How to Upgrade Your Confidence as a Powerlifting Coach with Weston Hirschauer

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 260. Today I'm sitting down with Coach Weston and we're discussing how to upgrade your competence and confidence as a powerlifting coach. Are you ready? Let's get started. Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up coach? Thank you so much for pushing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and if this is the first time you're hanging out with me today, welcome. I'm super pumped that you're here. I'm really excited to bring to you this episode with Coach Weston. He is a powerlifting coach that is originally from Iowa and has since now transplanted his business his career as the owner of good lift performance as a powerlifting coach now in Colorado. He's also a work from home dad and the primary caregiver for his almost two year old baby. Which we talk about inside of this episode today. And this is an incredible episode. Whether you are a new coach, whether you're experienced coach, we talk about a lot of really important components to starting and growing a business, especially when you are completely starting over from scratch or even in a new location. Weston shares his journey of how he got into powerlifting, how he transformed his life from losing 70 pounds unhealthily as a high schooler, how he was able to go down the rabbit hole of being incredibly successful and you know, looking back in terms of hindsight and always and recognizing the areas of opportunity that he has now since recovered from and learned from and how he's been able to integrate his expertise and turn it into a profitable business. Now there's some really powerful components in this episode that if you master you, you really truly can accomplish anything. The INV components to how he shifts his thoughts, how he helps his athletes do the same, how he can really step into confidence himself as a coach by trusting himself and going all in, which will just magnetize himself as the go to coach and then really owning his expertise and his network to know that if he there's something he doesn't know, he is networked in and able to solve the problem. So this is a powerful episode. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. Weston, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm doing great. How are you?

I'm doing so good. I cannot wait to dive into today's conversation. So for those of you who are tuning in and you've never been introduced to Weston's incredible work before, can you please share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and you got there?

Yeah, for sure. So my name is Wesson Hershauer. I am a powering coach in Boulder, Colorado. Actually I'm originally from Iowa. I moved out here with my wife in 2019 and have slowly integrated myself into the local powerlifting community.

So what brought you from Iowa to Colorado?

So originally I met my wife at Iowa State University, but she's actually from Colorado. So we or she had an opportunity to move out here for teaching. And so that's what brought us out here as well as her family move was moved to Illinois for a job back in the day and then moved back out here. So it was, we moved out here to be closer to family, which has definitely helped. Now that we have a one year old or almost two now, time, time is really flying. So we have a, we have an almost two year old which I also am the primary caregiver for. So besides being a power coach, I'm also a stay at home dad and juggle lots of hats with that.

I love it. So now what brought you to powerlifting specifically? Were you studying this in Iowa? Were you, are you a competitor? Like how did you get into powerlifting and coaching? Powerlifting specifically?

Yeah. So I think a lot of people, you know, get into fitness with some type of transformation. And so my transformation was a weight loss one where growing up I was overweight for the like from elementary school all the way up until like the beginning of high school. And then I eventually or right in my freshman year of high school I decided that I didn't want to be overweight anymore. It was sort of this like aha moment of all right. I, if I want to change, I have to take control of that. I can't. I was before. I would just like hope and wish that I could be in shape. But then it real I realized, oh wait, I have to make those choices myself. So my freshman year I, I lost 70 pounds in about six months which was not the healthiest way to lose it. I over exercised and under 8 but I lost the weight and then I realized that I didn't do it very well. So that Got me into researching and looking up how can I do this better so I don't continue to make mistakes?

And then, hey, wait, can we just press pause on that real quick? I want to go back to that. Okay. That is huge. And when you say that you lost £70 in six months and you realize that you did it awfully. What. How did you figure that out? Did you gain it all back and then. And like, did you feel like, like crap? I mean, you're, you're luckily, luckily you're a kid, essentially as a freshman in high school. So our bodies are super resilient. But I'm just curious, like, how did you know that?

