The Winning Coach with Pat Rigsby

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After more than 30 years of coaching, Pat Rigsby reflects on the biggest coaching mistake of his career—and it's not what you might expect.

During his time as a college baseball coach, Pat became the youngest head coach in college baseball at just 23 years old. His program continued to improve, eventually reaching the World Series and finishing fifth nationally. But looking back, he realized something was missing: he rarely stopped to enjoy any of it.

In this episode, Pat shares why being so focused on the next win, the next milestone, and the next accomplishment kept him from appreciating some of the most meaningful moments of his coaching career.

His message for coaches, business owners, and leaders is simple: You can be ambitious, pursue bigger goals, and challenge yourself without sacrificing the ability to enjoy where you are right now. Key Takeaways

• Don't let the pursuit of success steal your joy. Constantly focusing on what's next can prevent you from appreciating what you've already accomplished.

• Winning and enjoying the win are two different things. Pat reflects on how victories often brought relief rather than genuine happiness.

• Gratitude doesn't diminish ambition. You can appreciate your current success while still pursuing bigger goals and greater challenges.

• Celebrate accomplishments with your team. Enjoying milestones together strengthens relationships and creates meaningful memories.

• Don't miss moments you can't get back. The people, experiences, and relationships along the journey are just as important as the destination.

• Keep moving forward, but take time to appreciate the present. Celebrate your wins, enjoy the moment, and then get back to work. Questions to Consider

1. Are you so focused on your next goal that you're failing to appreciate what you've already accomplished?

2. When you experience a win in your business, do you celebrate it or immediately move on to the next challenge?

3. Are you creating opportunities for your team to enjoy success together?

4. What moments in your coaching or business journey might you look back on someday and wish you had enjoyed more?

Be competitive. Set lofty goals. Chase your dreams aggressively. But when you reach a milestone, take a moment to enjoy it.

You don't have to choose between being driven and being grateful. The best leaders learn to do both.

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How do you grow a coaching business, get more clients, increase revenue, and achieve your biggest business goals? In this episode of The Winning Coach, Pat Rigsby shares a simple but powerful principle for coaches, gym owners, and entrepreneurs who want to build a successful business: you have to become the person who deserves the results you want.

Pat explores a powerful idea from Charlie Munger: "The surest way to get what you want is to deserve what you want."

As a coach or entrepreneur, it's easy to set goals for business growth, more clients, higher revenue, greater freedom, and more time. But wanting those things isn't enough. The real question is whether your daily actions are consistently moving you toward the results you want.

In this episode, Pat explains how to evaluate your current habits, determine whether you're actually on track to reach your goals, and build the consistency required to grow a coaching business over the long term.

You'll also learn about the simple 250-day test: If you repeated what you did today for the next 250 workdays, would you reach your goal?

If the answer is no, you know exactly where the work needs to begin.

For business coaches, fitness coaches, gym owners, and entrepreneurs, this episode is a reminder that successful businesses aren't usually built through one magic strategy or quick tactic. They're built by consistently doing the right things, stacking successful days, and becoming the person capable of producing the results you want.

If you're serious about growing your coaching business, getting more clients, improving your business habits, achieving your goals, and building an ideal business and life, this episode is for you.

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Experiences Over Stuff: Build a Business People Remember

What if the best businesses aren't built around having the newest equipment, the fanciest facilities, or the most impressive technology...but around creating experiences people never forget?

In this episode of The Winning Coach, Pat Rigsby explores the idea of experiences versus stuff and why it matters far beyond coaching. Drawing from his years as a college baseball coach, Pat reflects on reunions with former players and the memories they still talk about years later. Interestingly, those memories rarely center around equipment, facilities, or even the games themselves. They center around relationships, community, shared experiences, and the people who were part of the journey.

That lesson applies directly to business coaches, gym owners, fitness entrepreneurs, and anyone trying to build an ideal business that supports an ideal life.

Your equipment might get someone through the door. Your technology might make your business more efficient. Your programming might deliver great results. But people are what make a business meaningful...and relationships are what make people stay.

Pat also discusses why this becomes even more important in an age of AI and increasing technology. Technology should augment the human experience, not replace it. The businesses that understand that distinction will be better positioned to create loyalty, retention, goodwill, and long-term impact.

