Do you use social media or does it use you?
Whether you’re a small business owner like myself or an individual trying to develop their brand, social media can be a powerful tool. But if you have an interest in reaching more people and doing so authentically, having a strategy is essential.
Today, we are talking to The Movement Maestro (Shanté Cofield) about building a loyal following, choosing your platform, why you DON’T want to go viral and the importance of humor. If you’ve ever felt fake, overwhelmed or generally wary when interacting on social media, you’re not going to want to miss this episode.
Physical therapist turned entrepreneur, Dr. Shanté Cofield, aka The Movement Maestro, is the founder of The Movement Maestro LLC, a social-media based company that provides both online and in-person education for movement professionals around the world. Shanté’s passion for digital business has helped her amass a social media following of over 57,000 people, become an international speaker, and launch her own podcast, Maestro on the Mic. Shanté’s professional pursuits now center around providing business coaching to movement professionals, with a focus on brand strategy and community development in the ever-growing digital marketplace.
Connect with The Movement Maestro:
Via Instagram: @themovementmaestro
Via her website: https://themovementmaestro.com/
As you heard in the intro, we are going to be releasing a brand new resource VERY SOON. This is for the person who wants to impact more people but isn’t quite sure how to make it happen. Let’s say you have an idea (book, podcast, course) but you don’t know how to unveil or market it. We will help you find what you’re best at, who needs it, and how to get it to them.
Interested? We are going to be leaking information and dropping hints about this release on our newsletter first. So if you want to be in the know, click here. Signing up couldn’t be easier!
TRANSCRIPT
Shanté Cofield 0:01
As it relates to the people in their head being like, nobody wants to hear this, it’s not important to anyone, I need you to take a step back and say, Is it important to you? Does it matter to you share it, you need to figure out why you want to be on this platform. If your goal for being on this platform, the only means you wanna be on is like, get a lot of followers and like, make a lot of money, you’re going to stop very quickly, because that ROI doesn’t happen. Everywhere. For some people, definitely not quickly for most people. But you’re out there. Why is it because you want to help people, you want to connect with people, because you believe there’s a better way to be doing things that will keep you going. Because you’re like, Yeah, I still have something to say about this, I suppose. And then say about this now, like, Oh, I didn’t get any money from this and then stop
Brett Bartholomew 0:51
Welcome to the Art of coaching podcast, a show aimed at getting to the core of what it takes to change attitudes, behaviors and outcomes in the weight room, boardroom classroom, and everywhere in between. I’m your host, Brett Bartholomew, I’m a performance coach, keynote speaker, and the author of the book conscious coaching. But most importantly, I’m a lifelong student interested in all aspects of human behavior, and communication. I want to thank you for joining me. And now let’s dive into today’s episode.
Hey, guys, heads up on a couple of things. I’m going to be releasing a new project, something that I haven’t talked a lot about late this year or early 2020, we’re talking between December and February. Now, why the range, a lot of that depends on how things continue to unfold with the pandemic. And frankly, just the limitations as many of you know who are listening, I’m working on a number of projects, including my doctorate, we have this podcast, I have a new son. And so I’d rather under promise and over deliver. But the bottom line is this is going to be a tremendously impactful project for this kind of person. In particular, if you are somebody that wants to help more people, and I use somebody as an inclusive term, this has nothing to do with strength and conditioning. This has nothing to do with health and wellness. This has everything to do with somebody that feels like I don’t know, I want to write a book or start a podcast. Or maybe I want a course or maybe I want to do this or do that I want to impact more people. If you’re somebody who wants to impact more people, and you have this idea, but you’re not really sure how to really make it happen or the right path to take with it. Or you’re not quite sure to how to unveil it, how to market it, anything like that. And it could be big or small, it could be anything, this is what this resource is going to be geared to do. So it’s going to help you find what you’re best at who needs it, and how to get it to them. Again, it’s gonna help you find what you’re the best at or amongst the best at who needs it the most, and how to get it to him. If you were interested in this, I’m gonna ask you to sign up for our newsletter. It’s artofcoaching.com/begin artofcoaching.com/begin, this is where we are going to be releasing all the information, all the leaks, all the little things about this that are going to help you it is a full on resource. It’s something I’ve been working on at least since February of 2019. But really my whole career, and it started as just kind of some notes and reflections and then turn into a project. And I think you guys are gonna really like it again, if you are somebody that wants to reach more people, impact them, but you’re not quite sure where to start. So that’s that artofcoaching.com/begin
now. On to today. Our guest is physical therapists turn entrepreneur Dr. Shante Cofield, aka the movement maestro, and she is the founder of the movement Maestro LLC, which is a social media based company that provides education both online and in person for professionals around the world. Her specific passion for digital business has helped her amass a tremendous social media following at the time of the recording, it’s around 60,000 people, it’s going to be even more so in the years to come. As she’s become an internationally acclaimed speaker. She has her own podcast, which has been downloaded over a half million times a day. And long story short, she wants to help you or anybody like you. If you’re somebody that wants to learn more about how to manage social media, how do you optimize your messaging? How do you get this information out there? Now I know many of you or some of you are not social media people, but there’s a lot of people that are they understand that it’s a necessary evil in today’s society. And guess what? It doesn’t have to be an evil. And that’s exactly what Shante talks about. There’s this thing that yes, can just like anything in the world like fire, anything else can be toxic if you don’t control it, but she’s gonna give you strategies to how to optimize it. She’s gonna cut down a lot of the myths of like, here’s what you have to do. Here’s how you have to do it. Here’s how you quote unquote, become an influencer. It’s not about that. It’s about incorporating this in your lifestyle in a healthy way, how it can actually help you help more people. Do these things in a positive manner as well. Now if you hate social media and you’re somebody that’s vehemently against it and nobody’s ever going to change your mind, this episode is not for you. Okay? If you’re somebody that is just curious or you’ve been burned out on it before but you do understand that you like using it sometimes and you want to learn how to use it better. Listen up, because she has fun, she is passionate, she is educational and informed and better yet she just wants to help. So without further ado, Shanté Cofield
, let’s get ready to dive in
art of coaching podcast I am here today with Shanté Cofield
. Shante thanks for coming on.
Shanté Cofield 5:41
My dude, thank you for having me.This is awesome.
Brett Bartholomew 5:43
Otherwise known as the movement maestro, which like when I first met you I was speaking out for what was it? We were at that rock? Yeah. And I remember, they introduced you before, like anything else. Like the maestro is here. And I go, Who the hell is the maestro? Like, I didn’t know if this was like, Is this a superhero? Is this some kind of enigmatic like business leader? What have you and it’s kind of all those, like you had people flocked around you, which kind of speaks to I remember watching the video on your mission of interacting with as many people as possible. you just have that kind of personality, don’t you?
Shanté Cofield 6:20
It’s, turned into that and I frickin love it. I’m not gonna lie. I am an introvert. Like, very much an introvert. But in times like that, and when you’re around your people around you the same way when you’re on your people, it just feels so right and feel so good.
Brett Bartholomew 6:33
Yeah, no 100%. And it is funny when I tell people the same thing, hey, I actually am an introvert, they’re like, Get out of here you have a quote unquote, a brand and a podcast. And you’re like, Yeah, guess what, that’s one part of my life.
