Sam Dutney: The Truth About Fatherhood, Fear, And Quitting Your Job

Sam Dutney is a former school director of sport and rowing coach who now runs Top Crew Academy, an online coaching service for rowers. He joins James Smith to talk about fatherhood, fear and quitting a secure school job to go full time, how a $20,000 side hustle month showed it could be a real business, and what he has learned about social media, email and sales calls while growing towards seven figures. They also compare rowing, jiu-jitsu and rugby on pacing, fitness and mindset. A practical listen for coaches and anyone thinking about turning a side hustle into a full-time online coaching business. In this episode: ◼️ Why he left school sport leadership to build an online coaching business around being home for his kids ◼️ How a $20,000 side hustle month, then James's gun to the head advice, took him from about $5,000 a month to seven figure pace ◼️ Why a warm-up should follow a ramp protocol and prime your VO2 kinetics so less lactate builds early ◼️ Why many mindset problems in sport are really fitness problems ◼️ How he grows on social media by answering client questions, posting seven reels a week and keeping a 10,000 person email list warm 👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith 🤼‍♂️ Wear Adapt BJJ: https://adaptjj.com/ 📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business Top Crew Academy - https://www.topcrewacademy.com.au/ Follow Sam on instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/DcRs8Q9E5PO/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:17 From Rower to School Director of Sport 02:59 Why He Left School Rowing 05:18 Starting Online Coaching as a Side Hustle 07:04 Quitting the School Job 07:56 Gun to the Head and the Move to Full Time 10:42 Why Going All In Beats the Fear 13:45 Staff, Revenue and a New Kind of Stress 17:48 Online Coaching Is Closer to Business Coaching 19:02 Why a Business Network Matters 24:49 James's Rowing Story 28:51 Why Rowing Overvalues Height 32:07 Pacing Mistakes in Running and Rowing 35:04 Pacing in Jiu-Jitsu and CrossFit 37:32 Warm-Ups and VO2 Kinetics 39:54 Testing Energy Systems and Fixing Bottlenecks 45:02 Rugby in New Zealand and Why Fitness Wins 47:28 Mindset Problems That Are Really Fitness Problems 48:46 Held in Mount by a Black Belt 51:27 The Race Where the Tactics Almost Worked 55:52 What Works on Social Media 59:11 Why People Care About Your Content 1:03:43 Pro Bono Content and Repetition 1:06:58 Email as Extra Nurture 1:08:32 Growing on LinkedIn 1:11:00 Sales Calls and an 80% Close Rate 1:12:49 Email Lists and Sales Pages 1:15:31 Where to Find Sam Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices