43 - Don't Experiment With Your Clients

Help Best

In this episode, Kenny Markwardt shares how he avoids the temptation to prescribe shiny objects to his clients. he uses the example of ideas from the Tinker group that are just in the brainstorm phase and don't yet have data to support their use for everyone.

0:00: So our last summit was on virtuosity.

0:03: And basically the idea that, you know, just really the, the importance of just continuing to hone in on the basics and really master the basics being all that most of us really need.

0:16: And I think that's incredibly important as mentors to remember that, you know, that's, that's what our people need even at, even at the Tinker level.

0:25: as a Tinker coach, I find that I end up helping people circle back around and really master those basics even when they want to be focusing on the bright and shiny.

0:34: And it's really relevant because I think a lot of us when we're exposed to the, to the bright and shiny new things or the potential distractions and and higher level, what are probably experimental ideas at the Tinker phase, we end up being very tempted to bring those things down to our clients who are in in the first stages of their, their mentorship with us.

1:02: And again, I think the point is is that the basics are proven, the basics have been working time and time and time and time again.

1:11: And so it's really unfair to them to bring any distractions in when they haven't mastered the basics.

1:19: And what I find is that the continual circling back around to those basics is what's most effective.

1:26: And then as a, as a matter of progress and a matter of, of trial and error, once they've really dove into those basics and they have tried those basics over and over and over and over again and they've refined those basics over and over and over again and they've, you know, polished it to a diamond then I think, yeah, it certainly it can be relevant to try and mess with the, the recipe a little bit and try some more advanced stuff.

1:56: But I find that to be incredibly rare and my, some of my bigger mistakes and, and mentorship have been introducing some of those higher level ideas to the, let's say, just say for lack of a better word, lower level clients.

2:12: And I think it, you know, for me, a, a great parallel for this is fitness.

2:18: I mean, my, my primary language is still fitness.

2:21: I still love the gym.

2:22: I still love working with people and I still love that.

2:24: And so as far as that pertains to this, it's, it's the, the virtuosity of the basics still remain.

2:31: And even though like, for example, in my gym right now, we're playing around with blood flow restriction training and we're not doing that with any clients at all.

2:40: We're doing that as coaches and we're just trying to learn and experiment and I'm refusing, we're, I'm advocating that we refuse to talk to anybody about this until we understand it, until we see the benefits or the, the drawbacks until we fully see what the results will be.

2:59: And until we find that client that is the perfect fit for it, there's not a chance in the world, we're gonna introduce that idea to somebody.

3:08: And again, it's the same just as another, another parallel.

3:11: It's for looking at the terms of like most of us have had group members or, or members who think they need more.

3:18: They think they need to follow this crazy advanced program design that they found online where most of them realistically are not good enough to need anything like that.

3:30: And you know, a lot of us can probably imagine that person who can barely squat to parallel, but who's following the, the competitor level program design that they found online.

3:41: And the, again, the, the relevance to that is that th those people would be so much better served by working on their, their mobility and their range of motion and their quality of movements and their quality of the basics before they went into the advanced stuff.

3:58: And that focusing on that advanced stuff is massively to their detriment, even though it might be entertaining in the short term, it's incredibly counterproductive in the long term.

4:08: And so again, I think that it's our responsibility to put the blinders on them and keep them focused on those basics until they are at a point where they're comfortable experimenting and they're comfortable understanding that, you know, they may have some, some leeway for which to experiment, which a lot of us are doing in that Tinker program.

4:31: A lot of us are hearing about new ideas that are being used for the first time and we really don't know what the outcome is going to be necessarily, it sounds good in theory.

4:40: But as the tip of the spear in that program, we have the opportunity, we have the financial padding, we have the experience for which we can play with that stuff and not completely grenade our businesses in that experimental stage.

4:54: So again, the point I think I'm trying to make is that it's really our responsibility to keep the basics at the forefront and continue to help our people master the basics.

5:04: And once they've worked on one set of basics, then we move on to the next set of basics.

5:08: And then in my opinion, there's really no shortage of the there's no, there's not necessarily an end to that cycle.

5:16: And again, what I've found is that even at all stages, I'm having to work on the basics.

5:19: So point being focus on the basics don't let your distractions become your mentees, distractions and keep them marching forward on the basics.