The Women of Elite Performance with Arianna Luther, Kylie Durkee, and Natalie Kollars | Episode 13

In this episode of UNRACKED, we sit down with Arianna Luther (Owner of Aero), Natalie Kollars (Owner of Fortis), and Kylie Durkee (Director of Athletic Performance, Indiana University Women's Basketball) for a deep dive into the landscape of Elite Performance.

We dig into mentorship, stories about winning and losing buy-in, and the unique perspectives women have in the field. These women are crushing it in a male-dominated field, and their insights are valuable to any coach in the industry.

🗣 About UNRACKED:
UNRACKED is a live conversation series from BridgeAthletic where top coaches break down the training systems, methods, and philosophies that drive performance at the highest level. Hosted by Bridge coach Cooper Napoli, the show pulls back the curtain on how elite coaches think, adapt, and solve problems in the trenches.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I'm not judging out of the I love it, cool. OSU, welcome. Airport in LA, I'm sure. Um cool, y'all. Well, thanks for coming in today. Um I'll start off with kind of like our little read here. Uh Unrack is a live conversation series for Bridge Athletic. Bridge provides coaching tools to world-renowned organizations like the Atlanta Falcons, Naval Special Warfare, the University of Arizona, and West High Barbara. They provide those very same tools for coaches like me and you use in our communities to deepen the training. Unwracked is a free educational series Bridge puts on to break down the training systems, methods, and philosophies that drive performance at the highest level. Each episode takes you inside a specific approach about how it's built, how it's applied, and how it evolves under real-world conditions. These expressed by our guests are their own and don't necessarily reflect the positions of Bridge Athletic or our own. We just finished our first year of Unwrap, um, and the response we had from our community about the show has been like nothing but incredible. So like we've got entire tactical human performance teams gathering around a laptop to tune in. Um there's coaches from as far as like Russia, Australia, China today, South Africa, um, coming in at like absolutely insane hours to be here live and ask questions. So like incredibly grateful for that. Um and really like what's cool about this and this format is we're getting like hundreds of personal trainers, physical therapists, strength coaches, athletes, like you name it from our industry to sit down and learn for an hour or two. Right? We get to do that like every month, and we've really formed a community here that like I'm extremely proud to be a part of. Um and I think something cool that we did was like we surveyed you guys over the first year, and we really wanted to shape and evolve the show for a year or two. Um, and like by a mile, the most requested uh concept or people you guys wanted to hear from was from women, right? Specifically women in leader performance. Um but there's like a careful line here. I want to say that like this isn't just something like we're doing for the sake of it. And like as one person put it like super eloquently, um, this is this is from them. Uh I just started working with female athletes. I want to hear from women because I want to learn something about this new to me area of the field that I can't get from my male perspective. I don't know where I'm blind. And like that, like really, really stood out to me. Um, and I think it's powerful when we have the wherewithal to be humble. I know that we may be blind in some areas and like kind of do something about it, right? And uh over a dozen people had similar sentiments. So, like basically what we did was like we assembled the Avengers for you guys, okay? Today's guests are like super badass women. We've got one from Indiana, Chicago, Arizona. They're a trio who um, you know, I believe is like at the top of their game. Um, and so Kylie Durke, Ariana Luther, Natalie Collars, welcome to the show. Uh, I'll leave the introductions to the ladies today. Um, and Kylie would love if you would kick us off and introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah, absolutely. So, first, just super excited to be here and and share this platform and hopefully give out some some good nuggets that people can kind of take home and help with maybe that perspective that they're looking for. Um, but with that, you know, like you said, I am the director of athletic performance for women's basketball at Indiana University. Um, I only work with women's basketball here, and I am going into year three already, year three here. So um with that, um, I'll kind of talk a little bit about like my journey coming here. Um, you know, I came here from the University of Houston. I worked with women's basketball there and women's volleyball. Um, I was there for about two years, and then prior to that, I was at Mercer University in uh Georgia, worked with women's soccer, women's golf, women's basketball. Um, and then, you know, a stop before that, I was in Florida at the University of North Florida, um, worked with track and fields, men's soccer. Um, I worked with women's golf again, um, softball, some of my teams there. And then on top of that, like assisting with our men's and women's basketball, assisting with some baseball there, um, and really honestly, like anyone that kind of needed it, um, especially at that point in my career, you're just trying to get all your reps in and coaching out on the floor as much as you can. So it's kind of like, yeah, if you need help, we're we're gonna be out there coaching together. Um, and then that takes me all the way all the way back to like where I started, which is back in 2018 as a grad assistant, which feels like such a long time ago um at the University of Mary. Um, and that's where I first got my foot in the door as a GA and worked with, you know, pretty much all sports there, assisted with football, volleyball, um, the basketballs, again, had softball, had men's soccer there. Um, and so have touched on a lot of different sports throughout kind of my journey to get here now. Um, but now I'm just with women's basketball and kind of creating that um that area of expertise. Um, and we'll finally now be in this spot the longest I have my my entire career. So going into three years. So um hopefully that's a good thing. Um and then on a personal note, um, it's me and my husband here, and then we live right here in Bloomington, and we recently welcomed our first baby boy in November. So um now we are transitioned to, yeah, a family of three. So so that's me.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Congrats. Hey, that's that's an awesome introduction. Appreciate you doing that. Ariana, you want to take us next?

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Yeah, yeah. Um my name's Arianna, and I am here in Chicago. I know there's a couple people in the chat who are also from Chicago, so we're up in Chi Town. Um, it's only nice for like four months out of the year, so we've made it now. It's finally summertime, so we're enjoying it for sure. Um, I was a collegiate strength coach for 10 years in total, ish. My first ever internship was actually at Exos summer 2014, uh long time ago. Like this is aging me. Oh my gosh. Um, 2014 summer out in LA. And then from that was kind of like the launching pad. Uh so started off first taste was private sector, and then immediately went to college after that. Uh, really wanted to get into team training and that kind of thing. So went that route and quite literally it took me coast to coast, which I'm really grateful for all the travel and all the stops that you make, especially. I know Kylie, you know this like each stop that you make, you are learning something new from different mentors and individuals, and you're kind of shaping your own way of doing things and your own coaching philosophy along the way. And so lots of different stops. I was, gosh, in Exos and then Montana State in Bozeman, Montana, UCF in Orlando, Temple in Philly, um, TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, and then University of Nevada and Reno, and then University of Miami for four the last four years, and then now here in Chicago. And I just launched my own business a year and three months ago. Uh, it's called Arrow, and I train athletes, I train regular folks, I train everybody, uh, do in-person and online training, consulting, things like that. So it's um it's been a learning curve for sure. I know Natalie knows this too, with just business and starting your own thing. And there's books, but like you learn by doing, and a lot of it is honestly just character development. And it's rough. I've been through it the last the last year, lots of tears. But you know, we learn as we go, and the only way is through. And so that's been literally my life the last year and three months is learning learning the ropes and trying to read some books about it. But like, I'm like, you know what? I think we just got to try some things and see what works and what sticks. And so um, business is a whole nother conversation. I'm sure we'll get to that. But all in all, that's me.

unknown 8:58

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, it is, it really is drinking from the fire hose. Uh you know, starting your own business. So so grateful to have your experience in that way. And obviously, like the crazy diverse background you got. Natalie, you want to go next?

SPEAKER_06 9:08

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like Ariana, maybe we should write a book, a how-to book. Yeah, yeah. We can do that together.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah, please do.

SPEAKER_06 9:17

Yeah, we could try a draft. Um, hey everyone, I'm Natalie. So excited to be here today. Um, I'm originally from Toronto in Canada. I studied kinesiology in undergrad and played college soccer up there. And really, that's where I fell in love with our world of sports performance. Um, I was learning about the science side of things in the classroom as a kin student and then um training with my teammates uh, with my first ever dedicated strength coach. Um, in high school, I would like enjoy going to the gym at the YMCA, but had no idea what I was doing. So when I got to college and had my first strength coach, I was just blown away by the difference that a proper training program and structure and training with teammates and all that made um the difference that it made on me as an athlete on the field and then just the confidence that it gave me as a young gal at the time. Um yeah, that's where I fell in love with our world and decided that I wanted to pursue this as a career. So I moved down to Arizona and similar to Ariana, did an internship with Exos at the Phoenix location in the summer of 2023. Or sorry, 2013, not 2023. So we did myself. Um seems so long ago. Um, and then I returned back in the winter of 2014 and did an NFL Combine specific internship at the same facility before going off to grad school at the University of Louisville, where I did my master's in strength and conditioning and exercise physiology and worked as a grad assistant there. So um that was my only time working in D1 Sports for those two years. So a little bit different than the other gals on this call. Um, when I graduated from there, I moved out to Los Angeles and took a job at a smaller like startup facility at the time with a mentor of mine named Brett Bartholomew that had moved out there. Um, so we worked like in the Hollywood Hills with like half athletes, half entertainers. And it was a yeah, a smaller facility just getting going, but so much fun. Um, definitely learned a lot and got exposed to things that I wouldn't have unless you live in Los Angeles. Um went on tour with Demi Lovato for a little while and just like crazy things that like again, literally only happen if you live there. Um, then I moved back to Arizona and took a job at Exos as a performance specialist, um, started my role working more with youth soccer. Um, they partner with like, yeah, youth soccer clubs. So worked a lot with them, which obviously was a fun fit for many reasons with my soccer background and just yeah, fun to work with that level of athlete at that age. And then I ran their NFL off-season program for three years before leaving to start my own business, which is what I do now. It's called Fortis. And yeah, I still train elite athletes in person, run NFL off-season programs, um, work with baseball, work with some athletes from Europe. And then a lot of my business now is online, um, where I do custom training and nutrition programs for yeah, elite athletes, military personnel, and then some general population too.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Cool. Like I said, guys, like truly the Avengers here. You guys have some insane lineage. Uh, that's that's so cool. Grateful for uh you guys sharing all that with us. So where I want to start here today, right, is like obviously you guys work like almost entirely different sectors, you know, and have different paths that you've taken to get here. So I like I want to start at kind of the ground level and just get to know like what a what is a typical day look like for you guys right now. And Kylie, if you want to start us.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Yeah. Um, so I think we actually kind of talked about this a little bit before we hopped on, but like what my day looks like right now um is drastically different than what it's about to look like starting on June 8th when we start summer training. Um so I'll kind of give you a little uh snippet of both just to see how it changes throughout the year. Um so right now, um I I get into work anytime between like nine and 10, honestly, that mid-morning time. I've got one athlete that I that has come back early before summer training starts. So uh we're training her, or I'm training her right now. Um, and then once that's done, usually I'll get my own training in, usually about an hour, hour and a half, um, and then finish out the the rest of the day doing either meetings with you know our AT, our dietitians, sports scientists, whatever we need to get done at the time, um, any other like desk work and and programming and things like that. Um and then I'm out sometime, you know, early, early to mid-afternoon. So it's a really different look than maybe like in season or even come, you know, here uh on June 8th. So what that's gonna look like, um, just to show you a little bit of contrast, there is um, you know, we'll start um right now our time slot to to train is from 8:20 to 9:30. Um and so I'll get in, you know, probably by like 7 a.m. the latest, make sure we're all good to go. We're getting the weight room set up, interns are ready to go, they know what we we got to get done for that day. Um, and then we'll take our kids through our training. And then we will have our basketball workout sometime later in the day, probably early afternoon. Um, and so that's gonna be about an hour, hour and a half, um, depending on you know what the schedule for the entire week looks like. Um, and then I'm here probably a little bit later towards that five, six o'clock time, um, doing any extra workouts depending on the athletes and their specific needs or extra buckets that they they might have to hit. So throughout the year, I always like to tell people like no day looks the same, um, especially when you talk about going through, you know, are we in preseason, are we in season, postseason, off season? So, like right now is is definitely very different than the middle of the year. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Cool. No, that's awesome. And I guess like one question I have is like, how's that evolved over, you know, your various roles at the different universities?

