Info

Healthy Wealthy & Smart

Healthy Wealthy & Smart: Where Healthcare Meets Business. The Healthy Wealthy & Smart podcast, hosted by world-renowned physical therapist Dr. Karen Litzy, offers a wealth of knowledge and expertise to help healthcare and fitness professionals take their careers to the next level. With its perfect blend of clinical skills and business acumen, this podcast is a one-stop-shop for anyone looking to gain a competitive edge in today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. Dr. Litzy's dynamic approach to hosting combines practical clinical insights with expert business advice, making the Healthy Wealthy & Smart podcast the go-to resource for ambitious professionals seeking to excel in their fields. Each episode features a thought-provoking conversation with a leading industry expert, offering listeners unique insights and actionable strategies to optimize their practices and boost their bottom line. Whether you're a seasoned healthcare professional looking to expand your skill set, or an up-and-coming fitness expert seeking to establish your brand, the Healthy Wealthy & Smart podcast has something for everyone. From expert advice on marketing and branding to in-depth discussions on the latest clinical research and techniques, this podcast is your essential guide to achieving success in today's competitive healthcare landscape. So if you're ready to take your career to the next level, tune in to the Healthy Wealthy & Smart podcast with Dr. Karen Litzy and discover the insights, strategies, and inspiration you need to thrive in today's fast-paced world of healthcare and fitness.
RSS Feed Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
Healthy Wealthy & Smart
2024
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2023
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2022
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2021
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2020
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2019
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2015
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2014
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2013
October
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2012
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


Categories

All Episodes
Archives
Categories
Now displaying: December, 2020
Dec 31, 2020

On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Drs. Julie Sias and Jenna Kantor to the show for our annual end of the year review. I also wanted to welcome Dr. Alexis Lancaster in spirit. All three of these incredible women are the team that makes this podcast happen every week and I am eternally grateful for all of their hard work, support and love throughout the year. 

In this episode, we discuss:

  • The ups and downs of 2020 for each of us
  • How to deal with fraudulent Google reviews 
  • Being a brand new mom and a private practice PT owner 
  • What we are hoping for in 2021
  • And so much more! 

Resources: 

Jenna Kantor Physical Therapy 

Newport Coast Physical Therapy

Renegade Movement and Performance 

Karen Litzy Physical Therapy

A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode! Learn more about the Redoc Patient Portal here. 

More about Julie, Jenna and Lex

Dr. Julie SiasI received my Doctor of Physical Therapy and Bachelor of Science in Biology degrees from Chapman University. I became a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association to better serve my wellness clients. I am also a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and Private Practice Section. In addition to working with my physical therapy and wellness clients, I provide consultation services for children and adults with neurological conditions. In my free time, I produce the podcast Healthy, Wealthy and Smart which features leaders in physical therapy, wellness and entrepreneurship.

Fun Fact: I love the sun! I am thankful there are 277 days of sunshine a year in Newport Beach! From hiking Crystal Cove, sailing in the ocean, scuba diving the seas and kayaking through the back bay — there is so much to take advantage of! As your Doctor of Physical Therapy, my goal is to help you maintain your active lifestyle because working with you inspires me daily to get out of my comfort zone and try new things here in Newport Beach.

Dr. Jenna KantorJenna Kantor, PT, DPT, is a bubbly and energetic woman who was born and raised in Petaluma, California. She trained intensively at Petaluma City Ballet, Houston Ballet, BalletMet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Regional Dance America Choreography Conference, and Regional Dance America. Over time, the injuries added up and she knew she would not have a lasting career in ballet. This lead her to the University of California, Irvine, where she discovered a passion for musical theatre. 

Upon graduating, Jenna Kantor worked professionally in musical theatre for 15+ years then found herself ready to move onto a new chapter in her life. Jenna was teaching ballet to kids ages 4 through 17 and group fitness classes to adults. Through teaching, she discovered she had a deep interest in the human body and a desire to help others on a higher level. She was fortunate to get accepted into the DPT program at Columbia.

During her education, she co-founded Fairytale Physical Therapy which brings musical theatre shows to children in hospitals, started a podcast titled Physiotherapy Performance Perspectives, was the NYPTA SSIG Advocacy Chair, was part of the NYC Conclave 2017 committee, and co-founded the NYPTA SSIG. In 2017, Jenna was the NYPTA Public Policy Student Liaison, a candidate for the APTASA Communications Chair, won the APTA PPS Business Concept Contest, and made the top 40 List for an Up and Coming Physical Therapy with UpDoc Media.

Dr. Lex LancasterLex is originally from the Finger Lakes Region of New York. She graduated from Utica College with her Bachelor’s in Biology and her Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She also earned a graduate certificate in Healthcare Advocacy and Navigation.

She is very passionate about empowering the people she works with and is driven by their success. Lex has worked with people of all ages and her passion lies within the treatment of performance athletes and pregnant and postpartum women.

For Lex, the most important part of physical therapy care is ensuring that every person who sees her is given one-on-one attention, a personalized treatment program, and a plethora of resources to ensure ongoing results.

Outside of Renegade Movement and Performance, Lex practices in pediatrics, owns and operates her website design company, and is an Adjunct Professor at Utica College. She enjoys hiking and dogs of all kinds.

Read the Full Transcript below:

Speaker 1 (00:01):

Hello, welcome back to the podcast, everyone today, we're having an end of the year wrap up. We've done this every year, almost every year since the start of the podcast. And I'm joined by Dr. Jenna Kanter, Dr. Julie CEUs, and perhaps Dr. Lex Lancaster. She is currently driving through parts unknown in Vermont, so she can hop in. She can, if not, maybe we'll get her in at at at another time. But I just want to highlight the people who make this podcast happen because it is certainly not my, myself and myself alone. It's just impossible. So Jenna has been doing interviews for a couple of years now, and Julie has kind of been on board since the beginning almost I would say close to the beginning. Right.

Speaker 2 (00:54):

I think it's been five years. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:56):

Yeah, yeah. So she's been a part of the podcast behind the scenes doing the show notes beautifully. And then Lex Lancaster has been on board for the past year doing, helping with graphics. So I just it's for me, this is a big thank you to, to you ladies for being so wonderful and generous with your time and your gifts. So thank you so much. And let's start. So what I wanted to kind of start with is kind of talking about our highs and lows of 2020. So if you're listening, I mean, we, we all know that 2020 has been an exceptionally difficult year for almost everyone started out okay. For most people and then really started to go downhill pretty quick. So let's talk about, and then hot, like even through this, I think it's also important to note that good things have happened as well. So Jenna, why don't we start with you? Why don't you let the listeners know kind of, what's been your high and what's kind of been your low of 2020.

Speaker 2 (02:08):

Hi mom. I just want to first give a shout out to my mom, like I'm on a TV show. So I just want to say hi mom, I love you so much. Thank you for giving birth to me that one beautiful morning or afternoon. I'm not sure. Ooh, 20, 20, well, the low, I would say where, Oh, I want to talk about this because I know there are other practice owners who have dealt with it and I was a I was bullied and harassed online. And and, and this was for a group in which I do musical theater readings. It's a great group. I it's, that I've run into where I get a lot of patients, but the majority of people I know on there, I just know through musical theater and just performing, doing readings. And there were people who did not like how I ran the group.

Speaker 2 (02:59):

It's just like any place. There are people who don't like what you do. So they go off and do their own thing. And I eventually made a decision to block them out of my life because I didn't want this small section of people to still be present and judging me. I mean, I don't know about you. I like to feel the love in the room, not the hate. So I did that as a gift for myself finally, which did was very good. I was dealing with a lot of anxiety, just even knowing that they were around. Unfortunately, I wasn't strong enough to just handle it. I wish I could say it was, but I was like, Nope, I'm really unhappy right now what their presence. And they decided to go after my business and write false Google reviews. I was fine with the public social media posts on Facebook and everything.

Speaker 2 (03:42):

You know, didn't saying mine, you know, denouncing me. I was fine with that. I knew they were going to do that. That's why I kept them in my life for so long because I was so fearful of the public humiliation they would be aiming for. But then I was very okay with it. By the time I did it, you know, you come to that piece. But to me, the lowest part was having instilled, dealing with it, dealing with these false Google reviews where they've never been paid patients ever, ever. So I think that was, was a big, low yeah. And, and knowing that we're all going through it. And it's a hard year for so many of us. I felt like I had less people I could talk to about it because everyone's dealing with so much crap right now. So I would say that was like a very, very low point for me. And I know people have had so much worse. So I do want to acknowledge that this is so minuscule. I'm lucky my family is healthy. My, my friends have been healthy during this very, very lucky, but that was my own little piece of hew, toothpicks as positives go.

Speaker 1 (04:54):

I'm trying not to swear. I'm doing a good job

Speaker 2 (04:59):

This America way to network as, and do positive right back to back.

Speaker 1 (05:04):

Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Oh, right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:07):

Cause it is I would say is, I'm not going to talk. I'm going to focus on business since I was already talking about business. So I'll keep it on that. Was the different branch. My practice took every business in physical therapy has been dealt with some sort of crap if they haven't, I'm so happy for you. But a lot of us have really dealt with some sort of big shift and, and stress and strain and sleepless nights, especially at the beginning of this and some States it's pretty new. It's new for the practices. For me during the shift, I was focusing on expanding more in-person and then of course I started doing more tele-health and now I'm a hundred percent tele-health yes. I refer out if they're not appropriate for tele-health yes. I'm a hundred percent. I don't see myself going because one, I love it.

Speaker 2 (06:00):

And that's the first thing to the performers I work with. Most of them can't afford that in person. Most of them can't, most of them don't have health insurance. And then the last thing with my practice I've developed these wellness programs. Yes. They're injury prevention, but honestly, no performers are Googling injury prevention. They're like my ankle hurts. I can't do boots. What's up. So, but with these wellness programs, it's not physical therapy. It's the many humans out there in the singing, acting, dancing world where they get the help they need from a PT. And then they're discharged when they're, you know, quote healthy, but their body's still not functioning to where they ultimately want it to be. That's where I'm coming in. And it's great. It's this, these group programs it's really supportive. I definitely have my own jokes in there. I'm a hundred percent myself.

Speaker 2 (06:55):

If anybody knows me, you're like, got it. And it's, and it's just a joy. The bonding, the, the growth everyone gets physically to get to where they are is just, it's, it's been the such a rewarding discovery and, and a lot of work to make it happen, but well worth it because just I'm happy, man. Like when you really get to do what you really want to do without even knowing that's what you really wanted to do all along until you actually get to do it. That's what I'm living right now. So yeah, I'm pretty happy about that. So that's my positive and I'll take it to the bank.

Speaker 1 (07:31):

Great. Now let's, let's take a step back to not to harp on the negative, but because I think this might help other people listening. What did you do when you were like, Oh my gosh, I'm getting these Google reviews for my business. I've never seen them. What did you do to mitigate that situation or if it's even possible

Speaker 2 (07:55):

Crying and vomiting? Let's see. What was the next? So I, I vomit when I get really stressed out. That's a new discovery in 2020. I don't recommend it. It doesn't make you slimmer just saying. So I do not promote that. Okay. [inaudible] so I already have a lawyer, but I even, I contacted Erin Jackson who is a great human my lawyer Stephanie wrote in, but I just, you know, who do I contact first? Because I knew this was now in some sort of it's the physical therapy where we have HIPAA. We have so many things legally we need to be careful about. And as much as I say, swear words, and I joke like there's liability for these things. Like, but this was just how do I handle this? Because Google reviews specifically, which I was fearful, I pre reported these people before it happened, because there was no way to block them on Google.

Speaker 2 (08:52):

Not because they were going to, I was going a little bit in the Cuckoo's nest. Like, how do I keep preventing? Cause they're doing all this stuff fine on social media, but just in case let's pre protect, there was no way to, well, getting Google reviews is difficult. So here's some things that you can do by hand that are suggested they, you can have friends report it. And if you have friends report it, make sure you have a written out exactly where they need to click step by step, what they need to do. And, and boom bought a bang. Another thing that I did is I contacted the patients. I felt comfortable contacting, cause that is a thing I'm saying, this is going on. I've never gotten a review from you. Would you please write a review so I can get some actual from actual patients on here.

Speaker 2 (09:38):

So I did outreach to those individuals as well. Which was great in that sense. I mean talk about like, you know, unexpected, positive. So that was good. Then with my lawyer, which we're still in the process of doing so a little bit slower in the holidays. It also, I'm just personally, not in any rush because I got so stressed out about it that just like, I'm okay, I've got, I've gotten zero patients from Google reviews, so it's not the end of the world. But she's writing out in legal jargon, what I'm going to be now sending to Google to ask it to be, and it's according to their policies, why these are inappropriate reviews. And so that is what our next step is. I have not met with anyone else yet, but because of enlight of how bored people are, are during the pandemic.

Speaker 2 (10:29):

And they're putting a lot more emphasis on these negative things, no matter how small or how big they I am in the process of being connected with the lawyer, through my lawyer to learn when I need to do a cease and desist. And when I, when I know it's actually necessary, I still am getting a little bit harassed by them, but I I'm. I'm okay. I'm good right now. But I do want to know, and that I look forward to learning, to be able to share with people like, Hey, here is when you hire the lawyer officially, because that is a good question. Lawyers should get paid for what they're doing, but it's just knowing when you bring that in, which is a very big deal that I think should just be common knowledge. And then where we were able to get one review, Oh, there's also a thing after you submit in there's you can write a post about it on Twitter and you tag people with Google.

Speaker 2 (11:28):

I forget who you tag. You guys will have to Google it. You'll have to Google the Google thing, but it you can do, I didn't get that far. I also was so hesitant to do that because then it would take it into the physical therapy world at large of, Oh, what's the going down with Jenna. I'm like, Oh my God, like it's literally children who are upset about musical theater. Readings has nothing to do. Like, no. Okay. And then my husband was helpful. He was able to get one of the reviews down by reporting the person's profile.

Speaker 2 (12:04):

And that was very good. So that was one there's still two that have written reviews. There are three with just one star reviews without writing anything. And none of them have been patients. And we believe that they created two false profiles to put in two of those one star reviews. Interesting. but at the end of the day, they're not in my Rolodex of patients, so they're not patients. So yeah, it's been a bit of a journey dealing with it, but that's a little bit of what I did. There's not one way to do it. There are suggestions on responding to the person where you can say, Hey, I'm so sorry to hear of this complaint. I don't have any records of you as a patient. Please feel free to email me at because there's no conversations that happen within the feed. It's like your reply and that's it. And people can look at it. That's

Speaker 1 (13:02):

Actually, that could be pretty helpful.