Yeah, so it honestly, it was a little bit more in hindsight where, so I lost all the weight and then I, I didn't have a lot of muscle in my frame, so like, oh, I should try to put on muscle. So that kind of led me down that rabbit hole. And then I realized, oh, I basically just starred myself and did copious amounts of exercise. So it was a little bit of hindsight. But ultimately what led me was I lost a ton of weight, but then I wasn't very. I didn't, I still didn't look the way I wanted to look. So then that kind of took me further down the rabbit hole. So that pretty much started off my obsession with fitness. And that started at the beginning of my high school career. And then graduating high school, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in fitness. So that led me to Iowa State where I pursued my bachelor's in exercise science. And then going to college, I realized that I wanted to kind of shift my training from how I looked to more strength training. That started popping up really in about 2014 time. And so I got into that going into my freshman year of college. And then that's where I joined the Iowa State powerlifting team that we actually had. We were lucky. Where we actually had our own facility. It was this sort of dungeon esque room underneath the recreation center. We. So like you had to pay a small membership fee to get in. And it was a, it was a student club, but we actually had our own, like, gym where we actually had powerlifting equipment all to ourselves. And so that was a really unique opportunity. So I was able to join the team, make lots of friends, make lots of lifelong friends. And that's kind of how I got started into powerlifting because funny enough, I was one of the only people in the group that was an exercise science major. So I soon became the go to person because I Was continuing to study powerlifting and just general strength and nutrition. And so I eventually became the go to person for help and coaching and I was able. That's how I kind of started in coaching, was helping my friends out for free. Eventually people started asking me how much I charge and that's how I kind of grew that initially. And then once I graduated Iowa State I had about six different internships in my four years under my belt. So I had lots of experience and I was able to take that and then start my own business once I moved out here to Colorado.

Yeah. So that must have been quite, quite an experience going from Iowa to a completely new and different state as well as almost, you know, kick off the your career. A brand new career. Right. So I'm curious, you know, what are some of the things that you went through? How did you begin to build your business locally in real estate?

Yeah. So one of the interesting challenges I had was moving to Colorado. I wasn't in the network yet. Like in Iowa. I was well known in the power team community in Colorado. I wasn't yet. So I had to make that happen. But when I moved out here it was at the very tail end of 2019, going into 2020, which we all know happened at the beginning of 2020. So right as I.

That's why I was like what a time. What a time.

Yeah. So right as I was starting my business I we got hit with the pandemic and the lockdown. So that definitely made things challenging. But one I was able to find a local gym that kind of make my hub which is gym number five in Boulder, Colorado. It's a great family owned business. It's actually called gym number five because it's a family of five. I think that's a cool little fact. And so I was. That became my home base. And then it was a lot of just in person grinding of. I would make sure I was at every single local competition. I could be at either coaching, refereeing, volunteering anything I could to get in front of my community, help out. Always asking like hey can I help help you in the warm up room? Or doing any everything I could just to be a part of the community to help grow the sport locally as well as online. I was able to find my community of looking through okay, who are the Colorado lifters and connecting with them and building friendships that way. So that just trying to do everything I could to integrate myself. So yeah, it was definitely hard right at the beginning, but it was a, a slow, gradual build to where now I Feel like I'm very integrated into the community. Well known at local competitions and the business is still growing, the community still growing, the team's growing really well. So, yeah, it was definitely a slow building process and making sure to do it in an organic way. Not like forcing relationships. Right. Or forcing interactions of putting myself out there, being helpful and useful and also letting people see the good work that me and my team are doing and them wanting to be a part of it.

Yeah. So I'd love for you to dive in a little bit into, you know, some of the. The ways that you have it. Used your online experience that was essentially forced upon you, forced upon all of us, to really help you facilitate the, the, the community in person that you've built.

Yeah, for sure. So, as I said, like, being at lots of local competitions, I was able to see what was it that my community really needed. Right. Like, what were the lifters in my community struggling with? What were ways I could help? How was I helping people at these meets or just on my roster? And so I was able to use that as a great way to build out online content. Like, oh, I see people are struggling with this. Let me create some content around that. I know a lot of online fitness coaches will struggle with figuring out how to come up with content. Right. Of how to speak directly to the people they want to serve. And so I think getting directly in front of those people, seeing and asking like, hey, what do you struggle with? That gives you the answers right there. Right. It takes out the overthinking of, hey, it's right there in front of you. This is what your people are struggling with. Right. So that was a great way to help build out that content. And then when people saw that, they go, oh, hey, that's. That helps me a ton. And that's how. How I was able to help build up some of that, the online aspects of that. Right. And once, like with Powerlifting, it's also very fortunate of whenever we have a local competition, there's always a list of who is all the people signing up. So that helps me be able to connect with people online. If I have this nice list of here's all the people doing your competition, I can reach out, give them a follow. And then also with Powerlifting, everyone loves to post their training online. So it's a great way to connect with them, of congratulating them on their PR or, you know, just liking their stuff and commenting on it so that they. They see you and know that you're supporting them and giving them positive Feedback and stuff like that. So, yeah, it was just focusing not on. Because I think a lot of people in the fitness community on who are online think when I coach online, it's across the nation, right? It's, it's everywhere. But really, especially when you're first starting out, you, you need to dominate locally. You need to be the go to person. At least that was my experience of. All right, if I need to be able to sell to the people directly in front of me, if I can't sell the people directly in front of me, how is someone across the country going to buy from me? So I really just focused on serving my community. Even if it was from an online perspective of just focusing locally, how do I serve my community the best, even if it's in a remote setting.