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Yeah, I think um I think a lot of that has changed. One, as you know, I've gotten a little bit further into my career from a personal level. And then also it, I think it just changes on um who your supervisor is and who else you have around you and working with you. Um, you know, so two pieces of that being like, okay, maybe you have your director of strength conditioning who is your oversight, and they expect you to be there, you know, eight to five, six to five, whatever, whatever that day is, and and you got to be there no matter what, right? Um, where now I've kind of gotten a little bit further um into my career where it's not so much like desk guarding just to just to say, oh yeah, I'm here, I'm I'm working the hours because that's what we do as strength coaches, right? Like 24-7, we're always on. Um, but now, like I said, right now, I get in mid-morning, I'm leaving mid-mid-afternoon. So I've learned to, and this was a really hard lesson to to learn, and I'm I still feel guilty sometimes, but like at a down point in the year, which is what I consider right now, right? When we're not full go, like I need to take the time where I can in order to fill my cup, um, you know, maybe on a personal level, seeing seeing my husband, seeing now my son, or being able to go home and and seeing my family or whatever that looks like too. So taking the time when you can um while still maintaining a high, high quality of work that that you're getting done when you're here.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Yeah, got it hurt. Very cool. Uh Ariana, what's typical day looking like for you right now?

SPEAKER_02 17:14

It's all over the place. It's it's wild. I think going from a structure like Kylie's talking about, where we had our teamworks, we had, you know, each team on the schedule, everything's there from when they're lifting to practice time to maybe training table if you have it, different things like that, like knowing when all these things are happening to now. And I don't I joke about it. I'm like, I don't know how I got this far being I'm like type B, but I do use a calendar, everybody. Don't worry. Um, I am to an extent, it's not crazy. Like my space is really clean and I'm nitpicky about certain things. Um, but if being a business owner now, I'm like, if if it's not on the schedule, I literally don't know that it's happening. So having a system in place is super important to know what that day-to-day is gonna look like because you don't have somebody else inputting it on teamworks for you. Uh, that's your job now. So I think going from that to this was like a little punch in the face where it's like, hello, okay, we gotta, we gotta wake up, we gotta be on it, we gotta schedule ourselves, we have to make sure that we're reaching out to the to our clients, things like that, um, scheduling them, getting them in, and which is a whole nother thing because you may have private sector, right? So it's I might have people in person and then people are fighting over time slots of when they want to train and um and so 6 a.m. is the only time they can go because they work, you know, maybe eight to five, like in a regular eight to five job or something. And then that's the hot spot. And then, you know, you can only take so many people in that, you can only take one person at a time slot if you do a one-on-one, of course. So, you know, the schedule can change all the time, week to week. My schedule looks different. Right now, I think I would say honestly, like the first two years of business was I wasn't even training. I'm just learning the business. I mean, I'm training people online, um, but it's it was mainly character development and getting the business set up in a way that's seamless, where there's a system in place where things can flow naturally and and well, just well executed. Whereas the training piece took a backseat. And honest, like, honestly, transparently, coming from 10 years of college, and as all the girls know on the on the call too, is you're on your feet all the time, you're training, training, training all day long. And I love it, don't get me wrong. But I think I needed a break. Like I took time from training people, just take a step back. Okay, if you're not in a context of working for a university, do you still love this? Do you still want to train people all day long? Do you want it to be where maybe you train a few people, you go deep with those few people online, and then you only take a couple people that you really want to work with in person. How do you want that to look? And that's where I was spending time figuring that out. And I started doing all in person before I launched my business. And I was like, learned quickly, nine people back to back for one-on-ones all day long is something I absolutely do not want to do. So if I know that much, then how do what do I actually want my day to look like? And it's your job to create it because it's your business. So you can make it look like however you want to. I kind of don't like that. I'd rather someone sometimes just tell me what my day is going to be versus me creating it. So getting used to that has been really difficult. Um, but with each experience and with more life experience that I've been having in it, which isn't very long, I am now discovering what I want my day to look like, essentially. And so now it's I have my online business set up, all the video demos and things like that. I know we did the separate one, Cooper, with with Bridge for everybody, but having my own um for all exercises, getting that set up on the front end uh before the launch was important, important to me to have that in place because they're training with you. So though those videos, I think, should be you, you know. So that was like the bulk of the work was think of every exercise known to man, getting that set up. Um, I know Natalie knows that too. It's once you think you think you're done, you're not. There's more, there's more exercises. Oh, I forgot about this one or that one, or it's all the squat versions on variations on a barbell, but now I got to do all of them on a dumbbell. So there's just so many. So it you chip away, get the bulk of it done, and then chip away. So um a lot of what I do is online, but then the I I also coach at a gym in Chicago. It's it's kind of near the Cubs Field over there by Wrigleyville, up north a little bit. And so I do group classes there, but I also film all my content out of that space, um, which is really nice. And so that's kind of where I'm at a lot of the time. But my one on ones, I've been doing um, I've been learning to, I'm all over the place. I'm at my apartment gym, I'm at somebody else, somebody's house, I'm at another person's apartment gym. Um, so things like that because my schedule. Isn't I would say consistent enough in person to be paying somebody rent? So that business piece I've been trying to figure out. I don't have a car anymore. So my day-to-day looks like me carrying Hawken force plates, literally wheeling them around the city, getting it on a bus to another to transfer to another bus, to transfer to a train, going upstairs, going downstairs with force plates. None of it really logistically makes sense right now. So I'm in the middle of figuring that out. So this is the messy piece that people don't see. Maybe I'll video it one day, but it's honestly kind of embarrassing. So I'm just running around with force plates and technology and going out to the field and going to the gym. And yeah, I'm just trying to work out some logistics too. So it's it's a lot. But this year is the first year that I've actually had I've had athletes online for the last five years because I was doing it at Miami too. But this year, 2026 is the first year I've had training athletes like consistently. So that's now happening as well. So my day to day is that's a lot. But it's just it's it's all over the place and it's in person, it's online, it's I'm running around field, gym, uh force plates rolling around. People are like, What's that? Is that a suitcase? Where are you going? I'm like, no, it's force plates. They're like, What are those? I'm like, just don't really expensive suitcase with thousands of dollars inside of here just to make sure you don't like hit me or something.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

So but yeah, that is getting jacked the Hawkins. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah.

unknown 23:44

That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

That's so funny. I uh well, one follow-up question I have to that is like I know when I like transition to the military, like so much structure, so much just like you're here, we're doing this from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and like there's no if, ands, or buts about it. Like what has like slapped you in the face, but also like what what do you miss about that that structure? Because I also started my own business after that, and it was like I could do whatever I want today. Yeah, I don't like that feeling.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yeah, it's real. I think when you have a supervisor, when you have a boss, uh you're uh you have expectations. Sometimes I'm like in this role, what's difficult is I don't am I doing a good job? No, I don't have a performance review at the end of the year with a supervisor, someone telling me these things. So I think that is a difficult piece where it's like, how how am I assessing if I'm if my business is doing quote unquote well? What does that mean? Is it the money that's in that's going in the bank? Is it um, you know, is it a reflection of that? Is it how many clients you can get or is it, you know, and it I think really it's feedback from the people that you're working with in real life, right? And online too, because they're working with you. Um, but your client feedback is everything and asking them questions like, hey, you know, are we doing well? I think that's a really difficult piece, but the structure is huge. I think going from that to the first year, I was honestly just like floating in the wind, probably. And then I was like, Ariana, looking at myself in the mirror, you need to figure this out. Like you need to get more of a structure for yourself, write it out yourself, and then write down what are you actually trying to do? Because I think when I launched my uh mentor, Les Spellman, he was like, he always taught me it doesn't have to be like fully prepared before you you put it out there. And I think a lot of us coaches were like very meticulous. Well, I want it to be perfect before I put it out online, or I want it to be perfect before I launch day. Mine wasn't. I was like, you can make this cute later. So that's my big thing is it can be a little messy, make it cute later. Just start, just put something out there, even if it's not now. There's use wisdom in that if something's not completely finished and you're like, if you're not confident, don't put it out there. But there's some stuff where I'm like, okay, maybe not all of this is figured out 100%, but we're like 95% there, and that's okay. At least the branding, the website, like all these things are done, um, the online setup, so that should be seamless. But I think, yeah, I it's just just starting with these things. Um, but I do miss the structure. I miss um, you know, when I took a break, honestly, from training those athletes and I was like doing some group classes, building some online stuff. I was like, okay, do you want to be training athletes in person? Like, what does this actually look like? You have a few online, do you want, do you want that in person? I was like, okay, I don't want it all day long, but like I'll take a few, you know, and that's what I'm doing now. Um, you have to go get them. So the slap in the face is no university is handing you a team of 20 people saying, here are your people, go train them. But it makes it that much more meaningful when they come to work with you because they want to work with you. They get to choose. The athlete gets to choose to work with you, the client or our general population client wants to train with you. Uh, and I think the meaning behind that is so much more versus a team that's like, hey, this is just who your strength coach is who's assigned to you, which is also impactful. But I think on this side of things, I'm like, wow, that's a it's very meaningful because uh you had a choice and you chose me. And that like I could cry thinking about that sometimes because it's just yeah, it's it's awesome. Um, the impact can go really deep, especially on that one-on-one setting. But I do miss teams, I miss uh turning up the volume in the weight room, getting it rocking, and just everybody vibing out and like uh controlling a room of 20 people. That's what I've done for 10 years. So going from that to like one person, how is your day? It can feel a little slow. So that's why I was like, I don't want to do this all day long because I'm like way too like groups and hype type of individual. Um, but uh it also is very impactful on that level because you really get to know them and you really can journey alongside them and and get to the individual, which I think is uh really impactful um as well. So they both have great meaning. I think I just miss some of the just turning up with like 20 or 30 people in the room and going all at once and you got the whistle. Like I miss that stuff too. Um and being a part of game day. Yeah, we don't get I don't, you know, well, we can attend separately, obviously, but the whole team knowing that you took a piece of that uh a part in that um result is really special. And I do miss that sometimes. But I think the freedoms that you get from uh, you know, uh be owning your own business, being in uh Los Angeles on a random Tuesday because you can like things like that. I mean, it's just for me, I'm like you can't beat that. But there are, you know, a lot of other things that are very difficult. Like if you don't work, you don't eat. If you know you got you thought you had you were free, but now you're working 24-7. Someone is texting you at eight o'clock at night. It's like have your boundaries, but um sometimes it's hard to flip it off because I'm not leaving an office. It's like the whole city's my office at this point, so we're running around so long-winded, but yeah, there's a lot of good, uh good and pros and cons to each for sure.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yeah, we'll appreciate that that response for sure. Uh Natalie, what does the total day look like for you right now?

