Latest / The You Project / #1769 What Forty Years Of Coaching Has Taught Me - Harps
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I'll get a team. I hope you bloody terrific. So
- 0:04Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you today about some of
- 0:07Speaker 1: the things that I have learned over the years of coaching.
- 0:13Speaker 1: I would I got to ask this recently on an interview,
- 0:17Speaker 1: and I thought, that's not about like, what's one of
- 0:19Speaker 1: the most important things one of the key things that
- 0:22Speaker 1: you've learned as a coach. So as a coach, as
- 0:25Speaker 1: a mentor, as a teacher, as a personal trainer, as
- 0:27Speaker 1: a high performance exercise scientist, all that kind of stuff.
- 0:30Speaker 1: I put it all in the same bag. Let's just
- 0:32Speaker 1: call it working with people one on one or one
- 0:36Speaker 1: on group, or one on two or three or one
- 0:39Speaker 1: on team. But what have I learned on my journey
- 0:44Speaker 1: in my time helping people to self optimize, to get
- 0:48Speaker 1: the most out of their mind and body and training
- 0:52Speaker 1: and skills and talent and resources and opportunities. What have
- 0:55Speaker 1: I learned doing my job? And the reason that I
- 0:59Speaker 1: think this might be irrelevant and important discussion is because
- 1:07Speaker 1: so many of you that follow me and listen to
- 1:10Speaker 1: me are coaches, or your trainers, or your leaders, or
- 1:14Speaker 1: your managers, or your parents, or you're in some kind
- 1:19Speaker 1: of position either often or periodically where it's your job
- 1:25Speaker 1: to essentially coach someone. So even though you might not
- 1:30Speaker 1: do what I do or what I've done, I think
- 1:32Speaker 1: there'll be some ideas and some insights and some stories
- 1:36Speaker 1: in here that might be helpful to you. If not,
- 1:41Speaker 1: they might be interesting or not. So I've written down
- 1:46Speaker 1: ten things I could, literally I reckon. I could sit
- 1:49Speaker 1: here for two hours and come up with one hundred
- 1:51Speaker 1: insights or one hundred you know, factors that are important
- 1:57Speaker 1: when you're thinking about this. But I'll start with and
- 2:00Speaker 1: we might do another one see how this one goes.
- 2:03Speaker 1: But so number one, what forty years of coaching has
- 2:07Speaker 1: taught me Number one? Number one is I need to understand,
- 2:12Speaker 1: like really understand the person that I'm working with, that is,
- 2:16Speaker 1: understand how they think. And this is not new territory
- 2:19Speaker 1: for you and me. I'm sure if you've heard me,
- 2:21Speaker 1: But back back in the day, when I was at
- 2:24Speaker 1: nine and twenty years old and I was working in
- 2:26Speaker 1: gyms and I was writing programs, I wasn't a personal
- 2:29Speaker 1: trainer per se. At stage, I was a gym instructor.
- 2:33Speaker 1: I was writing programs and giving advice and roaming the
- 2:37Speaker 1: gym floor like a fucking panther, an insecure panther. Just
- 2:43Speaker 1: that should be That should be the title of the show,
- 2:46Speaker 1: The Insecure Panther, Just helping people. But I realized I
- 2:51Speaker 1: realized early days, and I maybe didn't articulate it this well,
- 2:54Speaker 1: but I realized early days that how much I understood
- 2:57Speaker 1: about you know, training an anatomy, physiology and dumbbells and
- 3:01Speaker 1: barbells and treadmills and all that kind of stuff and
- 3:05Speaker 1: helping people get fit, lean and strong and functional, all
- 3:08Speaker 1: of that was really important. But understanding the person that
- 3:11Speaker 1: I was working with was more important. Because if I
- 3:14Speaker 1: didn't understand them, if I didn't understand their values or
- 3:17Speaker 1: their goals, or their background, or how they thought, or
- 3:20Speaker 1: what inspired or motivated them, or what scared them, or
- 3:24Speaker 1: what their potential barriers were, if I didn't understand that stuff,
- 3:29Speaker 1: then I could not be a good coach. I could
- 3:31Speaker 1: not be a good trainer or instructor or teacher for them.
- 3:37Speaker 1: So I didn't really articulate it that way back then,
- 3:41Speaker 1: of course, But I didn't know early on that being
- 3:45Speaker 1: able to show someone how to do a deadlift or
- 3:47Speaker 1: a squad or whatever it was, a chinup or a
- 3:49Speaker 1: bench press was one thing. But being able to understand
- 3:53Speaker 1: the person in front of me and to be able
- 3:56Speaker 1: to build connection and rapport and trust and respect with
- 4:00Speaker 1: that person to help them get where they wanted to go.
- 4:05Speaker 1: They were two different things. And while it was important
- 4:10Speaker 1: that I understood how bodies worked and adapted to different
- 4:13Speaker 1: kinds of stresses in a training environment, it was more
- 4:17Speaker 1: important that I could connect effectively, communicate effectively, and build
- 4:24Speaker 1: a relationship effectively with that person so that we could,
- 4:28Speaker 1: over the long term, create the outcomes we wanted to
- 4:32Speaker 1: so and this is a really neglected component I think
- 4:36Speaker 1: broadly speaking, I'm talking in general terms. You may be
- 4:41Speaker 1: an exception to this, but I think broadly that people
- 4:44Speaker 1: don't really try and understand others. And there's that, Remember
- 4:49Speaker 1: I've spoken about that thing called the false consensus effect,
- 4:52Speaker 1: where we just assume that what we're saying they will
- 4:57Speaker 1: understand because we think we are speaking and because it
- 5:01Speaker 1: makes sense to us, therefore it will make sense to them.