Okay, so good. Now I have a, I have a lot of questions and I, I tend to be like, let me ask four questions at once. So I'm gonna go one at a time. Number one, I'm curious in terms of, you know, what are some of the, like you mentioned that you go, would go to meet you would observe, see what people are struggling with. What are some of the common challenges that your community faces that surprised you? For example, like, people say, oh, it's so easy to understand fat loss. But then, you know, people forget that. Not everyone knows that all the easy ways to, you know, lose fat. As an example, like, I lived with someone for a year who didn't know that vegetables were a carbohydrate. And that's not to throw shade. That's just to, to illustrate this concept of that it's easy for us to fall into traps of. Oh, we think everybody knows that. So I'm curious, what are some of the things that you were noticing on rep, on repeat while you were doing your market research in these events?

Yeah. So there's sort of two different spaces there. One is like the, on the actual competition day. And then there's also, we can categorize the other one as like things people do in the gym, in their training, getting ready for competition. So in person at competitions, there's a lot of, as you mentioned, like a lot of simple things that as professionals we're like, oh yeah, we know it's like the back of our hand. This should be obvious, but it's, it's not obvious for a lot of people. And so that's where our expertise come in. Very, very valuable. So one is something simple like how do you time your warmups for the platform? Because we, you have a Certain amount of time that you want to, you have before getting on the platform. So if you warm up too fast now, you're going to be sitting around getting cold or if you warm up too late or too slow, you're not going to be ready on time. So making sure that we, we pace a warm, your warm up correctly as well as warm up rooms can get very, very busy and everyone's trying to work in together. So how do you manage the warm up room? Like a lot of these competitions, we might have four to five people going on multiple racks. How do you manage all that going at the same time so that everyone's hitting pace at the same time? Everyone's ready to go. Especially for big competitions. Like I have one coming up in November. I'm going to bring in like a team of 15 to 20 people this competition. So they're dispersed throughout the weekend. Right. But it's. How do I make sure everyone's going at the same time, warming up on time as well as sharing the warm room with the other coaches and stuff like that. So managing the warm room is a really big one obviously. And then attempt selection on the platform. People have a heart. Especially when you're there by yourself, it's really hard to gauge how much you have left. And so having that expertise outside who, outside of your own lifting that can see all right, this is how much more objectively you have someone who has that really good eye for that. So make seeing like, oh, you have a lot more left or hey, you don't have actually have that much more left. Especially on something like a bench press where a lot of times I think the most missed lift is that third attempt bench because it's, it goes 0 to 100. And so being able to gauge that correctly is very, very hard. And so yeah, I would say warming up on time incorrectly as well as attempt selection on the platform, which. So my business is called Good Lift Performance, which is in powerlifting if when you get the lift when it counts, it's called a good lift, which, so that's kind of where the name came from. But it's also sort of my reputation in the community of I. My lifters have a 90% success rate on the platform. So that means we average eight out of nine lifts. We're only missing about one lift on average per lifter, which is a very, very high success rate.

Yeah, that's amazing.

And so that one like when, when other people see that, you know, my lifters make their lifts, they're very successful. That definitely attracts A lot more people where I've definitely, I've gotten comments from like hot, very high level judges who have been around in the community for a long time who just started to get to know me and they're like, oh, like your lifters are always very, very well prepared and very nice comments like that. So that's kind of how I knew I was making strides in the community. When I'm getting nice compliments from some of the people who've been around for a long time.

I love that. So what would you say is the good lift difference? Like your company difference?

Yeah. So the number one thing I really focus on is making sure that we have really solid, consistent and reliable technique when we go into competitions. Right. Because it doesn't matter how strong you are, if it's, if your technique isn't going to meet the standard and if it's not reliable, if I, if I put in an attempt and I can't act and based off of strength, I think you should get it, but we can't rely on your ability to execute that lift on the platform, then it becomes much less likely that we can, you know, max out your potential or that you're going to be able to hit that lift. So really making sure that my lifters are, have very sound technique that they're able to hit the lift consistently so that when we go to the platform, when we're at the meet, I, when I put an attempt, I can confidently put in that number knowing, hey, we can execute this and I can get the most out of them versus having to, to dial back a number saying, well you potentially, you have up to this but I think you're only going to be able to execute at this level. So really making sure that focusing on technique has been the biggest one for me. Make sure that we're always training to a standard.