Speaker 2 (13:05):

My, my lawyer said right now, don't just because we, she was like, let's just, let's just, I'm fine with waiting right now. You know what? The level of stress gets so high, it got real bad for me to be throwing up from stress is a big thing. So the fact that I'm not throwing up, I'm doing well is good. So I'm okay with it being a slow occurrence because my body does start to shake going back into that world, which to me is also just another recognizer of why it's important to know when it's time to block certain people from your life. If they're making you shake and vomit, because you're stressing, like they're just not meant to be in your life. It's fun. It's that simple, you know? But yeah, no, it's, it's, it's it's a very humbling, very embarrassing situation to be dealing with. But I have learned that there are, there are definitely a lot more businesses right now dealing with that, unfortunately. Yeah. I wish people invested more time in the positive stuff to raise up to be the positive changes that we want rather than let's just tear people down because in that action, the wrong people are being torn down.

Speaker 1 (14:20):

Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing that. And also, thanks for sharing what you did to kind of help as best you can at the moment. Kind of rectify some of that because now if people are listening and they go through that as well, they'll have at least an idea of like, okay, well here's a place where I can start. So thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (14:36):

Yeah. If anybody ever wants to talk some crap about what you're dealing with, I'm here for you.

Speaker 1 (14:41):

Yeah. Great. All right, Julie, let's go to you to your, your, your ups and downs of, I have a feeling that your, your and low point might kind of be the same thing, but I don't, I don't know. So go ahead. I'll, I'll throw it over to you. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (14:59):

Yeah. So I actually remember when we did the show last year, I said that I wanted 20, 20 to be more of a focus on more of my personal life and focusing on family and things in that direction, because in the past it had been all about my business and everybody has had challenges in the physical therapy world with their business. And we have with Newport coast physical therapy, we've actually come out strong. And that isn't really what I wanted to focus on because it's supposed to be personal. So I guess for my lows. Hmm. So me and Wade we've been together for 11 years. We had our 11 year anniversary. And when we're thinking about starting a family and everything, we were like, okay, we have to kind of celebrate the last year that we're going to have together. Just me and you. So 2020 we had like, all these things planned for our relationship.

Speaker 3 (16:03):

We were going to go to Switzerland, literally the day of the lockdown, that was our flight to Switzerland. And we were like, Oh no. Okay. So we can't do that. And then we had planned some things in the States, like going to national parks and all of those ended up closing down. And then, and then I I'm pregnant. I was pregnant with twins throughout all of this. So then as you know, I get further along in my pregnancy, it's getting harder to do anything just because pregnancy can for wound baby, but with two babies, it was just like, ah, I could give birth at any day. So I don't really want to be too far away from the hospital and everything. So I would say that for the lows, me and Wade didn't really get to kind of celebrate our last year together just as us and which is fine. You know, we, we, we made it work and did some other things, but I think that we didn't get to kind of grieve that aspect of our relationship changing. So that was a little bit of a challenge, but the highs, obviously

Speaker 1 (17:15):

I had my twins August

Speaker 3 (17:19):

In Westin and they're three months old right now. They are actually let's see, they're one month adjusted. So they were born two months early and they spent about two months in the NICU. So that was a little bit of a challenge, but given all the COVID and everything going on, luckily there was plenty of resources for my babies and they had great medical care and are super healthy now. So yeah, my highest definitely having my two boys, they're adorable and they're definitely a lot of work, all consuming basically, but hopefully in the next year, I'll get a better swing of, you know, balancing family life and managing my business and everything. So that's kind of a bit of a summary of my 2020

Speaker 1 (18:11):

Now let's, let's talk about quickly for, cause you know, a lot of people that listen to this podcast, they're physical therapists and might be entrepreneurs, women kind of around in, in your stage of life who are thinking about I'm going to have children and what's going to happen to my business. How am I going to do this? So do you have any advice and, and what have you done with your business as, and I mean, twins, I goodness, but we should say that Julie is also a twin, so it's not shocking that you had twins.

Speaker 3 (18:41):

I wasn't surprised when they see that as having twins, I was like, you know what? There was a chance that was going to happen. Yeah. But I would say that for anybody that's in kind of a similar life stage, I fortunately, since my business model is pretty flexible in the sense that I can pick and choose when I take on patients, I don't have much business overhead just because of the, the mobile concierge practice model. That it's good for being a mom because I can kind of pick and choose when I want to take on clients. I would say that if you're, you know, the breadwinner of the family, that's a really tough position to be in because it's, it is really hard to balance everything because I'm going to be able to, you know, pick and choose clients that I want to see when I want to see them.

Speaker 3 (19:35):

And not everybody has that flexibility. So if you do own your business, it is a good time that maybe you could take a step back and be more on the business management side of things, where you can do things from home, from your computer and then hire somebody to go out and actually do the service. And I actually have a therapist that is doing some client visits for me right now, which thankful it's my best friend. So she's really chill to work with. But that could be a strategy that some people take on is that they end up doing some of the business management side of things instead.

Speaker 1 (20:15):

Yeah. So you're still working in the business. You're just not out in the field, so to speak because I mean, when you have a new, a new a newborn, I can only imagine that it takes up a lot of your time.

Speaker 3 (20:30):

Yeah. Every two to three hours, which, you know, if you're, you've never been around kids, I was surprised they eat that frequently. I was like, Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (20:43):

And you've got two of them, two miles to feed. Oh, that's so funny. And what, I guess, what has been your biggest aside from, you know, not getting a lot of sleep from being a new mom, is there anything that surprised you aside from how much children eat? You're like, what the hell? Why did no one tell me this?

Speaker 3 (21:08):

I'm trying to think. I think that the reality of taking care of a baby, like, I guess I thought it would be not as much of my time, but maybe it's because I have twins. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know any about anything about this, but it literally is like a 24 seven type situation right now. And I can only imagine for people that are going back to work at this point, because technically I've been off work for three months and not a lot of women are able to do that. They have to go back to work. I could see how challenging that would be. Cause if my twins were still in the NICU, so say I took off that six weeks of maternity leave and then had to go back to work before they even came home. That would be so tough to juggle. So it is a lot of work. Like it's the hardest job, just, just the physical toll it takes to be up and take care of babies. It's it's tough.

Speaker 1 (22:08):

And have you had pelvic health physical therapy?

Speaker 3 (22:11):

So I actually, haven't gone to a pelvic health physical therapist, not because of anything against it. I just haven't noticed any symptoms. Okay. So I do actually have a couple friends that are specialists in pelvic floor PT that I could reach out to. Maybe they would be testing me for certain things and be like, we need physical therapy. So that could be something I do in the future, but it's yeah. I fortunately have had like a very good recovery and haven't had to deal with anything on the surface at least.

Speaker 1 (22:47):

Excellent. That's so nice. Well, I love hearing your, your ups and downs and, and we should also say, cause I don't know that Lex is going to be able to come on here. Maybe we can splice her in later, but she did get married. So I can assume that would be her high point. If it's not, then she's, she's going to have some answering to her new brand new husband. I would assume that's her high point. And she also started her own practice in New Hampshire, which I would assume could, would also be a high point for her as well. And then what do you see happening moving forward? What are you, what are you, what are your goals, your dreams, if you will, for 2021, Jenna, I'll throw it back to you.

Speaker 2 (23:34):

Goals and dreams. Well we are moving to Pittsburgh. It's taken almost a full year, so I'm looking forward to moving there with husband and I have a dream office room cause I'm an actor as well still, and it's going to be decorated Disney theme. So I'm really excited to decorate and make my imagination finally come through and have the walls of tangled with the lanterns, hanging from the ceiling and have all my different collectibles up on display and my lights and my cameras and everything up permanently. So I don't have to keep putting it down and putting it under the bed in a New York studio apartment. I, that will be like

Speaker 1 (24:21):

For me, cannot wait, cannot wait, Julie, how about you? I'm definitely going to be going to Switzerland. Does I rebooked these tickets like three times and I don't know it's going to happen in 2021. I'm not from eight or tots with me. Well, yeah, go ahead Karen. I was gonna say I, if, if all goes well with 2021, I'll be in Switzerland in November. So you could come to a course, write it off. Oh my goodness. That's a great idea. What is the course? The course is only one day and if it happens I will tell you about it. Cause I don't think it's been announced officially yet. But it's just a one day course. So you can go to Switzerland, just pop over to burn for one day and then you pop out. Oh my goodness. It's it's the the, I think it's like the Thursday or Friday before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (25:25):

All right. That'll be good. Cause the twins will be over one years olds. Okay. Throwing it out there. You guys, I will be in Switzerland. It's going to happen. Awesome. Well, I have to say Switzerland is really, really beautiful, so I'm sure you will love it. Love it, love it. I don't know. Should I talk about my highs and lows, I guess highs and lows. So I guess my lows were I think when, when everything happened here in New York and Jenna can probably corroborate this, but it was an, it was a little scary, you know, because it was everything locked down, nip. It, it locked down so quickly, but and nobody really knew what was going on. And I think that was a big, low, and I think I had, again, the sleepless nights and the anxiety about, well, what's what, what will happen with my practice?

Speaker 1 (26:29):

W what am I going to do? I see people in their homes, like you couldn't go anywhere, couldn't do anything. And, and so I think that, that, that sort of stress around that was definitely a low point professionally and then personally, well, my boyfriend and I broke up, but that's probably for the best in the long run. And then my sister had some health trouble, so it was a big sort of just like everyone else. 2020 was like a big sorta show. But that being said, the not knowing what I was going to do for work and being stressed as a low point turned into, I would say a high point along with Jenna is I started integrating tele-health, which is something I will continue to do. So now I do probably see half the people in person and half people via telehealth.

Speaker 1 (27:23):

And I love it. I love doing it. I think it's it's working very well. And I was also able to launch a business program to help physical therapists with the business and the business side of things. And that's been really fulfilling and getting nice reviews from that from people who have taken the course. So that, which makes me very happy because my whole anxiety was wrapped around. That was like, what do people take it? And they hate it and they think it's stupid and they don't want to do it. What am I going to do? And, and so, you know, you have all these doubts about like self doubts about what you do as a person and what you do as a therapist professionally. So I think those were, it was sort of a mixed bag of highs and lows.

Speaker 1 (28:08):

And I guess what I'm looking forward to, I too, am looking forward to going to Switzerland. And and just being able to travel and see people, like, I would really love to see my parents who I haven't seen in almost a year. And so that would be lovely because we did not, I did not see family for Thanksgiving or Christmas and probably won't until we all are vaccinated. Just to give everyone a little sense of that, like we're doing the right thing. So I think that's my, the biggest things I'm looking forward to is seeing my family, being able to see friends in person and colleagues in person, because, you know, we miss seeing all of you guys too, you know, so I think that's the things that I'm most looking forward to for 2021 is, and I don't, I don't think that things will go back to the way they were quote unquote, but I think that they'll be an improvement on where we are now. I don't know. What do you guys think?

Speaker 4 (29:18):

Yeah. I think having our support systems slowly return is going to be really, really fulfilling to just for humans. Like we love human contact and our relationships having all those kinds of slowly come back together is going to be amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:35):

Yeah. I love the way you put that. Having our support systems back is huge. Yeah. Hugging. Yeah. I miss hugs. I know, I know one of my friends hugged me like a friend that lives here in New York. She hugged me and I was like, you know what to do? I froze up. I was like, Oh my God, what is she doing? Hugging is so good.

Speaker 2 (29:57):

Why my husband gives me time limits for my hugs. Cause I'll keep hugging. I love hugs and I miss hugs. I even miss the Wilson's a musical theater specific thing, but go into a musical theater audition and all the annoying screens of people reuniting with someone they only saw just a week ago, you know, cause we won't want to feel cool, but the people will see and know, but then we do it too. When we run into the people we haven't seen. Who's guilty of it. But yeah, hugging, hugging is just beautiful.

Speaker 1 (30:32):

Yeah. Human contact.

Speaker 4 (30:36):

What if on my flight to Switzerland, I have a layover in New York and then I can see you.

Speaker 1 (30:45):

Yeah. What is that quick? Have a quick one day layover and then Optus. Switzerland. Oh, I know. I forget. You're in California, such a long flight.

Speaker 2 (30:54):

You need to get pizza. You would need to get Levine's cookies. Oh yeah. And what else, what else would the food wise I'm thinking? I was thinking,

Speaker 1 (31:06):

Yeah, I just had, I just had a Levine cookie a couple of weeks ago. I eating live only a couple blocks. So the vain bakery was, it got really, really popular because of Oprah. It was like one of Oprah's favorite things like maybe a decade ago. Yeah. That's why they're so popular. But the cookies are like scones, like they're thick and gigantic. Like I got a cookie, it took me like three days to eat it.

Speaker 2 (31:31):

Yeah, no they're thick. It's,

Speaker 1 (31:33):

It's a lot, it's a lot of cookie dough there. But they are, they are pretty delicious. Now. You'd swear. We were sponsored by Levine. Speaking of sponsors, I have to say thank you to our sponsor net health.

Speaker 4 (31:47):

Great segue right there.

Speaker 1 (31:50):

Just getting it to me. So net health has been sponsoring the podcast for a couple of years and I'm really, really grateful and thankful to them and their support, their continued support. And net health has grown by leaps and bounds since they first started sponsoring the podcast. And so I'm really happy to see their growth, their Pittsburgh company, by the way, Jenna. Oh yeah. Pennsylvania company. And and so I'm really, it's really been exciting for me to see their growth and their movement upward and the fact that they are doing their best to help healthcare providers, which I think is awesome. And they also have, and not that they're telling me to say this, but they really do have some really good webinars. So they're usually free. So if you want like good webinars, business-wise they really have some good stuff, especially if cash based or non cash based. So I would definitely check out their webinars because they're all pretty good and usually free. I like free. Yeah. And everybody loves free. Okay. So I guess I'll ask you guys one last question, knowing where you are now in your life and in your career, what advice would you give to your younger self?

Speaker 4 (33:05):

Okay. I should be prepared for this because you know, this happens every single episode and did not think this question was coming at me. Okay. So the first thing that comes to mind, and I think it's important is that you should always maintain a sense of curiosity about everything going on in your life professionally, personally, I think that if you're open-minded and you can kind of think on things a little bit differently, just because you're not closed off, you might be able to see solutions in ways that you didn't think of before. So that is very theoretical, but I just think that that kind of vibe, if you maintain that sense of curiosity about everything, it can kind of lead you in new directions. What do you think? I think that's great advice.

