How JC Ariza built an online sports training business to 500+ athletes

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the episode above.

Brandon: Welcome back to the CoachIQ podcast. I am your host Brandon Evans, a fellow private training business and facility owner. Today I have JC Ariza. He is a current professional pitcher and somewhere along his playing journey, he has built NST Nomad Savant Training into a 500 athlete plus business operating out of two locations and remote before his 26th birthday. JC, welcome to the show.

JC: What's going on, Bren? That's a pretty cool intro. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Brandon: Hey, it's all about you. So, uh, so let's talk about it. You're you're still playing professional, right? You you played at three different colleges, I read. Um what is that whole ride like as far as your your playing journey from the three colleges to still playing now?

JC: I mean it teaches you a lot. I mean even too I think a lot of people at least who I grew up with around you know my age didn't have the opportunity to you know leave home travel across you know different places and even started like when you're in the the youth you know you playing sports you know the AAU sector. Yeah, excuse me. But uh the AAU sector, same thing in the travel ball club organization for baseball. You know, you were spending summers in Georgia. You were, you know, maybe going to California, you playing the area code, East Coast Pro, all these really cool tournaments. So, I've always been, I guess, um well cultured in a sense where I've been to different parts of the country and understood like how different and how different people live their lives across because a lot of people don't know this too. I mean, they know this, but the US is huge, right? We look at like Europe. Europe, you know, like you can travel to all these different countries within a few hours. Like you can be in Texas for 12 hours, right? Like just driving, right? So, you know, it's it's really cool to to, you know, to experience different cultures, live different places, and, you know, now, you know, being a grown-up, per se. Uh, you really appreciate a lot of the experiences, a lot of the friends, out of the the places you've visited rather than, you know, winning and and and playing ball. Like, that's all cool, but like, you know, we I'm very fortunate to experience a lot of these things that a lot of people couldn't.

Brandon: Yeah. So, you sound very familiar to one of my trainers at my gym. He's actually leaving to go, I think, to Mexico in in a few weeks to to play pro. And he, of course, like you love baseball, he loves basketball, but like he's he's using it cuz he's fortunate enough to be, you know, good enough to play and to get that experience, but really just to go around and see like he gets to go to Mexico, he's been to the DR, he's been to Spain, uh he's been to all these places and and the sport has taken him there. So, I mean, I just think it's very cool because you only get one one opportunity to play, right? And it takes you to all these places. So, let's You were playing in is it the Frontier League in 2024?

JC: Frontier League. Independent League. Yeah. Okay. I was playing there this past 2025 before then playing in the Pioneer League. 2023, 2024 as well.

Brandon: Okay. So, you've been building NST this entire time you've been playing for what, four year? Four years, right?

JC: Yeah, four or five years around there. I mean, I I did start training. I started remote training. Um there used to be this pitching company called uh the dojo out of Scottsdale, Arizona, and they started doing remote training. And I did start doing there. I was one of their first remote coaches. And then that business closed down, and it was like, okay, like you know, I'm I'm in college at that time. my uh I'm at I'm out of college. I already did my fifth year of college and it's like okay, do I get a job? You know, I have a degree, you know, I did my masters, all that stuff. So, like, should I just go get a job while I try to pursue this dream of playing baseball? And at the time, my friend Nick Neville, he started this thing called um ironically coach I just coach, right, where he taught he teaches remote coaches how to, you know, make money online, right?

Brandon: I've seen this stuff.

JC: Yeah. Yeah. So, I've actually uh did that was his first I was patient zero for him along with another guy named Nurus who uh runs pro point catching and he just taught me how to do it and ever since then it was like okay like this is what I'm going to do and this is also allowing me to like travel the world and play uh and play baseball. Uh it's obviously I'm not a major leaguer yet, but um like I said, it's like looking back at it like my girlfriend has to remind me. It's like you've done a lot like like don't like second guess yourself, right? And it's good to like appreciate that and then look back at it, right? But that's I think that's what also separates, you know, you know, high level business owners and and high level athletes is that like um we don't we don't settle per se, right? We want a little bit more than um what the average person is yearning for, per se.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. And I that's what I wanted to to ask you about because it's so interesting like you're one of the very few coaches I I don't even know if I've talked to one that is still currently playing high level of their sport and running their training on the side or not even on the side. Like it's it's full time. Yeah. Um, so how do you manage that that mental split between like still being a current athlete and then going and being a coach?