- 5:06Speaker 1: But it's important to keep in mind that the only
- 5:08Speaker 1: person in the world who thinks like you, I mean you, listener,
- 5:11Speaker 1: The only person who thinks like you all the time
- 5:13Speaker 1: is you. The only person who lives in your mind?
- 5:16Speaker 1: Is you the only person who lives in your subjective reality?
- 5:19Speaker 1: Is you same with me? So it's almost crucial, or
- 5:27Speaker 1: it is crucial perhaps that we go into especially when
- 5:30Speaker 1: we're talking as strangers. We go in situations mindful that
- 5:35Speaker 1: they may not understand us or probably don't understand us,
- 5:40Speaker 1: and so it's important that we do our very best
- 5:44Speaker 1: to understand the window through which they are viewing this
- 5:47Speaker 1: moment in time. So understanding, remember, understanding is not agreeing
- 5:51Speaker 1: or aligning necessarily, doesn't mean you like them, doesn't mean
- 5:54Speaker 1: you support you. Know, you can have somebody who's got
- 5:58Speaker 1: diametrically opposed values, ideas, or beliefs, or political affiliations or lifestyle.
- 6:03Speaker 1: Doesn't matter. You don't need to be like them, and
- 6:06Speaker 1: they don't need to be like you. You just need to
- 6:08Speaker 1: understand them so that you can coexist harmoniously. Number two
- 6:13Speaker 1: on my list of what forty years of coaching has
- 6:15Speaker 1: taught me is that people will lie about their behaviors.
- 6:19Speaker 1: And this might bother some people, and some people are
- 6:22Speaker 1: going to go, I never lie. Well, if you never lie,
- 6:26Speaker 1: you're a fucking unicorn. You're a human unicorn. Because anyway
- 6:31Speaker 1: people lie, let's not do a let's not do a
- 6:33Speaker 1: show on that. I think I might have done one.
- 6:35Speaker 1: But the truth is that when it comes to how
- 6:39Speaker 1: people eat and how people live, and how much they
- 6:41Speaker 1: drink and how often they exercise, and how committed they
- 6:45Speaker 1: are and what they did last time and what stopped
- 6:49Speaker 1: them last time and what they're when nobody's looking behaviors
- 6:54Speaker 1: and habits are, most people will lie. And that might
- 6:58Speaker 1: not be a popular thing to say, and it might
- 7:00Speaker 1: be a white lie, as my mum says, or it
- 7:04Speaker 1: might be something profound, and it might be every now
- 7:07Speaker 1: and then. You know. It's like when someone says to you,
- 7:10Speaker 1: do you want to go out tonight and hang out
- 7:12Speaker 1: and do this? And the truth is you are free,
- 7:18Speaker 1: but you just don't want to go out with them,
- 7:19Speaker 1: and so you but you don't say, look, I don't
- 7:22Speaker 1: really want to go out with you. I'm free, but
- 7:24Speaker 1: I just don't want to be with you. You'll say, quite often, yeah,
- 7:28Speaker 1: look i'd love to, or yeah I can't because I've
- 7:30Speaker 1: got this on all that on right. Well that's a lie,
- 7:32Speaker 1: that's an absolute lie. But it's a lie for a reason.
- 7:34Speaker 1: I'm not endorsing line. I'm just saying this is part
- 7:37Speaker 1: of the human experience. This is what happens. People fib
- 7:42Speaker 1: people bend the truth, people, you know, whatever you want
- 7:45Speaker 1: to call it. If it's not true, it's a lie.
- 7:47Speaker 1: And then so I would need to go into all
- 7:50Speaker 1: of my consultations and negotiations and interactions with clients, especially
- 7:57Speaker 1: when it comes to pera habits and personal behaviors, because
- 8:04Speaker 1: it is very hard to be totally vulnerable and honest
- 8:08Speaker 1: and real and authentic when we are talking about our
- 8:13Speaker 1: body or our values, or our beliefs, or the habits
- 8:20Speaker 1: that are not always productive or healthy. It takes real
- 8:25Speaker 1: courage to be able to do that. And all of us,
- 8:29Speaker 1: me included. Have I ever lied? Course, I've lied, course
- 8:32Speaker 1: of li I'd be the biggest liar in the world
- 8:34Speaker 1: if I said I've never lied. And this is what
- 8:37Speaker 1: we do, and we try to be the best people
- 8:39Speaker 1: we can, and I try to I try to be
- 8:43Speaker 1: as honest. I think you probably get the vibe that
- 8:46Speaker 1: I'm pretty honest and pretty straightforward, you know, But knowing
- 8:52Speaker 1: that a lot of people when it comes to this
- 8:54Speaker 1: kind of stuff are going to be somewhat deceptive or
- 8:56Speaker 1: reflective or perhaps you know, not completely truthful. I think
- 9:01Speaker 1: it's just good to know. So for example, I'll give
- 9:04Speaker 1: you one more example. I would say that ninety percent
- 9:08Speaker 1: of the people that I coached over the years who
- 9:10Speaker 1: filled out a food and exercise diary, that is, they
- 9:13Speaker 1: would their mandate for me was to write down everything
- 9:17Speaker 1: that went in their mouth, so whether not that was
- 9:19Speaker 1: one tic tac or a crust of bread, or a
- 9:23Speaker 1: glass of water or a fucking meal out, or their
- 9:28Speaker 1: job was to write down everything that they put in
- 9:30Speaker 1: their body so that we could have an accurate insight
- 9:33Speaker 1: to energy in and energy out micros and macros and
- 9:37Speaker 1: their habits and behaviors and time that they ate and
- 9:39Speaker 1: what they ate, and you know, so that we could
- 9:42Speaker 1: then build a model or a protocol that would work
- 9:44Speaker 1: for them. I would say ninety percent of what what
- 9:49Speaker 1: I saw, not ninety percent of what I saw was bullshit.
