As a kid, I hated school.
I’m not sure if I hated it because school was mandatory, because we had to sit at desks all day, or because we had to learn the same things, at the same pace, regardless of our aptitude. But, even now, after a long and successful postsecondary run, “education” can still give me the shivers.
What about you?
Did you love your high school years? Or spitball your way to detention? Think your chemistry teacher was a wizard? Or worry about your lit teacher’s relationship with Chaucer? Love solving algebraic equations? Or, like me, hate it all (but discover the fountain of knowledge later)?
Either way, regardless of your past experiences with academics, becoming the ultimate health and fitness change maker depends on a new relationship with learning, one where your continuing education balances excitement and inspiration (I can’t wait to learn that!) with relevance and usefulness (And I get to use it in my practice tomorrow!).
Contrast this with what I see from many trainers, dietitians, health coaches, rehab specialists, and functional med docs. After they complete specialty training, their learning is disjointed. There’s a seminar here, a course there. A textbook here, a journal article there. A conference here, a webinar there. Maybe there’s a little excitement and inspiration. But mostly it’s going through the motions, taking courses they think they should, earning CEUs to check the boxes for qualification renewal.
Yes, they’re acquiring new knowledge. But that’s not the point. Without a master plan that connects all their learning together, they end up wasting their time, money, and energy gathering tools that they’ll never quite know how to use in the context of their actual practice.
Plus, many of the courses they take are so highly specific (three days on the neuroanatomy of the left extensor digitorum longus?), it’s hard to see how they’ll translate into client and patient results, business growth, or a remarkable reputation.
The good news? This chapter offers a better plan.
It outlines the essential information you’ll need to create an inspired and reputation-building learning curriculum. One that puts you on track for a long-lasting, fulfilling, and successful career.
Don’t think an ongoing continuing education curriculum is that important?
Consider the 40 percent annual turnover rate in the health and fitness industry. By this time next year we’ll have lost four out of every ten professionals. They’ll have ditched a career they were initially so passionate about. They’ll have forfeited an opportunity to find meaning in their work. They’ll have given up the chance to change, maybe even save, lives.
And why? Because they weren’t prepared. Because no one taught them the who, what, where, when, why, and how of continuing education and lifelong learning.
That’s the point of this chapter: to help you craft an educational plan that’s intentional, practical, forward-thinking, and success-oriented so you don’t become another health and fitness statistic. To help you shape your path to becoming the ultimate health and fitness change maker.
At first, clients and patients will look for “credibility indicators” and “social proof” like: which university you attended, what degree(s) and certification(s) you have, whether you’ve been written up in the media or appeared on the radio or on television programs, whether you can show them testimonials from satisfied and enthusiastic clients.
But, after that, they immediately start caring more about who you are (as a coach and as a person) and how you can help them achieve their goals. Why, then, does your continuing education matter?
Is it to get a first job? To get a better job? To earn the respect of your peers? To show off your skull-popping brains (to go along with your sleeve-stretching biceps)?
Continuing education might help with those things. But I consider those collateral benefits. In other words: Don’t read books, attend seminars, complete certification programs, and earn degrees because you expect they’ll produce some sort of external benefit and validation. Rather, engage in lifelong education because of the internal benefits.
Learning changes you. It helps you become a better student, questioner, and thinker. It helps you become more curious, interested, and aware. It helps you develop an all-important growth mindset. And it helps you become a more well-rounded, confident, and fearless change maker.
When that happens, sure, it could lead to your first job, or a better job, or more success, or any of the other external things young people expect from education. But if your motive is credential shopping or job chasing, you’ll miss out on the real benefits.
I emphasize this because, all too often, cynics deride the value of degree programs, certifications, and other structured continuing-education pathways. “Clients don’t care about your degree!” “Do you really think that certification is going to help you get a job?!?”
They’re right, to some extent. Once they’re satisfied with your credibility, clients won’t care much about the details of your latest course. And that certification you worked so hard on? It might not help you get a job. But that doesn’t make degrees and certifications worthless. Again, the value isn’t external. It’s internal.
That’s why you should understand the why of education before the what. The why establishes how to think about your educational path, and it helps you create well-considered criteria for the courses you’ll select. From there, instead of trying to accumulate an alphabet’s worth of letters after your name to impress others, search for the task-specific knowledge, wisdom, and insight you’ll need to master yourself and your profession.
Eric Cressey—a good friend, one of the world’s premier strength coaches, and a highly successful entrepreneur who runs sport-training facilities in Hudson, Massachusetts, and Jupiter, Florida—shares these questions for evaluating any continuing education opportunity.
Evaluating Continuing Education
Next time you’re wondering whether you should sign up for a specific course (or not), ask yourself the following:
Will it provide me with specific information I wouldn’t otherwise have?
To do this exercise, and all upcoming ones, please download our printable + fillable worksheets at www.changemakeracademy.com/downloadable-forms.
Will it provide info I can immediately apply in my interaction with clients and staff?
Is it delivered by one of the best? Can they speak from an experienced, in-the-trenches perspective? Or are they academics who haven’t worked with clients in years?
