186: Facilitating Connections & Growing in the Fitness Industry with Andrew Coates

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Brianna Battles  00:01

Welcome to the practice brave Podcast. I'm the host Brianna battles, founder of pregnancy and postpartum athleticism, and CEO of everyday battles. I'm a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, mom of two wild little boys and a lifelong athlete. I believe that athleticism does not end when motherhood begins, and this podcast is dedicated to coaching you by providing meaningful conversations, insights and interview topics related to fitness, mindset, parenting and of course, all the nuances of pregnancy and postpartum, from expert interviews to engaging conversations and reflections. This podcast is your trustworthy, relatable resource for learning how to practice brave through every season in your life. Everyone, welcome back to the practice brave Podcast. Today, I'm here with Andrew Coates, and we're going to be talking all about facilitating connections and something that he is like just truly an expert at within the fitness and health industry. So Andrew, thank you so much for being here.

Andrew Coates  01:07

I appreciate you having me as we were talking off air, hopefully I am dealing with some brain fog that came from about a vertigo this weekend in my travels, and you're doing a water cut for calm. So hopefully that everybody listening doesn't get like, all sorts of awkward pauses and glitches in our in our thinking stream. So thanks for having me.

Brianna Battles  01:28

I believe in our ability to, like, lock in, so it's all good if you zone out. I'll bring you right on back. So beautiful. Tell us a little bit about your background in coaching and within this industry, I've

Andrew Coates  01:41

been a personal trainer for a little over 14 years. I still work full time in person. I do have a lot of online clients. I do some nutrition coaching, and I have an online cohort based women's strength program that I run quarterly, and that's been doing really well. Somewhere along the way, I started traveling to fitness conferences. I was about 2017, and there's all these people that I would hear on podcasts like this or read on teen nation. I kind of came through my entire career reading teen nation bodybuilding.com and Muscle Fitness.

Brianna Battles  02:12

Said the glory days,

Andrew Coates  02:14

it was a very different world, and certainly before the reach and the nature of modern social media, right? And these things, these entities, and to a degree, YouTube, early YouTube, these are sort of the gatekeepers of who were authorities in the fitness industry, right? This is how you found out who people were, whether it was trying to think of some good examples like you give people like Tony Jenna port or Dean Somerset, who happen to work at the same company as me at Edmonton, Alberta, via the tenacious side, or maybe it's Elaine Norton bodybuilding.com or early YouTube stuff with his video logs. Or, you know, it's a so he Lee, I found so he Lee through Lane's early podcast, physique science radio, etc, the list goes on and on. I started traveling at conferences, at events, because some of these people were at these things that Dr Mike is, Ortel of Renaissance. Preposition. Came to Edmonton and did something with Dean Somerset in 2017 got to know Dr Mike, and Mike's been a great friend ever since. But that travel and all the media that I was exposed to, a friend of mine decided, hey, I want to start a podcast. Will you come and be my co host that is still going strong? You just appeared on it again in its current format, which I recently redid for a general audience, and here we go with the brain fog blitzing. So I also started writing for my own website, and that led to an invitation right for T nation, which turned into generation iron and Muscle Fitness magazine men's health. Most recently, it was elite FPS and on it, and so laundry list of that stuff. And then I started being consistent with social media, and because of the friends and the context I had in the industry, I had Dr Mike isertel sharing a lot of my media, Jordan Syed, Jonathan Goodman, so on and so forth. And that helped boost and magnify my social media presence, along with being consistent and responding to everybody. So then the podcast or the writing allowed me to feature the people that I liked and supported and became friends of the industry, like yourself, and then that network just grew and grew and grew. So despite it all, still full time coaching, which has created a foundation, the consistency, the stability to hop off and go speak at an event or do all these other things that I enjoy on my terms, right? It's still completely rooted in the coaching experience. And it's where all the idea, creation for writing, for the podcast stuff comes from, is still doing this level of

Brianna Battles  04:31

coaching. Okay? So much there that I want to like touch on, because I think, first of all, not everybody understands, like the OG era of sharing and being in the fitness industry, where we didn't really have social media to get exposure, to get your name out there, or even, like, the easy ability to learn via podcast or via just like a 15 second reel, we were using T nation and different blogs and trying to find bloggers who were writing. About this stuff we were looking in magazines still, and this wasn't like that long ago for so many of us who kind of came up in that same era, like the, I guess, the 2010s and beyond. And it wasn't. It just was not as accessible to get good exposure or even to get good information. I

Andrew Coates  05:19

mean, you think about even further is the space you're in. I had two questions there is like, one is who was actually educating about the stuff you were now educating people? I can't think of anybody. Two, no one, no. And two, who were your formative people that you were reading, the strength, ignition coaches, the and not just the strength and issue side, the nutrition, the the physiology, but the business mentorship side, who were you following? Have

Brianna Battles  05:45

business mentorship? And I had real life coaches. I had really great power lifting and strength conditioning coaches that acted as mentors within the strength and conditioning realm. But online, there just wasn't enough like I would like creep on T nation and read a little bit about that. But then I got really involved in CrossFit. So I feel like I got influenced by that culture a bit more than, say, like the body building culture of the fitness industry back then. But that was like 2010 through 20 1314, and that's when I started getting into my realm of talking about pregnant and postpartum athletes. And again, like you said, there was not anything like that. We've seen a lot of people try to recreate, just to do, like, a lot of repeating, but there just wasn't information. And on the business front, absolutely not. I feel like the business lessons and game plan came from those of us who were growing up together in the space saying, Well, what worked for you? What did you do? Who'd you use for this? Or what do we do now? And like we were like mentoring each other, not because anyone was ahead, but it's like we always felt like different skill sets, so it was a hard time.

Andrew Coates  07:00

It makes me think of like, at least. I mean, there's a lot of a lot of business mentors out there who've been around for a while, but I'm thinking of Rachel Cosgrove and probably Jill Coleman. And I would, wouldn't be surprised if they were on your radar, because they're the women, especially

Brianna Battles  07:17

Rachel Coleman's or, sorry, now I'm getting my brain fog anyway. Rachel Cosgrove, I read her book, like, early, early, early on. I probably still have it back here, honestly, way back in the day, because, yeah, she was one of the few people who had, like, an established voice for women in the industry. I didn't get connected with Jill until much later on. But obviously she's been in the game for a long time, and she's doing great stuff. So there just wasn't a lot out there in any capacity. So a lot of my learning and mentorship came from my real life interactions the different physical therapists I had, interactions with different professors and just different coaches that I had, and then ultimately, just working through a lot of my own training and coaching women, and just sort of connecting the dots as we go. I hate using, like, the phrase I did my own research. It's not that it was just like a lot of connecting dots, right? It was just putting these multiple pieces together over time and formulating, like my own belief systems, what

Andrew Coates  08:20

the audience is the audience more like general enthusiasts? Is it more athletes? Is it more coaches? Or is it a mix of

