D3 World

New Year's in September

My career as a coach started in 1988, but my roots were growing long before that. I've been coaching triathletes since 1992, and swimmers since 1989. I worked in the mutual fund business, and even worked for some pretty big companies at the peak. Later on, I worked at a few smaller companies as as an analyst and in August 2001 I left the finance world. I've always felt most comfortable coaching or in reality, teaching. That's what a competent coach is, a teacher. Whether it be coaching teenagers on a swim team, adolescents who were learning to swim, or adults who were getting in a pool for the first time in their lives. I enjoy the feeling of giving back - teaching a new skill or helping someone accomplish something they didn't think they could. That's quite a thrill for me. I love taking a 1:10 swimmer for Ironman distance, and turning them into a sub 1:00 swimmer. I love taking someone from being a 4:00 Ironman marathoner and turning him or her into a 3:1x Ironman marathoner. I enjoy what I do, and its hard to even call it work most days. There are certainly things I have to do to make sure the bills are paid, but I get so much enjoyment out of my career, that I know I am one of the fortunate people out there.

Being a competitive person, I am always ready for a challenge. A few years back, I thought that there was a limit to how much one can make coaching triathletes and now, I don't think there is a ceiling. If you do the math, its quite simple. There are 100,000+ registered USAT triathletes in the good old US of A and plenty more who aren't annual members. If one coach had 1% of the market, he'd have 1000 athletes. No one coach can handle 1,000 athletes. Not even Vince Lombardi could coach that many people, and trust me Vince can coach! I've challenged myself to write down some off the wall revenue numbers and I've given myself 18 months to reach them. You might ask why I chose 18 months - well I do well in about 18 month cycles. When I started my MBA program while working full time and training for triathlon, I decided I would finish in 18 months. That meant some long nights, and some heavy course loads (winter, summer, spring, fall), but I got it done. Then in July 2005, I decided I was going to put 18 solid months into growing my business, and by the end of 2006, I had doubled revenues. So, now I've put some numbers onto the motivation cork board in my office and each day I look at them, and spend some part of my day working toward reaching those goals. Heck, I don't know if I'll make it, but I thought it would be fun to share the journey. I can tell you what I know, how I got where I am, and maybe you can learn a thing or two from my many mistakes. One of the most important things I learned even as a teenager, was that if you want to be great, surround yourself with great people. That means people who are smarter, wealthier, and yeah, that means your ego has to take a back seat. More on that in a minute. One of the best books to read on this philosophy was written by Howard Shultz, Pour Your Heart into It. Imagine my surprise many years later when I picked up this book, read it from cover to cover, and had my lesson reiterated from one of the most successful businessmen of our time.

As for how D3 Multisport began: I've been triathlon coaching in Boulder, CO, full time since 2001; seven full years of not relying on a paycheck from 'the man'. Over that course of time, I've gone from a one man show and coaching upwards of 50 athletes a year, to a business with seven other coaches who all have an equal passion for coaching and helping others achieve their dreams. These days, I only coach about 10 athletes a year and our coaches are about the same, give or take three or four. I've made it this far, with the help of a lot of smart people. I don't ever call our company successful, because I think there is so much more to accomplish: I am not published, we don't have 200 athletes that we coach one-on-one and we haven't had anyone win Ironman or the Olympics (yet). I don't even know that those things would be considered successful to most people. Getting back to surrounding yourself with great people; Ron, Matt, Bud, and Mexico Bill - have all been great mentors to me not only business wise, but in life as well. They have all showed me, whether they knew it or not at the time, that it's important that you balance your family and your career. Making money is great and all, but if you had all the money in the world and no one to share it with, would you be happy? Probably not. I hope to share a little bio on each of my mentors as the months roll by, just to prove that nice guys can finish first, and that success isn't a chance occurrence.

So, where does that leave me today? Well, with my new goals firmly on the motivation board and my sights set on new heights for D3 Multisport, I am treating today like New Year's and this month like January. It's a new beginning, with new goals, new aspirations, and new dreams. I hope you'll join me for the ride!