Shanté Cofield 6:45
Exactly.
Brett Bartholomew 6:46
There are many parts talking about your life, you know, as somebody that identifies many different ways, right. And former D one athlete, physical therapist, and I love in one of your videos, you say what you see is a lot of letters behind my name, that may not mean anything to you. Right? But like, what you need to know is I really want to help you and you want to know what my experience is. Talk to me about some of that, like, just, you know, a lot of people know, if you want to become a physical therapist or a practitioner, there’s traditional routes. But what were some of the uncommon things you did to kind of get to where you are today, things that you might have, somebody might scoff at, but how to really unusual value for you.
Shanté Cofield 7:24
I think one of the biggest things was that I hated PT school I hated being a PT to start off with. And that largely led me to what I do today, I haven’t treated as a physical therapist in two years. So yeah, but 2018, something that was became very important to me, was basically when I was living in New York with it for nine years. So I had just graduated and I was, you know, in my career, and one of things that became very important to me was creating a list of things that I didn’t want to do. And working to cross things off of that list. Because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I think that I was fortunate in it. That I’m not that old, I’ve been 35. But the way that Instagram works, it wasn’t a thing. When I was in school, it wasn’t like, oh, you could see all these people doing all this stuff. And you had like, an idea of like, Oh, but I could do that thing or that other option. It was like, You are a PT, or you’re a staff clinician, or you’re like great Cook, there was like, nothing in between. And I was like, so I guess this is what I got to do. And I wasn’t really happy with that. but I just didn’t know what to do. So it became a matter of make a list of things I didn’t want to do. I didn’t wanna wake up early, I didn’t want to walk to work in the snow, I didn’t want to have to be going to work and coming home from work when it was dark, which happens in New York City, like I love living there. But the weather and the time is a little rough. So I made a list of things I didn’t want, and just worked towards crossing that off. And that actually was probably the biggest and most helpful thing for my career. Because it wasn’t like, Oh, I’m going to shoot for this thing. And then I’m sad. If I miss it, I don’t really know what it was it was just let’s not do these things. And then the opportunities that come up, that would allow me to cross these things off the list. I went for him.
Brett Bartholomew 9:05
And I’m deeply appreciative of the idea of a list of things you don’t want to do, especially when we live in productivity land now where everybody’s like, what’s your morning routine? What’s this? I finally laugh the other day because somebody had posted that their morning routine was you know, the whole Cold Shower thing, whatever. And then at 6am they and their family and their kids go for a three mile walk and then there comes the emails I’m like, really you have all these kids understand? And you’ve got a three mile walk clocked in at 6am but then somebody goes my morning routine is wake up at 3am take a pee go back to bed. And so but I love this idea of a what not to do lists because we’re just drowning in this self sacrificial. This is what I do to be a leader. It’s more and more and more kind of nonsense.
Shanté Cofield 9:54
Totally. It’s so fun. You have a p at three. That’s a good
Brett Bartholomew 9:59
I pee at three i asked Alexa, what time it is. And when she says it’s three, I’m like, Cool, I got a few more hours of sleep. Solid routine. You know. And speaking of that, I mean, you’ve lived in a wide variety of ways. And you do at the time of this recording, you do have an insanely loyal following, right? Like, you look at the numbers, and you think, okay, nearly 60,000 people, but that number is never indicative of like, the depth. I know, for me, like, I would rather have 1000 Soldiers Metaphorically speaking, right? Then a million followers, talk to me about how you’ve cultivated that kind of insane loyalty and seeing being complimentary
Shanté Cofield 10:37
For sure. I think the biggest thing there is time, one of the things I you know, I teach social media teach Instagram for a living now, and how to use it for business and such, and one of things that I would never wish on someone is going viral. Because when you go viral, everybody comes in, they don’t even have time to like, know, you. It’s like everyone’s coming to you with your handout. One of the best things that’s happened to me is that this growth has happened super slowly over time, right? It’s the story of the 10 year, overnight success. So I actually did my first post on Instagram on September 24 2016, excuse me, 20 2014. So today is September 23. So this was, you know, almost six years, to the day, since my first post, and all of that growth happened very, very gradually. And for me, like I said no to it before. I think it was very fortunate that I started when I did, because I wasn’t trying to, you know, mimic anybody else. And I didn’t know what anything meant. So it wasn’t like I went onto Instagram, in order to try and grow a business. I literally joined Instagram to try and just connect with people and share my ideas I saw, you know, K startups doing it while duck was doing it. And that’s about it. And I was like, Alright, cool. Let me just try and do this and connect with some people. So it wasn’t like, Oh, I’m going to say, I’m going to go on Instagram. And my crew was really big, you know, family of people. There’s a lot of followers, and I’m going to like sell them products. That was never nothing wrong with that. But that wasn’t my goal. So I never had that like need for that kind of ROI. I just want to show up and connect with people.
Brett Bartholomew 12:04
Yeah, so pretty much you’re saying that part of that loyalty came, you didn’t come on and just started selling you provided years and years and years, over half a decade of value before you ever even had a business or asked anything? Anyone?
Shanté Cofield 12:17
Exactly. I think then people see like my initial launch I did my first digital product last year, and my first online like my first in person courses at the end of 2018. And see people see that and they’re like, oh, that it went so well. And you had these big launches. And it’s like because exactly what you just said, Brett, I was giving stuff away, meaning my time and my knowledge and connecting with people for years before I ever asked them for anything in return. So when you disrupt and it’s, you know, very much unintentionally disrupt the balance of that relationship, because you give gift gave, it’s like when you go to dinner with somebody, if they’re always paying at some point, you’re like, let me pay. And that’s exactly what happened with social media was I just kept showing up. And I was having conversations in the DMS and I was responding to every comment because I genuinely wanted to connect with these people. And they were, you know, you realize that there’s a person on the other side of the screen there. And so finally, when you are like, Hey, I have something for you, which is literally what it was, it wasn’t like I have something that I will gain things from it was like, I’ve heard you say, you have this problem. And if you want, here’s the solution, the extremes, this time will be money. But here’s the solution to a problem. That’s it. And so many people were willing to take me up on it, because I haven’t shown up for them for years,
Brett Bartholomew 13:29
then you bring up an interesting point regarding you know, there’s so many people that are against social media, but therefore journaling, right, therefore reflecting therefore, all these things, and I know I started on Instagram, and I think you know, I mean you blow me away, you have like 3648 posts, you know, I have over 2000 But like I look at those, those are all journal entries. Those are all thoughts. And, you know, when people kind of say, social media is not for me, but I keep a journal like it’s just a different form of journal. Right? For me, it was a very informal blog, because I never really, you know, I’ve written a book, but I don’t wake up every day and being like, I can’t wait to write today, you know, and if I had done a blog, I knew that every single thing I was going to write was going to be criticized. And it would have to be super in depth given our scientific background. So Instagram was kind of an excuse of saying, hey, I can put some informal and formal if I want to thoughts out there. And but that’s a lot of time. It’s like you said it’s the 10 year overnight success, right?