JC: Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm definitely not an expert in this by any means in terms of time management. I'm still working on it. Even as the business grows, uh, so, you know, I don't want anybody to look at how I model things like, yo, this is the perfect way. And that's a lot even within our training like there's never really a right way. there's what's this whatever works for you because we're all one of one right so I think in terms of like time management uh I'm surrounded by the sport right so I'm I'm constantly learning my brain's always open and a lot of times even too and something that I had to learn through this process is it could mess up your own athlete experience like for example like it's hard for me to put my coach hat on when I'm throwing in general like I can't be as as good as a coach for myself as I am for other athletes. I think that's like one of the biggest difficulties and, you know, having that understanding and being able to, you know, look at video of myself throwing and being able to an analyze myself from a third point point of view, third person point of view. This is something that my friend Anthony um have taught me. This is something that like has been very instrumental to just being able to separate coaching and playing because a lot of times you're showing a kid, hey, you should do it like this, but it doesn't work know right for what your mechanics are, right? And then your body um sometimes doesn't really know the difference. And even though our brains are very smart, allows us to understand, you know, different proprioception and body awareness per se, it still can sometimes get caught up in like doing the wrong patterns because you're teaching an athlete their right patterns. So I think that's in my opinion like the most difficult. But in terms of like how it helps me the most, it's just like I'm always learning new things. like when I first started saying what I'm talking about is like I'm not an expert in a sense where like I'm never going to stop learning, right? I'm always going to keep learning. And I think that's the athlete in me. That's the coachable piece inside of me as an athlete that I've brought into my business to allow, you know, more innovative methods to even train my athletes and to like even time manage my time. Right? With everything that I'm doing, I'm trying to optimize my life experience as a coach and as an athlete. and they kind of coincide and collab with each other. So, I think that's what's like, you know, the coolest part about being an athlete at a high level and trying to run a high level uh facility or facilities and business in general. Uh it just really like drives me that type of consistency, that type of discipline it takes to do that. Um it might be stressful for most people and it's still stressful for me, but it's something I enjoy.

Brandon: Yeah. I mean, it's just it's a part of the whole thing. Like even even when you're done playing, you're going to find more stuff to continue to keep you probably just as busy. Like whether you add on more to the business, more however you pick up something on the side, like it's just kind of who you are in general and who a lot of the coaches are that that run really high level businesses. Uh it's just a part of it. Always wanting to learn more, always wanting to to do more. I have that issue. Like I sometimes I need to rein myself back in like just just focus on what you're doing.

JC: 100%. I mean, dude, it's just it's just that stimulus that we have as coaches and as athletes is like like oh like dude, I think I might just figure out something, right? Like that feeling, right? It's like how many times have you really felt that, right? I feel like I I said that to myself maybe twice a week, right? So

Brandon: literally that's funny. It just shows up in different ways, but it's the same thing. so you're you're 22, 23. Uh, you said you were just out of college, right? And you got your your online um your online experience. Did you take athletes over directly from that that you were working with and start NST or how would how did that transition work? Did you already have a client base for the online remote part of it?