SPEAKER_06 29:25

Yeah, um, a little bit seasonal for me, depending on if it's NFL off season or not, because that's my biggest um group of in-person athletes. Um, so a little bit seasonal and a little bit different each day, like Ariana said. Um I split time between a facility that I rent space from, uh, where I do all of my in-person athletes and clients and film content and work out myself. And then the rest of my time is spent at home, either on calls with online clients or programming on bridge, um, uh doing emails and that kind of thing. Um, and I really enjoy my setup in person. Um, I think one thing that can be challenging about running your own business is maybe some feeling of like isolation and that kind of thing. We've talked about it a lot already on this call of being a part of a bigger team or organization and then going out and being on your own. And so what's unique about my setup of the facility in person is that there's other individuals really similar to myself, um, actually some of my former coworkers from Exos on the PT and performance side that are all renting space from the same facility. So, although we're running our own independent businesses and have our own, you know, structure to our businesses and scheduling and all of that, um, we're running it out of the same place. And so there's a sense of community and collaboration. And um, yeah, the PTs work with the same NFL guys that I do, and we still, you know, operate under um, yeah, again, our different businesses, but are able to integrate to provide a really good level of service. And so that's fun. It's like a high-energy big facility that I can go to and spend part of my day doing that. And then as I mentioned, the rest of it is at my place or maybe a coffee shop or something like that in Arizona or on the road if I'm traveling, um where I spend the rest of my time kind of behind the scenes, either yeah, programming or client calls and things like that. And that shifts a little bit, as I mentioned, whether it's um, you know, January to April pre-OTAs, I spend quite a bit more time at the gym or at the field with the guys, and then in the fall, a little bit less in person. Um, and I do have some clientele general population that train more year-round, but they come and go a little bit too. Arizona is a big place for um, you know, people get out of there in the summer and have different houses and things like that. So some of those people end up seasonal as well. Um, so yeah, big picture, kind of split my time between a nice high-energy facility where everything in person happens and then the rest is at home.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Cool. Well, I'm I mean, I'm super curious, like, because you know, you mentioned you trained Emmy Lovato. I had no idea you did that. Like, what does it look like being on tour versus like OTAs versus like, you know, just your gen pop folks? Like that's a that's a diverse group of folks. So, like, how does it change? What are the challenges? And I'm curious, like, what are the similarities too?

SPEAKER_06 32:35

Yeah, I always say it's interesting you said, what are the similarities? I have been asked this question before, had this conversation with other people, of course, over the years. And um yeah, there's actually more similarities than differences. Funny enough. I guess I mean, I don't know, maybe the other gals on this call would agree. Um yeah, whether you're training someone to perform at a high level as a like stage performer or an athlete or someone that's like a weekend warrior, someone doing apex or like high rocks or something like that. Um, they're all training to perform at a high level. Um, and so maybe like, you know, 70% of it is really similar in terms of like thought process behind the programming. And then 30% obviously is going to be different if it's like an O-lineman or a demi Lovato or a soccer player that's a midfielder. Of course, there are differences. Um, but the same training principles still apply. Um, and so yeah, I think that's one of the best parts of our job is being able to be a little bit of a chameleon and change our delivery. Um, it might be the same exercise, it might be a back squat for everyone, but being able to um really confidently communicate the why behind things to three different types of people is really important. And so yeah, I think that there's a lot of similarities and then obviously some differences too, um, both on the like behind the scenes programming side and then the session implementation and execution and the way that it is communicated to the athlete or the entertainer or whatever it is. Um, and then to answer your question about being on tour, um, that was a really unique experience. So I trained her for the year give or take leading up to the Future Now tour that she was on with Nick Jonas. Um and yeah, that was fun. And there's, again, there's differences for sure, but she's she's performing for like two hours almost every night. Um and it's actually really physical, right? She's like singing, which is exhausting. She's dancing, she's like running around a stage, she's super energetic. And so again, she's not doing like sprints, um, but she's definitely active for many nights of the week for about the same length as like a football or soccer game. Um, and so the preparation for that was really fun. And honestly, something that I learned a lot during, like I just I didn't really see things. Um when I went to a concert, I wasn't really thinking like, what would it be like to train someone? I was just there to enjoy the music. Um, and then when I was looking at, okay, what do I need to, um, what does this gal need to be able to do and how can I best prepare her for it? That was really um a fun learning experience for me. And then being on the road was, I think, really similar, well, not really similar, but um similar to being on the road with an athlete. You know, you're going from different cities to different cities and training in unique environments, um, whether it's like an arena or a hotel gym, um, and kind of keeping up with her like game load, which was the performances. So yeah, tour buses and all that was really unique and fun.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

I bet that's so cool. I've I've you know met a few people who've trained musicians and like it's I watched the Taylor Swift documentary too, that was on like Disney Plus or whatever. She's like belting every song while running on the treadmill. And I'm like, Yeah, that's not easy, man. Like, there's no way that that's like, you know, like there's a lot of people that could not do that, uh, needless to say. But like, you know, another guy like training a bass guitarist on the belt squat, like have handed him a three-pound bass and was like, Yeah, you're just gonna march for the next 20 minutes, like you know, with like 300 pounds on the rack. It's like it's fun to hear, like, you know, what creative training implements, you know, go on on tour and in preparation for a tour. So super cool. Thanks for sharing those stories.

SPEAKER_05 36:39

Yeah, it's definitely very physically demanding, which I kind of quite honestly underestimated before.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

So yeah, 100%. Doing anything for two hours can can start to get tough. So all right. Well, I want to transition us kind of in into like a little bit of like this concept of earning the room, right? And like really what that looks like to you guys. Um, and so Natalie, we're gonna start with you. And I'm curious, like across everyone you've worked with, like, how have you won buy-in? But I'm also curious about the opposite side of that coin and how have you lost buy-in at times, and like what did that teach you? Um, so the question will be the same for all of you ladies, but uh now you'll kick us off for this one.

SPEAKER_06 37:20

Yep. Um, I love this question because obviously we can't do our jobs well at all if we don't have buy-in, right? Um, and I think that sometimes these things can be hard to put into words because there's so much feel to it. Like I really think that that's such a big part of the art of coaching, right? Is being able to adapt and read the room and communicate differently. Maybe if there's 10 people in a group quite differently from, you know, a couple people, um, like athletes one and two, athletes four and five, athletes nine and ten, whatever, like even if they're in the same group, they likely respond to different styles of communication. Um, and so I think sometimes it's hard to like put your finger on or communicate in these types of settings, like what that really looks like. But that answer is not really helpful. Um, and so I think that one of the biggest things um with earning the room is first of all, establishing a level of mastery, which I know we can never really like master anything, but establishing a level of mastery to be able to show up really confidently. Um, you know, people are coming to us to coach them. And if we don't look like we know what we're doing or we're not confident in it, they're probably not gonna be very eager to follow us. Um, so putting in the work behind the scenes on your own, um, practicing, failing, finding mentors, asking questions, being humble, like all the things that go into trying to achieve mastery so that you can show up as confidently as you can. Um yeah, being a student of like our fields of the game, continuing to um spend lots of time reading and um yeah, practicing on your own, coaching. Um, we used to, as when we were interns, we used to do like coach the coach the coach or coach the interns, and we would like all get together and think of a couple areas of a session, whether it's like biometrics or medball or speed or whatever that looked like, uh, that people weren't confident in and just create a safe space within the interns to, you know, go through almost like a mock session to hopefully gain more confidence. Um, and I think, yeah, that's that's the biggest piece, I think, or one of the biggest pieces is being as confident as possible so that when you show up to the session, your energy is contagious, you're able to execute at a really high level and people are drawn to that and they want to be a part of it. Um, so I think like the, you know, kind of hard skills is really important. And then um just genuinely caring about your job and the athletes and letting your passion show through. I think that again, that's contagious and people want to be a part of something if they can tell that you really love it. Um and then obviously we also we also need to get results as well. We can't just be there, you know, um cheerleading and having like feel-good sessions. Our athletes um and clients are there hiring us for a reason. And so the sooner that you can get like a small win, uh, the better. Um I think that's really important. And then yeah, being able to explain the why behind everything. Again, not all athletes are gonna want to know that, but a lot do. Um, and I think that not only does it provide another opportunity for us to share um or show that we in fact do know what we're doing and we're not just like randomly putting things together, um, but being able to explain the why behind things and how it's actually going to help um the athlete or whoever you know we're coaching. Um I think is really valuable. Uh yeah, there's so much that goes into that. And I think like I said at the beginning, there's some things that are just hard to put your finger on. Um, and some of it is just adapting like as you go. Um but hopefully those things are like helpful and resonate with people. And obviously, I don't know, for are we doing a question and answer, Cooper?

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Yeah, at the end, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 41:34

Okay, yeah. So again, maybe this is like a topic that people will have further questions on that we can obviously elaborate on. Um and then where the second part, how did you word it? Like losing.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Yeah, it's it's like how have you lost buy-in? Yeah. Surely that's happened at least once.

SPEAKER_06 41:50

Yeah, for sure. Um, I think just there's setting yourself up for success from a session design standpoint is so important and being like overly organized, um, of like the flow from one block to the next or indoor to outdoor, um, you know, setting up equipment properly, putting in competition where makes sense, like all the little nuances of session design, I think are so important for the athlete, again, to have the perception that like you actually really know what the heck's going on. And I think I've just had sessions where whether I was um, I don't want to say too busy because that sounds like a cop-out, but for whatever reason, just being less prepared and not having my ducks in a row enough to execute a session at a high level and just, yeah, just not having as much control over the session and um not communicating as clearly on my side, and then things just kind of like snowball in a really bad way from there because you kind of know that you're like messing up and then it just, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

They can smell it, can't they?

SPEAKER_06 42:58

Yeah, and that's what I mean by the yes, that's what I mean by the confident side. Like as soon as you kind of like haven't done the work for whatever reason, um, which obviously ultimately, whether it's like directly your fault or not, like it's your fault. Um, so yeah, just showing up and not um executing at a high enough level. And then yeah, athletes obviously and people know the difference between a really good session and not. And unfortunately, like if you have a not so great session, you got to do a lot more um to buy them back than you did to lose them. So I think again, the like behind the scenes and the session design, not from the X's and O's of like squat three by 10 or whatever it is, but like the flow of the session, what equipment are you using? Yeah, how are you? Are you bringing people in to like demonstrate all together or are people staying by the racks? Like all of those details matter so much and I think are often not taught in session design. People ask a lot, right? I feel like one of the most common questions is like, I want to learn about programming and that kind of thing, which is important. Important, of course. Um, but I think maybe even more importantly is like the session design and execution from you know the other aspects of the session.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Yeah, that's that's that's really interesting because I feel like what what you spoke about, there's like an interesting balance between like being a total nerd about this stuff, which at some point someone's gonna be very grateful you were, and probably you yourself, most of all, right? Like that you geeked out on that stuff because that's what gets the results, right? But like if you don't know how to balance that into like this like almost hospitality element of what we do, like it's it'll be for nothing. You know, so so yeah, really appreciate like that whole spectrum there. I think that that was a great answer. Appreciate that. Ariana, would love to hear from you next. Um how have you won buy-in? Have you lost buy-in?