In this episode, you'll learn why:

• Experiences often matter more than material things

• Relationships and community drive long-term client retention

• The human element can become your biggest competitive advantage

• Gym owners and coaches should focus on creating memorable client experiences

• Technology should enhance relationships—not replace them

• Building a great business is about more than revenue and resources

• The right experiences can create goodwill that lasts long after someone leaves your business

If you're a gym owner, business coach, fitness entrepreneur, or aspiring entrepreneur who wants to build a business that gives you more freedom, wealth, impact, and ultimately your ideal life, this episode is worth your time.

The goal isn't simply to build a business that works.

It's to build a business...and a life...that you'll look back on and be proud of.

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Urgency vs. Desperation: The Gym Owner's Guide to Sustainable Business Growth

Are you making strategic decisions to grow your gym, or are you making desperate moves to keep your fitness business afloat?

In this episode of The Winning Coach, Pat Rigsby breaks down the critical difference between urgency and desperation—and why it matters for gym owners, personal training studio owners, fitness entrepreneurs, and anyone working to build a profitable, sustainable fitness business.

When gym membership sales slow down, member cancellations increase, or monthly revenue falls short, it's easy to panic. You might invest in expensive gym marketing campaigns, chase quick-fix lead generation strategies, or abandon the business fundamentals that helped you succeed in the first place.

But desperate decisions rarely build a healthy gym business.

Pat explains why successful gym owners focus on the next right move instead of searching for a rescue plan. Sustainable gym growth comes from strategic action, effective marketing, strong member retention, and the systems needed to deliver an exceptional client experience - not from chasing overnight results.

• Gym Business Growth: Why strategic, consistent action beats desperate attempts to add new gym members overnight.

• Gym Marketing Strategy: The dangers of expensive marketing campaigns and lead generation promises that fail to produce sustainable results.

• Member Retention for Gym Owners: Why signing up new members doesn't matter if your fitness business can't keep them.

• Growing a Profitable Gym: How to avoid costly business decisions that create short-term revenue but long-term financial problems.

• Fitness Business Leadership: How to respond to declining gym memberships, cancellations, and slow sales months without abandoning your strategy.

• Gym Business Systems: Why your sales process, client experience, operations, and retention systems must support your growth.

• Long-Term Business Success: How to make better decisions by focusing on proven fundamentals instead of chasing the latest fitness industry trend.

If you're a gym owner, personal trainer, fitness entrepreneur, or studio owner looking for better ways to grow your business, this episode will help you rethink how you approach challenges and opportunities.

The goal isn't simply to get more gym leads, increase membership sales, or generate short-term revenue. It's to build a fitness business that attracts the right members, delivers results, improves retention, and creates lasting profitability.

When business gets tough, don't abandon your foundation in pursuit of an immediate solution. Take responsibility, evaluate your systems, and identify the next right move.

Stop chasing desperate gym marketing tactics. Start building a stronger, more profitable fitness business.

Subscribe to The Winning Coach with Pat Rigsby for practical advice on gym business coaching, fitness marketing, membership growth, client retention, leadership, and building a successful fitness business.

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A few years ago, I probably would have looked at a former client, player, or business relationship differently than I do today.

When I was 23, I was thinking about winning. I was thinking about what was right in front of me. I wasn't thinking much about alumni, former players, former clients, or what those relationships might look like 10, 20, or 25 years down the road.

Now I think about it very differently.

In this episode of The Winning Coach, I talk about the importance of building bridges—not just avoiding burning them.

A client may leave your gym. A player may transfer. A coach may move on. A former client may stop working with you. And when that happens, it's easy to get frustrated because there's a business impact attached to it.

But what if you looked at that relationship differently?

What if you understood that someone doesn't have to keep paying you to still be valuable to you—and for you to still be valuable to them?

For gym owners, fitness business owners, coaches, and entrepreneurs, I think there's a big lesson here about client lifetime value, referrals, reputation, relationships, and playing the long game.

Sometimes the relationship isn't about what somebody can do for your business today. It's about staying connected, supporting people, leaving them better than you found them, and knowing that you never really know what that relationship might mean years from now.

I've had people I've worked with on and off for 15 years. I've got players I coached 25-plus years ago that I still think of as my players. And I want to support those people whether or not there's ever a direct business benefit to me.

That's what I mean by building bridges.