Brianna Battles  08:28

both? I'd say definitely a mix of athletes and coaches. Go

Andrew Coates  08:32

All right, I want to make sure we give something to the enthusiasts too. But I think you and me are very similar, similar time frame, but I didn't go through any formal mentorship, so I took a lot of continuing education, but being exposed to different people's ideas, and going and traveling and being in the rooms, plus listening to the podcast, you're hearing different people's philosophies and tactics, and you tend to do and I always butcher the old Bruce Lee quote. It's like, take what is useful, discard what is useless, and then make it authentically your own. And that's been the process I think you and I have both gone through in our careers. It's it's both not efficient, so for everybody listening now, if you're frustrated, this is why you have people on your podcast. You want to direct them to you want them to use your resources. Are great. You were just on my podcast, and one of the first things I thought, it was like, Okay, your stuff is going to be really valuable to my friend, Luca hocivar, and he's expecting his his girlfriend is expecting their first child in May, and she's an athlete through and through. And Lucas full media is athlete for life. So I'm like, You guys have so much in common, I need to make sure that you're connected. So of course, I told Luca, Luca is great. Like this. Like, if I recommend someone, hey, get this person out of your podcast. Emphatically, he'll do it. Nick, you've already recorded and tons of alignment there. So it's seeing those kind of connections now. But you and I have this massive lattice work. If you want to talk about, like a mental model, like Charlie Munger type stuff, this is great of a lattice work of knowledge. And you wanted to talk about, like, connecting people in relationships is there's just a. Make lattice work of this, because I've been exposed to so so many people via media and in the rooms, and I've been inspired and thought of ways to build aspects in my career because of their example. And I mentioned Dean Somerset earlier, probably the biggest role model I had, because earlier on, this guy's teaching continuing education in my company, plus I'm reading his stuff on Team nation, and now I'm going to go hang out with him again this coming Wednesday from recording, because his first book is coming out. So he invited me to his book launch, and his book is going to be great. Yeah. Oh,

Brianna Battles  10:33

you're like, the, like, ultimate matchmaker within the fitness industry. And I think it's, there's so many sentiments, I think that follow a lot of us where it's like, you become who you needed. Because we had to craft, we had to create opportunities. I guess back then, when you're coming into the space, and I wasn't online for a while, in terms of, like coaching, but that's why there was so much value, I guess, back then, to going to different conferences, to making these connections, to saying yes to opportunities. And I feel like that has been a lost like, that's just not as common anymore. People are not as incentivized to invest in going to conferences, investing going to, like, one day meet up, workshop, networking things like, there's such there's so many barriers there. But ultimately, like, early on in my career, I was going to every NSCA conference, everything I could do, not just for CEUs, because I was like, I just have to keep learning. That's what's going to get me better that's what's going to get me a better job, a better position. I'm going to, like, get a promotion within this back in like, I started working in 2009 ish and through 2013 just trying to, like, move up and get better. But you couldn't do that unless you were showing that you were investing yourself, and that's just not really the case anymore. People want to only learn from social media, and there's a lot of limitations there,

Andrew Coates  11:56

a ton. I mean, I think we have to accept the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, the gatekeepers, but I mean that now good in a bad way, right? It's, it was a bit of a clearing house. But I mean, even still, some dubious people would get platform because they were part of the network. But now we have social media, which gives this sort of platform anybody who's good at hooks. And now video based media is a thing. And now it's a lot of call out based stuff, and that stuff can get kind of toxic, but within that, I think coaches can lean into it and decide, hey, I have some of these skills. So the young woman named Rachel Henley, and I used to mentor her a long time ago, before she blew up, and I will not take credit for the exposure for video based media, because that was stuff wasn't my doing, but she's evidence based. She's very smart. She's got a self deprecating humor British accents. Like, just play really well. It's like, it's like a superpower, right? If I'm Canadian, you're American, it just like, we just don't have that same thing. We can't do it. Not to say you can't be humorous and do really well on video. But So Rachel and a cluster of other coaches that I know, they got really savvy when it came to the video based stuff, and the way that they cut and edited stuff, and their humor played really well, and her social media following really blew up. I've also seen a lot of dubious stuff, or I've seen people started out okay and then just went further and further over into the click bait stuff to make outrageous and false claims, and that stuff gets pretty toxic. I don't want coaches to feel like they have to go down that rabbit hole. But I also want coaches not to throw the baby with the bathwater and say, Well, this is bad. This is this is all stupid. I don't want to do this. There is a road. There is a pathway. If you decide, hey, I want reach and following, because it could be used for good. Now, you got to get really clear on this. Are you chasing status, or are you chasing media reach to help people, and I also see a lot of status chasing. It goes back to something that you said, and I wanted to highlight, I think going to these conferences, events, a lot of people may not understand the value in they might think, well, that's expensive, flights, hotels, the registration, the cost of everything can be expensive, for sure, everything's more expensive now, but in my experience, nothing's been a better magnifier than being in the room and making friends connect with people. My friend Derek Stanley was there with me this weekend as one of the attendees in Dallas. He's actually nearby, but I met him at a Kansas City event in 2017 and he's been a friend ever since, and we see each other at a probably an event a year, and there's so many people like that. Okay, let me bring this back to, oh, there's a side note, little side quest I want to make sure I highlight, because I've told you this before, but I found out about you and your media several years ago from a client of mine who was also a coach named Jessica like a sur, and she's wonderful, and she just worships the stuff you do, and she's now a mom, and so you've been the primary influence on her. So she'll probably listen to someone to shout her out, and she was a great client, but also referred to other clients as well. So this stuff all comes from somewhere, and it's just the willingness to listen and go, okay, cool. This is coming from someone who I respect, who's credible. Let's learn more about you. So I just followed you on media, and then we've interacted, and here we are.

Brianna Battles  15:08

I know. I mean, there's just so much value. And, like, first of all, thank you to Jessica. I really appreciate that. And there's just so much value. Like, every single in person event I've gone to you end up meeting somebody? I've hired people off of those opportunities. I've gone on podcasts. They've come on my podcast. There is something to be leveraged, and not even in a like, you're going there to, like, try to get something. It's just so organic, because there's something about people that invest in themselves that sets them apart from the rest of the mix. Like that tells me a lot about somebody, if they're willing to invest and develop and get better. I already know a lot about them, just based on them being in that kind of room. That tells me a

Andrew Coates  15:53

lot. Absolutely, the thing I was going to say is I've also encountered a fair bit because I've hosted a conference the last couple years. I've promoted several friends conferences, and you get people who are like, well, I can't justify going if I'm not speaking. And there are people who have earned that place. You know, with the life you have, kids, career, everything, you can't be boots on the ground anymore. But this is the way you just described how many you went to for so many years, of the influence it had on you, right? Years, right? We met you, Luca earlier. Luca, Luca just gets asked to speak at everything. I think we've probably spoken at. We will speak at about like eight to 10 events across the last two and a half years to gather things that we have both at the same time. But I'm just going to attend a Ram gregorians Real coaches summit in a couple months that Luca speaking at right. I'll see you again. We were just both were at raise the bar, and we're both at a speaking at a Swiss Montreal. It's an offshoot of Swiss that's coming up in May. He's getting invites, for sure, but again, he's like you. He would have attended tons, but I'm talking about the people who and they're chasing status. They want to be seen as being on the speaker circuit and being validated. And they think it will make them and they think, well, I'll gain followers, I'll get clients. It's like, no, no. You have to start by putting your butt in the seat in the room. And I still do this right. There are going to be a few events this year that I'm traveling to, to hang out with friends, to be in the room, I am not on the stage, and quite frankly, sometimes it's nice to get a break from being on the stage. No,

