Speaker 1: Welcome to the Transformation Station podcast. I'm Christina, owner, operator,
Speaker 1: and founder of the Transformation Station, and this is where
Speaker 1: we talk about getting stronger while navigating real life. If
Speaker 1: you're trying to stay consistent through the ups and the
Speaker 1: downs and everywhere else in between. This is for you.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Before we jump in, I
Speaker 1: just want to set the stage for today's episode because
Speaker 1: the title might have surprised some people once they saw
Speaker 1: that it was uploaded. Just to be clear, today's conversation
Speaker 1: is not about politics or convincing everybody or anybody for
Speaker 1: that matter, to own firearms. I recently attended a firearms
Speaker 1: safety course this past weekend and it made me a
Speaker 1: beginner and it reminded me what it feels like to
Speaker 1: be a complete beginner again as well. So that's what
Speaker 1: this episode is truly about. It's about the learning, the coaching,
Speaker 1: what it feels like to be in a room where
Speaker 1: you're kind of put on the spot, and also how
Speaker 1: to gain confidence and why. Also, I think that Finnis
Speaker 1: professionals should occasionally put themselves in the situations where they
Speaker 1: are the student rather than the teacher in whatever capacity
Speaker 1: or learning that they want to explore all right. So
Speaker 1: for a couple of days, I was not Christina, the
Speaker 1: owner of the transformation station. I was not the trainer
Speaker 1: or the coach. I wasn't somebody who needed to own
Speaker 1: or control the room at all. It was different. It
Speaker 1: was nice. I was the beginner and I was someone
Speaker 1: who was just there to ask well a lot of questions.
Speaker 1: If you know me, you know I asked a lot
Speaker 1: of questions. If you don't know me, now you know
Speaker 1: I like learning, now, like figuring things out. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't the in charge person. I was
Speaker 1: a beginner. And it's funny like when you become a
Speaker 1: student again. And I generally take courses that are on fitness,
Speaker 1: on nutrition, on stuff that I pretty much already know
Speaker 1: how and what to expect and how what to do
Speaker 1: in a nutshell. But in this case, I have used
Speaker 1: firearms before legally, of course, for sport, and that means
Speaker 1: that I like to shoot paper targets. Although I am
Speaker 1: a spouse of a hunter, that's not necessarily for me.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I literally walked in knowing pretty much absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing because I didn't know how to clean the gun,
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to keep it safe. So yes.
Speaker 1: So walking into the classroom, like a lot of those
Speaker 1: things were things that I've never heard before. I'd say
Speaker 1: like ninety nine percent of the terms that were being
Speaker 1: thrown around there not thrown around controlled around those terms.
Speaker 1: I had no idea zero. The equipment's very different, of course,
Speaker 1: versus a gym. There's incredibly strict safety procedures and rules,
Speaker 1: and there's an order to every single thing that every
Speaker 1: single thing needs to be done. And how so I
Speaker 1: had to pay attention every single second. It wasn't just
Speaker 1: like pretending to be interested or like losing focus, Like
Speaker 1: you can't just go through the motions when it comes
Speaker 1: to firearms. And that reminded me of when someone is
Speaker 1: entering the gym for the first time. Let's say it's
Speaker 1: their first fitness class. They think about it, they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go. Eventually they end up doing a
Speaker 1: drop in pass, or some people just jump in right
Speaker 1: on a membership. They come into a new space. They
Speaker 1: don't know where to stand. I hear that quite often,
Speaker 1: like am I standing in somebody's spot? Girl, I own
Speaker 1: the gym. I don't even have a spot, So stand
Speaker 1: wherever you need to stand, it's not going to be
Speaker 1: someone else's spot, and over time it won't become your spot.
Speaker 1: I know. Sometimes it feels like that there's no spots
Speaker 1: and no one's going to be mean to you. If
Speaker 1: you stand maybe where someone's the day before, don't even
Speaker 1: worry about it. Also, when someone's new to the space,
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily know where all the equipment is, they
Speaker 1: don't know what to grab. Thankfully, there's always like really
Speaker 1: super over zealous members in our space that are like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't recognize you, let me come and help you.
Speaker 1: So I love that as well. Of course, the coach
Speaker 1: is always there to help to Sometimes even before I
Speaker 1: can drink, get a drink of water and turn, there's
Speaker 1: already someone helping somebody who's brand new get stuff and
Speaker 1: explain to them what they need, and thank you for
Speaker 1: doing that. I really appreciate that. I will always go
Speaker 1: over and say hi, I'm Christina and shake somebody's hand
Speaker 1: or give them a high five. Anyway. So sometimes even
Speaker 1: they don't even know what the programming says. They don't
Speaker 1: know what an e mom is every minute on the minute.
