We recently connected with Matt Rogers and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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 was the kid who played every sport and always loved competing and had an enormous dream to play in college. I grew up in a tiny little town (Lena, IL) and neither of my parents went to college, so we really had no idea how or what to do or even where to start.

I got very lucky I got to play college basketball. I really only had one coach recruit me, and that was at the school where my older brother and sister graduated, so we had some connections.

I loved college (Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA), but I could not have had a worse athletics experience because I didn’t know what questions to ask before I made the decision, nor how to handle my emotions when things didn’t go my way. I didn’t understand how important my priorities were to making a healthy decision.

That experience guided me into college coaching where I was a Head College Basketball Coach for 12 years, as well as an Athletics Administrator, and I eventually got into scouting helping families find great coaches and schools for their kids. I was a match-maker in a lot of ways helping over 4000 kids achieve their dream of playing in college.

I have since taken my 20+ years of coaching and recruiting experience and wrote my first book (Significant Recruiting) where I basically downloaded my years of helping over 4000 student-athletes find their way to playing their sport in college.

The book has become a business as well because I now serve individual families as their personal recruiting coach, and I also consult for college athletic departments around the country teaching coaches how to recruit efficiently and build strong, healthy sport programs.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I love mentoring teenagers and coaching coaches. When you have coached, scouted, and mentored for as long as I have, it is simply in my nature to help anyone who is struggling with self-worth, let alone their recruiting or coaching journey.

My business is called Significant Coaching. I host the Significant Coaching Podcast each week where I interview college coaches and athletes around the country. I write the Blog of Significance each week where I provide advice and motivation to students, parents, coaches and school administrators giving them tips and advice to find healthier paths and alternatives.

The podcast has become very popular reaching an audience in all 50 states and 21 countries. My book continues to be 5-star reviewed on Amazon. I now have clients from North Carolina to Hawaii who I absolutely love as if they were my own kids.

My website coachmattrogers.com is my venue to do all the things I love, but it all comes back to helping others achieve their goals and dreams.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When my 2nd child was born, I decided to step away from college coaching. That was extremely hard on me because I had placed so much of my identity and self-worth into being a college coach.

My wife and kids needed me more available and engaged, so it was an easy decision to put them before my career. However, that led me into a career in corporate educational recruiting and then corporate recruiting that weren’t great fits for who I am, and what I learned is that being a salesman or businessman was not what I was put on this Earth to be.

I walked away from a very lucrative career to start my own business and do the work that best suited my soul and spirit. It has been very challenging learning how to market myself and create strategies that made sense, and I have thrown thousands of dollars down the drain learning what I need and what I don’t need…and more importantly who to trust and not trust.

Although those were hard lessons, I am a much better leader and decision-maker now, and I am learning to be patient with my goals and results and focus on being authentic and true to myself.

It is amazing what happens when you put yourself out there how many great people will find a way into your life. My business is beginning to flourish just because I’m learning to be patient with my goals and relationships.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I made a decision early on to not use any of our savings to start my business. That was probably not the best decision in the short-term because I have had to really grind and grow the business more slowly, but I am finding that by being patient with investing my revenues back into the business has been the best decision in the long-term.

I made the decision early on to take on small projects and fewer clients with the goal of giving everyone I work with the best experience and my full attention. That strategy has turned into outstanding referrals and relationships that are helping me build my business in ways that I didn’t expect.

I am also finding that by writing and self-publishing a book that was much needed by families across the country and making myself accountable to publish a podcast and a blog article every single week for the past year, even though there was no revenue coming back, that I have built myself a reputation of integrity, honesty and trust.

People appreciate that I am providing resources to help them with things they don’t understand and that free content is slowly turning into paid clients and opportunities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://coachmattrogers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachmattrogers/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Significant-Recruiting/61551589066728/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogersmatt16/
• Twitter: https://x.com/RecruitCoach4U
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CoachMattRogers
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachmattrogers

Image Credits

Toni Lemma