Be proactive. Reach out. Stay in touch. Don't get bitter when somebody makes a decision that's right for them. And don't look at every relationship through the lens of, "How much money can this person make me?"

If you build enough strong relationships and leave enough people better than you found them, the professional rewards tend to take care of themselves.

That's a big part of what coaching...and building a business...should be about.

Build bridges. Develop relationships. Play the long game.

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Most gym owners want results now.

More leads. More members. More revenue. More sales.

But building a truly durable fitness business requires something that is increasingly rare: patience.

In this episode, Pat Rigsby explains why playing the long game has been one of his greatest advantages in business—and why gym owners should think beyond today's transaction.

The lesson Pat learned from college baseball Recruiting isn't about meeting a player once and immediately asking them to commit. It's about identifying the right people, building a relationship, following up, creating opportunities to connect, and determining whether there's a good fit.

Pat explains how that same process applies directly to marketing and sales in the fitness industry.

Marketing isn't always about immediate conversion A common mistake is expecting someone who sees your gym's ad today to immediately join. Pat explains why bigger commitments require more discovery, trust, and consideration.

Stop thinking "closing" and start thinking "opening" A sale shouldn't be viewed as the end of the relationship. It's the beginning of one.

The goal isn't simply to get someone to buy. It's to create the foundation for a long-term relationship with a client who believes your gym is the right fit.

Why consistent follow-up matters Pat shares that he's sent a daily email newsletter for more than 20 years—and some of his best clients consumed his content for years before ever having a direct conversation with him.

That patience allowed prospects to research, learn, build trust, and eventually make an informed decision.

The best clients aren't always the fastest buyers Desperation purchases and impulse decisions aren't necessarily the foundation for great long-term relationships.

The people who take their time, do their homework, and determine that you're the right fit can become some of your most valuable clients.

Don't burn bridges Pat shares lessons from college baseball about maintaining relationships even when someone doesn't choose you.

A prospect who doesn't join your gym today may become a client next year. A coach who doesn't work with you today may become a valuable connection in the future. A former client may eventually come back.

Every relationship has a future you can't necessarily see today.

Make relationship deposits One of the biggest ideas in this episode is simple:

Every interaction is an opportunity to make a relationship deposit.

Be valuable. Help people. Treat prospects well. Take care of your clients. Don't leave scorched earth behind when someone leaves.

Those deposits can eventually turn into referrals, strategic partnerships, speaking opportunities, new clients, returning members, and other opportunities.

Think beyond this month Pat challenges gym owners and fitness entrepreneurs to ask a different question:

Instead of asking, "What can I get out of this right now?"

Ask:

"Where do I ultimately want this to lead?"

That shift can change how you approach marketing, sales, leadership, client retention, networking, and business growth.

• Don't expect every lead to convert immediately.
• Build trust before asking for a major commitment.
• Follow up consistently without becoming desperate or pushy.
• Think of sales as the beginning of a relationship—not the end.
• Treat every prospect and client interaction as a relationship deposit.
• Don't burn bridges when someone leaves your gym.
• Continue providing value even when someone isn't ready to buy.
• Build relationships that can create opportunities years from now.
• Don't let short-term pressure dictate every business decision.
• Think about the business and legacy you want to build long-term.

The gym owners who build something lasting aren't necessarily the ones who get the fastest result. They're the ones willing to consistently do the right things long enough for those efforts to compound.

Play the long game.

What can a baseball manager teach you about building a better business and a more ideal life?

A lot more than you might think.

In this episode of The Winning Coach, Pat Rigsby sits down with Ted Tom, a manager in the Washington Nationals organization, to talk about his journey through small-college baseball, Division I coaching, IMG, and professional baseball—and the lessons he's learned about leadership, systems, culture, mindset, communication, and personal growth along the way.

Ted has spent his career learning how to develop people, build effective systems, lead teams, and consistently improve. And those same principles apply to business owners and entrepreneurs trying to build successful businesses without sacrificing the life they want to live.

In this conversation, Pat and Ted unpack:

• Why systems are critical to business growth
• How to identify the things that actually matter most
• Why great leaders learn to listen more and talk less
• How to build a strong business culture
• Why consistency is one of the most important leadership traits
• How to give talented people the freedom to be themselves
• Using data and technology without losing the human element
• Why business owners need to focus on what they can control
• How to measure whether your processes are actually working
• Why documenting your systems can expose the "leaks in your boat"
• The importance of surrounding yourself with people who challenge you and help you grow
• Why you need to learn to fall in love with the boring, everyday work
• How to narrow the gap between where you are and where you want to be
• Why continuous learning and humility are essential to long-term success

Ted's story is a great reminder that whether you're coaching a baseball team or building a business, success comes from knowing what you value, creating a plan around those values, and consistently executing that plan.

