Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brian Alexander . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Brian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
The mission of Coach Alexander Enterprises (CAE) is to have every person we serve reach their full potential through fitness, education and motivation. We are a youth development company that specializes in mentorship through sports and fitness. Our goal is to have our athletes go to college for free via athletic and/or academic scholarships. CAE believes sports are a part of us, not our total identity. We instill the value that knowledge is power, and that sports are a resource for us to reach our goals.
The Coach Alexander Enterprises’ mission stems from my passion and experience working with youth since the age of 15 years old. I started my youth development journey working summer camps, there is where my passion to be a leader and role model for youth blossomed. When I worked my first summer camp it showed me the true power of influence. I recognized how the kids in my community were influenced by me being an athlete in the community. I was humbled they were willing to allow me to guide them to success. At that point, I knew I wanted to educate the youth and lead them to positive outcomes in life like so many people have helped me.
Upon high school graduation I was awarded a football scholarship to Tusculum University where I amassed All-American Football honors and graduated with my degree in Sports Science. After graduation I was awarded an opportunity to work for my alma mater as an Admission Counselor which exposed me to the lack of knowledge of the college admission process. It sparked my passion for college and career coaching and the need to educate the youth about college access.
After 2 years of being an Admission Counselor I was afforded an opportunity to become a Graduation Coach in my hometown of Greensboro, GA and I was able to serve my community and help the class of 2016 obtain a college acceptance rate of 93% and $7 million in scholarships. I also started my varsity coaching career; holding assistant coaching positions in football, basketball and track. During this time I coached 5 scholarship athletes and a GHSA State Champion High Jumper.
As I explored opportunities to expand my work, I was awarded an opportunity to work at Alcovy High School as the Graduation Coach. A bigger challenge and an opportunity to expand my skill set, I was now working in a school with an enrollment of about 2,000 students compared to 500 students at Greene County High School. At Alcovy High in my two year tenure I was able to achieve a Graduation Rate of 85% or higher and over $24 million in scholarships. I also coached football, basketball and track, coaching and training over 12 scholarship athletes. At the end of two years I was feeling there was more for me to do in the world outside of the school system. I prayed and asked God to order my steps and he gave me the vision of Coach Alexander Enterprises. In 2019 CAE Training was born. I realized to be able to serve the world like God has intended I needed to believe in myself and do things for myself that companies have paid me to do for years. Over the last three years, I also have trained over 15 scholarship athletes and have had the ability to mentor over 100 different athletes through sports and fitness, giving me my opportunity to change the world in a positive way and provide the skills and knowledge I developed over the past 15+ years.
Brian, 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?
Sure! I am a Greene County native and a graduate of Greene County HS. I was a three-sport varsity athlete during my tenure at GCHS, and received a college football scholarship to Tusculum University. At Tusculum University, I earned NCAA All-American football honors and hold the career tackling record at the university. Since college, I’ve worked as an Admission Counselor at Tusculum University and Graduation Coach for GCHS and Alcovy High School. After working as a Graduation Coach, I transitioned to nonprofit leadership and worked as a Director for the Boys & Girls Club of North Central Georgia, where I led the Teen Initiative for the organization. I am a certified personal trainer with a BA in Exercise Science and a MBA from the University of the Cumberlands. Coach Alexander Enterprises is my ministry that allows me to give back to the community what was given to me throughout my life.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
One of the hardest things I had to do as a business owner is transition from a full time job to a full time entrepreneur. Many people call it the leap of faith, it’s definitely one of the biggest leaps I’ve ever taken. I was so afraid to leave the comfort of a consistent monthly paycheck. I was building my business part time for about a year prior to feeling comfortable enough to bet on myself. At the beginning of 2020 my wife and I discussed our next steps in our business as I was becoming worn out commuting 80 miles a day to a position that was fulfilling but not managed well. I knew I needed a change and to give myself the opportunity to control my own life and the stress of work. I was being pushed and pulled around performing each day just to make it to the next day, I knew my true purpose was training and mentoring. I used to train sixteen hours each weekend after working my full time job and I felt so much more fulfilled during the weekend serving my clients in my own way. January 2020, my training program was blooming, my clients started to increase and my confidence grew. At this point, I knew I was going to be able to make the shift to become a full time entrepreneur. The question was when was I going to be able to make the shift. February 2020 I had a discussion with my then fiancée (now my wife) about what she thought about me quitting my job and she told me that she believed in me and wanted me to be happy and fulfilled in my daily work. Once she gave me her blessing I started to really put together my exit strategy to freedom from the rat race of Corporate America. As I developed my exit strategy the COVID lockdown occurred in March and stopped everything. At this point I didn’t know what the future held but I was determined not to allow my business to fail. After a month or so of the lockdown I reviewed the protocols from the government and implemented my outdoor and online training models. This was a great test of my business acumen. I succeeded by not being a victim of my circumstances, creativity was the ultimate key. I taught myself how to create videos to leverage social media marketing and grew my clientele to what it is today. When everything you know stops and there are no definite answers to what’s next for society, keep the faith and believe in your purpose. There are always riches on the other end of your purpose.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I feel the best source of new clients is social media. This is well known, but I think the way you leverage social media marketing is what elevates turning a casual scroller into a client. There are rules to social media marketing and if you want to have success at capturing new clientele you have to understand what to post and how to post it. I feel the game changer is the ability to create short videos on Instagram and TikTok. Most social media users have a short attention span, so the ability to pack a lot of content in a 30 second window is important. Even though this can be tough, it’s worth learning in order to create new leads and maximize profit margins. I taught myself how to create videos by utilizing platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Everything you need to know is free. You just have to dedicate time to go through the process of trial and error to understand how to reach your target audience and create your own process. It seems overwhelming but the beautiful part about mastering the learning process is you save yourself a tremendous amount of money in the beginning stages not having to pay a company to market for you. Also when it’s time for expansion and build a marketing team you’re also able to teach the process to new employees. It’s imperative that your marketing is spot on to ensure your company is seen in a world full of distractions on social media. It won’t be easy in the beginning but it will be worth it. The algorithm will reward you for consistency, so my advice is to stay persistent and enjoy the process of organic growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: coachalexanderenterprises@gmail.com
- Instagram: CoachAlexanderEnt
- Facebook: Coach Alexander Enterprises
- Linkedin: Brian Alexander
- Twitter: IamCoachA