ATHCO
- Episódios
- 41
- Publicação
- semanal
- Último episódio
- 9 nov 2026
Sobre o podcast
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.
Episódios 41
040: How to Build a Personal Brand as an Athlete
“If you want to become a professional athlete in South Africa, you have to be the best of the best.”Dan said that on one of our very first episodes. Then we spent 39 episodes and more than 40 hours talking to …
Notas do episódio
“If you want to become a professional athlete in South Africa, you have to be the best of the best.”
Dan said that on one of our very first episodes. Then we spent 39 episodes and more than 40 hours talking to Olympians, pro athletes, coaches, founders and creators, and they kept giving us a different answer.
This is the best of all of it in one episode, built around one question: can you make sport your career if you’re not the best in the world?
We start with sponsorship. An Olympic rower on the side of elite sport nobody sees. Someone with almost 100,000 followers who learned that size isn’t what brands are looking for. And the ASICS FrontRunners captain explaining why they signed someone with under 1,000 followers.
Then how people actually grew: why your page should read like an autobiography and not a diary, the three-second test Instagram puts every video through, the 12-part series that made one account take off, and the guy who shipped 52 YouTube videos in 52 weeks after a mate laughed at his dead channel.
We get honest about the hard parts, too: a gym founder three years into building his dream, a first product shipment that went completely wrong, and an online coach whose first programme had zero finishers.
There’s a full training section with an Olympian, a pro triathlete and HYROX coaches: why recovery makes you faster, why your easy days are too fast, why lifting belongs in your plan, and how not to waste your race on the rower. Then what to do when it all goes wrong, and the stories of people nobody handed anything to, from a ventilator to a 100-mile race, and from four people watching a TikTok live to millions of views a month.
If you’re an athlete, a coach or a creator trying to make sport your job, this one’s for you.
Every guest’s full episode is on the channel.
🎙 In this episode
Nkosi Nsumbu · Aakanksha Monga · Seb Prentice · Nika Bedeker · Gerrit Knein · Laura Kirkpatrick · Michael Larter · Michael Tones · David Fick · Carla Johnson · Keaton Mac Farlane · Michael Obery · Jake Bird · Cameron Tripney · Vicky van der Merwe · Kyle Schoonbee · Vicky-Leigh Kruger · Cassandra Hawrylkiewicz · Chanel Kruger · Michael Brand · Dylan Nortje · Juli Kleinhans · Josh Lancaster
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel
039: The Performance Enhancer No One Tells Runners About
Danieke Malan’s first race was the worst race she’s ever run. She did what everyone does: a coffee and a peanut butter toast before the start.It took a look at her own DNA to find out why.Danieke is a …
Notas do episódio
Danieke Malan’s first race was the worst race she’s ever run. She did what everyone does: a coffee and a peanut butter toast before the start.
It took a look at her own DNA to find out why.
Danieke is a nutrigenomics consultant, which means she works on how your genes interact with the food you eat. She grew up playing competitive hockey, and by 15 she was training before school and after school. At 16 she was so tired she slept through whole weekends. A functional nutritionist helped her turn it around, and he was the first person to explain to her how DNA and nutrition fit together. She’s now doing her master’s in functional nutrition.
Once she started running, she got stuck in a cycle of Achilles and connective tissue injuries. So she analysed her own genetics the way she would for a client. She found out she recovers slowly. She also metabolises caffeine slowly, so on race morning the coffee was only kicking in once she was trying to race. She didn’t quit coffee. She changed the dose and the timing, and she says she’s now running the best she has since she started.
Pasta and pizza before races made “the wheels fall off”, so now she fuels on honey, dates and bananas. The night before every race she has a sourdough chicken mayo toastie, even if that means taking one with her on the road trip to a race in Knysna. She runs less, cross-trains more and walks every day.
In this episode Danieke explains nutrigenomics in plain English, and what a genetic test can and can’t tell you as a runner. In her words, it’s “a compass, not a verdict.” She takes us through what working with her looks like, using Jannis (currently injured) as the example client: the first conversation, the cheek swab, the 21 working days it takes to get results, and how those results become a plan for recovery, sleep and fuelling.