Shanté Cofield 14:23
It is, it is time. And that’s the biggest thing that people I don’t know, if they don’t realize it, they don’t want to give it it’s interesting, because on the one hand, they want to go faster, but on one hand, they don’t want to cherish it. And on one hand, they don’t really value it on another hand that I really didn’t have enough of it. So it’s really interesting how people view time. I think it’s the most valuable resource that we have. We can’t make more of it. But we have to also remember it’s going to pass anyway. So let me do the things that I truly love that I just really enjoy or at least work towards being able to do the things that I really love and the things I really enjoy. As such, if I’m filling this time, and sharing that time and giving that time to other people, they realize because inherently instinctually, somewhere and people’s brains, they realize how valuable that resource is.
Brett Bartholomew 15:06
Yeah, without a doubt, and I think I want to come back, I’m making a note here, I want to come back to the online project launch. But speaking of time, and how important that is, you know, one thing that’s always drawn me to you is your sense of humor, right? The formality and the informality blended in one where you know, it’s just, it’s so well executed on your behalf. And comedy is the ultimate form of intelligence in many ways, right? But it can also lead to perceptions. Like for me, I know, time is critical. Having been hospitalized at a young age and seeing a lot of members of my family die at a relatively young age. Oftentimes, I get perceived as from an outsider that may not know me, as aggressive, right, man, you’re just really intense and aggressive. but really, for me, that’s it’s a lot of urgency. And I leverage that in my brand, because your brand should be who you really are. Is there a way where you’re, like, the comedic sense of you has been misperceived, where people may think, Hey, there’s this idea of what a therapist or a professional or what somebody should be. And, you know, you’re not doing the due diligence here in terms of representing the field in the right way. Do you ever get any of that crap?
Shanté Cofield 16:07
I personally don’t receive it. But I’m sure it’s out there. I think people just haven’t said it to me, and I don’t care. I love what you said about just being your brand. I could not agree with that more and showing up with authenticity. I think part of the reason that people don’t say that to me is because I don’t put it out there. It’s like, you have to do it this way. I’m just like, hey, this is how I’m doing it. And that’s cool. If you want to do it another way. That’s amazing, too. I am not for everyone. And it’s not about you know the phrase of when you market for everyone you market to no one or you market to everyone market to no one I believe that when you market to everyone you miss out on the opportunity to be remarkable for someone, that’s what I’m really going for is like what kind of results are we able to get? I do try to point that out without pointing anyone out. And saying that there are the utilization of Physiotherapy is like something like 10% of the population where everyone’s do some stupid low number. And I’m like, if your goal that we all went into this profession, to help people, and if you’re going to be worrying about what I’m doing, that means you’re wasting time, which we were just talking about being so valuable, where you could be helping someone and making yourself relatable to someone, people have no idea what physical therapists do, how they can help them that they even really exist. So for people to be like, you know, commenting on my thing in any kind of negative capacity, I’m just like, how do you have the time do this, you need to go be doing something else. Like helping your people it’s, you know, one of things that grinds my gears in social media. I know you talk about it seems like people just completely missed the point. And they spend time arguing with each other of like, where are the studies and prove that this thing is right and prove that and it’s like go make yourself relatable to your people go help your people you arguing with me or trying to argue with me? It doesn’t help anyone I see this like savior complex a lot of PTS have like, it’s my job to call out other PTs
Brett Bartholomew 18:08
watchdog I’m a watch dog you know,
Shanté Cofield 18:11
yeah, well, it’s your job to help your people. That’s it.
Brett Bartholomew 18:15
I you know, our listeners vary tremendously in demographic, we certainly have people that are strength coaches, and are therapists, but we also have people in other businesses, dentists, doctors, you know, what have you. And but one thing they they can all relate to, and we’ve talked about in this show is, you know, something happened the other day where I got sent a link on Twitter, and I opened this up, and I always know what this is. Yeah, I know what this would be. And it gets bad when they go, what are your thoughts on this? And I’m like, Oh, God, and they were going nuts. Because Georgia Tech strength coach, I guess it had and great guy, Luke corral. I’ve met him interacted with him. Smoketown they’re phenomenal human being, but what have you the players were lifting weights on the sideline, chontae. And so like, I remember, people were like, What are they doing? They shouldn’t be doing curls on the sideline, I’m like, I don’t have the time to dive into this. I know this man. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. What you see is not all there is. I’m not sounding off on this. But sure enough, 800 other strength coaches that have nothing better to do with their day or that want to be perceived as you know, the end all and I get it, like at one point when I was younger, like you’d sound off at two, but it’s just like, Guys, take a breath like go kiss your husband or wife or your partner go do something like go do go do something. So like, with that, I know that those are people I’m not for right? I’m not for the people that want to be contentious and pound their chest, building off of your what you don’t want to do list. Who are you not for
Shanté Cofield 19:41
those same people? I namely, I’m not for people who want to be spoon fed. I’m not for people who you know are looking for shortcuts. I’m really for people that want to be independent thinkers. I got an email the other day actually about this. That was really good. And the person wrote to me and was just like Very, very respectful and how they wrote and what they were asking. And they were just like, Would it be possible? Or have you thought about like doing a post where basically you say that, you know, if you can’t show up every day, it’s okay. Because not everyone can show up every day like, especially people with different abilities. Yeah. And I sat with it, because my messaging is very much like, you know, social media, like you want to really grow on this thing, post every day, show up every day. The tangent from that is like, just never miss twice. Like, if you can’t do don’t do it this day, okay, well, then make sure that you show up the next day. And I sat with it. Because ultimately, what I really want is an audience that understands that I am by no means putting someone down, if they can’t show up in the same way as me that I’m simply saying, This is how I show up. And that’s what I, you know, I always say, I’m never here to say that you have to do it this way. I’m simply saying this is what I’ve done. And these are the results that I’ve got by that, by no means means that if you do it the exact same way, and you shouldn’t get the same results. But I need these independent thinkers that can take a step back and you know, read between the lines and listen around the edges and are able to be like, Okay, Master saying this master doing this. And I can understand that this messaging is still for me, because I can think independently and take what I need from this not like I have to be said, told this exact thing. So I was like, really appreciated that email. And I’m still thinking about how I want to include that as like, you know, a message because I also find that the flip side and you know, when you give someone an inch, they take a mile and it’s like when you tell people like yeah, you don’t have to show up every day, then they don’t show up.
Brett Bartholomew 21:39
Yeah, no, that is tough. The inch and mile thing is tough. And I know for example, I got a DM today about somebody that you know, they’re working with an athlete, that athlete has an eating disorder, male athlete, obviously, my background and my hospitalization, you know, they kind of write out eight paragraphs, literally, you know what they’re asking, I take a couple breaths, and I respond as much as I can, right? I don’t know the individual, they’re basically asking me what they should do with this kid. I don’t know the kid. So I try not to give them cliches, I try to give them pointed strategic advice. I also share some examples. I have a video on YouTube that talks about it’s called from struggle to strength coach that talks about how I overcame that and some other things. And then I didn’t hear back from the person. So sometimes it’s also difficult, because you’ll pour a lot into people, they demand a lot of you you’ll try to give them what you can back. But then they never it’s just, they take it for granted. And then the next thing they ask you for another and another and it’s like, Hey, can there just be a recognition here that like, yeah, you know, is this supposed to be an interaction? It feels very one way, you know, and that’s one thing I want to ask you when you talk about posting every day. You know, there are some people that get drained by that. And it’s understandable, right? what advice you have for the person that feels like I don’t have anything to say, or I don’t feel like anything, I have to say is impactful. And nobody wants to hear for me the imposter phenomenon. What do you say to them?
