Online health coach Evan Broderick going from strength to strength to help others

When Evan Broderick decided to leave his recruitment job in 2020 to become an Online Health Coach, he knew he was taking a risk, but four years later it turned out to be the perfect fit.  

Since his initial start, the Killybegs man has become known throughout the county, working with over 100-plus people to help them achieve their fat-loss ambitions, through online videos and food tips, with his Instagram page achieving over 9,000 followers in that time.  

For Broderick, the aim of the social media side is to indirectly help the people he might never work with on a one-to-one basis by giving them consistent value online.    

“It’s going really well at the minute,” he told Donegal Live. “I suppose it’s something that, in the back of my head, I always wanted to do but I didn’t know how far it could go and I still think it’s only at the beginner's stage.”  

Speaking of his experience from his college days to where he is now, Broderick, like so many others, knew it was never going to be a simple road into the adult world but was happy to go against the grain and do something he was passionate about.  

“I was doing a recruitment job just to fill out a CV at the time, maybe with no real direction,” he said. “I would’ve been lacking the confidence of actually following through on this, even though I knew deep down this is what I wanted to do.  

“I’ve probably grown throughout the years which has probably complemented the business as well, which also has grown year on year, and if it continues in that trajectory, I’d be a happy man.  

“I was in college in Sligo where I studied Business and Sport, and then I did Marketing Level 8. I then went into a recruitment job, and while I was in that job I started researching part-time Personal Training courses, so I could do that while still in the recruitment job.  

“But I ended up leaving the recruitment job and went to do a full-time course, and that’s how it all started. Once I finished off that course in Belfast, I was inspired and it was probably just what I needed at the time.  

“That was around late October into December (2020), which was a perfect time in terms of the calendar to start because it came into January which was a good time for people to start something new, and I was really lucky that people jumped on early doors and trusted me.”  

Broderick also knew the responsibility that came with people trusting him. He acknowledges that he didn’t have to change much in terms of own his lifestyle but knew that good habits on his behalf would ultimately lead to positive results for his business.   

“For me, my personal habits were orientated around the gym and trying to eat well and have a good lifestyle. In terms of when I went into it, this was around Covid, so it was a good time for me to take that risk as well,” he said.  

“People were probably more willing to try something new around that time too when they didn’t know how long they were going to be locked up for, so it was a good time for me to take that risk.   

“Did I have to change an awful lot? I continued to grow as a person, and I knew I had to become an awful lot more responsible and I had to continue my good habits because if I’m not good then the business is not going to be good.”  

However, his work has since been transformative with the Killybegs native recently releasing two recipe e-books in the last 18 months with over 150 recipes that have seen hundreds of people invested.  

“The recipe books came from probably a byproduct of the consistency around social media of me putting up healthy recipes and easy ones that people could manage because it’s not all-out bodybuilding or people giving this 100pc,” he said.   

“I’m trying to show that people can live a healthy lifestyle while living a busy life, and those recipes are a huge part of that.  

“People are coming back from jobs and they have kids etc, and they need to be fit to make something easy while it still compliments their fitness goal.  

“So, that’s where the recipe books came from, alongside posting consistent recipes and saving the ingredients on a PDF and eventually I had up to 60 recipes, so I thought I’d make something out of this.”  

While it has been a successful period in Broderick’s life with his business going from strength to strength, he also balances it up with his life as a footballer over the past few years but is now prepared to take his next step, as he sets off on a new adventure to the land ‘Down Under’ this winter.  

“People think it’s hard to manage but what I do completely compliments my time in sport, in that I have the freedom to work when I need to work but when I need to go to football there’s no issue and I can schedule things round it,” he said.  

“I’m going to Australia in November and I don’t know when I’ll be back but I think I just want to grow in a new environment and I think it’ll be really good to get over there. I have confidence in myself and what I’m doing at the moment.”  

It’s unknown what’s next for the Killybegs native but belief in himself and what he wants to do has not put him wrong yet.