 Hey, coaches, welcome back to the channel. Now in today's interview, Coach Leo had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Coach Matt. Matt is the owner of MJR Academy based in Los Angeles, California. He shares how he got started, how he got his first couple of clients in his business. He recently moved to California. He moved his business there. And if you're a coach that lives in LA or around that area and you're in soccer training, you should connect with him. We'll put his social media links right below this and sit back and enjoy the interview. All right, cool. So Matt, tell us a bit about your coaching journey and how you got into business. Absolutely. So I got started in the coaching actually through my goalkeeper coach who I was doing one-on-one training with starting when I was about 14. I worked with him all through high school and into college. And when I got to college, actually one of the reasons why I got into coaching was because I wanted to get more training in like during college season. And a way to do that was to work with my goalkeeper coach and kind of help him coach. Cause I wanted to get extra training and he kind of expressed to me, hey, one of the best ways to learn is to teach. Cause then it re-insills the skill sets in your mind and your brain absorbs the information more as you explain it. So that was kind of like my motivation for getting into doing one-on-one training when I was in college is like, I just want to be around training all day. So I would go and watch him coach for hours. After school, I'll go there and just watch him train and coach. And then he would kind of explain things to me and how to coach at appropriate times when to point things out, when not to point things out and kind of explaining the psychology behind coaching. And then I just love doing it like from there. And then I started getting my own clients and then after college, I was like, okay, I need to make a little bit of money now. I was still trying to play, I was trying out for semi-proteins and playing on amateur teams. So I was like, okay, I need to make a little bit of money. I can keep coaching. And so I just kept, you know, all right, let me get clients. I started coaching at a high school and a club and it just kind of grew from there. And it was just something I knew I could always do on the side. It was like, I just love doing, I love being around the game. And now it wasn't, I never had the desire to be a head coach. I was never my thing. I just liked working with goalkeepers and specializing in working. I liked working one-on-one with players. That was a lot of fun to me. Awesome, awesome. So you are a goalkeeper coach? Yeah, so I'm a goalkeeper coach. I've always been a goalkeeper. So I really enjoy working specializing in that position and just, you know, working with one goalkeeper for years and seeing that progression over time. Yeah, awesome, awesome. So you currently have a goalkeeper coach in training business, right? So tell us a little bit more. What do you guys specialize in then? Yeah, so I have the NJR Keeper Academy. It's just my initials. So yeah, basically I just, it's the same thing I just described. I just work with goalkeepers, mostly one-on-one. I do do small groups as well. And I have worked at a few different clubs and out of college, Division II College in Northern California. I was a goalkeeper coach there for about seven years, but which kind of helps, I guess it helps with my resume when I'm acquiring clients. You know, they see that I coached at a college for a long time and, you know, I have, you know, so many other clubs in my background that kind of helps to, for the parents, say, okay, this guy has experience, he knows what he's doing. So with the NJR Keeper Academy, it's kind of a way to make it a little bit more professional and not just I'm some random guy, you know what I mean? It's like, it's solidified. It's like, okay, I have experience. I know what I'm doing. I'm trying to build a community of goalkeepers and helping them thrive. You know, that's kind of like my main focus with it. Awesome. So do you have a favorite age group that you enjoy working with? Oh man, that's a good question. It varies, cause like sometimes I love working with the younger kids, you know, like 10 to 12, is that they're just getting into it and they're just excited to be there and they want to learn as much as they can. But then I also love working with like older clients that are, you know, in high school, going into college because they're dedicated and they're like, they're ready to go. They're like, you know, they're thinking about possibly playing at the next level. So I love going into the details a little bit more with them and kind of breaking things down on a really small scale. So it varies, I don't know, I like working with both. Yeah, awesome, awesome. So what has been your biggest obstacle since starting your goalkeeping training business? That's a good question. Honestly, being in Los Angeles, probably the most difficult is finding good field space and finding fields that are available when I need them. That can be really challenging at times. And so that takes a little bit of planning on my part, you know, making sure the field is gonna be available. It's