Shanté Cofield 23:00
Don’t be caught in that phenomenon. So number one, like from the like, coach, that is that I am and from the athlete that I am. We know it’s discipline over motivation. It’s not like I’m gonna be inspired to post today. It’s like, No, I have the discipline to show up. Because today might suck, but I’m still gonna show up and do it and do the thing. As it relates to the people in their head being like, nobody wants to hear this. It’s not important to anyone, I need you to take a step back and say, Is it important to you? Does it matter to you share it? Yeah. As it relates to stories, you share your joy as it relates to your actual feed, post share what matters to you about this subject? That’s it, it’s not about, you know, turning this, the lens outside and saying, well, people care, it’s really about could this help someone, that’s the bigger thing to be looking at. And I get it in the beginning, it sucks, because you may not get any traction. This is also why I said early on, I felt very fortunate in that I started and there wasn’t like other people, other people to like, compare myself to. But I also started just because I wanted to connect with people. And I was trying to put my message out there, you need to figure out why you want to be on this platform. If your goal for being on this platform, the only ways you want to be on it is to like get a lot of followers and like make a lot of money, you’re going to stop very quickly, because that ROI doesn’t happen. Everywhere. For some people are definitely not quickly, or most people figure out that why is it because you want to help people you want to connect with people because you believe there’s a better way to be doing things that will keep you going because you’re like, Yeah, I saw something to say about this. I saw something say about this. And I’m like, Oh, I didn’t get any money from this. And now I’m like, stop.
Brett Bartholomew 24:27
Yeah. And I think to connect your points about money, am I getting anything out of this return on investment return on time? I try to tell people if they start with a smaller audience, like we all did, and let’s say you’re getting two likes this or whatever the vanity metrics are, well, you got to look at it like you’re investing, right? Like whether you have a retirement or what have you or you have a portfolio. Imagine how miserable you’d be if you check your stocks or your retirement every day, right? Sometimes the markets up 800 points. Sometimes it’s tanked. And so if you said man I used to have and I’m making up a number here, right? I used to have 90,000 in the account. Now it’s down to 13,000. Well, you know That’s Yes, like in everything, there’s gains and losses, but you have to trust the value of compound interest. There are weeks. And I think at the time you and I are talking, I think I have like 90 some odd 1000 followers, but I’ve only gained 76 In the past week. Now, I know that because we check insights, maybe monthly just to see what’s happening, I think, especially since I’m crossing over my message to Hey, just athletes and movement to communication and leadership. So we’ve got to see you know, who our real audience is, and who maybe just wants to cling to the past. And we’re grateful for both. But my point is, is there’s some days I lose 34 100 $150, you have to you can’t look at it like that, can you like how do you manage whether your points are connecting? And how do you manage the expectations of the growth of your audience? How fast it is? how slow it is? Do you even think about it?
Shanté Cofield 25:46
Yes and no. So you can’t like I would never be like, Oh, those numbers don’t matter, right? People say that. And like the numbers, they do matter, or something. You know what I mean, when people say that, and like, don’t say that to people, like they do matters wherever they’re on there, but they’re just on everything. I think for me, it ties into what you said earlier that you’d rather have 1000 loyalty to Kevin Kelly’s article, 11,000 loyal soldiers than these vanity metric of 100,000. So what I do, and what I’ve always done is really focus on my current people, and I love on my current people heart, because in reality, and in the society that we’re in right now, if you’re looking to grow, that’s how you’re gonna grow the fastest is by somebody else, spreading their message to people who trust them. Like you could go on a TV show today. And say all your services and all your stuff. And your service and your sales, probably wouldn’t change that much unless that person who brought you on has a really loyal following and let those people trust them, because they’re the ones that are ultimately spreading your message. So it’s all about who do I currently have? Who’s here right now? How can I over deliver for them? How can I be remarkable for them, because they are the ones that are going to be spreading your message the farthest and the fastest. So how I get over it is focusing on my current people, because that actually happened earlier this year, I made really hard pivot into digital business. And, you know, I started like, why my name is the movement Maestro. I was just doing movement videos, not just I was doing movement videos, and PD stuff. I’ve been doing digital business for the past five years, when the Corona hit and everyone started pivoting. I was like, listen, I can help you. And this is actually where my passion is. So I’m going to change my content. And this is what it’s going to be about. And I would lose, you know, 300 400 followers in a week. Easy. And it was like, let me focus on who’s still here.
Brett Bartholomew 27:35
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I remember going on your website, as you know, I continue to do research into you and just get to know you, and you’re such an enigma. But you had this quote, you said, you know, movement unites us all. And you’re right, it does. I you know, I believe another thing that unites us all is communication, right? That’s the core essence of our business. And, you’re doing that in your own way in terms of digital communication and finding that medium. What do you say to people then that, you know, you said, if I heard you correctly, you haven’t treated in a formal way in over two years? Did I get that path? Right?
Shanté Cofield 28:03
That’s correct.
Brett Bartholomew 28:03
Yeah. For people that say, well, like, How can you even, you know, say that your a physical therapists are this and that if you’re not still, quote, unquote, hands on with people.
Shanté Cofield 28:12
And they would be like, if that bothers you, then don’t consider me
Brett Bartholomew 28:14
I love. I love how simple it well, and selfishly, I asked that, because when we pit you know, now, I’ll only work with athletes a certain number of times a year, right? There’s a certain percentage of the year, you know, I went from this guy that wanted to, you know, have 500 guys in the offseason and six, eight, and I loved it. And for that point, my career valid, valid, I loved it, I wanted bigger groups, more challenges, because I wanted to test my skills as a coach. Now, I’ve kind of told people, hey, it’s kind of a concierge thing, not meeting a one to one meeting, I’ll still train groups, but like, you’re gonna have to seek me out and we’re gonna have to come to an agreement. I’m not out there pleading for business, like, Please sir come, I need the footage on my Instagram, I won’t charge you anything. You know, you put a value on it. But I had somebody be like, you know, so are you even saw a strength coach? And I’m like, Yeah, through these months, you know, I do this and special projects. But other than that, I’m a coach’s coach. I coach leaders, I coach communication, and anybody that wants to complain about that there’s so many other people to follow.
Shanté Cofield 29:12
Let’s go over there. You know, the biggest thing that I started I kind of grappled with this a little bit as I was still teaching, but not really treating as much so I worked for RockTape love that company, best company. And I was treating, teaching for them, but not treating as much and I sat with that. And I was like, Is this going to be a weird thing? And I think we all need to be honest with ourselves and I’ll speak just to PTS, like, this is not rocket science and working with a human is like Brett said all about connection 99% of whether or not that person gets better is do they trust you? will they don’t do what you ask. So they believe in what you’re doing?