Speaker 2 (34:00):

Oh my God. I'd love that. I, I I feel like I should have gone first because it naturally segues to what you just said. Oh let's

Speaker 4 (34:10):

Oh no,

Speaker 2 (34:11):

No, no, no. I think it's perfect. I loved it. I was like, Oh, you know, like for me, I get my best ideas on the toilet, but I still, I thought that was amazing. I was thinking the first thing that popped into my head was don't waste your time on the, focus on where, what your vision is for your life and put all your energy into that as it, and this is why it's like, why it's so good to yours. And now like the candles, I was like, Oh my God, this is perfect. It's so great for us.

Speaker 1 (34:42):

Perfect. I think that's both great advice. And, and I know I asked this question every time and how I would answer it, knowing where I am now in my life and in my career. I think that what I would tell myself, even like fresh out of, out of college is when it kind of goes along with maybe what a combination of what you guys both said. But what I would tell myself is to don't limit myself by what I see other people doing. Because sometimes like when I first graduated, I knew PTs worked in a hospital, they worked in a clinic and that was kind of it, you know? And so I didn't never saw that sort of broader vision. And so I think I would tell myself to look to people outside of the profession to help you your state in your own profession and seek out those people that have, that genuinely have an interest in you as a person and, and want to be a part of your life and a part of your success. Because I think I've fallen victim to people who I thought had my best interests at heart, and I'm a trusting person. And as it turns out they didn't. So I think really, I think as you get older, you sort of, you maybe, maybe I just have a better sense of who I am and what I want. And so I'm no longer kind of easily swayed and convinced by people who in the end don't really have my best interest at heart,

Speaker 4 (36:28):

But that's one of the qualities I love about you though. Karen is how trusting you are. I think that does serve you too in your life. So I think that don't ever lose that. That is something that it's, it's a gift and not everybody can be vulnerable. And I think that you wear that really well.

Speaker 1 (36:46):

Oh, well, that's nice. Yeah. I don't think I would, I'm not going to become that cynical of a new Yorker, but I'm going to, Jenna knows what I'm talking about. But I think that I'm just going to just be a little bit more discerning on the people that I choose to kind of surround myself with. And I think that I've been doing that more recently over the last couple of years, and I think that it has served me well, but that's what I would tell my younger self out of college anyway. Yeah. All right. So any last bits, any last, anything

Speaker 4 (37:23):

We're all gonna make it we're all gonna survive hopefully. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:27):

Yes. Rules. Yes. Jenna will be going to Florida next year because she missed it for CSM. I know, I know no CSM in Florida this year, but we did videotape our performance, little plug, Jen and I to have a thing at CSM on February 11th at 7:00 PM. Join us for our prerecorded topics on social media, social media. Yeah. Basically. How do you social media, mainstream media to improve your presence as physical therapist and then I think, but I'm not sure we might have a live Q and a afterwards at 8:00 PM. We're so clear.

Speaker 1 (38:10):

So we'll find out. So anyway thank you so much, Julie and Jenna and Lex for all of your hard work and all of your commitment and I love you all, all three of you. I was going to say, I love you both. And then a Lex, and I'm just getting, I love all three of you. And I really, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much. Thank you as well. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. I wish you all the very best and, and fingers crossed for a better 20, 21 and stay healthy, wealthy and smart.

Dec 21, 2020

In this episode, John Honerkamp talks about all things running.

John Honerkamp, affectionately known as Coach John, has coached runners of all ages and abilities for more than 20 years. A graduate of St. John’s, John was an eight-time All-Big East and six-time All-East (IC4A) athlete while running for the Red Storm. He earned 12 Big East All-Academic accolades and was the youngest semi-finalist in the 800-meters at the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials.

John is deeply involved in the New York City running community. He launched the Off the Hook Track Club, a local training group based in the Red Hook neighbourhood of Brooklyn and created The Run Collective — born out of a desire to unite the running community and connect, collaborate, and celebrate all efforts from various clubs, crews, and people in the city.

Today, we hear some of the mental blocks and physical issues that John often sees with his students, and how he creates milestones to motivate himself to keep running.

John tells us about choosing the right shoe, when to replace them, and he gives some advice to new runners, all on today’s episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast.

Key Takeaways

  • “Everyone’s a runner. Some people just choose not to run.”
  • “You can’t change overnight.”
  • “It takes 3 or 4 weeks to find a rhythm, sometimes even longer. Just be patient, slow down, and make sure it’s fun.”
  • “Taking care of yourself is really important. There are a lot of little things like massage, stretching, eating right, and all these things that are small things that add up to bigger gains.”

Suggested Keywords

Running, Coach, Exercise, Jogging, WaterPik, Massage, Wellness, Health,

To learn more, follow John at:

Website:          Run Kamp

Facebook:       @johnhonerkamp

Instagram:       @johnhonerkamp

LinkedIn:         https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhonerkamp

Email:              john@runkamp.com

WaterPik Power Pulse Showerhead

WaterPik Water for Wellness Council

Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart:

Website:                      https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com

Apple Podcasts:          https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy-smart/id532717264

Spotify:                        https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73

SoundCloud:               https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart

Stitcher:                       https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart

iHeart Radio:                https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927

Read the full transcript here: 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hey, John, welcome to the podcast. I'm happy to have you on.

Speaker 2 (00:05):

Thanks for having me. Yes.

Speaker 1 (00:06):

A fellow new Yorker, just over the bridge in Brooklyn.

Speaker 2 (00:10):

That's right. I'm a couple blocks from prospect park. So I do a lot of my running and activities and in prospect park. So I feel fortunate to have access to that space.

Speaker 1 (00:20):

Perfect. Perfect. So now let's talk a little bit more about you before we go on. So people know you're a run, a running coach and you've been running for the good portion of your life, but can you kind of fill in some of the gaps and let the listeners know a little bit more about kind of what led you up to where you are today in the running world?

Speaker 2 (00:40):

Yeah. I was fortunate to have an uncle that lived next door to me, and he was trying to lose weight and training for the marathon. Either the New York or the long Island marathon or both, this is probably like 1982, 83. And to DeVos's neighbor, he would just bring me along to some of these 5k and 10 K races. And that was kind of like in the first kind of first a second running boom. And, you know, I do the kids fun run, which to be honest, not a lot of kids were doing, it was usually about a mile distance. And then it gradually, I would, you know, after a year or two, I would, you know, take a stab at the 5k, which was a pretty far distance for seven or eight year old. But I just got exposed to running at an early age and, but not really, I mean, competitive against myself, maybe the clock, but not super serious.

Speaker 2 (01:24):

I did other sports, but when I w when I got to high school, when I went out for the cross country and track team, and we had a pretty good high school in sports in general. And I kind of had a leg up as far as I've been running for races for a couple of years. And I kind of had, you know, a little bit more experienced than the average freshman, but I definitely was better at running than basketball, football, baseball. I was very good on defense and I realized that equates to like, not scoring a lot of baskets, but it really annoying the other competitors where I had a good engine. And so, you know, I ran very well in high school. I got recruited and I went random, got a full scholarship to St. John's in Queens and ran there for four years.

Speaker 2 (02:10):

And I was fortunate enough to get better each year. And I had a really good year, my junior year and 1996, I qualified for the Olympic trials and the 800 meters. And that was also the year that the Olympics were in the U S and Atlanta. So it was just actually that kind of a perfect year. It was 20 years old. I got, I just advanced really, really well. That's, that's that's spring season dropped about four seconds of my 800, which is a pretty good chunk of time for that distance. The next thing you know, I found myself at the NCAA at the Olympic trials competing in Europe as the 22 and as a 20 year old. So that was kind of the beginning of it. And then obviously I got into professional running post-collegiate Lee. I ran for a team Reebok team based out of Georgetown university, but the legendary coach, Frank Gagliano.

Speaker 2 (02:51):

And I did that for a couple of years training for the trials in 2000. And in 2001, I moved and I was living in DC for those three years. And then I moved back to New York and I was still competitive. I ran for the New York athletic club, but I had to gradually kind of turned from competitive runner to not necessarily weekend warrior. I was still running a fair amount and I'm still competing, but I was focused on other things and then got into coaching and initially at running camps over the summer as a college kid, and then I coached high school was my first gig when I was coaching. When I was running professionally, I coached high school down in Virginia and then got up here in New York. And next thing I know I was coaching. I worked for the New York Roadrunners for five plus years and handled all their training and education and launched virtual training platforms where I was coaching 5,000 runners for the New York city marathon. At one time, the life I was just emailing people all the time, but it really gave me a nice quick you know, again, it's just different. I mean, there's a lot of same principles and at whatever level you're at and running, but coaching the folks that maybe aren't elite or don't have two hours to take a nap every day and do all the recovery things that we'll probably talk

Speaker 1 (03:55):

About are most people.

Speaker 2 (03:58):

Absolutely. I got a really, you know, a crash course in coaching, like the everyday adult who has two jobs and has kids and running as again, as I can sneak it in on the weekends, trying to get in before your kids get up, I'm finding I do that myself now being a father too. Yeah, so I started early and I never got burned out from it. I always had great coaches that didn't run me into the ground. And there's plenty of stories out there where kids, whatever sport we're talking about, or even other disciplines like music or dance or art or whatever, if you do too much, and it's not fun anymore, and you start not liking it. And I was able to, even though I didn't enjoy it all the time for the most part, I really enjoyed running throughout my life and at different levels of competitiveness.

Speaker 2 (04:40):

And and I'm very proud that I, I do, I do call myself a I've run races and stuff, but I'm not offended anymore when people call me a jogger or they asked me how my jog was. I actually realized that I was doing a lot of jogging, even when I'm at the elite level, the recovery runs were very easy paced. So I'm quite proud to be a jogger. And but yeah, that's kinda like my quick and dirty version of how I got into running and the kind of trajectory that I've been on. And again, I've been running for about 35 years and probably kosher for close to 25 at various

Speaker 1 (05:12):

Amazing. So you've coached, we can easily say you've coached thousands of people.

Speaker 2 (05:17):

Absolutely. Yeah. The technology and the online platforms recently, it does make it easier, very scalable. And you can say, yeah,

Speaker 1 (05:24):

Yeah, amazing. And just so people know the way John and I met was through so people who who listened to this or see me on social media, you know, that I'm part of the water Waterpik water for wellness council as is John. So they've got two new Yorkers and we're both council members. And one of the things that we have been working with is a Waterpik power, pulse, therapeutic strength, massage, shower, head, try and say that 10 times fast. But we'll talk about kind of how, how John sort of incorporates that with his runners and any benefits that they're seeing from, from switching a shower head, which is pretty easy. But before we get into all of that, John, let's talk about some of the common complaints or common issues that you're seeing with your runners. And just so people know, we spoke a little bit before we went on the air here. And the one thing I really want to hone in on first before we get to the physical things that everybody thinks of that happens with runners, but there's the mental side of it too. And sometimes that could be the more important side. So talk to me about what kind of mental blocks you're seeing from your, your students.

Speaker 2 (06:40):

Yeah, I mean, mentally it's it's funny because people, when they find out that I've given coaching all these years and been running and maybe I was faster and fast and slow is a relative term, but you know, competed at the Olympic trials, they're always Oh, well, you wouldn't want to coach me because I'm not a real runner or, Oh, I don't run like you. And I'm like, how do you run? You put one foot in front of the other, you leave the ground and move forward. It's very simple. And so people often have a love, hate, or just hate relationship of running because either it was a punishment for other sports growing up, we had to do laps. Oftentimes it had to do with pre-season conditioning. And if you're coming off the summer and like, you like me in high school, the first couple of years, you didn't do your homework over the summer. So you show up and you're, you know, you're out of shape and you're doing laps and it's hot. I remember that in football practice as an eighth grader, just being like miserable and like running was, was, was terrible,

Speaker 1 (07:30):

Especially in the Northeast when you've got the heat and the humidity and everything else. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:34):

So or they, you know, it was a gym class and they had it, they know the presidential fitness test and they had to do a time tomorrow on a terrible thing. But like, I was actually good at that because I liked running ahead at like an early traction to running. And I was doing pretty well at it, but for the most people, it was not fun. And it was just an awful experience. So whether they come to they're new to running in their adult life, or they were even if they were faster and fitter and did other sports as a, as a youngster that maybe they took 10, 20 years off based on whatever. And now they're getting back to it. And they're really the mental block of, Oh, I'm not a runner and maybe I shouldn't do this. And you know, and that is really oftentimes getting people to accept that they, that they're falsely claiming that they're not a runner when they're really just, I always say, everyone's a runner.

Speaker 2 (08:22):

Some people just choose not to run or they don't know how to start. So I really enjoyed that process of getting people over that mental hump, if it exists of, Hey, you're a runner I want to find out where you're at, and then we're going to take you from there to where you want to go. And you need to know where you are before, you know, where you're going. And so it's really like, I think oftentimes changing their mindset and saying, it's okay to run 10 minute miles or 12 minute miles or seven minute miles. I don't care. I like numbers and data when I'm crunching numbers about your training and maybe how you paced properly or improperly. So I'll get geeky about that. But I don't really care. I, I coach someone who runs 15 minute miles the same as I would someone coaching seven minute miles.

Speaker 2 (09:01):

And so it's just the mental space that they're in of, Oh, I shouldn't be here. I don't belong. I'm not really doing it right. And oftentimes they'll say, Oh, I'm not running is not for me. I get this all the time. I can't run more than a block. And I'm always like, well, what block you running up? Is it uphill at altitude when you're carrying a backpack of weights? Because probably most people could run a block and they're just running too fast. And they think of running as being painful. So that has to hurt. But to be honest, most of my training, especially for like a marathon, for example, I have a lot of first-time marathoners and most of the running is actually easy. Pace. Marathon pace is actually quite easy. It's just hard to do for 26 miles. So the barrier of like not pacing yourself or not going out too fast for a couple of minutes where they have to stop, those are quick fixes in my opinion. And that's the mental side of things. And then there's a couple of common physical issues that come up, which I can talk about for sure as well.

Speaker 1 (09:54):

Yeah. I know. I love the, that sort of mental barriers, because I think if we're talking about new, new to new to running folks or folks who maybe took a year, five years, 10 years off, and they're coming back to it, like you start and you think to yourself, God, it's taking me 15 minutes to run a mile. I feel like such a loser, everyone else, like, cause you hear Oh, eight minute mile, seven minute miles. Like that's where you should quote unquote, should be. If you want to run a marathon, you don't want to be running for seven hours. This is, you know what I mean? And, and I think that that's, that can be really difficult for people and kind of turn them off before they even start. So what kind of techniques do you have for someone like that who's coming to you saying, I feel like such a loser. I can only run a 15 minute mile or 18 minute mile, whatever it is.

