Building Your Own Outdoor Movement Community - learning from our mistakes

Some of you might not already know, but whilst we run WildStrong and deliver courses and workshops across the UK we also run a small WildStrong group here in Fife where we coach weekly classes.

We started WildStrong when we lived in Berkshire and that group was, and still is, much larger than our Fife group. 

Having now set up two groups and helped our Franchisees set up their groups, we could write reams on what not to do when you are setting up a business. 

As part of our Free Monthly Movement Lab we’ve started running a regular session of “How to start building your outdoor movement community.”

Here is most of what we’ve learnt through the years, and some great tips from the community, I hope it’s helpful.

It Can Be a Lonely Road. But also the most fulfilling road you’ll ever walk.

You’ve done your training, you’re excited to bring your skills to the world. You set up your first session and... crickets. No one comes.

It’s soul-destroying. And while it’s easy to say, "Don’t take it personally," every time I have a small class, or someone comes once and doesn’t return, I take it extremely personally. It’s a knock to my fragile ego.

I remember reading about Joe Wicks starting out, flyering at Richmond Station day after day, only to turn up in the park with no one there. It’s so hard to keep your head held high when it’s just you.

When we set up our first WildStrong classes in Berkshire, we were emerging from Covid, and most of us were desperate for social connection and time outside. That helped us build momentum quickly. But momentum isn’t guaranteed, and it certainly isn’t immediate.

When we moved to Scotland last year, I naively thought we’d hit the ground running. We had built our first group, we had helped our franchisees grow their groups—so we’d just do it again. We were also well established as WildStrong by this point. Surely everyone would be queuing up around the trees to come and play?

We quickly realised that wasn’t going to be the case. We started in autumn, and soon it was winter. While we know that our established WildStrong groups tend to grow in winter, for new groups, convincing people to come to something unfamiliar in the middle of a dark November evening is a hard sell. The first winter the weather was HIDEOUS. It rained almost constantly from October through to July. Even the hardiest of souls hesitated to commit.

Our location was also a challenge—we are 70% surrounded by the sea, it’s very rural. Our main coaching business was growing, so we didn’t have the time or energy to fully invest in growing our local group.

At first, we thought maybe this just wasn’t the right place for WildStrong. Maybe it wouldn't work here. 

I went back to the drawing board and created two mind maps—one for our local group and one for the main business. This exercise is something I find immensely useful, not just for setting up a new group, but for staying focused when things inevitably feel overwhelming. Here’s how it works:

Building your mind map

This week in our Movement Lab, we had a fantastic group of coaches—some newly qualified, others with years of experience. Together, we worked through the process of creating our own mind maps. 

Start With Your Story

How did you get here? What experiences led you to this point? 

Why does this work matter to you? 

People are drawn to authenticity, and your personal journey is what will connect them to you and your sessions.

What is Your Why?

Come back to this over and over again. Why do you want to do this?

• Is it to make money?

• Is it to meet people?

• Is it to spend more time outside?

• Is it to move more?

All are valid, but you need to be clear on what’s driving you.

This will become your reference point whenever you have a wobble or get distracted by a shiny new idea. 

I always return to my mind map and ask myself: Am I staying true to my why?

Our why for our local group is for us to:

• Keep meeting new people and help them start to move with confidence.

• To bring in supplementary income (our main income will always come from our consultancy work and the courses we run).

• Keep playing around with different coaching ideas with our different groups, we have one group with an average age of 40 and another with an average age of 71. Their needs are very different.

• Keep giving ourselves options to move more, to spend time outside every week at times that work for us.

Once we’d re-stated this we realised we had been relying on assumptions that weren’t true here. 

We assumed that, because our members in Berkshire don’t like to travel, the same would apply in Scotland. But our core members now happily drive 20-30 minutes to attend class. 

We assumed that, because our Berkshire members didn’t like parking in a dark car park and walking through woods, the same would be true here. But people in rural Scotland? They have head torches. They don’t mind the dark.

We were also moving somewhere where we had few connections. I grew up here, but I hadn’t lived here for 20 years. Why would people come to a class run by someone they didn’t know? The real issue wasn’t the location—it was that we needed to take the time to build trust and relationships first.

Who Do You Want to Work With?

Be specific. Create a few personas of the people you want to reach. The clearer you are on this, the easier it is to find them.