We also get into what to eat and drink after a hard session, why timing matters as much as what’s on your plate, why inflammation is a symptom rather than the problem, how stress shows up in your body, whether your genes can show if you’re more suited to power or to speed, and why we personalise our training plans but still eat off someone else’s plan.
Plus Dan’s low-carb half marathon that nearly finished him off, the Stellies vs UCT debate, Danieke’s honest answer on peptides (“I do not have the credentials to answer that”), and her take on supplements: “You don’t need a fistful of supplements, you need a slow morning and your farmers market.”
An honest one about getting to know your own body.
This episode is general information, not medical advice. Speak to a qualified professional before changing your diet, training or supplements.
🔗 Follow Danieke
Instagram: @daniekemalan
GeneIQ: @geneiq.health
Veldt: @veldtlife
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel
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 …
Notas do episódio
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 Juli
Instagram: @julipoeli_official
Gutsy app: @gutsy_app
Podcast: She’s Gutsy Podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts)🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel037: 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 …
Notas do episódio
“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 Dylan
Instagram: @dylannortje97🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel036: 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 …
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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
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 …
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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
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 …
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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
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 …
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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
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 …
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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
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 …
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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
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 …
Notas do episódio
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
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 …
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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
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 …
Notas do episódio
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
027: Can You Actually Make a Living From Sport in South Africa?
We started ATHCO to answer one question: can you turn a passion for sport into a full-time profession in South Africa? Twenty-seven episodes later, we have an answer and it's not the one we wanted.This is just …
Notas do episódio
We started ATHCO to answer one question: can you turn a passion for sport into a full-time profession in South Africa? Twenty-seven episodes later, we have an answer and it's not the one we wanted.
This is just the two of us being honest about what we've found. Why the best SA creators still have full-time jobs even at 40,000 followers. Why brands here don't have creator marketing budgets. The brutal market maths that makes the numbers not work. And why South African creators are grafting twice as hard for a fraction of the return.
We're also open about our own situation. Burning savings, flying back and forth, pivoting business models, and possibly having to tap overseas markets just to keep building something here.
But it's not all bleak. We get into the real value that comes from a personal brand even without the money, and why documenting your life tends to make your life better.
No six-step formula. No secret hack. Just where we're actually at.
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel
026: What It Actually Takes to Become a World Champion
Cameron Tripney is 22 and one of the fastest stand up paddle sprinters in the world. Junior World Champion at 18 on his first ever international event. Bronze in the Pro Men's division at 21. World Cup gold in …
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Cameron Tripney is 22 and one of the fastest stand up paddle sprinters in the world. Junior World Champion at 18 on his first ever international event. Bronze in the Pro Men's division at 21. World Cup gold in Italy.
He gets almost nothing for it. No government backing, no salary, none of the support paddlers at his level receive in South America or Europe. And the hardest part isn't the training. It’s that being world-class isn't enough anymore. Results don't get you sponsors. Content does. And he'd rather be on the water than behind a camera.
In this conversation we get into how a kid who was terrified of water became a world champion on it, how an ACL injury accidentally turned him into a sprinter, why his left arm is double the size of his right, and what it really takes to reach the top of a sport, plus why paddling lost its golden era and whether he'd move to Europe to chase it.
If you've ever been great at something nobody was watching, this one will hit.
🔗 Follow Cameron
Instagram: @camerontripney
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel
025: You Don't Need to Be Elite to Get Brand Deals
Amish Kooverjee was lonely during COVID. His cricket career had ended and he was running alone, feeling like something was missing. So he invited a few cricket mates to do a 5K and grab a coffee. Only two …
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Amish Kooverjee was lonely during COVID. His cricket career had ended and he was running alone, feeling like something was missing. So he invited a few cricket mates to do a 5K and grab a coffee. Only two showed up but five strangers found the Instagram page he'd made that day, and ten people ran.
Five years later, Running to Coffee is in four cities across South Africa. He accidentally built one of the country's OG run clubs, back when run clubs weren't cool.