And it also sounds like the way that you, in the way that you coach, it sounds like there is this knowing that you have of your actual client in terms of managing things like adrenaline, day of meat, stress and like a really deep knowing based on experience. So what I'm curious is how are you able to find that, navigate that when you're doing the protocols or the trainings primarily through online places.

Yeah. So that comes from having great communication with my athletes and so knowing kind of how they tick, having lots of conversations with them about just how they're feeling in training, a lot of the actual kind of. So like going to the programming side we talked about, like how do you come up with content for that and stuff like that. A lot of the programming actually it's funny, it comes less from managing, micromanaging the training and more of helping them understand how sleep, nutrition, stress management really affects them. Because when I get to know them as an individual and I know what they go through a, I learn about their personality and how they tick and also balance. I help them manage the outside stressors so that when they go into the gym they can get the most out of it. Because if we're not, if our nutrition isn't on point, we're not sleeping well or our stress is really high, it doesn't matter what I put on the program, they're not going to be able to perform or recover from it. So a lot of it comes from helping them understand how to manage those so that then we can actually see what's going to work in training. And so yeah, just having lots of open communication with them and building that rapport. Because one of my, my coaching philosophy, I mentioned this a few times on my social media, but my coaching philosophy comes from building confidence in my athletes, not only in their own abilities but in they know that I am confident in them. So because I, I've had one of the most defining coaching experiences I've had was I was actually getting ready for a meet. And my coach at the time, his philosophy was I ask you the questions that make you a better lifter. So for example, if I asked him if I had a pause deadlift in my program, I asked him where should I pause? He would go, where do you think you should pause? So it was a lot of like open ended, not so much direct guidance which I always, especially as a young lifter, didn't really help me that much because I was wanting to learn right? And so I was getting ready for this meet I sent over. He didn't actually come up with my game plan. I had to come up with my own game plan and send it over and ask him what he thought. And his only response was, don't get too greedy, take what's there. And that really crushed me because like at the time I thought it was a very smart plan. And the way that coach communicated to me made me sound like I was being like overzealous or greedy. And so that really like shook me up. I didn't feel like he had confidence in me and I'm like, I never want anyone I work with to have that experience. So setting up the training so that the athlete feels confident in their own abilities but also set up the communication so they know I'm confident in them is a really big part of my coaching philosophy. So yes, having good communication so that I get to know the lifter on a personal level and also so that we rebuild that rapport. And they know that I'm confident in them based off of our communication and our training leading into me. So they're ready to go now.

Have you ever had the experience where you felt like you weren't confident in the lifter and what did you do?

Yeah. So some lifters, you know, as much as we, we try our best. Right. Some lifters aren't going to be as prepared as others. So that's where especially you know, in a remote setting, there's as much as we can try. There's only so much we can do versus and then we get into in person. That's where a lot of like you can actually, you can get a lot out of the game day coaching aspect of being there. And so there's a lot more than just the warm. Obviously I mentioned like timing, warm ups and attempt selection, but there's a lot of psychological stuff as a coach you can do to get the most out of your lifter. And so that's where even from a communication standpoint, if I can at least get to know my lifter so I know how they tick once we're there in game day, I can almost like me just being there can almost like help improve them. Just like bringing the energy they need, being the support system that they need and helping them make those last minute adjustments of let's say someone who's been squatting high in training and everything I've tried to do is it maybe got them a little better but we just weren't 100% there. Well, on game day I might be able to help them make that last second adjustment. So boom, we're there easy. Or hey, just, just me being there, helping them see it in real time to be like it's there. Boom, go. So a lot of times that being there in person on game day can, can really make the difference for helping them be more confident and solidifying those last little second adjustments we need.

I love that. Okay, so now do you primarily work with, you know, new novice lifters? Do you work with people who are, who are, you know, always in, you know, game day? Like what? Can you walk me through a little bit of who the type of person? I don't know. Player. That's not the right word. Athlete. Athletes, the word you used that you tend to work with. And what are some of the differences in the challenges that they face.