If you're a business owner, entrepreneur, coach, or leader looking for better business strategies, leadership principles, mindset shifts, and systems that can help you grow your business while creating a more ideal life, you'll get plenty to think about in this conversation.

Topics covered: business growth, entrepreneurship, business systems, leadership, mindset, company culture, coaching, team building, personal development, business strategy, productivity, continuous improvement, data-driven decision making, and building a more successful and fulfilling life.

The Winning Coach with Pat Rigsby

Helping coaches, entrepreneurs, and business owners build better businesses, become better leaders, and create a life they actually want to live.

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Most business owners don't have a growth problem.

They have an expectations problem.

If you've spent years surrounded by people doing $15K or $20K a month, eventually that starts to feel like the ceiling. You assume that's just what businesses like yours can do.

But what if it isn't?

In this episode of The Winning Coach, Pat Rigsby talks about breaking through the ceilings we put on ourselves—and why getting into a stronger environment can change what you believe is possible.

Pat shares stories from his time building a college baseball program that had very little going for it on paper, as well as growing a training business from a market where 30 clients was considered successful to more than 400 clients in just 18 months.

The lesson?

Your past doesn't determine your potential.

A lot of fitness business owners spend their time looking for the next offer, the next marketing tactic, or the next shiny object that's going to fix their business.

But sustainable fitness business growth usually starts somewhere much simpler:

Change what you believe is possible.

Get around better business owners. Study people who are further ahead. Learn outside your industry. Join a community where bigger goals and better businesses are normal.

Because sometimes the ceiling isn't real.

It's just the highest level you've seen.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why fitness business owners create self-imposed ceilings • How your environment shapes your expectations • Why community can accelerate gym business growth • How to raise your expectations as a gym owner • Why studying outside the fitness industry can make you a better entrepreneur • The danger of constantly chasing shiny new offers and tactics • How successful coaches and business owners think differently • Why your past results don't have to dictate your future • How surrounding yourself with people further ahead can change your business

If you're a gym owner, fitness business owner, coach, or entrepreneur who wants to build a more profitable business—and not just chase the latest trend—this episode is for you.

Stop studying what's normal. Start studying what's possible.

Subscribe to The Winning Coach for practical insights on fitness business growth, entrepreneurship, leadership, mindset, coaching, and building a business that creates long-term wealth.

#FitnessBusiness #GymOwners #FitnessBusinessCoach #GymBusiness #GymOwner #FitnessEntrepreneur #BusinessMindset #BusinessGrowth #TheWinningCoach

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What if you could build a winning organization without having the biggest resources?

That's exactly what Dan Heefner has done at Dallas Baptist University.

Entering his 20th season as the head baseball coach at DBU, Dan has helped build one of the most consistently successful programs in college baseball—while competing against programs with significantly greater resources. And the lessons behind that success have almost nothing to do with baseball.

In this episode of The Winning Coach, Pat Rigsby sits down with Dan to talk about what it really takes to build a great organization: developing people, creating the right environment, hiring the right people, finding overlooked talent, and continually adapting when the landscape changes.

Dan shares why he believes one of a leader's most important jobs is to create an environment where people can grow, why "leadership" is really about influence, and why the best way to develop leaders is to actually give them opportunities to lead.

They also dive deep into hiring and recruiting—including why you should define who you are before deciding who you want to hire, why resumes can be overrated, how to uncover the truth during reference checks, and how case studies can reveal far more about a candidate than traditional interview questions.

For coaches, business owners, fitness professionals, and anyone responsible for building a team, there are lessons throughout this conversation that can be applied immediately.

You'll hear Dan and Pat discuss:

• Building a winning organization without the biggest resources • Why development can become a competitive advantage • Creating an environment where good habits are easy • Building culture through the physical environment • Why leadership is really about influence • Developing leaders by giving them responsibility • Hiring for culture and long-term fit—not appearances • How to conduct better reference checks • Why specific questions beat generic interview questions • Using real-world case studies to evaluate potential hires • Finding undervalued talent your competitors overlook • Learning from industries outside your own • Adapting when your industry is constantly changing • Doing more with less • The importance of staying curious and maintaining a "figure it out" mentality • The unique challenges of coaching your own children

This is a conversation about building people, building teams, and building something that lasts.