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Yeah, I actually have a story about this, and I think it's it's helpful because it kind of puts it in context. But when I was at TCU, um, I was a GA and I was working with women's soccer, beach volleyball, swimming and diving, and it was over 150 athletes. The swim team was 60, I think, um, split men and women, and then everybody else. But summertime was football all hands on deck. So I remember we had there was this player, and granted, relationships, we talk about relationships, relationships all the time and just how important they are to build. And I know a lot, I know a lot of really amazing strength coaches. They have all the head knowledge and they just have a difficult time relating to people, talking to people. And I think there's a fine balance to have between like we're in the books, we know the X's and O's, we have the background, the education, and we can communicate those things. Um, but just being able to meet somebody where they're at for who that person is, especially in a team setting, like Nat said, like it's hard to do that because maybe you have somebody all the way on the other side of the room, and then you're over here and you're trying to communicate um something across the room and it just might get misheard or whatever. So all those things have to be on point. But when I was at TCU, I remember there was a player, he had a hard time listening to me when I gave him cues and corrections. Granted, we all got thrown in. It's like I wasn't one of the football five. So he's probably like, Who's this girl? Who are you to who are you to tell me? And I asked him after the session, I said, What holds you back from receiving cues and corrections from me? Like, what is it? And he was like, Yeah, I was like, I'm just curious. He's like, Because you can't bench what I bench. That was his legitimate answer. So I put it in perspective and I was like, How much do you weigh? He was like, 250. I was like, okay, you just benched 250 and struggled. You lift about one times your body weight. I weigh whatever I weighed at the time, one 150 or something. And I benched, that's my max, 150. So when we talk about relative strength, like we're we both uh are strong the same way. I was trying to break it down for him. And he was like, Oh, okay. And from then on out, he just listened to anything I had to tell him to do when it wasn't just fun for us, but it was like other things. And so I think just explaining, and people come with different stuff. Like sometimes they're just like, because you're not as strong as me, you can't demo the this type of weight, like that was it for him. And so I'm like, okay, what can I explain to this player that will help break through a little bit? And then there's other moments in time, and that worked for us in that one context situation. There were other situations where men's basketball at Nevada, football TCU, uh, men's basketball at UCF, those male strength coaches that were the head um strength coaches for those teams, they co-signed me. And honestly, that's what helped in those moments. They talked to the team and said, she will be assisting us, she knows what she's talking about, basically just co-signed me, and then no issues from then on out. What it would be like to be like a coach hootie coming in, female, obviously pioneer of a woman, coming in and leading these men through training sessions, like the what that day one would look like. Obviously, she has all of her history and backing. Um, these guys know her coming in. It's gonna take her seriously, absolutely. So I think it's context, it's your history. Um, but those situations, like I had to get co-signed, and then from then on out, it was it was all good. Um, and then you work with them more and more, you develop the relationship with the players after weeks and weeks and weeks of implementing sessions, then that that buy-in comes um as you build those relationships. And that's huge. And I can talk to a wall. So as far as being able to relate or come to somebody's level and really walk with them in a especially in a team setting, which is hard to do, um, though that would work for me. And then some of my goals, like women's soccer, the team, I would meet with players individually. Like before summer session started, things like that. I would try and get at least 10 to 15 minutes. Hey, come to my office, let's get a slot. And I'd love to get to know you a little bit more, like what your goals are, what were individual goals, team goals, et cetera. And I think they appreciate that. But then also I get to know more about them and just get to know them relationally. I mean that's gonna carry you, the relationship's gonna carry you through. And I see that too on the business side as well as we develop relationships with our clients, whether that's gen pop or athletes, um, getting to know them because especially if it's one-on-one or a small group, like you get that time to really dive deep, but you don't really get um as much on a big team scale. So I think um that's those are ways for buy-in for sure.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

Love that. And and I, you know, I really appreciate like the ego check you put and just kind of like putting them on the spot of like what makes this so difficult for you. I think that's like an awesome way. It's such a simple question, right? But it's like really effective.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

I don't like competition all the time, but I was like, this is healthy. Like we need we need to have this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

So well, and I think a lot of people like in the gym are like anyone weaker than me sucks. Anyone stronger than me must be on steroids. And so it's important to check that. Right. So so so I I really love how you did that. Now, like yeah, like you know, the individualization element, though, I think is where like I think a lot of coaches can miss the boat, especially when they're working with big groups or like how much it means to even just spend 10 to 15 minutes with an athlete. Like, I think that's huge. Um, that that's definitely something I'm taking away from that. Yeah. So in the demos.

SPEAKER_02 50:39

I would say the demos, um, and I know the women on this call, same thing, like y'all are incredible movers. And I think my goal, especially I was thinking about this yesterday, like even on Instagram, like I don't always put out a ton of really science-y educational information. Um, I want to get more into that. But I think one of my main goals is to show really good quality movement, period. And I think that helps with buy-in so much because even like in person, people will be like, How the heck did you just do that? Like you didn't even warm up. You just, I was like, that's my job to make this look easy. But I want to show you the right way to do it, what it should look like, and encourage you that we can get there too. So I think being an incredible mover, not just how much weight you can lift, but in all planes of motion, I think is huge. When people I people go, I know this is a controversial, like, should you look the part? Does it matter? Blah, blah, blah. I think it helps, right? When you look the part when you can move really well and demonstrate these things with ease, then it it helps so much with buy-in um as well. And I think, yeah, so I want to display that as much as I possibly can. And that's what motivates me to keep training, to be healthy. Obviously, things happen. I hurt my back recently. I was out for two months, terrible. Um, couldn't demonstrate anything. I was like, you guys got it right. I taught you this. Um, but trying to stay in the health as healthy as possible so that we can deliver and execute movement in a really, really good way so that they can understand it. Um, and that normally helps with buy-in as well. Um, but losing it is another thing. Not having your, not having your ducks in a row, maybe you're not explaining things um in a way that you would have liked. I think I remember in the team setting too, like if they were running late from team lift, like or for team lift from practice or something like that, soccer, I got 20 minutes a week for like two years. So if anyone cut into those 20 minutes, I was pissed. I'm like, this is all we get, right? So I'm trying to maximize this. We got kids running in late. So then the session feels rushed and we're skipping over stuff. And I'm just trying to like, it felt like I'm just scrambled, we're just all scrambling. And so I think there could be some loss of buy-in there where maybe the kids didn't fully understand, like, we only get 20 minutes a week. And I would try and emphasize, hey guys, we only get 20 minutes a week. Make sure we're on time because we have to get these blocks in for sure, because that's all I get. And then over time, buy-in with the coach, I was able to get two sessions, 45 minutes each. Was very excited about that. Um double.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Yeah, it took time though. And soccer is another one of those things where it's buy-in from the coach, you know, and building the relationship and explaining why it's important. Um, but also having like data and and okay, well, we're we're we're getting hurt. What's gonna help um lessen the chance of those things happening? Strength training, right? So, and then buy-in happens unfortunately, sometimes after somebody gets hurt in sports like that, at least six years of soccer that I've been in um involved with. So um, so yeah, I think just those rust rushed sessions, some of that was out of my hands. Um I didn't like it. I didn't like the result, I didn't like how it was run. Um, but you just kind of make do with the best of what you have in front of you. And I think that's the adaptability of a coach too, just doing the best that you can. So I love that.

SPEAKER_00 54:08

Yeah, I mean, winning those 20 minutes, right, eventually got you 45. And that's that's yeah, crazy setup, needless to say, that the sport coach was giving you. That's wild. That's wild. Um, but but I understand. So cool. Appreciate those stories. Those were those were super helpful. Kylie, would love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

Yeah, I think you guys already hit on some really great points. Um, for me, I've throughout my career, I've kind of developed buy-in in a couple of different ways. Um, you know, I think a big one, like we already touched on, is like I try and with my training, I try and post that on Instagram like as much as possible. So these kids, um, you know, like they said, they they go on and they see that, right? We all follow each other. Um, they see me moving, they see me dedicated and following a training plan, whether it's just like I'm training or I'm actually like competing and training for for a specific event, like they see me putting in work in my own kind of lane um that they can relate to for their training for basketball, right? Or for whatever sport it it has been along along the path. Um, so that's a big one. And then I try and do that like in all areas of you know performance. So like they'll see me, you know, hydrating and eating in the the same manner that we're trying to teach them of like, hey, like you need to be taking down your protein shake or hey, you need to be having X amount of water and electrolytes per day, you know, whatever scenario is, and trying to show them like, hey, I'm not just I'm not just telling you to do this, like I'm also doing this in my own life because it's that important. And I'm not a division one basketball athlete, right? I'm a 30-year-old mom. So, like, if I can do it, y'all can do it too. Um, so I like to show them um in that way. And then with that, I think like just being as authentic and as genuine to who you truly are as a person and as a coach. Um, because like you said, like they'll sniff it out, right? Like if you're not acting like yourself or doing things that like you're trying to be a hype guy, but but you're really not, so it just comes off like like fake or just weird, right? Like they can feel that, they can sense it. So just like being true and um not being afraid of that, um, because they're they're gonna be way more willing to accept that. Um, because they're really good at at figuring that out pretty quickly. Um, and then I think another in the beginning of a session in particular, to give an example, um, I think like like last summer, so we had what we call fun Fridays in our summer training. Um, it's a big competition day. It's a mixture of like conditioning, um, competing within our team with with other teams that are also training on campus at that time too. Um, but anyways, there's usually like some some moving pieces, right? So, like trying to explain it, give them all the instructions. Like we're usually moving from different location to different location, or we have different stations, different reps, whatever. And how you can like simplify that instruction and simplify how you start that session, I think within those first couple of minutes can really dictate if you're gonna lose someone or get someone's buy-in. Just how you're delivering that speech, how you're delivering the instructions. Like last year, we had a couple of fun Fridays that maybe were just like too much for them to like comprehend the instructions and then remember it and then do it well. Um, and so you could kind of see them losing it. And then, of course, the intent behind it, the quality of the session just kind of like dwindles from there, right? So I think um learning to do that well, which last year that was um a learning curve for me, and we had a lot of new kids on our team too. So that was a piece of it. Um, but how you kind of deliver and start a session, I think is big. Um, I think a way that helps here for us is in summer specifically, we have our whole staff come to every single lifting and conditioning session that that I'm putting our team through, right? So, like they're coming in the weight room and like, yeah, our head coach is right here because she also is putting value into our time dedicated to this. Like it matters to her, it matters obviously to me, because I'm the one running it. Like that priority needs to be just as high for every single one of our kids, too. So then they kind of see that like our whole staff is dedicated to showing up whenever that session is, and and that helps with with buy-in kind of indirectly without me having to do do much, honestly. Um, and so that has definitely helped me. And I think, you know, learning throughout my career, once you develop relationships with these kids or whoever you're working with, you can really figure out how to get um better buy-in, specifically like within a session, right? Some kids respond really well when you call them out in front of the entire team, in front of all the other coaches, and some kids don't, right? Like I've had kids in the past where it's just like, hey, like fix this, fix this, do this, like cross the line, you know, whatever it is they're doing wrong, and it's like they continually like are not fixing it. They're not buying in, they're not getting any better. And it's like eventually you sit down and have a conversation and figure out that this kid, like, hey, if maybe I just like I'm walking by them in the in the weight room and I stop and have a quick like one-on-one, like, hey, I need you to fix your feet here, hold, hold the bar here, like this, yada yada, yada, and then it's fixed, right? It's just that like um psychological piece of of you know how you deliver the message, the tone of the message, you know, in a session with the full team, you know, are they gonna shut down if it's called out in front of everyone, or does that help them thrive in that moment? So getting to know your kids, I think on a personal level will help you uh create some of that buy-in um in a better way as well.

