Adam Gordon: Connecting Coaches to Create Impact in The Coaching Profession

Coaching is a flourishing field, and now, there are different online coaches connecting to spread their years of knowledge and experience through their course. Adam Gordon, Co-Founder and CEO of Rising Coaches had a knack for being a bridge to people’s success. He always possessed an entrepreneurial spirit however, at the age of 14, he became quite serious for becoming a college basketball coach. After giving in 17 years into the coaching career, he realized it was time to run his own business.

Commenced in 2010, Rising Coaches was a medium to connect, build genuine relationships as well as learn from experts in their profession. He adds, “When we start impacting lives and gaining positive feedback, that’s when I get excited. I thrive off of momentum, and we’ve been fortunate to build quite a bit of it during 2020. Our hope is that we can continue to grow our community and search firm in 2021 so that we can make a meaningful impact on individual coaches and the coaching profession.”

Overview on the Services and Vision of Rising Coaches

2019 marked the beginning of running the Rising Coaches business full-time. There is a membership platform, media company as well as a search firm. While the membership platform holds over 1,200 members, the media company offers a unique platform for all coaches and athletes so as to create content for their peers. He shares, “We give them access to some great resources via the membership platform, but the most valuable thing we do for our members is connect them with other coaches. Relationships are currency in the coaching world and so investing in building your network is one of the most impactful things you can do for your career.” Both of these are fun ventures that helped numerous coaches to represent their brand in the best way.

The search firm helps them get the best valuable asset for their positions. He adds, “We work with employers, athletic directors and coaches to help them with their hiring process. We learn about their ideal candidate and then we leverage our relationships to identify, vet and recruit a pool of candidates that checks all of the boxes. It’s a lot to juggle, but all three facets of our company feed into each other.”

Before 2019, Live events were held however, full-time coaching made it difficult to expand the services ahead. He still managed to create such a platform just because of his passion. As Adam loved to connect people who have an opportunity or who can make a huge difference for them, he is passionate to know about people’s success journey. He states, “I love to hear all the time that people are motivated by their fear or their failures. For me, I’m motivated by success.”

Adam’s Contribution in the Success of Rising Coaches

Owing to the out-of-the-box thinking, eloquent speaking and listening skills, Adam has creatively presented handy solutions to help in communicating the message clearly to the people he worked for. He believes, “Leadership is about service and to serve you have to first listen to understand where the challenges and opportunities lie.” He considers that he has all the apt skills naturally and he is still improvising on some things with tiny daily steps.

As Rising Coaches is not a firm devoted for sales, it is a strong community that is created to fill a void in the profession. The full organization is the sum of all people who have shared their success paths through their organization. He shares, “There simply aren’t many resources available to coaches when it comes to trying to figure out how to navigate the profession. There’s a lot when it comes to X’s and O’s, but when it comes to tools that can help you make it in this very challenging profession there just simply isn’t much available.”

Achieving Work-Life Balance

Adam’s role at Rising Coaches is to impart a clear vision and direction as well as execute that vision. It is quite difficult to communicate this to people so that they can tread the path of their vision. He says, “I’m an idea person, and I love to be creative with ways we can provide value, but at times that makes it even harder for our execution. There’s a balance between sticking with the plan and finding new ways to continue to push the envelope and be on the cutting edge. I certainly have room to grow in that area, but I’m fortunate to be surrounded by great people that carry us through those challenges.”

He loves the flexibility of being a business owner. He gets ample time can take his son to the park in the afternoon and go to breakfast with his wife. Mainly, the only transition from being an employee to business owner has been difficult. Initially the external pressure pinged him however, now the scenario has changed completely. Now the company’s production is on him. He struggled to stay mentally present with his family, but situations have improved now.

A typical workday for Adam begins around 6:45 am when he gets him ready for school after which he exercises and then, devotes his time to work. He says, “Every day is different. My tasks vary depending on the time of year and what’s needed that day. During the summer when it’s the off-season for basketball coaches, we host multiple zooms a day which keeps me busy. In the winter when coaches are busy with their season, I tend to spend more time on the search firm.”

Future Plans for Rising Coaches

Adam has a lot to accomplish via Rising Coaches. Pandemic brought many coaches online with lots of zoom meetings, podcasts and coaching communities to help and give back to the coaching profession. But it also pushes the Rising Coaches team to search for new avenues to stay ahead of this curve. He shares, “Our plan is to continue to impact the coaching profession. We’d love to eventually move beyond just basketball, and we’d love to one day have direct impact on the daily lives of athletes too. I think we’re just scratching the surface of what Rising Coaches can be.”