In this episode, Amish shares the philosophy behind a community that lasts. Why chasing numbers is the wrong goal and why the best advice he got was that people come to your crew for one reason: you. He opens up about his first Comrades, impulsively registered at 10pm with a McDonald's, and why a self-described "normal guy" who isn't the fastest runner ends up working with big brands.
One of the warmest conversations we've had about what running communities are really about.
🔗 Follow Amish
Instagram: @keeping_up_with_koovers🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel
024: From Zero to IRONMAN 70.3 World Champs in 8 Months
Twelve months ago, Jake Bird had never owned a bike and couldn't swim 25 metres without stopping. After a few beers at a New Year's Eve party, he signed up for an Ironman 70.3 on the spot. Eight months later …
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Twelve months ago, Jake Bird had never owned a bike and couldn't swim 25 metres without stopping. After a few beers at a New Year's Eve party, he signed up for an Ironman 70.3 on the spot. Eight months later, with no athletic background, he qualified for the 70.3 World Championships.
He documented the entire journey on Instagram from day one and four months into posting, off a single race, he landed an ambassadorship with Ironman itself. His first brand deal came at 6,500 followers.
In this episode, Jake breaks down the whole playbook: how he used seven years of managing influencers to grow his own following, why talking-to-camera content beats viral videos, why a focused niche is more valuable to brands than a huge audience, and the brutal reality of training 16+ hours a week alongside a full-time job.
Part comeback story, part social media masterclass.
🔗 Follow Jake
Instagram: @jakeebird
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel
023: What Running 100 Miles Teaches You About Yourself
Michael Obery is one of the most recognisable faces in Cape Town running. What most people don't know is that years ago he was battling drug addiction that nearly killed him. The turning point came watching his …
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Michael Obery is one of the most recognisable faces in Cape Town running. What most people don't know is that years ago he was battling drug addiction that nearly killed him. The turning point came watching his younger brother head out for a run at 5am while Mike was still coming home from a night out.
His first run was 2km on the promenade. It snowballed into an obsession and by accident, into one of Cape Town's biggest running communities. He's run Boston twice and the UTCT 100-miler, where he walked the final 70km to the finish because he refused to quit.
In this conversation we get into how running pulled him out of addiction, how he accidentally built Must Love Hills and Community Track Club, why running is "more than just yourself," what 100 miles teaches you about your limits, the global running boom, and the Two Oceans controversy that dragged in his photo by mistake.
🔗 Follow Mike
Instagram: @mikeobery
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @jannisrothermel
022: How to Run Marathons and Still Stay Jacked
Keaton Mac Farlane was the kid picked last in PE. He started going to the gym at 15 to escape everyone and his high school nickname became "Creatine." Ten years later he's done marathons, ultras, and Ironmans …
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Keaton Mac Farlane was the kid picked last in PE. He started going to the gym at 15 to escape everyone and his high school nickname became "Creatine." Ten years later he's done marathons, ultras, and Ironmans while staying jacked year-round, and he's trained over 200 people.
In this episode he breaks down how to combine running and lifting without losing muscle, and why most hybrid athletes get it wrong. His most surprising take: when he cut from six gym days to three and added cardio, he looked his best ever and got stronger. He explains exactly why cardio can make you bigger, not smaller.
We also get into his hot takes. Why you should stop counting reps, why your legs are always cooked, the honest truth about PEDs, and why building muscle is way simpler than the internet makes it seem.
🔗 Follow Keaton:
@keatonmac
🔗 Follow ATHCO
@athco.cc
🔗 Follow Us:
@dannyjd_
@itsjaaannis
021: From Ironman World Champs to Top 20 at Comrades in 2 Years
Carla Johnson got into running because of a boy. Her first marathon was a 4:20 she hated. A few years later she qualified for Kona the Ironman World Championships while working full-time in a mining job …
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Carla Johnson got into running because of a boy. Her first marathon was a 4:20 she hated. A few years later she qualified for Kona the Ironman World Championships while working full-time in a mining job, sleeping seven nights a month in her own bed and training 28 hours a week.