Brianna Battles  17:25

I totally hear you, and I do think that there's, there's just a learn process before you earn process within all industries, certainly, but getting like those reps of experiences, watching others speak, and then knowing like you're most likely not at a place where you're ready to teach to the masses, like you gotta get so many reps of teaching one on one, of listening to others speak, and like mastering that art before you are stepping onto those stages. And to be honest, like I've done speaking events in the past, for sure, but I've spent so much time in my business the last few years that it's just this year where I'm like, okay, all these things have been updated. I've really scaled my team. I'm at a place where I can be a lot more forward facing and again, and I have to, like, you gotta put yourself out there. And that's not always easy for people to do. And I think you've done a really great job of establishing that and then creating help, creating those opportunities for others, with myself included.

Andrew Coates  18:24

Well, and what you just said is, key is so and this went into my presentation at raise the bar. It's not about being transactional. It's not about what's in it. For you, in fact, I think most people kind of are wired like what's in it. For me, if you interact with other people, I try to listen and understand it to the point now it's kind of a natural thing where I filter it. What are people's goals, value system? Okay? And you just said that this year you're ready to embrace more of that. So I know that, and in my travels, and I think I've done this in the past, where I'm pretty sure if correct me, if I'm wrong, but I feel like I probably connected you with a ROM Gregorian and suggested that you'd make a great potential speaker for a rams event. At least, I've mentioned you to him before. I know that, and so I'll be on the lookout even just the introduction to Luca. Luca hosts an event every couple of years. You guys build a relationship. I can't promise that you'll be on that stage, but you're now on his radar as someone, and his whole perspective is going to change as he soon to be a dad. So who knows? Right? Like that might be a way he goes, but it's understanding people and what they value, and it's also the other person. Do I have someone who has an event, has a podcast, likes connecting with and learning and access to great education resources, because you have that. You're very easy to support. Because have you on the podcast, I know you're well spoken. I know you present yourself really well. There's excellent information. There's information that is specific niche. I don't love the word niche, but in a niche that almost no one else is doing right, very, very specific. In the end, the postpartum athlete side of stuff, to me, you're the authority on that, that thing, and so you're easy to share with other people. And then you. Having all that credibility, you're on my radar for someone who I want to connect to people who organize fitness conferences, right?

Brianna Battles  20:06

Yeah, I mean, but I bet that is a gift that you're able to like, I guess, embed that information about me and then keep it like on your mental loop. Are you naturally really extroverted, like, are you? Do you feel like that comes really naturally to you, or do you, is that something that you've been, ha, you've had to sort of like train in yourself?

Andrew Coates  20:25

I think it's been there a really long time. And so on one hand, I've classically, always thought about self as being very extroverted. But then I come home in the evening and I'm my brain is cooked, but I want to sit on the couch, and I don't want to be around people, and my cat is in my lap, and I'll chill out with him. And yeah, so I got a question. I think the idea of the paradigm of extroversion, introversion is like a dichotomy, is a false concept. We are all different people in different situations. I remember going out to a bar once with a good friend of mine, and he's actually quite introverted in the grand scheme of the way, he sort of retreated with his wife, but we went to this bar and he just, like randomly would start talking to people. And he could just be an extroverted person, where you put me in a nightclub by myself, and I can't function interact with other people. If I know other people, I'm fine. So it's different people in different settings, but as far as I get being natural, it goes back to this idea of a lattice work again. But once you build a competency, a basic level of knowledge of things, then you can assimilate more things. It becomes easier. You humans are pattern recognition machines. So one of the patterns that I recognize is these aspects of people's goals, their their boundaries, their time their time boundaries, etc. There was another thought. Here's the brain fog glitching again. It's all in listening. And we as coaches and in life, we listen to and we pay attention to things that matter to us, right? And so if you just decide, hey, this stuff's important, and then we just train ourselves to shut up and listen to hear what someone else values, because we're all fairly good at it when we want, when we've got something to get at it, but or when we are enjoying the people around. So if we can extend that to our peers, I think part of the fitness industry is some of the industries is afflicted with a scarce mindset. So I think our network is very abundant, and I think the people listening here are probably abundant, but I think we also have to catch ourselves when we're being scarce, when we think, Well, my personal training business is not a team sport. Listen, the industry has supported me as much. I get referrals from other coaches all of the time. Other coaches work with me, right? So having that abundant mindset and supporting other people trust me. It pays off anyway. And if you can trusting this stuff over time and seeing it, wait a second, this rewards me 10 times. When I get into it, you tend to let your guard down and go, Okay, fine, like I'm all in. I've got to show up and and create opportunities for other people. But if you pattern, get good at the pattern recognition of what people say, and you plug into Okay, well, this person is these are all their goals. These are all their their values. And then the more people you know and have relationships with, the more you can actually create matches between those goals. Every once a while, someone will try to reciprocate and connect me with someone, and a lot of good stuffs come out of that. But every once while, I get burdened with a time commitment that is sort of awkward, because there's an incongruence between goals, values alignment and even my time boundaries hit kind of a limit. I'll use a good example. So knowing this so my friend Molly Galbraith is one of the most boundary human beings I've ever met in the industry. And so is my friend Dr Alyssa Lennon. And so I had mentioned Alyssa to Molly probably a year ago, because I met Alyssa at a conference, I was really impressed with just how smart, savvy she was. And so what does Molly value? She followed values supporting women in the industry, right? Education resources. So I just mentioned Alyssa tour. Didn't get much response. A year later, Molly texts me and goes, Hey, could you introduce me to Alyssa? Now I know what they're like, so I go to each other, each of them, and I'm like you two. Are two of the most time boundaried people I've ever met in my life. But there's a lot of alignment here. But they they were interested in meeting. They hit it off. They Alyssa set her boundaries very hard, very quickly. But there's some working alignment there. So now there's a mutual connection. And Alyssa understood that there's a there's value in knowing her as well. So it's recognizing those things and time, boundaries are something that a lot of people don't understand.

Brianna Battles  24:17

Yeah, yeah. And I get that, I think especially when you're a coach, you're used to being really flexible with your boundaries. And I would argue that sometimes boundaries have to be earned in this industry, that you do need to say, yes, a lot. You do need to have an open mind and not be closed off until you're at a place where, oh, I guess it maybe either earned it or it just, it's not really going to be beneficial for you, where you can have those boundaries. But I think that for so many coaches, having the openness and willingness to create connections, make connections, and retain this information is it's key. Like I've I'd actually say I'm much more on the open and yes side of. Opportunities, despite having a exceptionally busy life, exceptionally busy.