Brett Bartholomew 29:50
I need a citation for that, you know, exactly. You know, like, it’s like, Yeah, but you’re right. I mean, it’s like Bill you know, I always make this and maybe people are tired of it. But it Bill Gates isn’t writing a bunch of code. Hold right now in his spare time. But if Bill Gates needed to come, right, and code, I’m pretty sure you can still treat somebody. And I’m pretty sure that even if you catch me on a month, I’m not coaching formally, I can still run a warm up, I can teach you how to do it.
Shanté Cofield 30:11
And if you actually know, either of us, you know, our integrity, and if someone was to come to me, and I was like, I can’t help you, I wouldn’t be like trying to make up something to be like, Oh, but I’m still a PT like, Dude, I built a phenomenal network. Go see this person?
Brett Bartholomew 30:26
Yeah, no, I agree. And, you know, speaking that let’s continue down social media strategy with that being such a huge part of what you’re doing now. And, guys, if you’re listening, you know, we have a great episode with Nikolai Morris as well, who has strong messages for coaches who think social media is a waste of time, you know, I’d really check that out. Because the research is clear. But Shante, let’s go to the management because for some people, we’ve talked about how it can be intimidating, right? Like, I remember one time, you know, somebody mentioned that they had a content calendar to me, and I go, Well, what is this content calendar? And they’re like, well, we kind of schedule out our posts of what they’re going to be and what months we’re going to target on this? Do you have anything like that? Or do you wake up? And is it kind of ad hoc, what you’re feeling what you’re passionate about in the moment,
Shanté Cofield 31:03
it is more of that of the latter, what I’m passionate about than anything else. The big thing with that, and I think that Corona has hopefully highlighted that for people is that you need to know how you work and how you learn how you operate. If you are the type of person that needs a lot of structure, or you’re like super busy, I don’t have any kids. So like, I have the time to go do this. And it’s what I do for a living now. But if you know that, like you can only get things done if you batch things, if you have a schedule, then do that. I know, personally, for me, the best thing is a deadline. If you tell me that this project is due three years from now, I will work on it the night before three years from now, I don’t know we’re gonna have it till then. So for me, it’s like this is I’m in the moment, I know how long things will take. You know, also, if you leave it to the last minute, it only takes a minute. So I’m very big with with kind of doing that. But if people need that content calendar, right. You know, I think that when it comes to, you know, the business side of things, if you are launching certain things, and putting this out there, there is kind of this inherent strategy, you know, you can be more refined with it. But you can also just think about, like creating hype for something, you can watch what Apple does, you know, like, they leak things beforehand, they build up some buzz around it before they actually get people on a waitlist, things like that. So yeah, I’ll do things, you know, according to that. And now because I just have more stuff on my calendar, I have to like actually have a big calendar. So I can be like, Oh, this is what I wanted to be doing this. But otherwise, when it comes to posting, it’s kind of like, this is what I find interesting is we’re gonna be talking about today, I have a running list in my phone, as well as just ideas this way, like you would ask before, like, if you wake up and you’re like, I don’t have anything to say today. I have a running list of things. And I can pull from there.
Brett Bartholomew 32:38
Yeah. And I’ve done posts on Twitter to touch on that. I don’t have anything to say today. Sometimes I’ve done a post on that. Yeah, not every day. My post today is not everything you feel, not everything you say is gonna feel especially impactful. But say it anyway, because law of large numbers 8 billion people give or take, right? I know it’s less those of you that are fact checking wise acids, like, but a lot of freaking people in the world somebody relates to it. And you mentioned, you know, essentially, what is Parkinson’s Law? Right, like meeting a deadline. And I think that’s impactful. You know, it does get tricky. I think one thing I’m bad at, and I don’t know if you relate to this, but you know, with the podcast, sometimes I can forget to mention certain things like our newsletter, our reflection sheets, our courses. And then I’m like, hey, you know what, guys, our ideal listener is hopefully going to listen to one more than one. So my point is, I used to put a lot of pressure on myself and thinking, if there isn’t a book, if there is this, Now’s the chance to let everybody know, coming this summer, you know? And I’m like, no, no, it’s okay, we can do it on the next podcast. And if anything, though, appreciate the fact that we didn’t, you know, we just got right into the episode with that one.
Shanté Cofield 33:42
That voice was so good, Brett,
Brett Bartholomew 33:44
in a world where Shante Cofield
shares her strategies. This time, it’s for real. Maybe somebody will hear that and I’ll get like a side job. And I’ll be in a Pixar film. You know, you and I and a Pixar film is what we need out of this.
Shanté Cofield 33:57
I would love to be in an animated film. That’d be so fun.
Brett Bartholomew 34:00
What would your character look like? Well, you know what character like if you had to play like an anamorphic character that couldn’t be human or humanoid? What would you be?
Shanté Cofield 34:07
So there’s a movie, you know, cars, there’s like, I don’t know what number video of it is there from cars, but there’s one where there’s like a car trainer. And it’s like a yellow Corvette, I believe. And she’s like training. What’s his name to come back? And my sister’s always like, that’s you and I’m like,
Brett Bartholomew 34:24
you’re the train.
Shanté Cofield 34:25
I’m the trainer. It’s like the car, trainer. it’s training.
Brett Bartholomew 34:29
Yeah. Now, you know, I’m thinking about what I would be. I know, it’d be something absurd, you know, but that’s a hot seat question to reflect upon for later. Well, so going back to strategy, you know, there’s so many different modes and mediums to communicate, right. And there are a lot of people that do a tremendous job on captions and symbol photos. I know that my photos when I first started on social media, they were not you know, like high quality high res what have you there’s a lot of people that feel like they need a pro camera. Or like you know, now there’s video and I know You are an absolute ninja at the whole real thing, which admittedly, I haven’t even dabbled in yet. The thing seems intimidating to me. So I need you to teach me reels. But where should somebody kind of like, what do you feel like is the quote unquote best medium for somebody that is trying to say, alright, I’ve dipped my toe in this, but I feel overwhelmed. Which one should I double down on?
Shanté Cofield 35:22
I think it’s the same thing that I would answer about movement is the one that you’re going to stick with. So it doesn’t really matter. I do, however, believe that. Because we are in the business of trust, because we’re, you know, interacting with humans, they need to see your face. So whether you’re showing if maybe you only showing it in your stories, that’s totally fine. But they do need to see people need to see your face and build trust that way. But as it relates to post, you know, doing a graphic or video, do the one that you know, you can stick that you can stick to
Brett Bartholomew 35:53
Yeah, yeah, it’s helpful because I know infographics are a huge rage or word for a while. I don’t make those. I don’t know. that’s not my skill set. Right. Like, here’s a simple picture. Here’s a capture. Here’s a video of me, grungy as hell trying to say what I think it might frighten children, but it’s me, right?
Shanté Cofield 36:11
100% I’m not I’m not the infographic person. And for those of you out there that really are like, Oh, but I like making them like, use Canva make them do it. But then you still gotta show your face. I see so many accounts that blew up, they got huge, because these infographics, a lot of information presented quickly. But then there’s no trust being built with that actual person. Like you don’t know who’s like, doing it. And that person’s like, on a cell saying, I’m gonna have an in person thing, I’m gonna do some event they’re like, but who are you
Brett Bartholomew 36:34
right? No That’s a great point. And I know, in our business, I don’t, you know, I don’t want people to always think me when it’s sort of coaching, you know, we want other leaders to be promoted within the company and share our stuff and what have you. But at the same time, there’s that truth that people still have to identify me as what this thing is, you know, but that goes against so much of what we hear now of like, hey, true leaders are in the background. They last, you know, if you have a face out there, you’re not humble. How do you kind of address that? Or do you think that’s even just an antiquated advice today?
