ATHCO

Athco
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ATHCO is a podcast for athletes who want to turn their passion into profession. Real conversations with athletes, founders, and creators who've done it. Sharing the playbook so you can too. The training. The business. The mistakes. Everything you need to build something meaningful from your passion.

  1. 5d ago

    038: How to Get Brand Deals With Only 1,000 Followers

    Juli Kleinhans once had almost 100,000 followers on Instagram. She didn’t make a cent from them. Today she runs Gutsy, a fitness app and community for everyday women, with a far smaller following. And she’s convinced you can start a business with just 1,000 followers. Juli raced at nationals for the first time when she was 11. By grade 11 her coach sat her down over dinner and told her that if she ran under 60 seconds in the 400m hurdles, she could race internationally. She ran the time. That year, two other girls ran faster, and only the top two went. At university her new coach asked her a question nobody had ever asked her: why are you running? She burst into tears. At 20 she met her coach for coffee and could only get three words out: “I hate this.” It wasn’t the sport she hated. It was the pressure, and how her whole identity had been built around it. Around the same time her Instagram was hacked. She lost her sport and her following in the same stretch, and then lockdown hit. What came next is the part we didn’t expect. Home workouts during COVID led to a personal training certificate, then group classes at F45, a hiking community, and eventually the Gutsy app, which launched in September 2024 at R99 a month so South African women could actually afford it. Now there’s also her podcast, She’s Gutsy. In this episode Juli breaks down how to get brand deals with a small following: what a media kit needs, why your audience numbers matter more than your follower count, why she’d look people up on LinkedIn rather than send one DM, why doing your first deals for trade can pay off, and how a protein bar she melted in the microwave turned into a partnership with USN. We also get into what nobody tells young athletes about pressure, why she came back to the track four years later to race her younger self (“I miss everything except the pressure”), doing an Ironman 70.3 in their first year of marriage without owning a bike, and the burnout she’s dealing with right now, which is why she trains 20 to 30 minutes a day. Plus the time Sydney McLaughlin followed her back, and why she films weekly car reviews that have nothing to do with fitness. Juli’s first ever podcast as a guest. 🔗 Follow JuliInstagram: @julipoeli_officialGutsy app: @gutsy_appPodcast: She’s Gutsy Podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts) 🔗 Follow ATHCOInstagram: @athco.ccYouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow UsDaniel: @dannyjd_Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    038: How to Get Brand Deals With Only 1,000 Followers

  2. Oct 19

    037: A Pro Triathlete’s Honest Advice for Beginners

    “I’m not an influencer, I’m a triathlete.” That’s what it says in Dylan Nortje’s Instagram bio. Dylan is a professional triathlete from White River who started racing at 16. He’s 29 now and, by his own count, still on his twelfth gap year. He never sat down and decided to go pro. He wanted to make it in cycling and didn’t crack it. Then he did one race in Joburg, and it kept going from there. Making a living from triathlon in South Africa is a different game, though. Brands here run on small margins, importing is expensive, and very few of them can put big money behind an athlete. One brand owner told him straight: sponsoring the package he asked for would mean cancelling all her marketing. So they met halfway. Two years later, they’re still working together. He’ll also tell you he hates Instagram. If he could delete the app today, it’d be gone. At the end of last year he decided to post anyway, on his own terms: he only shows products he actually uses, and gives an honest answer when people ask whether they work. When he started speaking up about depression, 15 to 20 guys messaged him privately within the first hour. In this episode Dylan gives his honest advice to anyone getting into triathlon, especially Dan, who’s only a few weeks into his own training. We get into why “you don’t race triathlons, you train for them,” why he hasn’t raced since December and still loves every week of training, and how running without a watch helped take his 5K from around 16:40 into the 15s in six months. We also get into why copying pro triathletes can make you slower. Instagram shows you the heat sessions in hoodies on a 36-degree day. It doesn’t show the nine hours of sleep and the 99% of unglamorous work behind them. Plus how Strava pushes people to run faster than their body wants, why work stress hits your body the same way a hard session does, and why he says that training alone, he’d have quit years ago. And fuelling the simple way: how many carbs per hour, how to train your gut, whether DIY sugar mixes are worth it, and why a Bar One makes it onto his long rides. An honest one about loving the process, and doing sport because it’s fun. 🔗 Follow DylanInstagram: @dylannortje97 🔗 Follow ATHCOInstagram: @athco.ccYouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow UsDaniel: @dannyjd_Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    037: A Pro Triathlete’s Honest Advice for Beginners

  3. Oct 12

    036: His Mates Called It the Dumbest Idea Ever. He Did It Anyway.