Andrew Coates  25:06

And I pay attention to that, and that's why I turn around and go, Hey, Luca, get Brianna on your podcast, because I knew you'd be good with it, right? And I know Luca, like Luca, is an absolute maniac. He's busy, and his life's gonna change to him. But again, if you understand someone's values. And for Luca, it's learning about new people. Education always being better. Supporting his business, family and friends are really important to him. And yes, it can feel challenging to accumulate an idea of what the people in the industry value, but let's reframe it a bit for all of us, our friends and our stronger acquaintances or network, we tend to know these things about the people we care about. So I'll sidestep this for a second. I was at a conference, maybe 2018 maybe 2019 I can't remember which one it was. And a figure in the industry, a speaker who has since sort of vanished. I think the opportunities have dried up for him. What said to me, the people that you meet in your travels are not your real friends. And that stuck with me, but not because I believed him. It told me a lot about his mindset. I just spent a weekend with a lot of my close and real friends, people like Natalia Mello is a very good friend. She was one of the speakers of the event, Nick Shaw, Renaissance criticization. There's a long list there, and we had a wonderful time. It was very fulfilled. I mean, just being around them alone was great. There's also some professional opportunities that came out of there. But if you remember that the people you meet in your travels are real human beings, kind of just like you, similar goals, similar ambitions, just because they're not in the same city as you does not mean that they're they can't be real friends. In fact, I found that I've often had to get on planes to spend time around kindred spirits of the people who share my goals, ambitions, oh my

Brianna Battles  26:51

gosh. How many opportunities to like make friends through this industry and by people who have common goals. And I'd say we even have common personalities, common drives, like high achieving, like wanting to improve. It is so affirming to be around people like that and meet people like that. Because, I mean, I'm a mom now, of course, but there sometimes I feel like such a disconnect with other like moms that I meet through my kids, because I'm like, man, like, we're just, there's a whole other part of me. I'm not just in my mom era. I'm in my mom era, plus I have all these other passions and all these other things and like, it's nice to diversify your network in terms of friendships and connections and people that will help help you keep, I guess, achieving in whatever way that is,

Andrew Coates  27:41

and you've done something even more is by creating and scaling the educational resources and the coaching you have, you are going to attract people who self select to your world. So you're actually actively attracting aligned people who and some of those people have probably become great friends. I'm sure that the coaches that work in your business. I mean, I'm sure some of them probably were, maybe people you coached, probably other people who you've connected with via educational seminars and travel. Yeah,

Brianna Battles  28:11

it's like because I know they have a similar heart, a similar drive, passion, life experiences, whether it's through the motherhood lens, is the coaching lens. There's just so many parallels there. But unless you're actively creating or actively working to connect with others, you're going to miss out on these really fulfilling opportunities, friendships, networks and just overall, like connections. You it all blossoms into something,

Andrew Coates  28:36

nothing more to add. There more questions fired up. Well, like

Brianna Battles  28:40

the other thing I was thinking about with what you mentioned earlier, you still, despite all the things that you have going on online and gaining a lot of traction, there a lot of connections and speaking, but you're still working in person. One thing that all of the coaches that go through my certification program is like, you have to coach in person before you go online. And I understand that we have we live in a world now where it's very easy to create something online and share there, but you will not be in a truly ready position as a coach unless you have the reps and the experience of working with real people having real conversations, seeing these case studies in front of you, knowing there's no exact formula to coaching, nevertheless, coaching a pregnant or a postpartum woman like absolutely not, you have to be creative and really good with that, and that's how you improve your own coaching, is By working in person. So that's a hill that my eye on. But I love that you're an example of somebody who, despite scaling the online side of you're still in the trenches. And I would argue that that's what likely has made you so successful in your connections, is that you've been listening to people, yeah, in your. Sessions for years, you create you know how to have those conversations, you know how to retain that information. You know how to remember small details about these people. And that has translated well into your like, professional world of creating professional connections,

Andrew Coates  30:14

I think so there's a there's a ton of things in here, so I'll preface it in that one. I think everything that we do this is really relevant to the coaches and the enthusiasts listening. We are rooted in identity, and we act, and we develop narratives. And this narrative of this word, narrative, story, okay, these are really powerful concepts. You've heard them. Obviously, we have stories and narratives about why we are where we are. And some of them can be very valuable and some of them can be maladaptive. So sometimes it's important to recognize, hey, there's a story in a narrative why I am where I am, and there's a story in a narrative why I still coach full time in person. I still think it's valuable. Like you said, I draw from a lot of the experience to then turn around and share via short form, long form media resources. That's good. I also recognize and I remember this recently. I've forgotten it for years. I think one of the reasons why I still have a full time in person schedule is because I don't do well with totally unstructured life. I actually need structure just the way my brain works, so I could fit in all the other things within the overall framework of the coaching sessions that I have right forces me to get up a certain time in the morning, etc. So that's an important thing there. I also have seen, and this was the crux of the talk I did in Dallas. There are a lot of coaches, not all, but a lot of coaches, and there is a lot of business mentors who are pushing this in an age of systemization, of scaling, of the worship at the altar of scale and of especially AI, we are seeing coaches who want to remove themselves from actually interacting with other people, and that's going to fail terribly. I could think of, I won't say names, as a guy, I know his social media blew up several years ago in and amongst a whole bunch of other people they all kind of like, skyrocketed with the infographic stuff. And you get your your Sophie ladies, your Jordan sides, your Spencer nadalskis, who all did that. They're all friends, and they then pivoted to other types of media. And they've all built things, they've all written books, they've all built various educational platforms, and they've all been very visible authorities in the industry for a long time, but there were other people in that same space that blew up, rode that wave, but then I know that they weren't very responsive to DMS they wanted, and they thought, well, here's the gravy train forever. But the social media landscape pivoted. The infographic stuff became very ubiquitous very fast. They didn't pivot on their media. They didn't, and I'm making some assumptions, but it was fairly obvious that they didn't seem to really want to be responsive or interact with people. They just kind of thought, Okay, I'm going to have this big online business. I'll have to work minimally. There'll be tons of money. And, well, they didn't nurture it, and they didn't continue to feed it, and they just faded into obscurity. And I'm seeing this again. This is promise of, well, we can build all these automated systems. You can scale up your business. And I think there's also a status thing in the industry, where people, if you're ever around someone who talks about, quote, their seven figure business, like, we have lots of friends. I was with a lot of friends this week who have legitimate seven figure businesses. They don't talk this way. But the ones that are like, bragging about their seven figure business, like they're not telling you that their expenses are also seven figures, and their stress and headaches are seven figures. I'm not saying there are people like yourself who built teams, and you probably coach one on one, a lot less than in your earlier days in your career. I'm not sure how much you still do. You probably have a handful of your own athletes, but you're very involved in the human relationship with your team members. And I'm sure I can infer this. I know you, your team members are very high touch, high human interaction, very high relationship with their clients, right? Safe assumption. Yeah,

