So it's just believing that clients will do that and what you offer makes a difference on the player's development and it's of high value. But once you go through that first stage of transitioning everyone and having the confidence that you can do it, everything else runs so much smoother. And like I mentioned earlier, now you can focus more on the player's development instead of having to talk money with clients all the time. So what would you say to a coach that's watching that wants to do that change or that transition but is scared to do it? I'd say practice your sales process, your sales code as much as you can when you're about to share how your payment works and you just need to get that first client. Once you get that first client, it will give you confidence, okay, like I did it once, there's going to be someone out there that will also agree to this. And then you get the second client and now it will help you get into the routine. And yeah, the hardest part is just breaking the ice, getting the first one. After that, it should give you enough confidence, like, okay, if there's one client out there that was willing to do it, there's many more. Yeah. And of course, if you provide good value, then you should have confidence that like what you do is really going to make a difference. Yeah, 100%, 100%. So what's the minimum commitment? One of your clients have to commit to your program? Minimum commitment is three months. I am looking to change that to six months very soon. But yes, three months. Excellent. And have you noticed that going three months minimum, you've seen more results with the clients you work with? Definitely, definitely, because we see each other on a weekly basis. So in three months, I see them 12 times. If I do a clinic, maybe 13 times. So that's enough to make a difference. Not only I provide sessions, I am in constant contact with the parents, asking them about the performance. My players need to complete journals after each training session. They need to complete post-game self-evaluation after each game. So I have an idea of how they're playing. I also do watch them play here and here and there. So I know exactly with my own eyes, I can see what they need to work on. But yeah, yeah. Okay, awesome. So where do you see this industry going in the next two to five years? It's going to continue growing. I think soccer as a whole is changing. It is becoming more data-driven. So players' individual performance can now be measured. So I think this will lead to a higher demand for private trainers in this industry as the game continues to develop more into a numbers game. Yeah. So talk to us a bit about your sales and marketing process. How do you market your business? How do you get clients currently? What's the main way? Yeah, so mostly my clients come from word-of-mouth, but I use social media specifically Instagram. So just posting on my story, I am now imposing twice a week. Actually three times a week, two videos of just my training sessions and players doing drills. And one of the videos is of myself just talking about my business or just providing tips and advice for parents. For example, I did a video for parents on how to deal with their child not getting enough playing time. So just providing free tips for prospects. I see as prospects on social media and hopefully leading them into a sales goal. I'm now working with email marketing, something I'm trying to add as another way to market my business. Love that. So have you got a referral system in place in your business? I do, I do. So I tried to, well, I started two months ago. So I have it on my calendar the first month, the first week of every month, I am providing some sort of like promotion to my current clients where it varies per month, but the most recent one this week, I have the promotion that if they bring one client, a friend that signs up, joins the program, then they will get a month free of training. So that helps to just bring other clients into the program without you really having to go out there and find it. How many clients are you currently at the moment? So currently I have 22 that I train myself and my assistant coach has five players. So in total, I have 27 players in the program. That's awesome, good. And we, yeah, it's 27 players, we train on a weekly basis. Yeah, is that mainly in groups or is that one-to-one? It's a mixture, it's a mixture. I'd say half is individual training, the other half is small group training. I'm trying to transition to mostly group training and hopefully all small group training. Awesome. Now, a common question we always get from coaches who they realize that doing one-to-ones is good until you're fully booked and then you can't take on any more. So what a lot of coaches wanna do, they wanna transition into groups, but they don't know how to sell the idea of group training. Right. So how was it for you when you started group training? How did you sell it to clients that there was still value in group training? Right. It's taking the time to schedule a phone call with each client and explaining what are the benefits of small group training. So for example, by having other players around, usually training sessions tend to be of higher intensity because players can feed off each other's energy and effort. You can work more on tactical movements because now you have six players during the session. I find it very difficult to work with tactical movement with only one player. So just being creative with explaining to the parents of benefits, which are true. And another strategy is to, if you're fully booked for one-on-one, then raising your price for one-on-one, which will naturally push more people to the group training. Group training, excellent. Have you noticed that your business has been able to grow a lot quicker with groups? Yes, because it's a more, it's a cost-effective option for parents. So I think it's easier to sell. Also, for the most part, players are used to playing in a group setting. So it's kind of like a natural transition. But sometimes it is hard with some clients because if they're used to one-on-one training and that's what they want, then that's where you need to be a little bit tough and say after the contract is over, this will be the new, this is how we're going to do things from now on and either they move on with you or unfortunately you have to go different ways. But you try to avoid as much as you can, but you have to think about yourself first, right? I wish I could do 100 sessions, one-on-one sessions a week, but I cannot do that with only one person. Yeah, so you brought up a good point. How hard is it or easy in maybe in your position to say goodbye to clients or to get rid of clients that maybe they only want one-to-one, but your time is obviously restricted and you have to say no to them. Right, how important is that? Yeah, it's hard because you want to keep them all, right? But I guess you need to realize that it's not possible and you need to put yourself first, right? So if I add another client, that means that I'm working another hour during the week, I'm already maxed out with one-on-one trainings and if I do more hours during the week, then that means I'm going to have less energy to give my best during sessions. So my clients will benefit more from me having full energy during every session than for me to have a lot of them and just kind of have asking them because I'm tired. And I mean, what has helped me with this too is also the program, Ben. You know, he's there to support me and he helps coaches put themselves first, of course, while still providing good value to your training session and your program, but yeah. Mm-hmm, good. So Antonella, where did you see your training business in the next five years from now? I see myself providing more value to my players, so maybe having a nutritionist come and talk to my players once a month, having us four psychologists talk to my players. I like to do only group sessions. I see myself hiring two or three more coaches, focusing more on clinics and camps or groups, clinics, camps, and yeah, making my time more efficient because it's also I live in Miami where it's extremely hot and hopefully having some indoor location. Yeah, we're very conditioning, right? Yeah, that's what AC is, that's what you are. Awesome, cool. Right, last question, and this one's a personal one. I always like to finish the interviews with this question, where it's a two-part one. So first one is what does failure mean to you? And the second one is how important is taking risks in business? Yeah, failure, how important it is. Okay, so of course no one wants to fail, right? You want everything to run smoothly, but it's impossible. But I see failure whenever something goes wrong in my business, I see as a learning opportunity and I focus on how I can fix it to avoid it, avoid from happening it again. So if you're having the same failures over and over again, then it's on you. The first one or two times, okay, learn from it, if it happens again, then there's something that you're not fixing. So either working on your terms in condition, adding new rules, yeah, so that's what failure means to me. It's just an opportunity to learn what I'm doing wrong and how I can fix it. And the second question, what was it? It's how important is taking risks? It is really important because if you take risks, it will help you gain more confidence and if you gain more confidence, then everything else will run more smoothly, but it's just mentally preparing to, that first time you're going to do something new is preparing as much as you can. So you have to think of things that can possibly go wrong. So if they go wrong, you already know how to deal with them. So preparation to what may happen after you take that risk. Love those answers, great. All right, Antonella, thank you very much for jumping on here, sharing your successes with us. If any coach is watching or they want to follow you or follow your business, what is the best way to do that? Instagram and TikTok under CA Training Academy. CA Training Academy, excellent. Right, well, thanks again, all the best with your business and hopefully in 12 months from now, I can bring you back on and we can see what further steps you've made with your training business. It sounds like a plan. Thank you for having me here, Ronaldo, I really appreciate it.