Becoming the Best at What You Do
Inspired by the trend on social media I share what my professional development plan would be if I was starting over in my career, fresh out of college.
There are some big missing pieces in the industry as far as movement science and bridging the gap between rehab and performance that would be the focus as well as learning about a more whole organism lens of view earlier including the viscera, nervous system, and neurology.
I reflect on the 20+ years of continuing education and professional development I have taken and pull out some of the highlights and still solid education that I pull from years later.
I also emphasize the important role mentorship plays in the integration and assimilation of information and the art or creativity that patient care requires.
Resources mentioned:
Twitter thread from Michael Boyle
EXOS education
CFSC education
Polestar Pilates Principles Course
Barral Institute
LTAP Level 1 course
Movement Impairment Syndromes
Shirley Sahrmann textbook
Considering the viscera as a source of musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction is a great way to ensure a more true whole body approach to care, however it can be a bit overwhelming on where to start, which is exactly why I created the Visceral Referral Cheat Sheet. This FREE download will help you to learn the most common visceral referral patterns affecting the musculoskeletal system. Download it at www.unrealresultspod.com
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Hey there, and welcome. I'm Anna Hartman, and this is Unreal Results, a podcast where I help you get better outcomes and gain the confidence that you can help anyone, even the most complex cases. Join me as I teach about the influence of the visceral organs and the nervous system on movement, pain, and injuries, all while shifting the paradigm of what whole body assessment and treatment really looks like.
I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in.
Hello, hello, welcome back to another episode of the Unreal Results podcast. I'm at a little different setup, um, currently, as you can tell by the large steer behind me. Actually, it's funny because I'm at a Airbnb, and we'll be here for a while, um, helping one of my athletes with a long term rehab, and it's actually funny to me how some interior design choices, you can tell like what year they did it in, because this picture and then a couple of the other pictures that are like the same vibe, um, of animals or cactuses, um, One of my other athletes had it in their house, like around 2000 and maybe 18, 17.
And so I'm like, Oh, this was like, apparently like the thing for people to decorate with, which I mean, no, no shade. I think they're actually awesome. Um, and you know, I'm a big animal lover anyways. So, um, You know, it definitely is a vibe. It just, it's just funny with the video, like, me and the cow hair. So,
anyways, welcome to the year 2024. Which blows my mind to be in the 2020s anyways, but um, here we are. Um, what do I want to say? I took a couple weeks off, uh, after Christmas. From the podcast and just really a lot of work things, um, from, uh, in the biz or not in the business, but on the business stuff like emails, social media, a lot of content creation.
I took a little break. It was much needed. Um. Yeah. Was pretty busy over those two weeks in the business working with my athletes, which is pretty typical. Like usually this can be like tough for me, like the end of the year, like everybody with the vibe in December of being like not working. I would say that there's a general vibe between Thanksgiving and Christmas of like people don't want to work.
Just a lot of Christmas parties and eating and drinking and being merry, which you know, is great. But also, um, I, I, it's my busy season, right? It's football season, which is primarily my busiest time of year when I'm traveling with my athletes. And it typically extends for me into February. Um, because a lot of the times my athletes are in the playoffs.
And so, um, you know, this time of year for me is usually still kind of grind mode. Um, and then too, I got to fit in. Well, let me rephrase that because words matters. I don't got to, I like to fit in time with my family around the holidays as well. And so that just adds to the, adds to everything. So, um, new year, um, refresh my business goals, uh, my own goals, try to pick a word, um, and, uh.
Yeah, but for the most part though, it's just like continue pushing on. Right. Um, I do like this time of year to reflect. I think reflection is really important. Most of us tend to focus on like the negatives and forget a lot of the positives and forget a lot of the things we accomplish over the year. So I sent an email out to my email list recently.
Um, which there is a link in the show notes to join the email list if you haven't already. Uh, but in that email I basically shared like how I normally use end of the year to reflect or the beginning of the year to reflect with the sole purpose of doing that, reminding myself of all that I accomplished because I can forget somehow.
And um, So what I do actually is I, um, reflect month by month and I, uh, how I do that to reflect really is I use my photo album and my calendar and that sort of jogs my memory on like what the focus was for those months or like what I was doing, um, especially too, because um, what It even is a good reflection of what I was doing, like from a content creation standpoint, because anything I post on social media, YouTube, whatever, it like gets filtered through my phone somehow.