Then she walked away from triathlon at the top, discovered running was her real calling, and two years later became a top 20 Comrades runner who just went pro.
In this conversation she breaks down the whole journey. Why she left triathlon, what it actually takes to become a professional runner in South Africa, why she ran a silver at her first ever Comrades when everyone said just finish, how she approaches brands as both an athlete and a creator, and the concept of "runflation" that's quietly reshaping the sport.
Part masterclass, part origin story, all heart.
🔗 Follow Carla
Instagram: @carlajohnyy
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
020: She Podiumed at Her First HYROX. Here's How.
Stephani van Zyl did rhythmic gymnastics for 16 years. Her mom coached her. Her dad was supposed to be a South African Olympian. When gymnastics ended at 19, she spent five years trying to find the next thing …
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Stephani van Zyl did rhythmic gymnastics for 16 years. Her mom coached her. Her dad was supposed to be a South African Olympian. When gymnastics ended at 19, she spent five years trying to find the next thing triple jump, running, resistance training but injuries and scoliosis kept pulling her back.
Then she found HYROX. First race ever: 3rd overall in Women's Pro doubles. First solo: 10th overall, 3rd in age group. Two races, two podiums.
In this conversation, she breaks down why she approaches HYROX stations as mechanical problems rather than fitness challenges, why mobility matters more than most athletes realise, what Pilates actually does and doesn't do for your body, and why she thinks the best thing you can give a young athlete is a gymnastics foundation.
We also talk about training at 4:30am alongside a full-time job, competing with scoliosis, and why she waited years to post on social media because she's a perfectionist who wasn't ready to put herself out there.
🔗 Follow Stephani
Instagram: @stephani_van_zyl
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
019: He Went From Addiction to ASICS FrontRunner Captain
David Fick went from gym bro to 2:35 marathoner. Running saved his life after addiction his cousin dragged him to a run club in Durban and everything changed. Seven years later, he's the team captain of ASICS …
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David Fick went from gym bro to 2:35 marathoner. Running saved his life after addiction his cousin dragged him to a run club in Durban and everything changed. Seven years later, he's the team captain of ASICS Front Runners South Africa, coaches over 20 athletes, and is chasing sub-2:30 at Berlin with a newborn due weeks before the race.
But this conversation is really about what he thinks SA runners are getting wrong. His take: we're chasing distance when we should be chasing speed. Everyone wants Comrades but nobody wants to run a fast 5K first. We're building the roof before the foundation.
We also get into what it takes to become an ASICS Front Runner, how to train while being a full-time dad, why he quit a marathon on purpose because of wind, and the illegal shoe debate for everyday runners.
🔗 Follow David
Instagram: @daveyontherun
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
018: A Joke Became South Africa's Fastest Growing Drink Brand
Michael Tones has been building brands since he was 10 labeling bottles in his family's factory in Durban. His dad was a serial entrepreneur who risked everything and lost everything more than once. Michael …
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Michael Tones has been building brands since he was 10 labeling bottles in his family's factory in Durban. His dad was a serial entrepreneur who risked everything and lost everything more than once. Michael watched and took notes.
Years later, a mate said "toss me a naughty water" on a Friday evening. By Monday he'd trademarked it. No plan, no product. He sold his house, went R700K in, spent a year getting the flavour right, then had 375,000 cans banned by the government because the can size was illegal. R1.5 million scrapped. He started over.
In this conversation we get into the real side of building a product brand in South Africa why he does the opposite of what every other brand does, the partner who demanded R1.4 million for worthless shares, why giveaway competitions kill your brand, why he didn't take a salary for two years, and why he thinks consumer products in SA are the biggest opportunity nobody's taking.
🔗 Follow Michael & Nawty Water
Instagram: @michaeltones / @nawtywater
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
017: He Ran the Entire Length of Japan to Save Lives
Michael Larter's girlfriend Amiee took her own life in 2017. After years of depression and healing, he founded the Amiee Howard Foundation to get teenagers access to therapy the group who can't afford it and …
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Michael Larter's girlfriend Amiee took her own life in 2017. After years of depression and healing, he founded the Amiee Howard Foundation to get teenagers access to therapy the group who can't afford it and don't have medical aid.