SPEAKER_00 59:55

I love that. And uh, you know, the the concept of the fun Friday is interesting, like in addition to like what you said was tone. Yeah, like because if it's fun Friday and my coach is coming at me like all right, guys, this is the game we're gonna play today, like you know, and like m like mumbling through it, and it's this complex thing, like that session's gonna suck from the get-go, and that first 15 minutes, that tone, that energy you bring is like, yeah, like truly, truly everything. And it, I mean, it sounds like to me is like it's like doing that every time, showing up ready every time, every session, regardless if we're at 5 a.m. or you know, 8 p.m. today, like yeah, and and getting that out. So I I I love that. Like that's that's that that that's you know, you guys are all mentioning these like little details, this little stuff that is just like so critical, you know, to to focus on.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:42

And I think like I think it was Natalie that said it too, like that confidence and that preparation. Like a thing I like to live by is if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail, right? Like if you don't, and for me personally, like I know the more prepared I am, like the higher that just increases my confidence, right? Um, and so when you're not ready to go and you don't have all your those ducks in a row, like that's not you're starting off on the wrong foot, right? And like we said, these kids are smart, man. Um, and and they can pick up on things just as quickly as we do as coaches, right? Like they they're playing a sport, a team sport, they have been their whole life, they know how to interact with teammates, they can read body language just like we do, um, and they can sense things like that too. So just making sure, like prepare, prepare well, and then you're gonna set yourself up for the best potential buy-in that you can have.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:30

Love that, love that. And can you talk through kind of like any of those, those like lost buy-in moments?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:36

Yeah, I think so. Like talking about those fun Fridays, um, you know, we there's a couple of times where like we are in the middle of it and it's our long session, and I would have to like stop them and just be like, hey, this looks like absolute crap, right? We're going through the motions, we're not like, we're not, we don't have 100% effort, like our attitude isn't there. Just like all these things are going in the wrong direction, right? And so um, you know, understanding and having some of that evaluation, self-evaluation, self-reflection after a session. For me, like that was a big one last year, I think, is just not trying to get too fancy with some of those sessions, like in this example specifically, um, and maybe just making those sessions more simplistic um in concept so it doesn't take so much away from them mentally in the beginning of like explaining too much for too long before we get going, too much to remember for them. And then all of a sudden, this is not going the way I want it to. Like, we're not ending the week on a high note. It's it's a very, very low note. So um, you know, for me, that was like a little bit of self-reflection of okay, maybe on our fun Fridays, we need to clean it up a little bit, like how much of that, figuring out how much of that was on me versus also like on our kids of being locked in and and listening and learning to listen um and then responding in the right manner too.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Especially like, I mean, I appreciate like what because I've I've run into this too when I was working with the high school here, like Fun Friday could easily become get on the line and let's do conditioning. Yeah, you know, like you know, and it's like striking that balance too, where it's like you guys gotta bring the energy too, and like yeah, you know, being able to kind of call out when that happens. And yeah, I mean, you can feel yourself losing the session, right? Yeah, you can.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:27

And sometimes too, like I've told them, I'm like, hey, y'all, like this is what this is the plan for the day, and like I'll show them the sheet, or they'll have their own copy of the sheet if it's like in the weight room. I'm like, look, I don't want to do um, you know, all these extra reps because we're doing things wrong. Like, that's not what's prescribed for the day. Like, if we do it well, we do it right, like this is all we got, and then we're in, we're out. Um, and so like trying to also like show them like, because I think a lot of kids are like, oh, you love like running us into the ground, like you love putting us on the line. And I'm like, no, I love development, I love adaptation, like growth. Um, and that doesn't necessarily come from just hitting the line over and over again, right? So it's like, let's let's just do what we're asking at the highest level. Um, and and then we're all good to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

So love it, super cool. Awesome, awesome answers, ladies. Those are like fantastic. I feel like there's there's so much to impact just just in there, but but I do want to move on to like this concept that I think you've all alluded to a little bit, which is this mentorship. Right. And and so I'm really curious, like, did you guys have mentors that look like you like did you feel like you had an absence of mentors at any given moment? Like, I I want to understand like how that worked for you and how you sort of see that. Um, because I think it's important for people on the call to understand like how you guys approach that concept because ultimately I think that's where we end up getting better um as coaches. So Kylie, we'd love for you to start us off on that one.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

Yeah. Um, so I think, you know, I have my mentor when I was a GA at the University of Mary, Coach Silver Nagel. Um, we still talk very frequently to this day. We always link up at the conference at the CSCCA annually, um who I'd call like a really great family friend. And so still a current mentor. Now honestly, it's more transitions um to like on the personal side of things. Um, but he no, he does not look like me, right? Um he is, you know, this built-out, like parlifting looking guy, like bald, like he looks like your your strength coach, right? That everyone has in their minds. Um and and then I've had a couple, you know, other mentors throughout. Um, but again, I haven't had any female mentors. Um, you know, I've worked with a few female strength coaches um along the way um within my own department, I should say. Um here actually at Indiana is the most that we've had on staff. So that's been that's been exciting to kind of experience. Um, but anyway. So I didn't really notice not having a female mentor perspective honestly until like this past year. Um and that's been when we decided to have um a family, right? And so for me, it's like my perspective has always been like, hey, I can coach, a guy can coach, and a woman can coach, right? We're both coaching men, we're both coaching women, like it's great perspectives on both. And I didn't really find any issue with that until like I I realized I I've never seen um a female strength coach like get pregnant, go on leave, come back and transition into that area and like how do you do it? Right. Um, and so obviously, only only women can kind of experience that side of it. So that that was a moment for me where I realized I was like, yeah, like I've seen other female strength coaches have kids, but for me, what I had seen, it was always kids that at that point were already like in elementary school who are older. So I hadn't yet seen like moms go through it from the very beginning, and then like how how are you a strength coach when you're you know when you're six months pregnant and you're on your feet all day long and you're doing the thing, um, and then like going on leave, right? Like as a strength coach, how how often are you not with your team? Right, and I was away for six weeks, so then that looked different, um, and just like all the stuff in between. So that was where I think I found the absence of a female mentor for the first time. Um and otherwise, I think you know, having a male mentor um and a couple others along the way, like there wasn't any issue in that because we're all trying to do and be the same thing, right? Like, I want to be a great strength coach, not just a great female strength coach. And I say that because I've had like other people in the field and they're like, hey, do you know anyone? Like, I'm looking for a female strength coach, like a great female strength coach. And I remember thinking to myself, I'm like, well, I don't want to get a role or a position just because I'm a good female strength coach. Like, I want to get this role because I'm a I am a great strength coach. Like out of everyone that's applied in this year, like I am, I'm at the top. Like that's my end goal, not just from half of the applicants because I'm a female, right? If that makes sense. So up until that point, um, you know, I didn't notice anything, but then it was more on the personal side of things of like, hey, how do I handle my position, my career as I make this huge life transition into having and creating a family? Um outside of that, I think it's at the end of the day, we all coach athletes, right? Um, and we all coach male and female athletes, and so there's different perspectives. Um, but I think there's a lot more similarities than there are differences in terms of a male versus female um mentor.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:58

Yeah, I mean that's huge. I mean, uh yeah, what a unique like quote unquote like set of problems to have. You know, I mean like entering motherhood, being pregnant, and it's just like you're like in this zone that like you probably didn't there's so many unknowns you probably didn't see coming at you. So like kudos to you for navigating that. And kudos to you for getting back on the horse, dude. Like I see you ripping it in your Instagram stories all the time. Like that's not that's not normal what you're throwing above your head on on a snap. So I'm very, very impressed at the new the new mom strike. You you seem to at least physically be handling it super well on the outside looking.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:34

I'm trying, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:36

Cool, beautiful. Um, so want to make sure too, Kylie. I know you have a babysitter, so are you good to go like 10-15 minutes over? That'll be a good one.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:45

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:45

Yeah, mom life. See, mom life right there.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:47

Things uh yeah, making sure baby's all good to go, not getting abandoned by the by anyone, all right. Um, so yeah, I uh Ariana, I want to wanna kind of move into your response to that on mentorship. Um, the the question just to just to um throw it out there again is like, do you have a mentor who looked like you? If you didn't, did you feel that absence?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:07

Yeah, I did not have a female mentor as well. So uh as we know, we're in a male-dominated field. So a lot of these mentors or supervisors, they were male for a lot of us. And that was my story too. So I went when I was a GA at TCU, I just sat in on every single intern meeting, even though we had we had a you know our fall class, spring class, summer class under Zach Dakant. So I just sat in on two years of so six cycles of internship programs. So we kind of counted that as essentially mentorship and we check in too. Um, but I think it's important too, to actually define what mentorship actually is. I think there's one thing where you have a boss and they sometimes check on you. How's everything going? Good, thumbs up. You give them a thumbs up, cool. See you in a few weeks. Maybe we talk again, or you don't know when you're gonna speak again. So I think um mentorship, like close proximity. Actually, Natalie knows this too. Exos did a really good job, like really good job with at the time when I was in LA, I had Coach Chang, he's awesome. Um, and I remember I knew I did not know anything. I knew nothing. I'm like, what's a quadricep? I don't even know. But he would come alongside us and walk through why they did what they did, make sure that we understood what the session was, um, what the goal of the session was, what the layout of the session should look like, um, any ways that any what our role was, like clearly defining the intern role as well, um, mentored us really, really well. And no question was dumb. And I felt it, I didn't know I was coming from nothing. So the information, it was like information overload, drinking from a fire hydrant, but he just did a really good job of simplifying things for us. And that was my base back in 2014. Um, and then weekly we're meeting. So I think mentorship is definitely more involved. And I think uh I challenge all of us to really take a look at like, how are we defining mentorship? And is your mentor actually mentoring you? What does that relationship look like? Um, and some people I know now too, and this encourages me to pay somebody to be my mentor because now being um people have business mentors, people have strength and conditioning mentors that can look different in different fields. You can have both. I think I should probably have I have strength people, strength and conditioning coaches that I talk with often, but then also I think business mentorship for me is like that next thing. Granted, I think I asked Natalie about this at one point. There's a lot of like people on the internet that are like, hey, it's like $15,000. You just like pay it up front and I'll be your mentor. And I'm like, who is this person? You know, so you got to be careful with who you're hiring to guide you, um, what you're actually getting. And so some of that stuff I honestly don't know or understand. So I think I'd rather know someone who knows someone to like refer. But um it's important because that that is a new realm of things with business. So mentorship exists in that space too. And I think it's equally as port as important. Um, and then uh when I made the jump, which was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life, uh, I thought my, I was like, I don't know how this is gonna go. But Les Bellman, I mean, we're really close. And I he encouraged me to make that leap of going from a university setting to, and I worked in Olympic sports, and I think it was just a it was just tough. I was there for so long. And, you know, you make the same, at least for me on the Olympic side, made the same money for years and years and years. And I was like, I don't know if I have a family one day. Granted, hopefully it's a dual income home. But I was thinking ahead of like, if I get pregnant and have a baby or get married, you know, all these things, how am I going to support this child when I'm barely supporting myself transparently? Um, and so that's where businesses form people. You see a lot of coaches now forming businesses, at least having a training team, a mentorship program, a community, something to supplement on the side of also working in uh at least on the university side. So um, so yeah, I I he less is was pivotal in those decisions that I made because I was scared as heck. And had he not pushed me, I don't think I would have done it. And now we're here. So I think mentors are amazing to push you to do things um that you may have never done had they not said anything. They see things in you that you don't see in yourself. So when you're down and you have bad days, they pull it out of you. Don't you remember who you are? Don't you remember what you've done, where you've come from? And we all need those reminders, especially in entrepreneurship, owning a business. I talk, I talk to either clients on calls, a few people in person. Other than that, I'm like, I feel crazy. I'm talking to myself all day. I'm like, what's going on? You know, I don't have um this big community of coaches around me necessarily all the time. So it's it's hard. And I think mentors can honestly be the gas to the car sometimes where I'm like, I can't even fill up myself, but they are pouring into me in a way that just helps me keep going. And with entrepreneurship, most of the failures are because you stopped. And there's so many times where I'm like, I'm just I'm gonna go back into the system. I'm gonna apply for a job with a team. At least I know what I'm making every two weeks, blah, blah, blah. But there's mentors that are like, remember your why, remember why you did this, remember why you made that leap. Now you need to keep going. And I would get so mad, just keep going. Like it's just such a blanket phrase, but I'm like, what does that mean? Like, when do things become fruitful? Well, it's like you need to define what fruitful means for you. That's different from one person to the next. And I think mentors can just speak to you in a way that maybe they're they're 100%, but you're at 50. So they can pour into you, and vice versa. Like I speak life into some of my mentors too. They've done so much for me. Um, and so when they're down, I pour into them. It's like a relationship, right? Like I'd love for us to both be at 100%. But I think it's it's so relational and it's a very special relationship that you can have with these people that help you keep going and and put one foot into the next in right into the next step so that you don't give up. Because there's so many times where I want to do that. And it's like, Ariana, if you can't tell yourself how to feel, then call a mentor and have them encourage you because you just need that right now. Your business needs that right now, and that's okay too.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:48

