E9 | Matt Bertsch: Why We Need to Quit Overlooking High-School Strength & Conditioning - Art Of Coaching™

Posted January 6, 2019

TRANSCRIPT

Brett Bartholomew 0:55

Hey, what’s going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of The Art of coaching podcast. Got a good one for you today. A couple of points. Before we get started, though. So the tickets for the private event discussing careers and coaching kind of navigating different challenges within strengthing conditioning. from a professional standpoint, whether that’s getting the job keeping the job, creating options for yourself beyond the job, they are sold out. But on the newsletter, we are actually going to be recording this event, we’re going to be making it available to everybody, we’ll make it available to the public, it’s going to come out. We’re thinking spring 2019. And if you want to be notified to, when that comes out how you can get it it’s going to include audio video handouts, the entire gamut, you’re going to hear from not only myself, but folks like Andrea Hoody and other strength coaches in both the team and private sector that have had to navigate a wide range of challenges throughout their career. And again, not only in the strength and conditioning side of things, but when we talk about professionalism, we’re talking about everything that goes into that, whether they needed to learn more about negotiating whether they needed to learn about how to navigate issues that you know, Matt and I are going to talk about today where you know, your resume is not always enough proper networking, how to give back at a higher level, and how to just create options where you may not be able to achieve true work life balance, but you can find work life fusion. So whether you’ve done whether you’re in the game one year, or you’re going on 20 30 years, and you’ve had issues with feeling stuck, stagnant, or anything related to your career, you know, this is going to be an awesome resource. We’re going to make it available through our newsletter first and foremost. So again, that sign up will be available in the show notes. I love that you guys shoot a lot of DMS and everything, but I will not always see those DMS. So please, please, please check the show notes or email team@artofcoaching.com. Again, team@artofcoaching.com and let them know you want to be added to the newsletter, we will get that locked in for you. Alright, so get into today’s episode, this one’s a special one for me. I have my good friend and former colleague, Matt Bertsch, a little background, Matt and I first met him at Southern Illinois University, I’ll let him tell that story. But he’s somebody that’s very near and dear to my heart. And now Matt has what I believe to be one of the best jobs in strength and conditioning. And that’s not said tongue in cheek. That’s not said lightly. There are a lot of people that have some really unique roles in our field. But I believe Matt has one of the best jobs My wife has told me several times and that his job ever became available. I have no choice. We’re moving back to Nebraska and she’s taking that job or doing whatever she can there. So Matt, welcome to the show. I’m excited to have you on man.

Matt Bertsch 3:43

Hey, thanks for having me. Appreciate it,

Brett Bartholomew 3:46

Matt’s got a seductive voice on today. Don’t be fooled. Matt will tell you a little bit about his strength and conditioning experience. Matt, can you go into your background? We try to keep this just for the listeners so we can get to the meat of it. We try to keep it to a minute, minute and a half. You know, don’t sell yourself short by any means. But how would you describe the crux of what you do and how you got there?

Matt Bertsch 4:05

Well, currently, I am one of two district sports performance coaches for LPS that’s Lincoln public schools out here in Lincoln, Nebraska. And essentially, I mean, I’m a high school strength coach. You mentioned how we met actually think it’s kind of a fun story. But like probably a lot of young strength coaches out there I shot about 60 70 emails to a bunch of coaches around and I got one response and that was from a guy named Scott Charland at SLU University at the time. And he essentially hit me up saying, I’ve got a clinic Come on out, it’s 50 bucks, you know, blah, blah. He was just trying to get some money out of me. Well showed up had no idea what to expect. And I’m thinking hey, this could be a job interview. So I show up to my first strength conditioning clinic in a suit and tie and interesting story.

Brett Bartholomew 4:59

Life, a full suit and tie that was about 12 sizes too big for you.

Matt Bertsch 5:02

That’s right. It was my father’s suit and tie. So I did not have one at the time.

Brett Bartholomew 5:10

Imagine putting, a suit that maybe would fit on Vince McMahon, like fully roided up Vince McMahon on one of the anatomy and physiology skeletons that used to find in your lab now. Don’t get it twisted man doesn’t look like that now, but then.

Matt Bertsch 5:24

I mean, I was pretty skinny I was pretty embarrassed because everybody just kept on looking at me. And so I was gonna go in the bathroom and change because I did bring a change of clothes because I didn’t know what to expect. And John Toran, who was the strength coach of the Indianapolis Colts at the time was in the bathroom with me, I won’t go into more detail. But he saw me starting to change. He looked at me, he goes, What are you doing? And he’s like, and I was like, Well, you know, everybody’s kind of looking at me funny. So I’m gonna change he goes, son do not change. He goes back and go back out there with your head held high. So I did. And he complimented me several times for the rest of that. But that was a young Brett Bartholomew. I just happened to be at that clinic that day. And on their way out, Jared Naslund and Brett on their way out. I called him and said, hey, you know, I go to Southern Illinois, I wouldn’t mind swinging by and they said, Sure, come on by starting next Monday. So that’s kind of how we met.

Brett Bartholomew 6:22

So Matt, that’s an awesome, that’s a funny Recap, you know, and something I’ll never forget. But you definitely did sell yourself short. You’re not just a high school strength coach, you went and do a unique role and position and you had to create somewhat or not even order out of chaos, like there wasn’t a whole lot of structure in regards to kind of everything that you’ve built. So I am going to ask you about that. Because I think that people really would love hearing about some of the managerial and orchestra like, the way you had to orchestrate things, whether it’s even manuals, or you created issues you had to solve, finding out ways to support all the high schools in the Lincoln area, some of which, you know, weren’t doing any kind of organized strength and conditioning at all. But the part that Matt didn’t talk about there is Matt came down to Southern Illinois, was a volunteer intern, whatever you want to call it, whatever the politically correct term is right now. And you know, I liked Matt So did my coworker Ricardo Ramirez. awesome guy. You know, Matt was raw at the time, I think he also had an earring, which ear was that in Matt just so everybody can get it.

Matt Bertsch 7:21

I did not have an earring. But I was 18 years old at the time. So I had zero social skills whatsoever.

