We were lucky to catch up with Dustin VanLieu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dustin, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In 2014, while I was in-between jobs and having just been introduced to parenthood with my 1st daughter being born, I decided to start basketball training in the local Hudson Valley, NY community to earn supplemental income while I waited for the right career opportunity.

Unfortunately, the demand for basketball training wasn’t as high as I had hoped and for the first 4 months I ended up offering free training throughout Sullivan, Ulster & Orange County while I traveled from outdoor court to outdoor court, helping athletes improve their game while I also began settling into a State Job that offered great benefits for myself and family.

By September of 2014, word began to spread and a local basketball organization contracted me out to be their exclusive trainer which, after 4 months of free training outdoors, was not just a relief, but an indicator that maybe there was an opportunity to grow a basketball training business in the local community.

For the next 2 years, outdoor training continued, along with opportunities to utilize multiple indoor locations for part time and temporary rentals, but I was still hesitant to take the risk of making basketball training a career. But finally, I felt a sense of urgency to make a choice; continue to do basketball training part time for the love of the game and just to have it as part of my life while relying on the comfort of a state job with state benefits and union protection, or take the risk and commit to basketball training full time and see what happened. I knew I’d regret it for a lifetime if I never took the risk, so I put in my 2-weeks notice and jumped full time into the business I had been building for 2-years.

It wasn’t more than 4 months after committing to basketball training full time that I was able to secure a lease for a 10,000 sq ft warehouse space, which I spent every last dollar to my name along with loans and donations to build out a basketball training facility in Orange County, NY. The doors opened for business on August 1st 2016, with $0 in the bank account and 5-year lease commitment.

6 years later, the business is still running while I now find myself traveling the country, and even a little internationally, to help other players, coaches and trainers improve both in basketball and in business and I couldn’t be happier that I took the risks I did to get to where I am today. And I’m not finished yet!

Dustin, 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?

I grew up with the cliche “ball and a dream”. Like every aspiring hooper, I wanted to play in the NBA but shortly after my college career started, I realized that wasn’t as realistic as I once hoped.

I chased my pro dreams a little longer, playing semi-pro for the ABA for a short period of time before finally allowing myself to change paths and begin thinking about a different future without basketball. But I just wasn’t able to step away completely, and while trying to create a stream of supplemental income while in between jobs, I found a passion for helping other athletes chase their basketball goals and dreams through coaching.

Now, I operate a year-round basketball business called GymRatz Basketball Performance, where the company provides training, coaching, league, shooting machine rentals, basketball performance training and everything in between, to help athletes chase and achieve their goals both on and off the court.

I also travel to out-of-state clients as well as participate in NBA pre-draft and pre-season training every year in Los Angeles, CA.

Basketball is my passion, and helping others achieve their basketball and business goals is my mission!

Have you ever had to pivot?

The pandemic impacted everyone, and I know many individuals and small businesses that really struggled during this time. It was no different for me.

Due to state mandates, we were no longer able to operate our facility, which means we were unable to generate revenue to pay the rent. This resulted in returning to outdoor training for the first time since 2014, and unfortunately led to us having to terminate our lease and give up our training facility.

Instead of building out a new space when the mandates were lifted, we continued to pivot, establishing a relationship with a multi-court facility in the area and subleasing a court space to run our business with condensed gym access.

Regardless of having to condense our access, we modified our business model, transitioning to more group-oriented sessions to accommodate the demand we had built over the years, and have been able to continue operating efficiently and successfully without a space that we can call our own!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The best advice I’ve ever gotten in terms of growing my social media presence has been “put yourself in your ideal client’s shoes. Would you want to train with you based solely on what you see?” And when I objectively answered “No” to that question, it allowed me to re-brand myself which helped me take my individual training career to the next level.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: coachdjv
• Youtube: @coachdjv
• Other: TikTok: coachdjv