decent grass, things like that. Just, you know, being organized to find, because I just moved down here about five months ago. So I'm still finding all the little fields and spaces that I can use. So that takes a little bit of time to make sure I get down. But I'd say another challenge is finding clients that are, I guess, I don't know what the word to use, but I guess dedicated enough to like want to keep doing it, because some of them just want to try it out and see if their kid is into it or not. They don't really know. So they go into it kind of hesitant and just like, well, we're just gonna test it out. But they don't quite understand that it takes months to really like see progress and to see something come out of it. You know, it's not something you can just do one session, one or two sessions, and then you're done. You know, it's an ongoing process. So sometimes I think parents and clients don't quite get that part of it. Yeah, cool. So when, because that's something basically we teach our coaches and how to, when they bring on clients, how to make them more committed. So when you bring on new clients, what sort of the process that you have to enroll them? Yeah, so it's a simple process. I mean, I only do book them for one session at a time. I have had clients that have booked multiple sessions or like they'll just pay ahead of time for the next month or whatever. I don't have like a, I don't pitch them something like that. I'm sure I could. But yeah, I just, I say, hey, you know, they contact me and they wanna do a session, okay? I just set up one session and most of the time they wanna try it out. And then I'd say about 80 to 90% of the time they booked the next session. It's pretty rare that they don't book the next session. And so I just kind of go like that every week. They'll check in or I'll check in with them to see if they wanna book the next session, which has worked fairly well, but I think I could implement a, you know, package of this and things like that where it's more concrete. Like, hey, I offer this package of a month or three months of training. Cool. So what is, what's two things you look for when you bring on a new client? I think one of the biggest things I look for is attitude. You know, what's their attitude? Are they happy to be there? Do they wanna be there? Does it seem like they're forced to be there? Because I wanna get them out of that. I wanna make sure they wanna be there and that they're having fun. So I want them to want to be there. You know, I don't wanna have to like drag their feet through each, you know, drill and session. It's like, I want, and if I can sense that, I'm gonna, you know, try to, you know, get on their level and try to get them out of that shell and make it fun and exciting and get them to get motivated. I look for, you know, I don't really necessarily care about their skill level. You know, they could be anything. They could be just, I have a lot of clients who are just beginning. Like they've never had folks who've been coaching before and I love that. So I guess I want keepers that, you know, aren't afraid to be there, aren't afraid to work hard. You know, they wanna come there, no matter what level they're at, they're gonna come there and work hard and get the most out of the time. I don't necessarily wanna like force that on them. I want them to come ready to train hard. Cool, like that. So question for you then, number one is, where do you see private training going in the US in the next two to five years? Yeah, that's a good question. I could definitely see it growing and becoming more solidified, like not just with goalkeeping. Because goalkeeper training has always been there because, especially in America, clubs, even club soccer, they don't have dedicated goalkeeper coaches. You know, some of them do, some of them don't. Some of them have like goalkeeper coaches that are there once every two weeks or whatever. And it's just not enough. Like goalkeepers need the extra training. But I can totally see how personal training for all positions and other sports growing because I think people are starting to realize they need individual attention, especially just with the way our society is nowadays. With social media and everything, everyone needs their attention they need on them. And I think that's gonna translate to sports and they're gonna want the individualized attention to help them grow their skills and maximize their potential. And I think they'll see the benefits of that. So yeah, I definitely think it's gonna grow and become much more common. Yeah, yeah, definitely agree, definitely agree. So for someone that's been coaching goalkeepers for a while now, what would you say a good quality coaching session for goalkeepers looks like? So describe it what a good session is. Yeah, a good session is a session that has a specific purpose and topic. So what I usually do when I'm writing a session, I'll start with the topic and I'll start with the drills and the goal and then I'll work backwards to the form of drills. So I always wanna start with what am I working on? What am I trying to get through to the client? And I think a good session runs smoothly. All the drills are set up before the client gets there. There's no time wasted