Brett Bartholomew 7:27

Zero social skills, I thought I remembered an earring, we’re gonna throw that one out to Ricardo. But anyway, I remember at the time, you know, we’re going into fall or winter break. And Jared was like, I think we’re getting rid of the new guy. We’re like, why? And he’s like, just quiet kind of weirds me out. We’re like, No man, like, he sits in the office with us. And that little graduate assistant office was like nothing. You could hear each other like breathe, you could hear the um of like, I talked about it in my book, conscious coaching, I said that room was so small, you would have had to change, you would have to leave it to even change your mind. But Matt showed a lot of promise. Like he asked interesting questions. You didn’t always know where he was going with it, or what he was wondering. But he asked really interesting questions, you could tell that he cared about the athletes, he’d actually do the programs. When we put them in tough situations, or just kind of bust his balls, he would never really kind of just like, curl up, he understood that, in the strength coach world, they only don’t like you if they don’t talk to you. But if they give you a hard time, you know, that’s usually a good thing. So Matt did an awesome job. After I left SIU ended up having a great tenure there under Clete McLeod, and as a special job now. So Matt, now, you know, we know you’re humble, we appreciate that all coaches kind of sell themselves short, which actually is why a lot of us get put into tough situations to begin with. Because there’s one thing to be humble. Another thing to kind of devalue what you’re doing. So now that you’ve kind of got that across, can you tell them a little bit more about the situation you went into at Lincoln public schools, and specifically why did I think this is important is because just this morning, and it’s not special this morning, but for the last 6 12 months, I get emails from young coaches that say, Hey, nobody’s answering nobody’s getting back to me on my resumes. Nobody’s getting back to me on this. Like, how am I supposed to get on this field? Or you know, recently, I got one from a kid that was like, I did an internship with a pro team and afterwards I didn’t even get consideration for a job now. Part of that’s naivete nobody listening should think that one or two internships and your own job, your own development no doubt people should be mentoring you people should be helping you along. But like, you’re not owed a job right? Like this. game is not that easy. And so Matt, can you tell us why you think more coaches should be creative? And look outside of pro College? Like, what are they missing the boat on? And how is it probably hurting them in their career, if at all?

Matt Bertsch 9:45

Yeah. Well, I was definitely one of those people. I finished up my graduate assistantship at Southern Illinois. And I had done no outreach whatsoever. I had done multiple internships. You know, I had a various amount of experience, but it wasn’t, you know, holistic experience, because I just

Brett Bartholomew 10:04

What do you mean by that just so people have a clear idea what they mean?

Matt Bertsch 10:08

Well, I wasn’t, you know, again, I think I was a little bit younger. And I don’t think that I had the social intelligence to know like, I had to keep up with the people that I had met at all these internships, and I just kind of expected, like you said, that, Oh, you know, I’ll throw all these people’s names on my resume. And while I’d get a job, and that’s really unfair, because Cleet had already given me so much. And he was pretty much my only lifeline. So after I finished up my graduate assistantship, I popped on out to the University of Nebraska to work with their football team out there as an intern. And, you know, the decision to go into the high school after a few months there, like, obviously, I wanted to stay in college, you know, I thought maybe I was a little bit too good to go down at the high school,

Brett Bartholomew 10:57

Especially a place like Nebraska, I mean, you know, and people will think I’m biased, because I’m from Omaha, I grew up in the shadow of Husker power, but that’s palatial Right? Like, I think you and I have both seen a fair amount of programs. Have you ever seen a weight room that’s nicer than that? Even in the SEC, and the things that they post? Have you ever seen a nicer weight room?

Matt Bertsch 11:14

No. I mean, it was definitely a step up. And, I even in talent, you know, we had kids that were 300 pounds, plus doing backflips, you know, just for fun. And I was like, okay, I know, I’m in a, big league here. But, going back to the decision to go into the high schools, like, I had so many questions, could I come back into college at some point, if I wanted to, like, that was a fear of mine. And I know, you’ve talked about that kind of going into the private sector, too, was, you know, everybody’s kept telling me, Well, if you take this job, you’re going to be stuck there. You know, what other people would think me, you know, for some reason, I thought that there was this hierarchy of, you know, high school coaches are, you know, the worst coaches out there, and then college coaches a little bit better. And then you have your professional coaches, which are the best. And so I was thinking, oh, man, am I, kind of demeaning myself or my, not only my professional, for instance, but what would my family think, you know, they’re used to be hear me, you know, talk about Southern Illinois women’s basketball or, you know, football, you know, things like that, Would they still hold me with the same regard. So, I had some identity, crisis. But I was actually working at a movie theater. That’s kind of how we were making our money. My wife, Anastasia, she’s been awesome through the whole thing. She was working a couple of jobs to make ends meet. And that movie theater.

Brett Bartholomew 12:39

This is all why you were volunteering in Nebraska, right?

Matt Bertsch 12:42

Yes, correct. And so that movie theater is really what I discovered that I could work with high school kids, because I was already working with high school kids. And I didn’t know it at the time. But a lot of those kids, you know, even at the movie theater, were asking me questions about not necessarily training, but about anything. And I was kind of there. You know, even though that I probably shouldn’t have been considering the state I was in, you know, my graduate degree and all this other stuff. And I’m working in a movie theater. But, you know, they were asked me life advice. And I just, you know, made some good friends there. And, you know, once the job came about, I had a conversation with Mark. And Mark was kind of like, this is Mark Phillips.

Brett Bartholomew 13:21

Yeah. Can you tell him who mark is?

Matt Bertsch 13:23

Yeah, Mark was the Head Football strength coach at UNL. At the time, he’s now down at USC as an assistant. But we had a conversation, he’s like, you know, you should do it. And I was like, alright, let’s, get it done. And so I was like, most others that were in that situation, and I would send out, you know, 60 plus resumes a year. Forgetting to change the name on some of them, you know, realize and after, because I was just shooting out so many. But this time, I was like, you know, no more. Like, we’re gonna go out and get this job. And so, a couple of things I did for one, I reached out to the, actual Lincoln Public Schools office, and I said, you know, ask them questions about the job before they even know who I was, or like, Who is this kid asking questions? I’m not sure if they even knew the answers to some of the questions that are asking.

Brett Bartholomew 14:15

Because what was the title of the job? I mean, at the beginning, I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. I know, you said you were a high school strength coach, but what was the title of the job?

Matt Bertsch 14:23

Yeah. So they were there’s actually two positions. And they were looking for code district head strength and conditioning coaches. So it wasn’t like a PE position or anything like that. It was they wanted to bring people in to kind of oversee all of the training for Lincoln public schools, and we have six high schools that are all 2000 Plus kids.

Brett Bartholomew 14:45

Right. And that’s, what I think I hope everybody hears that, like, overseeing the training of six high schools of 2000 plus kids, like you’re going to tell me that that’s not an important job. And I’m going to cut you off just for one moment because I think, you know, a lot of these episodes aren’t just It’s meant to be geared towards strengthen conditioning coaches. So this goes to anybody looking for a job. But it is a case study. But I hammer these things home on the first, you know aspects of the first five to 10 episodes because it is just something people need to get locked into their mind. The best trained coaches are not in the NFL. They’re not or the NBA or MLB. There’s very good strength coaches there without question. But don’t confuse just like you would say that. Just because somebody is a high level athlete doesn’t make them a high level trainee in regards to their weight room experience. Do not keep thinking that the acronym or the position like that, that prestigious all of a sudden assumed this is a role that many of you listening, if you’re struggling to have a job should kill to be able to do that’s not a recruiting thing. I don’t get a kickback. From that. I want you to understand that every day. Again, I’m hammered and many other coaches are I would say, Hey, Coach, what advice do you have for young strength coaches? What can we as coaches do to increase our chances of becoming a leader in the industry? What is something you think most don’t realize about the profession, or do enough in general, all these things, what you can do to increase your chances of being a leader in the industry is take roles like this, take roles where you are put in a position where you now like a total of 12,000 kids. And granted, they’re not all going to be involved in sports or strength training or what have you. But you’re looking at such a huge scope. That’s where you’re learning how to be a manager. There’s a reason they talked about the best CEOs, many of the best CEOs and major companies started in the mailroom. That’s not a colloquialism. Right, like a lot of them will started in the mailroom or the ground level. But Matt, would you agree it’s a little bit problematic now that like, we have coaches that again, think like, yeah, I’ve done internships, you had read Super Training? Yeah, I’ve sent out resumes, where’s my job at? Where’s my job? That’s not it? Am I off?