JC: Yeah. So, I uh Nick blessed me with um because like when the business business was shutting down, there were still leads in the funnel, right, that haven't even been put onto the program. So, he just like set up meetings for me, I guess, like I said, essentially what CoachIQ does for me now with uh with with ads in the facility in Newburgh area. But, um he basically set up that for me and I was able to, you know, close those clients. They really liked me and I was also for a few of those clients. I think he had given me eight to 10 to first start, but I remember a few of those clients that I had um you know are now actually coaches in my and you know we have 70 athletes in our program now. Um and they're coaches within that as well. So it's it was it's really cool to see like the growth within the past 2 three years of like even to one of our coaches that that we met that we not not that we met that the reason why we know each other is Casey Henry. So Casey Henry actually he he came to Texas to see me in person as well uh when I was out in Texas first starting this up right after college and um he was one of my first remote athletes and he like really excelled gained I think 6 7 miles an hour in velocity. I mean I remember what he told me when he was a freshman in college he was can barely touch 80 uh left left uh his last year of college you know being you know 87 89 which is really cool to see. Uh I still I still get I get out his ass sometimes. I'm like you should have touched 90. I don't know why you stopped throwing right. I don't know why he said right there, but he's uh he's very happy with like you know decision he made cuz he now he's a uh he's our strength expert and movement expert and he works with a lot of our athletes remotely too. just having that knowledge for the game. You know, even with what NST does, we're kind of um me and Casey are kind of a team per se when it comes to attacking each athlete remotely and and and in a hybrid setting where that you know, the athlete comes into the facility once or twice a week and does his stuff remotely or at the facility just not with our um I guess instruction per se. They're doing what they're supposed to do on their app. But yeah, Casey's been like an instrumental part to that being that he has all the certifications and he saw kind of how the business grew and he and he loved he loved the company, he loved the product and it was something that was like really easy to transition into, right? And he's really helped me grow the company as well because like dude like and you know this within your business like I feel like it's hard to hire the right people. Mhm. Um, and you know, you want them to care about the product as much as you care about the product. And that's not like at the end of the day, like I Casey really does care about the product, but he's not going to care about it as much as me. It's my baby, right? But to even have like someone like under that standard really is going to make your company flourish because there's been dark days, too, dude. Like there's been times where it's like, damn, dude, we tried this marketing thing, we tried doing this, and you know, we tried retaining athletes and it didn't happen, you know, the first year or two sometimes, right, with different things. And now like building the system out, you know, joining CoachIQ, you know, investing in my in the business, like being able to do that and see what it's like flourished into. You know, and seeing how much, you know, more we're making now has really been a really cool, you know, journey to see and and love Casey being a part of it. Right. So, I think, yeah, I hope that answers the question. So,

Brandon: no, I think that I think that point you made about hiring is one of the mo more important things that the owner should focus on whenever they're trying to really grow and scale. I've found in my experience that your players are one of the best hires you can make. Like I like I mentioned the guy that I mentioned to you uh before that's going to play in Mexico. He's one of our main guys here. Um, and I trained him for like a year and a half before he eventually asked. And like he knew how he do things. He learned a lot of how the system works and everything. He's been around the kids. They already know him just naturally. So like it was just a seamless hire. And like we've had a couple people come in just from outside sources. But even those people that have come in like they've known one of our trainers like that's how they followed us like, "Oh yeah, I know so and so." So like they're still connected to us in some way. Not that there's no value in, you know, just job postings and stuff like that, but the quality of, you know, people you're you're going to get in or it's questionable. You don't know. You might get a really good coach, you might get a really bad coach. Like, you just don't know. But I always prefer, in my experience, just to try to hire within, if that makes sense. Like even some of our high schoolers now that are really close with us and, you know, more mature, they train our our middle schoolers. Um, and they cuz they know everything. So, I think that's one of one of the most important things for regardless of your sport, business owners trying to either delegate or just grow and scale their businesses. Um, I mean, you did the same thing with Casey. I mean, he's, like I said, he's talked to me about it. He loves it. So,

JC: yeah. No, 100%. Even too, you got to be careful with like with hiring in that sense, too. Like, you want to hire your friends sometimes, but even that's not the best scenario. It's like like you know like at the end of the day you know sometimes you want to be able to separate friends and business like Casey's definitely a friend of mine uh being that like you know you know we've done this for a long time now and and and he's someone I really respect but uh I wouldn't invite someone that I hang out with and has a different uh career path or even if he is into baseball and he's my friend. Something that I've learned is like not to involve your friends in that either. Right. So because at the end of the day they like you said they didn't do your program you know what I mean what their philosophies and what works for them are going to be implemented into how they teach right so that's why it's it's important you know like in terms of like protecting the product it's not just me being like oh my stuff is the right way I'm afraid my friend would say some like that like not like in like you know being away from what the philosophy is which is like there is no philosophy there's is only what works for the athlete. Like I think a rule of thumb for programming is like the program is supposed to mold to the athlete, not athlete molding to the program, right? So it it's just I guess just I wanted to put that note out there in terms of people thinking like oh like just like let me hire people I know. It's like no no you have to be careful with that decision as well.

