#64- The One About Coaching - What makes a good client?

This week we dive into what its like being a client and what makes a great client from our perspective , sharing insights and some behind the scenes into our job and role as your coach.

Got questions? simply email or dm us with those questions

Larry IG https://www.instagram.com/larry_doyle_coaching
Daniel IG https://www.instagram.com/danieldalycoaching
Website https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie
Coaching with us https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie/1-1-premium/
Email : info@larrydoylecoaching.ie

Got questions? simply email or dm us with those questions

Larry IG https://www.instagram.com/larry_doyle_coaching
Daniel IG https://www.instagram.com/danieldalycoaching
Website https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie
Coaching with us https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie/1-1-premium/
Email : info@larrydoylecoaching.ie

Transcript

Welcome & Today’s Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, you're listening to the Gen Pop Podcast with me, your host, Larry Doyle. Each week, I'm gonna bring in friends, guests, and experts to help enhance your health, fitness, and wellness journeys. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversations.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

You are welcome back to another episode of the Gen Pop Podcast, where this week, co-host Daniel and I, we're gonna discuss being a good client and also being a good coach. Because, like, people just assume it's gonna be perfect when they start up with their coaching journey and they come on board and everything is gonna be spot on. But I guess there's a lot of stuff we'd like to cover over and just I guess uh dispel some myths about what's expected from clients and what's expected from coaches and give a bit of insight just into the back end of it, because you know, you're not really told this stuff until you pay all the money and sign up, and like people just kind of haven't got a clue because they've never been coached, right? So we're gonna talk about some of this stuff. Daniel, what's it like to be a client? You've been a client of mine before we can talk about both sides actually. So um, what's your uh what's your advice to people who might be starting up? Like, what's some of the expectations they should look for? Or kind of like what's the insights you would like to share about like what makes a good client essentially?

Perfection Myth vs Real Progress

SPEAKER_02 1:15

I think don't be afraid to make mistakes, anyway, is the first thing because I think a lot of clients, and I always say to them when they're starting up, is the first two, three, maybe four weeks is going to be about me learning about them, what they like, what they don't like, learning about their habits, their routine, learning about how they like to be coached and how I should kind of communicate with them. Because some people might like very direct to the point stuff, other people might like kind of a bit more relaxed of an approach. So I always kind of tell clients it's like be open and as honest as possible with me so that I can kind of tailor the coaching then towards you. Because, like that, a lot of people, and I don't know, is it just a sign of the times? Because people just are dealing with more and more AI and more um instant uh feedback from whatever service they're using, that they kind of expect something to be done a certain way that they kind of just are very vague with their responses, or they're very vague with their their input. Whereas like the more you actually give, the more you're probably gonna get at the end of the day. So I think I wouldn't have been the best example of a client. Well, it probably was like a I don't want to blow smoke up my own ass, but like an ideal client, because like you could have just told me it's like just eat ice cubes and I would have done it because it's like if that's what's gonna get me the result I'm looking for, then I'm gonna do it. But like for the most part, people kind of would look at that and they'd think, like, I need to be on that level, I need to be able to like do everything perfectly when for the most part you don't, you just need to kind of just be on it 80% of the time, 90% of the time, and allow for these fluctuations, allow for mistakes to happen because ultimately that's where the growth is going to happen because you can learn from your mistakes. Whereas if you came to your coach and you were already doing everything perfect from the get-go, it's like you're not really getting anything of value from that whole experience. So I think be open for change and be open and confident enough in your abilities to actually make mistakes but grow from them.

