We were lucky to catch up with Chris Taborn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

When I started Tiger Goalkeeping, I was primarily responsible for the day-to-day office work, but I had what I would consider on-field partners—individuals who were just as passionate about the game of soccer, and more specifically the goalkeeper position. However, they had full-time jobs, which understandably didn’t give them the opportunity to be as hands-on.

As a business owner, I’ve always enjoyed the process of meeting different individuals and hearing their stories, as well as their reasons for being excited about the opportunity to join our program. Everyone’s background is unique; some love the game so much that when they finally retire, they see coaching as a way to stay involved in the sport. Others might have started doing private training in college just to make some extra cash and found enjoyment in it. Then there are those who were inspired by a single coach or mentor, motivating them to give back in the same way. However, hearing the backstories about why someone loves coaching soccer isn’t enough for me as a business owner. During the staff recruiting process, you must also consider what each individual brings not only on the field but also to the program and the rest of the staff.

At Tiger Goalkeeping, we have three different types of staff members: our directors, the assistant staff, and the coaching staff. Having played in a team sport since the age of six, I see each position on the field as a partnership with another position, and a team within a business environment is no different. From our leadership staff to our coaching staff, each team member at Tiger Goalkeeping is hand-picked and viewed as a valuable partner who can complement others. While each staff member may have their own goals and reasons for being at Tiger Goalkeeping, we are a team and a unit that moves forward together.

I suppose the only unusual aspect of our recruiting process is that there is no application that can be filled out to join the Tiger Goalkeeping team. As an instructional goalkeeper service company, we are in an industry where we are always looking to hire the best coaches who genuinely want to work for us. Some staff we have hired are licensed with extensive coaching backgrounds, while others are not. However, at Tiger Goalkeeping, we prioritize hiring the person first and then ensuring they receive the proper education to become the best coach possible. Staff culture, both on and off the field, is incredibly important to us. Whether on the field or in a meeting, we strive to create a specific environment.

Would I do anything differently if I were to start over? I don’t think so. A part of being a young business owner is making mistakes, especially when it comes to hiring and firing staff members. If anything, there are times I look back at certain situations and think, “I should have been more firm there.” But again, those are important lessons that help you understand which team partnerships work better for you and the types of personalities that could benefit your team moving forward.
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P.S. Having done this for as long as I have, and not yet being thirty years old, I have had the pleasure of working with some incredible coaches and people. Whether they worked at Tiger Goalkeeping, collaborated with us, or I was able to work with them using goalkeeping as an avenue, I feel very blessed to have gotten to know so many remarkable individuals.

Chris, 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 Chris Taborn, and I am the founder of the Tiger Goalkeeping Institute, a goalkeeper-specific training, development, and mentorship program based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I founded Tiger Goalkeeping on the simple belief that every goalkeeper deserves the opportunity to train and develop.

In college, I offered private training a few times a week for some extra cash. However, somewhere between my sophomore and junior years, my clientele grew to the point where I had to transition from individual instruction to small group sessions.

After a few months of providing small group sessions to both older and younger goalkeepers, I created a website where goalkeepers and their parents could sign up to work with me. This saved me the hassle of trying to keep my weekly sessions and rosters organized in a notebook and through text threads. However, that website opened the door to requests from not only goalkeeper families but also other soccer clubs and school programs. This inspired me to brand Tiger Goalkeeping Academy as a service-based company that not only provided private and small group instruction but also collaborated with other coaches and programs in the soccer community to offer more opportunities for goalkeeper development and growth.

In 2020, I moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I rebranded my program as the Tiger Goalkeeping Institute. Built on the same foundations and principles as Tiger Goalkeeping Academy in Illinois, I now had more experience and time to essentially “do it right.” Long nights, early mornings, and tiring drives are not the only reasons for the company’s success today; many coaches, mentors, families, and leaders within the soccer community opened doors for me and pointed me in the right direction.

Today, the Tiger Goalkeeping Institute is a full-service goalkeeper training program that offers individual and group training, club partnerships with other programs, off-field mentorship, and boasts one of the best young coaching staffs in the region.

What sets us apart from other similar competitors is our brand’s leadership and attention to detail. We see Tiger Goalkeeping as more than just a soccer training company; it’s also a brand whose mission is to provide the best development and mentorship opportunities possible to everyone who steps through our doors. Whether online or in person, we believe there is a standard to uphold, and our team of leaders and directors gives 100% attention to detail to ensure that standard is always met.

What I’m most proud of is not just how Tiger Goalkeeping as a company has grown, but that we have created a formula that allows us to give back to the soccer community while maintaining a positive reputation. As many in the industry know, the soccer world is very political, and dealing with youth soccer is no different. However, I believe we have done a great job as a group to hold ourselves to a standard within the soccer community that prioritizes the athlete first, celebrating our goalkeepers’ successes at all levels and always providing guidance to those who seek it.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

As a soccer coach, I am constantly in a team setting, both on and off the field. In my interviews, I talk about how positions on and off the field are seen as partnerships that need to complement each other to be successful; team positions within the company are no different.

I believe that one of the keys to maintaining high morale within a team setting is creating an environment where team members genuinely want to work and perform.

Since we are a service-based company and I, as a business owner, rely on my staff to provide a great customer experience, it’s essential that the coaching staff is happy and enjoyable to work with. There will be days when individual staff members are “upset” or “not feeling it,” but I believe it is my responsibility as a leader to put them in the best position and alongside the best people possible to ensure they still contribute positively.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

The simple answer is by sharing.

Whether that’s by sharing knowledge, experience, instruction, success stories, behind the scenes, etc.. Tiger Goalkeeping is seen by many goalkeeper families, athletes and coaches as a place to come if you’re in need of some mentorship and guidance in any goalkeeping subject.

I think my team does a great job of this on social media by sharing anything from a successful save a goalkeeper made that was recorded and sent in by a parent, to something as simple as just asking our followers to share with us (and each other) how their games went during the weekend.

Then, on the field our coaching staff doesn’t only provide instruction to develop skills, but we also share discussions with the athletes on different topics that may help them with whatever they may need at the moment. For example, during our Tune-Up Camps Series we always end the camp with a 20-30 minute group discussion. Sometimes we have a guest speaker or one of our staff coaches lead, but there’s an open discussion where not only experiences are shared but participants and parents are welcome to interact as well.

This type of consistency and willingness to share what we have with the rest of the soccer and goalkeeper community I believe is what keeps many our athletes and partners wanting to come back and continue to work with us every season.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tigergoalkeeping.com
• Instagram: @tigergoalkeeping, @ctaborn_coach
• Facebook: Tiger Goalkeeping, Chris Taborn
• Linkedin: Tiger Goalkeeping Institute, Chris Taborn
• Twitter: @chris_tigergk
• Youtube: Tiger Goalkeeping

Image Credits

Adrian Briones