Brandon: Yeah. And I mean, you mentioned the the the program itself, but then you also have to consider now you're starting to pay your friend. Now there's finances and money and hours worked and schedule involved. Like now they're asking you like, "Yo, can I get can I get this day off for this blah blah blah blah like all that stuff." And it's just it can get

JC: or something or like get in and it's like, "Wait a second. No, what are we talking about?" Like

Brandon: Yeah. It just it just gets messy like and it just it's messy. It totally depends on the person.

JC: Yeah. I I I would also recommend staying away from that.

Brandon: Um so how does the in-person work? Cuz obviously you're still playing, so you're not going to be physically in person all the time. Do you only train in person in your off-seasons? Do you have a staff that does it? What does the in-person look like?

JC: I honestly with the in season I'm really only able to see maybe athletes once or twice uh a week depending on their parent schedule. Like for example like I'm fortunate enough to travel uh to work every day uh to to go to the field every day. I'm an hour from the field so I just drive uh actually stay at home and obviously we go on road trips for 2 3 weeks that's a different story. But that's even to building the whole remote and hybrid aspect of the business is the ability to say like, hey, even if I'm not there, I'm still, you know, I'm in your pocket. I'm still there. Right. So, uh, in terms of during the season, I usually see, you know, I I try to see them the same amount. It's just the hours are a lot more limited. I will say though, just being able to, you know, build out the business, getting more connections as, you know, as we go through this thing and hopefully this this really starts to work out. But like, you know, hopefully getting Casey to move out here. Hopefully, you know, keeping um, you know, my other coach Daniel who moved up from South Carolina, staying with some family in New Jersey. Hopefully getting him to move out here because, you know, they can handle the coaching. Daniel's still playing though. So, it's like that's another thing too. It's like it's hard to find quality coaches. Um, I guess in the baseball realm.

Brandon: Um, same thing here.

JC: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like it's it's just it's just harder to find that and and to trust that when I'm going out during the season, right? like a lot of you know the best I guess trainers or people I know and it's ironic because I'm doing it are like would that would be are people who are actively still playing as well I guess in in my space. So I'm definitely trying to figure that out that aspect. I tried to do it when I went to Colombia this past winter to play some winter ball. Uh and uh it didn't work out like as much as I wanted it to. Um, and that's just like you're learning with the ebbs and flows of the business in terms of like when when there's downtimes and when there's not and you know expectations that you want to set forth on both sides with the employee and as a as a facility owner, right? It's like uh so that's still in the trial and error process for me. Uh I've definitely figured it out since like I've been back to Colombia, me being here really optimizing the business and getting more people involved with having you know two more coach hires. I mean, one more coach hire along with um having the ability to, you know, collaborate with other people. Uh but yeah, that that the the in-person stuff definitely changes like during the season. It's something I'm still trying to figure it out. How can I, you know, have some more availability for them? And you know, even too, like what is, you know, you asked Casey the other day, it's like what do you need to get out here and so I can start planning towards that, you know, so I can have a goal to plan to plan towards to get you out here, you know? So,

Brandon: so do you do you have any in-person coaches right now or is it just fully you?

JC: Yeah, I have one and then I with the other facility I have in New Jersey uh that I would do work out of that have do work out of. Uh I collabed with another pitching coach there. Uh so I do have another coach who who helps me with my group sessions. Uh, and also I also given him some clientele for in person and sometimes helps me just learning around just sometimes helps me with my in-person sessions that I have individually.

Brandon: So let's I know we have a lot of baseball coaches and softball coaches on uh CoachIQ. I don't know how I'm not a baseball guy. So if baseball and softball aren't linked, don't don't get mad at me.

JC: Football and baseball are not linked. At least for pitching for hitting, maybe not.

Brandon: Okay. Okay. So, I know we have a lot of baseball coaches. Talk about the the message cuz I always see I follow you, so I see the your VELO Protocol. Talk to let's talk about the specifics. I I enjoy learning different methods that different coaches have from other sports personally and I know there's a lot of coaches on our platform like I said. So, talk about your VELO Protocol. What does what does that all entail?