I’d add one additional question that I think is important:
Is it part of a comprehensive long-term personal development plan designed to help me achieve a deep mastery of my craft and lead to my ultimate career goals?
I include this last one because I think continuing education needs to fit into your own career domination plan. It has to map to future you, the kind of professional you’d like to one day become.
I liken this to the long-term athlete development models published by national sport governing bodies around the world. My daughter is trained in gymnastics and my wife is a figure skating coach. Having been exposed to both, I love how they clearly outline: a) which skills will be required, b) which lessons should be delivered, c) which training modalities to use, and d) which specific steps will transform an unskilled toddler into an Olympic champion over ten to fifteen years.
Whether the athlete knows it or not, whether the parent knows it or not, whether junior coaches know it or not, they’re all executing a decade(s)-long plan well-known to lead to a particular outcome. Every lesson, every course, every practice, every skill is building toward the goal of producing a masterful athlete, one who could compete at the highest level of sport.
Why not think about your own career in the same way?
What could you accomplish with your own long-term professional development plan? How much would your probability of success increase if you didn’t choose education opportunities randomly, but as part of a master curriculum?
In Chapter 1 I said that the health and fitness field will eventually morph from a place of focused specialists to a place of broad generalists. Clients and patients will increasingly expect a one-stop health and fitness experience. And that’s what professionals of the future will deliver.
Of course, you don’t have to give up on your dream of being the world’s foremost expert on asparagus smoothies. But it does mean you need to approach your education with a broader stroke. And widen your base of competency to support all aspects of health: movement, nutrition, supplementation, sleep, stress management, and more.
You certainly won’t be an expert in each area, nor will you diagnose or prescribe in each area. But you will need the training to confidently deliver a basic summary of each topic. Plus, when you have questions, or if someone needs more help than you can provide, you’ll have built a contact list full of professionals you can turn to or refer clients to.
Here’s an example: When I used to consult with elite professional and Olympic-level sports teams, my main focus was sport science and nutrition. Fitness and food, no problem. We had that locked down. Unfortunately, some athletes still felt bad: tired, lethargic, full of aches and pains.
I realized that we couldn’t get the most out of them until we looked at their lives holistically. Many of these athletes traveled so often (with so little knowledge of sleep hygiene and circadian rhythms) that it didn’t matter how well their training was structured or how many grams of protein they consumed. Their recovery, body composition, and performance would never be what they wanted until we took care of their sleep needs. When I finally started sharing basic sleep and circadian management strategies, our fitness and fueling protocols had the chance to work, and they did.*
Again, I’m not suggesting you need a PhD in sleep medicine to talk about this. But helping people feel better is what you do. If sleep were a limiting factor, wouldn’t it make sense to share basic sleep hygiene ideas?
One of my favorite ways to think about this approach is the T-shaped learning model:
Using this model, the horizontal bar represents all the subjects you’ll need to learn and understand to become a complete, well-rounded, elite professional. This could include client-specific domains like exercise, nutrition, supplementation, sleep, and stress management. It could also include professional-development domains like change psychology, coaching philosophy, marketing and sales, customer care, business systems and processes, reputation management, and more.
The vertical bar represents your specialty, where you have deep, subject-specific knowledge. This could be in any one of the client areas like movement, nutrition, rehab, medical diagnostics and treatment, etc. It could also be in a professional development area like marketing and sales.
My health and fitness career, for example, could be illustrated as follows:
I have master’s and doctoral training in nutrition and supplementation, and I’ve also sought out education and mentorship in all the areas along the horizontal bar to become a well-rounded and successful speaker, writer, entrepreneur, coach, and business owner.
Now it’s your turn.
As you start thinking about your own T-shaped learning, keep in mind the goal. You’ll want to know a little about a lot (particularly the things that contribute to career success). And a lot about a little (particularly the things you can master). You’ll also want to put together a network of T-shaped allies with different specialties (who know a lot about the things you only know a little about). This way your network can cover all the bases. You can reach out, or refer out, when required.
Think about some of the most interesting people you’ve met. They’re usually folks who can converse on a wide range of subjects—be it current events, home-gardening techniques, local breweries, superhero movies, French history, the environment, whatever the conversation circles to. But they also usually have one area where they add value, where they’re a deep expert.
Often cited as an exemplar of a T-shaped individual is American novelist Ernest Hemingway. His deep mastery of writing (the vertical bar of his T) was “rounded out” by his interests in hunting, fishing, sport, languages, camping, backpacking, travel, art, music, history, wine, social dynamics, and much more (the horizontal bar of his T). According to those close to him, he had a “strange power of presence” and left folks “falling into fits of admiration.”
So, not only will living a “T-shaped life” contribute to a leveling up of your career, it’ll also contribute to a leveling up of your personal life. As a professional, you’ll become the coach your clients need you to be. And, as a person, they might even talk about your “powerful presence” and fall into “fits of admiration” for you.
Of course, you probably already know your main area of focus—the vertical bar of your T. It could be exercise programming, nutrition coaching, diagnostics, prescription, etc. You’ve probably also invested a lot of time and money into deepening this area of knowledge. Yet maybe it’s time to focus more on the horizontal bar of your T and filling it out with training in some different areas.