Matt Bertsch 16:50

Yeah, and, you know, in tech are your statements like, the problems that we saw at, you know, Nebraska, because we did have some while we were there, and then, you know, even in some of my internships, I got to work with a few pro guys, you know, never as the front runner, but as somebody that was observing, the problems are similar, and they’re all people problems, you know, which is why, you know, the art of coaching is so important, because, I mean, you know, the human behavior, here is the issue, you know. And so that’s, one of the first glaring realities that hit me, whenever I took this job. I was like, you know, I couldn’t be in the weight room, every day training the kids, like, I had to work with people that would be overseeing what I gave them to help train the kids. And that,

Brett Bartholomew 17:36

Did you have a lot of administrative responsibilities as well, too?

Matt Bertsch 17:41

Yeah, I mean, we had to go through and we had to, you know, identify everything, because they already had a couple of lawsuits with some equipment that broke down. And so that’s one of the first thing was what we did is we had to go through and we itemized every single piece of equipment that we had, since we’ve upgraded all six of our weight rooms, and they’re all six now better equipped than what we had at Southern Illinois. And that’s in terms of just sheer volume of kids that we can push through there. So, budget time management, you know, I think we have 122 heads for coaches, we have 12 athletic trainers, and, you know, six athletic directors that we kind of work with on a daily basis. So

Brett Bartholomew 18:29

And when you found that you were dealing, you know, the people problems that you had to deal with, and now all of a sudden, you’re not. Let me reframe this, I think that we have an obsession in our field with people being like, you know, trying to promote the in the trenches, lifestyle, like they’re going to be able to coach six 810 groups, you know, until they’re 60 years old. You know, people want to have like real coaching, you have to live and die in the trenches in perpetuity. I would argue that if you want to continue to make a career in this field, you better learn the management and the administrative skills as well. Right? Like, enjoy the years, for sure, enjoy the years where you’re on the floor all the time, you’re writing programs, you don’t have to answer a whole lot of emails or what have you. But if you want to move forward as a coach, and more importantly, as a professional, you’re gonna have to get good at those things. So what were some administrative skills that you really struggled with at first, like where you’re like, I’m a strength coach, like, Am I really having to do this right now? But then now, after doing the job for how many years? How many years? Have you been there?

Matt Bertsch 19:27

This I will be third year here December 4th so.

Brett Bartholomew 19:32

What was something that you looked at it first, administratively, or situationally where you’re like, I can’t believe I have to deal with this. But now you’re like, No, this is critical. This is actually a huge investment. In my, professional skill set.

Matt Bertsch 19:45

Yeah. One of the first big glaring things for me was that, you know, not everybody’s passionate about the same thing or was passionate about what I was passionate about, and that was training. You know, I was working with coaches that you know, had a wife and three kids and you know, all other stuff and their job performance wasn’t necessarily dictated by how well they were doing either. So there was no necessarily bottom line, it was, you know, holy cow like some of these coaches at the high school level, they, kind of want to go home at the end of the day, you know what I mean? And so trying to work with them and say, hey, look, I know that you’re a basketball coach, for instance, and you know that basketball is important, but trying to get them to understand that training truly is important. And it’s, worthy of them investing some of their time, you know, because, again, it wasn’t always me that was going to be there would be easy for me to say, yeah, you just go home, and I’ll take the kids, but with working with different sites, I can’t necessarily always do that. And so that was a test that I was like, man, like, I was not ready to try and sell this so hard. And so that was, probably the first thing that really hit me.

Brett Bartholomew 20:56

So I know you’ve gone through the body. And course, were there any kind of communication tactics or anything in particular, that helped you during that timeframe? I mean, as opposed to, you know, just saying, Hey, this is important, it helps the kids which, you know, in the course we talked about is rational persuasion, or even a personal appeal, you know, what, do you think was most beneficial from an influence tactic to get these guys to see what you were trying to accomplish there? And how it was gonna benefit the greater good? How did you get them bought in?

Matt Bertsch 21:22

Yeah, so time and investment. So a lot of I, again, you know, I was woefully unprepared, because I thought I was going to come in, and I was going to be, you know, somebody on a white horse and say, Hey, here’s the Savior, you guys have been training, you know, like,

Brett Bartholomew 21:37

blow their mind with your training knowledge.

Matt Bertsch 21:40

And there’s, some people were like, you know, I’ve been coaching longer than you’ve been alive. I’m not, an old man, by any means. But some of these coaches have been around for a long time. And that one of the things that really helped me was, you know, try to align myself and kind of see, you know, from their point of view, and spend a little bit time trying to learn first what they have going on, establish a little bit of trust there. And then maybe I can start to make some suggestions from the inside out rather than the outside in