I love that. Yeah, especially the the elements are different. Like when you're in a team setting, you have all these people around you, and it's almost like this fixture that you know it's gonna be there, someone's gonna be having a great day, right? Um, and they're gonna help you out. But yeah, when you make that leap, you are a lot of ways just like isolated on an island. Um, and yeah, you have to call the Coast Guard to come get you every now and then, so to speak. Um so I I I hear you in that respect. And yeah, I think that's incredibly valuable insight. Um Natalie, would love to hear uh, you know, a little bit about your you know quest with mentorship here.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:23

Yeah. Um, I think yeah, you gals both made such good points. I think the like defining what a mentor really is is so important. Um, and I love that you touched on like the business side versus the like sports science side of things. I think that's obviously unique to entrepreneurship, but um yeah, something that's really um valuable to touch on for sure. Um, I was lucky enough actually to have two female mentors when I was in grad school. Um, so the director of sports performance on the Olympic side was a female um named Tina, Tina Murray. And then she had hired a um, I think she was, I don't remember her exact title at the time. She was one of the sports performance coaches, um, a gal named Heather. Um, so on the Olympic side, when I was there for the two years, there were two other females, which was really unique and special. And I think maybe at the time I didn't realize how special that it was. Um, but I think that this has already been been touched on. I think that the more that we can think of ourselves as coaches versus female coaches, um, you know, the bulk of the time, the better. There obviously are some differences. And I think that having a mix of male energy and female energy is really, really valuable. Um, and there's certain things that we need to consider more than males do, and vice versa. But for the most part, just thinking of ourselves as coaches. Um, and so I think that, yeah, it's valuable, just like um a female coach to an athlete, a male coach to an athlete provides something different. I think that mentors are the same. So it's good to have a mix of them, even if they don't look like us. Sometimes I think you can learn, you know, more from someone that doesn't look like you than someone that does. And so yeah, I was lucky enough to have two of them in grad school. Um, but then the rest have been males. Um, and yeah, I think that um the settings that we all work in or have worked in are really different. And um the X's and O's might be really similar, but finding mentors, like Ariana already said, whether it's like a business coach or a mentor in the collegiate setting or the private setting or the team setting is valuable. So not necessarily having the same mentor um all the way through your career. I think that just like, you know, as we're evolving as coaches, the people that we learn from or seek to learn from should and do change. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:15

Beautiful. Yeah. And I I think the the through line that I'm hearing is like, you know, is kind of accepting it where you're getting it from, right? And like leaning into those like people who want to help you and like feeding off their energy and kind of making it this it's it's not a top-to-bottom relationship. It's it's it's mutual in a way, right? One person may have more experience who's quote unquote the mentor here, but like the value that you can sort of provide them over time is is significant, um, you know, in its own right. So yeah, love that, ladies. I think too. Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:50

I was just gonna say, I think that um this has already been touched on a little bit, but I think it's like anything, it's you're only gonna get as much out of any relationship, whether it's like mentor, mentee, or coach, student, if if you're the mentee, um, asking really good questions and being like not being a passive learner, but being an active learner is is so important. Um, I think that, again, I don't know exactly like the demographics of everyone that's on this call. Um, but if you're reaching out to someone for mentorship, um, one, being like super respectful of their time, right? Because everyone's time is really valuable. Um, and so if you're reaching out like by email or social media or whatever it is, like making sure that you are really intentional with how you're reaching out very professionally, you know, and writing like a well-worded message or email that's specific to that person and not just kind of like sending out a general message, um, being respectful of their time and then being very clear on like what it is you want to learn, um, why you want to learn that, why you want to learn from them, and like sharing um already your thoughts on the topic or whatever to display some kind of like you're already taking ownership and you're not just like hoping to like sit there and just be fed information. Um, so I think that's really important too, because it yeah, it's like any relationship. You're only gonna get out of it what you put in as well on the like mentee side. So I think that's important to mention as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:26

Beautiful. Yeah, yeah. Being a good mentee is is uh in a lot of ways the secret to getting the most out of the mentor. Um so, so yeah, really, really, really dig that. Um I wanna kind of take a back seat next, all right, and let you guys ask each other some questions. Um, and and let you guys kind of run the ship here for like let's call it the next 10, 15 minutes um before we get into the QA. So I'm gonna shut up and just kind of be a fly on the wall here and let you guys take over.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:56

Who wants to start? I got one. I guess, and my question is perfect for both of you because you both have started like your own business. So I'd say, what do you think like the most important or like the very first steps, maybe like the first two or three things that you should be doing if you're trying to create like this image and brand and like this own personal business um that you guys kind of experienced when you started your own.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:21

Yeah, you can go ahead, Ariana.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:24

Branding, a new world for a lot of us. I think it's important, it depends on who you are. What was important for me was getting a team together to create what I had in my head out into the world. So when it comes to website, logo, colors, all these things, I'm thinking in my mind, I'm like the colors, you know, I want to, oh, I like that or I like that. Well, these things have meaning, like they have messaging within just that. So when we look at a brand, um for example, I love this example because I've worked with Red Bull, which is like a whole nother thing that I do as well with brand partnerships with companies and like UGC content and stuff. So when I worked with Red Bull, if you look at Red Bull's Instagram page, it has nothing to do with the actual drink. You look at every single post that they have, and it's really well done, well executed. They are kind of like their competitor is monster, right? They work in like extreme sports and they put a lot of video uh content out there of people doing crazy wild things like cliff diving and all these fun things. Um, and all of that is branding and it catches your eye a little bit more and it they barely even promote their actual drink, which is funny. Um, but all of that to say that there's so much more to a brand than just what you the product that you're selling um or whatever service you're trying to provide. So I think when you go to uh I remember 2022, um, another amazing female coach and I, CeCe Murray, were coming out with this course on plyometrics and Les Spellman, because she would she was working with Les Spellman. And he said, I need you to post three times a week, two, three times a week, be consistent. I don't care what it is. If it's like three seconds, a three-second video of you doing a snatch, not on your stories, in your actual in-feed posts. And this is where people started posting more, I would say, 2021, 2022, like post-COVID times. And um, I was like, I really don't want to do that. But he was like, We're going to put this together, we're gonna film it in LA, we're gonna come out with it. These people don't know who you are. You need to just get in front of people more people. So I start posting two, three times a week, stuck to it. My account started to grow. Um, I would look at my account as like very slow growth over the since 2022, extremely slow growth, but but growth is growth. And the numbers at the end of the day really don't matter, especially when I work with brands and they're like, you don't need 500,000 followers to work with us. Like we see the engagement, we see this, that. Um, if you have some sort of audience, we'll pay you to do this X type of work. Um, and so for me, like not getting caught on those numbers, but I think the more you put yourself out there, you can look at this with like Bridge, Bridge puts ads out onto the internet. We we film an ad, they run the ad. Um, they're seeing your face associated with bridge or whatever they're trying to over and over and over again. So it's getting in front of more people more often. And I think social media is a really great way to do that where you can post multiple times. Now, don't ask me about the mysteries of the algorithm. I have no idea. None of us do. I don't think anyone's cracked the code on that. Um, but I think just being genuinely authentically yourself. And I knew what was important to me was like, especially as coaches, Kylie, like we're professional in so many ways, coming from that college sector of things being very, very um organized or professional, a little bit more buttoned up. You go to the internet space and you get a whole smorgasbord of is this person a fitness influencer? Is this person a, and I was like, okay, I know I don't want, I'm not gonna be fit like a fitness influencer, but I want to give good education, good information. But like what we're doing is nothing new under the sun. Like you're not gonna see me with an NFL guy balancing on a bosu ball, throwing tennis balls around, like juggling. Like, we're not doing that for likes and clicks. What we do the right way, a lot of the time, it's not flashy. It's boring. So does that is that gonna give you the most engagement? Maybe not. But I think um, the more you put yourself out there, the more your account can grow. And also, who are you speaking to? Are you speaking to parents of kids you're trying to train? Are you speaking to um the NFL athlete like Natalie runs this off season programming? We speaking to the NFL athlete? Are we, you know, who is your audience now? Speak to that. And I think getting clear on that first and foremost, and I'm still figuring out my stuff too now, because people look at my page and audit it. Like some of my friends who are in that space and they're like, who are you talking to? You know, and I'm like, a wall, apparently, you know. So I think it's important to get, we're all figuring it out, but get clear on who your audience is and speak to that. Um, so if you're wanting to work with a bunch of youth athletes, you need to speak to the parent who's paying for the sessions. So parents, you know, and then fill in the blank of what you're you want to tell the parent. So we need to be training in season. This is why that's important, and this is where you can get that. So I think all of that can help build the brand. Um, but I wanted to be a little bit more buttoned up, but I had something important to me was I want to be with without being too out of bounds. I want to be vulnerable. These are the things I struggle with because I'm a human. And I think when people relate to you and you're not just a robot, you know, you're a person who struggles with things and you share how maybe you've overcome these things. I talk about those things. I've talked about mental health. I've needed a break. I go away, I come back because I needed that, because I'm a person too. And I think people can relate to that and be like, man, I want to work with that coach because she's not just implementing good training, but also she's funny, she's fun, whatever. I think I'm funny. I don't know. Funny, fun, but I'm also a human being who struggles with things and uh needs help sometimes and a lot of the time. And I'm not afraid to talk about those things because I when people can humanize you, I think that helps the brand. Um, and that's who you are, like at the core. Um, and so again, without being too out of bounds, obviously you share what you want to share. I don't go crazy on that. But these are the things like I'm a I'm a person too, y'all. And I think that helps, um, especially when you're trying to work with people online, they want to know who am I working with? Like, who are you? You know, and I think sharing some of that is really beneficial. And everyone's different, you don't have to talk about yourself at all. But um, I've had success with that too. And so, at least on the in in the online space um as well. So I think that that's great. And then, you know, getting your LLC is step one. Um, you need to be legally out there, right? So getting your LLC, um, having a financial person, having a tax advisor is important. Um, people can fudge some of their stuff and it costs them thousands. So getting a good team of um a wealth advisor, financial advisor is key. And then yeah, branding on the website, making it clean cut, making it you, what's important to you. I mean, all of that is really, really I could go forever in that. And I don't want to talk um over Natalie here, but I think all of that's super important and making sure that you like the product and not be afraid to tell your graphic designer. I would tell them because I don't know what I'm looking at. I was like, I know I don't like this, but I don't know why. So they're learning me, like trying to, I was like, I think this is ugly. Sorry. Can we fix it? And they're like, fix it too, and they're trying to like figure it out, you know, or get mood boards together and color schemes. But um, I'm like, okay, I know I just don't like this, but I don't know why. And they would help kind of navigate some of those things, like pull up some inspo. What do you like? Oh, I really like Bandit Running. Like their branding is like, love it. That's why I love this kind of design. And then they can help, the team can help guide those things. And I knew that you don't have to have a website. I was just picky on that because I think it helps just pull everything together and make it more professional and have a landing page so people know how to how to um reach out to you. Instagram, I get a lot on Instagram too, like DMs, but I think the website and having like a Google form within your website where people can fill out information to contact you. I get that straight streamlined to my email. We set up a call, and then they purchase the program from there. And then I start working one-on-one there. So I think that funnel is really important to have that system set up on the front end.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:10