Speaker 2 (10:48):

Yeah. I think I also encourage people to have a running log or a diary, which is an extra step, but it also helps you get progress. It also helps you with injury prevention and to deal with injuries when you do have them, which I'm sure we'll get into, but I often buy I'll run by minutes. So it's like today you're doing 20 minute run versus a three mile run or a five miles. So they don't honestly know how many now, if they have a GPS watch and they're tracking things, they'll know after the fact that, Oh, that was the 13 minute mile or whatever, but I'll run by minutes. So you don't, you know, and then that, I think sometimes it's a different mindset or a way of tracking where it does free you up a little bit of not having to do the three miles in 30 minutes.

Speaker 2 (11:23):

That's easy math. That's only 10 minutes or whatever it is. You just run for 20 minutes or whatever it is, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. And even when you get in your longer runs for longer distances, you're, you're, you're increasing by five or 10 minutes, not a full mile. Sometimes I liked that worked and that's kind of how I'd run anyway. I'll just do a 30 minute shakeout run or something and I'm not right. Especially if it's not a workout, it's a workout quality day where I'm doing six times 800 or I'm doing something like that. It'll, it'll be more important to know the pace and effort, but most of the running, just getting out there and doing it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:55):

So it's like, you, you can accomplish that 20 minutes. You get that win and you gradually build your confidence, right? Yeah. No, that makes perfect sense. I really liked that. And I also like keeping a running log or a running diary. It's the same thing. We tell people if they want to lose weight, one of the, almost every nutritionist or dietician will tell you to keep a food diary. I do that with patients with chronic pain, I'll have them keep a pain diary so that they can kind of keep track of maybe what they did and what their pain levels were and things like that. So it doesn't work for everyone, but I think it works.

Speaker 2 (12:28):

I have a quick story about that when I was just just first year as a professional runner, I had all these shin problems. I got down to DC and I felt like this kind of like loser, cause everyone was just professional runners. They're all qualifying for the Olympics and trying to qualify for the Olympics. And I had shin splints. So I was like running 20 minutes by myself and I couldn't work out. And I was seeing like a, you know, PT person and I was doing exercises and just seemed like I wasn't getting anywhere. It wasn't improving. And then the PT said, Hey, you should really just monitor your pain on a scale of one to 10. And obviously you have a left shin and a right shin and both were hurting me. So I thought that was really silly and kind of stupid as a, as a 22 year old.

Speaker 2 (13:05):

And but I started doing it cause I had nothing else. I wasn't running riding much of my youth log. Other than I ran 20 minutes. I didn't have to take me a long to write what I did cause it wasn't a lot. So I had stuff to write about and to be honest, you know, say I had a six out of 10 or seven out of 10 was the pain level. And then all of a sudden, as I was ranking it throughout the weeks I was doing these PT exercises and, you know, strength exercises. And I'm like, are these really working kind of going through the motions? But then I did realize like one week or so in the sixes were fives and the fives were four weeks. And so I w if I didn't have that to document, I wouldn't know, I wouldn't be able to see the trend of in the right direction.

Speaker 2 (13:43):

So then I got more excited and I was more diligent about the exercises and I did them correctly. It was more intention. And that was really helpful because I could see progress where if I didn't have that, I would just be like, Oh, my shins hurt and not, you know, see, you know, again from five to four and everyone has their own relative scale of that, but it's just for that each person. And so that, I always tell that story. It was, I thought it was really silly, did it anyway. And it really helped me kind of snap out of that mode where I was like, wow, that really I could see progress. And I wouldn't be able to do that without having the data or the, or the documentation that I have it writing it down. So I'm a big believer in that. And I really it's, it's fun to see that you're, you're doing that with your patients as well, because that's one way to, you know, this, you can't remember everything and it's, we're all busy.

Speaker 2 (14:29):

And so if you can write it down and go back to it, even if they don't see the trend that you look at their, their, their diary, they might not see. And they're not going to be able to remember all these things, but if you can like read through their notes, you oftentimes, the coach will we'll pick up stuff before the athlete. And that's just like being a detective. Oftentimes I'm a detective as a coach, try to piece together. And the more information we have as coaches or detective detectives, you can get the root of the problem quicker. So document everything, it's, it's kind of like old school, but I, I can't speak more highly about that because that's really a game changer for me as a young 22 year old, but even to my athletes today.

Speaker 1 (15:09):

Yeah. Awesome. And now you mentioned shin splints. So let's talk about it. One of the common complaints that you get from your runners are shin splints. So as a running coach, what do you do with that?

Speaker 2 (15:21):

Yeah, it's funny. I was thinking about this in prep for this. And I got the same similar injuries as an elite athlete, as I do now is like weekend warrior. You know, dad, Bob jogger you know, shin splints and, and that's, shit's meds are pretty common because someone who's new to the sport either they're doing nothing. And now all of a sudden they're running 10, 20 miles a week, or they're someone who maybe was jogging and then they're training for a marathon all of a sudden, and they're upping their volume. So it's usually just an overage, an overuse issue. It can lead to stress fractures and things, a little more serious, but for the most part, if you have a good pair of shoes, which is super important, you don't need a lot of equipment, although it is getting colder here in the Northeast, and you do need to layer up a little bit, but you really just need a good pair of shoes.

Speaker 2 (16:04):

So that's really important and making sure that you're not doing too much too soon, because if someone is not shepherded you know, they're worried about calling themselves a runner and they get excited. If for whatever reason they get into the New York city marathon through the lottery or something, it's very easy to get overexcited and do too much too soon. And then you're kind of sitting on the sidelines. So it's really just kind of, and then I think a lot of new runners or new athletes, it's tough for them to decipher between pain and injury or soreness being uncomfortable. It's a guy I got to run through it that could lead to like, well, actually that pain is telling you something to slow down or to back off. And sometimes it is kind of navigating through aches and pains that just come with doing something new and doing it more often. So that's something that's always tough to decipher first time through, like, if you've never had shin splints, you're like, what are they? Like? You can ignore them and they don't go away and they become bigger problems. So shin splints, plantar, fasciitis, Achilles issues muscle poles it band with junk currently dealing with now my knee. Those are just kind of the common things that any runner will get, whether you're a professional at being or someone just starting out.

Speaker 1 (17:13):

And what are your thoughts on cadence? So oftentimes we'll all read or I'll see that if sometimes if you up your cadence and shorten your stride length when you're running that it's beneficial for some of these injuries, what are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2 (17:32):

Yeah, I think if there's a chronic issue that keeps reoccurring, I definitely will kind of look at that, but oftentimes, and actually this is a good kind of tip for someone who's new to running. They often want to me to see them run the first time and like fix their form. And if they're 45 years old, like I am, you've been running for 45 years a certain way, or maybe 44 years because you didn't run as a six month old. But and my son just took his first steps this week. So that's exciting, but it's, you know, you're gonna get you, I, if you gotta get chased by a dog, you're gonna run a certain way. And so you don't need to change something you've been doing drastically, unless it's a chronic issue. That's always happening. People often say there's a breathing.

Speaker 2 (18:15):

How do I breathe in through the nose, the mouth? I said, however, don't even think about it. It's when you have a side cramp, that's keeps reoccurring that I tell people to kind of pay attention to that. But for the most part, don't worry about your form. Don't worry, your breathing just kind of get out there. And if it's something where you want to pass the time and count your steps, or there's some GPS devices that help you count. I really just pay attention to that. If there's something that's reoccurring, because otherwise I feel like you've been doing something and creating all this muscle memory for all these years and to drastically change form. And I often I'll hear this a lot where, Oh, my doctor told me I should run on my toes. I'm a heel striker. Well, then I see people running on their tiptoes in the park.

Speaker 2 (18:55):

I'm like, what are you doing? I know you can't just go from that to that. Yeah. When you run faster, you're naturally up on your toes. There's obviously certain shoes will help facilitate that. But like this, a lot of fast runners that run up their heel strikers, you don't have to be a toe runner, but I, I hear that a lot where my doctor said, or my coach or someone said on my toes and I'm like, not like a ballerina. So those are things where I think if you hear someone say, do this or work on your form, I think there's things to work on, but it's it's not something we want to change overnight because that could lead to overcompensating. And just other issues that I think people may make you maybe worse off than you were with just kind of figuring out something else, but your current form.

Speaker 2 (19:37):

And you can always improve things with drills and stretching and flexibility, which obviously the the power pulse therapeutic strike massage is, has helped us do. And we do even in my mid forties where I'm spitting up and spending a couple minutes a day focusing on that. But you can't change things. Even if you're 25 years old, it's still a lot of muscle memory made it. So you can't change it overnight just to be patient with that. And don't worry about it until it's kind of a problem that you see a persist, you know? Totally.

Speaker 1 (20:07):

Yeah. And you mentioned shoe selection. So this is always a question that I get as a PT. I'm sure you get it all the time, multiple times a week or hundreds of times a season, what shoes should I get? What sneakers should I get? And everyone wants to know what brand, what this would that. So what is your response to, what shoe do I get? Do you get, do you have like some guidelines to follow or what do you tell your, your athletes and your runners?

Speaker 2 (20:34):

Yeah, that's, you're absolutely right. I get that a lot. And it's really, I always tell folks, there's like, you know, everyone knows they're running brands, you know, there's new balance, Nike, this Brooks, you know, they all Saccone Mizuno, Hoka is on. Elena is new on running as a new, at a new company out of Switzerland. All those shoes will have the gamut. They'll have super neutral shoes, neutral being like you don't, you have a high arch, you don't need a lot of support. They have kind of the middle of the road where you have some support, some cushion, then you have like, you know, the Brooks base, for example, it's called the Brooks beasts or the new balance nine nineties. They're, they're meant for heavy duty. You know, someone might have a flat foot. And so there's the whole gamut. So there's usually, there's a shoe that's in that line.

Speaker 2 (21:24):

That's going to work for you. And you might not know that. And I was people tell people to go to a running store if they can, because, and they get intimidated by the Wallace shoes and they go for the pretty ones, oftentimes, but every shoe brand will have the same kind of like kind of small, medium, large, or they'll have the categories of neutral cushion all the way to really support and really corrective shoes and some shoes that are going to fit certain feet better. You know, and I've done some brand work for my business where I'm affiliated with a certain brand and I have to wear those. I'm always hoping that I can wear those and they're going to keep me healthy. But even when I'm repping those brands, I'll say, I don't, you don't have to wear the shoe that I'm wearing, even though I'm getting paid by that company to do various things, the shoe companies should want you to be healthy because then you can run and do more and more.

Speaker 2 (22:12):

So you know what one or two shoes might brands might work better for your foot? And some shoes are just run bigger. Some run wider as far as the shoe brands, but if you'd like a certain brand, historically, that's what you will and others haven't. But try on a bunch, take notes, document how you feel in them, but that every, every shoe company will have something for you. It's just going into a shoe store or doing some research of asking questions. And I was people that always afraid to go into a running store. They're there for mainly for beginner runners, because once you're like me and you know what you like, you just, you can, you can either get it from the store or you order it online shoes. I it's, you know, and obviously if I work for the new brand, I need to kind of re if I have to familiarize myself with different options, but it's really, I can't tell you, I mean, I can look at your foot and kind of see, okay, you're have a wide foot, you have no arch.

Speaker 2 (23:06):

You probably need a supportive shoe, but that's not like a blanket thing. You know, you also look at the wear of people's shoes from previous shoes and you can see where they're wearing down and I'm a podiatrist. But again, back to being a detective, you can, if you can look at things and say, but even my neighbor, the other day was like, what shoes should I wear? I don't like these they're too squishy. I'm like, well, you probably need a little bit more support. They're probably not too soft for you. Sure enough. I gave him the middle of the road running and these are great. It's also probably, I don't know how old the ones he was wearing were. So that's another problem. You go to the running store, you try on something a, maybe you're wearing heels all day at work, and then you go and try this awesome shoe on it's fluffy, and it's great.

Speaker 2 (23:45):

Then you go home and run out on a couple of times. And it's like, ah, maybe this is rubbing me the wrong way. I'm getting a blister. And oftentimes there's also the sizing. If you're a size 10 dress shoe, you might be a 10 and a half running shoe. And I'm someone who actually is 10 and a half in dress shoe and running shoe. But some of my spikes and performance shoes like flats and more racing shoes made it might've been a 10 because you actually want them either. So those are some other things to kind of think about sizing.

Speaker 1 (24:13):

What is the, what is the running, the mileage that you put on your sneakers before it's recommended to change?

Speaker 2 (24:21):

Yeah. I think the industry says the two 50 to 500, which is a big range. So it also, it depends on how often you're running, what surfaces, if you're running on the treadmill every day, then obviously you're probably getting less wear and tear than if you're running on the trails, getting them all dirty and stuffing them up on rocks and stuff like that. So, I mean, I would say close to the, and sometimes people say, I'll just say you should get shoes depending how much you're running like two a year. If not more, if some people would wear the same shoes for three years, I'm like, you probably be, yeah. So you need to invest in that, put that on your, on your shopping lists for the holidays or whatever. But I mean, I'll, and I also do this where I don't wait for the one pair of shoes to kind of run out, especially if I, if I like a shoe and I'm especially to train for a marathon, I might be, I might have one pair of shoes for a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (25:09):

I'll get another pair of shoes and I'll start alternating them. Actually one gets cycled out because you kind of know, people often say, how do you know, well, your knees start hurting more. You shouldn't start hurting more and it's not an injury. It's just more of an achy soreness and that's usually stuff. And also I get much more motivated when I put new shoes on you kind of like, you're more anxious to get out there and you know, you do have to break them in sometimes depending on what type of shoe they are. And, you know, I would just jump in, in a marathon without breaking in those shoes. But I mean, I've heard, I would say two 50 or 300, I feel better about, but I've read and I've seen, you know, up to 400 to 500, which is a little higher than I liked, but depending on what type of running you are and how hard you are on the shoes and what surfaces you, you, you could last, but definitely I think, you know, more than one pair of shoes for sure for the year. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:59):

Great, great, excellent advice. And now before we start to kind of wrap things up, what I'd love to hear is maybe you have a new runner, right? Because the majority of people, like we said, let's be honest, are more recreation. Runners are not professional runners. They might be new to running, or they're running after a little bit of a break. So if you could give that runner who you've probably seen thousands of times what would your top three tips be for those new runners?

Speaker 2 (26:34):

I would say, give it have some patience. It's like, you know, again, even if your S your pace is too fast at first block and you're stopping, you know, I always said, like, it takes three or four weeks to kind of find a rhythm sometimes even longer. So just be patient slow down, make sure it's fun. Whether that's, you know, I love the running community here in New York. It's so vast. It's actually a card to keep track of all the things that are going on. And even if you're in a smaller city, it's usually like their local running store and there's, there's, you know, you go get a beer or coffee afterwards. It's a great community sport. Cause it's, there's a lot of, there's a lot less barriers involved in entering the sport and you can also be a Walker everyone's kind of invited to the party.