Fear of Failure and Growth Mindset

Building Safety, Trust, and Openness

SPEAKER_01 3:17

It's understanding that you're a complete rookie when you're essentially starting out, because like everyone thinks that they need to be like a black belt after like two weeks and they have to have everything perfect. But like think of it like the grading system with martial arts, to use it as an example. It's like you start off as a white belt and then you'll get various amounts of experience, you'll get your ass handed to you, you'll make a lot of mistakes, you'll get some learnings that are very fast and rapid, then you get the little white tip, then you get another black tip, then you get another black tip, you know, black tip, then you're gonna like move up to the next belt along the line. But that all comes with exposure and repetition and communication and effort and um just time spent with it all. Like, if you are gonna be perfect, you don't need a coach. If you like, and this is like for me, a big part of it is to remove that expectation from people of thinking that it's gonna be absolutely spot on. Some people, like yourself, will just walk in from the get-go and just absolutely nail it, and they just want the advice and a bit of steer, a bit of reassurance. That's cool. That is one percent. Everyone else, we're just really taking them from a really basic uh standpoint, knowing that they're not gonna have a perfect that's not to insult people, but they're coming from a position of high stress, or they're coming from a position of really poor health, or they're coming from positions of really bad habits. You can't overhaul that overnight. You're not just gonna like instantly remove all of those things straight away. We we're not magicians, we don't have a magic ball. We can't like wave our wand and all of a sudden, you know, like men in black, we just did a quick phaser and then it's like everything is sound, then like we're good to go. It's not as easy as that. It's a very complex thing when you're dealing with people, when you're dealing with their history, when you're dealing with their environment, when you're dealing with their support network, when you're dealing with their likes, their dislikes, everything. And it's like we're gonna make it as easy as possible for you to be able to say yes to the basic things, and then we'll get them right and we'll continue to improve on those, as opposed to thinking with the perfection mindset of I'm gonna nail this now because I'm with Larry or I'm with Daniel or I've got a coach. And this is a huge element and a big breakthrough we'll have with people when we can get them to that realization of it's actually okay to say, I completely fucked up here, or I wasn't able to actually manage this. And I guess this is a big part of it. People are afraid of failure. And that's like maybe a huge thing that is holding people back from actually signing up or engaging in a service because they'll say straight away, it's like, oh, what if it doesn't work, or what if I can't do it, or what if I fail? It's like, well, okay, you're never gonna get to the outcome you're really looking for with that because it's a very limited mindset that you have, or it's a very stuck and fixed mindset, as opposed to a growth mindset. You know, the growth mindset will come in, they'll say, Well, you know, what's the potential on the other side of this? What could I get from this? And it's like so fantastic, the potentials that might be there. Um, that people come in with limiting beliefs or from previous exposures that they haven't been able to do it, that they're always just gonna be stuck with that. And they're really afraid to actually ask for help. They're afraid to say, you know what, I actually overread on the weekends, or they'll maybe put in and skew the numbers a little bit to make it look better because they're afraid to actually say, you know what, I actually wasn't able to do that. And we're not here to be from a position on a pedestal to like be condescended or come down on you or call you an asshole for like not being able to stick to the thing. We're here in a position to help guide and support and give you the um upscaling and the tools that are necessary, and they might be very basic tools at that point in time because of where you currently are. Tools I might give to someone else that's way more advanced might be very different to someone I give and will be very different to than the tools I give to someone that's coming from a very basic point of view. And again, like just because everyone else does the gym or does some fitness or eats macros or calories or does whatever, it's like, why should you understand that if you've had no experience or exposure in a positive manner to the whole thing? You know, so again, like we're trying to undo a lot in a very short period of time. And I understand that people want to get a result straight away and they want to go hard and they want to go all in, but more often than not, it's kind of like the the kid on the leash. We're trying to just pull them back that little bit and just keep it in an even keel where we can really get them engaged in the process, really get positive outcomes, not force it too much because you're just going to create bigger issues with that as well. And I guess that's the biggest part is like to actually be okay. And it comes from our side as being the coach as well to create an environment and a culture that people feel okay to actually have that um confidence to say, you know what, Larry, I I fucked up here, I wasn't actually able to manage that, or hey coach, had a problem over the weekend. How can we sort this out or how can I get better with this? Because if we only know what we know, and right, we can obviously look at the data and we can interpret it, say, well, actually, something's not right here, and now we have to go digging in that little bit further. But ultimately that's just kind of slowing down the process. And it's often the case that we have to do that. But if that person does their check-in on Monday, we get back to the Monday and something happens on Wednesday, if they get back to us on Wednesday or Thursday and say, Larry, something's not right here, or something happened, or there was an issue or concern, or something's not 100% cool, we can put in some interventions and work around that, or we can do some things that might improve that situation for you. But if we don't hear about it till the next Monday or maybe the following week, well, now it's just slowed down the process. And now, you know, we could have been able to help, but now it might have built into something bigger, and now it feels like a bit more of a mountain for people to overcome. And it's having that, and something I'm really keen on is to create a very relaxed environment that people feel okay, that people can share, that people can, you know, give too much information because with the more information we have, the better we can actually serve people as well, too, right? Um, so with that, how do you kind of look at building that level of rapport and understanding in a safe space with people, Daniel? From your side.

