Before launching our new coaching feature, we asked a few Teachable members to test it out. Here, we sit down with Barry Ennis and Shay Kostabi of Fitness Career Mastery to learn how coaching has helped them reach their business goals.

Barry Ennis and Shay Kostabi were friends for years before they joined forces to start their own business. Shay was a well-known fitness consultant and trainer (she had previously been a master trainer and east coast regional director at Flywheel Sports), and Barry hosted a popular fitness podcast (called Fitness Career Mastery) and was also a trainer and fitness instructor.

They realized their skillsets complemented each other so well that it made sense to merge their businesses—they also discovered that their friendship had become romantic love and they decided to get married. Here, the pair (who recently had a baby) discuss how they’ve grown their business and how coaching has played an integral role in their success.

Q: Tell us about your business. What services do you provide?

A: We are boutique fitness studio consultants and master trainers—we help fitness professionals become better trainers/instructors, and we assist boutique studio owners in opening new studios. We’ll come in pre-launch and help with everything from operational logistics to design choices to hiring and training new staff. Our primary focus is building signature programming for boutique fitness studios and showing the talent team how to teach the program.

From there, we offer continuing education workshops and courses. For many years, the courses were live, in-person; about a year and a half ago, we started offering them online. Currently, we offer two courses on Teachable: “The Art of Coaching and Cueing” and “Learn to Livestream,” which we launched in the wake of COVID-19 to show fitness professionals how to teach from their living rooms. Originally, we had plans to launch a different course but with the pandemic, we realized we had to do something else. We put the course together in four days and launched it five days after that.

Q: When and why did you join Teachable?

A: We joined in June 2019 because we knew offering our services online would help us reach more people and save studio owners money (it can get really costly to fly us out, put us up in hotels, etc). Teachable has been crucial in helping us serve more people and have a greater impact.

Q: How have you grown your business?

A: The podcast is the main way we’ve grown our business—it’s an incredible lead generator. We haven’t had to spend any money on marketing. We were very busy traveling to help open studios all over the world until the pandemic hit—now we’re focusing on building our online courses and coaching services.

Q: Have you always offered coaching services?

A: We’ve always offered coaching but before Teachable, it was such a hassle. There were just too many steps: emailing back and forth with the client, sending the booking link, finding a time, sending the invoice, etc. We love how the coaching feature is built into the courses we offer so our clients can easily book a call with us if they’re struggling with a particular section of the course. It’s convenient for them and an easy upsell for us. It’s made our lives so much easier.

Q: How has Teachable’s new coaching feature helped with your business?

A: Because Teachable eliminates all the hurdles of setting up a coaching call, we’re able to book way more sessions (and make more money). On top of that, the coaching feature helps us establish our authority as experts and build trust with our clients. Every time we get on the phone with a client, it strengthens our relationship with them. Plus, it allows us to get feedback from them directly and learn how we can improve our courses. We can ensure they’re making the most of the course and get ideas that will help us build future content.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about the coaching feature?

A: We love the bundle option, which lets clients buy a coaching call at a discounted rate when they purchase a course. It’s a great deal that our clients appreciate.

Q: What’s your goal for the future, and how can Teachable help you reach it?

A: Our goal is to create an online academy for fitness professionals that helps them take charge of their careers and become self-sustaining entrepreneurs. Having our courses and coaching all in one place with Teachable will help us do exactly that.

Learn more about Teachable’s coaching feature and how you can use it to grow your business.