Brett Bartholomew 22:11

I think that’s an important thing. Because when you don’t ask questions, when you don’t get an idea of what they’re doing before, you’ve already essentially struck out I think it was, you know, there was a novelist named Thomas Berger or burger, I don’t know how you pronounce it. But you know, he was a big believer in that the art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge. But like you said, I remember when I was a young strength coach, I felt like, oh, man, if I get this job or that job, I can’t wait to kick down the doors and like completely reinvigorate the place of my energy and change everything, then that’s not what it’s about. And I’ve talked about that before. On this podcast, you talked about a couple of things that I want to highlight. So one, you know, when somebody asked what they wish they would have known more about, you know, the profession before getting started, it becomes really easy to you know, mention the things that we do know about, like the long hours, the highly variable pay, lack of job security, the demands of life outside of work, but I don’t think a lot of people really talk about the value and taking risks, which is certainly something that you did, I think that a lot of young coaches, and again, young coaches, I’m referring to as age, it’s somebody that is just trying to break into the field, you know, anything like that. I think a lot of the primary causes of symptoms that coaches really deal with, comes down to people not taking enough risks, and not just being creative. You know, it’s easy to say, Well, I’ve done my part, like I sent out a resume. It’s not, you know, like, think about the creators of Airbnb. And I heard about this story the other day, I think it’s phenomenal. The folks that created Airbnb, I mean, first of all, they were in their 20s, it was a complete, like, an accident, essentially, like, there were tech and design conferences that were coming into San Francisco. And you know, all these hotels were selling out. So one day one of the creators and I’m kind of squeezing this in, because I don’t want to put anybody to sleep. But one of the creators of Airbnb ultimately was like, you know, told his friend like, listen, like, I can probably hose people at my house on an air mattress, hence Airbnb, and we could charge for it. And it would help him pay rent because their rent had just gone up in the area, and anybody that lives in San Francisco can appreciate what that might cost is I can I can help somebody out. So all of a sudden, these strangers are staying with him, you know, and they’re trying to scale this business are still in their 20s. They create a website and it’s not really working out for him. I think they had achieved I mean, racked up a pretty significant amount of debt. To give you an idea that debt they racked up. The guy said that they had one of those books where you normally put collectors baseball cards in right with the sleeves that you can put the card into. But that was filled with credit cards, and they would literally go through maxing out credit cards, so they could build a new web platform. So they could do this or they could do that to try to build the company, right? So they’re racking up debt. And the guy’s like, I don’t know how we’re gonna get out of this. Like, nobody knows how to use this site. We’re trying to figure this out, you know, what else can we do? So they get the idea, as the story is told at least to, they hear that Democratic National Convention is coming into town. And this isn’t a political thing. This is just how the story is, right? So they go out and they decide one of them’s like, you know, we’re going to make our own cereal, and like why are you gonna make your own cereal. What are you talking about? He’s like, Listen, no, we’re going to do is we’re going to take cereal out of the stores, and we’re going to put it in customized packaging. So what they did is they took like, I think it was Obama and McCain that were out there. So they made like this box cereal box, it was called Obama O’s. And like Captain McCain’s, and they put literally other cereal in that box. And they only had enough money to create, like, 500 of these boxes. And they sat outside the Democratic National Convention selling these quote, unquote, limited edition boxes of cereal, for $40, a pop, and all of them sold out. And they were able to make enough money to get out of debt. And eventually, that led to a meeting with Y Combinator. And eventually, that led to a device that completely transcended you know, what they were doing, or transformed what they were doing and help them really create and expand and, do Airbnb, which is, I think, valued in the billions. Now, don’t quote me on that. But if not the billions, the hundreds of millions, for sure. And my point is this. If people can figure that out, why do we have strength coaches saying I sent resumes out I’ve done internships, I don’t have a job. It’s the world’s fault. Like, so when I give people the solutions, and I don’t have all the answers, but like there’s so much more you guys got to do, you know, one, you have to look in the right places. And that’s why I brought Matt on today, you cannot just look at Oh, division one university, or you know, if you’re abroad, you know, the top, the top club in your area, or pro team and then cry that you’re not getting that job. In the meantime, there are tons of private sector opportunities, high school opportunities, there are countless ways in which you can coach to, you can also go visit these people, you know, like go if they’re in the area, I guarantee you, there’s colleges and high schools and teams in your area that would love your help. And if somebody hasn’t gotten back to you, here’s the hint, they probably have not seen your resume, something I’ve talked about before on this podcast. It’s something I’ll keep talking about, because I think coaches have to have it hit over the head, they are likely not seeing your resume two, three, really, the resume doesn’t show them anything about you. And this is where I’m going to be critical about people that are you know, blabbing on about the all social media has ruined the World Social media has done this, here’s a real story. I got reached out to by a director of performance for a protein, I’m not going to get into what sport I’m not even talking about it any of that because I’m going to respect your privacy. And they said, Hey, I’m looking for X, Y, and Z in a strength coach, do you know anybody. And I remember like, you know, he asked me about some folks, I didn’t really know those individuals. So I go to social media, or I try to look up, you know, just to see some examples of what they’ve done. Then, of course, these are people that aren’t on social media in any capacity, maybe they have a Facebook account. So you can’t see examples of their work, all you can do is kind of read their bio, and I’m like, what a wasted opportunity. What a wasted opportunity, when like, you could put examples of your coaching real examples, not manicured examples, but you could put real examples of your coaching, either on social media or on a private Vimeo page or something or even a professional website. You know, and that is a quick way that let’s say you send somebody resume. All right now you can also link examples of your coaching. And it doesn’t matter if your coaching is world class, by their standards. What matters is you’re showing them how you communicate how you would teach anything from a hand clean to an agility or change of direction drill, how you teach speed mechanics, you’re showing them something, I always tell people on this, you know, write this down. Like if you guys are listening to this. I wouldn’t even accept an intern or anything unless you send me two to three videos. Usually it’s six because I know most people aren’t going to send one let alone six. I want three weight room examples. Three on the field examples. I could care less if you’re coaching somebody else or just talking to the camera. And then I want a two minute improv video. Then this I’ve gotten yelled at you one coach on social media blew me up on this. But the improv video i There’s no rules. It’s just like, Yo, this is two minutes. You can tell a joke, you can tell a story. You can do whatever you want. Like it’s improv, that means that your time but I want to see your personality and creativity. And what I found is asking for these things, not just a resume, but four to six videos, and then a two minute improv weeds out 96 to 97% of candidates, because they don’t do it. It’s too much work. Eric Cressey has another example where I think that you know, they have to send everything in one PDF, and it’s even highlighted in red or something to that effect. And it weeds out the vast majority. So my point is is like Don’t limit your options to think outside the box. Visibility. Yeah, it doesn’t mean viability, but like if nobody can see examples of your coaching, don’t expect your piece of paper and the pile of 30 papers to just sing to them. Don’t expect that.

You know, you’ve got to promote yourself to some degree with a strong application or digital presence, because that’s the landscape we were out live in, whether you like that or not. And then that I want to ask you about this in particular, how did you prepare for interviews? Because I think that’s something else that coaches don’t really do. I think coaches kind of send their resume in, they hope for the best. And maybe the only way they prepare for interviews is to review their, training programs, which I did. By the way, I remember when I went interviewed at API, I had a full booklet of a year’s worth of Strength and Conditioning for men’s and women’s tennis to show them as an example. But how do you prepare for interviews? Or what are some other things that you think people could do? Aside from what I mentioned, to really stand out in a crowded job market where a resume is not enough?