- 9:51Speaker 1: But I would say that ninety percent of the people
- 9:53Speaker 1: that filled out diaries would at times intentionally lie to
- 9:58Speaker 1: me or omit some information that is not tell me something,
- 10:04Speaker 1: And I'd say, I'd look at the page and I wouldn't.
- 10:07Speaker 1: I don't know if I always knew, but a lot
- 10:09Speaker 1: of the times I knew. I'd say, Wow, this is
- 10:11Speaker 1: all you've eaten in the last four days, and yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 10:16Speaker 1: And I knew that was bullshit. I knew that was bullshit.
- 10:19Speaker 1: And so many times over over time, when I got
- 10:23Speaker 1: to know people better and I came to understand them
- 10:27Speaker 1: better and we built more trust and respect, they would
- 10:29Speaker 1: tell me that they used to lie because they didn't
- 10:31Speaker 1: want to be embarrassed. And I get it. I've lied
- 10:34Speaker 1: because I don't want to be embarrassed. Also number three
- 10:37Speaker 1: on my what forty years of coaching has taught me
- 10:39Speaker 1: list is And that's going to sound this might sound tough,
- 10:45Speaker 1: but in terms of my clients and the people that
- 10:48Speaker 1: I work with, my relationship with them is coach client
- 10:57Speaker 1: or coach athlete or or mentor mentee. The relationship is
- 11:04Speaker 1: not friend friend, It's not the relationship. It is very
- 11:10Speaker 1: difficult when you have built a different dynamic to a relationship,
- 11:16Speaker 1: and that is this is not a professional relationship anymore,
- 11:21Speaker 1: this is now a friendship. Well, that changes the dynamic
- 11:26Speaker 1: of that relationship, of course, but it also I believe
- 11:31Speaker 1: makes coaching in the sense that I'm talking about it now,
- 11:37Speaker 1: it makes it much more difficult. And while I really
- 11:40Speaker 1: cared about and do care about the people I work with.
- 11:44Speaker 1: First and foremost, I'm their coach. I'm their mentor, I'm
- 11:48Speaker 1: their teacher. My job is not to make them feel good.
- 11:53Speaker 1: My job is not to be their friend. My job
- 11:55Speaker 1: is not to stroke their ego or to make them
- 11:59Speaker 1: feel emotionally great for three minutes. My job is to
- 12:02Speaker 1: literally help them step into self awareness and accountability and
- 12:07Speaker 1: self regulation and self management, and to help them build
- 12:11Speaker 1: mental toughness and resilience so that they can become fucking amazing,
- 12:16Speaker 1: so that they can optimize their mind and body and
- 12:19Speaker 1: resources and they can produce better outcomes. My job is
- 12:23Speaker 1: to coach them to succeed. That's my job. That's the
- 12:27Speaker 1: role I take when I work with people. That's what
- 12:30Speaker 1: I want to do, that's what I'm good at the
- 12:33Speaker 1: moment that where buddies hanging out. That fucks things up.
- 12:38Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean I don't have friends. That doesn't
- 12:41Speaker 1: mean I don't want friends. That doesn't mean that it's
- 12:44Speaker 1: never happened that a client has become a close friend,
- 12:47Speaker 1: but rarely really, because I think what is best for
- 12:52Speaker 1: that person is that we maintain this coach, client or coach,
- 12:57Speaker 1: athlete or mental mental relationship, because that's what tends to
- 13:01Speaker 1: produce the best results. You as somebody who wants to
- 13:08Speaker 1: let's say, let's talk about you potentially as a client
- 13:11Speaker 1: or a mentee or a student of whoever. If you
- 13:14Speaker 1: have a coach, somebody in your life that you want
- 13:17Speaker 1: to help you fulfill your potential, explore your talent and possibilities,
- 13:24Speaker 1: and to create positive change and to build success, whatever
- 13:27Speaker 1: that means for you, I would strongly advise you to
- 13:32Speaker 1: find the person who is going to not necessarily be
- 13:38Speaker 1: the most comfortable for you to be around, but the
- 13:41Speaker 1: person that genuinely wants to help you succeed, the person
- 13:47Speaker 1: that will tell you, as I always say, what you
- 13:51Speaker 1: need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear.
