A Heart 4 Business: How can I get paid for coaching on campus? Dan Miller

A 48 Days Podcast listener asks: “I have an idea that I have been working on for a while. Many student-athletes come to college well prepared academically, athletically, and emotionally whereas other student-athletes have struggles and can sometimes be described as “at-risk”. These “at-risk” student-athletes have a difficult time handling daily struggles such as peer pressure, drugs and alcohol, boyfriend/girlfriend relationships and other problems that often have an adverse effect on student-athletes’ performance in the classroom and on the field. I have seen countless student-athletes have off the field distractions and make bad

Muscular man during his workout on the street

Athletes need balanced success

decisions that lead to loss of scholarship, and negative publicity for the school and alums. A position such as a Student-Athlete Development Coach should be created to assist student-athletes in their transition from high school to college. My question is how do I make money doing this and how do I get this program into colleges and universities? I have contacted college and universities but many are not coming around to this idea.” David

I love your idea – and you are so right. Many gifted athletes sabotage their opportunities by making poor decisions off the field.

Be careful about wanting a JOB for a creative talent like coaching. It may fit better as an independent contractor, free-lancer, consultant or entrepreneur. Here in the Nashville area we have 17 colleges and universities. What if none of them wanted to give you a job but you found 8 of them that wanted to have you available for their student-athletes 2 days a month – and would pay you $100 an hour for five hours. That would be $1000 a month from each of those 8 schools – a very reasonable and small investment for them without all the complexity of bringing you on as an employee. But that would mean $8000 a month for you for 16 half days of work – and $96,000 a year. If you think like that it will open up a whole lot of doors that will be totally closed if you are looking for a job.

In Coaching with Excellence we look at creative applications like this. Check out some of the testimonials from people who are creative coaches, gardening coaches, diabetes coaches, career coaches and many more.

If you want to see if your personality “fits” being a coach – start with this free Personality Overview Guide.