Brianna Battles  33:50

absolutely. I think there's I have stopped coaching in person in terms of, like, my weekly stuff, but I still work with professional athletes. I'm still teaching in seminars and workshops and interacting that way, and then interacting in the DMS. Obviously don't get all of them, but for the most part, it's like people shoot me a question. I want to be able to answer them, like, whether I actually have a solution in the form of a program or not. Like, I can give you some insight, because I remember how hard and lonely it was to find that direction, to find that information. And other times it's like, Hey, I actually have I solved this problem for you in the form of a product. I hope you invest in that. But I do think that there's a big opportunity there. And all of the different P and P A coaches that have gone through the program, they are certainly serving their communities in online, in in person and hybrid approaches. And I think that's the most valuable way to get better as a coach, make more impact in your community, and create your own personal brand, and then, ultimately, yes, actually scale the income that you're making. Yeah. So

Andrew Coates  35:00

this goes back to what I said about narrative and story and why I'm always challenged myself on any fixed or rigid belief systems, right? Because I've always, I've said I'll always coach in person, but it may not be the right thing for every coach for you, as you just said, you have resources and media that are really valuable for people, so the fact that you built those things has, as you said, allowed your ability to reach help far more people. Yeah,

Brianna Battles  35:28

I would not to do any of that if it weren't for the years that I spent from 22,008 to 2020 of coaching in person, consistently in a variety of formats, 1000s and 1000s of people, right? That's like what I think a lot of people don't see oftentimes, right?

Andrew Coates  35:48

And I think a lot of people are kind of in a hurry. And what I worry is, especially if there's business mentors, and there's good business mentors and there's bad, but if the business mentors are promising, hey, you know, we can scale you to this business, and we can automate all your DMS. And then you can use a DM, a DM automation and AI to pretend respond to everything on social media, or, God forbid, your clients, and pretend it's you. It's like, that's a line that I think is not especially if you're trying to trick people into this. You can try that. You can legitimately try it. But I think people are going to realize it's going to be too obvious, yes, that it's not you quickly. And a crux of my presentation and belief system now is there will be lots of people who will up into AI based, algorithmic based coaching stuff. I use Renaissance participation as example, their hypertrophy app, their diet coach app, they have the templates forever and their their stuff's great, really, really good for people who want that systemized thing that tells them what to do, but don't necessarily need, like the coach. But you also, if you're part of the RP community, you can there's seminars that Mike and Jared feather and Crystal Guevara, the whole team, are doing, very consistent. So you actually have a lot of like, face time with them. And then Mike's media. I mean, Mike's face is everywhere, so therefore you have this massive parasocial relationship where everybody feels like they don't Mike, even though Mike can't possibly have an individual relation with it. But there's tons of personal you said personal brand earlier. There's tons of personal brand exposure and the coaches now you're not gonna be able to compete with RP, let alone all the other companies that are gonna leverage their resources and AI resources and AI and massive data sets of and with good, trained machine learning systems, they're going to destroy you if you try to lean into that space. So I think the only other way is the high relationship side, because people will also in a world where everything is getting more and more AI and systemized, they're still going to be the people who want to go in and talk to the bank teller you teller. There are still people like me who want to buy the record and listen to the experience of vinyl when everything is digitized. So I think that's the area of opportunity. And I think a lot of coaches are going to fall for the trap, to think that they can get the benefits of both and make a lot of money. They're going to get rushed. People will be seeking real human connection.

Brianna Battles  38:02

Yeah, no, I agree. There's, I mean, coaching is an art form. There's an ability. It's not just prescribing exercises. It's knowing the human, knowing their experiences, knowing those experiences, day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year, season to season, like that is something that is a unique skill set that coaches have, of like, knowing how to guide somebody through like, what I like to refer to is a lifetime of athleticism. You know, it's like, it's being able to be in it with them and guide them, and being able to be ahead of them, because we have maybe different perspective, and then reverse engineer that process that is not always intuitive for people, and that's, that is the value that we bring, that's the value of interacting with people in person and then having those experiences and those reps and those interactions to then create something online that sure can supplement, that can help scale your business and your reach and your impact, like that's that's exactly how it should work, is you go one on one and then one to many. So do that in the ways that you can, but I think there's a lot of opportunities for you to have a sustainable impact. It has to start one on one at a very intimate level. First,

Andrew Coates  39:11

absolutely, and there's, I always have thought with this one, there's this debate you sometimes see with people who've been around a while, they say you you need to five years of in person coaching before you earn the right to go online. And we also have to be careful not because that's gatekeeping language in a bad way. The modern landscape has changed. I think the answer isn't just go straight to online. I think you need that in person coaching experience. I think they have to be concurrent early but with the online stuff, then I just like, I like voice and video messaging, right? That was the thing that I found. I struggle with online coaching early. I struggle with believing I could do it as well as in person. That was a narrative, a belief system that I had to overcome. And then a pal of mine years ago would talk about how he'd had a huge roster online clients. And. Send a lot of voice messages, and so that seemed foreign to me. Now, I'm literally famous for this shit and drive people crazy with it, but too bad it's easier for me to pop up a voice message than type my fingers just make mistakes, but the online clients, I certainly believe that it has a tremendous impact when a client sends me a message and then I riff off a voice message back to them, and that has empathy and the warmth of the human experience versus, ultimately, what can be the cold potential for misinterpreting words. I mean, godly knows, we've all been in relationships, and you send a text message next, no, there's a fight over a the tone that didn't come through, right? And so I find that you can actually make the human side of online work really well. And I think coaches can, and probably should learn that skill set early. Yeah, but again, it still takes up being a real human, as opposed to, well, let's let an AI chat bot do this for me. AI chat bots, here's the scary thing, there will come a point well, well trained systems will have enough data, your voice and your image, that people and when they will try this, this is going to happen three to five years, if not sooner, people will try to have an AI version of themselves that is trained to respond in a certain way, like that. That's gross to me. I

Brianna Battles  41:15

know, and I'm like, such a control freak, like, even in my own business, I won't let anybody write things for me. I write my own emails, I write my own sales pages. I write my own like, literally everything, all my social media, everything is my voice, because that is the thing that has made it unique and different. And I feel like that's an extension of like this conversation is like the value of being able to speak on a podcast, on other people's podcasts, whatever, so that people can hear you, get a feel for your energy and your vibe. Because, like, I'm certainly not for everybody, but if I'm for you, I'm working for you. I want that energy to be communicated in what I write. And anytime I feel like, if somebody kind of writes an outline of something for me, or whatever I just I end up having to, like, change everything's I need to put it in my voice. I'm like, I would never actually say that. I'm not peppy like that. I am direct. And we have to, I want to convey that energy through my brand, because that it's done well. It is scaled, because it's unique to me. It's not a repeated vibe throughout the industry. And that's that's the thing a lot of people are looking to copy and simulate and repeat. I see that all the time. I see my own shit copied and repeated, and me too. And I'm like, Oh my God, you're not me. I'm already in first place if you're trying to copy

Andrew Coates  42:38

tons of so three quick thoughts. One is, everybody listening should be following you on threads. Like your social media, Instagram, absolutely. But like, I catch myself reading your threads and like this stuff is like, savage but smart as hell. Like, actually, you're I've not seen someone who I think has better stuff on threads. And I don't like spending much time on threads. Because

Brianna Battles  42:58

the interesting thing about threads, and I tell people this is, that's like, where I write my impulsive thoughts, and then, like, eventually I'll use that as a way to, like, gather info on how can I elaborate on this on a post or on a reel or in a carousel or something like that. Like, if the vibe, it's almost a way to capture the immediate thought in short form and then be able to elaborate on it more.