- 13:54Speaker 1: I care about my clients, But do I care that
- 13:58Speaker 1: for the next five minutes that they're grumpy at me,
- 14:00Speaker 1: or pissed off at me, or don't like me? For
- 14:03Speaker 1: I don't care. I really don't care, because it's deeper
- 14:07Speaker 1: than that. It's bigger than that. If I care that
- 14:10Speaker 1: they're a bit, you know, they've got their nose out
- 14:13Speaker 1: of joint because I gave them a truth. They didn't
- 14:15Speaker 1: want to hear in the moment, or they're a little
- 14:16Speaker 1: bit pissed off at me, or or they don't like
- 14:20Speaker 1: me as much as I would like to like them
- 14:22Speaker 1: to like me. Right, Well, that's about my insecurity and
- 14:25Speaker 1: my fear, and my ego and my bullshit. I am
- 14:29Speaker 1: way more interested in how well my clients can improvise, adapt, overcome,
- 14:34Speaker 1: survive and thrive over the next few years, few decades
- 14:39Speaker 1: than I am in how much they like me for
- 14:41Speaker 1: the next few minutes or how comfortable they are for
- 14:44Speaker 1: the next few minutes. And if you are a coach,
- 14:48Speaker 1: mentor teacher, I would my advice is for you to
- 14:51Speaker 1: be that version. Doesn't mean you don't care, just means
- 14:55Speaker 1: you're giving people what they need to become resilient and strong.
- 15:00Speaker 1: People don't need to have their handheld, not in this capacity,
- 15:05Speaker 1: there are times when people do, but in this capacity
- 15:08Speaker 1: as a coach, as a high performance coach, then people
- 15:12Speaker 1: need you to help them to help themselves. Number four. Wow,
- 15:18Speaker 1: this is taken longer than I thought. Number four on
- 15:21Speaker 1: my list is that most things, not all things, but
- 15:25Speaker 1: most things most times are on a level a mind problem,
- 15:31Speaker 1: a mind challenge, a mind and also a mind solution.
- 15:36Speaker 1: While many of my projects, many of my responsibilities, have
- 15:43Speaker 1: been to help people change some kind of outcome with
- 15:46Speaker 1: their body, or with their sport, or with their business,
- 15:49Speaker 1: or with their study, or with relationships they were in,
- 15:53Speaker 1: or communication, or some kind of tangible, measurable outcome, what
- 16:00Speaker 1: was underlying the poor performance or the lack of outcomes,
- 16:06Speaker 1: or the ineffective protocol, or the inability to keep doing
- 16:11Speaker 1: the work. What was the underlying problem was often the mind.
- 16:16Speaker 1: So if like for example, helping someone get in shape physically,
- 16:21Speaker 1: sometimes the body is not the problem. Sometimes the body's
- 16:24Speaker 1: just the consequence of the problem. The problem is what's
- 16:27Speaker 1: happening in the mind. And what's happening in the mind
- 16:29Speaker 1: is bad choices, is bad behaviors. Emanating from those bad choices,
- 16:35Speaker 1: is self pity, is self doubt, is self sabotage, all
- 16:39Speaker 1: of these mind problems that have physical consequences. And so
- 16:44Speaker 1: while we do need a practical physical strategy, for example,
- 16:48Speaker 1: with helping someone get fit, lane, strong, functional, healthy, we
- 16:51Speaker 1: do need a practical physiological clinical approach to that, of
- 16:55Speaker 1: course we do, but also in conjunction with that, or
- 16:58Speaker 1: perhaps even before for that, we really need to help
- 17:02Speaker 1: people to be able to understand what is happening in
- 17:05Speaker 1: that space between their ears, because some people have got
- 17:09Speaker 1: good enough genetics and good enough knowledge, and good enough
- 17:12Speaker 1: resources and quite enough time, but what they don't have
- 17:16Speaker 1: is a mindset or an attitude or a set of
- 17:19Speaker 1: beliefs that are going to help them create lasting change.
- 17:24Speaker 1: And so while I really needed to understand, as I
- 17:29Speaker 1: said in my first point, the person, I needed to
- 17:33Speaker 1: understand sometimes what were the cognitive and or psychological or
- 17:36Speaker 1: emotional limitations that were going to stand in the way
- 17:40Speaker 1: of their potential and possibilities and deal with that stuff first.
- 17:45Speaker 1: The next thing I learned in forty years of coaching
- 17:48Speaker 1: was that I as a coach that me Craig Harper,
- 17:53Speaker 1: I need to walk my talk. I need to be
- 17:57Speaker 1: not that people need to look to me or inspiration,
- 18:01Speaker 1: but I need to make sure that the things that
- 18:04Speaker 1: I talk about, the things that I allegedly represent, the
- 18:08Speaker 1: things that I say are important. When I talk about
- 18:12Speaker 1: my values, when I talk about what matters to me,
- 18:15Speaker 1: when I talk about what is success for me, that
- 18:19Speaker 1: it needs to be apparent to people not because of
- 18:24Speaker 1: what I say, but because of how I live. That
- 18:28Speaker 1: I am authentic that I am living in alignment. Think
- 18:32Speaker 1: about the people that you know that say one thing
- 18:34Speaker 1: and do another. Think about the people that you've met
- 18:38Speaker 1: or seen or observed or perhaps no firsthand really well,
- 18:42Speaker 1: that live out of alignment. And they might be articulate,
- 18:45Speaker 1: and they might be knowledgeable, and they might be charismatic,
- 18:48Speaker 1: and they might be charming. But you know that away
- 18:51Speaker 1: from the person the persona and away from the spotlight
- 18:56Speaker 1: and away from the public gaze, you know that are
- 19:00Speaker 1: full of shit. You know that they don't do what
- 19:03Speaker 1: they say. You know that they don't do what they
- 19:06Speaker 1: tell others to do. And I've said this before, and
- 19:09Speaker 1: I've been open and honest about this. There were times
- 19:13Speaker 1: when I was teaching people, telling people, instructing, coaching people
- 19:18Speaker 1: to do things that I wasn't even doing consistently myself.
