What. A. Year. What else can I say?
2020 was a strange and scary one to say the least, not just for me and you, but everybody…worldwide. People lost their businesses, savings, livelihoods, and much worse, their lives or those of family and friends due to a global pandemic. The world changed in front of our eyes, and many are still reeling from the consequences. There are a lot of lessons to be learned in times like these and I wanted to take a look back on the past 12 months and share some of what I acquired throughout.
Sorry if my thoughts seem scattered throughout this post. I wanted to capture a lot of what I remembered most about the past year and reflect on the overarching themes in as few words as possible. I could probably write for days, but tried to tie it together in a few hours instead. Here are three big things I took away from 2020:
1 – RUNNING A BUSINESS IS HARD… AND EXTREMELY REWARDING
I started 2020 grinding away at my own personal training brand in the mornings, and coaching semi-private sessions and group classes as an employee at a private gym in Pitt Meadows in the afternoons and evenings. Often, I’d have 3 DHP sessions in the morning starting at 6:00am, drive to Pitt and coach a 6 hour shift, getting home at 9:00pm to eat dinner, study, and sleep. Then, I’d do it all again the next day. And the next. I didn’t see my wife or my family as much as I’d have liked. When the pandemic hit in March, gyms closed and I was forced out of work. I spent more time than I ever had with my kids – it was amazing. Bank accounts shrunk, but my joy and happiness grew. I knew what I had to do for them when I could work again and it forced me to take the plunge and pursue DHP full-time – no more back up plan. I started being more active on social media: posting videos, tweeting thoughts, writing blogs. Then when gyms could open again on July 1, it was game on. I got my regular clients back, plus more. With that comes more expenses – equipment, scheduling software, Quickbooks. More time invested – in the gym, writing programs, reading, creating content, making videos (this is the most time-consuming process on the entire planet!), remitting sales taxes. More important and difficult decisions – pricing, not negotiating rates, days off(?). Days off? With the exception of government mandated shutdowns, I can count the total amount of days I took off completely from the gym in 2020 on my own two hands.
It was hard. It IS hard. But above all else, it’s extremely rewarding. I’m proud of how my business has evolved in the last year. I’m even more proud of the results my clients are getting and the trust and loyalty they’ve shown me. The summer of 2020 was the THIRD off-season that one of my hockey players trained with me. He did his first chin ups ever in August. I was so happy for him. A youth goalie that I’ve trained for over a year and a half is getting calls from the local hockey Academies because they want him to play for them. I’m proud of him. I started training his whole family. His mom has trained religiously twice a week just before the pandemic, and again from June to the present achieving dramatic body composition training and running 110km this December. I’m so proud of her – she just texted me her new goal of 1005km in 2021. I trained a 75-year-old grandma for 6 weeks. At the end of one of her sessions she told me that she got out of the bath without holding the railing with no pain for the first time. This is the type of stuff that keeps me going. It’s so fulfilling to see people embrace themselves and achieve success. I got the opportunity to start coaching my mom due to the closures of her usual work out spots – she did her first push up after a month or two. Recently, she did her first lifetime chin up AND SHE’S 62! I’m more excited than ever to continue on this path of entrepreneurship and help people along the way.
2 – COMMUNICATION IS EVERYTHING
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
This was I quote that I learned on my first day at Envision Fitness from my mentor Kari. I don’t know where it came from, but it might be the single most important thing to consider when communicating with people. And communication, folks, is LIFE. In 2020, I focussed more than ever on tuning in to what I was communicating. I should revise that – not just what, but how and why, I was delivering a message, or even if it needed to be delivered at all. In a current climate of online video communication, texts, and emails, in-person conversations are more important than ever. I DON’T TAKE THAT FOR GRANTED. Look people in the eyes, be honest, say what you mean and mean what you say. I revisited my coaching cues and worked tremendously hard at weaving stories into my sessions and relating what we were doing to my clients’ goals. Fortunately, while many people were stuck at home, glued to their computer monitors all day, I was able to have real, in-person interactions daily; that means a lot of practice. With some of my clients, I knew that I might be the only person outside of their household that they got to interact with in real life. I needed to be able to communicate that I cared about them and their why. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be a good coach and people would look elsewhere. I’m still working on my communication skills and so should you. I was the kid who didn’t answer the phone because it gave me anxiety, now I interact with people for a living. Here are two text messages that I received recently from parents of teenage athletes I train:
This feedback doesn’t happen because I understand physiology or muscle adaptation, or because I prescribed the “perfect” set and rep schemes or exercise selection. These kids enjoy the experience and the process – the physical results are just a bonus. As part of my continuing communication practice, I’ve been working on 3 main communication strategies:
- Be Clear
- Know what message I want to get across and lose the fluff. If someone doesn’t understand what I’m saying, it’s on me to deliver it in a better way.
- Don’t Use Jargon
- Use common language and do not overcomplicate my message by using terms or words that are unfamiliar to most. We may think it makes us sounder smarter, but really it muddies the message.
- Know My Audience
- Relate what I’m communicating to something that has meaning to the individual in front of me, not why I think it matters.
3 – I CAN ACTUALLY HELP A LOT OF PEOPLE
This was sort of a revelation for me. In the 3 years I’ve been coaching people, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with a very diverse population. I’ve trained 75-year-old grandmothers, 11-year-old lacrosse girls, retirees with hip and knee replacements, junior and pro hockey players, middle aged parents, and everyone else in between. I’ve coached groups of 15 or more, as well as private 1-on-1 sessions. All of the hours logged are now indelibly part of my training philosophy.
As I continue to broaden my knowledge base through reading and continuing education, I can draw on all these past experiences to provide the best care and training I can – for anyone. A lot of people get into strength and conditioning or fitness with the intent of training professional athletes as the be all, end all; it doesn’t really work that way and I get just as much, or more, satisfaction from helping someone get out of pain and functioning normally in real-life than I do enhancing sports performance. In 2021, I’m looking forward to helping more and more people in many different situations and aiding in their quest to look, feel, and perform better.
With these three big things in mind, I march into 2021 full of optimism. Next week I’ll share three big things that I’m looking forward to this year, including the opening of the DHP Private Training Studio – a fully equipped, completely private space to deliver the best training experience in the Greater Vancouver Area. Stay tuned.
What did you take away from 2020? Let me know in the comments.
Get strong, stay strong.
Coach Dex