Yeah, so I, I do work with a large variety of different skill levels of athletes, but I will say that the majority of my athletes are novice athletes that are. I'm generally a lot of people's first coach and, and a lot of my advanced athletes are people who I've actually brought in from more of a novice or intermediate stage to an advanced level. And so one of the biggest challenges is making sure that we teach the athlete. It's not just giving them the fish, it's teaching them how to fish. And so making sure that as I'm coaching them not only on the, you know, the technique and stuff like that, helping them with the program, it's teaching them why I'm making these decisions. So once again with that communication, being very open and honest, like, hey, here's what we're doing, here's why we're doing it, here's my thought process. And then opening up that communication so they can get lots of feedback. Having that back and forth teaches them, hey, this is what I'm looking for. Instead of just being, here's the program, good luck, have fun having that open back and forth so that they can kind of learn what I'm looking for and what they're, what they should be feeling and expecting on certain days really helps with that. So one, education number two, long term athletic development. So basically what I mean by that is with powerlifting, it's very easy to, especially with newer athletes who they can, they have lots of ability to recover, especially these younger kids, right? You can give them their workhorses, you can give them all the work in the world, but. And so theoretically they can make a lot of progress really fast, but that means they can also burn out really fast. And so my philosophy is, as I mentioned, I'm a lot of people's first coach. I might not always be their last coach. And so my thought is I need to set this person up to success so that no matter what happens, if they, once they are moving on to maybe their next phase of life or they move on to a different coach or whatever that looks like they have the tools to be successful in lifting no matter where they go. And so thinking about a, keeping them healthy, how do we keep them progressing in the long term as well as making sure that they know with the education piece, they know what they're doing, making sure their technique is very sound so that they are always confident in their ability to execute and making sure that we aren't getting too short sighted. On look how much progress we made in three months, four months. How was I able to take them from where they started to long term of thinking, all right, you can be like, if they're. There are a lot of teens and juniors. Right. I think about, how can I make you successful in the open in terms of when you're in your late 20s or 30s or 40s. Right. Of progressing long term. So really making sure that we look at the bigger picture and keeping them healthy, keeping them progressing, and giving them the tools to be successful no matter what.

So there are a couple things that, that you have brought up now that I, I want to circle back on because I'm curious about your specific process and how you navigate this. But I think what happens. And I'll speak for me in how I felt as a novice coach, and I'll speak for me in terms of, you know, the people that I've worked with a lot, is that I think it's very powerful to hear you say something like, I'm, I'm often people's first coach, but I might not necessarily be the last coach. And I know for me, as a new coach, my ego would get in the way of like, no, no, I can handle everything. I can do it all. You're in pain. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna fix it. And I think that there is a. A level of skill that is present when I hear you say things like that, because it means that you're okay with knowing that people are going to be. Be that you're not. You're not the. Know it all, be all one, one, one stop shop. And I think that there is power in that. And I'm curious how you got there. How did you. How were you able to be like, hey, I'm. I. I'm okay with, with focusing on this and, And. And what? Letting people go.

Yeah. So that actually ties into something I've been thinking a lot about recently, like with imposter syndrome.

That was my next part of my question, which is like, as a new person in the online space market saturation, we hear. I'm putting it in quotes because I don't believe in that. How have you navigated that?

Yeah. So I'll tackle your first question first of, you know, how. How am I. How have I gotten okay with understanding I'm not going to be someone's last coach? Right. So 1. Or knowing that I can't do it all. So 1. Having a really strong network of people I can know, reach out to or even refer out to has been really, really helpful. Of, like, I have a good friend who is a. He's a Palton coach, but also a physical therapist. And so anytime, like, we. We normally have an injury or something where we're banged up and it's beyond my scope, I can refer out to them and they can help me. We can work, kind of collaborate on getting this athlete back healthy. Because as much as we can dial in all the variables, things can happen. Right. A lot of times injuries don't actually have a rhyme or a reason. Even if we try to create a narrative around it of why it happened. A lot of times it's just accident, right. Or random. So having a. Yeah, yeah. So having, like, a physical therapist has been really helpful. I am. I have some nutritionists that I can refer out to if someone really needs help with their nutrition. So having those two has been really, really helpful, as well as other coaches who have been coaching longer than me of, hey, if I get stuck because, you know, I don't have all the answers. So, like, I actually had a call just the other week of, hey, this athlete's deadlift is really, really tricky. And I. I've tried all my tools, and this isn't really panning. Like, we aren't seeing the progress we want. So I was able to hop on a call with them. We looked over their program together. They gave me a couple tips, and we're going to be trying those out. So having a network of knowing that, hey, I don't know everything, but I also have the tools to get those answers has been really powerful. And so that kind of goes into the imposter syndrome of how. Because I actually feel like I don't have imposter syndrome as much anymore. And so. Which is weird to say, it sounds like I'm being arrogant, but one, it's kind of knowing that, hey, I don't. I might not know all the answers, but I can find the answers. Like, I. I'm confident in my system of we can find this the answer either through, like, my trial and error or I have a network that can help me find it. Number two is just, you know, getting a lot of experience of, like, newer coaches oftentimes that you don't have experience. Right? So it's just getting more experience on your belt. The more you do it, the more success you see. You start to really, oh, I can do this. I. I do. I can get this. I can help athletes get from point A to point B. I can help them reach their goals. And so, you know, A lot of times we don't like to look back on our own success, but I look back on it just enough to be confident in my own abilities to deliver good coaching. So I would say those two as well as this is more. Something I've just realized is that a lot of times, like co. Newer coaches might have an idea of like, oh, I see this in my athletes and I do this and I think it's successful, but I don't see a lot of other coaches doing it or talking about it, so I must be wrong. Or like, it must be like different, right? But in reality, like. And so like, I might hold off on making a piece of content on something or being more public about a certain opinion. But then, you know, a few months down the road, you might see a really popular coach who you look up to go out and say the same thing and you're like, oh, I was right all along. So it's. Once you start getting more experience and doing it more, you start to realize that these people you look up to, if you're on the right track, you often think a lot like them or you've come to the same conclusions. You might do it slightly different, but you come to the same conclusions. And so it's. I've learned to trust myself a lot more of, hey, this might not be the status quo or the exact way, like the social norm is to do this, but this works with my athletes. I see that it works and I'm sure other coaches do this, but they just don't talk about it necessarily. So it's trusting myself more and knowing that, hey, I have my system, I've developed it, and if my system doesn't work for this athlete, I have tools to expand beyond that to make sure I can get something that does work for that athlete.