- 19:24Speaker 1: And at that time, I believe that I wasn't trying
- 19:28Speaker 1: to be but I was. I was a fraud. I
- 19:31Speaker 1: was something of an impostor because I wasn't even doing
- 19:38Speaker 1: the things that I knew to do because for a
- 19:42Speaker 1: range of reasons that I won't go into. And you know,
- 19:47Speaker 1: for me, this is an ever present awareness that I
- 19:50Speaker 1: have that I need to be congruent. I need to
- 19:54Speaker 1: be in alignment. I need to be authentic. One of
- 19:58Speaker 1: the biggest compliments for me is when people meet me
- 20:03Speaker 1: and they say to me, oh, wow, you're exactly like
- 20:06Speaker 1: you are on the show. You exactly like, oh, you're
- 20:10Speaker 1: just the same, And I love that. I love that
- 20:13Speaker 1: because that means the crag that you're hearing now is
- 20:16Speaker 1: the crag that you'll talk to at the cafe, is
- 20:18Speaker 1: the crag that you'll you know, chat to at the
- 20:20Speaker 1: event or wherever we might bump into each other. And
- 20:23Speaker 1: for me, that is that is who I want to
- 20:26Speaker 1: be and how I want to be. That's not to
- 20:28Speaker 1: say that I'm always perfect and you know, I never
- 20:32Speaker 1: fuck up, of course it's not that, but but I
- 20:34Speaker 1: think that as a coach and as a teacher, and
- 20:36Speaker 1: as somebody i'm talking about potentially, you know, but as
- 20:40Speaker 1: somebody that people look up to or will look up
- 20:42Speaker 1: to or want to rely on or trust or respect.
- 20:47Speaker 1: It is crucial that obviously for ourselves that we just
- 20:50Speaker 1: walk our talk, you know that we're in alignment, because
- 20:53Speaker 1: it's just the thing to do, but also that people
- 20:58Speaker 1: know who you are, not because of what you talk
- 21:01Speaker 1: about but because they observe you, they see you, they
- 21:05Speaker 1: see how you live, they see how you You know,
- 21:07Speaker 1: people can go to the gym seven days a week,
- 21:09Speaker 1: they'll see me there. I don't talk about training and
- 21:12Speaker 1: not train. I don't talk about stuff that I don't do.
- 21:15Speaker 1: You know, I can you can watch me in public.
- 21:19Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure there's not going to be too many
- 21:21Speaker 1: things you'll catch me out. I'm not inviting you to
- 21:24Speaker 1: do that. By that sounds creepy, doesn't it. It's not
- 21:27Speaker 1: a personal challenge. What's my point? My point is that
- 21:31Speaker 1: all of us, you me, it's in our interest if
- 21:35Speaker 1: we want to be a respected coach, mentor teacher, to
- 21:38Speaker 1: ensure that that the theory that we teach is the
- 21:42Speaker 1: reality that we live. My next one is that while
- 21:47Speaker 1: people like the idea of change, like how many people
- 21:51Speaker 1: have you spoken to? How many thousands of people have
- 21:54Speaker 1: I spoken to? Who want to talk to me about?
- 21:57Speaker 1: How do I do this? How do I change that?
- 21:58Speaker 1: How do I get more of this less of that?
- 22:00Speaker 1: How do I how do I overcome that? How do
- 22:03Speaker 1: I build this? How do I learn that? How do
- 22:05Speaker 1: I you know, all of this is theory, how do
- 22:07Speaker 1: I how do I how do I What have I
- 22:09Speaker 1: got to do? What have I got to do? More
- 22:10Speaker 1: of less so and so on and so even with
- 22:13Speaker 1: this this you know, this show right now, this episode,
- 22:16Speaker 1: right now, you're listening to me talk. It's half an
- 22:19Speaker 1: hour or so of or however long it ends up
- 22:21Speaker 1: being half an hour or so of theory of ideas
- 22:24Speaker 1: of me talking. Right. But the value, the value in
- 22:29Speaker 1: the theory, the value in the ideas or the protocols
- 22:33Speaker 1: or the strategies, the value for you comes down to
- 22:36Speaker 1: your ability to operationalize the things that for you are relevant,
- 22:42Speaker 1: the things that for you are important, or perhaps the
- 22:47Speaker 1: things that for you need to be implemented. And there
- 22:50Speaker 1: might be one thing that I say today, one thing
- 22:54Speaker 1: that you know, shit, I should do that, or I
- 22:56Speaker 1: should stop that, or I should do more of that
- 22:58Speaker 1: or less of that. Well, then the challenge is not
- 23:01Speaker 1: that you've heard it or that you've had that light
- 23:03Speaker 1: bulb moment, and both of those things are good. But
- 23:06Speaker 1: the real challenge is what you do with that, Because,
- 23:11Speaker 1: like I just said, the idea of change is not
- 23:13Speaker 1: the reality. People love the idea because the idea, the theory,
- 23:16Speaker 1: the intention of change, the intention of personal growth, the
- 23:20Speaker 1: intention of getting fit and strong and building a business
- 23:23Speaker 1: and doing a course and overcoming a habit and creating
- 23:26Speaker 1: positive out. All that shit is easy when it's just
- 23:29Speaker 1: a theory, because you don't have to roll up your sleeves,
- 23:32Speaker 1: you don't have to get uncomfortable, you don't have to
- 23:34Speaker 1: step into the uncertainty, you don't actually need to do
- 23:38Speaker 1: anything because you're still just fucking living in the theory.