And so in the, in the photo album, so I like to go month by month and write down like all the things I did. And then, you know, then I have 12 months of that and it's like, A really good practice to be like, wow, I actually did way more than I thought I did. Um, because you do, you forget, you know, by the time end of December, beginning of January rolls down, you forgot, I, you know, I totally forgot what I did last January.
So it's just nice to revisit that and reflect and like set some intentions for, uh, the new year. I'm not a big resolution person, but I do like to think about what my intentions are for the year and, um, what my. Um, goals are for my business and myself. So, um, hopefully you're doing that too, um, whenever is right for you.
Another good time to do sometimes around your birthday, um, whatever. Sometimes I wait to do this whole thing reflection, um, until after the super bowl, which is usually like when I take my vacation. Um, but this year that's probably not going to happen. Uh, most of my athletes, uh, did not make the playoffs.
So we are, uh, in the off season for the most part. Um, and, uh, yeah, so what do I want to talk about today? I was thinking about it and kind of, I guess a little bit in that theme of reflection is there's a, uh, popular, like. Post on Instagram these days, um, probably for the last few months I've seen it of people being like, basically like if I had to start from zero followers and zero, you know, subscribers to my email, basically like, if I had to start from scratch in my business again, what would I, how would I, what would I do?
What would I, which is basically a way of being like, With all the knowledge I have now as a successful professional, you know, 20 plus years into my career, 10, almost 10 years into my own in my own business. Like, what would I like, how would I go about it if I started from scratch? So, um, and then also along those lines recently, Mike Boyle, shout out Mike Boyle, um, posted a.
On Twitter and he asked, he basically was like, he basically was asking like where people like to learn from now because honestly, the industry, you know, has changed a lot with in terms of like access to being able to learn from. podcast, uh, being, you know, and like how you learn. So he, this is, I'm pulling up this question.
He asked us almost a week ago. He said, question, where are you learning? Are you reading? Are you listening to podcasts? I listened to a coach talk about teen Asian and stack. And I realized that resources like that have pretty much gone away. So where are you getting your information? Genuinely curious now.
So Michael Boyle. Um, for those of you who may not know who he is, he's an athletic trainer, but like that was his original profession. He's a strength coach as well. He pretty much primarily practices as a strength coach. Um, his business is out of Boston, um, and you know, he's one of the Top people in the industry and so he was asking more from a strength and conditioning standpoint.
Like, who do you learn from? Like, who, where do you go for your resources now? And it was interesting to see the responses. Um, and, um. I really enjoyed the thread. In fact, I'll actually link that Twitter thread in the show notes. So you can check it out too, because I do think it's an interesting question.
And also too, from a standpoint of me being a professional that is teaching other professionals, like in the, in the industry of education, um, it was interesting to see where people are going to pull their. information. So, you know, everybody, everybody, of course, as expected, had a different thing to say about it.
A lot of people saying social media, um, podcasts, YouTube, um, and, and still books. Um, some people like mentioned like specific people, um, Yeah, so I kind of wanted to add to that and it did make me reflect on like, where do I go to learn more? And um, I think, you know, at the end of the day, social media Whether we like it or hate it, love it or hate it, um, it's not going away and it is going to be a primary way people get information, which is great, right?
Because information is so accessible, but it's also hard because You have to be really good about your own filter in terms of, um, vetting if it's good information or not, whatever that means to you. Um, I think part of that too is like what I mean by good information or not. This is actually why it's important for you to figure out like what your beliefs are and what.
make sense to you because the firmer you stand in your own belief systems about how the body works, how movement works, how rehab works, strengthening condition, et cetera. Um, it provides like a filter for information to like, see everything through that filter and easily then decide what is for you and what's not for you.
Because there's a lot on social media that I'd say that goes through my filter and it's not for me, but then there's a handful of things that I still, I find on social media that I was like, okay, that was good information. And then I take that information and I look to find. Like, I look to find other resources to look into it more.
Um, and, as someone, too, who's in this world, creating content for social media and YouTube, um, you know, I, that's the same thing. I, I, I do my best to put out good information, but then also, um, information that I know works, uh, because I see it in my daily practice, um, but also sometimes, often the goal of me creating content or social media for the podcast is simply to expose you to other guys.
ways of thinking, other lenses of view that you can dive down and learn from too. So that's kind of what this episode is about is just if I were to start from scratch, like how would I go about creating, like what education would I go about? Trying to gather to make sure that I had the most well rounded knowledge base that I could start creating my own philosophies and, um, education.
