Jared Montz is a former professional soccer player. He prematurely retired through injury in March, but his love for the sport has remained strong despite this setback. Jared's career took him through Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire, future MLS expansion club Vancouver Whitecaps and Puerto Rico Islanders.
He now runs an innovative online soccer coaching school, Jared Montz Soccer, which brilliantly uses social networking and social media tools to give Jared the ability to be hands on with the coaching but keep it affordable for the parents of his pupils.
The cornerstone of JMS coaching is Jared's videos, filmed not on a perfectly maintained pitch or astroturf, but on grass - it's a down to earth little touch, one of many which show his understanding of the realities of being a kid growing up playing football in the States.
Jared kindly agreed to answer some questions from twofootedtackle, and I think they give a good insight to what he's doing for his pupils and why Jared Montz is a really good thing for American soccer.
TFT: After four years at Lynn U, you spent time with Chicago Fire, Vancouver Whitecaps and Puerto Rico Islanders. How do you see your career looking back?
JM: As a player, whenever I hit a milestone or a high point I enjoyed it for that day and then immediately was looking to reach an even higher point. So when you're in it your never satisfied, you always want more. Looking back I can be proud of what I accomplished. Did I reach all of my goals in football, no. Do I wish it could have been different had I not picked my injuries, yes.
But overall I am satisfied and can look back with no regrets and say that I went as far in the game as I could before injuries set in. I dealt with a lot of tough situations and I am proud of how I handled them.
I met a lot of great fans, played the game with some great pros, learned a ton, and lived the dream of being a professional footballer for a few years; a dream I wanted ever since I was a young kid!
How long ago did you set up JMS, and what inspired you to do so?
I formed Jared Montz Soccer as an LLC in September of 2008 but the business idea itself came in June 2008. I was inspired to build an Online Soccer Academy because I thought it would be a brand new great way for young footballers to learn new football skills they could work on in their backyard and have a place to go to get motivated.
In America most players only get to train with their club teams 1-2 times per week. The rest of the time they have to train on their own and don't always know what to do. I didn't know what to do when I was growing up training by myself. Now I plan to fix that and offer kids a new source of football knowledge.
What are the difficulties facing young players in the USA?
Infrastructure, coaching, and opportunities. It is not like England with a youth academy set-up building into the pro team. It is starting to change over here with MLS clubs building their academies but it has a long way to go. There are some good coaches in America but they can't be everywhere. So a lot of young players get coached by parents that volunteer.
It is great that parents do that and I certainly appreciate it. However, from a football standpoint it is hard for a young player to learn technique and tactics from a person who has never played before. In my opinion that is why you find American players on average tend to be great athletes but not world class footballers.
It's also true that the States is a huge country. It is not easy to get recruited by a college or pro coach depending where you are. It costs a lot of money to travel and go to big tournaments to get seen by scouts. Not everyone can afford the time and money to do this.
For me personally there were no colleges near me that offered men's football, so I had to go above and beyond just playing good footy to get seen by scouts.
Is there anything like JMS in existence elsewhere?
No, not the way I am doing it. Other websites might have training videos or coaching lessons, but none are designed the way my Online Soccer Academy is, with all its extra features and taste of social media.
What makes JMS unique?
I would like to think it is my personal touch. Besides learning football in the Online Soccer Academy I feel I have designed a motivation center for my players to come to.
I imagine, and I know from feedback from their parents, that my players come in read a few blog posts, do their recent game review, read a motivational quote in their message center, watch the newest training video, and then go out in the backyard feeling pumped that if they train hard today and believe in it they can reach their dreams!
How is the School working out so far?
It's only been live for two and a half months, so the biggest success so far is that I got it up and working! I got the idea in June 2008 and between researching, raising capital, working with a web design team, getting a lawyer, insurance, marketing, trademarks, going through beta etc., it was a good feeling to see it finally go live January 30, 2009. Not to mention on top of that I was rehabbing my injury 4-5 hours a day, coaching camps and private lessons so it was a 36-hour a day job!
I am not a tech savvy guy, so the fact that the website is working and the user feedback has been so positive to me is the biggest success so far.
You use social media for Jared Montz Soccer. Which tools do you use for which purposes?
I do use social media. I am on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Youtube. I also blog, podcast, and film Youtube videos. I could be doing way more but that is about all I can handle at the moment.
I use Twitter to connect with football people. It is mostly users 20 and older on there at the moment I would say. There is a big soccer community on Twitter and I enjoy speaking with everyone and meeting new people. Twitter, with its real time search, makes it easy to connect with new people all over the world and I think the culture of the users on the site promotes that.
Facebook helps me connect with more of the younger generation (older players I coach), and, well, now the younger generation's parents too as it is pretty much taking over the world! I use LinkedIn but I don't really use it that much. It doesn't promote sharing and engaging with people as much as other social networking sites do. It has a model that works for their users, but I would say it doesn't help me that much at the moment.
Youtube helps me get my video content out there. I probably should use other video sharing sites too but at the moment 95% of the people that would watch MontzTV videos are going to do it on Youtube.
First and foremost I enjoy meeting people and talking football but the business value in social media is huge. I have made so many great contacts through Twitter and Facebook. Sometimes it is easier and faster for me to get a response with people I need to speak to on Facebook then it is making a phone call or sending an email.
If you listen, participate, and engage with other users and bring something of value to the table you will slowly start to build a community that will be interested in reading your blogs, listening to your podcasts, etc.
Look at some of the big social media players like Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV and you can see he would not be where he is today without social media.
How else do you promote yourself?
This is my second business so I am able to almost piggyback off my first business, which I still have, my soccer camps. I have coached hundreds of kids over the past few years so I have some built in organic growth. Some nights I spend a few hours calling campers and their parents personally to let them know about the new Online Soccer Academy.
Any kids I coach at camp, private, group, and team training sessions from now on will get a free month in the Online Academy. I am currently doing a promotion where current users and trial users in the Academy get a free Montz Soccer bag and I ship it for free too. In the bag are autograph cards with information about the Academy and all I ask from the players who get the free bags is they hand the cards out to their teammates at their next practice.
Those are just a few examples. I have other marketing plans and ideas too but one thing I know about business is you don’t give away all your secrets!
What are the pressures you face as a business?
There are a lot of pressures running a business; we could do a whole separate interview on that! Being a web startup and business in general I would say the biggest pressure would be how do you handle not making money. Sounds funny, but you have so much capital, time, and energy invested in a business that may not ever show you a positive return.
Can you handle the pressure of not making money a year or two while the business is growing? You would like to think that hopefully it won't take to long to start turning a profit but the reality is it takes time and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to run a successful business and they don’t just happen overnight.
What are your long-term ambitions? Any intention to move abroad?
My biggest ambition is to be a positive influence on young people's lives that have a dream and want to go for it. I want my Online Soccer Academy to be a place they can come to get inspired and educated about football. I have a lot of ideas for how to continue to make that happen in the future and I will always be making my Online Academy experience better and better for my players.
Some kid from New Zealand tried to sign up the other day and I have past campers that now live in Australia so I guess you could say one day going abroad would have to be on the cards. For now though I believe Americans will mostly use my Online Soccer Academy. That needs to happen first, before I make a big move to actively market the website abroad.
One day in the next few years though I would love to make the trip to Europe and catch some games, interview players for MontzTV and the Podcast, and tour some of the great stadiums in the game. One stop I plan on making is in London and when I do I look forward to doing a twofootedtackle podcast together!
You can read more about Jared Montz Soccer at Jared's website. Don't forget to check out his blog and videos, and follow him on Twitter, @jaredmontz. Jared, thanks for your time.
Read more