Love it. So many good points. Um, I think, yeah, there's so many different ways to approach this question, depending on like what your business goals are and what you want to do within our field. Cause obviously, you know, there's different business models and all of that. But I think things that apply regardless of what that is gonna look like. Um, and obviously it's already been touched on um, you know, with um Ariana's answer and throughout this call, but social media is such a powerful tool. Um, so being committed to creating a presence online, um, and you already touched on this as well, but staying true to like the coach in us on social media and not feeding into the flashy bosu balls. I love that example, um, I think is really important. Um and I think, again, there's so many different ways to run social media accounts, but when I transitioned out on my own, um, I wanted to be, I was really intentional and I still am really intentional about making sure that my page doesn't turn into like an ad for my business. And in every single post, there's like, you know, comment this for my whatever guide. Not to say that I never do that, um, but I didn't want to get away from the like genuine organic sharing just as like Natalie and as a coach. Um, so majority of my posts are just me sharing. Um, and then the odd time I will sprinkle something in about my business. Um, so I think developing your brand on social media and getting used to sharing on there and sharing genuinely as a coach is really important. Um, and this is kind of on the same topic, but a little bit different. I think when you go out into business on your own, whether you're talking to a business mentor or reading or whatever that looks like, a lot of people will try to or will tell you that you need to define your like niche or niche. I never know how to say that word. Um, and say, like, hey, put in your bio. Like, I train women over 30 or whatever it is, like very, very specific. And I think that works really well for some people. Um, my business has never been like that, and I don't see it becoming that. Um, and so I struggled for a little bit of like, oh, do I need to be more specific in terms of like I only kind of work with this person now or this type of person because I'm starting my business. Um, and what I really realized is like my niche is my training style and my coaching style and how I provide my service rather than like who it is I'm providing it to. Um, I think that's a good piece of advice for people that are going out on their own. Um, so next to, and and that's a lot on social media, right? Because again, I think that we need to talk to, like Ariana said, like who we're trying to work with. And so I had that period of time, like, do I need to only start talking to women, like whatever, which again, I wasn't gonna be passionate about that. So I'm I'm glad that I was able to kind of differentiate between the target audience and um being really narrow and that being my niche versus like my coaching style and what I the service that I was going to provide. Um, next to social media, I think being really clear on what you want your business to look like and simplifying it, it's um I think often, and I was starting to do this at the beginning, I was trying to do all these different things within my business because I'm passionate about so much. And if you try to do too much, you're not gonna do a good enough job at all of them. It's just a reality. Like we're only one person, right? Um, at least at the beginning. So simplifying and having one or two offers that you just absolutely master and do really well at um is the next thing. And then thirdly, being super organized and just holding yourself to a really high standard day to day, because like we've talked about on this call, um, we don't necessarily have a boss anymore and it's all up to us. And so that looks different to all of us. But figuring out, you know, how you're gonna prioritize, how you're gonna structure your day, um, where you keep your client notes and pro like all of that, just being exceptionally organized is really important too. So I would say social media, um, number one, and creating your own brand and being really authentic. Number two, simplifying your offer or offers starting with one or two. And then three, being very, very organized.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:53

Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:53

Thanks, y'all.

unknown 1:36:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:55

Do we still have time, Cooper, for more questions?

SPEAKER_00 1:36:57

We can do probably, yeah, one or one or two more, then we'll do the live QA stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:01

Okay.

unknown 1:37:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:02

Oriana, you can go ahead. Yeah, I'll ask one. Um Jerky, you're a mom now. I am, yeah. I remember like so we would go to the CSCCA conference and I know you know Autumn Lockwood too, and we'll talk about it. We're like, okay, well, what if like, what are we gonna do? It essentially, if we were to get married, pregnant at some point, um, what does that look like? Coaching, like, am I having the baby strapped to me? Am I um what what does that actually look like? And we didn't see at the time, at least like back then, too. I say back then, like we're ancient, but um a few years ago, we're like, how does that actually work? Like, is it how much time do you actually get off? I mean, walk me through, like walk us through a little bit of actually having a child and uh taking, I was like, six weeks? I'm thinking, I'm like, is that that's wild? You that's wild, first of all. I commend you like a hundred percent. Um, walk us through a little bit what that's like, obviously bringing new life into the world and then having to come back into the workforce, like the university being able to accommodate for you. Like, what did that look like? And did you feel supported through that process? Did it feel like enough time away? I mean, walk us through a little bit of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:28

Yeah. So, oh, that's a big question. Um, and I think so to start off, like complete transparency, getting into this field, like you said, it's male dominated. And I didn't see a lot of people go through or females having kids um from the very beginning, right? Um, and I think if I'm truly honest with myself, um, I'm I'm very career driven. I always have been. And I didn't know I always wanted kids my entire life. Um, you know, like when my husband and I would talk about it until we finally decided to. And I think if I'm honest with myself, one of my hesitations was like, I had no idea how how to do it, you know, in our career and specifically, right? Like, we can't just call in someone and be like, hey, can you cover my shift? Um, you know, like I I'm sick or yeah, I'm pregnant, or you know, hey, I'm going to labor to see ya. So like if I'm truly honest, I think that was one of the things that was kind of like holding holding me back. Um, and because I didn't see it. And the next thing I will say is that here um I have felt super, super supported. Um, whether that's from, you know, the rest of our strength staff here, um, who helped cover my position while I was out, or from just everyone on our basketball staff, um, altogether, one of my good friends, um, she's actually she has two little boys too. And so she was like my go-to person of like, hey, like, and and she had both of her kids while she was here at at IU. And so, you know, everything that I was like, question, question, question, and she was giving me all this great advice. So I was super, super supported um from that area. And it was always like, no, like take care of you, like, are you feeling good? Like, do you need any help? Yada, yada. So that was all great. What it actually looked like, um, I was again, he's my first, so every pregnancy is a little bit different. My experience um was very smooth sailing for the most part. I would come in here, I coached like I normally coach, right? Um, you know, there were some movements I would have to call on some of my athletes, like anything like laying down um once I got further along. Um, you know, even like push-ups, or you know, if we were doing like a burpee or something like that, I'm like, yeah, um, can't completely do that. So whether it's an intern or just an athlete who knew the movement, like calling in on them to do it. But I'd say 90% of it, I was coaching the same way, I was here the same way. Um from the day-to-day perspective. Once um I had him, Bryson, then I took six weeks off. So very, very fortunate to get maternity leave here, um, fully paid um through all of our IU benefits. Um, and I took six weeks going into it. I thought um, I thought it would be plenty. Like, you know, I'm like, oh my, I've never, I could probably count on one hand how many sessions I had missed, you know, up until that point of how many days I've missed at work, right? Um, because again, it's like if you're not there, who's gonna run your session, right? We don't have someone to kind of call on. But um, and so then all of a sudden it was like six weeks off. I was super nervous. Um, you know, what does that look like? How is my the coach who stepped in for me, like, you know, is it just gonna go like how I need it to go, right? Because I still feel like whether it's right or wrong, I still kind of feel like that responsibility and maybe some guilt of like not being there for my team. And for us, he was born in November, so like we're getting into non-conference, like we're playing games at this point, right? Um, and so that was really hard personally to step away and like not have control because it's like someone else is running it. Okay, are they running it to my standard? Are they doing it like top to bottom? You know, are they modifying things how I would modify? Are they seeing it how I would? Like, they just don't know your kids as well or your entire program. So there's all those small things that like are just constantly in the back of my head, like, oh god, like how's it going? Right. Um, but I was really fortunate um that everything went really well. I planned out everything before I went on leave. So I was like, here's our programming for um all the next weeks that I'm gonna be out. Like, I don't plan on being here at all. Like, if you need to text me, I'll I'll get back to you when I can. Like, I've never had a kid before, I don't know what this looks like, right? Like, I don't know how dead I'm gonna be, how tired. Um, and so I had everything that I could be planned out, right? Obviously, there's nuance in that, like things happen, things get moved, kids get injured that you have to modify on the fly, and just you gotta be a coach, right? Um, but otherwise, I try to prepare um that coach as much as possible. And then that six weeks I was gone like flew by, absolutely flew by. Even now, I'm like, maybe yeah, I could have taken a little bit longer. Um, but I ended up with six weeks. And then when I came back, um, you know, still coaching like normal. Um, he would be here some days. And my husband took paternity leave after that for six weeks. So um, but some days that he would be here, I've got him in the front carrier and he's out on the floor, like in the middle of lift, front carrier, we're out in the court. I'm warming the team up for practice, right? Like all my kids are seeing him, all my staff is seeing them. Um, you know, loving us. That's so awesome, by the way. Yeah. And um, definitely a little bit different trying to move around a weight room, like also with this baby in front of you, and you're like, whoa, I gotta make sure like I got enough room, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:44:09

Like literally superwoman.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:12

Yes. So, and again, super, super fortunate. A lot of people on our staff here have young kids, so like they've seen it um and they're here all the time, you know. When school is when there's an off day at school or for whatever reason, holidays and things like that, they're in the building running around too. So, like, um just really fortunate from that standpoint. And um, and so yeah, he's actually, you know, after my husband's returning leave was up, so that was 12 weeks with him at home. And then after that, he's been at work with me three days a week, every week. Um, and then he starts he starts daycare on on Monday. So we won't talk about that because I don't want to cry right here. But um, but so he's been with me and we've just been kind of you know, figuring out a way, finding a way, which as coaches, like I feel like that's what we do. Um, you make it work. And I've had a ton, a ton of help from you know our GAs and other other staff here with our program. So I'm extremely, extremely grateful and blessed from that standpoint. But um yeah, honestly, I feel like I just kind of kept doing what I was doing before, and now there's just like one extra consideration of like, okay, yeah, before I coach, I gotta get them strapped up into the front carrier, and then and then we're going out. So it's it's been a ride.

unknown 1:45:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:31

Thanks for so proud of yourself. Wow. What a good question and answer.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:35

Yeah, so good. And I think it encourages maybe other women that are on the call too that it is possible. And I think there's a lot of us that just didn't know because we didn't have enough information or we didn't see enough people actually practically doing these things. I didn't know anybody doing it, and so you're that example for so many people, and I think it just encourages them that a career in this, in that setting, plus also building a family is possible and you can still thrive and succeed.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:02

Yeah. And I tried like even throughout the journey, like throughout pregnancy and then afterwards, obviously, like I tried to post a lot of that journey because I knew, you know, I had really only seen one other person, like Candace Walls, when when she went through it, I think a couple years ago now. Like I remember seeing that, and for the first time, I was like, dang, like there's a string coach, and like she's doing the thing, right? And so that was, I was like, wow, people are probably so sick of me like posting, like, oh, like doing this while pregnant, doing this, you know, postpartum, you know. But I was like, if that even helps, just like one other person, because I think about how long it made me hesitate on like making that decision for my life um in our future like family planning. And and so my idea was just like, I'm just gonna put it out there and hopefully like shows like, yeah, you can do it. It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be a different season of your life, but like you're gonna move through it just like we do with anything else. So I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:59

Well, I want to dive into uh the QA here wrapped as I will have time for like probably two questions here. Um Natalie, I'm gonna toss you this one um because it's it's it's a little international focus here. Um I'm just starting in this industry um here in the USA. I'm Columbia. What's the best place to start? I'm in Miami and I don't see many possibilities.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:22