with setting things up. I think so like maximizing the time that you're there with the client is super important. And so everything runs smoothly. There's a specific purpose for each drill and I think a good session needs to be a little bit geared towards each client. So you may have to switch things around a little bit for each client. So if I'm doing one session for the day, one topic and I'm working with three or four different clients on all that same topic, I might switch things around depending on their skill level, their age level, just to make it a little bit more through a more detailed to that specific client. So I think that's important. So yeah, just I think overall a smooth session that doesn't waste time that has a specific topic and purpose in mind. And of course you want the client to come up get something out of it after each session. Even if it's a one small thing, if they can get them one small thing out of the session then I did my job right. Yeah, awesome. So do you go to watch your clients play? Not usually. Not usually. I would love to. I think it's tough being in Los Angeles along my clients live kind of far away and games are all over the place. But I'm definitely, if they wanted me to, I would definitely do it. I would definitely be interested in that. I used to do that more when I was coaching with like obviously college and high school and club where you're more a client to go watch the games and kind of coach the keeper at the game. Yeah, I haven't done so much of that with my private clients. Yeah, awesome. So what some of the coaches we do when we work with, they go out to watch their clients play in matches. Now this could be basketball or it could be soccer. So if you were going to watch your clients play, especially obviously you coach goalkeepers, what are three things you look for when they're in a game situation? Yeah, so I definitely look at, I think number one for me is their mentality. So how are they communicating to their teammates? How are they organizing their teammates? How are they basically interacting with them? What's their body language like during the game? Then I'm looking for if they're implementing any of the techniques and tactics we went through during the session. So are they setting properly? Are they setting at the right angles? Are they going out for high balls the way we talked about things like that? And then I am looking for how they deal with failure. I think that's one of the main things I want to see. Because in training, I always tell them, my clients, I want you to fail. This is why you come to work with me. This is where you mess up and fail and we're going to work through it. We're in it. We'll talk about it. We'll break things down. We'll understand why you fail in this instance. When a game, you don't have that. You can't pause and talk about it and figure it out. So I want to see how they react to letting a goal go in. Or they let a ball drop through their hands or they just mess up. I want to see how they come back from that. Because I think that's a huge thing, especially for young goalkeepers. If they fail or they make a mistake and their head goes down low and they are down mentally, they're out of the game now. And it's going to be really hard for them to get back in. So I want to make sure their mentality is good after they make a mistake. And if I see that, then I'm going to take note of it and I'll talk to them at the next session about that. Cool. Excellent. I love that. So working with young players, what would you say in today's times is one thing that a lot of kids are lacking? Would you say it's the technical side of the game? Would you say it's the mental side? What's that one thing that kids need today? I think both of those, for sure. A lot of kids don't have proper training and their technique and their coaches kind of, their head coaches don't really give them any specific guidance. They're just like, hey, you saved the ball. So that's the training they get. I think mentally is a big thing. So I have a podcast that's just for goalkeepers that's just focused on the mental side of goalkeeping. I think that's super important. I always think kids need to work on that. But one thing that I think is kind of underrated, especially for American players, that I notice with most of my clients is they don't watch the game. I always ask my clients, so when was the last soccer game you watched? Do you watch MLS? Do you watch Premier League, LaLiga? And most of them say, no, I don't watch soccer. And I think that's something in today's day and age shouldn't be an answer because there's no excuse not to watch a game. You can go on YouTube anytime and watch highlights or you can watch live games from all over the world. So I really think today, kids need to be watching more soccer. And I know it's hard because American parents don't always watch soccer. They don't have that on the TV. They're usually watching football or basketball or baseball. But I think kids need to start taking more time to study the game and watch it. So I always tell my clients, like, you need to be watching soccer, at least once a week, you should be watching. Because that's how we learn, right? Absolutely. Like, yeah, going back to the beginning of why I started coaching is because I wanted to learn by watching. I wanted to study other goalkeepers. And the way you can do that anytime is just at home, on your tablet or your phone, you can be watching games. Yeah. So yeah, I think that's, you know, probably a lot of coaches wouldn't say that, but I think that's super important right now. And that's for any sport, of course, you know, basketball, football, baseball, you should be watching games and taking notes and studying it. Yes, it's fun to watch, it's entertainment, but you can be trained. You can look at it as like training. Like, oh, I get it. I'm gonna watch a soccer game and that's my training for today. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, cool. So let me take you back, Matt, when you first started your training business then. So tell us a bit about how you, how did you get your first client? Yeah, my first client was working with the high school. So I was coaching the goalkeepers for the high school and then one of the keepers became my client. And so starting out, I think that's probably the best way to get clients is to work with, for soccer specifically, to work with a club or a high school. And that's kind of like your foot in the door to, you know, you're coaching them every week, you see them all the time. Now you can say, hey, you know, when the season ends or something, you can say, hey, if you wanna keep training, we can do that, we can set up sessions. So yeah, that's how I did it. And then it can kind of grow from there. You know, definitely word of mouth helps a lot. You know, that keeper will tell another keeper from their club team or so on, you know, it's the other goalkeeper friends. Yeah, that's how it went in the beginning. Awesome. And how many goalkeepers are you currently working with at the moment? Right now, I'm only at about four because I just moved down here, so I'm still establishing myself in this area, but I just started working with a club. So I'm sure I'll be getting more clients through that. You're gonna be 10xing that very soon. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I know, I'm kind of worried about this. I'm really busy. Cool, awesome. So tell us a bit about your current sales process then. How do you get new clients and what is the sales process in your business? Yeah, so right now I'm getting clients actually through my website, I've been getting quite a few, which I didn't have a website before. I just built that five months ago, four months ago when I moved down here. That's definitely helped a lot. I was kind of surprised actually that I was getting people contacting me through the website. So yeah, so right now they, usually the sale process goes, they find my information either through word of mouth or through our website. And then they contact me. So you usually email. And then I just, through the email, I let them know what the rate is per hour, where training locations are and what to expect during the sessions. So yeah, that's the sales process for the most part. Awesome, awesome. And how do you market your business normally? Yeah, so I'm on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook. And then I have a podcast that I put out that kind of helps with getting people into my world. And then I also use CoachUp as well. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that. Yeah, CoachUp, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I have a profile in there. So I occasionally get people contacting me through there. And I think being in Los Angeles, it's definitely helpful because there's so many people here and so many people are looking in different ways. So you kind of have to put your fingers in a lot of different pots trying to reach people. But I would say probably the most effective is working with a club or a high school, something like that. Because you're face-to-face with them, they get to know you. You build that trust and rapport with them over time and then they become your client. And then it's much easier to establish yourself with them through that if you're seeing them on a regular basis. Yeah, excellent. So with the four clients you currently have, how long have they been with you? Two of them, they've been with me since probably, since right when I moved down here, so four months, five months. Okay. And then a couple of them are newer from probably like two or three weeks ago. Okay, awesome, cool. So what would you say to a goalkeeper coach who's coming across this video, watching or even listening and they wanna do what you're doing in the sense that they wanna start a private training business, like what would be a couple of bits of advice you would give to them? Yeah, honestly, the first thing I would do is I would reach out to another goalkeeper coach who's been doing it for a long time and I would ask to just come watch his sessions and ask some questions and just kind of learn from him. So basically kind of like finding a mentor who can help you walk through some things and help you walk you through how to set up sessions, how to find fields, how to get organized. I think that's really important. Another thing is having all of the necessary equipment. If you're just starting out, that might be a little bit of an investment as equipment