Why James started Trellis

Trellis wasn’t built by a software founder guessing what coaching looks like. It was built by a coach who spent over a decade inside the work.
Before Trellis existed, James ran online coaching at scale - across time zones, across athlete levels, and across real operational pressure. Weekly check-ins. Long-form video feedback. Voice notes. Spreadsheets. Workarounds layered on top of workarounds.
Like most coaches, James didn’t choose the tools because they were right. He chose them because they were there.
Trellis exists because that era is over.
Current Work & Roles
James operates across coaching, education, and high-touch performance consulting:
- Founder & Head Coach - Only the Committed
- Performance and physique coaching built on long-term systems, standards, and accountability.
- Founder - The Committed Coach
- Education and frameworks for coaches operating at scale.
- Pre-Script Educator - Developing structured educational material around physiology, performance decision-making, and coaching literacy.
- Concierge Performance Coach - High-touch, private coaching for individuals requiring discretion, precision, and long-term oversight.
These roles all share the same constraint - Coaching quality must scale without dilution.
Trellis was built to solve that problem at the system level.
Built From the Coaching Floor, Not a Whiteboard.
Every decision inside Trellis comes from lived experience:
- Managing large online rosters
- Running weekly check-ins without losing context
- Coaching across continents and time zones
- Balancing athlete outcomes with business sustainability
- Protecting coach energy, clarity, and standards
This platform wasn’t designed to “enable video.” It was designed to turn coaching communication into structure, preserve context over time, and remove friction from the check-in process.
Why we built Trellis
Because coaching deserved something better than borrowed tools.
Better than inbox archaeology.
Better than broken workflows.
Better than platforms that treat coaching like a meeting instead of a process.
Trellis is opinionated by design - It reflects how real coaches actually work, not how software companies assume they do.
The Standard Carries Over
The same principles that built Only The Committed built Trellis:
- Process over shortcuts
- Structure over chaos
- Systems that scale without eroding quality
- Tools that support judgment, not replace it
Trellis isn’t here to replace coaches. It’s here to give them leverage.