And what I am also hearing from you, which is, you know, so incredible and powerful is this. Knowing this, all that is what magnetizes you is when you go all in on yourself and trust and know that if you don't know it, you'll figure it out. The other thing I hear from you is, is the, the honest and open transparency in your communication, both on social media and with your clients. Clients. That is what builds that subconscious trust that people lean into. It's not trusting you as a good person. It's trust in this. In this. Like, if I don't have the confidence in me, I know that my coach is going to have the confidence in me, which is something you said earlier, which is so powerful and hard to cultivate. I think.

Yeah.

You know, so what would you say to your people who are new? You know, part of that, like you said, is experience. Right. So how, as a new coach, would you tell someone to start cultivating that type of confidence in themselves?

Yeah, so one, I think having mentors is really, really powerful. People you can learn directly from. So, you know, obviously on the business side, I have you. Working with you has been very, very positive and a game changer for me. And then on the powering side, I've had a lot of good influences, like my coach, Sean Collins, and some other local coaches, like Tyler from Mountain Man Performance and a couple other ones, Parker, stuff like that. So I've had a lot of good influences I can learn from. So, you know, finding people who are where you want to be and network with them and learn from them is really, really powerful. Number two, I would say just work, like, get experience, especially if you're newer, obviously, like, find people locally. Like, if you. If you're trying to get into the fitness space, find people at your local gym or just friends of yours that you can work with. Like, leverage your immediate network. Work with them, start troubleshooting their problems and get them, like, get them from A to B, get them to their goal, get them the result they want, because that's how you're going to learn. I remember having a conversation with someone else about, like, they were just learning how to get into, like, programming, writing, training. And they go, I see a lot of these really unique protocols or, like, unique programs. Like, I don't understand how the coach got to that. And what I told them is, like, when you see these unique programs for people, it's because it's from working with a coach for an extended period of time of they trialed and error things, and they're like, oh, this doesn't work. And we've navigated towards what does work. It's. But when you first start off with someone, like, you're not. You're not going to have that clarity. So it's starting with them. Having your initial starting point of. All right, based off of previous information, we're going to start here. And then as you work with them, you continue to navigate the obstacles and get closer to where you end up finding the, what I call it, the formula of what works for them. Right. So understanding, even, like, I might not have the answers right away, but as we continue to work together, we'll find those answers. I think just having the confidence to be patient and finding those answers right at the back because it's a lot of people think, oh, I don't, I don't have all the answers. I can't get started. Right. But it's. If you just get out there and start working, you'll find those answers because you, you need to get this, per this client, this athlete, you need to get their, them to be successful. You need to get them to their goal. And so when push comes to shove, you'll get creative, you'll find a way to get it done.

Yeah. So powerful. So now I'm, I'm curious, you know, what are some of the things that you have done in your career? Because, you know, the more consistent and the longer you start to do this, sometimes the work feels repetitive. So how have you stayed engaged, interested? What are some of the things that you've done that have helped you feel really excited about the work that you do when you, when it starts to feel repetitive.