Shanté Cofield 37:04
I think that, you know, it takes all kinds and, you know, if you’re looking for a business coach, you’re looking for messaging that resonates with you, if that resonates with you, awesome, if you hear it, and that doesn’t really sit well with you find someone else who’s not living that way. I am all about branding, I wear my brand on everything, I get the trademark, I love it. I am my brand. my business model is actually the smaller business model. the thought of scaling and having a lot more people working for me and working under me, is terrifying to me. I’m just like, I don’t want that.
Brett Bartholomew 37:31
So is it just you.
Shanté Cofield 37:33
So it’s me, I have a virtual assistant Lex who is amazing. I have a website guy who like, sometimes when something breaks, I’m like, Please fix this. Otherwise I do. I did learn how to do stuff on my own. That was part of the thing. When I reached out to him, I was like, I need you to teach me how to do this too. Because if something breaks, and you’re like, asleep, you need to be able to do this. And I have a person who edits my long podcast episodes. So my team is really small. I’m going to be expanding, if you will, but in a different kind of way, next, coming months by just partnering with somebody for a new project, but the idea of like having this really, really big team, for me, it’s not how I run a business. So I’ve done posts about this in the past where, you know, if you’re trying to start something, find someone who has the lifestyle that you want that has the values that you want, that has the you know, the coaching approach that you want, and you believe in, and then go from that, you know, if you’re about like, you know, like you were saying lead new leaders at last and be super humble and things like that. And that’s the coaching approach you want. Then you go find that person, I’m not that person, I will eat with you. And make sure that all of you eat.
Brett Bartholomew 38:34
I want to eat together I don’t want to eat last because think about if you eat last, then like, you know how the hell are you gonna relate to anybody, they’re already on to the next thing, and you’re just sitting there in your mashed potatoes still.
Shanté Cofield 38:46
Exactly. 100%
Brett Bartholomew 38:48
But, you know, touching on that, like finding a team is incredibly hard, right? I think a bitter pill that I had to swallow, knowing that I run a company that is, you know, art of coaching communication, and, you know, knowing how to read people and what have you, I have made some bad hires. And, you know, I followed kind of the old Tim Ferriss advice of, you know, find a VA and then you know, you try it, you realize you get what you pay for but then I remember that I remember, I paid a lot for a VA and I didn’t get what I paid for. I’m like, alright, you don’t get what you paid for. And I should have known that because I watched Moneyball and then I had I had heard this and I say all this just to get context because I want to hear your stories, but then I had heard Alright, well hire somebody. That’s you know, you’re gonna have to kind of poach somebody and not like literally poach but find somebody that’s. So I tried that didn’t fit because of their answer. For me growing my business was basically spend an obscene amount of money and hire a bunch of people, but they didn’t really give like tat you know, hey, just spend more money. Okay, that didn’t work. And then I heard well hire for values and you can teach performance. And you can do that. But then at some point, somebody needs to work. Learn how to work autonomously, right, and like, you can’t if you teach performance That means you’re gonna have to pour a lot more of things that not only you know, but things you don’t know Shante Where the hell do you go to find good people? And like, how do you disseminate your team and the right fit for you? For
Shanté Cofield 40:11
For sure. So for me, I part I was basically an only child for many the first eight years of my life, and I kind of carried that with me. And so I am that person that we have group projects, I just wanna like, do it myself, because I know it’ll get done right. And I don’t think it’s anything that that’s a bad thing, or inherently negative. But one of things that I’ve done is that I encourage my audience to show up in a certain kind of way, I put my values out there, and I’m like, This is how I live and human will that way. Awesome. And one things I always tell people is ask, you have to have the courage to ask something, if you don’t ask, the answer will always be No, I encourage people to be independent thinkers. And so what how I found my VA was she actually asked me, so it worked out beautiful. And she came up to me and was like, You always say to ask, so I’m going to ask, do you need someone to work for you, because I’d love to help you in any capacity. I don’t even know if I needed someone yet. But I was like, this is the kind of person I want with the take the initiative. And then when it comes to actually hiring, that’s I think it’s a matter of actually testing people and knowing what you need before you go and try to hire someone. So I think that the messaging is kind of erroneous, out there as well, when they’re just like, grow, hire people scale, there’s a lot of stuff. I need people to know, do you actually need to scale yet? Or you just need to do you just need to like automate that thing? What exactly do you need done? Figure that out? This is why I believe you should do it first yourself, do what exactly do you need done? Okay, then hire someone that can do that. And the way that you know what they can do that or learn that is by testing them Be like, so when I heard my podcast editor, I was like, I’ll pay you for this one episode, I want you to edit it. And let me see what you can do. But we had a discussion beforehand of like, you know, I want to see had she done her research. And she actually came recommended from my friend who also uses the same editor. So I think that, for me, it’s been cultivating that kind of audience. I think that those are the people that you will find that fit your team the best, they’ve either gone to your program, they’ve done something with you, you know that they have that shared value, you asked for, you know, a recommendation from other people. And then you test them based on what you actually need, you’re not hiring just because someone said to hire, you’re hiring, because you’re like, I have a problem. And now I need a solution.
Brett Bartholomew 42:20
Yeah, it’s an excellent point, I think, you know, one thing we do now, based on my past failures is I have a little bit of a quiz that tests the organizational fit. It asked them to rank certain things, you know, one through six, and then we compare it with, you know, what are our needs? Or where do we think that company is, and its ability to provide that and then also the environment that it is. And then as goofy as it can sound, we created our own kind of personality kind of assessment, because we just don’t like the disc. And so many of the things out there are devoid of context, right? It’s like, I remember my wife had developed the disc one time, and it was like, Are you popular, or are you positive? And it was like, and so now we have a better kind of way. And then I think, you know, another thing that we’ve started to implement now, or at least we are going forward, we haven’t used it yet in full transparency. Any hire going forward will be a 90 day trial period, saying, Hey, we have no issue with like, you will have a contract, we’ll have everything formalized. But within 90 days, we both have the opportunity to say is this what we thought it would be? Or is it at least an environment that challenges us appropriately? And if not, we walk away no hard feelings, you know, all good.
Shanté Cofield 43:26
I love it. I think one of the best things that you said there too Brett was that you’ve done the thing I think people get like so scared like, but suppose I hire the wrong persons was like, just get started. I learned from what Brett is saying, but also like, so much of what you’re saying you’re making now is because you did these things, and you’re like, oh, that actually wasn’t the best way to do it. And so now, I’ve learned so I love that I’ve had hires, you know, I hired a VA first and it wasn’t the greatest fit. And I was like, Okay, I’ve learned from that. And I can now take these other steps and do other things to make sure that the next time is better.