JC: Yeah. So it's the VELO Protocol. I guess it's like my mechanism you can say from a from a a marketing standpoint and essentially it's the programming that we do for our athletes and it's built around just really assessing each aspect of you know their body, their mind uh and how they prefer to move before uh we get them into you know implementing what we found out. Right? So like the first thing we do is the movement assessment. Uh that is something that Casey runs as a corrective exercise specialist. It's he runs it through um an app that the players are the players who join are able to you know put the movements and postural photos within the app and once they get through that um they actually doing motor preference testing with me and that's just finding out how what their natural tendencies movement wise are. Are they natural supinators? Are they natural pronators? Are they internal uh weight based external weight based? Do they do they are they more forefoot dominant or heel dominant? Little things like that that actually really um when we load in different ways and we when we perform actions in different balance points that are not meant for us to naturally be in, it can cause a lot of problems. Even if you are an athlete who has a great physique or someone who's very athletic and you still haven't figured out to I figured out how to optimize, you know, the body that you have built. So within like the movement assessment and the motor preference assessment, like those two assessments in general are really allowing us to understand how can we get the most velocity out of this athlete. And not only that, just improve his his overall performance. Like is he struggling with strikes? Is he is he struggling with uh injuries? Like those are questions that we asked during the the onboarding process in the assessment process before we even, you know, get to you know training them remotely or in person, right? And one assessment I did forget to mention that is also a part of the VELO Protocol is the mental assessment. So the mental assessment allows us to not only not ah excuse me but the mental assessment not only do we want to know how you prefer to to move, we want to know how you prefer to think, right? So we try to find out how these athletes communicate, how we can communicate best with them. Because I was a guy where you could just get on my ass and you'd be like, "If you don't do this, my language." But like like if you if you got on me in front of the team, if you were a coach that um that was willing to yell at me to get it together, I felt a sense of care. I felt a sense of like, yo, like this person really wants me to get better, right? Because he could be he could be saying that to Joe Schmo, but he knows that Joe Schmo is not capable of doing what I can do, right? So that's type of communication methods always worked for me. Early on in my coaching career, I tried to put that on some kids and I noticed it just it was it was a negative feedback per se. Like the kid didn't get better. It's almost like he was scared to come to a lesson almost and I'm like, "Dude, I care about you. What do you mean? What's going on?" And it's more like finding out that way how to communicate with them. If like it's they're not the kid is not soft if you have to push him out to the side and have a private meeting with him, talk about what's going on. It's just that's how he prefers to, you know, handle criticism and being able to communicate in a safe place to get the most out of him. Even too when it comes to structure, like I'm a type one communicator, so I'm like inherently lazy. Uh I call it I guess like I feel like I feel like sometimes I just don't want to be doing certain things. Uh but I've realized it's really the way I frame things and my thoughts. So instead of me thinking at looking at four sets like I get through the first two and like a only I have two sets left versus oh I only have two sets left. Let me get this done. Just speaking to yourself in a different way allows these athletes to get the most out of their performance as well. So we take them through that assessment process, have a review with them and then we finally implement all that stuff into their programming where they have, you know, a daily breakdown of everything they need to do every single day. Because another thing that that we really preach in the VELO Protocol is consistency, right? Like you know it as a basketball coach, if you're not, you know, getting in 100, 200, 300 shots a day or doing a certain amount of drill work. It's the same thing here. If like even though obviously it's not, we're not like hitters. We can't just hit hit, you know, we have to limit the amount of throws because, you know, it not being a natural rotational movement, it's something that okay, like how can we get the most out of each rep? How can we if we're not throwing, you know, are we using water bags? Are we doing medball stuff? Like it's it's it's it's important that we're staying consistent with our movements because this is a very hard thing to do. Like hit like hitting a baseball is obviously in my opinion way harder than throwing one, but throwing 100 miles an hour is insane. Throwing 90 is insane. Like you know, like you you take someone off the street, you know, like they're probably not going to throw 60 or 70 m hour if you give it to them, right? So it's a very hard thing to do and you have to be consistent with that process. So that's why we schedule everything out from, you know, their corrective exercises to their throwing to their warm-ups to, you know, their lifting and arm care. It's all scheduled out through their through the app and they know exactly what they do have to do when they wake up in the morning, you know, along with meal plans, anything they need to just succeed. We're all a one-stop shop. So Yeah, man. That's uh that's what the VELO Protocol is. Usually, you know, we we were able to with our data, we we found out that um on average our athletes gain 6 miles an hour within 6 months, which is really cool.

