By: The Active Life Team
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Nik was a group-class CrossFit coach who kept running into problems he cared about but didn’t have the skills to solve — and the people he couldn’t help weren’t getting help anywhere else either.
- He was overworked, underpaid, and burning out. He loved fitness and didn’t want to do anything else. It just wasn’t working for him.
- He’d been an Active Life client twice. His own coach — a doctor of physical therapy — told him the AL-P methodology was what she reached for most. That was all he needed to hear.
- He went through the education while still coaching, building a one-on-one client base in real time inside his partner’s gym.
- The one-on-one clients got results the group couldn’t match, and it changed the whole business. Nik went from barely getting by to financial freedom and a repeatable process he owns.
Every gym has a coach like Nik was. Good at the job, genuinely cares, and quietly frustrated by the members walking in with real problems he can't fix in a group class.
Nik Patrick has been an Active Life Professional since December 2022. Before that he was a group-class coach, mostly CrossFit, at True North Performance in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and by his own description he was "overworked, underpaid, not fulfilled, and really starting to feel burnt out." He loved fitness. He didn't want to do anything else. It just wasn't working for him. Here's how that turned around.
The problem: a good coach who couldn't solve his gym's problems
Nik could see the problems in his facility. He wanted to fix them. He didn't have the skills yet, and that gap wore on him.
"There were people that I cared about that I really couldn't help. And what was worse was that they weren't getting help elsewhere either."
He also saw the deeper flaw in how the gym worked. Everyone came in with a different goal, and everyone did the same thing anyway.
"Everybody had different goals, but they were all doing the exact same thing, and they were all having vastly different outcomes."
It wasn't bad intent. As Nik puts it, they'd hand every client "the one thing that's going to get you to your goal," and they genuinely believed it worked — "until we found something better that actually worked every time."
The turning point: his own coach was a physical therapist, and told him the program was what she used most
Nik didn't come to Active Life as a coach. He came as a client — first in 2018, working through bilateral tendinosis, then again after a wrist surgery. Over that time he built a relationship with his coach, who got to know his frustrations with his career and said he sounded like a good candidate for the Active Life Professional program.
He asked what it was. Her answer stuck:
"It's an absolute game changer. You could do what I do if you become an AL-P."
Nik pushed back — she was a doctor of physical therapy. Of course she could do what she did. Her response is the part every credential-collecting coach should hear:
"Yes, I am [a DPT], but what I learned within this program is actually what I use the most when I'm working with clients."
That was all he needed to hear.
Turning pro without quitting: learning and earning at the same time
One of Nik's fears going in was the classic one — can I afford this, and do I have to stop working to do it? He didn't.
He implemented the education in real time as he learned it. While he was still going through the program, he started building a one-on-one client base and helping people with what he was learning that week. "It only progressed as I got smarter."
The space to do it came from his business partner and best friend, Kelly, who owns True North Performance and let him take on one-on-one clients inside the gym.
"She literally gave me the space to grow. She trusted me as I trust her."
The tipping point: the one-on-one clients were ecstatic. The group wasn't.
The results told the story before anyone had to argue it. The people working with Nik one-on-one were seeing outcomes and were thrilled. The group-class clients weren't saying the same things or seeing the same results. Kelly noticed, and made the call:
"She said, 'Well, why don't we just do this?' And I said, 'I couldn't agree more.'"
They changed the whole thing — the business, the gym model, the way they help clients. As Nik says, 100%.
What he built: a repeatable process he owns
The frustration Nik started with — different goals, same program, random outcomes — got replaced by a system. He now runs a discovery-call process to learn whether the person across from him is even a good fit, a consultation process to gather what he needs to build the plan, and a repeatable assessment process to get the full picture before he starts.
"It's the most direct path from point A to point B."
That's the difference between guessing and assessing: it protects the client's time, money, energy, and resources — and it's repeatable, so it doesn't live or die on Nik's intuition in the moment.
The money: from barely getting by to financial freedom
Nik is direct that the cost was nerve-wracking. There's always an element of "I'm not exactly sure." But for him the math was simple:
"I couldn't afford not to do it. If I'm going to bet on anybody, I'm going to bet on myself."
Where it landed, in his words:
"I went from being extremely underpaid, like barely getting by, to the point where I'm like this is not sustainable, to now I have financial freedom. I can work as much or as little as I want to. I can work with who I want to. I can solve the problems I want to solve."
That's Nik's experience — one coach who bet on himself. What made it possible wasn't a certificate on the wall. It was the skills to actually solve the problems in front of him, and a business built to deliver them.
You got into coaching to help people. If you keep running into problems you can't solve, that's not a you problem — it's a skills gap, and it's closeable.
Start inside the assessment system. The L1 Biomechanics & Assessment Workshop is two days, live online, $19 (it was $1,500 in-person).
GRAB A SPOT — $19FAQ
A: Yes. Nik went through the program while working, implementing what he learned in real time and building a one-on-one client base as he went. He didn't have to stop coaching to do it.
A: Nik's own coach was a doctor of physical therapy, and she told him the AL-P methodology is what she uses most with clients. The program is about competence you apply, not another credential.
A: That varies by person, and no program can promise an outcome. Nik's experience: he went from underpaid and burnt out to a repeatable process, more control over his work, and financial freedom. His results are his own, not a guarantee.
A: It helps. Nik's business partner gave him the space to take on one-on-one clients inside her facility, and when those clients outperformed the group, they changed the whole model together. If you own or co-own your space, you have that flexibility already.
A: The $19 L1 Assessment Workshop. It's two days inside the system, and it's the lowest-risk way to see whether this is the work you want to be doing.
This is Nik Patrick's story in his own words — a coach at True North Performance in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and an Active Life Professional since December 2022. Video above.
📖 Every coach should read this one.
Live More. Hurt Less. by Dr. Sean Pastuch is the thinking behind the method — how pain actually works, and why the members who've "tried everything" are still stuck. Read it to sharpen how you coach, then put it in your clients' hands.
PRE-ORDER the bookActive Life Professional | Turn Pro.