Abbie Fish: Your Guide to Building Coaching Businesses Online in Any Industry | E12

Business MVP

Abbie Fish, a six-time Olympic trials qualifier and two-time USA Junior National Champion, shares how she built Swim Like a Fish—a global on

Key takeaways

• Authentic expertise trumps fame in building a global brand.
• Free content during crises can lay the foundation for long-term audience trust.

Main topics

• Building a coaching business without industry experience
• Scaling online through authentic content during crisis

Notable quotes

"You don't need fame to build something global. You need to be undeniably good at one thing and figure out how to teach it."

Conclusion

Abbie Fish proves that global influence stems not from fame or marketing hype,

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) I launched a new membership site. I was like, this is going to go. I'm going to pour everything into this. And then COVID happened. And I was like, well. Not a lot of people are paying for swim lessons if they can't get into swimming pools. My Speaker 1 (0:10) next guest has reached over 250,000 athletes and coaches worldwide, coached 140 Olympians and Paralympians, and consults for entire countries on how to develop swimmers. There Speaker 2 (0:20) was a time frame within my coaching career where I really had to look in the mirror and decide, like, what are we doing this for? And if we're doing this for you, coaching is not the right path. Speaker 1 (0:30) Abby Fish is a six-time Olympic trials qualifier and two-time USA Junior National Champion who found did swim like a fish and proved you don't need fame to build something global. You need to be undeniably good at one thing and figure out how to teach it. I Speaker 2 (0:44) was actually in Alaska last August and I received an email asking me to run a program in Africa. I looked at the email address and I'm like, is this spam? Like, is this right? Like, is this, is this really what Speaker 1 (0:55) I'm reading? Like, it's still really surreal to tell you that, like, I did that. What are you working on right now that you're most excited about? Oh Speaker 2 (1:01) man, I don't know if I should say it. Speaker 1 (1:06) My next guest has reached over 250,000 athletes and coaches worldwide, coached 140 Olympians and Paralympians, and consults for entire countries on how to develop swimmers. She built all of this in just six years. Abby Fish is a six-time Olympic trials qualifier and two-time USA Junior National Champion who founded Swim Like a Fish and proved you don't need fame to build something global. You need to be undeniably good at one thing and figure out how to teach it. Oh, and her last name really is Fish. some things are just meant to be. Abby Fish, welcome to Business MVP. Thank Speaker 2 (1:39) you for having me. I appreciate the very kind intro. Speaker 1 (1:42) I love that. Your name couldn't be more perfect for what you do. It's amazing. Speaker 2 (1:46) Yes. Whenever I was younger, I would stand behind the blocks and there'd be an eager timer to ask me whether that was like actually my last name as I was racing my race. So it's transcended through time. Speaker 1 (1:57) I love it. So Abby, you founded Swim Like a Fish in 2019. You've described it as a sink or swim moment. You had the coaching experience, but no business background. So what brought you to that crossroads? Speaker 2 (2:09) Well, I had a business partner. So I was working online. I had learned how to generate income through the internet and kind of reach people through social media. And so, yeah, the business partner was going through a personal life crisis. And so they were kind of taking a step back. And so it was that moment. Do I want to absorb all of this and have it be ours or should I create something and have it be mine? And I decided that that was probably the appropriate time to take the chance and do all the extra stuff that he kind of helped me with. And yeah, it was super scary. I had no content. I started from zero again. I was like, what do I even want to name the business? And I just started one evening. I built a website and it's kind of just gone on from there. Speaker 1 (2:54) That's amazing. So what did that first year actually look like? And how did you get your first clients? And what was the scariest part of starting from scratch? Speaker 2 (3:02) Well, the good part about it is I had built up a name. And so I didn't have a brand, but I had a name. And so I was the least known in the swimming world. Whether that be through like my professional and college career to just starting to coach through other organizations. And so it was funny because it was like... I had clients, but I had clients under other umbrellas. And so I was like, oh, so actually I've launched my own thing. It's called Swim Like a Fish. And it took a lot of courage to finally like start saying like, this is mine and let's go. And so the first year actually blended into COVID. So we had a very bizarre first year. I was like super stoked, full steam ahead. We launched a new membership site. I was like, this is gonna go. I'm gonna pour everything into this. And then COVID happened. And I was like, well. Not a lot of people are paying for swim lessons if they can't get into swimming pools. So we didn't make any profit for really like the first eight months of existence because we didn't have access to any pools. So the good part about it is I was like, all right, well, what can I do with this time? Because I want people to understand that I have a new brand. And I actually churned out a bunch of free content and made a ton of new videos and kind of just said like, this is SLAF. Here is Swim Like a Fish. This is what I'm doing now. And that... paid off to date because a lot of people are, they know the brand, but they also know me. So it made that connection point a lot easier for people to understand. Speaker 1 (4:27) Yeah. It was like it worked out for you in the end because like with the COVID transition, that's pretty interesting. So six Olympic trials, SEC finalist, two-time junior national champion, you competed at a very high level for a very long time. So what did that build in you that you use in business every day? Speaker 2 (4:44) I think definitely like the mentality of like, just keep going after failures. I think the growth mindset that sports can instill from, you know, different adversities or not achieving a certain level or time or placement is definitely something that is, it's in all facets of my life. It's actually not just kind of in my business. And then just grit, I think. There are moments as an entrepreneur that people sometimes don't like to talk about, but there's like those questionable moments or the moments where you're like, oh gosh, like I really need to make this much more income to generate for this. And you're kind of moving forward and you're growing and building. But you have faith to push through those, knowing that like you feel capable in yourself that you can get to the other side. And sports definitely, definitely helped build my confidence in that way. Speaker 1 (5:33) Yeah, no, I think that's so true. What was your biggest failure as an athlete? And then how did that shape how you handle failure in business? Speaker 2 (5:40) I really wanted to make my first international team when I was a junior in high school. And I had trained all season to go a specific time. And I went the time, I just didn't go the time at the right time. So you had to go it in finals, which is like the evening session and swimming. And I went the time in prelims. So it was a trip to China. And it was like the first time I would have ever been to China. What I like slept, dreamed and like just everything about. Yeah. And I missed it by 0.11. And it's still like Speaker 1 (6:11) one of those. Speaker 2 (6:12) I still feel it. Like even repeating it, I'm like, dang, if I just, you know, if I could have done this. Yeah. So yeah, just working through that, that was the first time that I had really gone all in in something and I didn't get what I wanted. And so having to work with the mental. And the psychological component of that, I think, has helped transfer it into the moments where it's like, hmm, Speaker 1 (6:32) this Speaker 2 (6:32) didn't really hit right. Okay, so let's take some space. Let's process why and kind of work through what we need to do for next