    We met Michael Brand by accident. We were organising an event at SaunaHaüs, he happened to be there, and when we asked if he trained, he said he did "a little bit of triathlon." Then he sent us his list. A self-made Ironman. A 100-miler. Top five at the Prom backyard ultra. Medals at the South African rowing champs. And the Cape 253. A 7.4km swim from Robben Island, a 138km cycle, and a 108km run over Cape Town's 13 Peaks with 6,500m of climbing. His mates told him it was the dumbest thing they'd ever heard. He did it anyway. Mike grew up rowing. For a kid with ADHD who didn't quite know where he fit, it was the first place where hard work showed up clearly in the results and the first time he found real confidence. Years later, struggling during his master's year, he went back to that lesson: pick something so difficult that it forces you to lock in every day. At 12, he'd written two things on his bucket list: do an Ironman without ever doing a half, and run an ultra before a marathon. When COVID shut down races, he didn't wait. He built his own Ironman between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek and added 8km to the run so it would count as an ultra. He weighed 102kg when he started training. His first run was 2km and gave him shin splints. Fourteen hours later, he'd ticked off both. Then came the Cape 253. On the run leg, three peaks in, around 3am, he partially tore his ITB coming down a rocky descent. He'd trained for ten months. So instead of stopping, he told himself: just one more peak. A doctor monitored his painkillers every two hours, friends joined for every leg, and he moved one peak at a time until he finished. 57 hours after starting. In this episode we get into why he only picks goals he'll probably fail, why the race itself is never the point, and why an ultra can feel like a whole year of life condensed into 35 hours. We also talk about hallucinating friendly spiders 36 hours into UTCT, why backyard ultras are the only format that gets harder the more you train, his strategy for running one, why "sport is about doing the boring things very well," and the 200-miler he's training for next. Plus ADHD and endurance sport, injury prevention, and our honest take on David Goggins. Recorded inside Sauna, Cape Town. 🔗 Follow Mike  Instagram: @michaelbrandrsa 🔗 SaunaHaüs Cape Town Book a session or say hi: @saunahaus.cpt 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    036: His Mates Called It the Dumbest Idea Ever. He Did It Anyway.

  4. Oct 7

    035: She Works With Some of the biggest Fitness Brands. Here's How You Can Too.

    Chanel Kruger didn't grow up a runner. At school she only played netball, and by her own admission she hated putting in the work. Her sister was the track star. That changed during COVID. Her sister kept training at home, so Chanel joined her, mostly just to spend time together. They worked through a Burnt Studios at-home program, one session led to another, and she never really stopped. She's been strength training consistently for five or six years now, and running came later. She was sharing her training online long before it was a "creator athlete" thing. And at around 5,000 followers, she reached out to Burnt Studios and HOKA herself. Almost four years later, she's still partnered with both. In this episode she breaks down exactly how she approached it. Why she bought and wore the brands long before she ever pitched them. Why you should "do what you would do if you were already a partner." Why staying within your niche matters more than saying yes to every offer. And why brands often see the value in you before you see it yourself. We also get into how to grow as a fitness creator in South Africa without chasing perfection: why most of Instagram is actually normal parkruns and ordinary 5Ks, the simple content ideas hiding in every beginner's running journey, the editing tools she uses, and why her own page has become more of a fitness scrapbook than a planned content calendar. Even though she now manages social media for six brands as a freelancer. Then there's the injury. Cape Town Marathon was her A-race. A week after Two Oceans, on an easy Saturday run with friends, she rolled her ankle and fractured her foot. She was back in the gym on crutches that Monday, missed the marathon, and slowly built back. Starting with two minutes of running and two minutes of walking, until her first continuous run of 12km. Plus HYROX, why it's really a running race with obstacles, why Cape Town's packed run club scene makes it hard to stick to a training plan, and why fun and goals can coexist. 🔗 Follow Chanel Instagram: @chanel_cronje 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    035: She Works With Some of the biggest Fitness Brands. Here's How You Can Too.