Brandon: extremely detailed. And I love it because I mean, you know, the the sentiment behind online coaching, whether it be fitness or baseball or basketball or whatever, is like, oh, it's just not effective. Like, it's not as effective as in person or in person is better. But I mean, you're you're you're proof that that's not necessarily the case,

JC: dude. I've been doing this before in person. Like when talking and all that stuff, like I was doing remote training before I was doing anything in person. I was like even Daniel, one of our new coaches, like he went from 87 to 96 all remote. Never saw him in person. right? And then obviously I see him in person now. But it's like dude like like if I can do that just on a screen on an app, what happens if I you know bring that aspect in person and have that in there as well? So that's what you know the facility business has become.

Brandon: Yeah, that's that's that's so cool. And I find it even more impressive just I mean as somebody who develops people like you know as you get more advanced it's harder and harder to make those changes. So like to hear about Daniel and even Casey like when he got into college he gained what you said like seven. Yeah, about 70 miles. I I have to check with him. It's been a long time since we But even so though, like anybody who develops people knows like it's hard it's harder to make improvements the more advanced you get, right? Like I mean it's the same thing as lifting weights. Like it's I would argue it's hard to go from harder to go from uh 225 bench to 315 versus a 135 225, right? Like it's just it the more advanced you get, the more it takes. So, has that from Casey to now, has your protocol changed, developed at all? I'm sure it has, just as you've learned stuff, but are there any specifics in there that you've really learned and that have shifted it or is it kind of stayed similar to what it was when it started?

JC: Yeah. Know, the assessment process, dude. I mean, we always done a movement assessment um with when NST first started. Uh but like, you know, finding out about motor preferences, it changing my career, too. being a guy who um was a was a draft eligible draft prospect guy in high school, you know, not not going into the draft, going to college cuz I was, you know, was going for free first one of the, you know, that was actually crazy for me. I was like, I can't believe that happened, right? Like being able to, you know, have to go and pay for college coming out of high school, right? Uh, and essentially, dude, like all of that, like when you when we're looking at the movement assessment, you're looking at at that stuff, it's it gets kind of generic. I feel like in in a sense, a lot of people um, how can I put this? A lot of people are doing a lot of the same things, right? And and what happened to me in college is like, okay, I asked the scouts, how could I have gotten more money? How could have I improved? and and and you know not chosen to go to college and they said oh I got to sit and see my back leg and get more hip mobility and I tried to do that through college and through college I progressively got worse with velo like my numbers didn't get too bad until my last year you guys look me up my last year I think like an 11 year in third innings I had chances I sucked okay so like like to see that progression of being a draft prospect and and then having my journey to my fifth year college and and almost hanging up like it was very hard to believe that just like the way my like especially working as hard as I did all the way up until that fifth year of college like my body was in the best shape it's ever been like you know I was I was working harder than I ever have in my life and I still wasn't producing results so finding my preferences where you know I found out that not sitting in my back leg or sitting or using my hips was going to help me. it was actually, you know, being more rhythmic in my forefeet, you know, timing things up better and trying less and all of a sudden I'm, you know, 94 96 and now I'm playing professional baseball. So, like I had to get the motor preference uh motor preference expert certification to like implement this into the programming and even too like the story behind motor preference experts. This guy named David Gass, really good friend of mine as well. Uh he's a Frenchman from Canada, uh the the Ottawa area. Now he lives in North Carolina and he is a business partner with Coach Swope, Matt Swope. I'm not probably not saying his name right. I'm sorry, Matt. Uh, but he's the head coach for University of Maryland. Uh, and they have they they own Motor Preference Experts and uh, I actually went to um, I think the clinic back in 23 22 and like I said that learning that like completely changed my life too and and and it's more like I said it was it was partnered with uh, Coach Swope and he's a hitting guy. So the pitching side like even though there was like still like uh they had drills and like different ways to understand that it was still in its early phases. It was mainly for hitting. So like I I I feel like learning the learning the preference stuff like I feel like I was still learning how to implement it into the training during this time and finding different drills, different things that you're going to work for different kids like because it's like the end of the day like if I'm doing a group session the kids aren't all doing the same drills and if they are there's a different focus on what they have. So, I think having that mode of preference assessment, being able to add that, you know, back in 23 uh into into the program has been like instrumental to to what I do. And I feel like I pioneered a lot of like drills and things within preferences that, you know, from learning what I've learned from that certification and continue to learn to have group monthly calls as well. But I'm still I still communicate with David Nick Robinson as well. Like learning throughout that time has really really excelled uh my athletes performance as well. And then adding you know not only that the mental assessment being able to get into their minds and you know you know be somebody they they want to speak to every day and you know be somebody that um they can really trust really like that's another thing that that that coaches really don't put into consideration. Like you might have all this knowledge but there's an athlete like you. Yeah. right? You know what I mean? Like this want to come to the session with you besides it, you know, you having these certifications and you knowing so much like or you just some guy regurgitating information because you read it in a book and you went to college and and you have this certification like nobody cares, man. How are you going to help them change their current situation and have fun doing it? So, I think that's been the biggest separation since starting the business is like being able to get more specific uh with the assessment process cuz I've always been a good communicator. The kids always wanted to to work with me. It was like, okay, how can I have, you know, like you said in like after I spoke on the last question, it's very detailed. It's very oriented, especially from a remote point of view, you know, and adding that aspect of in person for those who can do it. So,