So, you know, the other thing I did in preparation for thinking about this podcast is I pulled up my CV, so it's like a resume. We don't know what a CV is. Curriculum fight. Hey, and. I, um, I try to keep my CV very updated with like all the continued education I've ever taken to. So at this point in my career, my CV is literally 18 pages long because it includes all of the education that I've taken in the 20 years of my career, 20 plus years of my career.
All of the things that I have presented professional education to all of the podcasts I've been on. Like all everything and then also all the jobs and so it was nice for me to like scroll through that and remind myself of some of the education that I took early on, um, and to be like, you know, what was the most valuable?
And so that doesn't mean, you know, and so today what I'm going to list. Some of the things I'm going to list, you know, it doesn't mean other stuff's not valuable. It's just like, these are like tried and true, I think really important information and like things for people to get outside of school. So you know, this is also understanding that traditional schooling of athletic training and physical therapy don't do well, they do a good job at meeting a certain standard.
But we all know the standard that they meet is a starting point. It's not the ending point, which is a whole nother conversation about how when people graduate with doctorates and they think they're so smart because they're doctors and they've done a research. Um, A research article or whatever you call it.
I can't even think where's my brain, but you know what I mean? And really knowing that, um, they don't really know anything and that what they've learned to that point is very minimal and it is understanding that and diving into the world of professional education after school that really makes a difference in the type of clinician that you become.
With that said, part of that post graduate growth also should contain some sort of mentorship. Um, and In some senses, and I think I've talked about this on the podcast before in some senses, um, it's easier to find mentorship because there's actual mentorship programs, right? Like I have a mentorship program.
Other companies have mentorship programs. People have fellowships, right? So in some senses, that's easier than it was back in the day. Um, and it, and, and it's not something that you're giving up like free work for anymore. It's, but it's also something you're paying for, right? Um, I think that Some formal type of mentorship is as important as what continuing education courses you're taking and if possible, should blend together, right?
The education that you're taking should also have a mentorship piece with it, if possible. So, The
where would I start? Um, I think one of the biggest holes one of the biggest holes in education and clinical practice for athletic trainers and physical therapists is a lack of understanding of Strength and conditioning and sport, period. So this doesn't mean that you have to go get your CSCS or some sort of personal training certificate, though you can if you want, but it does mean that you need to learn a lot.
In that, because at the end of the day, your job is going to likely be to get people back to some sort of level of movement or activity or sport that Strength and conditioning is going to be a big part of, even if they're not athletes, right? It is still important to understand the mechanics that go into general movement.
And last time I checked, they don't teach a whole lot of that in school. And honestly, if they do teach it in the school, they don't teach it that thoroughly to understand even like the different types of strength and the different types of like sets and reps schemes that you're going to be able to utilize to express the different strength characteristics that you're going to need in an actual rehabilitation, right?
So it's not like two sets of 10. Two sets of eight or three sets of 10 that's this is not, you know, which is traditionally used in rehab exercises like that, that that's not the only way that ain't the way that's not going to get you 100 percent of what you need, um, for your client's expression of all the strength needs to live a active lifestyle.
So with that said, I 100 percent wholeheartedly recommend. To like performance, um, I don't want to say rehab, performance, strength and conditioning type programs to learn from. And that is going to be Exosys, um, performance specialist. Um, obviously that's what I started in. And when I worked at Athletes Performance, which was formerly the name of Exos, um, the time I spent, um, working there and learning and understanding strength and conditioning and movement, like that serves me on a daily basis of working with people.
And it was, um, filled in a big missing piece of what you don't get in school in a big missing piece of bridging the gap between clinical rehabilitation and returning someone to school. Um, and of course I'll link all this in the show notes and I'm not, it's, this is not like, I don't, I'm not an affiliate for these things.
I mean, I'll let you know if I am, um, but that it's just. You know, there's a, yes, there's a lot of different strength and conditioning people to learn from in the world. Um, I don't, I know, I don't want to say nobody else does, but I know I can like put my stamp of approval on that. Axios does a good job in systematizing it and making it simple to understand.