Brett Bartholomew 43:58
Yeah. You mentioned doing the thing. And you’ve talked about that several times on a recent post, at least recent in relation to the timing of this recording, you talked about time management just put the damn thing on the calendar, which I love. You know, you mentioned you first you launch your first online product, right? Launching is not easy. Launching is a multifaceted, complex and nightmare in some capacities. Can you talk to us a little bit one what was a project product? And then how did you kind of approach the launch if you’re comfortable sharing like what were some learnings from?
Shanté Cofield 44:32
Absolutely. So for me, the first thing I truly launched them in a digital capacity was my breathing with the maestro online course before that I launched my in person course and I launched that largely through Instagram. But for me and I really made sure to say this to people. It was very different because I had been putting out content and developing this audience and growing this family for years. So I truly believe truly believe that the more you know effort and care you put in beforehand, the less strategy you need, during the thing, right. To me, the success of your launch is directly proportional to the effort you put in before your launch, and how much you’re showing up before then. I know yes, you could you like totally optimize and maximizing by doing some other stuff, for sure. But if you’ve shown up for your people, and you care you’ve loved on your people, they’re going to buy your thing, whether your page looks like this, or it looks like this. And then when we’re looking at next level strategy, and you have kind of a cold audience, it’s a little different. But when you’re selling to people to love you, they’re just like, This is awesome. I want you know, you want those super fans. So for me, it was this online breathing course. And that started by number one listening to my people. And it was a question that kept getting asked about was like, this is about breathing like that. And I was like, I’ve been learning about this for, you know, few years now. And I do have some answers, and you keep having largely the same questions, let me create a solution for you, I did the you know, typical, if I create some hype around it, I also believe that the more invested your people are in the project. And the more included your people are in the building of this product, the more likely they are to buy. So when I first started this, I got people on an email list. And I asked him like, what do you want out of this? What price do you want Would you pay for this thing? You know, what questions do you have, what one thing would make you walk away from watching this course and be like, I got my money’s worth, this was worth it. And I made sure to include those things. I did largely a lot of email marketing, meaning I just sent emails to them to this very interested group of people. And then when the date, you know, I set a date, and I was like, it’s coming out then. And I was very much working on that thing, like up until the minute before it launched. And then it was a matter of just, you know, card is open. And here’s the solution to the problems you’ve been asking me,
Brett Bartholomew 46:56
yeah no, and that’s, I think you did a really good job breaking that down, right? Essentially, you’re saying Get to know your audience really well. And in doing so you helped them to get to know themselves, right? There’s a lot of self reflection that goes on of what’s the core problem? What do you think you need? What do they actually need? What price point? Can they afford it? And then like you said, just nurturing that, and people think email lists, and all these things are evil. No, it’s interacting. It’s, a way to facilitate it, right? And we have another launch coming up in January. And you’re right, you do have to be thoughtful. Like, we always try to make sure not to bombard our list, you know, but then on the other hand, there’s been times where I thought I was bombarding my list. And they’re like, no, no, we want to know more. And I’m like, Oh, my God, there’s so many misconcept I’m still very much that scared dude of like, I never want to bug people. And that’s always been my thing is like, I’m, on a good front, I’m good at working, like by myself and being autonomous because I never wanted to bother people. So I figured shit out myself. On the bad end of that. Sometimes I think that I’m more of an annoyance to certain people than I am, you know, and that gets tough to manage in a launch, does it not?
Shanté Cofield 48:09
It does, I think that if you’re going to lean one way to get forced to lean one way or the other, the way that you’re leaning is better, like having that awareness. I would always rather trend towards, you know, I don’t want to you know, bother people. Obviously, you don’t want to go so far that you never say your messaging at all. But I personally would rather that be the case. And that person is that then that other person that’s just so unaware, and is not listening to their people at all. So I rather be hyper vigilant of like, oh, you know, I am you know, I’m saying too much. For the most part, if you are that person that’s thinking like that. You’re not saying enough where you rather you could be saying more, but I think that there, if we’re looking at needle, future proofing, pandemic proofing, longevity of your business, trending towards that side, the side that you’re on, and I’m very much on that same side is the better way to go. Yeah, you may miss a few sales. But you said it earlier, Brett like, guess what, there’s other podcast episode coming out. And there’s another product that I’m gonna be doing another thing that I’m gonna be doing and I will capture that most people with that.
Brett Bartholomew 49:07
Yeah, yeah. And, and it’s tricky to to get people to understand the true urgency behind it. Because so many people you’ve mentioned trust, a number of times now and opportunity. There are people that are going to perceive certain things as tactics, like when we do a launch in January or February, like we’re gonna have it available at a certain price. And then there are certain people who think well, it’s not really a prize, she’ll do it again. It’s like, no, no, like, we really don’t know like, how many times we’re going to do this. We’re actually waiting on the feedback for you guys. Right? Like, there’s no like, oh, yeah, this master plan on the calendar and I’m gonna launch it here and make you feel really bad about when you bought it the first time. Like, for you, is that been something that that has your audience? Do they do you feel like they have a healthy relationship with money? Shante Do they like. Is it the voice again?
Shanté Cofield 49:56
It’s so good. It’s so good. It’s so good. I mean, it’s so spot on with what you’re saying. And I think that is, I try to tell the story around the story. And that’s the messaging I try to put out there. And I do this with my emails, when I’m not launching, I do this with my posts, when I’m not launching something is letting them know that I need people to pay for solutions to problems they actually have, I need them to trust in themselves, I need them to act when is appropriate for them. So I don’t want them doing something just because they think that it’s going to go away, whether it’s from me or from anyone else. And I found that in really spreading that message and showing up that way that people do that, you know, the same, then they show up like that I just and if you know, I truly believe right that we are in the information, we are in the information age, which means if people really want to find an answer something, they could go and do it themselves and Google it and things like that, where I think that our audiences are really looking for someone who they trust to tell them these things. So my thing that I’m trying to tell them is, I need you to trust in yourself. Do you need this thing right now? Do you have this problem right now? Do you have time for this right now? Where are your priorities? what’s going on in your life? Okay, cool. This is, you know, it lines up, then go ahead, and do the thing and get the thing. And I think that because of the messaging I put out around that most people know that it’s not about you know, I’m not going to trick them into anything else later on. But I also always do say that I really do reward early adopters, whether it’s that it’s at a lower price, or this, like you said, when the people that come through the first iterations, they get the most out of it, but they’re the ones that are really forming this thing. So I can really make it like tailored to them. So they win. And let’s say in that regard, even if the price stays the same moving forward, so i personally as an early adopter, you know, I won’t ever reward my other early adopters, and encourage people, you know, to act in that way, if it fits, fits in with their value system. So I will do that. But I think that the messaging I’ve given around things now people are like, Oh, well, she’s not trying to, like, trick us. I can’t.