Personal Coaching, Not Copy-Paste

SPEAKER_02 8:39

I think they're actually just being more curious about like their background and like asking them questions and not just like treating them as if like you're paying a wage to me, as in like you're just coming in, I'm splitting out numbers to you, and you go and do your job now, and that's it. It's like I want to know, it's like, what's the name of your dog? What are you going doing at the weekend? Like, what kind of music do you like? Do you watch any good movies lately? It's like send me pictures of your meals that you eat out or whatnot, or if you get a nice dessert to give me feedback on it, or I've like even spoken to clients because I know just generally where in Ireland they're living. It's like, oh, I'm going to Galway, it's like, where would you recommend going for coffee? It's like, it's like if you can actually treat them more like a human rather than just a person that's looking to lose weight, then I think you're going to have a far better relationship because they're going to be in a position then that's going to be like, Oh, I know Daniel is kind of down dirt. I can say to him, it's like, look, I kind of fucked it at the weekend, but I think I kind of know what went wrong, what you think, and how could we work down through this if I'm in the same situation in the future. Whereas if they just think like, yeah, can I talk to this person once a week and that's what I signed up for, then they're not going to share anything with you because let's say like that, if you gave an example of someone checked in on a Monday, but like on Wednesday, if they fucked everything, but they think they can't talk to you until the following Monday, by the time Monday comes around, they've had four days to kind of like deal with it. That they're not going to bring it up then because they're going to be like, Oh, it's alright now, because they don't feel as guilty. Whereas if they felt comfortable enough to reach out on that Wednesday or the following day, then it's more immediate and you can actually put some changes in place or just have a discussion with them around that. So I I genuinely like to have conversations with clients like outside of the whole health and fitness thing. I like to learn about them as an individual. Um, because I think at the end of the day, it's like we are dealing with humans, regardless of what their goals are, regardless of what their backgrounds are, they're all still humans at the end of the day, and you think you have to treat them as a human.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Almost sounds like personal training.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Personal, yeah.