Andrew Coates  43:21

It's a public diary. So I don't know if you're familiar with a Media Creator named Dan co K, o, e. I love Dan's media. I'm like what you describe as his process. He's got a course to our writer course that literally talks about this so, but I think smart people come to so I've heard Pete Dupuy, who's a gym owner, a friend of mine, he's talked about the same thing, posting things. Alex hermosi says the same, same thing. They will riff on Twitter, and then they'll turn it into longer form media. It's a proven process, just really smart. So that's thought, one, thought two, I was laughing as you were talking. We're talking about this. There may come a day you and I will never do this, but I could just imagine that my AI version, video and boys in your AI video and voice five years from now, or having a podcast together. Ever heard of the dead internet theory? You've ever heard of this? So it's this theory that some time ago, most of the internet was filled up with bots, and it's mostly bots talking to other bots on social media. Now I don't necessarily think that's like true in its like, truest sense. But to a certain point, there is a little bit that going on. So I wonder to what degree AI will actually because we are going to see AI generated content is going to proliferate like you're going to see more of it. And I think it's, again, it goes back to why your own authentic stuff is probably going to cut through the AI generated stuff, because if the AI generated stuff is drawing from the same pool of data that everybody else is, it's going to feel generic.

Brianna Battles  44:47

Yeah, and again, like, I think I just I have so much control, I like to have a lot of control over how I show up in this world and how it's perceived. And like my ability to own it, whether people you. Like what I had to say or not, like, it's still what I said. It's not something I can blame on my team, like it's something that I wrote, something that I did. It is a belief that I have. It's a coaching experience I'm sharing. And I think that's the thing that actually creates connection for people. Feel like they know you, where they're like, I mean, I know that I want to learn from somebody that I can relate to that's really that is a huge part of my own. When we talk about, like, mentorships, or even lack thereof, at this point, sometimes it feels like it's really hard to find somebody where I'm like doing what I'm doing. Well, no, but are you? Do you have a similar model or business, or I can find parallels there. Okay, are you also a parent? That's important for me, because there's, you know, and even, are you a mom? Because that's different. Like, there are plenty of men in the industry that running these huge, successful businesses, but they also have, like, supportive wives at home. And I'm like, maybe I need a wife. Like, it's just so it's like, we have to find people that we can relate to, people that have the life style in a lot of ways, because that's the thing that creates connection, where that's going to be the thing where I know I'm going to invest in somebody. If I'm like, they get me, I get them similar. I feel like I can invest in that future and with my audience now, before I was like, sort of with them, and that's actually how I sign a lot of my emails, as I am with you. But now I'm like, I'm also a little bit ahead of you, a little bit, like, a little bit in terms of, like, the I'm not on the other side of pregnancy and postpartum. I have a lot of years as coaching experience. Now I am ahead of you, but because of that, I can be with you through this process.

Andrew Coates  46:39

I love it. I'm trying to think, because, of course, this is way my mind works. As you're talking about this stuff, I'm immediately going to All right, who are the women, the moms, who are kind of similar to you in the industry? And I'm sure that not everybody's popping in mind, because obviously, sometimes you just have so many people that. But I'm thinking of my friend Eve Guzman, who's been a very successful, savvy woman. She's got kind of a macro coaching, mentorship so obviously a different kind of space, but it's a similar model in a different place, right? And her husband, Randall, he's a sweetheart. They were again at the event this weekend, and he's just supportive of her and his and her biggest cheerleader. But you're right, there's not necessarily a lot, because I think as well, I mean shit, I'm not speaking from an area, if I have an expertise in this. But I think with some of the women in this space, once they have kids, they tend to boundary a bit harder, and then they pull back, and they're not necessarily out in that space a little bit. Here's another interesting observation, because on average, but there are fewer women who are prominent in the fitness industry than men, because even you talked about coming out of, like, uh, the strength and conditioning world, NSCA type stuff, what's the ratio? It's very, very skewed, right? Oh, yeah. And then on average, too, like, let's say you get some of the women who they, let's say they have kids, so they're probably going to be a little bit more focused on that versus, like, embracing every opportunity, traveling everything. So what I found is, even as an event organizer and for podcasts, women are more boundary, they're more time boundary, and they say no, and this is a positive thing, right? In a way, there's negatives and positives, but for the individual, women are much better at saying no and setting boundaries that I think men are now stereotypically, are men a little bit more, maybe aggressive in like, seeking out opportunity. That's a bit of a stereotype. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. But you want, you know a Sohi Lee is a really good example, or Alyssa, a lenick again, you go, Hey, yo, will you come on my podcast? You come and speak at my event? And the default answer is going to be no for almost everybody, and they've earned it, but they're also savvy and hard work? You get successful. So I don't know what the answer is. I think it is important to go back what we originally talked about is understanding what is really valuable to those people and how and sometimes the value the listener is, is the way you can help them is consume their media, share their media, share with other people, do their courses. Like, if anybody's finding this podcast through my side step Well, number one, I want you guys to follow Brianna. That's just an automatic but two, especially if you coach women who because, guess what, unless you're an exclusive coach to men, you're going to work with women. Women are, on average, better fitness consumers than men. They just are, on average. My following is 63% women, which is sort of a weird accident that happened along the way. Okay, great. It's worked out well. And if you're a coach, you're you coach women, some of them, a lot of them, on average, are going to have kids, so therefore they're going to be postpartum, right? And like we talked about you and Luca, I think the idea of athleticism is a cool one, not because we're talking about pro athletes, but we're talking about retaining athletic qualities through life and right that movement stuff. Because I think a lot of people get locked in. I think there was a statistic recently, maybe you know it, but some ungodly percentage of people never sprint after the age of 30.

