As a former employee at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning, one of the perks was a free membership http://www.BodybyBoyleOnline.com. As a result, I have the opportunity to keep up to date with the happenings at MBSC, whether it be their programming, staff meetings, guest speakers, or any other content. It’s an incredibly valuable and key tool to my continuing education process.

Every once in a while I will go back and watch a presentation from previous years. A lot of times these presentations are by the likes of Gray Cook, Charlie Weingroff or Mike, as there always seems to be content in their talks that I forget, makes more sense to me now, or changes my current thought process. It’s amazing how many little nuggets that are in some of these coaches presentations and how much you miss the first time around.

The other day I re-watched a presentation from the Perform Better Seminar in 2011 titled “Success Secrets” by Coach Boyle. I thought it might be good as a younger strength coach to go back and listen to success tips by a strength coach that has had a huge amount of success in the field.

Here were some the key takeaways from Coach Boyle’s presentation.

1. Sincerity Trumps All. One of Coach Boyle’s favorite quotes is “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” And it’s 100% true. Being extremely smart is great, being the hardest worker in the room is great, but its more important to be the nicest person in the room and care about the athletes that you work with. Being a great person and sincerely caring about the athletes you coach is always a recipe for success.
2. The “No Asshole” Rule. In our business people need to want to be around you. You may be smarter then someone else and you may also be a better coach then someone else, but if people don’t want to be around you and spend time with you, you’ll never be as successful as you could or want to be. Be the coach that you always wanted as an athlete.
3. Pay It Forward. Help as many people as you possibly can. It’s your job to help athletes get better and your job to help interns and younger coaches get better. More importantly, it’s also your job to be a good person. What goes around comes around.
4. Consider Your Legacy. Being a strength coach isn’t about coaching for 20-30 years and retiring. It’s about changing athletes lives for the better. You have no idea the potential impact you can have on someone. “What are they going to be saying about you 10 years from now?” is a question you should ask yourself every single day.
5. Be an Adapter. The best coaches in this field adapt before other coaches. Always be on the lookout for ways to make the program better and be willing to learn from anyone and everyone. Be smart enough to realize the the field is constantly changing, whether you like it or not. Go to seminars and steal great ideas from other coaches, but always be able to filter the good from the bad. Most of the best coaches aren’t innovators, they are just quicker to realize change is needed.
6. Put in Your 10,000 Hours. Anyone that has read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell has heard of the 10,000 hour rule. Simply put, great performers put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice before they become great at what they do. Coach as much as possible, read as much as possible and learn from great coaches as much as possible, then maybe you’ll become one of those great coaches.
7. Get people healthy, feeling better and performing better. No one says to themselves, “my back is killing me and I puked after my workout, can’t wait to go back tomorrow.” If you can get athletes healthy, keep them healthy, and improve their performance, you’ll have athletes that have bought into the program and want to train with you.

In summary, success is simple. Be a great person. Be the most positive person you know. Sincerely care about the people you coach. These are all things that anyone has the ability to do but few actually do.