My Journey to CrossFit Chiltern – Part 7:
The Importance of a Mentor/Coach
We left off my last instalment with me juggling multiple roles. At this point, I was working a 7-day week and had been for around a year. When I look back at this time, it doesn’t make me proud. It makes me sad. So much of my life was consumed by the need to work and grow that there were periods where I forgot to actually live.
Seeking Guidance in Unexpected Places
It was at this point that I discovered the value of a coach outside of golf and training. Interestingly, I was always keen to be coached in other areas. I studied music, singing, golf, sports psychology, fitness, martial arts, plus my work-related education. For all of these, I was happy to pay a premium for the best 1:1 coaching I could find (even if I couldn’t really afford to, thanks VISA!).
However, I never sought coaching in the area I needed it most: business. It was when I reached absolute burnout that I finally took advice. One of my clients, Alan, was a business consultant, and we started working together. We focused on writing down goals, creating a business plan, and developing a financial plan. This was alongside another client, Sam, who was separately giving me some hard truths about what I was doing and telling me to “sort my shit out.”
I think in Sam’s case, it’s an indication that we all need that one friend who isn’t afraid to tell you it straight and risk upsetting you. If we are surrounded by people who hide us from our own truth, we will never know and never grow.
A Business Perspective
Alan connected me with a government-backed initiative to effectively fund match consulting fees and linked me with some education from Accenture in London. This was an eye-opening experience. Going into their London HQ and speaking with the lecturers and other business owners of various sized companies completely changed my vision and perspective.
I was hooked on the business aspect and began voraciously seeking out books, podcasts, and seminars to help me understand more of what the most successful entrepreneurs did and how to apply it to my little owner-operated one-man band!
Restructuring for Success
I restructured my working week. I switched my working to blocks of time each day/week. I changed my clients to subscriptions rather than buying packs of 10/20. I set goals for how many hours I wanted to do in each of my areas:
- Kids Group Golf Coaching
- Adults Group Golf Coaching
- 1:1 Golf Coaching
- 1:1 PT
- Group Fitness
- Sports Massage
I also increased my rates to charge what I was worth rather than trying to keep every client happy and/or keep in line with lesser coaches.
Reaping the Rewards
The Results:
- I got Sundays off.
- Within 2 years, I paid off the £70k of CC/loan debt I had accumulated since getting married/divorced, buying/giving up my house, and just generally living a chaotic life without direction.
- I went on holiday. This was pretty major. With the exception of my honeymoon for my first marriage, I hadn’t been on a non-working holiday between the age of 16-35. I’m only just working this out now whilst writing this. I actually took 5 minutes to reflect between writing that sentence and the previous when I realised what a strong reminder it is of how important having someone there to guide you can be. I can’t get that time back. In moments where I’m tempted to save money and time by not taking a break, I have to remind myself that we don’t have long in this world and to prioritise myself and those around me.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I had some good times, and I loved what I did. What I didn’t love was the relentless grind of just trying to get by. That was burnout.
The Seed of an Idea
I had my life back. I had time to view what I was doing from the outside, and I knew what my next step had to be. I wanted to create somewhere I could provide coaching to more people. This was the seed for CrossFit Chiltern. At the time, I had mixed feelings about CrossFit (by mixed, I mean negative!). But what I wanted was pretty much what CrossFit was (unbeknownst to me, I thought it was what most outsiders believed, crazy people doing crazy shit).
Finding the Perfect Location
Sam agreed to loan me some initial start-up capital to get started. I just needed a location. I looked at a couple of smaller places in Berkhamsted. Ironically, one of these spaces is where CrossFit Grand Union opened a few years later. None of them fit the criteria. I was nearly sold on a two-storey shop location on the Berkhampstead Road in Chesham. It just didn’t quite feel right.
Then I discovered a damp, dingy warehouse in Amersham that I knew was perfect from the moment I walked in. I was fortunate enough that my wife Francesca and Sam just put 100% faith in me because anyone who saw the unit may well have understandably had a tonne of doubt about the location!
Discovering CrossFit
It was in the process of finding the location that I started to investigate CrossFit. I’d been to a couple of affiliates for some Olympic lifting coaching, and when I was describing my plans for the space to people, I would often say, “It’s a bit like CrossFit.”
As I looked into it, I realised what CrossFit actually was, and I was hooked!! As I’ve done previously, I immediately consumed everything I could on the subject and coincidentally booked my L1 the day after I found our unit back in December 2015.
I took my L1 at CrossFit Glasgow in January 2016, and around the same time, we finalised negotiations on the unit.

21-15-9 Deadlifts and Dips

Going “Full CrossFit”
From the date of my L1, I never looked back. I followed the CrossFit.com workout of the day religiously (and badly, there were no scaling options on the site back then, and my knowledge meant many workouts definitely missed the stimulus!). I switched the way I trained clients to match the methodology. I went FULL CROSSFIT.
Even though we were a long way off having the planning permission, etc., I started the marketing of CrossFit Chiltern (originally called The Third Place).
Now things were about to get interesting!