AREAS TO DEVELOP BEYOND YOUR SPECIALTY
EXERCISE AND FITNESS.
To develop a deeper understanding of how different exercise modalities can contribute to massive improvements in health, fitness, disease resistance, and performance.
NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENTATION.
To more deeply understand how your clients’ eating decisions and supplement choices influence their energy levels, physical health, quality of life, and performance.
HEALTHY MOVEMENT AND MOBILITY.
To discover how movement and mechanics play key roles in the daily health and functional capacities of office workers, to manual laborers, athletes, children, and more.
STRESS MANAGEMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH.
To learn how mental health and stress influence who we are, how we see the world, how our bodies function at rest (vs. during performance), and what we’re able to do (vs. not do).
SLEEP.
To understand how sleep amount and quality are closely interconnected with exercise (ability and capacity), eating (choices and digestion/absorption), mental health, and more.
COACHING AND CHANGE PSYCHOLOGY.
To realize that knowing all about cellular function, movement, nutrition, sleep, and stress won’t get you far without knowing how to help people change their actions and practices.
MARKETING, SALES, AND BUSINESS.
To learn how to attract people to your business, convince them you’re the right fit for them, and deliver exactly what you’ve promised in a way that exceeds their expectations.
Curious which courses are the best in each domain? At the end of the book you’ll find examples in each category. But, before rushing to that, consider filling out the following empty T with the categories you think are most essential to achieving your career goals.
Your T-Shaped Curriculum Worksheet
The T-shaped model helps you visualize your depth and breadth of knowledge as well as map out the skills you’ll require to move from today you to future you. To this end, fill out the following empty T with the categories you think are most essential to achieving your career goals.
The horizontal bar should be filled with the categories you’ll need to be fluent in to become future you—the ultimate change maker you want to become.
The vertical bar should be filled with the category you’d like to (or already do) specialize in—where you’ll achieve mastery.
Either can include the categories listed above, as well as other professional skills (like having crucial conversations, giving and receiving feedback) or clinical skills (like reading and interpreting blood labs, diagnosing and treating special conditions).
Now that you know which domains you want (and need) to receive more training in—hopefully, over a long and productive career, you’ll seek out training in all the domains above—let’s talk about the different learning formats available, their pros and cons, and their value.
Before starting, however, it’s important to remember that—just like everything else in life—the educational choices you make have trade-offs.
(Want to get married? If so, marriage will probably help you gain companionship. But you’ll probably lose some independence. Want to stay single? If so, you get to keep your independence. But you’ll be missing companionship.)
To help you understand the trade-offs for each of seven popular learning formats below, I’ve created a ranking system based on the following criteria:
EASE:
10 represents education that’s simple to consume
AFFORDABILITY:
10 represents education that’s free or very low cost
CONTEXTUALLY RELEVANT:
10 represents education that’s put in its proper context
SKILL BUILDING:
10 represents education that will help you build practical skills
CREDENTIALS:
10 represents education that will give you credentials
CAREER VALUE:
10 represents education that will make a difference in your career
Learning Format #1: Articles in magazines, journals, trade publications, or online
With publications for every interest and profession, plus an explosion of online publications catering to every subniche within every niche, articles are everywhere! If you’ve found a trusted, honest, authoritative source, their ease of access and cost is hard to beat. In addition, articles can be published quickly in order to deliver cutting-edge, timely information. This is why so many people read articles online as part of their personal and professional education.
However, since articles are designed to be short and specific, they don’t always help you orient what you’re learning in its proper context, within the larger field of knowledge. Not all articles are equally authoritative and credible, of course. And articles rarely help you develop practices that reliably lead to new skills.
So choose wisely. Also remember that if you spend all your personal development time reading articles, you won’t have time left over to develop the skills you’ll need in your daily practice. Reading doesn’t produce the same kind of learning as doing.
Learning Format #2: Books and e-books
Once upon a time, having a published book was a marker of authority and credibility because books could only be published through a small group of information gatekeepers (i.e., publishing houses). This made publishing more difficult for individuals, but it largely helped protect readers from unqualified authors and fraudulent information.
Nowadays, the gatekeepers are gone. Traditional book publishing decisions are driven primarily by the likelihood that a book will sell and not necessarily by a book’s trustworthiness or credibility. Plus, self-publishing requires no permission or review whatsoever. So buyer beware. Just because someone’s written a book doesn’t mean that the book is original, valuable, or useful.*
With that said, good books, written by trustworthy and believable authors, can deliver valuable information set in its proper context. As books are usually ten to twenty times the length of articles, they can allow deeper exploration of particular topics. And, while books almost never produce transformative change on their own, they often do introduce us to new ideas that, explored more deeply in other learning formats, can lead to transformation.
Because they require a sizeable time investment (days, weeks, or months depending on how much time you devote to reading) and still aren’t particularly oriented to skill development, make sure you’re clear on what you need most before picking up a new book: more information about a topic you know little about or more practice doing what you already “know” but haven’t implemented.