- 23:43Speaker 1: And this stuff becomes real when we step out of
- 23:47Speaker 1: the theory, step into the process, step into the doing,
- 23:52Speaker 1: step into the messiness and the chaos and the discomfort
- 23:56Speaker 1: of doing the work. Let's do a couple more. So,
- 24:00Speaker 1: I've got three. I think so that this next one
- 24:02Speaker 1: is really interesting, and this is quite different to all
- 24:05Speaker 1: the others, but I just thought I would chuck it in.
- 24:08Speaker 1: And that is forty years of coaching has taught me,
- 24:11Speaker 1: or it's given me real insight into the how do
- 24:16Speaker 1: I say this, the psychology of value? The psychology of value?
- 24:22Speaker 1: Think about you know, any coach, any professional coach or
- 24:25Speaker 1: dietitian or I don't know, mentor or personal trainer or
- 24:31Speaker 1: xis physiologist or gardener, or anyone who basically sells a
- 24:37Speaker 1: time for money or a skill for money. At some
- 24:41Speaker 1: stage there's a psychological agreement and a professional agreement on
- 24:51Speaker 1: what it is I'm going to Let's say it's you
- 24:54Speaker 1: and me, what I'm going to give you and what
- 24:57Speaker 1: you're going to get, and in return, what you're going
- 25:00Speaker 1: to give me back for the thing. And so this
- 25:03Speaker 1: is about perceived value. So if I said to you, hey,
- 25:10Speaker 1: do you want to do some coaching with me? And
- 25:13Speaker 1: you said, Craig, I would love to do a one
- 25:15Speaker 1: on one session with you, and I said, all right,
- 25:18Speaker 1: it's nine dollars fifty. Now, there's every chance that you
- 25:23Speaker 1: would think, what the fuck is wrong with him? Nine
- 25:27Speaker 1: dollars fifty? I don't understand. I don't understand. What do
- 25:32Speaker 1: you mean nine dollars fifty? I go, it's nine dollars fifty?
- 25:34Speaker 1: Is that okay with you? And you go how long
- 25:36Speaker 1: is that for? And I go an hour and you
- 25:40Speaker 1: go it's nine. Now there's this, there's this incongruence, or
- 25:44Speaker 1: there's this there's this kind of disconnect between because you
- 25:51Speaker 1: would have had an expectation of maybe what you think
- 25:53Speaker 1: it's going to cost, and then all of a sudden
- 25:55Speaker 1: you're like, well, he's maybe it's not the same Craig Harper.
- 26:00Speaker 1: Maybe it's a is it a different Craig Harper? Because
- 26:03Speaker 1: I'm not going to get a coaching session with him
- 26:05Speaker 1: for nine dollars fifty Or you might go, Craig, how
- 26:09Speaker 1: much is it for an hour? And I go, it's
- 26:10Speaker 1: two grand? But if you pay right now, you can
- 26:14Speaker 1: have it for seventeen hundred, and then you'd think, fucking
- 26:17Speaker 1: he is he on drugs? Is he on seventeen Fuck
- 26:21Speaker 1: you're coaching? Right? So there's this kind of unwritten understanding
- 26:27Speaker 1: that we have of kind of what things are worth
- 26:30Speaker 1: right now. If you are a coach, or you are
- 26:33Speaker 1: a let's even say you're a psychologist working for yourself,
- 26:37Speaker 1: or you're a dietitian or a trainer or anyone who
- 26:41Speaker 1: like I said, you could be a landscape gardener, you
- 26:43Speaker 1: could be a painter, you could be a mechanic, it
- 26:45Speaker 1: doesn't matter. But if you work for you, then at
- 26:48Speaker 1: some stage the psychology or the perception of what you
- 26:53Speaker 1: are worth is going to come into play. Now. I
- 26:56Speaker 1: am not talking about ripping people off or scamming people,
- 27:00Speaker 1: but if I said to you, let's say you've got
- 27:02Speaker 1: a paint, I'm just star. I don't know why I
- 27:03Speaker 1: saw this. But let's say you've got to paint a
- 27:05Speaker 1: fence and it's three meters long ago. Here's the paint,
- 27:07Speaker 1: here's the fence. It's going to take you two hours.
- 27:11Speaker 1: And you're like, all right, I've got the paint, I've
- 27:12Speaker 1: got the drop sheet, i've got the fence. It's going
- 27:14Speaker 1: to take me two hours. It's a nice day. Cool.