  5. Sep 21

    034: Your Next Race Could Feed a Child for a Year

    One in four children in South Africa is affected by childhood stunting. And if a child doesn't get the nutrition they need in their first two years of life, the effects can't be reversed later. Jeremy Cook is a motion designer with a nine-to-five. He's not an elite athlete, he's not running across a continent, and he doesn't have a big following. What he does have is a race calendar and this year he decided every event on it would be for something bigger than a medal. It started with a swim. Three years ago his boss introduced him to a foundation that funds high-protein daily meals for young children, and their annual fundraiser was the big swim: 7.5km through the Atlantic from Robben Island to Blouberg. With a competitive swimming background, he signed up immediately. He's done it every year since. The most recent one in rough chop that added an hour for almost everyone in the water. This year he started Strong Starts. Not a new NGO, but a way to connect the organisations already doing the work with people and companies who want to help. He set himself a goal of raising R100,000. He honestly didn't think he'd get to R20,000. He's past it. The campaign now builds to one race: the UTCT 55km. The mechanic is simple. 55 kilometres, 55 children fed for a full year, R55,000. In this episode we get into how he trains for open water endurance swims, the 15km river swim he signed up for almost on a whim, falling in love with trail running through the Running Late community, and why he'd rather swim in cold water with a wetsuit than risk the sharks on the other side of the peninsula. We also talk honestly about the content side of fundraising. Why good causes still need good content to get noticed. Why he started on his phone rather than waiting for the right gear. How his page grew 16% a month once he posted consistently. From just over 100 followers. And how he approaches brands by offering his motion design skills in return for their support, rather than just asking for money. Plus open water swimming tips for anyone training for their first triathlon, and the terrifying event he's shaken hands on for next year. You don't need to run across a country to make a difference. Sometimes you just need to put a reason behind the race you were already going to do. 🔗 Support & Follow Strong Starts: @strong__starts  Jeremy: @jeremy__cook__ Donate: https://www.givengain.com/project/jeremy-raising-funds-for-startwell-foundation-118624 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    034: Your Next Race Could Feed a Child for a Year

  6. Sep 14

    033: How to Qualify for IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds on Your First Try

    Cassandra signed her partner up for an Ironman 70.3 as a birthday present without asking him. She signed herself up too, then went back to work on a cruise ship and came home with three and a half months to train for a race she didn't fully understand. Her goal at Mossel Bay was simply to finish. She qualified for the 70.3 World Championships in Nice. First triathlon she'd ever done. In this conversation she takes us through how she trained around six-month contracts with no days off, why joining a community was the best decision she made, and the transitions and open water realities nobody warns you about. We also get into content creation, because she built her whole following on cruise ship content and switched to triathlon without losing her audience. She breaks down the four types of content she thinks every athlete should post, why she never trains around what would film well, and why there's no magic formula despite what every ad tells you. 🔗 Follow Cassandra Instagram: @cass_stefanie 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_  Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    033: How to Qualify for IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds on Your First Try

  7. Sep 7

    032: How to Build a Fitness Business With No Money and No Followers

    Vicky-Leigh Kruger wasn't sporty, was bullied for her weight, and hit a wall in grade 11, glandular fever, 21 days out of school, a colon infection, her gran passing, and five days away from repeating the year. Her words: she had no purpose and she was drowning. She found CrossFit at 16 through one guy's Instagram videos. At 18 she failed her Level 1 exam three times because she'd never actually coached anyone. So she started training people in her back garden for R95 an hour, buying one dumbbell at a time with each payment, dragging them indoors when it rained. By the time she walked into Virgin Active as a trainer, she arrived with fifty clients already on her books. In this conversation we get into how she built it from nothing, why practical experience beat theory every time, why she refuses to run the salesy funnels that would grow her faster, and her honest response to a creator who suggested people who don't look a certain way shouldn't be personal trainers. 🔗 Follow Vicky-Leigh Instagram: @_byvicks Coaching: @coached_byvicks 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    032: How to Build a Fitness Business With No Money and No Followers

  8. Aug 31

    031: Why Most People Get Hybrid Training Wrong

    Oscar Armstrong was a professional kitesurfer from 16 to 22. Sponsored, homeschooled, travelling the world on tour. Then he burnt out, moved to the Caribbean, picked up a camera and built an entirely different career. Since then: Indonesia, Sardinia, a van in Oregon, marine conservation documentaries, and a 50km surf ski from Hout Bay to Muizenberg in 7 hours 42 minutes. Now he's a fitness entrepreneur building Apex around strength, endurance, mindset and community. In this conversation we get into what it takes to build a body that actually holds up. Why bodybuilding-style training makes you stiff and less capable, where most people go wrong with hybrid training, and why he threw away his Whoop and refuses to let a recovery score decide his day. We also get into why he never picked one career, why he deliberately puts himself in positions where he's a beginner again, and his honest take that balance is a myth if you want to be genuinely great at something.  Follow Oscar Instagram: @oscar14rush  Apex: @os_apex 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel

    031: Why Most People Get Hybrid Training Wrong
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About

ATHCO is a podcast for athletes who want to turn their passion into profession. Real conversations with athletes, founders, and creators who've done it. Sharing the playbook so you can too. The training. The business. The mistakes. Everything you need to build something meaningful from your passion.

Information

  • Creator
    Athco
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Athco
  • Show Website
    ATHCO

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