• Example 1: A mum in her 40s, history of physical activity but not in recent years, teenage kids, works part-time, has a car, looking for something social.

• Example 2: A retired man in his 60s, has always been active but doesn’t like gyms, enjoys walking but wants something more structured.

Personas help you tailor your messaging, where you promote, and even how you design your sessions.

What Are Your Assets?

Remember, people come to you because of you. Your skills and credentials matter, but so does your unique style and approach.

• We say this on our course: we can teach you coaching skills, but we can’t teach you the super-skill of empathy. 

• Your ability to welcome people, meet them where they are, and listen is what makes a good coach.

(At this point, a nice segue to an article Andrew’s writing on the Guru Complex in movement coaching—it’s almost like we wrote them in tandem.)

Under assets, also consider:

• Equipment you have access to.

• Spaces you can use (indoors or outdoors).

• Community connections you already have.

On locations: There will never be a perfect one. We use a checklist:

• Parking?

• Public transport access?

• Lighting in winter?

• Storage?

• Is it a well-known space that already hosts other groups?

Most spaces have pros and cons—don’t let the search for perfection stop you from starting. Often you can start somewhere and conversations and connections will emerge in the process that lead you to somewhere else.

How Will You Build Your Group?

This is where you’ll need a constant supply of brave pants.

The Power of Loose Connections

• Who do you already know locally?

• Can you start informally with a small group?

• Can you test out sessions to build confidence before making a big push?

This approach builds confidence but isn’t always financially sustainable from day one. It helps to revisit your why—most people we train start out using coaching as an extra income stream, not their full-time job. If you can grow organically, it’s often a smoother process.

What time will I run sessions?

Here you’re going to have to “suck it and see what sticks.” Use your informal group to find what works for them. And beware of those who say “I’d LOVE a class at this time” but have never turned up to anything. The only thing you can pay attention to here, is when do people book and when to do they actually turn up. Everything else is just speculation and while you want to be accommodating, you also need to look at what the data tells you.

Synergistic Groups

Who is already offering movement-based or outdoor activities in your area?

• Yoga

• Pilates

• Walking or running clubs

• Gardening groups

• Cycling groups

• Lawn bowling

• Trail running groups

• Forest School

• Outdoor saunas (put this in recently as there are a lot near us on the coast)

Can you speak to those running other groups? Is there a collaboration opportunity? 

Competition isn’t a bad thing. People come to YOU because of YOU and what you offer. Think of Chinatown—why are there so many restaurants lined up together? 

Local Promotion

• What local events or festivals can you be part of?

• Can you do demos at local fairs?

• Can you collaborate with other groups to offer a joint workshop?

Constantly Promote!

The first year is HARD. And lonely. And no one wants to put themselves out there only to have no one show up. It’s soul-destroying.

But a Post-it on my desk reminds me:

If you don’t keep telling people, they will forget to buy from you.

Once you’re up and running, keep banging the drum. No one else will do that for you, until you have some loyal clients and then they will be your best marketing machine. 

People need multiple versions of the same message before they act.

• Keep talking.

• Keep listening.

• Keep sharing your story.

Use your social media channels - you will have people lurking on the side lines that haven’t quite had the opportunity to join yet, but they’ve been thinking about it. For small businesses, if you can do 3 posts a week on your Instagram and Facebook you will see a difference.

We have in the pipeline a few expert sessions on Marketing and Self-promotion to help you get over the sense of “ick” but for the mean time use this to get you started:

• Remember that the service you provide is something that people want - sales doesn’t need to feel icky if you’re providing a valuable service.

• Go live and answer one of the most common questions you get from new joiners. Either by yourself or ideally rope someone in to talk about how you’ve turned things around for them.

• Share a post that answers another question you often get asked. You can also use the Poll feature.

• Make an outreach list - who have you worked with before? Who enquired then disappeared? 

• Ask for referrals - who are your super-fans who you could ask to introduce you to the people in their network who need you?

And finally…

• Get out and do it—in a way that feels manageable and joyful for you.

• Revisit your why—especially when you're having a wobble.

• Keep banging the drum—people need reminders to show up.

• Share your journey in our coaching community—we can learn from each other.

Starting can feel lonely. But many of us have been there before. The self-doubt never fully goes away—but it does get easier.

Join our next Movement Lab, keep sharing in the coaching community, and know that we’ll be your cheerleaders.

Gill x

Did I miss anything? Probably - let me know below.