Brianna Battles  49:53

Well, that and like something that I've noticed, and I feel like I've been trying to refine this message imperfectly. Recently is, like, the pre and postnatal industry has felt unrelatable from the get go for me. That's why I wanted to, like, put my own special spin on it with, like, the athletic side. But ultimately, information for women's health and a pre and postnatal industry is not in alignment with how women know how to train today. What we've seen in the last decade, women in the weight room, women not being afraid to put on muscle, women participating in more sport, extending their career in sport. And yet we have this outdated, really conservative, like, unrelatable information within the pre and postnatal industry, specifically, but ultimately, within a lot of the like, Women's Health belief systems. And so while a lot of people are like, well, I don't coach athletes, or I'm not an athlete, I'm like, Yeah, but how you train 2025 is athletic, where this is not our mother's generation of step aerobics and walking and running. This is not the ACOG that's like, hey, like, this is beneficial. Like, we know exercise is beneficial. We don't need to be convinced of that. It's more so looking at, how is this pregnancy and becoming a mom gonna affect my body and my fitness goals? Because I want to do both, like, that's not over. I still am an athlete. I still love coaching. I'm still value fitness. That's going to be part of my life and my family's life. So what do I need to know about it? And so that's the disconnect. Is it's so narrow, and we've had to really kind of expand and say it's not just about identifying as an athlete. It's just recognizing that how you train now, it's actually pretty freaking athletic. And

Andrew Coates  51:32

if we want to take this further into tactical stuff, I'm seeing more and more talk about this as we get older. I mean, I think for a while we've known, okay, muscle mass declines as we get old, right? So we have to trade muscle mass. But then you've had this belief, I came up the industry where there's this belief, well, older adults, especially, oh, they're fragile. You shouldn't have them jumping around. They shouldn't be doing explosive stuff. Fuck no. They literally need you to stuff. Now there's load management, like, don't go balls to the wall day one. But these are qualities you need. So I've got a 74 year old client. She's had her second knee replacement. She's lovely. She's hard working. You know what I do? I grab a four pound medicine ball, and I have her rotationally throw that thing as hard as she can against the wall, and she really likes it. I have her pushing a sled and a few other things like that. Another thing that we know is important is getting up and down from the ground. There's context, right? I train split my time between a public gym, like a commercial s gym, where I contract and my home studio. And if you've got older adults, and especially someone who's heavier and it's challenging to get up and down from the ground, and they're new to this, maybe having them move, get up and down from the ground. Can feel a bit uncomfortable, especially if there's other people around you. Have to take that in consideration. But as we get older, what do you need? You need the skill of getting up and down from the ground. In case of a fall, fall prevention, you hear these horror stories of older adults who've actually suffered a fall. Fall didn't kill them, but an injury immobilized them, and they weren't strong enough to get themselves up. So they were found a few days later. They had died, but they had lived for a few days, but they couldn't get themselves up. They weren't strong enough. That's horrifying. So at a certain point we can't neglect this thing that we're like, oh god. Well, they might be fragile, might get hurt. Like, listen, they're probably going to get hurt if you don't train this ability. So doing this stuff is really important and just creating a safe environment for them to learn it and scaling it to their current ability.

Brianna Battles  53:27

Yeah, like you said, like, athleticism is scalable. Like, it doesn't have to be this, this picture of, like, professional athlete, kind of athlete, all of our output, I will always tell people, like, Oh, I just go to like, F 45 or whatever, I'm like, Yeah, well, you're still, like, you're still lifting, you're still getting your heart rate up. Like, you're still doing that consistently. How is that not athletic? Like you are valuing your fitness at your own capacity. Like that is athletic, and we have to have information that supports that and a way to help people keep pursuing that keep them healthy, to keep them functional, and, you know, to give them something outside of, maybe their motherhood or of their work or whatever, like, where it's an extension of, hey, it's not over. Like, I'm not washed up, I'm not broken, I'm not fragile. And that can be one of the most empowering things. Not everyone has to be crazy and, like, find Jiu Jitsu, like me in my 30s, and I'm like, I want to go choke boys on my lunch break today. Like, that's not everyone has to go to that level. I do recommend it. You

Andrew Coates  54:32

made me think about it. Do you know my friend, Dr crystal Guevara? Do you know her? I'm gonna have to connect you guys. So, speaking of this sort of thing, I'll just, I was thinking this, but I'll actually share, instead of off air, I'll share the process audio. So we're talking about, how do we get your resources in greater hands? How do I connect people who are doing incredible things? So crystal has spoken at my event the last couple years, so she's the physician for USA figure skating. Okay? But and also, some people might have heard of Dr Mike gizzard. Well. Well, crystal is Mike's wife, but she's a brilliant resource on her own, and she talks a lot about OSEP and GLP, one ago, this medication. She's very smart in that space, but she also likes Jiu Jitsu. Mike's also a jiu jitsu guy, and you see them like rolling a fair bit. And I just like laugh. Poor crystal, My God, what it must be like. She's a little small human being, but just having she's probably extremely good at it, just because I think she grapples with her husband, who's a bowling ball, yeah, a lot of the time.

Brianna Battles  55:25

Yeah, my husband is like, 632, 25 and a black belt. So it's steep learning with for it's fun, no, I think it's a, definitely a great sport. Talk about the ability to keep getting up and off the ground as you get older. Yeah, certainly learn that quickly in Jiu Jitsu.

Andrew Coates  55:48

You're right, like, jiu jitsu is probably the ultimate trading platform for that skill. Yeah, right. It's, it's

Brianna Battles  55:54

certainly, I tell everyone, like it's a life skill, whether you are five years old or 55 years old. It's, certainly like a life skill to have. So I feel like I was some sort of plug for that sport.

Andrew Coates  56:06

I like teasing my buddies. So a couple of my good friends are great guys, Dean Guido and Jeb Stuart Johnston. I remember two years ago, we were at the Dallas event, and while there was talks going on, the two of them were out in the hallway, and they were doing Jiu Jitsu. They because of the COVID stuff, they hadn't seen each other in a couple of years, so they and they're just hugging each other on the ground. So it's like a socially acceptable way for straight men to hug each other on the ground,

Brianna Battles  56:31

you know? And jiu jitsu is a very unique sport. It's just very unique. I used to think like, oh, I don't want anyone touching my face. I hate Fauci and now suddenly I have people in the closest way possible. It's very intimate, just in a like so I think the aggressiveness certainly helps the situation. It is weird. It's not for everyone, but like, it is for everyone all at the same time.

Andrew Coates  56:55

I know my friends who are into it. There's a great camaraderie. So I get the sense that, like, you can rough each other up pretty bad. But then it's like, you'll immediately go and have a beer. It's kind of like hockey, yeah, and I didn't grow up playing hockey, but I'm Canadian, so it's like, they guys could literally have a fight that they're having beers together later on,

Brianna Battles  57:11

yeah? Which like, I really appreciate that kind of outlet in my life. I'll just get, like, my aggression out, especially within entrepreneurship and mom life, man, I gotta, I gotta have my outlets, and that's been a unique one to find. So before we close out this podcast, what are a couple like, I guess, like practical ways that coaches who feel really intimated about making connections? Maybe it's with a coach who wants to create a connection with a local pelvic floor physical therapist, or a coach who wants to make a connection with a gym and see, hey, can I maybe host my six week program at your gym? Can I be an independent contractor there? Like, what is your suggestion for creating a connection with somebody, maybe who's local to you in terms of collaboration?