Brandon: Yeah. It's it's all very cool and interesting to hear. And I think the most important part of that is just like I mean you mentioned you still have your monthly calls with with those people, right? Like you're still continuously learning. I I can guarantee you in three or four years you're going to be adding some other stuff to your your program that's going to be learn that you learned. Like it's just any any coach if you stop learning it's going to be tough. Like I my training does not look anywhere near the same as it did 3 years ago. Like it's just a part of it. As new stuff comes out. Um as more people experiment and find what works, uh everybody can find and spin their different philosophies and everything on top of that. So I always love to hear that when when people are like, "Oh, I continuously learn." Like it's going to be tough if you don't. Um, so I got a couple more questions here for you and we'll wrap up. Um, I know we I we talked a little bit. It was last year I think uh about you know CoachIQ and setting setting you up. How does it work now in your business?

JC: It's been great. I mean the the aspect I mean I definitely for individuals I haven't been using CoachIQ too much but for definitely for the group sessions making sure there's attendance for those days uh being able to have their cards just set up in there I know I had that as aspect with trainerize with my with the custom brand app I have through them uh but being able for you know have them you know know what they are you know asking for like they can know like okay the sessions at this time and I don't have to be calling them or texting them that aspect has been great for the group sessions for sure. Uh I I think even too like what a lot of people don't know about CoachIQ is that you guys have um a team that handles ads uh for um your facility, right? Or whatever facility. For me, I don't own the facility. However, uh it's more of just um me being able to get more my avatar in the surrounding area to come see me for a trial session and so forth. And that's helped my business tremendously, especially being that like it's a little different from the remote end running ads versus local. Um, you're trying to, you know, and shout out Noah, Noah Varner, who's been really helping me on the CoachIQ side with this. Um, but that's been like the coolest aspect, I think, for it is just getting me more leads and, you know, having me more organized uh with uh with making my sessions on a day-to-day basis.

Brandon: Nice. Nice. Um, So you use it specifically for your website, group sessions, and the ads. Okay, cool. There, everybody uses it in different ways. So I I just wanted to I was curious on that. Um where where do you go from here with NST? What is your your goal? Say the end of 2026, where are you trying to be at?

JC: Uh haven't said this publicly yet. Um but I want a facility. I want a facility of my own. um something that you know I can turn the lights on for it and I have the key for it uh and it's mine right so that's definitely the next step for me is is a facility I do have people interested in investing too which is really cool and I'm really thankful and fortunate for that uh along with you know obviously me investing in myself I think that's going to be more of my route but uh that's definitely the next step I think I can you know help a lot more athletes I think even through the lesson models is kind of wacky. I want to see my athletes not every day cuz I'll probably get sick of them. But uh I want to see them more than once a week. I want to see them two or three, four times a week in the facility. Not necessarily getting private instruction uh all the time. Uh, but just being in the atmosphere, you know, being around people who are better than you and being around people who want those same goals, like having that kind of atmosphere in the facility and being something that's more membership based um is something that I'm yearning for uh when when I open up. So, uh being on the lookout for that um I'm looking to call it The Nest. So, we'll see where we go from there.

