Most online coaching is software with a face attached. Here is what I think we lost — and how a working dad can tell the difference before he pays.
A confession before I argue
I am a truck driver who became a certified bodybuilding specialist. I sit in a cab for ten hours and I think about my clients between exits. That is not a humble brag. That is the whole point of this essay. The window I have to coach a working father is small, and I refuse to waste it on a templated PDF and a thumbs-up emoji.
I think there needs to be a more focused intentionality on the client experience. Being personable is lost on so many today. I am investing in a career that I love. People need to share that same sentiment across the board. Financials are nice, but trying to give what fitness has given me is the end goal.
What "intentional" actually means
It is not a longer onboarding form. It is not seven check-ins a week instead of one. Intentional means I know why I am sending you this exercise on this day, and I can explain it in one sentence that respects your time. If I cannot, I should not send it.
For the dad waking up at 4am, the wrong push-up program is not just useless. It is a tax on the ninety minutes he stole from sleep, from his kids, from his wife. Coaching at that price point — measured in his life, not his money — needs to earn the slot.
Three signs a coach is on autopilot
1. The plan arrives faster than the first call. If a template lands in your inbox before anyone has heard your voice or asked about your low back, the coach is selling a product, not a relationship.
2. The check-ins look identical. "Great job this week, keep pushing." That is a customer service script. A real check-in references the thing you mentioned last Tuesday and adjusts because of it.
3. The coach has no edges. Everyone claims to work with everyone. I do not. I help working dads age 25 to 55 who want to be the best version of themselves for the people who rely on them. If a powerlifter messages me asking to peak for a meet, I refer out. Referrals are key. Overreach is the enemy of intentionality.
What the working dad actually buys
He is not buying a program. He has Googled enough programs to staff a library. He is buying someone who is paying attention to him. That is a strange thing to sell on the internet because attention does not photograph well. It does not become a reel. It accumulates over weeks and you only notice it when something is off and the coach catches it before you do.
That is the product. Quiet competence applied to one person, on purpose.
Why I think the industry drifted
Online coaching scaled. Scale punishes intentionality. A coach with 80 clients cannot remember which kid had a soccer game. A coach with 20 can. I am building toward the smaller number, not the bigger one, and I am writing this so you know that on the way in.
If that sounds like the coaching you have been looking for, the Signal program is where we start. If you want the story behind why I refuse to overreach, I wrote about it here.
What I will not do for you
I will not promise a physique archetype. Healthy at every size is a key building block, and the goal is the man you are becoming for the people around you — not a magazine cover. I will not sell you twelve weeks if six is honest. I will not coach you outside my scope.
I will, however, answer your messages on Tuesday afternoon from a rest stop in Hattiesburg because that is when you sent them, and that is what intentional looks like in 2025.
If you want to talk about whether this fits, the door is open.