Matt Bertsch 30:38

Yeah, well, I can just give you the example of how I got this job. Llike I said, I had enough. And so I contacted them multiple times right away, I had Mark Phillip contact them multiple times. And then one thing that I did is I put together a training manual, a kind of a four year deal where I said, this is kind of how I look, you know, from top to bottom, and it looked pretty nice, you know, I actually use the university’s resources quite a bit and almost dried those out. Once I got the interview, found out there’s a lot more people there than what I printed. And so I had to go spend probably, I think $250 at a print shop to print some more. And once I got in, to the interview, I handed them out. And one of the other things that I did was, I did a lot of research on who was interviewing me, once I found out who was going to be in the room. You know, I found out there’s, we had one, it was kind of a round table interview. And we had athletic directors in one room coaches in another room. And then the head honchos in the third room. And so I did research on every single person and wrote it down. And so I was able to get a little personal, sometimes I found out that my current boss had done a series of coaching videos way back in the day, and I got them from a library, they were on VHS, and she lasts to this day, because she hasn’t been able to find a VHS player to watch them in our district. So she hasn’t gotten to watch them since. But, those are just some of the things that I had not done before. And I had probably three or four interviews before that, all of which I failed at, because, you know, I just kind of thought that me would carry me, and that didn’t happen. So those are just a few other examples of, you know, how I got this job. And I think, you know, the, just being, you know, cleaning up front, I wasn’t even, you know, one of the first choices for the job, there was a couple other people that decided to turn the job down first. So, realistically, that wasn’t even enough. I just kind of got lucky on that. And

Brett Bartholomew 32:44

I think that’s a good I think that’s another key example of one thing I actually want to highlight that you didn’t do, which is good that you didn’t do this, because I see this too much like, let’s classify like this, the old way, when people are looking for positions is this I sent resumes, I send an email, or they send a text to somebody that they probably haven’t talked to in a really long time, but that they think can help them or that they consider as an industry and they’re like, hey, looking for a position know anybody with an opening. And here’s the problem with that, you’re assuming that person is paying attention to the jobs that are available? Well, that person is focused on their job, you know, and so, and I think that was a pet peeve of mine, because let you know, last year, and it’s well intentioned, so I’m not making fun of people. I’m just trying to teach lessons that I think are important for coaches to realize. And you know, I wish I would have realized and highlighting mistakes. Whenever I get somebody, it’s like, Hey, Brett currently applying to this job or that job? You know, like, do you know anybody looking for any? Or can you serve as a reference? Well, there’s two things wrong with that one. In this instance, I hadn’t talked to this person in two years. So I have no idea what they’re doing. Now. I have no idea where they’re at. And then they ask for a reference. When it’s been two years. Again, I don’t know anything you’re doing. Maybe the time we met each other. Maybe we met each other for coffee. Maybe we met maybe you intern for four months, you know, whatever. But like, I don’t think people think that through. I think you and I usually tell people like listen, I’m happy to serve as a character reference. You know, like,if I know you, and I met you and what have you, but like, I don’t think you want me serving as a coaching reference, because I haven’t seen you coach and I will tell them that, you know, but it really bugs me. And I know what bugs a lot of other coaches where people think that networking is, let me rephrase it another way. Most people looking for jobs, don’t build relationships until they need them. That’s not how networking is done. You need to network and build an authentic relationship beforehand, by providing value to others first, reciprocity. Before you ask for something. Here’s another thing. Everybody listening has at least one person in their phonebook. If you’ve coached 5 10 15 years, you have one person in your phonebook that every time they reach out to you. They’re asking for something, literally almost every time, Matt, do you have anybody like that in your phonebook or anybody that you, that you’ve worked with that could relate to that? Have you ever worked with anybody that every time they reach out to you? It’s always when they need something?

Matt Bertsch 35:13

You were once that person for me, so I appreciate you telling me.

Brett Bartholomew 35:18

Oh, you mean, I reached out to you? And I needed something

Matt Bertsch 35:20

the other way around?

Brett Bartholomew 35:23

No. Oh, yeah. But I mean, that was different. You added a lot to my life, right? Like you, you would check in you remember my wife’s name we would have conversations, and you were somebody that I took a special interest in being one of my first interns, right, it’s like you, are not an example of that. I’m talking about people that just boom, boom, boom, it’s, can you do this? Can you reach out to that person? Can you reach out to that person, people that mean well, but meaning well only get you so far, in a world that is largely run by perception, it’s like, you need to make it easy for the other person to help. Don’t expect somebody to drop everything they’re doing, and start reaching out on your behalf when they’re not up to speed on what you’re doing. And you probably haven’t talked to in a couple years, right? Like, send a polite email with your resume, cover letter references and links to videos of you coaching, make sure you work on your interview skills, pay attention to questions people ask you and stuff like that you, they’ll tell you a lot about what the position is in the value. Go visit them, if you haven’t heard from them, they’re out of state, and you can’t visit them save money. If the again, people for Airbnb can be in 10s of 1000s of dollars of credit card debt and go to the store and create custom, you know, boxes and stand outside the Democratic National Convention, you can probably save $300 for a plane ticket, you can scratch and claw for that, and then be ready on the spot. Like I know that’s the most important thing to me, like somebody’s got to be ready on the spot. And I can’t say this loudly enough. I would never, ever and this is just me. So a veteran coach who can shun me blacklist me, call me out on social media, I welcome it, I would never at this point, hire any coach that does not have a mutual interest in coaching, business, and mentoring. Because you need to understand not just the art of coaching and the science of coaching, you need to understand the business of coaching. And if you’re in the team side, that means you need to understand contracts, the realities, the ugly politics, if you’re on the private side, that means you need to understand that this job is not just on the floor coaching and what have you that you know you’re gonna have to you have to do a lot of outreach and education you have to bring people in and convince athletes that have been sold hogwash your whole life, why they need to train there, you need to understand how to invoice you need to understand legal aspects about what you do, especially as it pertains to, you know, protecting yourself and your organization from liability, you know, should an athlete stubbed their toe and they walk in the door. And I just don’t I think that’s a huge gap too. I think people not understanding a combination of training business and what it means to be a mentor. Like, I know, I no longer need that. And so, and I’ve tried to find a polite way to say that now when people reach out in they’re like, Hey, can I come? You know, intern or shadow I’m like, by all means anybody can always come shadow me, you know, but like, I don’t know that I accept interns anymore unless they have a three pronged interest. Because I think that you’re going to need that in this field going forward. Now, I don’t want confirmation bias. Matt, have there been times yes or no? And again, be completely honest. Do you feel like you’ve learned a little bit more about whether it’s business aspects, legal aspects, this all kind of fits under that administrative umbrella? Did you have to learn any more about that stuff? Or does that is that stuff you still don’t really have to worry about whatsoever?