Brandon: Nice. Yeah, that that'll be s such a massive part of just growing NST. I remember when I opened mine, like the the community aspect, it just changes like all the kids come in, they start to get to see each other. Like I trained out of a church before and you know, people knew each other and and I was happy with our program. But just having people in a collective gym that is specifically for your program. The walls are all painted to your colors. Like I got a little wall where people draw chalk and stuff. Like it's just it's so different. Um and I'm excited to to keep cuz I follow like I said I follow you. So I'm excited to keep updated with your journey. Um so last question here. I'm super curious about this and I know we have a lot of coaches that want to get into the online training side of things. What is your main piece of advice for those coaches that want to get into the the online side of things?

JC: I think the biggest thing I've learned because everyone likes the virality. I can't even say that word, but the viral content. Right. That's I feel that's a mouth mouthful of words to say.

Brandon: Yeah. There's a weird one,

JC: right? Um, little tongue twister, but everyone wants the viral content. Everybody wants the the immense following, right? Um, and in reality, um, how specific can you be to the person you want to train? Because you have to understand the difference between kids in your area versus the millions of kids around the world that you're going to be marketing to. Um, you're able to be more specific with who you want to work with. So find out who your ideal athlete is and market to that person. Typically that person is is somebody who you were at their age or maybe it is somebody who you were at multiple ages, right? It's just really figuring out, okay, what are you really trying to specify and trying to uh help athletes do and really marketing to that.

Brandon: Yeah, that's even for in person honestly like I I've continuously refined in my gym our target, you know, kid we train. Um it's every year it's gotten tighter and tighter and that's that's super super important. Like you said online like there's a limited number of kids in an area but online there's hundreds of thousands of like

JC: 100%. And that's the thing too with with when you when you do remote it's I'm part of a community a remote community that you know we discuss ideas like this um that I spoke about right just coach with Nick Neville and you see with with guys that I have guys in the program like not in my program in the just coach program who have like 30 40,000 followers and you know not going to disclose how much money I make but I'm making more money than them. Yeah. and they have 40 50,000 people because they're not selling the right way with their content. They're not speaking to their ideal avatar. Like people are just coming to their page to look at instead of coming to their page to learn and buy things, right? And really understanding how to set that up and you'll have a, you know, a crazy remote business cuz then there's people in that group who have 100,000 followers and they're really marketing well to those 100,000 followers. then you're like, "Oh my god, I got to make six grand." Gez, like that's that's crazy, right? So, um Yeah, dude. That's I think that's it's very important to being able to distinguish those things before you start remote.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. And that just knowing it sounds funny, but like knowing your target marketing avatar better than they know themselves. Like people should go to the page and be like, "Oh, he's literally talking directly to me." Like that's what's going to to influence some sort of action.

JC: Yeah. And I'll give a bonus right here. I'll give you some more free game. The best content to make are the objections that you get in person. So like or objections for remote. Like why if somebody says why is this important? Make a video on why you think remote is important. Right. Like then you literally making a video for every objection you make because you're showing them proof or showing them why what you think is important.

Brandon: Yeah. And even even that one objection you could spin into 25 different pieces of content. In a million different ways. So I mean that's if people at home want to try to get into the online training, find out your market avatar, the exact type of person. get super granular granular with it and find all the objections and make all your content on that. So, not simple. Um, but but JC, this was great. Uh, you know, you're building NST while still continuously playing pro ball and operating out of two locations all before the age of 26. So, there's a really cool blueprint here that a lot of coaches can learn from whether they're baseball, softball, basketball, regardless. And if they want to turn their their playing experience into a business, uh, where can people find you and learn more about you and NST?

JC: Well, you can find me at @jcariza21 on Instagram. Uh, and if you wanted to learn more about the business where I rather you guys go to the business page at @nstglobal on Instagram, uh, we're exclusively on Instagram. I'm actually starting up a YouTube as well. Uh, I did a YouTube video on my group sessions uh, last week that's ready to post as well. So, uh, you'll be able to find me on YouTube uh, very soon. I actually don't know. I think my YouTube is Nomad Savant Training. Uh, so if you guys want to find me there once those videos go up, you can definitely find me there as well. But uh thank you Brandon. I really appreciate your time and I really appreciate CoachIQ and and uh all the work that you guys put in for me.

Brandon: Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate you being on. As always, we'll put the the links on the screen in the description here so you can go go follow JC and NST. Um everybody go check them out. Thank you for coming on. This is fun.