- 27:17Speaker 1: I'll listen to Harps on the You Project and I'll
- 27:20Speaker 1: paint the fucking fence, and I go, I'm going to
- 27:24Speaker 1: give you one hundred and fifty bucks and I'm going
- 27:27Speaker 1: to supply all the stuff. You're like, wow, seventy five
- 27:30Speaker 1: dollars an hour. Now, depending on who you are and
- 27:32Speaker 1: what you currently get paid, you might go, yeah, that's
- 27:34Speaker 1: about me, or you might go, fuck, you're seventy five
- 27:37Speaker 1: dollars an hour. I'm worth one hundred and fifty dollars
- 27:41Speaker 1: or three hundred dollars or whatever it is, or you go,
- 27:43Speaker 1: fuck seventy five dollars an hour. That's amazing. And it's
- 27:46Speaker 1: not really about the money, as it is about your
- 27:48Speaker 1: perception of that money, and it's not really about what
- 27:51Speaker 1: Craig Harper is worth per hour, but rather what you
- 27:54Speaker 1: think I'm worth per hour. And it's not about what
- 27:57Speaker 1: you as somebody who is selling your time. I am
- 28:00Speaker 1: your skill and your knowledge. It's not about what. It's
- 28:04Speaker 1: not like there is some absolute number. No, there is
- 28:09Speaker 1: just the perception that people have of you and what
- 28:11Speaker 1: they believe you are worth. So when over the years
- 28:15Speaker 1: many trainers have said to me something like I know
- 28:19Speaker 1: I'm worth one hundred and fifty dollars an hour, and
- 28:23Speaker 1: I say, how do you know. I'm not trying to
- 28:25Speaker 1: be discouraging or negative. I'm asking and they go, well,
- 28:29Speaker 1: I just know now, while positive thinking is good, I go,
- 28:35Speaker 1: all right, so you know you're worth one hundred and
- 28:37Speaker 1: fifty an hour? Can I ask how many people are
- 28:40Speaker 1: paying you that? Usually the answer is none. I go, well,
- 28:44Speaker 1: what are they paying? And the answer might be eighty
- 28:47Speaker 1: or seventy or ninety or whatever, and I go, okay,
- 28:49Speaker 1: so one hundred and fifty is pretty much double what
- 28:53Speaker 1: you're getting. I'm not saying that you can never get
- 28:56Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars. I'm saying what are people
- 29:00Speaker 1: prepared to pay now for you? And that's not to
- 29:05Speaker 1: say that that person can't earn one hundred and fifty bucks.
- 29:08Speaker 1: It's to say, if you want your hourly rate, if
- 29:13Speaker 1: you want your skill to be valued more highly, if
- 29:18Speaker 1: you want there to be a perception of excellence and
- 29:25Speaker 1: worth and value, then you need to create that. You
- 29:31Speaker 1: need you need to be able to do what you
- 29:34Speaker 1: do at a high level, especially when you are swimming
- 29:37Speaker 1: in an ocean of people who are doing similar things.
- 29:41Speaker 1: You need to give people a reason if you are
- 29:44Speaker 1: a coach to want to be coached in whatever whatever
- 29:49Speaker 1: kind of coach you are, or whatever kind of landscape
- 29:53Speaker 1: guarden you are, or whatever kind of corporate speaker you are,
- 29:57Speaker 1: or whatever kind of service you offer you. We need
- 30:00Speaker 1: to be able to give people a reason to say, Look,
- 30:02Speaker 1: I know there are lots of fill in the blank,
- 30:05Speaker 1: but this guy, this girl is fucking amazing. I know
- 30:09Speaker 1: there are lots of dieticians around, but you need to
- 30:11Speaker 1: go and see Donna, you need to go and see whoever.
- 30:15Speaker 1: I know there are lots of trainers, but this guy's
- 30:17Speaker 1: a fucking superstar. I know there are lots of people
- 30:20Speaker 1: that could paint your house, but this bloke, this girl
- 30:24Speaker 1: is amazing, Right, And so it's understanding that and then
- 30:29Speaker 1: then with that thinking to yourself and starting to consciously
- 30:33Speaker 1: work on building that perception in an authentic way. And
- 30:41Speaker 1: so the easiest way to do that, by the way,
- 30:44Speaker 1: is not despite what people might tell you, is to
- 30:46Speaker 1: just chuck endless fucking things on Instagram or social media.
- 30:49Speaker 1: And does that work for somebody? Yes, for some people, yes,
- 30:52Speaker 1: it does for a while and in a limited way.
- 30:55Speaker 1: But if let's say that you know you are selling,
- 30:59Speaker 1: let's say you're worth X per hour, X dollars per hour,
- 31:02Speaker 1: whatever that is. But all of a sudden, you've got
- 31:04Speaker 1: this brilliant marketing campaign and people are paying five x.
- 31:08Speaker 1: Well when people experience the product, Guess what if you're
- 31:13Speaker 1: giving them a one X product and you're charging them
- 31:17Speaker 1: five x, do you think that's good or bad for
- 31:19Speaker 1: business over time? Because people are not dumb. The best
- 31:23Speaker 1: way for you to build your value, the best way
- 31:26Speaker 1: for you to create that impression of high value is
- 31:31Speaker 1: for you to be fucking great at what you do.