Communication That Enables Coaching

SPEAKER_01 10:38

It's getting to know people because like the more I know that individual, because like it's like when you can figure out someone's traits, their likes, their dislikes, they're again, they're not just robots, you don't just put two and two in and it comes for, right? We say this all the time. It's like, again, some people two and two equals six because of how they operate or how they like, you know, I'll ask people what's your occupation? And why does that matter? I just want to lose fat. It's like, well, if you're an accountant, I probably need to lean into the numbers a bit more with you, or if you're someone that's more like type B oriented, well, then I need to lean into those tendencies and not be as rigid with the tracking with that individual. And the more we can get to know that person better, the more you can tailor it to their needs and ultimately get to a better outcome. Because there's kind of like that fork in the road of like both ways lead to the same outcome, but it's like one is far easier to take. And the more we can get to know that individual on a personal level and like their background, their network, like their history, their all that data collection, like it's so important because now we can take the easier path because we know what's gonna, you know, be needed for that individual to kind of create that uh success outcome as well, too, right? So again, like once we get that, that's really, really key. But again, there's a little bit of an ownership comes with that on the client side. Okay, we can extract all the information, we can ask the questions, but if the client is very closed off, or if they're not willing to kind of share that information, or they kind of feel like, well, just like I've just paid you, like just tell me the answer here with it all. It's not that case, right? It's not an automated process where you just pay us money and you give like absent happiness back as an outcome from it. There is work needed to be done on your side, and there is that openness and you know, sharing that information. There is openness of like telling us when it didn't go so well. Like, we're not just like if you come in with the perfect check-in, we can give you a high five and send you on your way, and that's pretty much it. Like, there's not much constructive stuff we can add to that. There's always bits we can look at and forecast and work around, but we need to know the bad stuff. We need to know when it didn't go so well because that's when we can actually coach. Um, again, like okay, we're not looking for headaches or more work all the time, but that's what allows us to do our job. Like we're here to give advice, we're here to help people, and we're here to problem solve essentially with it. And when we can figure out those problems and now we can give you better solutions for the ongoing process, that if that thing pops up again, well, now you can actually manage and navigate it. But the communication needs to be there from the individual. And again, like from our side, we always look at it, okay, what makes, you know, to me, what makes a perfect client? And the perfect client for me is not the one who just, you know, like, okay, Daniel, perfect case in point. He's like technically the perfect client because he just shuts up and does the thing and comes back and it's awesome every week, deadly. But at the same point, the perfect client to me is the one who'll communicate, they'll they'll check in on time, or if they're checking it's going to be a little bit late, they might just shoot a message across. Because I know if Daniel usually checks in at 12 o'clock on a Wednesday that, you know, he'll he'll send me a message if it's coming in earlier, whatever it might be, or if it's coming in late, that there's a level of respect on both sides. Because if the client doesn't respect the coach, they're not going to respect the process of what's actually needed to get to that outcome as well. And from our side, it's to have like timely check-ins, it's to have the relevant information, it's to give us the ability to actually coach. Because if it's lacking information, or if it's lacking detail, well, now we need to come back and forth, and the whole process is just slowed down because we need to come back and ask more questions and we need to give more detail. And I asked you for a video footage on your training session and it's not coming across, so I can't help your squat. Or I asked you for more information about your nutrition, but you're not giving it to me. How can we extract that information? Because ultimately we need a certain amount of input as well to allow us to actually do our job. Because if we're just faced with a blank page each week, we're just kind of making up shit to give you some kind of context or give you some kind of input. Um, we're gonna need some data and input. So, uh, from your point, Daniel, what's the key elements that you need to see on a check-in every week? Or what makes uh what makes a better client for you?

SPEAKER_02 14:21

I think there's a couple of different ways you can go about doing it with different clients because like there could be certain clients that have no problem whatsoever giving every little detail they can like give the usual suspects of like their weight and their steps, but then like they've no problem whatsoever changing or including like their heart rate and rating their sleep, their digestion, their hunger, their energy, their stress and stuff. Then other people are like that's too much. I can't do that, and it's like again, you're gonna have to scale it back for them. We can't just force everyone to fit the same mold. Um, but I think it's again the key word with everything all across the board, whether it's your training, nutrition, how you're being coached, how to be coached, is consistency at the end of the day. It's if if you're just consistent to what you share, I know what to expect and I know what kind of questions to answer, and I know what to do. So as long as the client is consistent with what they're sharing, then I'm happy with everything. But I guess, like, as a from a baseline perspective, we want some way of measuring progress. So that could be their weight, but it could also be obviously the check-in pictures, but it could be also body measurements. I have some clients that would just do body measurements that they might not have the best relationship with the scales, that like them seeing that 50 kilo or the 500 gram change in the scales is enough to kind of like throw them off track. So if they were to send across their body tape measurements, that's gonna be a lot better for them. Then obviously, you got things like your uh expenditure, so like your steps and chaining your training as well, just knowing even what days you're training, because we're obviously managing the training sessions, but having a good idea of when they are training as well can be good because you can manage a recovery a bit better, because you can have a look at different markers if they said like, oh, energy was a bit low today, um, and you can have a look and say, right, but we know that you trained legs the day previous, so we probably know that like the following day probably isn't the best day in the plan, whatever other whatever whatever other activity we're also planning to do. So if we can manage just the basics, I think that's um good enough from a coaching perspective because I think some people kind of get lost amongst all the different data uh trackers that are out there, they need to be tracking every single little variable, and again, that's when you kind of fall into the clients that start to panic when they see one small little change to their HRV, they kind of realize, oh well, I can't go to the gym now because my HRV is off, or I can't go to the gym because my sleep is off and it's saying that I'm underrecovered. Um, so for some people, actually tracking a lot less is going to be a lot more beneficial for them.