Yeah. So powerlifting as a sport is very repetitive. It's the squat, the bench and the deadlift done indefinitely, which I, you know, it's funny, a lot of people will eventually get bored of it or even. You see a lot of coaches who start off really passionate about it and then they, even with their own training, they become less passionate about it and they might teeter off and start doing other things. Like the, the common joke is you start off as a powerlifting coach and then you turn into, you start doing Brazilian jiu jits or some other type of martial art. Right. I, I have the, that you personality of. I'm very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Like I pretty much the same things over and over again. I have the same routine every single day. And so piloting is something that luckily I just never like, I love it, I live and breathe it and I've just never gotten bored of it. It's always a little bit different every time. So I, I have the kind of, the personality for it, I would say. But also, you know, with working with athletes in that one on one setting, the thing that I always try to remember is to not get complacent where if, you know, I mentioned we were trying to find that formula of what works for someone, but understanding that that formula isn't going to stay there forever, it's going to be slightly changing all the time. It's that it's sort of that analogy of you have a ship and you take it out to sea and every time you take, you come back, you have to replace a part. Well, eventually that ship becomes a different ship. Because you have to keep replacing the parts. And, you know, it's. It never is truly, like, it slowly becomes a different ship, but it's never. It's never just like, oh, immediately it's a different ship. Right. It slowly becomes a different ship. So understanding that even if we have something with an athlete that works really well, always paying attention to make sure that it's. It's still working, and always being curious of can we do this better or can we make this better, or trying small tweaks and making small iterations to make sure it continues to get better. Right? Because, yeah, if you just get complacent, be like, oh, this worked all right. Now we're just going to run this indefinitely and go, like, on true autopilot. That's where you can get complacent. And so always being alert and making sure that you are paying attention, always looking to see, can we do this a little bit better than last time? I think is really important.

Yeah, that's, that's. That's powerful. I'm, I'm. You know, I was laughing because I get that joke. I mean, I feel like that in terms of just, you know, you see that on the business side all the time. Like, how do you keep it? Repetition is the mother of all learning. Like, you need to repeat. So you're going to be doing a lot of the same thing. Keep it interesting, otherwise do something else, you know, so it's powerful. Okay, so one of the things, too, that I'm curious about, what is even in the. In the vein of. Of repetition, what would you say is the hardest thing or hardest challenge or hardest experience, hardest problem that you've ever had to face. What did you do and what did you learn from it? So as a coach, as a lifter, you can take it anywhere you want.

So there, there's going to be. There's a couple of situations that come in my mind. I would say there. There's some. Some lifters, right? Like, so a lot of times when lifters are hiring a coach, it's because those, the basic templates, the, the free online programs don't work right. So you need to find that solution. And a lot of times it can be. And I shouldn't say a lot of times, certain times it could be a very tricky solution. So, you know, I've had athletes where maybe one or two of their lifts go really well right off the bat, but then one lift, like, really struggles for a long time. And it takes a lot of creativity and thinking outside the box to make sure we find that solution. And actually I was just looking back on some of my old. Because I was making a. Like an educational piece of content and I was looking back at some of the more like hard case studies that I had. And the thing I realized is that, like, it might have taken me, like, this was when I was younger, but the how, like, point A to point B of like, this is where we ended up, that was really successful versus where we started. The answer was actually very obvious. It was just. It was like right under my nose. I just couldn't see it. And so a lot of times it's not overthinking something. It's, hey, this is the issue. Let's just directly attack this versus trying to, like, when I've tried to overthink things or be really clever, sometimes that's led to in the astray versus just being very direct of like, here's the issue. Let's make the. And this is sort of a newer philosophy I've had is let's make the minimum change to make this work. Right. Instead of trying to, like, scrap it and start something new. I think when I was younger, I would try to scrap something or make bigger, more changes versus let's make the minimum effective change so we know what's working. And knowing, like, hey, every. Like we're doing four things. Maybe three of them work really well. It's just that last thing that doesn't work right. We don't need to change all of them. Just change that last thing. And it might just be even a very small tweak. So, yeah, I would say it's there. Like, it's a lot of times the answer is right in front of you. If you just gotta not overthink it.

Yes. And change one thing. I think, honestly, when I think back to my career in business and in my nature, it's my nature to just throw the baby out with the bathwater. Oh, everything doesn't work.

When you.

Then you look back and you're like, oh, wait, that's not true. If I just focus on this one thing, it'd be better. So definitely get that. Okay, cool. So the other thing, you know, you were saying that in. As a coach, focusing on one thing, what was the hardest thing in your lifting experience that you've had to face? Like, what was happening for you in.