Learning Format #3: Free online videos, lectures, podcasts
I rate free online videos, lectures, and podcasts similarly to free articles as they share some of the same pros (inexpensive, easy to consume) and cons (lacking context, low on skill development unless they offer exercises for you to do at home).
Similar to articles and books, the lack of credibility gatekeepers means you have to be very diligent in finding trusted, authoritative, and honest sources who base their work on a balanced review of the research (as opposed to agenda-driven opinion pieces).
As with both articles and books, since video content is ubiquitous, cheap, and easy to consume, it’s important not to mistake consumption for progress, especially if you require skill development even over information gathering.
Learning Format #4: Live seminars (paid)
Weekend seminars in the form of summits (multiple speakers delivering thirty- to ninety-minute presentations on a variety of topics) or workshops (single speakers delivering one or two days on a specific topic) are popular in the health and fitness industry. Depending on the quality of the event and the speakers, attendees usually come home with a mix of new information, new things to try, and (sometimes) hands-on experience.
Workshops often allow us to explore a particular topic in depth, as well as interact with subject-matter experts. This means you might find that the content more closely meets your specific needs and interests than what you’d get in books, articles, and online videos.
However, the value of these events has to be weighed against the time commitment, cost (of travel plus event fees), and usefulness at the present stage of your career. For example, an advanced program-design workshop for athletes, while interesting for certain personal trainers, may not be relevant if most of their clients are recreational exercisers. Similarly, if a functional medicine doctor’s main limiting factor is getting clients, another biochemistry workshop might have to come later.
Often, the real value in attending live events is getting to meet people. Attending a one-hour talk on nutrition for seniors will probably be less instructive than reading a book on the subject by the same author. However, having the chance to interact with the author, and with others interested in the same topic, could help expand your network or simply help you connect with other like-minded professionals. As most experienced conference-goers know: The best conversations happen during the coffee breaks.
Learning Format #5:
Certification programs
Certification programs in health and fitness give professionals the chance to not only learn a tremendous amount about a particular subject, but also to earn a credential in the chosen area. For example, earning a pre- and post-natal certification demonstrates that you’ve passed the minimum standards required to work with women before, during, and after pregnancy.
In addition, well-done certification programs do an excellent job of surveying the entire field of knowledge, reviewing all the available research, and helping to place the information in its relevant context. For example, a well-done nutrition certification program will help you figure out exactly how a low-carbohydrate diet works biochemically, who it might be appropriate for, who it might not be appropriate for, and when it might (or might not) be appropriate. Compare this to one-sided articles, books, or video lectures from individuals arguing for or against such an approach, and you’ll better understand the idea of context here and why it’s so important.
In my opinion, short of degree programs, if you hope to develop fluency in a particular discipline, choosing trusted, balanced, authoritative certification programs offers the best value for your investment. Although the investment of time and money is sometimes significant, if you can afford both, you’ll come away with deeper knowledge, more relevant practice, and a more balanced view than if you’d simply read articles, books, or attended one-off seminars.
Two caveats.
First, there are a lot of bad certification programs out there. So you’ll want to use the triangulation method described ahead (page 300) to help you separate the good from the bad.
Second, don’t assume certification always means accreditation or getting hired. For example, without earning a degree in dietetics, there are some things in nutrition even a certified professional cannot do (i.e., medical nutrition therapy). Also, while many employers do accord higher value to certain certifications when hiring candidates, being certified doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a job or even more clients.
As discussed earlier, education is about the internal benefits, not the external ones. And it’s a long-term play, not a short-term one. Invest in developing your inner game through learning and education and, over time, you’ll become more desirable to employers and clients alike.
Learning Format #6:
Internships and field experiences
Internships and field experiences undertaken with high-profile professionals or with high-performing facilities can offer tremendous practical, hands-on, task-relevant skill development. That’s because they require you to actually do the thing instead of just learning about it. (Consider the difference between reading about how to do a deadlift and actually trying your first deadlift.)
In addition, internships and field experiences can give you a one-of-a-kind opportunity to see if you actually enjoy the specific work they’re providing. This was particularly huge for me because, at one point in my academic career, I considered becoming a pharmacist. Thankfully, I first took a part-time job at a pharmacy, where I learned it wasn’t a good fit for me.
While internships and field experiences can offer a lot of value, they may require you to relocate (at least temporarily), which could come at a high cost, especially if they’re unpaid internships. Further, not all internships are created equally. Some are simply poorly structured attempts to get young people to perform free labor for the professional or facility, while others are designed beautifully to expose you to all aspects of their practice and walk away with a tremendous amount of practical learning in a short period of time. So evaluate internship opportunities critically.
Learning Format #7:
Academic programs
In some occupations, you need a degree to actually practice in the field. (For example, you can’t practice dietetics without having earned a dietetics degree; you can’t practice medicine without having earned a medical degree; you can’t practice chiropractic care without having earned a chiropractic degree.) So, if you’re choosing a health and fitness career that requires a college or university degree, this is a must.
In addition, academic programs with a well-built curriculum usually offer the broadest contextual look at the subject you’re studying (i.e., many courses in different areas of your specialty, including hands-on practicums, taken over many years). These programs can offer a broader understanding of a range of other topics, too, including giving you more experience in learning, thinking critically, writing, evaluating ideas, and more.