Whether you're a coach, gym owner, fitness professional, entrepreneur, or business leader, there's plenty here to steal for your own organization.

Because winning isn't always about having the most.

Sometimes it's about knowing what you can develop, what you can't, and how to build an environment that brings out the best in your people.

• 00:00 – Building a Winning Program Without the Biggest Resources
• 02:00 – The Early Days of Dallas Baptist Baseball
• 04:30 – Why Player Development Became DBU's Competitive Advantage
• 07:00 – The Power of Continual Curiosity and Getting Better
• 10:00 – Learning From Outside Your Industry
• 13:00 – Creating an Environment Where People Naturally Develop
• 16:00 – Make Good Habits Easy, Bad Habits Hard
• 19:00 – Why Leadership Is Really About Influence
• 22:00 – Stop Trying to Make Everyone Lead the Same Way
• 25:00 – How to Develop Leaders: Give Them Responsibility
• 28:00 – The Most Important Job of a Head Coach
• 30:30 – Hiring for Culture, Fit, and Long-Term Success
• 34:00 – Why You Shouldn't Hire for Social Proof
• 37:00 – How to Actually Check a Candidate's References
• 40:00 – Stop Asking Generic Interview Questions
• 43:00 – Using Real-World Case Studies to Hire Better People
• 46:00 – Finding Undervalued Talent Your Competition Overlooks
• 49:00 – How to Do More With Less
• 52:00 – Adapting When Your Industry Is Constantly Changing
• 55:00 – The Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays Approach to Business
• 58:00 – Coaching Your Own Children: The Challenges and Rewards
• 1:01:00 – Building a Place People Love to Be
• 1:03:00 – Final Thoughts on Coaching, Leadership, and Growth

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What does it take to build a championship-level program—and become the kind of coach people want to follow?

On this episode of The Winning Coach, I sit down with my longtime friend and highly respected college baseball coach Brian Harrison, Head Baseball Coach at Baldwin Wallace University.

Brian has built Baldwin Wallace into one of the top Division III baseball programs in the country, with nearly 600 wins as a head coach and multiple trips to the College World Series. But the real story isn't just the wins. It's the leadership, player development, culture, relationships, and constant evolution behind them.

Brian and I talk about what it takes to build a successful baseball program from the ground up, develop players at a high level, hire and empower great coaches, and create a culture where players want to stay, improve, and take ownership.

One of the most important ideas Brian shares is this:

"The best player development is coach development."

If you want to develop better players, you have to become a better coach.

We also dive into clarity in coaching, building trust with players, recruiting, team culture, player retention, leadership, coaching philosophy, adapting to change, and finding competitive advantages—not only in college baseball, but in any environment where you're responsible for helping people become better.

Brian shares how his coaching philosophy has evolved over nearly two decades, why great coaches need to continually learn, and why becoming wiser often means eliminating the things that don't matter so you can focus more intensely on what does.

We also discuss the changing landscape of college baseball recruiting, the transfer portal, technology in player development, limited resources in Division III athletics, and how coaches can create an advantage by focusing on people and relationships.

This is a conversation about much more than baseball.

It's about leadership, personal growth, developing people, building culture, and becoming better at what you do.

If you're a baseball coach, sports coach, athletic leader, business owner, entrepreneur, or anyone responsible for developing other people, there's a lot to take away from this conversation.

• Building a championship-level baseball program
• The connection between coach development and player development
• Creating clarity within a team
• Building trust and authentic relationships
• Developing a strong team culture
• Recruiting and player development
• Hiring and empowering great assistant coaches
• Retaining players in a changing college sports landscape
• Using technology effectively in coaching
• Developing hitters, pitchers, and defenders
• Adapting your coaching philosophy over time
• Finding competitive advantages and marginal gains
• Leadership and servant leadership
• How parenting can make you a better coach
• Learning from other coaches and sports
• Why great coaches never stop developing themselves

The best coaches don't just develop players.

They develop themselves so they can better develop everyone around them.

That's what this episode of The Winning Coach is all about.