Matt Bertsch 38:34

Yeah, no, that’s, we deal with that every day. Like I said, we’re looking at multiple different budgets, we’re looking at, you know, with all the people that we work with a whole, everyone has these great ideas all the time. We’re constantly getting bombarded from salespeople. There’s, you know, coaches that reach out and they’re like, oh, this, you know, training mask a good thing. I think I want to buy a few and I’m like, Well, I don’t really know anything about it. My gut instinct is to say hell no, but let me go ahead and do a little bit of research on it and find out about it, and I’ll let you know, you know, type of thing. And, you know, in a lot of it was just a crash course for me, like I said, I was woefully under qualified for this job. And I had to do a lot of learning as I went. And that’s not something that, like you mentioned, that I really expect that I would have to do, but it’s been great for me, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. You know, like I said, I look back on these all these fears that I had, and I was like, man, I was like, this is what I should have gotten right away. And then there’s, I mean, there’s people in every state now that are high school strength conditioning coaches, and they, great people and they’re trying to it’s almost like a collective goal among high school strength coaches to try to put a high school strength coach into every high school. It’s funny, everybody you talked to is always talking about, Hey, how can we do this? How can we follow up Athletic Training? and get people in high schools and, you know, so there’s some great opportunities out there. And I think that, you know, it’s there’s simple ways to reach out to coaches and find out more. So,

Brett Bartholomew 40:11

so the inevitable question I’m gonna get now and or that are is going to be in people’s minds. And rightfully so is when you say there’s great opportunities out there, where can they learn about these opportunities, if somebody’s listening right now, and they’re really struggling to have a job. And, you know, they’re kind of coming around to the idea that maybe they shouldn’t just apply to only NBA teams, or that they shouldn’t only be focused on working with MLS teams, or the best of the best, you know, in their mind, you know, if they are really serious about getting a job, if they’re really serious about helping people, if they’re really serious about building a skill set, and that they understand that fear and risk focus you and that they need to seek purpose and that prestige. Where can they learn more about some of these opportunities? Where can they go right now, today

Matt Bertsch 40:55

you can go to there’s a couple of organizations, obviously, the NSCA, but also the NHS SCA, which is the National High School Strength Conditioning Association, they’re kind of,

Brett Bartholomew 41:06

can you repeat that too, just because that’s a mouthful, and there’s some people driving listening to this,

Matt Bertsch 41:10

the National High School Strength Conditioning Association, I don’t have any direct affiliation with them, but they’re doing some good things they’re putting on clinics, and that’s, where I was gonna go with this is, especially the smaller clinics that are around every state has multiple ones multiple times a year. And a lot of these high school coaches, not just high school strength coaches, but high school sport coaches that are the type of people you want to get to meet, because they’re the type of people that want to learn more, and try to make their teams and their situations better. And so those places are great places to go meet people and then get your foot in. And that, you know, those are some things that I didn’t always do. And I didn’t do a good job of following up. That would be the second point is, as soon as you meet the person, find out where they’re from, say, hey, yeah, I’d like to come out sometime, you know, like you said, you have to actually go do it. And,

Brett Bartholomew 42:04

yeah, and I’ll make sure to put these links in the show notes. So again, the one that Matt referenced, if you do just happen to have a pen handy, but again, look at the show notes is N H S, S, C A dot U S, that’s a National High School Strength and Conditioning Association. It’s kind of like shield if there’s any Marvel fans out there. It’s like Strategic Homeland intervention, yada, yada, yada. It’s a mouthful, but you can look at NSCA, NHS SCA, guys, there’s job boards all over the place. I mean, I’m not trying to be rude. But I think we’ve got to get over Google syndrome. We have a lot of people that just, hey, where can I find information about how to get into the field, Google that you know, and so, reach out to a friend reach out to a friend of a friend, go to a local high school, visit the strength coach, ask him how he got his job, you got to do some due diligence. And I think we’ve been taught to think, and 140 characters or less, my wife and I had the opportunity to go to Europe recently for work. And we’re looking at churches and structures that were built. And they were saying that these these structures sometimes took 300 years to build to finish that’s older than our country here in the United States. And I find it fascinating that we had a team, there were a team of people or a collective of artists that would spend 50 years, literally 50 years of their life, on one sculpture or one project. But we have a group of individuals now that think one year or one resume, or even two years of struggling is enough to entitle them to a job entitlement is a virus, it’s a virus, there’s a lot of opportunities, and you’ve got to get out there and be able to look at these things. And I get that it’s scary. I mean, listen, like, my stuff’s kind of well documented, moved more than 10 times. You know, I’ve had unique opportunities that I was scared that I said no to, and I’d never get them again, you need to bet on yourself. But like, that’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work to do that stuff. And it’s not going to come easy. Trust me, you would not want it to come easy. But here’s the key message, the climate of strength and conditioning is changing. It really is. And if you think that the old way of just when somebody and having a friend and doing a resume and having, you know, is enough, it’s not and and you guys, anybody listening to this and thinks it is, you’ve got to wake up to that you got people telling you that. So a couple other points I wanted to kind of just pick out Yeah, Matt, you know, is what are some things that you think you know, going forward, if you want to last? If you want to have a really healthy career and this you don’t want to feel stuck? Obviously, you want to continue to provide for you and Anna, your wife, what are some things that you still need to develop skill set wise? And how are you going about that? And I don’t mean in the strength and conditioning realm. I mean, as a professional, where are you learning other skills? What skills do you need to hone in on and what are you weakest in right now and what are you going to do about it?

Matt Bertsch 44:52

Oh, boy, that’s a tough question. For me, it’s still very much trying to find ways to be vulnerable. and as you mentioned several times, you gotta have some sort of social media presence, and I’m sure you’ll ask me later. But like, if you’re trying to find me, that’s, not a great place to look. And that’s something I still have to get better at, I’m always in the back of my mind, I’m like, I could put this stuff out there, but I’m worried about, you know, you know, it’s almost kind of selfish. It’s like, Hey, I don’t want to be ridiculed, I don’t want to be laughed, that kind of thing. So I’m just going to keep on going about my business. And a lot of that, too, is the vulnerability part is just a lot of times, I don’t get exactly what I want out of a program. And it’s out of my hands a lot. And I have to let somebody else drive the car. And it makes me anxious all the time. But it’s one thing that I’m trying to learn and say, you know, what, if this person has been around, they’ve been in the weight room a lot, they’ve been outside on the track a lot, I’m gonna go ahead and let them have some control, have some autonomy and what they’re doing and, you know, go forward with that. So that’s kind of my goal this semester, is to almost take a step back and not be the overbearing parents and say, You know what, let you go ahead and get out there and learn a little bit learn on the fly, and those types of things. So

Brett Bartholomew 46:12

That’s all Yeah, no, it’s a good answer. I think, you know, when you think about pain point terms in this profession, you know, things that people either you know, bring up a lot or or that cause them anxiety, you think of things like security, family finances, being stuck, feeling stagnant, burnout stressed, will I be able to have any kind of job advancement or opportunity, you know, there’s all these above all else, coaches want to help their athletes at the highest level, no doubt, none of us get in, get in this for the money. You know, it’s a field where it’s unique, because if we were all billionaires, we’d still want to coach and we identify ourselves as givers, servants, support staff and all that, you know, but ultimately, what we need to build for ourselves is option value. I mean, option value is that idea that a, you know, if we can select career paths that fit or fuse with the family life that we have, or want to have, you know, that we don’t have to feel like we’re stuck in a position that maybe asked you to do anything unethical, or, you know, put you in unique situations where your values are cannibalized or, or put under the microscope, you know, in a weird kind of compromising manner. Like, we have to create options for ourselves. And that doesn’t happen, unless you find ways to create unique skill sets. And so it’s never about gaining more money. It’s about how to gain more control over securing your future. And those are skills that coaches have to learn more. And I think opportunities like the one Matt has, where he’s got to learn from administrative things. He’s got to understand some legalese. He’s got to be able to get coaches that are sometimes what, two and a half times your age. Am I right, Matt?