Then he ran across countries to fund it. First South Africa to Namibia, 772km in 14 days. Then the entire length of Japan 3,300km, solo, self-funded, pushing a baby pram with all his gear. No team, no physio, no support van. Just him.
In this conversation, he takes us through all of it the viral video he posted before his first marathon, the visa denial that rerouted him from the US to Japan, what it's like to run through a country where you don't speak the language with nobody around for days, and why every kilometre was for someone else.
🔗 Follow Michael
Instagram: @michaeluncharted
Foundation: amieehowardfoundation.org
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
016: What HYROX Athletes Can Learn From Rugby Players
Shaka started rugby at 14 five years behind everyone else. He came from a school with 90 boys, studied mathematics at Stellenbosch, and did 1,000 passes a day during COVID because he couldn't pass with his left …
Notas do episódio
Shaka started rugby at 14 five years behind everyone else. He came from a school with 90 boys, studied mathematics at Stellenbosch, and did 1,000 passes a day during COVID because he couldn't pass with his left hand.
Now he coaches rugby performance and works at one of the top schools in the country, bridging the gap between what team coaches expect and what individual players can actually do.
In this conversation, we get into why rugby players are the original hybrid athletes, the difference between being fit and being game fit, a high-intensity workout structure that would break most gym users, what HYROX and fitness athletes can learn from rugby training, and why you can't coach heart. We also talk about why South Africa's rugby content creator space is wide open.
🔗 Follow ShakaInstagram: @shakacoachingTikTok: @shakacoaching🔗 Follow ATHCOInstagram: @athco.ccYouTube: ATHCO🔗 Follow UsDaniel: @dannyjd_Jannis: @itsjaaannis
015: The Secret to YouTube Videos That Actually Make You Feel Something | Laura Kirkpatrick
Laura Kirkpatrick spent four years in med school, started a vegan business that landed in 30 UK stores, did three years in management consulting, and then quit everything to ride bikes and make films.She left …
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Laura Kirkpatrick spent four years in med school, started a vegan business that landed in 30 UK stores, did three years in management consulting, and then quit everything to ride bikes and make films.
She left with 10,000 followers, no brand deals, and one consulting bonus as her safety net. She came to Cape Town on a whim after a stranger on a training camp suggested it instead of Mexico.
This conversation is different from most we've had. Laura thinks about content like a filmmaker story arcs, conflict, feeling. She talks about why she hates Instagram, why her worst content gets the best metrics, and the difference between chasing views and making something that actually connects with people.
We also get into the breakup that triggered everything, bikepacking from Annecy to Nice with someone she'd met once, building a van, and what it really means to be all in versus all consumed.
🔗 Follow Laura
YouTube: @lauradoessportsInstagram:
Instagram@lauradoessports
Strava: Laura Kirkpatrick
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
014: He Got Bullied for Making Content. Now It's His Career.
Kuba Nowosiński quit his sales job in June 2024 with three months of savings and one bet: what happens if I put 100% into content creation?Two years later, he has 116K followers on Instagram, works as head of …
Notas do episódio
Kuba Nowosiński quit his sales job in June 2024 with three months of savings and one bet: what happens if I put 100% into content creation?
Two years later, he has 116K followers on Instagram, works as head of business development at one of Poland's biggest social media agencies, and gets flown out by brands across Europe.
He sits on both sides of every deal. He's the creator and the person writing the brief. In this episode, we get into what most people never hear about social media. Kuba breaks down how brands actually choose which creators to work with, why most South African influencers don't know how to do a proper brand integration, and what Poland's creator economy (which is about a decade ahead of South Africa's) can teach us about where things are going.
He also gets real about the darker side. His girlfriend is Poland's biggest TikToker and won Dancing with the Stars. Their first photo together brought death threats. He got bullied in high school for making content. And he still shows up every single day because, as he puts it, if you don't post, you didn't come to work.
