Business Impact NW is proud and honored to serve our businesses. We celebrate their achievements and applaud them for their ability to remain steadfast and pivot during these uncertain times. It is vital that we spotlight our clients for their work and help to tell their stories. Meet Trisha Thompson, an entrepreneur featured in the Celebrating Dreams 2020 virtual showcase.
Coach Trisha Thompson is the founder of two Seattle businesses – “Sound Softball” and “Like a Champ.” Her love for the game of softball was ignited when her aunt, Arizona Softball Hall of Fame Inductee Lynn Wurth, taught her to throw a two-seamed fastball at the park near her childhood home in Phoenix, Arizona at just eight years old. From that day forward, her passion for the game of softball grew as she honed her skills both on and off the diamond.
Coaching, athlete development, and coaching education are central to Trisha’s life. Through Sound Softball, Coach Trisha offers players of all ages a customized training program to meet their goals, whether the player aspires to play professionally or just for fun.
In light of the current pandemic, Trisha is working on pivoting lessons from in-person to online. She hopes to offer both pre-made clinics as well as customized training sessions. Through the challenges of transitioning the deeply personal and physically-centered experience of learning to play softball to a virtual training platform, Trisha’s coaching philosophy remains strong: “I reward effort and practice, focus on positive improvement, and holistically develop athletes.” Visit SoundSoftball.com to learn more about Sound Softball.
Take a look at Trisha’s interview below!
Interview with Coach Trisha Thompson
Tell me about your businesses and how this all started for you.
“I have two businesses, Sound Softball, LLC and Like a Champ, LLC. Sound Softball is for people of all ages but specifically works in technical softball training and development. I work with individual groups, adults and coaches to teach them the technical aspects of softball. The concept for Like a Champ has been developing for several years and is finally coming to fruition. It’s kind of like a boutique coaching and consulting firm. It focuses on the development and learning orientation of professional athletes that are moving on to the next adventure in their career.”
Small businesses have a positive impact on our neighborhoods from job creation, to providing a place for community, and being agents of social change. How do your businesses positively impact your community?
“I was brought into Sound Softball because the parents didn’t know enough about the game. I started to develop a network of people that wanted to work with me and then I realized I needed to really think about the way that I was presenting softball and the way that my organization was going to be presented to these families. Growing up I didn’t have any female coaches. I had female assistant coaches but never a head female coach. I didn’t have someone that looked like me for me to be able to say “I’m going be like her”.
With that in mind, I joined the Board of Directors for Seattle Baseball and Softball and have talked to them about implementing coaching clinics. They gave me full reign with this endeavor which was a dream come true given my education background. Being able to create trainings and curriculum and coordinate delivery with other coaches really helped to enforce what we wanted the league to look like. We wanted female players to have fun and develop a joy for sports. I was also able to teach coaches about parenting theory and how to positively reinforce actions. Now I have families on the baseball side that have asked if they could incorporate some of these things into a workbook for their teams. I also reached out to other leagues in the area to share the expertise and scientific support to help those coaches be the best that they can be. We are at a stalling period right now, but we will see what happens in the next couple of months.
I have not completely opened Like a Champ because I still want to understand how I can help professional athletes who don’t know what their transferable skills are or what their next steps should be. I want to help change the way players impact communities and how they engage with the kids who view them as role models.”
How did you acquire the skills to be a successful entrepreneur?
“It took a lot of practice and personal development. Being able to see the big picture and understanding how everything fits together in my timeline kept me moving toward the end goal. Networking and finding like-minded people to support me was vital. I go to networking events to meet people and do informational interviews with them. Informational interviews are always a skill to work on when you’re networking and growing a business.”
Want prompted you to seek out services from Business Impact NW?
“I discovered them through informational interviews actually. I was trying to find a job and I was conducting informational interviews to learn about organizations, positions, and more. During an interview, the interviewee asked me about my interests and I told them that I wanted to start a business. They asked me if I had heard about Business Impact NW. I reached out to them and got connected with business coach Susan Gibson, who has been wonderful. She expressed that I had great ideas and suggested that I try the Launch and Grow program. I was really apprehensive because I didn’t have a job and didn’t know if I really wanted to get myself into something when I didn’t know where I was going be in the next few months. But I gave myself some grace and empathy and did it. Once I took advantage of this opportunity, things began to come together overtime. I have meetings or phone calls with Susan regularly or multiple times a month to get the business moving forward. Right now, we are working on trademarks and copyrights for the content that I have been creating.”
What are the next steps for Sound Softball and Like a Champ?
“Next steps for Sound Softball are virtual lessons. I have suspended in-person lessons due to the pandemic and am focusing on how I can provide virtual lessons to the best of my ability, which will be a bit of a challenge. Overtime, I also want to create camps for the summer, fall or holiday breaks so that parents have a place to send their children to learn softball. I want to teach the community to love softball and understand the passion behind it. I am working on marketing and making sure that I have a well-rounded business model that has the ability to adapt. In regards to Like a Champ, I am still conducting those informational interviews, but Susan and I will be working on trademarks and copyrighting because I have created workbooks for the coaching clinics. I have also created a number of presentation materials that need to be copyrighted. Additionally, I am developing each line of business so that I can communicate what service is going to be most appropriate for each client.”
About the author
Ashley Minter
Ashley Minter is a contract Communications Officer at Business Impact NW. Ashley is a public relations and communications professional and has worked for numerous organizations in Georgia including the City of South Fulton, City of Union City, Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, and Fulton County. Ashley is also CEO of Ashley Nicole Communications, a boutique public relations firm in Atlanta.