As great as academic training can be, it can also be extremely time-consuming (four years to complete a standard degree program) and expensive (hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct costs plus the opportunity cost of not working for those four years). In addition, it isn’t always relevant for certain career paths, nor is it likely to help you get a job in others. So do your research to figure out if what you want to do for a living is enhanced by university training (or not).
Bonus resource: Mentors
I didn’t include mentors in the learning categories above because I consider mentorship something every professional should have at every stage of their career.
If you’re reading this and you don’t have a mentor today, I urge you to begin looking for one who can help you reach the next stage of your professional journey. Someone who’s thoughtful, experienced, wise. Someone’s who’s just a little further along the path than you are (but not so far along the path that they can no longer relate to the challenges and opportunities before you today).
Wondering how to find one? In my life I simply keep on the lookout for amazing people I’d like to emulate, people who’ve accomplished some of the remarkable things I’d like to accomplish myself.* If I get the chance to connect with them, whether by email or in person, I do. And I follow the advice I shared in Chapter 6, showing up as a respectful, grateful, open, compassionate, honest, and curious human. Then I let nature take its course.
Finding Mentorship
My friend Nate Green, a master connector who’s been mentored by a who’s-who list of interesting and successful people, takes a much more proactive and intentional approach. Here’s how he thinks about approaching possible mentors, plus some of the strategies he’d recommend for you.
SEND THE EMAIL.
Nate emailed Lou Schuler, the fitness industry’s most well-known journalist, when Nate was just nineteen years old. He proceeded to tell Lou that he wanted his job, asking how he got it.
“It wasn’t my best email,” Nate told me. But Lou surprised him by writing back and offering career advice. “That meant a lot to me. I would have never met him (or many other people who’ve helped shape my career) if I didn’t first reach out.”
Here’s an updated script he recommends if you plan to reach out to a potential mentor via email.
Hey NAME,
My name is Nate, and I’m a big fan of your work.
Specifically, your (article/book/podcast) about (A, B, C) really helped me to (X, Y, Z).
I know you’re busy, but I’m hoping you have a minute to answer a very short and specific question for me.
INSERT VERY SHORT AND SPECIFIC QUESTION HERE
If you don’t have time, I completely understand.
Thanks again for your work.
APPROACH AN EQUAL AND NOT AS A “FANBOY.”
Whether you start with an email, or you get the chance to meet a potential mentor in person, make roughly 5 percent of the next interaction about how much you love their work. The remaining 95 percent or so is all about talking to them like a friend would. (This works better in person, of course, but applies equally to email.)
Nate recommends never fawning over people, hanging around them for too long, or coming across as needy. “It’s like dating that way,” says Nate. “No one wants to hang out with someone who’s constantly like, ‘OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU’ and clings on in a needy way.”
Also, when meeting people in person, never ask to take photos with them. (“It’s too fanboy-ish,” according to Nate.) Yet feel free to bring people small gifts, such as a book you really enjoy and think they’d like too.
ASK IF YOU CAN FOLLOW UP.
If you end up meeting someone at a professional event or social function and have a good initial conversation, Nate recommends asking if you can follow up. Here’s how you can approach the subject.
It was really nice chatting with you, NAME.
I know you’re busy, and so I want to respect your time.
That said, if I have a VERY specific question about (X, Y, Z), are you open to me sending you a short email?
If you don’t have time to answer, that’s fine.
But I really respect your opinion and think it could really help my career.
You have my word that whatever you tell me to try, I’ll give it a shot.
If they say yes,
Thanks so much. What’s the best way to get a hold of you?
If they say no,
Thanks so much. Keep doing good work. You’re helping a lot of people.
IF THEY SHARE SOME ADVICE, TAKE IT.
More than gifts or financial rewards, a mentor’s greatest payoff is knowing that a mentee respects their time, takes their help seriously, and isn’t afraid of hard work.
“Let’s say I’m at a conference and meet someone I respect and want to learn from. Maybe we have a five-minute conversation and they give me a small piece of advice. I write that advice down (later, when I’m back in my hotel room). Then I follow their advice. If they tell me to read a certain book, I read it. If they tell me I should consider starting a blog, I start one.”
Whatever it is, Nate does what they recommended. Later, he tells them about it. “I’ll email to follow up. Then I’ll ask for a next step, something else they’d recommend I put into action.”
ALWAYS CONSIDER: “WHAT CAN I OFFER THEM?”
You may have no idea what that is. But it helps to think this way—to constantly be on the lookout for how you can do something, anything, to express your gratitude for their help, guidance, and support.
If you’re wondering why mentors would even spend their time helping you like this, the answer is easy. The right mentors want mentees, badly. They want to share what they’ve learned. And they want to share it with young, smart, curious people who are likely to do something valuable with their advice (and honestly report back on what they did and how it worked out).
And, keep this in mind, they’re not looking to be “impressed.” Frankly, if you’re mentoring with someone worth learning from, you can’t impress them at your level of development. So you’re not there to be the expert, or to show them how smart you are, or to impose your own limited insights. You’re there to show up with a great attitude and a growth mindset. To listen carefully, ask great questions, and put what you’re learning into action.