Andrew Coates  57:54

It goes back again to what is someone's values and their time boundaries. So I think Alex hermosi tells a story about, like, how occasionally, like, young people will say, hey, I'll just, like volunteer to, like, be your assistant. And Alex is like, Well, no, because it would be more of a time drain for me to train you at a distraction, that it would be valuable. But can you think about, all right, that local now, let's say a physical therapist. Yeah. Are you able to go in and shadow for a day. But also, do you go in and say, I'm an up and coming personal trainer, and I need a skilled physical therapist as a potential resource, because clients have aches pains. They deal with injuries. I mean, how long you and I have been coaching a client walks in at a bootcast, you're like, What the fuck happened? Right? And your plan goes out the window. I mean, you can, you can adjust around it, but there's certain things that are outside of our scope, and they literally need to deal with a physical therapist for. So having that resource, so you go in and you say, Hey, I'm looking to have a network of skilled professionals. Would I be able to come in and shadow quietly, maybe ask a few questions, and the way that they respond is also going to be kind of a filter for are they a good fit to support you? So I think most people go into almost any social situation, professional situation, and think what's in it for me, and if you look at every interaction you have, is, how can the other person come out of this situation better and benefit for years, one of the reasons why some of the people in the industry at least, kind of knew who I was before I met them, was because I would share their their articles on my Facebook right before Instagram is even a thing. I'm sharing and supporting people via my social media and then the podcast inviting people on, but it's it's to showcase and support other people, and it helped deepen those relationships, and I've almost entirely gone through my career without asking. Now I don't necessarily think that's the best advice for everybody. I just show up at support and guess what? Over time, people have thrown more opportunities at me than I can actually say yes to. So I don't need to ask for almost anything, or I put myself in a position where I can. So we have a relationship with someone to where I can offer something, but I understand that it's actually really valuable to them, and they recognize that value, sure. Okay, but I think a lot of people make offers, they'll say, Hey, you get the fake coaches and mentors in your DMS offering you various shit. It's like, no. I mean, half it's a scam, and half of it is just going to be a time save. So it's not really valuable. It's something for them, the person who will message, I get this all the time, okay, are you looking for for speakers at your event? Are you looking for podcast guests? And I blah, blah, blah. Here's all these things about me, and it's like, okay, all right, I get that. But the time slots for my podcast and the slots for my speaking events are a very limited resource, and I have to maximize a few things, the value to the people who are in the seats, what's in it for them thinking, but I also have to make sure that there's enough brand appeal to put bucks in seats so I don't lose a whole lot of money on my event or just host a bunch of podcast guests that I find uninteresting who are just looking to benefit from my audience. So if you could look at everything through the lens of, how could the other person come out ahead and then the right people will self select. You'll build relationships. And good things tend to happen. It's a bit of a leap of faith. But anybody who's been around doing this stuff for a long time, this sweater whole episode was about this shit works. Yeah, absolutely,

Brianna Battles  1:01:14

show up support others, and ultimately you're gonna, like, create the network and the support that's going to take you and your efforts and the people around you to the next level, like a rising ship. But is that expression? I'm so bad with my like, analogies, but a rising tide raises a ship, something like,

Andrew Coates  1:01:32

I've always butchered this one too, and I know exactly it's like I was kind of because I all ships rise with high tides. I think is some version of it. Yeah,

Brianna Battles  1:01:41

I know everyone listening is like, oh my god, you guys, but it's fine. Sorry, no, I know, right. I try. It's like, the intention is there, Andrew, thank you so much for this conversation. It was really good to just go down, like, different, like, I don't know, just different pathways within what we've experienced in the fitness industry, the current state of things, the future state of things. I think it's just all really insightful to have a candid conversation like this. And I appreciate your time, and I appreciate your efforts. Thank you for being such a hustler and a math maker for everybody and just really elevating the industry. I definitely appreciate you.

Andrew Coates  1:02:17

Thank you. I appreciate and to what you just said there. Yes, you and I always have to recognize there's a bit of survivorship bias in what we're talking about. That's like you read any book, you're going to hear the survivorship bias in the stories of the book. But I believe this stuff works. I think I believe in creating luck. I like the phrase surface area of luck, because people say, Oh, you're lucky. Blah, blah, blah, whatever. You can create your own luck. You just have to put yourself in enough rooms. In enough rooms. You have to put yourself in enough virtual connections. You have to support enough people. You have to show up like you just said. And if you do that and you magnify it across time, the right people will self select you. Some people will never respond. Some people and respect the time bounds, respect the fact that maybe just there isn't a fit or alignment there, you know, maybe you'll encounter them later. Be charitable in your interpretation of that person. But a lot of people will self select to want to interact, to support, nurture those relationships, continue to find ways to help other people. And I promise you, great things happen. And if you do this stuff, especially with your clientele, I mean, it still comes back to the client in front of you. First all this other stuff we talked about, this is bonus from a strong foundation of serving your client. If you start chasing all this other stuff first before you've actually really mastered the referral network, the service, the word of mouth side of stuff, this stuff here has given us a lot of great things in our career that are fulfilling, but these are not things that initially build our businesses or creative relationships with the clients. So take care of that stuff first, apply everything we talked about to the clients, and I promise you just get yourself out the room. Pick one event over the next year. If you can something, maybe it's a little closer to you. Watch my media all. Have a bunch of events I'll share, and put yourself in the room. Show up. There'll be a lot of people who are just like you, who are nervous and scared shitless of meeting other people hanging back in the room. Go say hi to that person. Get a little uncomfortable, and you'll make a new friend. I promise,

Brianna Battles  1:04:10

absolutely. Andrew, where can people follow your stuff? At at

Andrew Coates  1:04:13

Andrew coats, fitness on Instagram is easy. I've also been putting a lot of effort into my podcast, the lift free and diet hard podcast depends on when you air this, you will either have been a recent guest or just about to be one again. And then there's an old episode. It's a little more focused on the coaching side of stuff. The one that we have coming up right now is going to be very enthusiastic. Coaches will love it, but it's, it's all about postpartum athleticism. So guys, I would love to see you check that out. I've got industries who's who is guests. I've mentioned several names along this one. They've all been guests online recently. And if you have questions, you can DM me. I will absolutely just direct you to stuff, if it's articles or resources that I have or other great people the industry that I think are the right people for what you're looking for. Happy to help.

Brianna Battles  1:04:57

Well, thank you for your time. Thank you. You. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the practice brave podcast. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review and help us spread the work we are doing to improve the overall information and messaging in the fitness industry and beyond. Now, if you are pregnant and you are looking for a trustworthy exercise program to follow. I have you covered. The pregnant athlete training program is a well rounded program for pregnancy with workouts for each week that are appropriate for your changing body. That's 36 weeks of workouts, three to four workouts each week, and tons of guidance on exercise strategy. We also have an at home version of that program if you are postpartum and you're looking for an exercise program to follow. The eight week postpartum athlete training program would be a really great way to help bridge the gap between rehab and the fitness you actually want to do. From there, we have the practice grade fitness program, which is an ongoing strength conditioning program, where you get new workouts each week and have a lot of guidance for myself and my co coach, Heather Osby, this is the only way that I'm really offering ongoing coaching at this point in time. If you have ever considered becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, I would love to have you join us. Pregnancy and postpartum athleticism is a self paced online certification course that will up level your coaching skills and help connect the dots between public health and long term athletic performance, especially during pregnancy and postpartum, become who you needed and become who your online and local community needs by becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum, athleticism Coach, thank you again for listening to the practice brave podcast. I appreciate you, and please help me continue spreading this messaging, this information and this work.