- 31:34Speaker 1: Be great at what you do. When I go to
- 31:37Speaker 1: a company and I'm paid quite well, and let's say
- 31:41Speaker 1: they pay me five X, I go to a company,
- 31:45Speaker 1: I'm doing a forty five or a one hour forty
- 31:47Speaker 1: five minute or one hour keynote, or I'm doing a
- 31:48Speaker 1: three hour workshop or whatever. It is. My intention. If
- 31:53Speaker 1: I'm being paid five x, my intention is to give
- 31:56Speaker 1: them a ten X product and charge them five x.
- 32:00Speaker 1: My intention is to be fucking amazing. Doesn't mean I
- 32:04Speaker 1: always will be, but my intention is to give them
- 32:06Speaker 1: one hundred and ten percent. Silly, I know, one hundred
- 32:11Speaker 1: and ten percent of my energy and my skill and
- 32:15Speaker 1: my knowledge is to give them every I want to
- 32:18Speaker 1: be amazing in that time for them, so that they
- 32:23Speaker 1: feel like they got a bargain even though they're paying
- 32:26Speaker 1: lots of money. And I think that's not the worst strategy.
- 32:31Speaker 1: Let's just do one more. And my last one is this,
- 32:35Speaker 1: coaches plans are good. You need a plan, you need
- 32:39Speaker 1: a strategy. I think it's good to go into a
- 32:43Speaker 1: meeting or a coaching session with you know, some kind
- 32:45Speaker 1: of idea of where you're going and what you're going
- 32:47Speaker 1: to do do and potentially have some kind of framework
- 32:50Speaker 1: that you typically work within. But it is maybe even
- 32:55Speaker 1: more important that you can throw all that shit out
- 32:58Speaker 1: if you need to. Sometimes having a set plan, a
- 33:03Speaker 1: set protocol, a set framework which is rigid, which is
- 33:08Speaker 1: not flexible. It's I'm going to sit down and I'm
- 33:10Speaker 1: going to coach this person and we're going to go
- 33:12Speaker 1: through steps one to ten. And it doesn't matter how
- 33:16Speaker 1: the fucking session's going. It doesn't matter what I'm seeing
- 33:18Speaker 1: or not seeing, hearing or not hearing. No, because this
- 33:22Speaker 1: is how I do it. This is how I do coaching.
- 33:25Speaker 1: I do coaching this way. Well, guess what that same
- 33:29Speaker 1: protocol might be fucking great for some people and terrible
- 33:34Speaker 1: for In fact, not might will be. It will be
- 33:39Speaker 1: the strategy of the plan or the protocol or the
- 33:41Speaker 1: operating system that is great for me that you coach
- 33:44Speaker 1: me and it works. You coach someone else that doesn't work.
- 33:48Speaker 1: You use that for me and you build connection rapport.
- 33:50Speaker 1: You use it with somebody else, and you build disconnection
- 33:53Speaker 1: and distrust because they don't think you're fucking paying attention,
- 33:57Speaker 1: because they're trying to tell you shit, but you're plowing
- 34:00Speaker 1: on with the process. So plans are good. But so
- 34:04Speaker 1: is adaptability. So is situational awareness. So is the capacity
- 34:09Speaker 1: to be flexible in the moment. Who knew I reckon
- 34:15Speaker 1: I could do another one of those. Let me know
- 34:18Speaker 1: if there was something in that for you. If you
- 34:21Speaker 1: don't follow me on the You Project podcast, or if
- 34:24Speaker 1: you're not a follower or you're not a member of
- 34:27Speaker 1: that group, I'd love you to be one. It's just
- 34:29Speaker 1: called the U Project podcast on a podcast group, I
- 34:33Speaker 1: think it's called on. Some of you know this already,
- 34:36Speaker 1: some of you don't on Facebook. If you've got something
- 34:39Speaker 1: out of this, jump on and let us know. If
- 34:41Speaker 1: you've got any ideas for future kind of coaching or
- 34:46Speaker 1: these kind of monologue or these kind of just me
- 34:49Speaker 1: kind of podcasts. If there's an area or a topic
- 34:52Speaker 1: that you'd like me to explore, I'm happy for you
- 34:56Speaker 1: to give me ideas and make suggestions. Also going to
- 35:00Speaker 1: do a quick plug and that is that on February three.
- 35:03Speaker 1: February three, which is not too far away, my new
- 35:06Speaker 1: ten week mentoring program kicks off. If you like the
- 35:10Speaker 1: way that I teach and coach in these podcasts, then
- 35:14Speaker 1: you're probably going to enjoy that. It's not for everybody,
- 35:19Speaker 1: it's for some, it's not for all. It's not inexpensive,
- 35:25Speaker 1: I think that's another word for expensive. It's ten weeks.
- 35:30Speaker 1: It's a small group, and some people really really enjoy it.
- 35:36Speaker 1: Some people get great value and great benefit. I'm not
- 35:39Speaker 1: good at selling, so I'm not going to try and
- 35:41Speaker 1: sell you on it, but just go to my if
- 35:43Speaker 1: you're interested, just to find out about what it's about.
- 35:46Speaker 1: There's actually a ten week syllabus there of what we're
- 35:48Speaker 1: doing a snapshot of each week's kind of subject matter.
- 35:53Speaker 1: So just go to my website, which is craigharperdot net,
- 35:56Speaker 1: click on education and have a look at that. All right,
- 35:58Speaker 1: your bloody champions say next time