Speaker 1: Maybe they don't know what weight to use and or
Speaker 1: whether they're doing something correctly. And it's interesting because sometimes
Speaker 1: you'll be in a class and there's someone else who's
Speaker 1: brand new to fitness, or sometimes during a class and
Speaker 1: you look around and it looks like people know what
Speaker 1: they're doing and they know exactly what's happened. That's because
Speaker 1: they were beginners at one time as well, and somebody
Speaker 1: was kind and showed them the ropes too. And I've
Speaker 1: seen that look on people's faces when they come in
Speaker 1: and they're like, I don't know what to do. I'm
Speaker 1: little bit nervous. It's okay. It's okay to be nervous.
Speaker 1: The same thing I'm telling you is the same thing
Speaker 1: that I tell myself. It's okay to be nervous and
Speaker 1: to be a beginner. And I reminded myself so many times,
Speaker 1: like I'm learning. I was frustrated a few times where
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I'm never going to the first like
Speaker 1: five minutes of learning how to prove a handgun safe,
Speaker 1: Like I'm never gonna remember even what the barrel is,
Speaker 1: never mind the chamber and the trigger and all these
Speaker 1: other things and the bore, Like there's no way I
Speaker 1: know what any of these things are. And I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna remember it. After listening for five minutes, I expected
Speaker 1: to be a professional. Sometimes it's like that with the
Speaker 1: fitness too, like we do like one structure or one class,
Speaker 1: and like it were like, oh, we should have got
Speaker 1: it perfect from here on out in the first five minutes.
Speaker 1: That's not what learning is. And learning is so mentally
Speaker 1: exhausting sometimes. And like when I got home yesterday, like
Speaker 1: it was it was a long day, Like I don't
Speaker 1: sit well. Thankfully, the instructor was so great, like such
Speaker 1: such a charismatic character kind of personality, Like I was
Speaker 1: engaged the whole time, like the way the instructor was,
Speaker 1: And I hope that I can always be this kind
Speaker 1: of person too. The instructor is in Marcel, and Marcel
Speaker 1: is not secret because he does this for work. Marcel
Speaker 1: was so incredibly engaging the entire class, like he made
Speaker 1: me want to learn. And and I don't sit well.
Speaker 1: I don't sit in a classroom for ten hours, twelve
Speaker 1: hours a day, right, Like that's just not my favorite
Speaker 1: thing to do. I like to be loud, I like
Speaker 1: to have fun. And when it comes to these things
Speaker 1: that I know are serious, because on one poor mistake,
Speaker 1: there's really big consequences when you're talking about firearms. I
Speaker 1: don't think I need to explain that. So the way
Speaker 1: he described my personality today was that I am very
Speaker 1: like I come across as very stoic and like I
Speaker 1: know things because in that classroom setting, when I am
Speaker 1: engaged and learning, I still ask five thousand questions even
Speaker 1: today because of we today. The course that I did
Speaker 1: was for my restricted. Yesterday was my non restricted passed
Speaker 1: ninety eight percent. Today Restricted also passed again ninety eight percent.
Speaker 1: So I got those because I was paying attention and
Speaker 1: asking a lot of questions. And I left there with
Speaker 1: so much information that wasn't on the exam, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to know. I wanted to know every single tiny
Speaker 1: detail of everything, and I still have more questions. I
Speaker 1: did actually have the manual that was printed of over
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty pages, and I cheerfully had that
Speaker 1: put together in a binder for me, and I was
Speaker 1: able to mark on the page because I owned the binder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I went over prepared, but I'm still glad that
Speaker 1: I did. But when I went home, I was so taught,
Speaker 1: just mentally, because I was concentrating constantly on something that
Speaker 1: I had zero clue walking into the room. I had
Speaker 1: to listen, I had to remember, I followed directions, I
Speaker 1: made some friends, I had to double check everything, and
Speaker 1: I had to try to remember audibly and visually and
Speaker 1: sometimes intertwined, which is my favorite. But that's what happens
Speaker 1: to someone who is their first few classes and weeks
Speaker 1: at the gym, because sometimes people think that they're tired
Speaker 1: because they just exercised, but sometimes they're also tired because
Speaker 1: their brain has been working to be like, oh what
Speaker 1: am I doing? What do I need to get? And
Speaker 1: as coaches and as Finnis professionals, I think sometimes we
Speaker 1: tend to forget that. So when you put yourself in
Speaker 1: that beginner's thing, like walking into a brand new place
Speaker 1: for the same for the first time. Thankfully, I have
Speaker 1: grown into a confident individual that I do enter a
Speaker 1: room and I'm not afraid of if people are going
Speaker 1: to like me. So that used to be me, but
Speaker 1: now I'm like, no, I'm going this is what I
Speaker 1: have to learn if I can make friends. I'm going
Speaker 1: to make friends. I'm going to try not to be obnoxious,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna sit here and I'm going to
