Endurance Coach Joe Friel talks about how he built one of the most successful coaching enterprises in the world.

1. 1980 – The Half Leap of Faith
Joe had been a high school coach since 1966. Now he goes into
coaching on his own, taking on his first client. Thinking of coaching as a
part-time job, he also opens a running store in Fort Collins, Colo.
“no chance of making a living as
a coach”

2. 1984-87 The Incubator
Joe buys the bike shop next door and combines it with his running
store. Joe was soon debating training methods like decoupling with
customers and workers.
“The world was not ready for a
triathlon store in 1984”

3. 1992: The 63rd Client
Joe sells his store in
1987 to focus on
coaching. He takes a
day job, fund-raising
for a not-for-profit
group, until he can
attract 63 clients.
“You’ll have less money, but
plenty of time.”

4. Using a connection from a photographer/client, Joe begins
a monthly magazine column. In 1992, the magazine's sister
company asks him to write a book. He says he's love to, but
he just doesn't have the time. Two years later, suddenly he
does have the time. The result is the launch of one of the
most successful writing careers in endurance sports.
“what seemed
like the worst
thing was one of
the best things”

5. 1999: Joe Goes Online
Facing a lengthening client waitlist,
Friel begins adding coaches and
referring clients to them. Joe says he
didn't follow a grand plan to expand.
Instead, expansion came from
identifying a need and filling it. For
example, faxes and e-mails were
proving an inadequate way to
communicate with clients. The answer:
a web site that becomes the basis for
Training Peaks. “the way we were
communicating with our
clients was antiquated”

6. 2007: Giving it Away as a Business Strategy
Joe’s son, Dirk, a former competitive cyclist who
joined the team in the late 1990s, convinces
Dad to start a blog. Joe uses the blog to offer up
everything he’s learned.
“The best way to advance is to
give the information away.”

7. 2009: Tweeting One Idea at a Time
Dirk once again pushes
his dad into a new
tool: Twitter. Friel uses
Twitter to pass along a
daily nugget - one
training tip, one piece
of research, one
thought.
“If I say the sun’s going to come
up in the east, I’ll get half a
dozen people saying, ‘actually,
it’s going to be 5 degrees south
of east.”

8. 2012: The Post-Coaching Career
Friel phases out his
final coaching client
in 2012 to free up a
little down time. But
with another book
due out in a few
months and two
more in the works,
retirement hasn’t
appeared on the
horizon. “The things I’m doing now I
never could have imagined 10
years ago.”