Yet, while you’re there to learn, you do get points for being curious, thoughtful, and adding value to the relationship in other ways, for expressing gratitude for the advice and the opportunity. To this end, I often send my mentors handwritten notes, short reports of how I used their advice to my advantage (as Nate does), and small tokens of my gratitude. I love it when my mentees do the same.
Now that you know which areas you want (and need) to receive more training in, as well as the pros and cons of different modalities you could choose to learn from, it’s time to discuss how to select the right resources, people, and companies to pursue your education with.
Whether you’re looking to level up your nutrition knowledge by doing a nutrition certification, or to improve your knowledge of anatomy by taking a fascial dissection course, there are so many options out there. To help you choose which are right for you, I highly recommend a method I learned from Phil Caravaggio. It’s called triangulation.
Using the “triangulation” method
When Phil gets into something, he really gets into it. Recently, he’s gone deep into coffee—to the point where he decided to set up a world-class coffee bar in Precision Nutrition’s Toronto headquarters. Of course, he could have done some Googling, talked to a few local experts, and consulted a few coffee equipment manufacturers to figure out how to set up the coffee bar.
But that’s not how Phil does anything. When something matters to him—whether it’s hiring the best coffee machine or hiring the best CEO—he uses a particular, highly effective formula.
1 Find at least three believable* people with demonstrated competence** who are passionate about the subject matter.
2 Prepare thoughtful, insightful, deeply curious questions to ask them. Creating these questions might take some research and “homework” beforehand—for instance, he might review a particular person’s career path, read materials they wrote, and so forth.
3 Use these questions to interview them in person (preferably) or on a video conference; listen closely and absorb everything they teach, taking extensive notes.
4 Pay particular attention to areas where the experts don’t agree. (This is important.) Then follow up with each to figure out why they disagree.
5 Only then, taking everything into account, make your decision.
In the case of his coffee bar, Phil called three people (including a world-champion barista, a highly regarded coffee grower, and a thought leader on coffee hardware/machinery) and asked them pointed questions on everything from beans to machines to brewing process. Through the interviews, it turns out they agreed on a lot of things. However, two of them strongly disagreed on which machine (and process) Phil should use in his coffee bar. This was awesome because understanding where and why experts disagree can provide the best learning.
When Phil brought up this disagreement, Expert 1 mentioned that, while he respects his colleague, Expert 2 is really fixated on using robotics to achieve coffee-making consistency. As a result, his priority is making a reliable, reproducible cup of coffee every time, regardless of the variable conditions that could influence coffee making (altitude, ambient temperature, water quality, and so on). His recommendation was biased by a particular set of interests he has. When Phil spoke with Expert 2, he mentioned that, while he also respects his colleague, Expert 1 is interested in craftsmanship and the human factors involved in coffee making. He doesn’t mind a little variability as long as every cup is excellent. So his recommendation was biased by his own (very different) interests.
For Phil, this was especially enlightening because it became clear that this disagreement wasn’t about which approach was “right” or “wrong,” “better” or “worse.” Rather, it was about personal style and preference. Since each approach had merit, it was up to Phil to decide which trade-offs he was willing to accept at his coffee bar, based on his own goals.
This is what triangulation gets you: the ability to hear from world-class experts, to look for areas of agreement, and to learn from their areas of disagreement. And, as mentioned, I highly recommend using this process, especially as you try to evaluate which people and companies to learn from while building your educational curriculum.
Find a few believable people. Ask them the best learning opportunities in each domain. Take note when they agree. And probe deeper when they disagree.
Here’s a great example that’s come up in my work. People often ask me whether they should do one of two particular nutrition certifications: the Precision Nutrition (PN) Certification or the International Society of Sport Nutrition (ISSN) certification. Of course, they expect me to recommend the one I co-authored, the PN program. They’re often surprised by my answer.
When asked, I tell them that both programs are valuable and well respected and that any health and fitness professional who’s deeply interested in nutrition will eventually do both. So don’t ask, “Which is better?” but, rather, “Which should I do first?”
The answer: the one that addresses your current limiting factors.
The PN certification is a nutrition coaching certification. While the first half of the program focuses on the science of nutrition, the second focuses on coaching and change psychology. The ISSN certification, on the other hand, focuses on the science of sports nutrition and supplementation, in theory and in practice.
So, if you need advanced sports nutrition and supplement protocols for highly disciplined, nutritionally compliant athletes more or more urgently, you might tackle the ISSN program now and the PN program later.
On the other hand, if you need to help clients change their behaviors, address limiting factors, build habit systems, grapple with the natural ambivalence of growth, and improve their nutritional quality within the context of their everyday lives, you might tackle the PN program first.
But don’t take my word for it. In the spirit of triangulation, ask a few other believable people to help you come up with a few options. Once you’ve narrowed your selection, based on the experts you’ve spoken with, here are two additional steps to building confidence in your decision.
Crowdsourcing
Ask friends, colleagues, or social media connections for their opinions. You could even post surveys in your Facebook groups. See what others think the best option is for you, making it clear exactly what your goals are and why you’re considering the programs you’re considering.
