We recently connected with Tyler Leclerc and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tyler thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I would honestly say I fell into the business over time. I started out as a player myself, training myself to be the best player possible all throughout high school. I also noticed one of my teammates, Evan Cook, had a lot of potential, with him being younger than me I took him under my wing and had him start working out alongside me. Slowly that progressed to me training him for free on the side just because I enjoyed helping him so much. We did this for about 2 years continuously trying to progress his game and through this, I started to gain a love for training other people. Being pretty entrenuerial in nature and noticing there was a handful of others out there across the country already training people for a living, I knew I could see this as a potential for me. After I graduated from high school I decided I wanted to try to charge for the service. I made a few fliers and nervously attended a local camp to help out and hand out fliers. I texted a few younger players in the town and luckily got my first paid sessions. $20 total. It was the best money I’ve ever made. At first, it felt like robbery, I was like I can’t believe I just made money doing something I already enjoyed doing. That was the day I said I wanted to really pursue this passion of mine and turn it into a business.

Tyler, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Tyler Leclerc, I own TJL Training a player development brand and gym located in Lowell Massachusetts. I offer individual and group basketball training to a wide range of basketball players. What sets me apart is how I approach my training, effectively blending the art and science of basketball training into one coherent service that allows my players to maximize their development and see the best results possible.

Have you ever had to pivot?

There is one particular turning point for me with my business. 2018 I had my first slow period (basketball is a relatively seasonal business) I was training maybe 1 hour a day and barely making $1000 revenue a month. I started to question if it would work and applied for a job to keep me busy during the winter months when it is slow. I knew the potential the business had but not too many people saw the potential the business could have in just a few short months. I was toggling with the idea of getting this job or doubling down and spending every waking hour studying and making content. I had a job lined up the next day and told them I was not interested. I decided I was doubling down on what I knew was going to work. I knew using my time to go hard on social media would pay off and help me get more clients once the off-season hit. And it did. I knew I wanted to go full-time with training as soon as possible. If I got a part-time job it would allow me something to fall back on, and I didn’t want that, I wanted to give myself no other option but to succeed and make the training thing work.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is one of the most powerful tools in today’s day in age, especially if you have a business. For me this was a trend I noticed early on back in 2017. I knew the power it would have and knew I had to go all in. When I first started on social media I had no idea what I was doing, my exact long-term plan, or have any help in terms of creating content. One thing I was learning the value of then and something I value deeply today is “just start and figure it out as you go”. That’s exactly what I did. I started posting anything and everything I could on social media and each time I thought how could I do this a little better, how can it be visually more appealing, how can I make the audio better, etc. It wasn’t perfect, but I started and figured it out as I went. In the first year, I probably posted 350 out of 365 days. Consistency was huge in the first few years for me. I tried posting every single day. Every post slowly got better, I improved my editing skills, searched for how to add music, and invested in my own camera and microphone. As this was happening my knowledge was increasing as well and I started to look for help. I found a videographer which allowed my content to get even better. This was and is a constant process. Social media is still a massive opportunity and one I continue to invest in to build my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: tjltraining.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tjltraining/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tylerleclerc

Image Credits
Photos by Alex Silva