UESCA is a Stupid Idea They Told Me

It is common advice to reach out to others with your business idea to get their opinion about it – specifically regarding its viability. The thought process is that if you get a lot of positive feedback, then you have a good idea and thus you should start your business. However, if a lot of the feedback is negative, do not pass go and reconsider your options.

While I had the idea of starting UESCA for quite some time, I never pulled the trigger due to many reasons which, in retrospect, were mostly due to being insecure about starting something that I perceived as quite risky. However, eventually, I made the decision to move forward with the concept.

Once I had a clear concept of what I wanted to do, I asked several people in the endurance sports world what they thought of my business idea. Much to my dismay, all the feedback that I received was negative.

“Why would anyone purchase a coaching course from you? People only purchase coaching credentials from reputable national governing bodies”

“Endurance sports is too small of a niche, there is no money in endurance sports education”

“You can’t just start a coaching education business out of thin air”

‘That’s a stupid idea”

These were just some of the responses that I received from my outreach for feedback. Needless to say, these responses gave me pause and I questioned the validity of my business idea. Maybe they were right.

Do Your Own Research

Despite the negative feedback, I had put quite a bit of time and effort into developing the concept of UESCA and I didn’t quite want to let it die before it even began. Call it stubbornness, stupidity or some of both, I decided that before calling it quits on the idea, I’d do more research on my own.

I reviewed as much of the current coach education material on the market as I could source. I scoured the internet for reviews about the current coach certifications. And I reviewed all the organizations that offered coaching education to see where I felt I could do a better job.

The end result of all this research is that despite the negative feedback, I felt that it was a viable idea and one that was worth pursuing.

Individual Biases

Whatever feedback you get from someone about your business idea, it is likely that they form their feedback in part due to their own biases. As an example, one of the individuals that I requested feedback from worked for a national governing body and therefore, their feedback was heavily biased toward national governing bodies being the gold standard of coach education. These biases will largely influence their feedback – good, bad or otherwise.

Risk Profile

Self-employed individuals are often viewed through the lens of being risk takers – especially by those that are risk averse and/or those employed by others. This difference in risk or perceived risk, can appear to shape one’s perception of the validity of a business idea. However, in reality, the perception is not on the business idea, but rather that you are proposing to venture into the world of self-employment, which is viewed as way too risky by some, and thus a bad idea.

Friends and Family

The easiest places to source feedback from are friends and family. However, I would urge you not to go that route. It has been my experience that more often than not, friends and family will almost always give you positive feedback because they want to come across as encouraging and also to not hurt your feelings, even if they feel the idea is no good. You don’t want ‘nice,’ you want ‘honest.’

Trust Your Gut

Are some ideas better than others? Of course. But at the end of the day, it is the personal drive, perseverance, and belief in one’s idea that is most important to success. Now, you shouldn’t just let passion be your only reason for starting a business. As I noted above, you must do your due diligence to form an educated opinion on the viability of your business idea – but once you feel it could work, and you feel in your gut that this is the right path for you… go for it!

Remember, no one else has your exact vision for your proposed business and therefore, no one else can truly appreciate your passion and idea like you can.

A story that I have told quite a few times is regarding UESCA’s Ultrarunning Coach Certification. I kept seeing ultrarunners purchase our running coach certification and a lot of the chatter in our private UESCA Coaches Facebook group was about ultrarunning. So, after some research, I found this ultrarunning expert by the name of Jason Koop and as luck would have it, he lived in Colorado Springs, just one hour away from me. I cold emailed him to introduce myself and to briefly state my idea to see if he would be open to connecting over lunch to discuss it. Thankfully, he was open to meeting up!

However, upon talking with him, he told me that while he thought the ultrarunning community would benefit from a course like this, he more or less thought most certifications were a waste of time and that the ultrarunning market was way too small. Reluctantly, he agreed to collaborate to create the UESCA Ultrarunning Coach Certification but said that if we sold even 10 of them, he’d consider it a success. Currently, the ultrarunning certification is our second best-selling product with over 2400 ultrarunning coach certifications sold to date!

Summary

Whether you plan to open your coaching business as a side-gig or a full-time job, know that there will be your cheerleaders and those that think your idea is crazy and destined to fail. While it can be incredibly crushing to hear that your idea and/or path to being a small business owner is not a good idea, you must trust your research and instinct and make your decision based on that. As the saying by Susan Jeffers goes, “Feel the fear and do it anyway!”