Speaker 2 (27:13):

So, so yeah, I would say, you know, give it time patients make it fun, make it community oriented. Although I do my best thinking and problem solving when I'm running by myself. So definitely, you know, you don't always have to make it about a group training, but that's something that I think it's a great way, appreciate and meet new people in a new city and then take care of yourself. I think don't ignore the things that bother you get good shoes. I mean, my number one, when people are injured, come to me, they often come to me almost too late where it's, so their pain is so bad and their Shannon or their knee,

Speaker 1 (27:45):

Then they're thinking I should get a coach. Like that's the impetus for them to get a coach.

Speaker 2 (27:49):

So you're like, you know, take care of yourself. And to be honest, this might be a good segue for what we're talking about, because my first line of defense is go see a massage therapist because massage throughout my running career is like, you know, you go to a doctor and they say, it hurts when I run, they're going to say, don't, don't run. It's like my mom said back in the day, mama hurts when I do this. Okay, don't do that. That's kind of, that's often, but some doctors will say like, Oh, that's bothering. You just don't do it. Well, we want to do it. We want to be active. We want to keep doing it. So taking care of yourself is really important. And there's a lot of little things like massage and stretching, eating, right. And all of these things that are small things that really add up to bigger gains. And it's, it's fun to, to improve at it. You know, I mean, I'm never going to run a PR again because I ran faster than my youth, but I have, I have to make up goals now, like fastest mile as a dad. You know, whatever. So if these are all things that I have to kind of reinvent to kind of give me the motivation to get out there, but the self hair, the self-care piece is super important and often neglected.

Speaker 1 (28:52):

Yeah. And that self care involves sleep, recovery, nutrition. I think the massage, and like I said earlier, we're both on the Waterpik water for wellness council. And one of the, a couple of things that they're, and again, power pulse, therapeutic strength, massage, shower, head a couple of things that they have actually been shown that clinically shown to provide, like to help soothe muscle tension, to increase flexibility and to improve restful sleep. So the way I look at it as a PT, and I'm sure you may say the same as a run coach. Like we like to keep the risk continuum a little bit more on the reward side and a little less on the risk. Right. So if you can recommend things for people that have less risk and more reward, great. And if you can recommend things to people that are economical. Great. And I think that that's where that the power pulse massage shower kind of comes in along with, like you said, seeing massage therapists one of the things that I'm so glad that you mentioned is about the community oriented part of running. Cause I think a lot of people think that if you're running, you're just running on your own.

Speaker 2 (30:21):

Right. And then that's been the biggest challenge for me. It's just my own running is I've actually, I've been running 60. I usually run five or six days a week and it's done a lot of mileage cause it's, you know, being a dad and, you know, jogging stroller and whatnot. But I was running the same amount of times per week, but I was running and say 30 miles a week. And then I was running like 20 and I'm like, how am I running less? You know, I have more time to one degree. And I wasn't like, I would actually often rely on, especially for longer runs is to go to prospect park, which is very well trafficked with runners. And I know a lot of runners, so I, I usually run into people. I know. And then we go, we can, we run a mile or two or add on, and I didn't have that because everyone was running alone or, and so I was like, Oh, I'm not getting that extra motivation or, Hey, Hey, Karen run into Karen and we do an extra three miles because we're talking way and catching up.

Speaker 2 (31:07):

And so that's something that the community piece to that my mileage is that definitely I mean, I since realized that and, and try to pay attention to doing a little bit more, but I'm like, how am I running last? I'm still running six days a week. And that was the number one thing that I was different was I didn't have the buddies and I was running by myself all the time and that you weren't casually running into people and adding on. So but yeah, I think, and everyone says, you can run with people. It's just doing it safely. Yeah. Certain protocols. So it's just, and some of that was new in the beginning. And so, but there's definitely been a second kind of volt. Second, third, fourth, depending on who you talked to like many running boom, because gyms were closed and other things, so you have less, you know, nature get outside, walk run. So I guess a lot of more questions from new runners, especially neighbors because they're out there running and they knew, Oh, this guy runs on the block all the time and he must know something and all the questions that we went over already getting those. So it's you know, as far as silver linings to some of this stuff, that's going on.

Speaker 1 (32:08):

And now before we finish, I have one last question for you. And it's when I ask all of my guests. So knowing where you are now in your life and in your career, what advice would you give to your younger self? So maybe that 20 year old at the Olympic trials in 1996, what advice would you give to that kid?

Speaker 2 (32:30):

Yeah, well, I mean, back then running, talk about love. Hey, like it was so nerve wracking once I got the certain levels. And even that I ran the 800 meters, which is arguably one of the toughest events in track and field, they say the 400 hurdles experts today, the 400 hurdles and the 800 meters are the toughest. I think the 10,000 meters on the track is twenty-five laps. That that's hard puzzle to me because the hard I can't do it to cath on and heptathlon is all these different things. I think those are harder, but as far as the body and the body makeup that that event is kind of in between speed and endurance. And so but it, it just was so nerve wracking at the, at, when I got to that age, in that level, that running was and if I was running well and healthy, the world is great, but there was times where running was not so fun and I was sick or I was injured.

Speaker 2 (33:21):

And so I guess I would probably say, you know, it's tough to say, don't take yourself too seriously because I was training for the Olympics and it's really scary, really focused. But and actually, I, I, once I stopped competing, I actually took on a couple of years off where I don't even know how much I was running maybe once a week. And I definitely got out of the Cape. And I think when I was like maybe mid to early thirties, I got reengaged that there was a local team that needed some people to run for. And I kind of said, all right, I'll help out. And then I was kind of needed again, it felt somewhat relevant, but then the community of that as well, the peer pressure in a positive way got me into the fold. And I actually got, was able to get pretty fit again in my mid thirties.

Speaker 2 (33:58):

But it was one of those things where I did it to be really good. And then once that was no longer the goal, it was like, why do it, and sort of, it's a little bit of a gap there that, you know, probably mentally and physically, it was good to have because, you know, I get healthy and kind of cleared my head a little bit, but I wish I didn't take that long of a gap because there was only one reason to do it was to get fast, to win races, to make limpic teams. And as we all know now, and I know now is there's many reasons to run released best, you know, be competitive with yourself, you know, have be part of a community. See nature. Even though I started one of these things recently where I took a bunch of runners to to Ireland and I called it a run location and we spent four days and you actually can explore a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (34:40):

I coach where they're training for the marathon, we'll say, Oh, I can't, I can't run these two weeks. I'm going to be on vacation. I'm like, well, tell me more about this vacation. And it turns out that, like I had someone run on a cruise ship once and they actually sent me their GP. I'm like, there's probably a track on the, on the cruise trip. It's probably not that exciting, but don't say you have to take two weeks off. I would kind of like a little tough love there. And someone, I think of some woman sent me, she was going across the Atlantic to like Norway and her GPS was over the water, three 30 pace per mile. And it said she ran like 50 miles would showing around like 10. Oh. Because she was more like, not trying to get out of running. She was just like, Oh, I have to, I'm on vacation.

Speaker 2 (35:19):

I can't run. And I was like, you can make it a part of your everyday, regardless of where you go and you often can see more on foot then. So it's one of these things that would just I don't know, you can make it part of your life or it's not such this arduous thing and horrible thing. It, most of the time it could be pretty pleasant and fun. And I mean, I don't, I don't knock myself too much for being so serious about it, but I wish I didn't. I let myself off the hook a little bit and when I was younger and enjoyed it more and didn't take it so seriously all the time, even though there's reasons for that.

Speaker 1 (35:50):

Yeah. Oh, I think that's great. I think that's great advice to your younger self and John, where can people find you? What's your website? Where are you on social media? How can they get in touch? If they have questions they want to work with you, they want to learn more about

Speaker 2 (36:02):

The programs you have. Yeah. My, of a website is run camp and that's R U N K a M P. And I'm spelling incorrectly because my last name is Hunter camp with a K. Yeah. So nice play on words. Yeah. So run camp, you know, and you know, it's all things running, whether a training for a race or just getting fit or travel in this case, once we can travel again. And then my Facebook and Instagram is just John Hunter camp. My name's spelled so you can find me that way. And then email me a john@runcamp.com. If you have any questions, you, you know, you want to get ahold of me for any reason, I'd be happy to chat and help you through your training journey as, as you see fit. And as, as, as you see necessary.

Speaker 1 (36:41):

Perfect. And of course we will have the links to everything at the podcast and the show notes for this episode at podcast at healthy, wealthy, smart.com. So, John, thanks so much for giving us a little bit of your time today. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (36:57):

Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to join. You're happy to do this again and stay in touch even though we're so close so far.

Speaker 1 (37:03):

I know, I know just over the Brooklyn bridge but thanks so much for coming on and everyone else. Thanks so much for tuning in, have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart.

 

Dec 14, 2020

In this episode, Dr. Steffan Griffin talks about his research into ‘Rugby Union, and Health and Wellbeing.’

Dr. Steffan Griffin is a junior doctor based in London, pursuing a career in Sport and Exercise Medicine. He is a Sports Medicine Training Fellow at the Rugby Football Union, deputy editor at the BJSM, and a part-time Ph.D. student at the University of Edinburgh, where he is researching the topic of ‘rugby union, and health and wellbeing’. Steffan also works clinically with a range of elite sports teams including Chelsea Football Club, and London Irish Rugby Football Club.

Today, we learn about the different forms of rugby, and Steffan elaborates on the findings of his research regarding the health and wellbeing benefits associated with playing rugby. What does the review mean to those who are interested in gaining the health benefits from rugby? How does this review affect policymakers? What does the review mean for researchers?

Steffan tells us about the common misconceptions surrounding rugby, and how his research aims to change that, and he gives his younger self some advice, all on today’s episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast.

Key Takeaways

  •  “There are 10 million people playing the game rugby, and they don’t play this blind to the fact that there are risks associated with ”
  • The different forms of rugby:

Contact Rugby: It’s the “collision game” that you typically see when tuning in on a Saturday afternoon.

Touch Rugby: It’s a glorified version of “tag” with a ball.

Tag Rugby: Players wear a belt with Velcro strips, and a tackle is when players manage to grab one of those Velcro tags.

Wheelchair Rugby: Nicknamed “Murderball”.

  • “Our research found that all forms of rugby can provide health-enhancing moderate- to-vigorous intensity physical ”
  • “Symptoms of common mental disorders were higher in professional players compared to general ”
  • “People are well aware; rugby compared to other sports has a higher injury ”

 

  • “What the review isn’t doing is saying that everybody in the world should play rugby… It provides an objective piece of work that can help people make a decision based on evidence and not on emotion and ”
  • “We need to try and move away from just looking at studies where all the participants are white middle class ”
  • “One of the potential conclusions that a reader could get from this study is that non- contact rugby is the holy grail of rugby, but actually there aren’t any level 1 studies looking at the injury risk of ”

More About Dr. Griffin:

Dr Steffan Griffin is a junior doctor based in London, pursuing a career in Sport and Exercise Medicine. He is a Sports Medicine Training Fellow at the Rugby Football Union, deputy editor at the BJSM, and also a part-time PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, where he is researching the topic of ‘rugby union, and health and wellbeing’. 

Steffan also works clinically with a range of elite sports teams including Chelsea Football Club, and London Irish Rugby Football Club. 

Suggested Keywords

 Rugby, Health, Wellbeing, Injury, Research, Review, Benefits, Risks, Sport, Policies, Union, Activity,

To learn more, follow Dr. Griffin at:

 Website:          Rugby, Health and Wellbeing

Twitter:          @SteffanGriffin

Review:           https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2020/11/23/bjsports-2020-102085

Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart:

 Website:                      https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com

Apple Podcasts:          https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy- smart/id532717264

Spotify:                        https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73

SoundCloud:                                    https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart

Stitcher:                       https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart

iHeart Radio:               https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927

Read the Transcript here:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hey, Steffan, welcome to the podcast. I'm happy to have you on

Speaker 2 (00:04):

Thank you very much for the invitation, Karen. So it's a real privilege to have been asked to come on and to have a good chat with you.

Speaker 1 (00:11):

Yes. And for those of you who may think to yourself, God, this voice sounds familiar it's because Stephan is the host of many, many podcasts for BJSM. So if you have the chance definitely, and you haven't listened to BJSM podcast, definitely go over and listen to all of them because they're all really wonderful. So but this is your first time on the other side, which I find hard to believe

Speaker 2 (00:36):

It is. Yeah, absolutely. As you said, it's something I've been doing for a few years for the journal now and yeah, it's the, it's very strange to be on the other side of the podcast. So I'm a different set of nerves. I'm really looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (00:49):

Great. Well, thank you so much. And today we're going to talk about a recent review that was published in the British journal of sports medicine, the relationship between rugby union and health and wellbeing, which was a scoping review with you and also our good friend Nim but amongst other wonderful authors, but let's start out with the basic why behind this review.

Speaker 2 (01:19):

Yeah, sure. And I think that the main, why about this is that it was just, it's just a completely unexplored area. So I'm sure that, you know, for people in America, maybe their perception of room B probably comes from our friends at absurd with Ross, where I think he comes out pretty battered and bruised. And actually that's actually not too dissimilar to a lot of the perceptions in the, in the kind of the health and the sports science, sports medicine research landscape. We know about rugby's relationships with injuries and concussions. They're highly publicized and probably rugby is a victim of its own success in that because it's leading on player welfare and it's, you know, really pushing the boundaries in terms of trying to make it as safe a game as possible. Everyone's very aware of of the injury injurious nature of forgetting.

Speaker 2 (02:12):

But what I think for me personally, I've, I'm, I'm Welsh by birth. So I brought up on rugby and, you know, there are 10 million people playing the game of rugby and they don't play this blind to the fact that there are risks associated with it. So we know people know there are benefits to it, but looking at the actual scientific literature, there's nothing really providing a big picture overview of some of that, the health and wellbeing benefits associated with the sport. And really as we know, to make an informed decision about anything in life, be that sport, be that buying a car, for instance, people need to know the, the data surrounding the risks and the benefits, and, you know, we had a lot of the former so what we, what this really has been as aimed to do is provide, you know, some, some evidence not just emotion around some of the benefits associated with the sport. So really is a piece that hopefully prides balance to that, to the wider picture now.

Speaker 1 (03:17):

And what did, what did the review find? So what were those benefits to health and wellbeing?