Brett Bartholomew 52:01
It’s just like anything else, right. And like not only rewarding early adopters, which is an excellent point. But like, also the people that invest in you the most, you know, we live by a Costco. And we like as ridiculous as that sounds that like that was one thing we wanted to make sure we lived by. And like I pay an annual membership for that. Well, similarly, at art of coaching, we have a group called the coalition and it’s like our mastermind group. Well, people that are a part of that get more benefits than people that just I don’t know, maybe have one free download, right? Because they’ve invested and and because they’ve invested, we’re able to provide them with a better service, kind of like you go on a retreat, let’s say you went on vacation with your significant other or your friend. Well, like, you know, if you pay like and you splurge on a hotel room, or what have you, you may get better toiletries, you may get some other little things, you may get better chocolates on your pillow, you may get some added benefit, if you have a credit card that gets different benefits. Oh, no, I’m not people that are like you shouldn’t tell people to have credit card. That’s not what I’m saying. But like, you know, you’ve got to reward those kinds of individuals that are going to invest most highly in you, because that’s what your work is ultimately for, and meant for people that go in and make use of the information.
Shanté Cofield 53:09
Nice said, Man, amen to all of that.
Brett Bartholomew 53:12
All right. So as we wind down, I just have three more questions for you. And they’re super easy. They’re low key, okay? As we put ourselves out there in the world, and I think you’re already strong at this. But as we put ourselves out there in the world, you inevitably learn more about yourself with our inherent fascination at art of coaching of communication, I have to ask you this, how do you approach becoming a better communicator? Whether that’s clarifying your message, being more introspective? Is there you know, I don’t want to use the word process. Is there something you lean on? Or are you just one of those folks that think, yeah, you know, I’m gonna go through life and just through life experiences, I’m gonna get better at it, or how do you kind of approach becoming a better communicator and clarifying your message?
Shanté Cofield 53:53
I think the biggest thing for me in becoming a better communicator is becoming a better listener. And really being able to sit and listen, I think, especially right now, right? It’s so important that people do this, because so many people listen, just so they can respond. Right? They’re not listening to like, actually interpret it. They’re not listening to hear that other person how they want to be heard, which is so so important. And so for me, it’s about just refining that skill of, can I actually, how good am I listening? Can I actually hear what that person is saying and feel them, hear them see them as they want to be seen?
Brett Bartholomew 54:30
Very well said, we have a game that we play out. We actually just played at one of our apprenticeship workshops. You know, that we had a lot of clinicians and it focuses on listening, and it’s just called last letter first. And the idea is there’s and there’s many permutations as there are progressions and regressions with exercise and therapeutic modalities. But the most basic way that I’m going to discuss on the show is I say a sentence, and then you have to reply with whatever the last word I said, ended in so if I said, Hi, Shante How was your day? The last letter there is y. So you have to begin this sentence in that your reply with y You have to start that you have to Shante How was your day? how’s your day? you could say yesterday was rough today is going much better. And then mine is Really? Why? harder than you think?
Shanté Cofield 55:21
Definitely. I’m like literally over here like, what? Let her is, no. Okay.
Brett Bartholomew 55:28
And the next time I see you, we’re gonna sit down for five minutes, just because I want to see where your mind goes. And that’s actually how we have to greet each other. We have to be like, Shantay Nice to see you again. What are you gonna say?
Shanté Cofield 55:39
Nice to see you. How are things you took
Brett Bartholomew 55:41
the easy route Shantay you what you like, you just repeated it now, but it’s all good. So nice to see you. How are things? Some things are going really well. Other things you’re stressing me the hell out?
Shanté Cofield 55:52
Tell me more.
Brett Bartholomew 55:53
There you go. Beautiful. I see you’re a natural added already. But it is something practical. And I just do that. Well, because right we talked about, we talked about being a better listener. And it’s tough because it’s alright, well give me something practical, then. You know, and, if people are struggling with it, and tell me what you think of this, like full on disclosure, and people struggle with it. I say Listen, guys, don’t worry about the reply at first being reminiscent of what they actually asked you like, just focus on a reply. Then when you get better at it, yes, make sure it loops. And so if she asked you the ribs were keep the focus on the food or the ribs or what have you. But it’s just this idea of flexing a muscle cognitively. That saying like listening is decoding a message. So why wouldn’t you? I used to do this with my athletes and my warm ups. I’d say hey, how are you feeling today? sore? Everywhere or anywhere? In particular? My shoulder really right? And then you just you’re like, holy shit. I’m not listening as closely as I think I am. But maybe I’m reaching out with that.
Shanté Cofield 56:51
No, that’s as super dope. I really, I liked that. And I’m wondering if have you can you play that as like as a mutation of that like, where you’re also? I don’t know mirroring their body language, right? We know this. And we’re talking about sales, things like that. That is for me, really big. And all of us in the movement world, things like that, like seeing listening. And it’s great listening with your eyes. You know, listening with your ears, but then listening with your eyes as well as on next level thing and like how, as a therapist, we do that this person says like, Oh, my hip hurts, but they touch their back. And you’re like,
Brett Bartholomew 57:26
yeah, no spot on yet. We have the seven ways just kind of you mentioned the FMS, earlier on, we have kind of a communication FMS of the seven things verbal nonverbal, para verbal, how well you build off the conversation of others. So you and I can geek out on that on another episode. All right, you bet a good sport only two more questions. One, I need the worst joke. You know, like the cheesiest quote unquote dad joke, something that like somebody’s gonna cringe at, and it’s okay to take a second but give me a joke that you’re like, Alright, here’s one for you.
Shanté Cofield 57:57
I Like literally, I’m like, I don’t even
Brett Bartholomew 58:00
it’s alright. I’ll give you give you a certain amount of time. You don’t have any bad jokes. I mean, that’s the reality.
Shanté Cofield 58:06
I don’t I like block those out of my memory strategically.
Brett Bartholomew 58:11
Okay, then we’ll give you another one. How about give me give me a hot take something you agree with wholeheartedly that you think other people would be like? No, no chance. I don’t agree at all. What’s something that you agree with? Or that you think or you believe that you think people would immediately be surprised or have this knee jerk reaction to
Shanté Cofield 58:31
the first thing that I do every morning from my morning routine as I check Instagram, I check it while I’m in bed. And sometimes I do that for an hour. And some people like don’t sleep with the phone in your room, don’t do this thing. That’s how I live and that is what I wholeheartedly agree with in terms of if you want that as part of your morning routine, and it’s healthy for you do it.
Brett Bartholomew 58:49
I love it. I can’t ask for anything more. You got super tactical with this. You gave us great advice in terms of finding your audience, being patient with your platform, understanding how to connect understanding strategies behind how to connect how to listen to your audience, and all those things that like this is a podcast that if people don’t rewind, listen to and reflect upon. There’s not much else we can do Shante if people want to support you learn from you. Take part in your courses, your products, your projects, anything like that. What is the best way knowing that you know and we’ll link it below but where’s the number one spot they should go to?
Shanté Cofield 59:23
Instagram always the easiest. I’m themovementmaestro Maestro spelled ma e s t r o
Brett Bartholomew 59:30
Simple as that guys. This has been the art of coaching podcast we appreciate you Shante I appreciate you we’ve only been able to interact a couple of times but you’ve always been such a positive avid supporter. I love you to death anything you ever need. I am there and I can’t thank you enough for sharing your time with us.
Shanté Cofield 59:48
Big appreciation for you my dude and everything that you are doing. Thank you thank you and thank you
Brett Bartholomew 59:52
alright guys until next time, the art of coaching podcast Brett Bartholomew Shante Coalfield, signing off
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