Reduce Overwhelm, Focus on Levers

Aligning Goals With Real Life

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah, and it's it's meeting the individual where they are, right? And if it's necessary to their goal. So if you're saying, okay, my goal is fat loss, but I'm not willing to give you any information about my energy balance, well, then we've got a problem. If you're not able to tell me, you know, what your activity was like during the week or what your food was like, if that's sending me some pictures, if it's giving me a very detailed overview from chronometer or my fitness panel or whatever it is, if I don't get that, well, now I'm essentially just guessing because I don't know and I'll need to extract more information. But if you're not willing to give up that information, well, then we need to change the goal because ultimately the goal can't be accomplished based off the inputs that we have. We might blindly get there, but we're not getting in the most efficient process that we could be, right? Because we again need to know a couple of baseline things. We need to know the calories you're consuming. If that's a picture or if it's a feedback or input or verbal or whatever the hell it is, we need to know some kind of information there. Again, with the activity and output, uh training sessions, how many did you get done? The quality and the volume of them, okay, how many steps, you know, activity on a day-to-day basis, give us that information and then we again we can get a rough idea. But that's only like two elements. Yes, we'll look at sleep, we'll look at digestion, we'll look at stress, we'll look at whatever other markers, if it's relevant to the goal of moving us closer. If for me, if I'm overburdening the individual and they're already coming from a position of overwhelm or lack of traction or just too much stuff going on, well, now it's creating another element of frustration to the process because they can't do all the things. So we need to peel it back to the bare bones essentials of what is going to move the needle forward for us here. Okay, can we look at energy balance? Can we look at activity and output and incoming calories? Cool. That's gonna give us 90% of what we really need to know. Then if there's bigger issues, obviously address those. If the sleep is the main thing, make that the main thing because now the calories are gonna fall in line when we can get the sleep in a better position, right? There's a ton of different ways of doing that. But for us, it's like ultimately reducing the upper wellm, creating an understanding of exactly where you are at that moment of time, and then giving you a better uh position going forwards in terms of the feedback on how we can actually manage that to put in that change or put in that adjustment or whatever it might be. So, you know, when we're looking at, okay, we need to increase this person's expenditure, we need to find out what's actually going on in their week. Is it feasible for them to do another hour and a half or two hours of cardio, or is it feasible for them to get another three or four thousand steps in a day, or is it feasible for that extra session to be done? And if it's not, well, then we need to look at other ways that we can uh manipulate calories or energy balance ultimately, right? So for us again, it's it's the bigger picture all the time. And how does it fit into that individual's lifestyle? And if the goal is that bigger goal of yes, fat loss, well, now something else may need to change. They may need to alter their schedule a little bit to actually be able to fit in the additional expenditure because we can't just pander to your needs and say, oh, of course we can get that outcome because we're filling you full of shit. If you if you can't fit in the energy expenditure that's increased and necessary, if you can't stick to the food, well then ultimately we're not going to get the result. If we can find a way around it, yes, we will. But if you're not willing to give that input to find that way around it, well, then it's going to be very, very difficult and ultimately create more friction. Um, so what bottlenecks do you find uh with clients and from that front of like okay, some limiting inputs um that you really need to get the handle on from them. Like, how do you work around that to extract that information?