Speaker 2 (03:23):

Yeah, sure. And before we jumped on the call, we kind of discussed the different types of members. So I'll probably just spend a tiny bit of time just covering and providing a tiny bit of context. So what we wanted to do is rugby, as we've mentioned, the friends app. So there is the contact form of rugby union, which is, you know, this collision gamers, if you're tuning in on a Saturday afternoon, typically here, especially in well-established rugby countries like England, like New Zealand, and it is growing in the U S and over in Canada as well, you know, that's the contact forms of the game, and there are other forms of rugby. So there's, non-contact rugby such as touch rugby, which is basically a glorified version of, of the game tag with a ball involved. And there's also something called tag rugby, which generally people wear a belt with the Velcro strips and tackle is where you manage to grab one of those Velcro type tags off.

Speaker 2 (04:17):

The other form of rugby then that we looked at was wheelchair rugby, which is I think given the lovely nickname of Murderball. But actually we want to, so you may have some of the listeners may have heard admirable being referenced and there are some wonderful documentaries on Netflix, you know, that really provide a good insight into the game. So basically by breaking it down to the type of rugby, we then wanted to break it down further. So people who read the review could really look to see exactly where the benefits lay. So if we kind of look at it from and I'll split it into, into some themes that some listeners might be might be familiar with. So as we know a big, I mean the world health organization, physical activity guidelines came out yesterday. So if we look at physical activity, so we know this is a huge global health priority at the moment, and our research found that all forms of rugby be that contact be that non-contact and wheelchair rugby can provide health enhancing, moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, which, which really wasn't well known before.

Speaker 2 (05:27):

And then now it puts, it allows people like governing bodies and policy makers to align the sport of rugby with some of those global health priorities. As, as we all know, as practitioners, as practitioners, that muscle strengthening balance coordination and huge parts of these physical activity guidelines. And although we didn't find any studies that really look, look at that, per se, we found that lots of national population surveys, which are really based on expert consensus, consider rugby and all sports such as rugby to provide some of these benefits as well. So again, that was a kind of a landmark finding of this study in terms of the, we then looked at different kinds of health benefits. So we, first of all, wanted to look at physical health and we stratified by that by different domains. So for instance, cardiovascular health, respiratory health, musculoskeletal health, probably the best way to summarize this is non-contact rugby and wheelchair rugby have very supportive research kind of around that, you know, that rugby can provide quite significant physical health benefits into the contact drug B, which is kind of the traditional form of the game.

Speaker 2 (06:43):

There's a real mix there, lots of mixed studies and also just a lot of conflicting findings as well. Although a lot of the studies that look at that, you know, look to control for things like age you know, some of the demographic variables did show some supportive data that is conflicted by some other studies. And you know, what we couldn't do as part of this scoping review was really delve into the pros and cons of each of those individual studies. So in terms of, in terms of contact rugby, slightly more mixed findings in terms of physical health mental health and kind of wellbeing. So psychosocial measures such as quality of life and things, again, non-contact rugby or wheelchair rugby, rugby can provide a real wide raft of of mental health and wellbeing benefits. And most of the research in the contact game was, was, was focused on professional athletes and that fans that have symptoms of common mental disorders were higher and in professional players compared to general population though that is, you know, similar actually to professional athletes in other sports, such as football and things.

Speaker 2 (07:58):

And then the last thing is, as we've discussed right at the very top was the injuries associated with the game because we were very aware of is that it wouldn't be all well and good. That's just providing the health benefits, but also, you know, we didn't, we, although we didn't have the capacity to look at every single injury study to do with rugby relate to all the systematic reviews and Metro analyses around this. And as people are very, Oh, well aware, rugby compared to other sports has the higher injury profile and especially around concussion and things. So, so yeah, so sorry, that answer probably a bit tiny bit longer, but just to kind of try and break it down a little bit you know, in terms of the different types of rugby and then the various kind of health domains.

Speaker 1 (08:38):

Yeah. No, that was great. So let's break it down even further now. So let's say I am a player, or I'm a parent of a child who we want them to have these benefits of physical activity. And if rugby is something that maybe we're looking at to accomplish that what does this review mean to that parent or to that player?

Speaker 2 (09:08):

Yeah, sure. So, I mean, six months ago, if you, I mean, if I was a, if I was a, if I was a parent, you know, I was thinking about, you know, do I want my kids to play rugby, then I probably would have done, you know, Google search health and wellbeing rugby. And the vast majority would have been around purely to do with, you know, concussion injuries and not letting my kids anywhere near this kind of sport. Although, you know, rugby unions and, and people know there are loads of testimonials. As I said, at the top of the podcast, there are 10 million people playing rugby. They ha there has to be a benefit. It's just probably the scientists a bit slow to catch up. People can, kids players can reach all their physical activity guidelines and tick that box by playing any form of rugby.

Speaker 2 (09:51):

And then it's about individual perception of risks and benefit as to what kinds of rugby they want to play. So for instance, you might have, I might have, I might have a child for me. I don't know that, you know, the research says that participants in contact rugby, they say they, they there's Reese qualitative research really supporting the fact that it could provide a lot of psychosocial benefits that instills lots of confidence in people that builds teamwork. And people will say that they feel stronger by doing it and that's across across women, across youth players, across adult players. But also at the same time, you know, I think what there isn't doing is saying that everybody in the world should play rugby. It's providing people with the, with kind of a, some objective data so that, you know, someone else might come along and say, okay, we want our kids to be getting know taking all the physical activity boxes.

Speaker 2 (10:43):

Cause we know that it reduces the incidence of diabetes, heart disease. We know it provides X amount of benefits, but for me, the injurious side of it means that I don't want my kids or I don't want to expose myself to that risk. So what I'm going to do is look for a non-contact form. And I'll, I'll try and get and get, you know, reap the benefits by, by going down that route. So yeah, we hope that it provides an objective piece of work that can just help people make a decision based on, on evidence and not just pure kind of emotion and headlines,

Speaker 1 (11:19):

How novel, especially in this day and age now let's go, let's move on to what does this mean for the researcher?

Speaker 2 (11:29):

Yeah, she also, I mean, we, we found offset strategy. We found six Oh six and a half thousand studies of which we included 200 studies. And, you know, as, as I can, as I kind of said, like having broken it down into different forms of rugby in different healthcare domains there are some huge research gaps. So for the research right there, you know, we've identified we've identified a lot of research gaps that really, you know, there are some real low hanging fruit there that could really help them inform, help inform decisions further and provide more evidence in these areas. So for instance, I think there's a real pressing need to, first of all, look at populations outside of just the white, 70 kg male playing player. So we know that I think women's rugby had a growth from 2018 to 19.

Speaker 2 (12:24):

Excuse me, if the, if the exact percentage is off, I think it was that 28% increase in participation and it's growing in, in areas such as Asia, especially. And, you know, we, we, we need to try and move away from just looking at looking at participants and looking at studies that look at the benefits or look at, you know, studies where all the participants are, as I said, kind of white middle-class males, that's one big thing. And looking then at, you know, we do need to do more research. We need to, we need to try and quantify how rugby integrates with the physical activity guidelines even further. We need to be looking at more you know, how rugby interacts with various health and wellbeing outcomes you know, across more diverse populations, as I said. But also then I think, you know, I think one of the potential conclusions that really could get from this study is that non-contact rugby is, you know, the Holy grail now with rugby, but actually no, there aren't any kind of level one studies looking at the injury risk of that. So, you know, there are a ton of research areas that we've identified that that are going to be really important moving forward to allow people to make fully informed decisions.

Speaker 1 (13:39):

Excellent. And then moving on, how does this review then affect policymakers? You touched on it a little bit earlier and also international federations.

Speaker 2 (13:53):

Yeah, sure. So again, I've been very fortunate to have to work NAFA 18 months with the rugby football union, which is the essential England's national governing body for rugby. And two of the medical services director and the head of medical research that Simon Kemp and Keith Stokes to, to they for part of the scientific committee of the, of the PhD and their co-authors of the study. So we what's been great at doing this research and doing this PhD is that we're trying to answer questions that we know are relevant to governing bodies and to policy makers. So for governing bodies, for instance, you know, we're now able to provide the English from BMC, the RFU the likes of world rugby. Who've been really receptive to this kind of research with again, objective health objective scientific data that allows them to align the game with some of the current global health priorities, you know, be that physical activity or be that, you know, that we know physical activity levels are down because of COVID and because of lockdowns and you're could the sports such as rugby, such as football, tennis play a role in actually getting, you know, increasing health globally and then says as a policy makers, again, it's it provides because, you know, we know that sports such as rope in your needs, look at football or soccer.

Speaker 2 (15:12):

Now, you know, there's such a huge debater on head injuries and things, and these are, there's a sense that sensationalized to a certain degree, but they're also brought up in pretty in high places, you know, and government level. And, you know, what I'm hoping that this kind of research does is it provides, you know, a big picture for them to see and to look at it and say, well, actually, you know, we can promote rugby before. You know, whether it be that to kids, we can, you know, we need to make sure that rugby is a it's the welcoming environment for all types of all types of people and, you know, across society, because we know that it could provide people with lots of benefits and yes, we know that it might be more injurious relative, but, you know, as long as we put pressure on rugby to keep on making it as safe as possible, and that's where it's great, you know, that we're dropping all these governing bodies have player welfare as they're kind of strap by the number one priority, but it just provides a, you know, a broad picture that people government bodies and policy makers, like you said, can start to actually, you know, start promote things and to provide you filter that down to individuals and groups.

Speaker 1 (16:22):

Yeah. I think that's wonderful. And I love the thing that I really liked about this review. And we sort of spoke about it before we went on the air is I love that you included wheelchair rugby. I did not know that was murder ball, but now that I, now I'm like, Oh, okay. Yes, I get that. But I thought that was really important to include that because there are a lot of people in, across all countries who are wheelchair bound or who maybe cannot participate fully in, you know non-contact or contact rugby. And to include this, I thought was, was really, really great. And it, even in the wheelchair, rugby still had all of these physical, it's still taking the physical activity boxes, right. And still increasing muscle mass and improving cardiovascular and mental health and that feeling of a team. And so I thought that was really great. And to me, the non-contact rugby seems like a much much more forgiving game for people who are like, I would never do rugby. Cause I would like literally be in, you know, laid out for days or something like that because it looks so intimidating.

Speaker 2 (17:38):

Yeah, absolutely. And actually that's a lot of what you just mentioned, actually, it's pretty much going to be our next steps in terms of what we, what we do, because what we don't want to do is we don't want to set up in awards in like a research ivory tower and say, this is our research now go forth and do what you want to there. We really now want to see how people perceive our research. And I think rugby and rugby also wants to know what, so there's no point us, one of the, you know, one of the main points of the resets being, you know, playing rugby, which is your contact, rugby is good for you. Therefore everybody should do it because we need, what isn't known at the moment is how different population groups might perceive those risks. So for instance, if, for instance, you know, if someone's never played the game before, you know, is the fact that there are only really contact versions of the game available locally, is that a huge barrier to them then getting involved?

Speaker 2 (18:36):

So, so I think, yeah, you've touched nicely upon, you know, some of the real practical key issues there. And that's really what we want to be going into next is kind of being able to now piece together and also pretty much providing a toolkit to not just participants, but to governing bodies that says, you know, if you want more people involved, this is what matters at the, at the coalface and this is what you need to be providing. So no, you're, yeah, you're completely right. Because, you know, look watching, you know, watching 20 stone, you know, 250 pound blokes run into each other on a Saturday sometimes quite hard to think, how am I going to get from the sofa to that? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:13):

You can't even, you can't even picture it. You can't even imagine. Imagine it because it looks so scary. You know, and even as let's say, as a woman, if I were interested in playing, I wouldn't even know where to start. Right. So this research eVic, and I'm sure there's places I'm in New York city, there's gotta be rugby clubs and things like that, but I wouldn't even know where to start. And so I feel like this might spark some curiosity among people to say, Hey, listen, I can't do the contact. I just can't do it nor do I want to do it, but Oh, I didn't even realize there was a non-contact option. Or if you're wheelchair bound, gosh, I didn't even realize that this is something that I can do so great parts of the research.

Speaker 2 (19:59):

Oh, thank you. Yeah. and yeah. And just to kinda touch on you at the wheelchair, every point. Yeah. We were, we wanted to make this as big picture, as inclusive as possible. And that was one of the real, almost surprising things that the, that the evidence of, you know, of benefits associated with wheelchair rugby were so significant and so wide ranging. It was yeah. A really pleasant surprise. And the population group that isn't as well studied, you know, as we know.

Speaker 1 (20:25):

Excellent. All right. So before we start to wrap things up here, what do you want the listeners to take away from this discussion and also from this, from this research article, from this broad scoping research?

Speaker 2 (20:38):

Yeah, sure. I mean, I think some of it is, is probably a bit broad in that, you know, trying to, you know, we, so, so for when, so for instance, in my role with in revenue, we're looking at how to reduce concussion. We're looking at exactly, you know, nailing down what the incidence is kind of across various playing groups. You know, and that is the kind of thing that generates headlines in terms of you know, cause it, well, it's actually, as soon as something's published, it's now concussion rates up down the same for X consecutive year. That it's, it's, it's a, it's a common thing. Whereas hopefully what this does, it just provides the people. If people are aware that this now exists and there's this research going on, that they can touch base with either the paper with the website kind of with with any of our kinds of sites, social media platforms as well.

Speaker 2 (21:32):

I can just see what that, you know, if I do know someone, if I know a parent's a play, who's looking into it, this is actually, you know, this is where I'd go to make to be able to make a fully informed decision. So yeah, we're not, you know, the, the point of the research wasn't to show that rugby, you know, is this all singing, all dancing, wonderful sport you know, we're, it's always sunshine and rainbows just by the fact that for some people, it, it really is. But you know, it's just, it's just something that can provide, you know, as you, as you said, what sometimes feels like a bit of a novelty at the moment, just an objective overview, so people can make fully informed decisions.

Speaker 1 (22:11):

Excellent. And before we end, I'm going to ask you the question I ask everyone, sorry, I didn't bring this up to you earlier, but surprise now. So knowing where you are now in your life and in your career, what advice would you give to your younger self?

Speaker 2 (22:27):

I think just, just keep going, just keep doing what you're doing head down and hopefully everything so far, it all ends up working out. Yeah, just work hard and keep going.

Speaker 1 (22:40):

Excellent. Excellent advice. And now where can people find you social media websites, et cetera?

Speaker 2 (22:49):

Yeah, sure. So I'm probably I'm most active, especially from a kind of a professional research point of view on Twitter. So is that Stefan Griffin with Welsh spelling? So it's too, otherwise I'm not would kill me. Yeah. And then there's a website www.rugby, health and wellbeing dot com and, and yeah, and, and as, as you, as you've mentioned at the start, we publish the scope review and the question was sports medicine. So it's very easy to find to find the scrap from view on there as well. So, yeah. And if anyone has any questions and you, you know, once access to the PDF or anything, so unfortunately it is behind a paywall, then I'm obviously more than happy to provide all of that.