can be expensive, especially like in soccer, like I have my own net that I can set up on grass anywhere, which is a bit expensive, but it was worth it for me to have, so I don't need to find a soccer field. I can train out of park with the grass. I can set up my goal anywhere. And I think that's super vital. So you might have to make an investment in the beginning to get all the proper equipment and of course, balls are expensive. You wanna be properly set up. And then I would say to network and get in with some clubs, start working with them, helping them out. Things like that are gonna help you a lot, and just getting experience coaching, just doing as much as you can. Work with younger, like little kids, ages six to eight, learn how to deal with them. What my goalkeeper coach always taught me was if you can coach an eight-year-old, if you can explain to them bowlkeeping and the tactics and skills, then you can coach professional, because trying to get a six-year-old or eight-year-old to understand what you're talking about and get through to them is much more difficult than trying to explain it to a 22-year-old who's playing professional. So be able to coach young kids, I think that's super important. You need to be able to work with them. Because that's gonna help you, your foundation for understanding the game, because you need to break it down on such a simple level. So you gotta be able to explain everything to an eight-year-old. If they don't understand you, then no one's gonna understand you. Yeah, yeah, 100% agree with that. I started working with, well, this was like seven years ago, the first time ever I started working with three to five-year-olds. And at the time it was daunting. But a lot of the skills I developed working with that age group, I've implemented now working with older kids. And it's really, really helped. Probably most importantly, patience. Right, yeah, exactly. And you need that as a coach because you're gonna have difficult clients. Like that's just part of the deal. You can't run away from that. And they're paying you, so you can't, you know, they're paying for a service. So you need to provide a good service. You can't decide, no, I don't want, I mean, you can decide not to work with someone, but if you're in the middle of a section and they're being difficult, you can't just end it. You need to be able to get through that. And sometimes they need patience and they need someone to get through to them. And then they'll be all right, but sometimes they're difficult and you need to be able to work with that, which is, you know, that's part of coaching. 100%, definitely agree. Perfect. All right, so Matt, last question for you is where do you see your business in the next five years from now? Yeah, I definitely see adding more clients, building up that, but I also see myself doing more group training to camps. I see the business doing maybe more like some consulting, working with clubs and just helping them build their goalkeeper program, creating, you know, a goalkeeper kind of like manifesto or building like out of a framework for how goalkeeping is gonna work in our club. So kind of more of like a bigger scale, bigger picture type stuff. Yeah, perfect. Awesome. I love that. And then my question for you to personal one is what does failure mean to you? Failure means growth. That's all you're doing when you're failing is you're growing and growing is painful, you know, in a literal sense, you know, when you're younger and you have growing pains, you know, your bones are getting better. That's just the way it goes. So it's the same thing with everything else. So if you're failing, yeah, it's gonna hurt in a moment and it's gonna be a struggle. But when you look back at it, you know, okay, that was growth. Everything in hindsight is, I learned from that. I wouldn't do that type of experience. And now at this point, so, you know, that's definitely growth to me. Awesome. I love that. I love asking that because I love the responses of coaches when I asked that. Awesome. All right. Perfect. Right. Thank you for sharing your story with us. I know coaches watching this will get inspiration from it. They'll definitely take a lot of your tips and advice. Now, if any coach wants to either reach out to you or wants to follow your business, what is the best way to do that? Where can they find you? Sure. Yeah, so I would say follow me on Instagram. It's just MGR Keeper Academy. And then if you wanna watch my training sessions, I put a lot of them on my YouTube page. That's also MGR Keeper Academy. And then you can email me, which is MGRKeeper at gmail.com. Awesome. And also you have a podcast for goalkeepers. That's great. Yeah, so my podcast is called Goalkeeper Secrets. And there are short episodes that are like 13 minutes average length. And they're just like quick little topics about the mental side of goalkeeping. How do we handle certain situations? And I mean, really, you could apply it to any sport, but I'm talking specifically to goalkeepers. Awesome. All right, perfect. Well, Matt, good luck with everything. Moving forward, wish you all the best and hope to connect with you in the future. Awesome. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. Perfect. All right, take care.