Matt Bertsch 47:51

Yeah, easily, I don’t know about two and a half to two for sure.

Brett Bartholomew 47:55

Two times. Yeah, double your age, right. Like, if you think about that, like honing your craft, separating yourself for the right reasons. And securing your future should be a three pronged approach, we should all be focused on, you know, jobs and finding more secure jobs that are things that we want to do, it’s not always going to tick every box, right like that. I think that’s another thing that before we sign off is critical for coaches and no, like, quit looking for the perfect job, you know, like, the job you take first isn’t gonna be the one you’re at for a quarter of a century. You know, commit, by all means, like, I don’t recommend taking a job for any less than three to five years. You know, I’ve had jobs that are one year contracts, and this that whatever. But, you know, I was at, I think my first full time paying job I was out for over half a decade, I was there six years. And now you have coaches that if it’s not what they want, within a year, they’re gone. Like, what is this college football, that transfer rule, you know, and so, and from a networking standpoint, I’ll say it again, it’s not about who you know, but rather who you help, I’m going to repeat that. It’s not about who you know, but rather who you help. Gotta reach out to people in different settings. I think another piece man, I’d be interested, I think you have this, I think you’ve done a really good job of this, by the way, is it pays to like team up with other coaches that are trying to advance their career for the right reason, like create a real life, social network, a community, a collaborative entity, where you and maybe three or four other coaches who are in the beginning of their career or in a unique stage of their career, because it doesn’t have to be the beginning. But people that are really professionally focused on building skill sets and trying to create a unique path, get together with other coaches that are dealing with the same problems and try to figure this stuff out. And again, we’re trying to do that with art of coaching. The event we host in the here in January 19 and 20th is that and I commend the coaches that are coming out for that because I think that’s gonna be really cool. I’m gonna learn a lot from them. But you know, get together with a community of people and help each other because you’re not the only ones going through this you’re not but you know, you are at fault. If you isolate yourself and expect this just to fall in your lap. It’s not going to happen if you isolate it. Matt are there any other kind of you know, key. And it doesn’t have to be a mistake. Are there any other kind of key points or even lessons or learnings that even coaches and I love Coach Venable? What? What has he told you? Could you tell him a little bit about coach Venable and the things he’s seen kind of come and go on the field? And any advice that that man or Rob has ever left you with? Like, what are some things that those guys have taught you that you could get in might help anybody listening here?

Matt Bertsch 50:22

Yeah. And both of those guys actually Rob Brokaw and Stuart Venable are two guys that I work with. They’re doing what you said that you think I did a good job those guys do a really good job with I mean, they have

Brett Bartholomew 50:37

Of what

Matt Bertsch 50:38

To get people together, talk about how to solve problems on their own. Probably the two biggest things that I’ve learned from those two is that it’s okay, if you don’t know at all, you know, and they’re trying to seek help. And they’re figured out how to be vulnerable in those situations. And, you know, I’m grateful for them, because they’re the type of people that are like, hey, you know, let’s, I think this is a good idea, let’s go do it. And we want everybody that we think is a good fit to be involved. It’s not that they’re just trying to go do it for themselves. They’re really trying to pull the best out of, you know, strength and conditioning. And the group that we have out here in Nebraska is a pretty good one in my mind.

Brett Bartholomew 51:20

Yeah. And that’s, a time investment. Is it? Not? I mean, I think, here’s the thing, I think a lot of people don’t do that. Because, again, we have this idea that these things cost, I have a friend that he pays a staggering, I think it’s like $500 a month to be a part of a group of professionals. And I’m like, what does that go towards? Do like $500 a month, he’s like, Listen by like, we we create resources between each other, then we share the costs, and it’s a way for us all to be accountable he’s like in like, it works for them, you know, and but it’s crazy, because, people don’t want to even if it’s their time, get into a group and say, Well, you know, I’m busy, I don’t have this, I don’t have it down. It’s like, that’s when you only have yourself to blame. Community and collaboration are key. I mean, they I heard a stat the other day and said some of the most famous musicians, I mean, people that whether you like their music or not, it doesn’t matter. Beyonce was one of the ones that they named. But some of the most famous musicians credit anywhere from 15 to 70 artists or collaborators or sound technicians on their album, literally for an album. I mean, you’re talking about guys, it doesn’t matter the genre 15 to 70 people are involved with the creation of a one album, genius happens in groups, not in isolation. You’ve got to invest in that. I mean, what is the time investment? How do from a tactical standpoint, because this, podcast is really focused on tactical advice? How do Rob and you and coach Venable get people together? Like, is it a newsletter that goes out? Is it an email chain? What’s the accountability? Like what you know, what do you do, because surely you just don’t get in a room together, drink coffee and lament about the world’s problems.

Matt Bertsch 53:06

We do that. But a lot of it is social media, Rob runs multiple clinics throughout the year. Something that Stuart and I several years ago, actually, this little, spot for us, we created like community zoom pop, almost. For those of you that don’t know, what Derek does, he does a fantastic one, much better than what we do and with far more qualified people. But we kind of, you know, every few months, we get who we think is good. in our city and around the state of Nebraska and kind of anybody who wants to join in on, we bring in just somebody that we know, I mean, you did one for us, brought in a buddy from he’s now at Texas a&m and Jaeger, you know, just different coaches that have different experiences. And I think Stuart says this all the time where he’s like, You can’t, always preach in your own neighborhood. And so we’re trying to bring some people from the outside that we know are gonna reiterate the things that we think are good qualities, and let the coaches that are around us hear those from other people and other times. So those are just a few of the ways but I think most of the connecting happens either through email or through social media.

Brett Bartholomew 54:22

So let’s talk about that for a moment. You said we try to find people who are good, right? Just so that’s not ambiguous and I want to know as well, how do you define who’s good because that’s an argument in and of itself in the field right now we’re how do we prove our value? We have nobody to evaluate us during or what you know, like, that’s a completely different topic. But how do you define who is good? Is it by what the information they share? Is it about them making the most of where they’re at and you hear that they’re finding really creative solutions? To deal with a limited budget. How do you define who is good?

Matt Bertsch 54:58

Well, personally, I Always try to look for a mind at work. And I know that’s pretty ambiguous too. But I think that first off, you have to be genuine. I think that is something that we maybe do better than anybody else is our core group out here is they’re all, genuine people, and that they are not afraid to say what they think they’re not afraid to put people on the spot. So, I mean, those are just some of the few things but a lot of times there, people that are making changes happen either within their school district or with what they’re doing. And really nobody’s talking about it, because they’re not seeking necessarily, you know, that’s not the reason behind it is recognition, you know. And so I think those are some of the things that we look for whenever we tried to get those people to come on.