Managing Expectations and Timelines

SPEAKER_02 20:04

I guess it's kind of just sharing why it's valuable in the first place. Because if they don't understand why they're sharing it with you, then they're they're simply not going to do it. Whereas if they understand like this is why we need X, Y, and Z, then um it's gonna improve your results and it's gonna get you closer to your goal, and it might get you to your goal quicker, then they're gonna be like, Okay, well, I'm on board, so if it's actually going to benefit me, then I can see um as doing it because sometimes people might like that, they might track their sleep and they might do this, and we actually mightn't even do anything with that information, but that's not because we're completely disregarding it. But like we've often spoken about that. There's certain clients like that that they could be ideal clients, or that just for whatever reason everything is just clicking, that you just don't have to make alterations every single week. That you your check-ins could literally just be just keep doing what you're doing, but you have to almost like say, But if there's something you need from me, just let me know, just get something from it. I'm here for it because yeah, because like someone might have put down their check-in that they might rate their sleep as an eight out of ten, and the following week it could be like a seven out of ten. And I could easily just feel like, oh, well, your your sleep dropped down by one there. We need to have a look at like your sleep routine. It's like, but if they haven't brought an issue to the table to me and said my sleep has gone horrendous, there's something gone wrong, then I'm not gonna address it because that's just again adding another thing for them to worry about. So it's only kind of bringing to light issues when they become an issue rather than like what it says on a piece of paper, because again, a lot of these things are gonna be obviously, of course, you can track like your sleep and different activity trackers, you can track your heart rate and all this kind of stuff, but it's never gonna be 100% accurate when it comes to sleep and it comes to um your recovery and all this kind of stuff, it's gonna be how you feel at the end of the day. So, um, how you measure something out of 10 is gonna be completely different to how someone else measures something out of 10. So, again, that's why learning about the individual as an individual is probably one of the most important things you can do as a coach. But I think one of the biggest things is kind of managing expectations as well with clients because we would have clients coming to us that coming to this time of year now, we've got three months left in the year that they're gonna come to us and they're gonna be saying, Look, I need to lose 15 kilos before Christmas. And you can say, I I can do that for you, I can help you with that. But we need to first have a look at what are your weekends looking like between now and Christmas? Have you got a lot of social events coming up? How realistic is it gonna be to you to get to the gym four times a week, or how realistic is it gonna be to get a couple of cardio sessions done a week, or your steps and tracking your food and all this kind of stuff? And if you're not willing to do these things, or if you're not gonna be in a position to do these things, then we're just gonna have to say, look, we might not get to 15 kilos because we've got a short got such a short time frame, but we can still make progress. But if you haven't managed those those expectations from the get-go, you're ultimately letting that person or setting that person up for failure. Because if you manage the expectations, them losing seven kilos before Christmas could be a huge, could be a huge progress for them and it could be a huge accomplishment. Whereas if you just said, yeah, we can get 15 kilos off by Christmas and they lost seven kilos, but you promised them 15, they're going to feel disappointed because you didn't manage expectations. So if you can manage expectations from the get-go, make them aware of to why you're making the decisions and justify everything that you're kind of putting in their plan, then everyone is in the same level from the get-go, and I think you're going to get a far better result.

Partnership Standards on Both Sides

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Yeah, it's huge. And like it's not a dictatorship, it's a partnership that you're entering into, it's a relationship for want of a better term. And it's like there needs to be clear communication both ways, there needs to be management expectations both ways, there needs to be uh feedback in a timely fashion both ways, that like the client checks in on time, but then also the coach gets back in on time because ultimately it's a time-bound thing. And particularly with those we deal with, it's like if it's not kind of earlier in the week, well, it gets forgotten about really quick as well, too. So for us, it's like, you know, for me, check in Sunday, Monday, because we can get that feedback back quicker in the week and have a bigger impact for the ongoing, as opposed to maybe getting that feedback back to someone three days later, four days later, and it's like Thursday, Friday. Well, now nothing's gonna happen, right? So, like there is an onus on both sides that they do their part and they play their role. Um, that's for the coach to get very clear communication in terms of like that the client understands it. Because I'll say to clients, it's like, I'm your Google, I'm your Chat GPT now. Anything you need to know, run it by me because I can get you to a point of proficiency in understanding it very well, but only when you ask the question. So it's like to actually, you know, get get communication across. But then it's for me to relay it in a position that that client understands exactly what they need to know. If I give you information and you need to go off and Google 25 things from it, and then you come back with 25 more questions, that's my fault, not yours, because I didn't explain it well enough. It's not up to you to understand it, crystal clear. You should be able to understand it if I've explained it well enough. If you don't understand it well enough, that's my fault, not yours. So, again, like that's that's my part on it. But again, the communication needs to come back with those questions from that client as well to you. Um, what other non-negotiables do you kind of put in with that partnership from both the coach and client point of view?