Applicable and practical. Um, the other one kind of on the same level is, um, from Michael Boyle, strength and conditioning, they're certified functional strength coach. They do an excellent job as well. So either of those. do a great job. I think they both have an online component or you can go in person to learn from them too, or do like a hybrid.
And whenever you're learning exercises and movement, I, I really think there needs to be an in person component to it. Um, so whether or not it's possible to do everything online, I think you, you will, You will find that needing that in person is going to make a difference in how well you can coach it to your clients and can understand it fundamentally, um, making it a lot more applicable.
With that said, the other movement based thing that I think is, sets people apart in understanding movement science is, um, Polestar Pilates education. Now, um, This is This is where, like, this specific thing matters, um, because I'd say all Pilates education is not the same, um, and Pilates, though I think Pilates is a great, um, exercise tool, it's not the Pilates that you need to understand, but the principles of movement that are helpful to understand, which Polestar Pilates, the company does an excellent job in Polestar Pilates, um, was founded originally by, um, a couple practitioners who are like top of the top and understanding movement science. Um, and the person who still is like the top, the president of Polestar Pilates, um, Brent Anderson, he's a physical therapist.
He really understands mechanics of joints. So, um, it really, I think sets their curriculum apart from other Pilates certifications, um, because of that. And in fact, you know, it's been a while since I've taken any of their courses cause I am, I am, um, You know, I did get certified in their rehabilitation Pilates curriculum, but, um, even if you didn't want to do their whole curriculum, they offer the use of at least I'm sure they still do a, um, like the foundational weekend course is, um, fundamentals of movement or like movement principles.
And just understanding those movement principles are like such great guiding understanding of biomechanics and movement and, um, will help you program and create like a really robust program. Along those same lines of understanding movement science, um, not just, um, you know, so I started, I kind of skipped, like, I started with a more dynamic, like, performance based athletic movement, talking about exos and certified functional, uh, certified functional strength coach.
Um, but the pulsar movement foundations and then Sarman's movement impairment syndromes are great, just base movements to understand the mechanics, biomechanics of the body. So that would be the other thing I recommend. So, um, Shirley Sarman, most of you know who she is, pioneer in the physical therapy world, um, in the movement dysfunction, movement compensation world.
And though I don't, so here's, here's the thing. I, from the lens of view, I operate. with which is a true whole organism lens of view that is considering the viscera and the nervous system in the role of how it affects the musculoskeletal system, how it affects the biomechanics. I don't put as much weight on movement impairment syndromes.
However, understanding her concept of relative flexibility, relative stiffness, understanding the concept of stiffness, understanding the concept of disassociated movement and compounding and combined movement, and being able to observe these subtleties and movement at certain joints, and then also of the spine, I think is extremely helpful in just observing movement and understanding.
The foundation of biomechanical human movement science. And though I know now that the driver of those dysfunctions are not necessarily the muscles themselves or the joints themselves. Right? I have a better understanding of what drives this relative stiffness. Right? Oftentimes it's this protective pattern from the nervous system or this protective pattern from the visceral or even a referred pattern from the visceral.
system. Still though, having an appreciation for these subtleties of movement efficiency and movement and motor control, I think is Um, so they used to, I don't know if they still do so, um, she used to have, um, colleagues of hers run like long term movement impairment syndrome, like almost like mentorships.
Um, and that's, you know, so that was really helpful. I, I don't necessarily. Again, with this new understanding of the lens of view of the emphasis of the viscera and the nervous system. I don't know if the longterm mentorship for that is as needed as like the weekend courses or even honestly just reading her books.
Um, her original book still is like one of the best textbooks of all time to understand movement science. So, um, You know, you know, important information, um, again, I think helps to bridge the understanding of movement and movement science in general, um, but less of an emphasis on the need for long term mentorship with it because of how I would affect the movement compensation movement dysfunctions nowadays.
So, um, the other thing. The other skill that I think would be helpful is to learn is, um, um, manual therapy, um, specifically even massage therapy as a foundational point. Any manual therapy that you learn is good. And with manual therapy too, it just takes a lot of repetitions. It takes a lot of feeling different bodies and, you know.
Just practice. And so your hands as a hands on provider should just get better over time as long as you're open to paying attention to what you're feeling. And, um, so this really is something actually that I think, um, mentorship is really great at. And, um, I'm really grateful that when I started out, um, one of my colleagues, Jeremy Hassler, um, who.
Is an athlete or trainer as well as a massage therapist, you know, he taught me some skills and then I got worked on so I could feel it in my own body too. So, um, and then you just. Start trying it out and then you add on different manual therapy skills, whether it be joint mobilizations, visceral manipulation, neural manipulation, um, the different tool assisted modalities, all of that stuff is, can be valuable.
I don't think any of it is necessarily better than the others. I think the value in it is getting used to practicing feeling through your hands, trusting what you feel and being curious how the tissue changes. Um, so that is, and I think from a manual standpoint, if you want to be a really good manual therapist, um, that's something that you need to work on kind of throughout your whole career.
It's not just, you know, and it's not only something you work on throughout your whole career, like what education courses you're taking, but it's something you work on throughout your career with you paying attention to what you're feeling and how things are changing on a daily basis with your clientele.
Um, some of the manual therapy courses that you might learn along the way You'll get more out of if you're more confident in your hands. And so sometimes some of the manual therapy classes, you know, especially like the Baral Institute courses, um, with the visceral and neural manipulation, that's a very sensitive touch.
And so I sometimes recommend people, you know, not taking those kinds of courses until they're like maybe three years into the field, just so they have had some experience hands on with people already, but. You know, if you take it earlier, it's not that big of a deal. It's just, you know, you'll get better and better as the years go on and get more and more out of those types of classes.
Um,
the other movement course, you know, I would be remiss not to include the functional movement screen. Um, I recently had a call with this company that I work with, um, that's creating like, it's like the soccer company. And we were We were discussing, you know, our evaluation procedure for the athletes that come in through the program and like, what do we want to do?
Like, how do you want to, you know, how do you want to, how do you want to organize the evaluation process to figure out what people need in order to program best for them and potentially prevent injuries? And when I was talking to the coach about it, I was like, I mean. Is there a reason that we wouldn't use the FMS?
I was like, because, you know, I know I've been like out of the game a little bit since I've been in my own business and I don't use the functional movement screen as much anymore. I was like, but also when we did, like, it was a great tool and what makes it a great tool is that it's like a quick and easy screen that looks at some foundational movements and has a good scoring system around it.
Um, that can help guide again, guide your programming. And so I'm like, you know, it's. You know, I think nowadays maybe it gets a bad rap from people because people are like, Oh, there's so many new things out there. But I'm also like, but it, you know, when it came out 25, 30 years ago, I was like, it. Was groundbreaking and it's still really useful.
It's still great information and you can't argue that it's like a quick, great way to collect some objective data on movement. And so, like, I still think again. If you're not getting it at school, I know some athletic training programs and some physical therapy programs not teach it at school. So if you haven't learned it in school, like that would be on my list of like an education course to take.
That is like a lot of bang for your buck. Um, And super helpful. So yeah, I wouldn't stray from that. Like, just because it's been around for a while and it seems basic doesn't mean it's not good. Like, keep it simple, stupid. Right? Kiss principle. Like, the simple things done savagely well, as Mark Forsagen and Joe Gomes used to say.
So, um, that's another one too. And then, and then I would recommend, um, um, either my courses, uh, like the LTAP, the results sheet code, um, or the Barral Institute foundational classes too, because it's a good way to. Enter into this understanding that, um, there is more than the musculoskeletal system. There is more than the biomechanics, right?
That's the whole point of this podcast, right? So it would, I would hope you would assume that I throw those on the list of education. Um, I've talked about the journey that I went through in deciding to take the courses. And, um, you know, it's been 10 years since I've taken those courses. I wish I would have probably done it earlier in my career.
Um, even just 1 or 2 courses. So I could have a little bit of that idea or that perspective in my brain, um, from a differential diagnosis standpoint. Um, you know, and to also sort of have a different way of looking at things then. The traditional Western medicine, like forcing things, sort of sports medicine way of being.
So definitely, definitely the brawl classes or my courses as well, um, or even, um, Dr. Perry's courses, uh, stop chasing pain, you know, again, like just seeing those sort of perspectives are helpful. And then, um, The other piece that I think is good and even like, I'm still learning on this, but I think it's like, makes so much more sense is, um, you know, learning from someone like Missy Bunch or Z Health, some more neurology based things, like understanding, you know, especially in school as an athletic trainer, as a physical therapist, you learn the cranial nerve assessment as like a way to screen like post concussion.