Brett Bartholomew 55:50

And can anybody join that network that you guys put on again, if there’s somebody listening right now from Spain, and they really want to, and I’m saying this, because I got somebody from a different country the other day that email me, you know, and in case that person’s listening, and I’ve changed the country they’re from, and I don’t want to embarrass anybody, but let’s say there’s somebody from Spain, and they’re like, you know, I’m, I’m thinking about moving to America, you know, I like to I want to learn, you know, some different things out there. I want to be involved with different sports, and we don’t really have this person actually was interested in the high school setting, which isn’t really that developed in certain aspects over there. And so can anybody join these things? Or is exclusive to do they have to be in the Nebraska area? Do they have to be a United States strength coach? Or could somebody even in Australia join us? And if so, how?

Matt Bertsch 56:34

Yeah. And so, yes, to answer your question, anybody can join. We’re not just exclusive. They just look on Twitter as probably the easiest way what we would, we’ll tweet out, you know, for instance,

Brett Bartholomew 56:47

usually, what’s the tag

Matt Bertsch 56:49

You can look at Matt_Bertsch, that’s B, E. R. T. S. Ch. Or coach Venable on Twitter or coach Brokaw on Twitter.

Brett Bartholomew 57:00

And I’ll put these in the show notes as well.

Matt Bertsch 57:02

Sorry, I am not going to try to spell everybody’s name, but. Like I said, that’s, just one thing. We’ll pop out and say, hey, you know, Monday night, we’re doing this at 5:30, central time. And then maybe about 15 to 20 minutes before the time slot will pop out a link. And all you have to do is just click on the link and anybody with a phone or an earpiece can join in. So

Brett Bartholomew 57:27

perfect. Well, guys, you got a lot of options. Now. I mean, you rewind this episode, we have not only talked about responsible branding, to a degree, something will expand on in future episodes. We’ve talked about networking, how to not be a turd, when you do that, and how to make sure that you lead with value. We’ve talked about options that if they’re not answering your resume, well, one that’s your fault, you should they’re probably not even seeing your resume, you know, and what you could do, we’ve talked about videos and different ways to solve that. We’ve talked about communities how they’re doing great work already, we’ve talked about entities that you probably didn’t even know existed that you can get involved with today. And you can get in touch with people that have been through this reach out to coaches, I mean, don’t get stuck in this, you need to understand that I’ve a very good friend, and I love him to death. And I don’t care if he hears this because he mentioned it several times. I worked in the NFL a long time. And I’ll never forget what he told me. He said, Yeah, I’d love to work with high school kids. He’s like, Honestly, the only thing that keeps me from doing it is the paycheck right now. It’s just not even enough. But this was somebody that was a little later on in life, right? Like some of you guys that are in your 20s and 30s. Like the money like that can’t be you can’t expect a first job. That is everything you want it to be in the high school space is emerging. I think the high school and private sector are the biggest emerging spaces in the field right now. And if you’re not looking at them, you’re in trouble. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the team setting. I’ve said it before in this podcast. I’ve been in the team setting if the right opportunity came about my wife and I always keep an open mind. But that isn’t that something that coaches don’t seem to be doing today, they don’t seem to be keeping an open mind. They’re trying to identify themselves with the team, the logo, you know, the gear that they get, get out there and learn this skill, you owe it to the craft, you owe it to the craft, the craft owes you nothing. And you guys want another opportunity. We are now creating the artofcoaching.com private Facebook community. It is a subscription community, it’s 10 bucks a month, it requires investment, because there’s an investment of the time of everybody that’s taken to create that, to be involved with that. And it’s not a free handout world we live in. So you know, there’s people that want to bitch and will say like, oh, that’s part of a business thing. Whatever. You know, listen, everything we do in this world is a business. everybody, I don’t care if you’ve worked for the same team for 25 years. That’s a business and they have an agenda and the minute they want you out you will be out. So you’d better learn about the politics you’ve got invest in yourself. I know I’m taking a hard tone right now, but that’s because there needs to be a semblance of accountability. If you want to join the artofcoaching.com community, send an email to info@artofcoaching.com. Again, that’s info@artofcoaching.com Please do not send an inquiry unless you want to be involved unless you want to ask questions unless you want to be vulnerable, unless you want to engage with we do not bias, I don’t care if you’re 19 years old and still trying to find out your way or you’ve done this for 40 years, we want to hear your voice. There are no dumb questions other than ones where, you know, people ask something that they know, they didn’t know, research on to begin with. So please don’t say, Hey, guys, how do I become a strength coach? You can Google that, right? But we want people involved, Matt’s gonna be involved with it, too. And, Matt, I can’t thank you enough for your time. You know, this is a lot of effort. And we put you on the spot with a lot of tough topics. But you’re somebody that’s really a prime example of somebody that I think has taken pride by the wayside, and taken a lot of risks. And you have created a truly special circumstance for yourself. Just so everybody knows, as we close off, Matt, did they? Did they give you any kind of ancillary benefits with that job? Do you get a 401? K? Do you get any kind of health insurance, anything like that?

Matt Bertsch 1:01:03

Yeah, it’s full, full benefits,

Brett Bartholomew 1:01:06

Full benefits, guys. So again, like what do you want to do you want to keep chasing logos and things like that, that you think are gonna give you instant credibility? Or do you want to build unique skill set help people that are at the beginning of their developmental journey, and have full benefits, something that I mean, it may sound weird, anybody that’s in banking, law, you know, Finance, any, other profession, strength and conditioning coaches don’t get for benefits. I don’t think I had any benefits until I was 28. And now that I’m self employed, you know, I paid for my own benefits. I don’t have a company 401k Or a company match, you know, but I’ll tell you what, I have the freedom to do these things. And I could write a book and stuff that other jobs wouldn’t allow me to do. So you need to find your own path. There is no right or wrong way. There’s just your way and the way that fits with you and your lifestyle. Matt, I want to thank you again. Anything else you want to say in closing brother?

Matt Bertsch 1:01:56

No, I just appreciate it.

Brett Bartholomew 1:01:57

No doubt guys, you’ll be able to reach Matt and everybody else that we’ve mentioned on this podcast through the show notes. Any questions go to artofcoaching.com and if you liked this podcast, please leave a review. We’re available on Spotify and iTunes. Thanks again buddy. Talk to you soon.

Matt Bertsch 1:02:11

Yup See ya.

Comments

Scott January 29, 2019
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Coach, this was probably one of my favorite podcasts so far. I am not currently looking for a job, however it gave me confidence to seek out more experiences regardless of the type of position. Sure I have a vision of what my dream job is, but I never underestimate the importance of taking opportunities as they come.

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