Individualised Plans Take Time

Final Advice for New Clients

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Well, every new client that signs up, I have like a client handbook that I kind of put together that I sent them. But I have expectations in there that I would have from them, but also expectations they should have from me. So, like the expectations I would have from them would be to like complete the daily tracker and their weekly check-in on time. Be honest, be consistent, keep me informed about like events coming up, whether it be holidays, social events, or whatever, um, be open for change when needed, um, but also again with prayer discussion, because like that, as you said, it is a partnership. So, like, I can advise a client and say, Look, this is the change we need to make. But I'd say, how realistic do you feel that would be at this given time? Because if they say, Look, I'm really I I won't be able to hit that number of steps, or I don't think I'll be able to increase that number of steps, like, all right, we don't need to do that. We can easily just put in you know structured cardio that we can just do two sessions of cardio as opposed to increasing your steps by 2,000 every single day because it's going to work much better from a time perspective. Then from me, I always say to clients, like you should expect timely feedback for their check-ins and from messages. Um, that's why I always say to clients, it's like have your check-ins across by two o'clock on the day at the latest. If not, you can send it across the day before, but I still will respond to it on the day that's assigned to you. That is again so that I can manage the number of uh check-ins that I'm doing each day because you don't want to like have 25 check-ins on one day and no check-ins the other day, and where you can easily just spread them across so I can actually give everybody the time that they deserve and the time that's required for them. Um I expect myself and also my clients to be like open, respectful, and communicate in a professional manner, but also like just learn about them. So I want to kind of have a laid-back approach as well. So I don't want to feel like you're talking to a robot, you're actually speaking to a human as well. Um, and then also just be like more individualized with my approach again, so that it is a human-focused coaching approach that we have here. It's never going to be like a copy it and pasted approach, it's never going to be where I'm taking person A's plan and just showing it across to person B. And like that's why sometimes people are kind of like um shocked when they don't receive like their plan immediately when they sign up. It's like we always kind of say to them, it's like, no, give us like maybe 48 hours or whatever. Because if you're getting your plan like immediately, I would start asking questions because they haven't read the questionnaire, they haven't gone through everything, they haven't let it just sit for a bit so they can think about it and return back to it and make sure that yeah, this is actually what I'm happy with, then send it across them because there's some times where you're gonna have to go through the questionnaire and something kind of pops out that you need to follow up with them on that as well. So that's why um we kind of pride ourselves on being on uh on being actual person trainers as opposed to just being like coaches, like we're not here yeah, we're not here just to like tell you what to do based off of what we tell everyone to do. It's like we're gonna want to know everything about you so that we can tailor towards you because, like, as you were saying, if you've got somebody that's working a sedentary job at an office, that they've got like five kids versus somebody who's a PT themselves, that they can like get up whatever time they want, they can go to bed whatever time they want, they can have freedom whatever time they go to the gym, they can prepare their own meals. It's like we're gonna have two very different approaches to them.

