Hey, Friend.
Last week I gave an online talk as part of the Men's Health Strength In Diversity initiative - it's a program designed to help trainers from marginalized communities to jumpstart their careers and offer them a chance to work with a line-up of elite fitness professionals.
I talked about coaching, of course.
More specifically, I talked about the THREE shifts that trainers and coaches should be making in 2023 to be top of mind and top of their industry.
I argued that every coach and trainer should:
1. move away from coaching movement only, or even movement and nutrition, and move towards a more holistic view of health, aka deep health.
You might have noticed that before and after pictures are NOT the vibe in 2023. After a few stressful years managing the global pandemic, working from home, juggling the children - stress and burnout are front and center, when it comes to our health concerns.
No amount of kale is going to make us healthy if we are not considering social support, sleep and recovery, accessibility and environment, and the roles they play in our health.
One client messaged me recently, sharing that she lost over 100 pounds in one weekend, by getting rid of all the clothes that haven't fit. Imagine walking into a closet and NOT feeling guilty. Imagine every single piece of clothing FITTING your body today.
Is that client in a better place to make healthier choices in their nutrition and movement? You better believe it.
Environment (and so many other things) matters.
2. redefine their relationship with social media.
This one comes up a lot in my work with coaches. As more and more platforms pop up (hello, Threads!), ready to claim our attention, we have to get increasingly more militant with intent.
Scrolling and clicking is the proverbial sand from the big rocks and sand in the glass jar exercise. If we don't take care to fit the big rocks, it's easy to fill our whole jar (aka day) with sand.
When I say "militant", I mean.... "MissionImpossible" level precision here. We have to identify exactly what value social media provides, and structure our approach in such a way that we can get in, get the value and get the hell out, before cute puppies bumping into walls claim our attention.
When it comes to Instagram, for example, I tend to follow less than 30 accounts at any one time. To keep that number at bay, I have to do an unfollow sprint every few months.
Oh, and I'm not allowed on the IG's Explore page either. Scroll through never-ending content that I did not directly choose or ask for? Nope.
3. integrate AI tools into their workflow.
This is a big one. And it's going to get bigger.
We are at the very early stages of AI becoming part of our everyday lives. This is the Wild Wild West - no clear rules, no clear guidelines, no precedents (yet).
It’s both exciting and terrifying.
Some have compared the current emergence of AI tools to the game-changing nature of Google as a search engine now-many-years-ago. Others went as far as to compare it to electricity.
Everyone uses electricity, right?
Electricity is completely intertwined into life, right?
Exactly.
From brainstorming ideas with ChatGPT to creating images with MidJourney to taking notes in meetings with Otter.ai - it's all about finding ways where AI tools can make your life easier.
Will AI replace coaches?
No.
But coaches who use AI in their work might indeed replace coaches who do not.
The future is here. ;)
P.S. I’ll be taking the next few weeks to share some specific AI tools with you and how I’ve been incorporating them in my work, and helping clients do the same. Hit Reply and let me know if there is anything in particular you want me to discuss.
Hugs,
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