Okay, I love this. Um are we able to ask any more details back or it it probably it's just in the chat.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:30

Yeah, it was in the chat. So like take it as you take it as you will.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:36

For sure. Um I think um whether you're international or not, I think this um applies to everyone, which is hopefully helpful. I think that when you're first getting started in like any industry, um being intentional about who you want to learn from and why. So back to our mentor discussion. Um, like when I was looking at grad schools, I was intentional about the program that I wanted to study. I wanted it to be a course-based master's program. And then I also wanted to get a grad assistant position. Um, and within the grad assistant positions, I had looked at the staffs of schools to figure out, you know, obviously learning from anyone at any college would have been great. Um, but I had kind of a list of what the different staffs looked like. And Louisville was my top because they had such a diverse staff and so many people on staff on the Olympic sports performance side. And so I thought that learning from, and thankfully it ended up turning out to be true, but learning from that many different types of people on a day-to-day basis would be really valuable. And so I think, yeah, breaking into any industry, being intentional with who you are looking to learn from and why. And then our industry, along with a lot of others, um, you know, you're likely right or wrong going to be working for free for a pretty long time. Um, and don't think of it that way. Don't think of it as I'm not getting like money in my bank account because you're gonna be paid in knowledge if you're in a really good setting. Um, I always said, like my first internship, and I know Ariana, you mentioned like how good the mentors were at Exos. Um, I remember leaving that first internship after not even four months and thinking like, I loved my undergrad and it was really good and I learned a lot. Um, and it was needed, but I learned more in those four months than I did in like four years of school. Um, and so being open to working, you know, for free, um, whether that looks like having a job on the side or whatever it is, and then being intentional with who you want to learn from and why. Um, and then as you start to progress, you know, from that first role to another one, um If you keep in mind your end goal, and that might change, but your end goal, um, and being intentional about getting to that, because there is so many different on this call is a good example, right? There's so many different things within our industry to pursue. So if you want to work in team sports, you know, eventually interning in team sports, if you want to work in the private sector, you know, doing that. Um and so yeah, just being being intentional about where you're getting the experiences from because they're not all equal.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:31

Beautiful. Appreciate that answer. Definitely. Yeah, I think helpful for anyone getting in, regardless of if you're from a different country, different country. Yeah, you know. Um so love it. Cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:41

And you're in the best country to do this, in my opinion. So giddy up.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:46

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I would agree with you there for sure. Um, okay, this one is for the group, and this will be the last one we have today. Um how do you implement technologies slash sports science into training your athletes and clients? So, real quick before we dive in, um I just want to make sure, like if you guys did not have your questions answered, like please feel free to message me. Um my Instagram is at deltafyperformance.com and I can pass these along to the ladies and also probably reach out to them directly. I highly doubt anybody's gonna bite your head off if you do from this group.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:18

So uh please reach out, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:19

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So let me let me let me restate the question. How do you implement technology slash sports science into training your athletes and clients? We know Ariana's lugging around the Hawkins force place.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:34

I can I can go ahead and start. Um, so we uh here with women's basketball, we utilize um Valde for our force. Um and we we also before I get into that, I guess we have a sports scientist um that does all of um that implements all of it for us um and does everything on the back end and creates our reports for us, and then um we'll have a discussion to kind of then further dictate, hey, what should we do or adjust in training? Um, you know, we've got a couple outliers here, or we're training in the right the wrong way, or we are, hey, we are going the right way, like let's keep going. Um so I do have a sports scientist that um I work with. Um, but with that, what we utilize then is we use wild. Um, and we typically are jumping, um, especially in season, we'll jump every time that we train in the weight room. So that's at least two jumps um a week. And then we will jump on on game day as well to kind of pair up uh what that data looks like from their jump and then with the performance that they're giving us out on the court from that specific game. Um and then just the the trend throughout the in-season as well. Um, and then we will monitor their loads with catapult. Um, so anytime that we are practicing, anytime we have shoot around, um, and then obviously on games and any conditioning sessions with me, um, we are wearing our catapult vests. Um, and again, um, Noah, he's great. He's our sports scientist. He'll handle all of that data on the back end and kind of um send it back out to me and the rest of our staff of, hey, this is what it's looking like. Um, and then usually like going into each week, he'll send out a report like, hey, this is we've got two games this week. We have X amount of practices. Um, you know, Monday should be this intensity, Tuesday this, Wednesday this, and so on and so forth. So we're all holistically trying to match um the same intensity and loads for each day, whether it's from a basketball perspective or like in the weight room, um, that we're all like it's not supposed to be a low day, and then all of a sudden I'm in the weight room destroying them or a conditioning session that absolutely destroys them. It's like, well, there goes our low day, right? Um, so just making sure we're all collaborating um from that standpoint. So he'll kind of send that um to everyone involved once we have that data.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:59

Super cool. Who else wants to answer that question?

SPEAKER_02 1:54:02

Yeah, we had um at Miami, we had Dr. Brian Mann at the time, and he worked through all that data for us. And working on the Olympic side, you have typically, depends on your situation, a lot of athletes that you're working with, different sports teams, and I had a lot going on there um with women's soccer and swimming and diving, and then rowing, which was like our our title nine sport. So there was, I think, 70 rowers and they trained all at the same time. Voice was very hoarse afterwards, but he ran all that for us. Um and then the sports spot sports science department also had interns. So if he couldn't be there particularly because he was also teaching, he would um send them and they would jump our athletes. And we would do that typically like during our power block. So if they were doing like, say, like four sets of three hand cleans, they would go jump on the force plate one time in between, just get three jumps in at some point, and we kept it consistent. So every scenario, it's okay, they got the three jumps in and they would do the jumps in the same part of the lift each week, um, so that we kept testing consistent. But he broke down all that data and I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. So I was like, you tell me what you need me to do on my end, and I'll make those adjustments within the program. Like if someone had massive discrepancies from right to left leg, he would say, Hey, I need you to add two extra reps just on that left leg anytime you do any unilateral work. So something like that um were just quick adjustments that we would make. Now, present day um aero business with tech. So I just got these force plates not too long ago. Um, I made a funny video because I'm like a nomad. I'm kind of all over the place. So I was jumping on them in my apartment. Um, but testing them out, making sure that we're good because we had Hawken at Miami and then um Hawken sent me these force plates, which was I'm so grateful for. Um, because I can use these now in settings or even I was thinking consulting as well, being able to consult with teams or high schools that don't have strength coaches or you name it, uh, we can use this in a lot of different ways. So force plates, I'm learning more in-depth now with Dr. Ramsey Nijem and his course that he has on all things force plates. Um, but when it comes to tech on the business side, I did quickly want to touch on, I think it's so important when we talked about branding. Um, you know, if you're like Coach Durkey and they provide all these all of these pieces of equipment um for you at the university, like you don't think about sometimes when you are your own business owner, like you're paying for that stuff yourself. Um, but when you brand yourself and work on branding yourself and your business in a way, sometimes you get technology for free, um, maybe in exchange for a video post or something like that. And so that's the only way I can operate with technology present day. Um, same thing goes with OVR, with the, and we get that, I mean, it they really blew up their brand through Apex, um, which has been awesome to see their growth. But those timing gates, they have uh a VBT as well tool, and then they have the the jump as well. So all those things you can use. Um, but as I like to always say, and most of us would probably agree, like data is useless unless you're using it to drive decisions in a way that's either we're adjusting something in the program on an individual level for that athlete, like you're seeing an over 15% discrepancy from right to left. Okay, maybe we're yellow flagging somebody there and we need to make an adjustment on some unilateral work for that individual. Um, those numbers are just giving us more information to make a decision. And I think um sometimes we just we use them and we don't know what to do. And I think it's important to educate yourself. I'm passionate about that in these things, and I'm not gonna sit here and say no everything about the ins and outs of like breaking force and all of that. Um, these are things that are in process, but also I think there's just it can be overwhelming. But like Coach Durkey probably knows too, and and Natalie as well, like we're just picking these three things. We're gonna look at jump height, we're gonna look at MRSI, and we're gonna look at time to take off. Those three is what I care about because the athlete, you can roll through every single one on Hawken or Vauld, and it's like just so many different metrics. And an athlete probably most of the time doesn't care about a hundred different metrics. It's like, give me the three. I want to know how high I jump, I want to know um my time to take off and my modified RSI, different things like that where you can give them quick information to say, hey, this is where we're at. This is how we bucket you. You're super elastic, but you don't have much force, or vice versa, or you're good at both, or not so good at both. You're one of the four buckets, and then we train you appropriately. Um, and that is gonna help buy in. Some people need to see numbers. I have parents of kids. The parent, I recently spoke to one, he's a banker. He's like, I do numbers, jump my kid on the force plate. I want to see where we're at, what the training plan could be with my son. Um, and we're using that to make a decision. And then also now that kid trains with now that athlete trains with me. So based on those things, because they're like, we've never seen this before. So I think it can be beneficial in a lot of different ways.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:25

But um, yeah, I don't have too much to add in addition to that, but I use bulb technology, um, the Nordboard, the Forest Frame, and the Forest Dex. And then I use the OVR, VBT, and Timing Gates. Um, and how I use it depends on who it's with and where we're at, you know, in a training cycle or off season. Um I actually do recommend the OVR VBT device to my online clients. Um, Bridge is so good. Like for those of you that use Bridge, um, and those of you that don't, you should because it's literally the best. But um you can go in and like prescribe the velocity, you know, that you want athletes to reach or clients to reach. You can even do velocity ranges in addition to weights. Um, and so a lot of my online, I shouldn't say a lot, but a number of my online clients now have the VBT device. And that is a fun way for me to provide a really high level of service. Um, like I have an emergency room doc as one of my online clients. He just loves to train and he's like wants more OVR or like VBT stuff in all of his phases because he's like, I just love it. Um, so I think that goes back to like all of us are, you know, athletes at heart and love to compete, whether it's with ourselves or others. Um I use those. And then this has already been mentioned, but I'm also intentional with um, you know, what matrix metrics to track, only tracking ones that I'm actually going to use to make a decision or modify a program. And then I do try to have it intra session as much as possible so that I'm not doing, you know, like intake days and things like that. Um, so yeah, those are the types of tech and kind of an overview of how I use them.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:08

That's that's that's so cool. I mean, uh it's so cool to see it like in the private space and the collegiate space, and just like you know, hearing that like a doctor's super interested in it, right? Like I think it it goes a long way, like understanding like your perfect customer slash like you know, the the matrix of like psychology for your athlete and just like what they're probably more keen to be able to do. Because nothing as small as like hey, just like being able to throw VBT in there and you being able to articulate it, and like that person might like want to train with you for life now because you just gamified it in a way that made it super fun, super engaging, and gave like a different level of buy-in. So that and I think you know, working for a bridge, like seeing so much different tech out there, like and what everyone uses and the different ways they use it. Like no matter what, there's probably a piece of technology that might even be something like Bridge itself that just dials the training up and makes you seem more professional and like creates just like an engaging uh element there. So, yeah, love what you ladies are saying about that. On that note, thank you so much, E3, for being here today. Sincerely, like cannot thank you guys enough for taking the time to speak to the community in in this capacity. Um I know people were really hungry for this one, and I gotta say, this was probably like my favorite episode that we've done so far. So you guys, you guys, you guys killed it. Um really grateful. And to everyone still here two hours and three minutes later, you're awesome. Thank you. Um for for last and the the duration there. And yeah, just really, really grateful all around. So on that note, we're gonna wrap up. Folks, thanks for being here, and we'll catch you next month, alright? Take care. Have a good day.