Or like post stroke or post neurological event, right? To, to see like, well, one, is there some sort of neuro thing going on, but then two, like. Yeah, what are, what's our baseline, but understanding that you can utilize those assessments as actual drills to improve function of our nervous system to improve function, even like frontal lobe.
Um, executive function of our brain help with, um, emotional processing help with, um, literally everything. Um, I think it's so powerful to have that as a skill set. And, um, I definitely feel like I would add that in sooner in my career than later. If I could, so I'm going to do a quick, um, look, a scan through my CV again, because I am curious if I'm missing something.
So scrolling back all the way to my first ever continuing education course, March of 2003, which was a course to become a board of certification examiner. Back in the day to be an athletic trainer, you did like a live in person course and you had people like. Examining your practical portion, and I, I was an examiner.
So,
um,
FMS, Sahrmann, I started that pretty early in my career. Very grateful for that.
The IAOM courses, those are great. Some muscle energy, man, the, the These, um, spine assessment courses I took. So, so back, um, early in my career, like I basically identified like things I didn't feel strong about, right? Like if somebody came in for an evaluation of their back and I was like, can't you have some knee pain I can deal with?
So I was very quick early in my career to like, take. Manual therapy and assessment classes on the body parts that I didn't feel comfortable with. So then yeah, I did that long term movement impairment courses, more AOM classes, then DNS. Um, I liked the DNS. I don't necessarily think it's a huge, like, it's not making the list for like where I would make sure I fill in the gaps, though it is a great course.
A lot of Pilates courses. I've talked about this many times on the podcast too, how important it, I think it is to learn outside of our profession and actually going back to that original, um, Twitter thread, one of the coaches who responded to, um, Coach Boyle's tweet, uh, Brandon Marcello, um, he said, I consume an abundance of information outside of our profession, and I think that is makes a huge difference to some of the best courses that I took outside the profession.
You know, a lot of the Pilates staff dance, um, Eric Franklin. His courses were great at learning how to queue better. Um, some energy medicine courses that were so interesting and helpful, but one of the ones that really stands out is actually part of the Polestar Pilates curriculum, which was a communications course.
So you learn a little bit of like NLP. Um, that was actually a really helpful course in interacting with patients. Um, PRI, I mean, so many courses taken PMA asked them. That's like tool assisted manual therapy. So I already talked about that. Yoga, teacher reading, body reading, anatomy training, so many things.
Dry needling, I mean, really. I still recommend all of these courses. They were all great. Um, uh, Oh, I know what one I forgot, which I think is actually very much needed in the realm of movement was, um, learning from Philip Beach, his book, Muscles and Meridians. Um, learning his contractile field theory and his assessment of the rest postures to me was like, A very good match to the FMS, a very good match to all the assessments we do to look at movement.
Um, it was cool to have an objective assessment that looked at rest and movement from a more fundamental mobility standpoint. And just learning from him was really helpful and just like seeing the body in a, in a different way, but a more whole organism way as well. You know, and I went down the whole like fascia.
It's interesting. So I went down the whole like fascial fitness, I call it like rabbit hole year, like years ago, but back then there wasn't as many courses on it. Um, there was a factual research Congress, which I started going to, but most of the, what you had to learn in the fascial world was through books and articles and research papers.
And so, man, I went down that rabbit hole a lot and it was really helpful information. Um, but I don't necessarily think from a practical application, um, the hugest dial mover, really. Um, from a movement standpoint, it was utilizing the anatomy trains and fascial fitness information in a movement strategy was, which was actually through one of my main mentors, um, Elizabeth Larkin.
So I talked about that at the beginning too, the need for a mentor, mentor. I was lucky at my business to have a mentor. At my business, I had a mentor, Sue Falsone, it was the coaches, you know, Luke Richardson, Daryl Eto, Mark Verstegen, Craig Friedman, like they were all my mentors for understanding that strength and conditioning and like bridging the gap from rehab to performance.
Um, but then Elizabeth Larkam was a main mentor of mine when it comes to movement science and movement, more of the artistic. creative movement side of things and then my Polestar Pilates teacher, Dannielle Holder, she was a big um, mentor to me too and you know, as I talked about too, the need for doing in person courses when it, when it is movement and exercise.
