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.

4d ago

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
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
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
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
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
Aug 24

030: 10 Years as a Fitness Trainer. Here's What Actually Works.

Giorgia Wessels couldn't afford running shoes, so she showed up to sprint trials barefoot. A teacher asked why she was even there and she never went back. She walked into a gym at 17 instead, and that was over ten years ago. She was too shy to approach people on a commercial gym floor, so rather than face it she left the country. Two years in Bangkok, two in Singapore, working nine clients a day, six days a week, with seven days of paid leave a year. Then her visa was denied and she had 60 days to get out. She came home and walked straight into the commercial gym she'd crossed the world to avoid. In this conversation she gets honest about a decade in the fitness industry. Why so much online advice comes from people not telling you what they're taking, why confident-sounding advice is usually the worst, why the all-or-nothing mindset ruins progress, and why she refuses to comment on her clients' bodies. 🔗 Follow Giorgia Instagram: @giorgia.bw 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel
Aug 17

029: What It Actually Takes to Qualify for HYROX Elite 15 | Kyle Schoonbee

Kyle Schoonbee rowed at the Tokyo Olympics. Five years of work, a ruthless centralised program, two stress fractures he never told anyone about. Then three weeks out from the Games the squad overcooked it. He took two strokes off the start line and watched the entire field disappear. He walked away from endurance sport after that. Then HYROX came along and he couldn't stay out of it. Seven and a half minutes off his time between his first and second race. Sub-60 in Chicago. Now he's chasing Elite 15. In this conversation he breaks down what actually separates elite HYROX athletes from everyone else. Why his rowing background helps less than you'd assume, why he deliberately rows slower than he can, and why comparing HYROX times across courses is meaningless. We also get into elite-level training and recovery: why program completion should be a health metric not a goal, his honest take on ice baths, and the funding reality for niche sports in South Africa. 🔗 Follow Kyle Instagram: @kyle.schoonbee 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel
Aug 11

028: She Dreamed of the Olympics as a Kid. 20 Years Later She Made It

Vicky Van Der Merwe thought about the Olympics every day from the age of eight. She got there at 34. A hip injury cost her 2012. Glandular fever cost her 2016. By 2020 she'd stepped away, finished a law degree and moved on. Then her son was born in 2022 and two weeks later she told her husband she still wanted Paris. Her last international race had been seven years earlier. Almost everyone thought she was crazy. Five months postpartum she was eight minutes down at African Champs. One year later she won it by three minutes. In this conversation she explains how she did it on far less training than her competitors because with a newborn, broken sleep and a business to run, more hours weren't an option. Instead she made every session count and kept a list of every mistake after every race, fixing them one at a time. We also get into the chaos of that campaign: getting hit by a car mid-race, her race bike written off the night before a qualifier, and what it's actually like inside an Olympic village. 🔗 Follow Vicky Instagram: @vickyvandermerwe 🔗 Follow ATHCO Instagram: @athco.cc YouTube: ATHCO 🔗 Follow Us Daniel: @dannyjd_ Jannis: @jannisrothermel

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.

Creator

Athco
Years Active

2026
Episodes

34
Rating

Explicit
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© Athco
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ATHCO

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Updated Oct 12