(Just be sure to do this after triangulation. It’s better to ask people to help you choose between two or three options instead of asking for open-ended recommendations.)
Online reviews
If you already know the programs you’re trying to choose between, search Google for program reviews by typing in the name of the program and “reviews” after it, such as “Precision Nutrition Certification reviews,” or “ISSN certification reviews.”
Keep in mind that you don’t exactly know the believability of the online reviewers or whether their goals align with yours. To this end, weight your original experts highest, using crowdsourcing and reviews to add to your decision-making process but not as your only criteria.
After helping new health and fitness pros build out their T-shaped learning curriculum with specific educational categories, and helping them decide on which courses (or resources) they’ll use in each of those categories, the inevitable question they ask me is:
“How the heck am I going to do all that?!?”
Trust me, I get it. I used to be riddled with anxiety about how little I really knew compared to how much I had yet to learn. I felt behind, impatient, and stressed out. Like I’d never get to where I wanted to be. At some points I wondered if I should leave the industry altogether.
If you’re feeling that way yourself, remember: It’s not a race. You’re not behind. And there’s nothing to “catch up” to. Education is, truly, a career-long process. If you do it right, it won’t ever stop.
For example, I’m twenty-five years into my career and am exposed to more seminars and workshops now than I was early on. With four young children, less interest in being on airplanes, and a $200 million company to run, I generally choose online or prerecorded ones (rather than attending in person). Nevertheless, I end each with pages full of ideas and new things for our team to try when I get back to my office.
In addition, I pick three impressive people and/or companies to closely follow each year. And when I say closely, I mean closely. I visit every page of their websites, read all their communications, and buy all their products with the goal of understanding what makes them special. Of the companies I follow, one is usually bigger than ours, one is the same size, and one is smaller. If I’m following an individual, it’s usually someone talented but younger. I do this because, by following them, I get to see how they use new strategies and technologies to leverage timeless and unchanging principles. As I learn how these people and companies operate, I share the best insights with our team.
Then there’s my “brain-picking fee.” Taught to me by my late friend Charles, whenever there’s something specific I need to learn, I find one of the world’s leading thinkers on that subject—whether scientist, educator, or in-the-trenches practitioner—and offer them an hourly fee to pick their brain on their subject of expertise. People like scientists and professors, especially those working for public institutions, are often eager to spend an hour or two talking with someone deeply interested in their area of expertise, especially if that person comes well-prepared* and is willing to pay for their time.**
Finally, I’m now in a unique position where I can create new knowledge through research trials (laboratory experiments with small groups of volunteers and clinical trials with large groups of consenting Precision Nutrition clients), business-related pilot projects (exploring new organizational structures and launching new beta products), or marketing-related projects (testing price sensitivities and exploring new launch models).
As you can see, my education continues to this day, even if it’s different than my early days of academic programs, structured coursework, and guided mentorships/internships. I have a hard time imagining a time where I’ll feel “done” when it comes to learning, growing, and developing.
I suspect my T-shaped curriculum will continue to evolve until the day I die.
If you plan your career well, your T-shaped curriculum will also continue to evolve. It will always represent future you. It’ll never be finished. Because, for ambitious people, the mountain always gets taller as you approach its summit. When you reach the heights you now aspire to, no matter how high you think they are, there will be many new things you’ll want to experience, learn, and do.
That’s why, for now, the only path forward is to take it one step at a time. One course at a time. When time and money are tight, maybe you only invest in one course, event, or certification per year. If you have more of either resource, consider more than one learning opportunity per year. Go at your pace, though, because that’s the only pace you can go at.
So how do you choose your very next course?
Here’s what I recommend:
BEGIN WHERE YOU ARE TODAY.
Be honest about where you are in your career, your baseline knowledge and experience, and what your prospects and clients need most right now. For example, signing up for a super-elite physiology course after completing your basic specialty training might not be a great move if you still know very little about client acquisition or change psychology.
CHECK YOUR GAPS.
You drew your T, right? Look at the areas you’re lacking. Once you have your specialty training, build out your horizontal row before throwing the kitchen sink at your vertical row. Go broad before going deeper. Additionally, recognize and respect the power of the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect, a psychological phenomenon that means when we’re less experienced, we don’t realize how little we know, or how relatively unskilled we are. So if you notice yourself thinking you already “know it all” or “have everything mastered,” be on your guard and make sure to calibrate your own skills and performance against that of world-class experts.*
DO A LIMITING FACTOR ANALYSIS.
Now that you know what you’re missing, ask yourself the most important question in the process: Which weak point is holding you back the most? In other words, which factor is most limiting for your personal and professional growth? This is called a limiting factor analysis. It forces you to be critical about your information and skill gaps and to prioritize learning in the areas that’ll make the biggest difference to your career immediately.
For example, if you’re like most health and fitness professionals (who have to get their own clients), marketing and sales may be your limiting factors. Without the ability to attract, register, and retain clients, you won’t be able to stay in the field very long. Or maybe you know a lot about how the body works but don’t have strategies for working with living, breathing humans in the context of their actual lives. Your limiting factor might be change psychology. Or, maybe you’re a fitness model with an extensive exercise and nutrition background, plus one hundred thousand followers, but you’re not sure how to turn that into a business. Your limiting factors might be business systems and strategy.