unknown 28:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yeah, it's to find out about like I always kind of use that analogy of like the the shape and the shape box. It's like, okay, I need to find out the Daniel shape, and I need to fit that into the Daniel hole over here, as opposed to taking Larry's system, which is the square, Daniel's life, which is the circle, and beating the shit out of them till they fit. Either it fits or breaks, or something else gives, or it might slip through the cracks, whatever. But the chances are if we can make that more individualism bespoke towards you, your lifestyle, your needs, your demands, your everything, we can fit that in over here when we pay attention to it. But again, that needs the relevant information and input. And it's up to our skill sets to be able to extract that, but then also the individual to give us that feedback. I think it's really, really key. Um there's a lot of like really good stuff, and I think it's gonna like open people's eyes here that a little bit more to like, okay, that's what you know, actual coaching is. And listen, I'm not putting ourselves on a pedestal. We've been doing it a long time. We do a good job, in my opinion, of it. That's why I keep my name above the door with this, as like, because you know, our reputation goes with it. That if we give someone a shit experience, they're like, well, then that's my name that's been impacted as well, too, right? Um, and we do keep a very open policy with that of like being quite transparent in how we set people up and how we go about it, and not being copy and paste with it, too. And I think it's like really, really key. Um, if you had someone that was on the fence or kind of like a little bit unsure, well, hopefully they're going to be a little bit more sure now if they've got this far into it, but what advice would you give someone, you know, given your own experience of like maybe the apprehension that you might be feeling about like, you know, thinking about signing up or engaging in a service, what advice would you give to that person getting into?

SPEAKER_02 30:00

To the first couple of months of that, I think just ask as many questions as possible, and it's like try and learn about them as a coach as well, and try learning about them as an individual. Because I think when you can develop that relationship, that's when you're actually going to get more from it. Because if you're going to be working with a coach, you are going to have to kind of have a bit of a closer relationship because, like, you know, as well from working on the gym floor, working one-to-one with people that like you could be working with a client that you met half an hour ago, and next thing all of a sudden they say, I've never told my husband this, but and then you're like, you have to prepare yourself to like, okay, I have to listen to like the dark secrets of their life, but it's like that's all part of it as well at the end of the day. Um, because you're working with someone who is going to be feeling very vulnerable. They're literally sending you pictures of them half naked, they're telling you about their bone booms, they're telling you about these things. So you have to make them feel as comfortable as possible. So I think it's important for you to learn more about your coach as well. And even before you sign up, just message them on Instagram or just book in a call, even if you don't want to sign up, but be crystal clear from the get-go. It's like I'm just here just to learn more about it. I'm not gonna like lead you along and say, like, yeah, I'm I am gonna sign up. It's like if you just want to learn about them and just go away and come back and think about it, then that's totally fine. But just again, be honest from the get-go. Because if you can create a good relationship with your coach, you're ultimately gonna get the the best results you can from it. So I think I always say to clients, ask as many questions as possible, and you probably would have the same, or clients will be messaging you saying, sorry for bothering you, or uh sorry for the long message, or whatever. It's like, no, I'd actually prefer you to send me detailed messages.

How to Reach Out & Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 31:42

This is a good thing that you're bothering me. I actually appreciate it, you know. And people say, Oh, I'm sorry for dropping a text. It's like, I literally asked you to drop me a text, it's okay to do it, you know. So it's like, and I think that's a really key thing as a wrap-up on this. It's like be curious, get involved in the process, don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't just like, okay, there might have been an event that triggered you to say, okay, holy shit, I need a coach now to help me sort out my shit and get my stuff together here. But at the same point, be curious, ask questions, get involved in a process, and you're gonna find that it's not actually all that big of like a negative heavy environment that can actually be quite enjoyable, you can get a lot from it. Yes, there's work that needs to be done. It's not just a transactional thing, pay money and you get back abs and happiness, but uh it can be made into a very positive um overall lifestyle improvement as opposed to just purely a compositional thing as well. Too um, but I think there's a ton of value here. People are going to get a lot of takeaways from it all. If you're curious about it, want to know us more questions, want a book in a call, cool. Do that, drop us a DM, drop us a message, you'll see some links in the show notes as well. Uh, we're always open for a chat and a discussion and getting to know people that a little bit better. Hopefully you've got some value from it. And uh yeah, until the next one. Maybe we'll be chatting soon as a potential coach client, but uh hopefully you enjoyed this episode. Have a great one.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Catch you later.