Speaker 1 (23:30):

Awesome. And we will have all of this information at podcast dot healthy, wealthy, smart.com under the show notes. Thank you so much stuff for coming on. This was great. Lovely to catch up, lovely to see you and congratulations on a great article.

Speaker 2 (23:45):

Thank you very much, Karen. It's lovely to know to chat to you and that's here. Everything's going well.

Speaker 1 (23:49):

And everyone, thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart.

Dec 7, 2020

In this episode, Founder of Working Simply, Inc., Carson Tate, talks about making any job your dream job.

Carson has a BA in Psychology from Washington and Lee University. She also holds a Master’s in Organization Development and received her Coaching Certificate at the McColl School of Business at Queens University. She has 15 years of experience working with organizations across the globe, helping them each to improve employee engagement, productivity, and efficacy. Carson is the best-selling author of “Own it. Love it. Make it Work”, a sought after public speaker, as well as a staunch advocate for fair and flexible workplace practices. Her Productivity Style Assessment featured in the 2017 Guide to Being More Productive by Harvard Business Review.

Today, we learn about the 5 areas that we need to explore in order to make our current job the best job, and Carson gives us 3 ways to identify our strengths. She tells us about her Abilities Opportunity Map, and provides the tools to avoid the “inevitable burnout”.

Carson gives us the template we need to say “no”, we hear about the 15-Minute List and the importance of “protecting your 90”, and she gives some advice to her younger self, all on today’s episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast.

 

Key Takeaways

  •  “Any job can be your dream job because you define the dream.”
  • You’re in a job – how do you make it the best job?

Carson has identified 5 areas that we need to explore: Recognition and reward, Strengths, Relationships,

Recognition and Reward – What kind of recognition and reward do you need? “I’m talking about praise and acknowledgement.” We’re all human beings, and we really need to be seen for our work.

Strengths – What are those things that you do almost at near perfection? “You can’t not do them. Even on your day off you might try to do them… The reason they’re so important is because this is what you bring to the relationship with your employer.”

Relationships – Having real, authentic relationships at work is essential, not only for performance, but to be happy, fulfilled, and engaged.

Development – This is about owning your own professional development.

Meaning, Purpose, and Joy – Meaning is not defined by what happens to you; it’s your interpretation of the events in your life. “Every job has significance. Every job is meaningful. It’s up to you to figure out what that meaning is.”

  • There are 3 ways to find and identify our strengths: Reflection, Performance Reviews, and Highlighting Successful Tasks.

 

  • “The relationship with your employer is a relationship, and any relationship is based on social exchange theory – both parties bring to the relationship and both parties receive. In a relationship that’s healthy, both parties work towards mutually-beneficial goals.”
  • “When we are working from our strengths, the work is easier, there’s less effort but greater impact, more joy, and more flow.”
  • “Even at the end of the darkest week, you can pull back and find a source of hope for the meaning.”
  • “Every time you say no to something, you’re saying yes to something else.”
  • “Clarity creates opportunity. Doing the work to identify what your dream job looks like opens up infinite possibilities for you in your current job and in future jobs.”
  • “In play, that’s where you’re going to find those brilliant insights and connections, and the juice to not be burnt out. The one reason we get burnt out is we don’t play; we just work all the time.”

 

 More about Carson

 Carson Tate believes that work can be the full expression of who we are – the vehicle that takes us to a place where we reach the full potential of our greatness. As a visionary in the field of personal productivity and organizational excellence, Carson uses practical advice and empathetic training to guide and support her clients, helping them shine more brightly than they ever imagined possible. 

A best-selling author, teacher and coach, for 15 years Carson has worked with organizations of all sizes around the world to help them improve the engagement of their employees, the productivity of their workforces, and the efficacy of their leadership. It is her mission to change how and why we work so that we can each make a greater impact on our own lives, on our communities, and on the world at large. 

Central to Carson’s vision is her belief that when we do work that matters to us, it leads to greater success and wealth. It becomes the foundation of a harmonious life where we have the time, space, mental clarity, physical well being, and emotional energy to take care of ourselves and others. 

Carson Tate is also the founder of Working Simply, Inc. where she equips organizations with tools, strategies, information and insights that inspire employees and leaders to use their gifts and talents to build their legacies. 

Carson’s signature courses include:

  • Mobilize Your Inbox: How email can work for you.
  • Work Well With Others: Find joy in teamwork. 
  • Work Smarter, Not Harder: Get up close & personal with work.
  • The WORKshop: How To Work Simply and Live Fully.
  • Carson Tate Masterclass: Own it. Love it. Make it Work. 

A prolific public speaker, Carson teaches audiences how to identify what success looks like from a personal and professional vantage point; how to move beyond the way we’re working today, into a new world of productivity and accomplishment; and how to “own it, love it, make it work” by breathing life and inspiration into work. 

Carson is a staunch advocate and champion for fair and flexible workplace practices that create healthy, nurturing environments for workers everywhere. Her goal is to shift the focus from output to impact – our value as workers is meant to be measured by our contribution.  

There’s nothing Carson loves more than connecting with people. In her uplifting and empowering courses, one-on-one coaching, speeches and workshops, Carson shares surprising ideas and insights that clients and audiences can immediately apply to create fulfilling lives that align with their values and priorities. She inspires people to craft a future for themselves in which their work plays a joyful role. Above all, Carson believes that work is where your mission meets your spirit.

 

Book Mention

Own It. Love It. Make It Work: How to Make Any Job Your Dream Job, by Carson Tate

Suggested Keywords

 Productivity, Job, Work, Career, Burnout, Strengths, Relationships, Meaning, Opportunity, Possibility, Play, Recognition, Reward, Purpose, Reflection,

To learn more, follow Carson at:

 Website: https://carsontate.com

https://www.workingsimply.com

Facebook: @thecarsontate

Instagram:  @thecarsontate

Twitter:   @thecarsontate

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsontate

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/CarsonTate

 

Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart:

Website: https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com

Apple Podcasts:            https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy- smart/id532717264

Spotify:                       https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73

SoundCloud:                                    https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart

iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927

 

Read the Transcript Here:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hi, Carson, welcome to the podcast. I am happy to have you on Karen.

Speaker 2 (00:04):

I'm so glad to be with you. Thanks for the invitation.

Speaker 1 (00:06):

Absolutely. And now, today, what I really love to talk about is how to make any job, your dream job. So this is the title of your, well, the subtitle I should say of your book own it, love it, make it work, how to make any job, your dream job. So let's talk about how to do that because there are a lot of people now working in areas or positions or working in ways that maybe they didn't think they would ever be working because of the COVID pandemic. Right. So let's talk about making your job, your dream job. So how do we go about doing that? It's just an easy question.

Speaker 2 (00:47):

Easy question. I love the easy questions upfront, right? Yeah. Great. Well, first of all, let's go ahead and make sure folks aren't going to give me the eye roll forever. So here's, here's the qualifying statement. So any job can be your dream job because you define the dream. So to create your dream job means that you're going to identify what that is for you and not believe there's a one size fits all or a must or should, but it's what do you need to be engaged and fulfilled in your current job? Because the other reality for most of us is that we can't just quit and go be a lavender farmer. And the South of France that sounds blissful or entrepreneurship might not be the right option for all of us. So we're in a job and I don't want you to stay in suffer.

Speaker 2 (01:46):

So how do we make it the best job? So there are five areas that I found in my research and work with clients that we need to explore for ourselves. The first is recognition and reward. So what type of recognition and rewards do you need? So I'm talking about praise and acknowledgement because we're all human beings and we really need to be seen for our work. But Karen, you might be the kind of person that just wants the email, great job, Karen, that goes out to the whole team and you're like, Oh God, I feel good. I might be the person that wants yeah. The boss to stand up in front of the whole group, have me there and this great grand presentation of my excellence, but we're all different. And so it's knowing what I need is the first step. So admitting that you have recognition needs and knowing what those are.

Speaker 2 (02:38):

And then the second one is strengths. And so you're in health care and a bit, a lot of your listeners are as well, physical therapists. So you went into your profession because you had an interest in probably an aptitude in science and working with people. The second step is to really identify and own your strengths. What are those things that you do almost at near perfection? You were really good at you. Can't not do them. So even on your day off, you might try to do them. And as something you want to develop and grow, so you might read about it. You might take courses. You're the one that has the magazine that you want to look at. Those are your strengths. And the reason they're so important is because this is what you bring to the relationship with your employer. Your strengths are what enables your employer to serve their patients, their customers, and earn revenue.

Speaker 2 (03:37):

And so knowing what the strengths are, a column, your relationship currency with your employer, they're the gold. And when you work from your strengths, your performance goes up, you're more in the flow and you're just generally more happy and fulfilled. So we want to spend more time working from your strengths. But the only way to do that with our employer is to demonstrate how they benefit your employer. So you have to know what they are, and then you okay to help you achieve your goal company. When I do more of this type work, we generate more revenue. We have more customers you're satisfied. So

Speaker 1 (04:13):

When we're talking about identifying your strengths, you don't only want to just identify them for yourself. You want to share them with your friends

Speaker 2 (04:22):

Employer. Yes, exactly. And in not sharing with your employer, Karen, it's being very direct and intentional with your employer around how those strengths support the company's goals. So when I do this work, we are faster. We are better with clients. We earn more money because what you want, the goal here is to do more of them. You want to be able to make an ask, Hey manager, I have a couple of tasks that we really are not driving revenue. And aren't really serving the company that I can see when to let go of those and do more of this.

Speaker 1 (05:02):

Yeah. That makes sense. And if you're working from your strengths, you would probably enjoy it a little bit more, cause you'll see more success.

Speaker 2 (05:09):

Absolutely. And I am, I come from the school of positive psychology. So I take a strengths-based approach, which means we're going to work on your strengths because I can get a 10 X lift, 10 X, times performance out of a strengths-based approach versus working on your blind spots or your, your growth areas. It doesn't mean we ignore them, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time and energy on those because the return on that time investment for the output and the impact isn't as great. Got it.

Speaker 1 (05:41):

How can, how do we go? How do you recommend people go about finding their strengths?

Speaker 2 (05:46):

Yes. So there are three ways you can do a reflection, big fan as a coach of journaling and reflection. So you reflect, what was your best day at work? What do your friends, your colleagues, praise you or acknowledge in your work day? Where do people ask you for help or advice or support? Great place to start. Then if you have any type of performance reviews or three 60 reviews, always a great place to go, to start to mind for those core strength themes. But my all-time favorite way to do it is to look at your task list in your calendar list and go through with a marker and highlight those tasks, those meetings, those calls, the podcast where you were on fire. I loved it. It was really good, strong outcome. And then you start to identify some of your core strengths that way.

Speaker 1 (06:42):

Let's say you are not an employee, but you're an entrepreneur. So do you give yourself performance reviews?

Speaker 2 (06:54):

Really? I've never been asked that question. I would say your performance reviews come from your clients. It would be, you know, that email that you get, or maybe you do a survey with your clients. You ask your clients for feedback. That would be your performance review. Got it, got it. And if you're an entrepreneur, that's where the calendar and task list analysis is super helpful for them. Because if you're not working in that formal structure of the yearly performance review, and as an entrepreneur, initially you have to do it all. And ultimately if I'm coaching you, I want you really working from your strengths and we want to start to figure out how do we automate or outsource those other items.

Speaker 1 (07:39):

Okay. All right. That makes sense. All right. So we've got recognition and reward, which I love and, you know, quick story on that, a friend of mine works for a publisher and she said so do you know what happened the other day? She said, I got this package in the mail and it was from the company. And it was just like some gourmet teas and a mug. And it, and it was a card that says, you know, so-and-so, you're just doing a great job and we appreciate all the work. And she was like, you know, some people need big bonuses. Some people she's like, this is what I needed. So she sort of recognized like my reward is, is just someone identifying, I'm doing a good job and writing a nice note and you know, she doesn't need like the grand fanfare. So I think it's really interesting when you said that it came to my mind and it got me thinking, what do I really like as, as reward and recognition? And I have to say, I sort of like the, just a nice email letter. Like I don't need to be on stage. I don't need it to be in front of a lot of people. And that is what really makes me feel good. Yes.

Speaker 2 (08:49):

Yeah. And how empowering, just to name and claim that, and then what you're going to want to do if you work for a manager is let them know how meaningful it is. And so for you, as you're as an entrepreneur and business owner, how do we create more opportunities for you Karen, to get those affirmations from me who I'm like, Oh my gosh, you know, I had this terrible injury and now I'm running again. And I just finished my first 5k. I mean, that's what we want in your inbox. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:24):

Yeah, exactly. Okay. So we've got recognition and reward. Strengths is number two, what's number three.

Speaker 2 (09:30):

This is all about relationships because none of us work in a silo. We all work on teams. And what's interesting is that social pain. So conflict feeling excluded from the group is processed in our brains the same way as physical pain, which is, was show interesting to me in my research. So having really authentic real relationships at work is essential. Not only for performance, but we're talking about being happy, fulfilled, and engaged. And if you don't feel like you've got a best friend or that you can talk to someone or work through conflict, which is part of business, that's a problem. So in this chapter, what we do in the book is we explore your work style, which is how you think and process information, because this is how you're going to work with other people and then identify their work style and learn to communicate with each other in a way that you aren't triggering each other and making each other one of, yeah, I'm not going to work with you and ultimately recognizing where you might be unconsciously undermining that relationship by treating everybody the same way.

Speaker 1 (10:43):

Yeah. That's so important. Yeah. I'm a huge fan of relationships. And I mean, I have stayed in jobs longer than I probably should have because I love the relationships. I was like, I don't want to leave. I love it here.

Speaker 2 (10:57):

Yes. And that that's exactly it, the people are important, right. And those relationships that is so important and we've got to do the work right. And that's why that this whole pillar is around cultivate, which requires some self-reflection, but really intentional, thoughtful work to build these relationships that bring us joy and really stretch us and help us grow. That's the fourth one is the development and it's the develop. We call it the five pillars or the five essentials. And the fourth one is to develop new skills. And this is about owning your own professional development, not waiting for your manager, not waiting for your team member to say, Hey, Karen, I think you might like this course. Or have you thought about this position? No, this is about what do I want, how do I want to grow? What's my next step. And being really about putting your own development plan together and then asking your manager to support you. So they might have an internal training program you can join, or maybe they would pay for the conference for you to continue to Uplevel your skills.