Terms of, like, my own personal lifting.

Yeah.

So I would. I'm definitely one of those trouble clients of. I don't respond very well to training. I. It takes. It takes a very unique setup so actually, my current coach right now, Sean Collins, you know, we, I think it took us about five months to truly like, tease out what, what's going to work the best for me. And it was a lot of, once again, a lot of small iterations of, all right, we're going to rerun this, but we're going to make a small tweak. And then that, that ship slowly changed piece by piece, and then we finally found the solution. But one thing similar to the experience I tried to give to my athletes is one I had a lot of trust in him of. Even if it's not going great right now, I have that trust of we were working together and I was giving him the feedback he needed and he was making those adjustments he needed. So, you know, slowly changing that ship as well as also making sure I was doing everything in my power to get my nutrition on point, get my sleep on point, which having a near 2 year old isn't always perfect, but.

Yeah. How do you do that? Oh, my gosh, I'd love to know. Give us parents the secrets you just.

Kind of plow through and you just. It's learning when to dose my caffeine, changing the sources up. It's like periodizing my caffeine. That's the key. You start off with a coffee, then you might go to a monster, and then you. My wife and I have been influenced. We, we have it. We have lots of boxes of Kim Aid in here now. She's been heavily influenced, making sure we, we have lots of variation in the caffeine. It's, you know, the whole thing.

Yeah, it's funny. It's funny. It's funny. So what's the hardest lift that you've had to overcome? And what, what's hard about it? Is it the stick? Is it the positioning? Is it the hole? What is it?

My deadlift is really tricky. I, I think I'm just not super built for it. Yeah, but that's a, that'd be a great question for my coach, Sean, of why he, why I'm so bad at it. Squat and bench have been very natural for me. I, I figured those out very easily. But the deadlift has always been the bane of my existence, so. Which is fun. And that's normally people's favorite lift. It's my least favorite, or I shouldn't say that. So because of the fact that I'm, I've always really struggled with it, I've, like, I've mentally made it my favorite lift. So that when I go in to train I'm always very excited. I'm making sure I'm doing every little extra bit I can to make sure it' a good session. And so I've like, that's the. Another strategy I've used with athletes. If we have a tricky lift, a lot of times they, they hate that lift. But it's changing your perception to make it your favorite lift so that you, you're doing everything you can, you're going the extra miles that when you go in and have like a good session, it like, is really meaningful and powerful and like, it makes you look forward to it. And you always believe like, oh, this is going to be a good session. Like, that's kind of my mindset is. Even if it, like, even if it ends up being a bad session, it's my mindset going in is this is going to be a good session. And if I don't have the session I want, I think, all right, how can I improve next time? What tweaks can I make?

So what you just talked about is what I would call the most essential invisible component to being successful. Like if people could just really do that one thing in every area of their life that they're struggle with, I mean, the, it would be just absolutely. We would see a different world. It's just very hard to coach people out of that when they have been in that neural pathway for so long. It's challenging.

Yeah, for sure. Easier said than done.

Yeah. Just last question and then I promise I'll let you go. How have you helped your, how have you been able to help your athletes think like that?

So once again, having that very open communication has been really, really key of when things go wrong. So like not just looking at the program and the numbers being, oh, like this didn't go well. What programming adjustments can we make? Often my first thing I'm asking them is what were you thinking during the lift? How was your mindset going in? What were the things going on around the gym? Like, what's going on in your life? What are you things happening? It's, as I mentioned, a lot of the programming stuff happens off the program. It's understanding what they're going through, what their mindset is. And so having that communication then allows me to make the context to then adapt the programming because we need to make sure all those other variables are in place before I can. I truly feel like I can make those programming adjustments. Like, I keep making program adjustments for sure, but they're not at like the data that comes from that isn't as meaningful if we're not, you know, mentally, emotionally, nutritionally. All checked in. Right. So having the open, honest communication of beyond what's on the program has been really important.

Yeah. So powerful. Okay. So, Weston, this has been an amazing, incredible episode. So for those of you who want to go deeper with you, connect with you, talk to you, where are some of the best places I can send them?

Yes. So on Instagram, I am good lift underscore Weston. My email is just Weston W e s t o n@goodliftperformance.com you can also visit my website, goodliftperformance.com okay, amazing.

And I'll be sure to link all of that up in the show notes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Conversation that had a lot of fun. Was so fun.

Thank you so much for being on the show. It was awesome.

Thank you.

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