COACH'D
Join us on COACH’D, a podcast where the some of the world's top athletes, coaches, and performance experts come together to share their stories, insights and secrets to what has made them successful in their own right.
Think of it as a "locker room" chat — unfiltered, raw, and real. We dive deep into all things athletic performance, wellness, science and culture.
COACH'D
BRAIN DUMP: Being An Authentic Human > A Coach & How To Travel For Free (Kind Of)
Each week I'll share some of my thoughts in a mini episode called "Brain Dump" with some of the things that's on my mind.
These are designed to be short, sharp and straight to the point (maybe with some ramblings).
Coaches often feel the pressure to maintain control and authority, which can hinder genuine connections with athletes. This episode is a deep dive into the importance of vulnerability in coaching and how embracing our humanity can lead to stronger relationships.
• Discusses the unfiltered reality of being a coach
• Explores the significance of authenticity in enhancing athlete trust
• Provides tips for traveling as a coach and working while on the move
If this resonated with you, reach out on social media! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thank-you to our sponsors Iron Edge and VALD Performance.
Iron Edge are Australia’s leading equipment supplier for all your coaching needs.
Check out their website: www.ironedge.com.au
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VALD Performance are global leaders is the performance and health technology space.
Check out their website: www.valdperformance.com
Instagram: @vald_performance
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For all enquires please email:
coach@jorditaylor.com
https://open.spotify.com/show/1YJMztpYSgnPusEXB3fWcc?si=FJsWITv7QdSCSgCt3lkElw
Join us on Coached, a podcast where some of the world's top athletes, coaches and performance experts come together to share their stories, insights and secrets to what has made them successful in their own right.
Jordi Taylor:Think of this as a locker room chat unfiltered, raw and real. We dive deep into all things athletic performance, wellness, science and sporting culture and sporting culture. Hear from those who have played, coached and built their way to the top with athletes from the field, coaches and medical in the performance setting, or owners, managers and brands in the front office, while also getting an insider's view on my own personal experiences in this high-performance world. If you're passionate about sports, curious about the minds of champion athletes or looking for information and inspiration on your own journey, coach is the place for you. Welcome back to another brain dump. Today is going to be really short versus a lot of the other ones. We're going to touch on two things, two things that have been in front of mind, two things again that I've sort of experienced in the last week or so, and these are really good ways for me to try to get some thoughts out that hopefully help a lot of other people, because I know that these episodes, even though they're probably pretty boring. A lot of people actually give me some feedback and say that it really helped them along the way. So, again, all I can do is be transparent and honest and hopefully that it may help someone or a few people that are going through something similar or something that they can look at doing themselves. So, honestly, the past 10 days or so has been a big, big one for myself. There's a few things going on across the board, both personally and professionally, and honestly, it's pretty hard and sometimes it is really good to just take a step back and go. It's okay not to do as much as what you would normally do for work, and you need to learn and shift and learn how to, but then also actually shift some of your priorities.
Jordi Taylor:And I've heard the saying before which I actually agree and disagree with, which makes very little sense. But just bear with me Leave your home life or leave whatever else at the door when you're with your athletes and, as I said, I agree, but I also disagree, because at times your athletes just also need to know that you're human too and it's not like you're sharing everything with them. But they can sense that your energy might be slightly off, even though you can put on fake energy or whatever it may be, and it's not like saying you're having DNMs and anything crazy like that. It's just also just acknowledging that you're human. A lot of the times, the athletes actually respect you way more for being really open and honest in that regard and it just deepens that connection that you have with your athletes. Now again, what you want to share, that's completely up to you, but just being a little bit more honest and human can be really really helpful, versus always being the person that's in control and always has everything together, because that's really not relatable. No one ever has anything in control and if you pretend that you do, that's actually way worse because it's inauthentic and the term authenticity or being authentic gets thrown around a fair bit lately. But honestly, being a true self in whatever way that looks like, is really really important. So I think for me, things in the past that I would do would be probably dive deeper into some work or whatever else it may be or certain things, but it's actually important to learn to take a step back and not judge yourself for that. Then, if possible which is probably something I struggle with as well, or not as well definitely is then be able to communicate that to other people. Again, it's just saying, hey, I'm sorry I missed your message on the other week, just a bit going on and then follow up. And then obviously follow up as you need to that little bit extra context. A lot of people you know, even though you may have let them down in the short term, they understand as well because once again, everyone's human. So a bit of a different way to sort of start the episode there, but now spicing things up a little bit into something hopefully that's a bit more practical and may open people up to a few maybe different ideas or way of thinking about things.
Jordi Taylor:I get jokingly thrown around a bit that I'm the nomad S&C coach, because when I travel I end up doing a bit of work and things like that and honestly, for me it's great because you get different environments, you get different experiences, you get to see different people or, you know, if you're fortunate enough to go back somewhere, catch up with people and things like that. But what you probably need to take in consideration is a couple of things that can actually make the trip really worthwhile. So the first thing is obviously, if you're going away for a holiday or you're going away for a break, then you don't want to do this, just being really really clear and honest with that. But if you do want to utilize your time away and maybe open up a day or two days or three days, whatever it may be, here's a way that you can actually do that. So when you've already been somewhere, it's a bit easier. When you're going somewhere the first time it might be a little bit harder, but if you know people that are in the area, it really really helps, whether that be other coaches, other gyms, other facilities, you know athletes you previously worked with or whatever it may be. That can help promote you initially, to let people know that you're going to be in town Without attention, you really don't have anything.
Jordi Taylor:So that's really important number one. So number one is gather a bit of attention before you go, and ideally what you want to do is travel for free. So what you need to work out is how much are your costs? So ie, what's your flights, what's your accommodation, if needed, what's your car rental, if needed, all those sorts of things, and basically work out and reverse engineer how many sessions, consults, whatever that is to be able to actually cover the trip and in theory, that actually means you get to travel for free. Now again, obviously let's take into some other considerations, like your potential loss of income whilst you're away. So let's just keep it really simple. Just for simplicity terms, because math isn't a strong point you earn a thousand bucks a week, so then you've obviously identified how much it's going to cost you for your travel costs. And then, if you want to actually earn money for the week, well, you need to know that, based on your normal average week, it's a thousand dollars. So then you can again further reverse engineer what you need to do to be able to get to that figure. So you're not only traveling for free, you're actually making money and working whilst you're there.
Jordi Taylor:And that's the beauty of actually using social media to its benefit, which is being social and just talking to people. Before you come planning asking a few people is this something they'd be interested in Asking an athlete, if their friends would be interested, or they know anyone else who would be interested. They're just little things and it's not like you're being salesy, it's just if you truly believe that you offer a unique service that can help people. It's a really great way of getting your name out there a little bit more and just experiencing different things. A lot of people ask me how I can travel a little bit around and do sorts of things. So, yeah, a lot of people ask me how I can sort of travel a little bit around and do sorts of things. So that's pretty much how I do it.
Jordi Taylor:So there's a little hack for you. You don't need to worry about having frequent flyer points or credit cards or anything else that some of the business gurus try to flog. You just basically need to learn how to have attention, use that attention to actually get some sessions or clients or consults, whatever it may be, and then, yeah, go from there. So hopefully there's a few things in there. As I said, it's going to be a really short episode today, but let me know if there was anything of value there. If there's anything you want me to clarify or go through a little bit deeper, just drop me a message on socials anywhere and then we can go from there. Apart from that, hope everyone has a great week. If you are in Queensland, which is where I am right now, there's a cyclone coming, so fingers crossed it actually doesn't come, and if it does hit, then fingers crossed. Everyone stays safe and there's not too much damage. We'll chat soon.