Speaker 1 (12:06):

Yeah. And you know, I think, again, that probably takes a little bit of identifying where, what gaps you might need to fill. So can you sort of, when you went and looked at your strengths and maybe you did find some weaknesses, is this where you would want to start developing those? Or would you take your strengths and continue to strengthen them? I guess, as an individual, you know,

Speaker 2 (12:33):

So I'm going to suggest that, and this is just my training and background. Let's further refund strengths because I know that the outcome of that is greater. And we also talk about a tool that I created. I call it an abilities opportunity map, where you start to look at the leadership competencies in your organization, certifications did you not get a position? The best person in your field does this? And we don't do it from a place of comparison or judgment. It's just an awareness. Ah, okay, this person has this skill set or this certification I don't just looking. And then once you build this abilities opportunity map, then you go and say, what do I really want to focus on? And how am I going to develop it?

Speaker 1 (13:26):

Yeah. That makes sense. And kind of looking at your organization and maybe looking at the organization and saying like, I could take, let's say from a physical therapy standpoint it's this great clinic, but while no one's doing pelvic health in this clinic. So perhaps I can develop my pelvic health skills to plug this hole, because like you said, we want to bring more to our employer so that they see us as, you know, boy, this person is a real asset to our company and then you're doing what you love to do. And then they'll continue to promote that. So it sort of circles around, right?

Speaker 2 (14:05):

It does because the framework and the thesis that I'm operating off of is that the relationship with your employer is a relationship. And any relationship is based on social exchange theory, which is give and take both parties, bring to the relationship and both parties receive. And in a relationship that's healthy, both parties work towards mutually beneficial goals. So developing a pelvic health program is exciting for you. You're passionate about women. This is a way to really expand your skillset, huge win for you, huge win for your clinic. It might not be the only clinic in the city that does this. So this is a beneficial win, more of what you want revenue for your company, your company is distinguishing itself. So that's where it's the employee has an equal and powerful voice in this relationship, right?

Speaker 1 (15:05):

Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. What's number five.

Speaker 2 (15:08):

The last one is design your work for more meaning. So this is where we talk about meaning purpose, joy.

Speaker 1 (15:19):

Hm.

Speaker 2 (15:20):

Point our point here is that meaning is not defined by what happens to you. It's your interpretation of the events in your life. So we go back to where we started with my premise at any job can be your dream job because you just, you define that dream. And I believe every job has significance. Every job is meaningful. It's up to you to figure out what that meaning is for you, and then start to craft and shape your work for more meaning. So let's say for example, Karen, for you, one thing that brings meaning and purpose to you is helping women that have been struggling for years within contents, so that it's damaged their self-esteem. Maybe they're not going out in public as much. And this is really important that you help these women. It feels like a passion calls for you and meaning, okay. So by developing the skillset for the pelvic therapy, and then you bring it to your company, we're creating meaning you're doing more of what you love and we're generating revenue for your company. The meaning is in the service to these women and how you were an agent of change in their life,

Speaker 1 (16:40):

Right? So the meaning goes beyond can go beyond just you and just your clinic or just your office or your job, but it can go into sort of the world as a whole, as a whole, which I think is what a lot of people hope that their job can do.

Speaker 2 (17:00):

Absolutely. And I would suggest every job does that. If you will just step back and look at it. So if we go back to I'm a runner and I'm always injured. And so physical therapists, you are my heroes because you need to doing what I love. And so just a big shout out because you keep me up, right? Cause I'm invariably always doing something and not stretching. So, but if you keep me running and I'm staying engaged and I'm healthy and I'm able to care for and keep up with my kids, like we're now talking about a ripple effect of positivity that you can draw meaning from, but you just gotta reframe because what happens, I'm guilty of this. Karen is that we get really caught up in the transactions of our day at 14 patients to see, Oh my God, have you seen my inbox? The paperwork sucks. Yes. I'm not saying that's not hard, but if we can come back and look at our task as a collective whole, that's where we can draw the meaning from.

Speaker 1 (18:08):

Yeah. And I'm so happy that you brought up the emails and the paperwork and, you know, cause everybody, I don't care what line of work you're in. You can relate to the emails, the paperwork, the meeting after meeting, after meeting patient, after patient, after patient. Right? So this can often lead, I think, for a lot of people to state of burnout. Right? So how can we use these five tools to help us avoid that? That what some people think is an inevitable burnout?

Speaker 2 (18:40):

So I'm an, a challenge. Inevitable is I don't believe anything is inevitable. I here to put quotes, air quotes. No, I'm just gonna push back. Cause I think we're aligned on that. I think we better they're like no enough, you know? So two ways, one, we double down on strengths. So when we are working from our strengths, the work is feels easier. There's less effort, but greater impact, more joy, more flow. So the more we identify connect that to how it helps our employer and really intentionally push ourselves to keep doing more of that work can help tremendously the other, Oh, there's two more things. The other thing is back to this meaning that we'll want to pull on. So even at the end of the darkest week of, I am beyond exhausted been doing this, you know, my student loan debt does not seem to be going anywhere.

Speaker 2 (19:40):

I'm chipping away at it. Can you pull back and find a little source of hope from the meeting? And then the third piece is the productivity. So where are you getting really thoughtful about? Let's take your inbox. I believe your inbox can be the best personal assistant you've ever had. The technology is powerful. We just don't use it. So why are we not automating our email management? So you can write rules, you can automatically schedule and send emails. We can create whole systems that filter what comes in. We can create templates. There's so much that can be done with not a lot of effort that can save you hours. So I think sometimes in the burnout we're like, Oh, it's going to take me energy and time to spend 10 minutes in my inbox, setting up that rule and two templates and

Speaker 1 (20:30):

Yeah, exactly. I'm like, ah, one more thing.

Speaker 2 (20:35):

And you're not saying no way. You're probably having an expletive in there. And I'd say, if you do this set a timer, 10 minutes, I'm going to set up one rule and write one automatic template because people ask me this question all the time. I just want to be able to use it over and over again, and then I'm done. But those two actions could potentially save you hours. So it's 10 minutes on productivity tools, looking for automation saying no to meetings that you don't need to attend because they're going to print everything they talked about and posted on the bulletin board. Or you're not even sure why you're there and there's no agenda. And it's just going to people rambling. Don't go say no.

Speaker 1 (21:23):

Yeah. I think that's a huge thing for people. And I've just really come to get better at the saying no thing. Of like when it's not like, when, if it's something that's not working for me, like I have to get better at saying no, because then I over-schedule myself and then I'm all stressed out.

Speaker 2 (21:44):

Right. And it's a self perpetuating hamster wheel. Right. Just keep on it. And the no is freedom. So one way to look at it is every time you say no to something, you're saying yes to something else. Right.

Speaker 1 (22:02):

So how do you, what's a gracious way to say no,

Speaker 2 (22:06):

At this point, I'm not able to take on any more projects with the level of attention and detail that I like to bring to projects. So thank you so much for thinking of me. Well, that's good. I like that. Yeah. Thank you for inviting me to your meeting on Friday. I can't attend. If there's anything that you would like for me to think about or reflect on in advance, please let me know. And I'll send you an email.

Speaker 1 (22:30):

Oh, that's nice too. Oh, very good. Very good. Hopefully people are taking notes on those. Yeah. That's really good. That's a nice way to say no, versus just saying, Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have the time.

Speaker 2 (22:44):

Right. And the other piece of the, no, I learned this the hard way and I'm sure your listeners have tucked up, but I live in the South. And so Dan said, we've got a little polite niceness culture going on. And part of a, no is not inviting the second email or you not busy now, Karen, how about now to meet for coffee? So we want to know that has a firm boundary that isn't going to get the creeping back.

Speaker 1 (23:14):

Yes. Yes. And that's hard. So, cause I know sometimes I'll say, Oh, you know, I'm, I'm really busy for the next couple of months, but why don't you check back later? No, no. Should not be doing that.

Speaker 2 (23:24):

No, no, no. And there's also an, I think there's tremendous value of going back to my first example of you value and respect that person you value and respect to the board, the project, the ask enough to say you aren't going to get the best of me. I can't, I can't bring you what you deserve, what this organization deserves. Thank you for thinking of me.

Speaker 1 (23:50):

Yeah. Kind of putting, putting them before you. Yes

Speaker 2 (23:53):

It's because ultimately I, I do believe we want to do our best work and when we're stretched so thin, it's just not possible. And then we began disappointing ourselves and others and that's not a cycle we want to be on either. So the door firmly don't get the creepy crawlies coming back, asking how about now? It's two months later. Where are you? No, I'm still not available.

Speaker 1 (24:17):

Yeah. No, that's so good. That's so good. Have a firm close to that door. Gosh, that's great. Yeah. I love that. Now is there anything else that you kind of want to add on here? That maybe we didn't cover on, on allowing people to really love their work and love their job?

Speaker 2 (24:39):

Yes, but I have to share, I'm going to give you one more productivity hack. Can I do that?

Speaker 1 (24:44):

Oh my God. I didn't want to, you can give me 10 more. I didn't want to keep asking on what, what about this one? Do you have three more that I want to give you? I can't help myself

Speaker 2 (24:57):

Then listeners bear with me. If you don't like this, just speed up just fast forward. Okay. So the first one was stack. So stack saying no is hard. So what I coach my clients on is let's create a template and email to say, no, these are the no templates, no, to be on the board. No, to do this project. So you think about it. You write the know and when you get that ask click.

Speaker 1 (25:25):

And so when you have a template, so do you mean you sort of just keep it in like a word doc and then copy paste into your email.

Speaker 2 (25:33):

So depending on your email platform, so I'll start with outlook and outlook. The best way to do this is to create multiple signatures. So an outlet, people think about a signatures. Haven't, you know, Karen and your phone number. Well, you can create as many, many signatures as you want. So you go in and create a signature that is gracious. No to project ask you type it, you save it. Then when I send an email, Karen I've gotten great new task force really wants you to be on you. Hit reply, insert gracious, no project signature. And in 30 seconds we've saved time. And we haven't gone through the angst of how do I say no? How do I let them down? How do I close the door? No, we do the thinking on the front end. And we just use this over and over again. So we're stacking two habits here and leveraging technology.

Speaker 1 (26:36):

Nice. Yeah. That's great.

Speaker 2 (26:39):

In g-mail you can set up templates too, as that function the same way and absolutely care. Nothing wrong with the word doc I'm copy and paste key is we write it once and you use it over and over again. We don't do the rework time. Copy paste, drop and go. Yeah, that's fabulous. The second one that is one of my favorite ones for healthcare workers is so your day is scheduled for you patient, patient, patient. And so what happens during the day is a lot of things that you could potentially do, like little tiny task or maybe call. I don't want to get your hair cut or whatever doesn't happen. And so you have all this buildup of tasks that now you're trying to do on the margins of your day. So I tell my healthcare providers build something called a 15 minute list, and this is a list that lives with you.

Speaker 2 (27:31):

So put it in your lab jacket as a piece of paper, put it on your phone. I don't care Magnasco and how you get it around, but it needs to be with you. And these are tasks you can do in 15 minutes or less. So schedule your cats, that checkup prep for the one-on-one with your team member, call and cancel call all of the little itsy-bitsy things that don't take a lot of time. And then what you do is when you have that patient, that's 10 minutes late, you pull out your list and you go because I can get these things done and these micro segments of our day. So it's a really efficient way to stay on top of the nits and NATS that can add up and feel overwhelming. Great. And then the third one that works well and healthcare and for everyone, but a love it from a healthcare providers is something we call protect your 90. So this is 90 minutes a day on your strategic priorities. So it could be professional development. It could be, you might be doing some research, writing a paper, it could be catching up on your charts, whatever it is. But the way it works is it's 90 minutes a day. That's focused now it's not 90 continuous minutes.

Speaker 3 (28:54):

That's what I was just going to ask. Yeah, no, I made only unicorns have that and without I haven't met a unicorn.

Speaker 2 (28:59):

Yep. So this is the power of it. So it might be 20 minutes that you choose during lunch to do your focus. Then you have another little 10 minute window where you might do another little sprint focus, but the goal is 90 minutes a day because the power and five work days, that's seven and a half hours of focus time. That is a game changer. I have had physicians write really complex research papers using this strategy because we're just chunking just yeah. Intention, intentional chunks focused, and then we go back, but it's the consecutive effort over time that up. And it doesn't feel overwhelming. I mean that versus saying I need seven and a half hours of your time.

Speaker 1 (29:47):

Yeah, no, that's great. Very good. Very good. I love it. Okay. So I feel like we've gone over so much but I'm loving the productivity, hacks and tips, and also loving your sort of five step template or plan to kind of love your job again. So is there anything else about that? And like I said, productivity hacks, we can go for days. People can go to your website and find more. But anything anything else on people loving their job and loving what they do? What would you like people to really remember about the chat

Speaker 2 (30:25):

Clarity creates opportunity. So doing the work to identify what your dream job looks like, how you want to be acknowledged and rewarded what your strengths are, the relationships you want to develop, the skills you want to grow in the meaning you bring, it opens up infinite possibilities for you in your current job. And I would suggest in future jobs, that knowledge is power.

Speaker 1 (30:55):

Yeah, that's great. And before we sort of sign off and find out where everyone can get in touch with you, I have one more question that I ask everyone. And that's knowing where you are now in your life and in your career. What advice would you give to your younger self? Whether it be fresh at a college or what, you know, what advice would you give to yourself?

Speaker 2 (31:16):

Play more? I'm a type, a perfectionist recovering. Some days, some days I'm not recovering and I will get in that strive mode and I've done it since I was 18 years old and would go back and say, it's okay, play a little more. The work's going to be there. And what I've come to learn now is that in play, that's where you're going to find those brilliant insights and connections and the juice to not be burned out. So one reason we get burned out is because we don't play. We just work all the time.

Speaker 1 (31:52):

Yeah. That is great advice. And I have to say, I've heard that from a couple of people on this question is to just kind of like chill out a little bit more relaxed, a little more play a little bit more. So that is great advice. Now, Carson, where can people find you if they want more information about you and what you do and, and all of and yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:11):

And your book. Yeah. So the book own it, love it, make it work. All of your favorite retailers, Amazon is available online. And then my website, Carson, tate.com. Check out the blogs. If you want productivity hacks, they're there tips on loving your job. We've got assessments. All the goodies are on the website. Carson, tate.com. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (32:32):

And then for social media,

Speaker 2 (32:35):

Yes, LinkedIn, the Carson Tate. Awesome. Well, thank

Speaker 1 (32:40):

You Carson so much. This was great. I think you gave my listeners so much to work with, so I thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (32:47):

Thank you, Karen. I appreciate it. And thank you guys for all that you do for us.

Speaker 1 (32:52):

Thank you. Thank you. And everyone who's listening. Thanks so much. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart.

 

1