Abbie Fish: Your Guide to Building Coaching Businesses Online in Any Industry | E12

Abbie Fish (0:00)

I launched a new membership site. I was like, this is gonna go, I'm gonna pour everything into this. And then COVID happened, and I was like, well, not a lot of people are paying for swim lessons if they can't get into swimming pools.

Sammy Peterson (0:10)

My next guest has reached over 250,000 athletes and coaches worldwide, coached 140 Olympians and Paralympians, and consults for entire countries on how to develop swimmers.

Abbie Fish (0:20)

There was a timeframe within like my coaching career. I really had to look in the mirror and decide like, what are we doing this for? And if we're doing this for you, coaching is not the right path.

Sammy Peterson (0:30)

Abbie Fish is a six-time Olympic Trials Qualifier and two-time USA Junior National Champion who founded Swim Like A. Fish and proved you don't need fame to build something global. You need to be undeniably good at one thing and figure out how to teach it.

Abbie Fish (0:44)

I was actually in Alaska last August, and I received an email asking me to run a program in Africa. I looked at the email address, and I'm like, is this spam? Like, is this right? Like, is this really what I'm reading? Like, it's still really surreal to tell you that like, I did that.

Sammy Peterson (0:59)

What are you working on right now that you're most excited about?

Abbie Fish (1:01)

Oh man, I don't know if I should say it.

Sammy Peterson (1:06)

My next guest has reached over 250,000 athletes and coaches worldwide, coached 140 Olympians and Paralympians, and consults for entire countries on how to develop swimmers. She built all of this in just six years. Abbie Fish is a six-time Olympic trials qualifier and two-time USA junior national champion who founded Swim Like A. Fish and proved you don't need fame to build something global. You need to be undeniably good at one thing and figure out how to teach it. Oh, and her last name really is Fish. Some things are just meant to be.

Abbie Fish, welcome to Business MVP.

Abbie Fish (1:39)

Thank you for having me. I appreciate the very kind intro.

Sammy Peterson (1:42)

I love that. Your name couldn't be more perfect for what you do. It's amazing.

Abbie Fish (1:46)

Yes. Whenever I was younger, I would stand behind the blocks and there'd be an eager timer to ask me whether that was actually my last name as I was in my race, so it's transcended through time.

Sammy Peterson (1:58)

I love it.

So Abbie, you founded Swim Like A. Fish in 2019 You've described it as a sink or swim moment. You had the coaching experience, but no business background. So what brought you to that crossroads?

Abbie Fish (2:10)

Well, I had a business partner, so I was working online. I had learned how to generate income through the Internet and reach people through social media.

The business partner was going through a personal life crisis, and so they were taking a step back. And so it was that moment like, do I want to absorb all of this and have it be ours, or should I create something and have it be mine? And I decided that that was probably the appropriate time to take the chance and do all the extra stuff that he helped me with. And yeah, it was super scary. I had no content. I started from zero again. I was like, what do I even want to name the business? And I just started one one evening. I built a website and it's kind of just gone on from there.

Sammy Peterson (2:54)

That's amazing. So what did that first year actually look like? And how did you get your first clients? And what was the scariest part of starting from scratch?

Abbie Fish (3:02)

Well, the good part about it is I had built up a name. And so I didn't have a brand, but I had a name. And so I was the least known in the swimming world. That'd be through my professional and college career to just starting to coach through other organizations. And so it was funny because it was like I had clients, but I had clients under other umbrellas. And so I was like, oh, so actually, I've launched my own thing. It's called Swim Like A Fish. And it took a lot of courage to finally start saying, this is mine and let's go.

And so the first year actually blended into COVID. So we had a very bizarre first year. I was like super stoked, full steam ahead. We launched a new membership site. I was like, this is gonna go. I'm gonna pour everything into this. And then COVID happened. And I was like, well, not a lot of people are paying for swim lessons if they can't get into swimming pools. So we didn't make any profit for really like the first eight months of existence because we didn't have access to any pools.