We also talk about why being cringy is free, why your friends will never be the ones to make your posts go viral, and why he thinks the best social media advice is the one nobody wants to hear: there's no hack, you just have to show up.
One of our favourite episodes. This one's packed.
🔗 Follow Kuba
Instagram: @kubanowo
TikTok: @kubanowo
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
013: He Led a 120 Million Business. Now He Vlogs on a Bike.
Gerrit Knein was leading a 120-million-euro company with 100+ employees. 13-hour days. Multi-six-figure salary. Managing director by 28.Then his son was born and he remembered a promise he made at 18 to be the …
Notas do episódio
Gerrit Knein was leading a 120-million-euro company with 100+ employees. 13-hour days. Multi-six-figure salary. Managing director by 28.
Then his son was born and he remembered a promise he made at 18 to be the kind of dad who's actually there. So he left. What came after wasn't what he expected. The freedom he'd dreamed about came with an identity crisis nobody warned him about.
Now he makes cinematic cycling vlogs on YouTube his fifth channel, after four that never took off. The one that worked started because his best friend called him out on Christmas Day. He grabbed the camera the next morning and hasn't stopped since.
We talk about corporate ladder climbing, the emptiness after quitting, why he chose YouTube over Instagram, and how he structures life as a dad-first creator making six figures from long-term brand deals.
🔗 Follow Gerrit
YouTube: Gerrit Knein
Instagram: @gksieben
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
012: She Just Posts Her Day. It Keeps Working.
Nika Bedeker has no content strategy. No pillars. No calendar. She edits on her phone, posts when she feels like it, and still doesn't think she's an influencer.But somehow, a lot of the good things in her life …
Notas do episódio
Nika Bedeker has no content strategy. No pillars. No calendar. She edits on her phone, posts when she feels like it, and still doesn't think she's an influencer.
But somehow, a lot of the good things in her life came from social media. Her fiancé. Her job. Her flat in Cape Town which she got by sending her Instagram to the landlord. Even her Milan Marathon ambassadorship, which she was convinced was a scam until she checked who followed the account.
This one's a fun one. We talk about the Cape Town running community, toxic fitness phases, why she makes five content calendars a month for work but refuses to make one for herself, and why the best content advice she can give is just don't overthink it.
🔗 Follow Nika
Instagram: @nikascamerarolll
YouTube: @nikabedeker
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us:
Daniel @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
011: He Lost His Mom. Then He Built Cape Town's Best Gym.
Seb Prentice was 24 when his mom passed away. She was in London, he was in Cape Town. Three weeks from hospitalization to gone.At the time, he was earning R70-110K a month in tech sales, living rent-free in Sea …
Notas do episódio
Seb Prentice was 24 when his mom passed away. She was in London, he was in Cape Town. Three weeks from hospitalization to gone.
At the time, he was earning R70-110K a month in tech sales, living rent-free in Sea Point. He quit, took his savings and his mom's life policy, and opened a gym. He moved out of his flat and into the gym itself to keep costs down. He started every single month in the red.
Three years later, Horizen Gym is arguably the most talked-about fitness space in Cape Town. He has 15 employees, a second location in the works, and a vision to become the world's number one lifestyle strength brand by 2040. The gym still ran an accounting loss this year.
In this episode, Seb gets real about everything why opening a gym is a financially terrible idea (and why he did it anyway), what it actually costs to run a brick-and-mortar fitness business, the ego death that comes with learning to manage people, and the radical accountability lesson from his mom that became Horizen's foundational value. Her words "cry me a river" and "don't be a victim" still run through everything he builds.
We also talk about running a sub-3 marathon and a 100-miler while building a business, why the fitness industry is over-optimized and under-trained, and what it means to do for strength training what run clubs did for running.
This one hit different for us. Hope it does for you too.
🔗 Follow Seb & Horizon
Instagram: @sprenna @horizenza
Podcast: Beyond Physical Podcast
🔗 Follow ATHCO
Instagram: @athco.cc
YouTube: ATHCO
🔗 Follow Us
Daniel: @dannyjd_
Jannis: @itsjaaannis
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