That is where those mentors come in. So, like, so importantly. So, um, and I think to the value of having the mentor, you know, like I said, I was lucky enough to have some of them in house with work, but being able to, like, touch base with them on a regular basis. basis to keep you hold you accountable for the learning, but be someone that you can have conversations with about patience, about, um, strategies, programming, that kind of thing.
It's so important to have someone to do that, right? Like, yes, you can do a lot of learning on your own and reading of the textbooks and. That kind of thing and you can even do a lot of learning just within your patients But it is nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and be like, hey, I'm gonna try this Does it make sense to you?
And what would you do differently? And how would you approach this patient? Like, um, I also think not only is it helpful from a learning standpoint but it's also an important part of the creative process for you as a clinician because that You know, really, when you're programming for someone, whether you're programming rehab, or you're programming strength and conditioning, when you're programming movement for them, there is a creativeness to that and artisticness and art to it.
And so, um, the more you can sort of bounce your art off of people, um, the Um, more robust or beautiful, like wholeness it creates in the program. So, and I still do that, um, with some of the same mentors that I, that I've used. I still reach out to them for support, um, or even, um. Other colleagues now too. So yeah, I think it's a really important piece of professional development is having a mentor or multiple mentors.
It doesn't have to be one person. Um, I think that's it. I mean. It's a general overview, but I think it emphasizes the need for more understanding of movement science as well as an understanding of this osteopathic side of things and, um, to learn things in your own body, um, and to have a mentorship mentor.
So, like, if I were to say, like, the top things that just came out of this conversation is a whole lot of movement science. Um, learning, uh, an osteopathic lens of view, and having mentors. Feeling it in your own body, and constantly reflecting and creating, reflecting and creating. So that's it! I'll link a lot in the show notes.
I'm not an affiliate for anyone ex well, not except, but at the Barral Institute, if you do sign up, and you say that I referred you, I do get a credit. Based on your enrollment. So I think I get like 10 percent of your enrollment. So it's like 60 towards my own education So just big disclaimer on that. I would be recommending it No matter if I got a kickback or not.
So same thing same thing with Missy Bunch Sometimes she gives me a kickback for sending people her way, but I would be recommending it no matter And Exos and Mike Boyle. I don't get any kickback. I just think they're great. And, um, still think they're the best in the industry and, um, Polestar, same thing.
Um, best in the industry. Yeah. And there's so much, so much to learn. I encourage you just. a lot of people. Like to me, this, because it's a core value, I have no problem investing tens of thousands of dollars every year in education. That is oftentimes too, you know, I get asked a lot from people like, Oh, how do I get to where you're at?
How do I work with professional athletes? How do I. How do I, you know, become a great professional? You have to invest in yourself. You will not be the best if you only take the amount of continuing education and professional development that your company will pay for. Which most companies, like maximum, they'll pay for like a thousand dollars a year.
And that's a lot. Some companies pay 500. And so if you're hesitant to take more professional education opportunities because of the financial investment, then that is your own decision. But just know it's going to take longer in your career to get to where you necessarily want to be if you want to be the best.
And that's okay. My, this is also like, I 100 percent understand that I come from a privileged place of having the opportunity to take what I make and reinvent, reinvest it in education because I don't have kids and I am not married and so I can do whatever I want with my income and I love to learn. So that's what I do with it.
I know that not everybody is in that same boat. So I encourage you to petition your, your business to pay for more, get more allotment, even shift your salary around if possible, or even encourage your. Business to collaborate with other businesses to bring education in. So a lot of the education that I got when I was working at Exos was because as a company, it was our core value to learn and constantly grow and change.
So we brought people into our facility to teach to us. Michael Boyle does that at his place too. They have like weekly in services. And then that's too, like if you can't afford to bring people in or you can't afford to do classes, like utilize the people around you, whether it is like within your business or within your community to do like a think tank in a weekly or monthly or every other week in service that you are educating each other.
On whatever you do or what you're interested in that and what you're researching, what book you're reading, that kind of thing too. So there's other ways that you can add in this education that are lower cost, but at the end of the day, you need to do a lot of it to become really good. The way to be successful in your business when you are a service provider is to be the best and typically the way to be the best is to get a lot of experience and learn a lot.
And continue to learn and experience, learn, experience, learn, experience. So, and that's my last words to you. Hope this episode was helpful. Um, let me know what else you want to hear. Happy 2024.