RUN A TOURNAMENT.
Once you’ve identified your limiting factor(s), it’s time to prioritize learning in those areas. However, as we saw earlier in the book, prioritization is difficult. Even after following the steps above, you’ll still likely end up with a not-so-short list of courses that feel important to your career development. As mentioned, it’ll be a list that takes years to check off. Instead of being stressed out by this, or paralyzed into inaction, make your list items compete, like in a bracketed sports tournament, as mentioned in Chapter 5.
Here’s an example of what that could look like:
Of course, your tournament may look very different from this one. But the process is the same.
Your Educational Tournament
Fill out a blank tournament bracket to decide on your next course or learning opportunity. Pair up items from your list, make them compete for the next precious spot in your learning calendar, and see what wins. (Then, of course, take action and do the learning.)
Important: Once you complete your latest learning adventure, be sure to rerun the tournament. You’ll want to be sure your original list, your brackets, and your winners are as up-to-date as possible and are based on what you’ve learned since your last time running it.
Sometimes even making time for one new course a year can feel daunting within the context of your own life, especially if you’re trying to juggle work, a social life, family, or other commitments and responsibilities. This is where the same prioritization skills (as discussed in Chapter 5) are so important. When overwhelmed with options and opportunity, errands and busy work, the only reliable way to make time for the most important thing is to reevaluate how you’re spending your time and prioritize the tasks that have the potential to make the biggest difference.
Prioritizing the Big Rocks
One helpful method of identifying and following your priorities is to think of your time as a jar, which you can fill with a finite number of rocks, pebbles, and sand. To the right is an example.
Everyone’s rocks, pebbles, and sand will look different. But, regardless, if you fill your jar with too much sand first, the rocks and pebbles won’t fit.
Spend some time thinking about your “big rocks,” “pebbles,” and “sand” and fill out the following:
Another great way to make time for the most important things is to keep a time diary, also mentioned in Chapter 5. Your schedule reflects how you’re prioritizing the activities in your life. So, when you track your time for a few weeks, you’ll find out if it’s consistent with your goals and values.
To do so, begin by tracking your day in fifteen-minute increments. For example:
7:00–7:15 Woke up, brushed teeth, washed face
7:15–7:30 Checked Instagram
7:30–7:45 Still on Instagram
7:45–8:00 Made coffee and breakfast
Then, analyze it.
Without judgment, ask yourself if your schedule reflects your true priorities and what you know will help you reach your personal and professional goals. If not, make some adjustments to clear time for your most important personal and career tasks (including continuing education).
MY FAVORITE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IN EACH CATEGORY
A few years back I sought out a supplement partner for Precision Nutrition. I didn’t actually want to sell supplements. Rather, I wanted a trusted, reliable partner to refer clients to when they asked about safe, effective products.
I did a lot of diligence. I visited a host of companies’ headquarters, packaging facilities, and materials suppliers. After an extensive search, I found one I was proud to recommend. They had a long track record, great sales, and were doing things right. Sadly, three years later, they were acquired and stopped making the products our clients needed at the quality I demanded.
It’s for that reason—even the best of companies come and go—I decided not to include a comprehensive list of books, seminars, courses, and certifications in this section. Sure, I would love to help you design your curriculum with some trusted recommendations. However, Precision Nutrition has been around for fifteen years and, during that time, I’ve seen companies go out of business, books go out of print, and once-relevant resources get staler than a four-month-old bagel.
With that said, in the Educational Resources section at the end of this book I’ll share some of the resources I’ve found to be most beneficial in my career. These are companies, people, and programs I’ve benefited from, as have our students. (That’s why they skew toward nutrition and fitness.)
By the time you read this book, they could be long gone. (I hope not.) If they are, that’s okay. Because you now know how to evaluate learning modalities, triangulate among believable experts, and use crowdsourcing and online reviews to choose and prioritize the right courses for you.
* For those athletes who required more help, I referred them to a trusted sleep expert.
* Except this one, of course. This one is immune from all criticism.
* These don’t only need to be professional accomplishments, although they could be. I’m just as excited to learn from someone who has a great family life as I am from someone who’s grown a billion-dollar business.
* People who have repeatedly and successfully accomplished the thing in question, who have a strong track record with at least three successes, and have great explanations of their approach when probed.
** Showing that you deserve the title of “authority” or “expert” with consistently high-level performance.
* Being well prepared is critical to make sure a) I’m not wasting my own time and money and b) they don’t feel like I’ve wasted their time. This means becoming very familiar with their work, understanding what they’re excited about now, and coming up with important, insightful questions.
** I usually offer between $100 and $200 USD per hour for their time. Sometimes they ask for more. More often, though, they waive the fee altogether.
* But don’t fall prey to the opposite problem: “I’ll never be at the level of so-and-so! There’s no point trying! It’s too much!” Calm down, figure out a plan, and fill those gaps one by one, slowly and steadily.