Speaker 1: be what people perceived as stoic. So I've never been
Speaker 1: called that in my life in case you needed to
Speaker 1: know that, But I really appreciated it in that context
Speaker 1: because I was like, oh, I fagettition is great. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The nice thing too, is in this course, like how
Speaker 1: the instructor was with us, like nobody expected us to
Speaker 1: be fast, Like he didn't just dump everything on us
Speaker 1: and expected us to be like, Okay, no, hurry up,
Speaker 1: go and do it. Like the expectation was simple. It
Speaker 1: was be safe, follow the process, take your time, ask
Speaker 1: questions if you have questions, And that to me applies
Speaker 1: about being in a fitness class because sometimes people want
Speaker 1: to rush, they want to lift heavier, they want to
Speaker 1: move faster, they want to advance before they've mastered what
Speaker 1: the basics are. But a strong foundation, just like arms
Speaker 1: training and just like fitness, a strong foundation always comes first,
Speaker 1: like you earn speed through good habits. So yesterday I
Speaker 1: did the non restricted and by the end of the
Speaker 1: day I could prove safe a firearm, a rifle, shotgun,
Speaker 1: like I knew what I was doing my entire life. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe not that fast, Okay, that was a little bit
Speaker 1: extra confidence that I sprinkled on that one. But how
Speaker 1: it was before when it's like, oh, remove the magazine,
Speaker 1: to remove the magazine, remove the magazine, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: with magazine. We haven't had magazine since nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 1: just kidding, we had J fourteen in like two thousand
Speaker 1: and two. Anyway, the magazine. I figured out what that
Speaker 1: was and eventually I'm like, okay, this is the magazine
Speaker 1: comes up first. Okay, cool, this has this, this is this.
Speaker 1: Before you do anything, you clean the board, make sure
Speaker 1: your safety's on if it has a safety like, there's
Speaker 1: certain things that you have to do before you take
Speaker 1: the next step. And that's the same like in fitness.
Speaker 1: If you come in and you're like, oh, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna lift heavy and do all these things, but you
Speaker 1: haven't mastered the basics first, then it's going to be
Speaker 1: a disservice for you. Thankfully, in fitness, the worst comes
Speaker 1: to worse is you end up getting hurt, which we
Speaker 1: pride ourselves on people not doing that within our four walls.
Speaker 1: That's why the coach coaches the room and walks the
Speaker 1: room and make sure that everyone is doing their form
Speaker 1: properly and safe. Also not embarrassing anybody and giving them
Speaker 1: the confidence and the tools to be able to move forward,
Speaker 1: to build their strong foundation, and also for them to
Speaker 1: learn and take the time to master the skill. Just
Speaker 1: like with the handgun training, I had to practice disengaging things,
Speaker 1: moving things, checking things before it became faster and stronger
Speaker 1: and until I also I needed to master the non
Speaker 1: restricted firearms before I got into the restricted stuff, So
Speaker 1: that to me is literally a direct parallel. And to
Speaker 1: me also, the best coaches and your best trainers, regardless
Speaker 1: what you're doing and where it is that you are,
Speaker 1: the best coaches and trainers are the ones that make
Speaker 1: you feel safe. That's something that I noticed so much
Speaker 1: this past weekend is the instructor. And this isn't like
Speaker 1: you know, like when you go to a restaurant and
Speaker 1: they like review you. So this is a review by
Speaker 1: any means. But Marcel today he answered the questions very calmly.
Speaker 1: And I know that my brain, if it has a question,
Speaker 1: it picks on things like I'm like, I cannot leave
Speaker 1: here until I know the answer to this question, because
Speaker 1: I don't forget. So I asked so many questions things
Speaker 1: that were not pertaining to the exam. Primarily, the one
Speaker 1: thing that I found incredibly fascinating the different styles of bullets.
Speaker 1: There's like hundreds of different styles and they all do
Speaker 1: certain things and they work for specific things. And what
Speaker 1: the consequences are if you use the wrong thing, and
Speaker 1: the wrong thing is what I'm going to call it.
Speaker 1: I do know what it is, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: to stay on a podcast. But yeah, so, like he
Speaker 1: answered all my questions calmly. He never made me feel stupid,
Speaker 1: He never made anybody feel stupid. He didn't roll his
Speaker 1: eyes at anybody, and he didn't act like we should
Speaker 1: already know everything. Like it was such a good experience,
Speaker 1: and that is something that I've always believed to be
Speaker 1: true as a good instructor and a coach. Like yesterday
Speaker 1: on the podcast episode, we were speaking with coach Tina,
Speaker 1: and that's something I said, what is one thing that
Speaker 1: a fitness professional can do? What is something that a
Speaker 1: trainer or a coach or an instructor, what's a quality
Speaker 1: that they can possess that is the most important in
Speaker 1: your opinion? And she said listening. And I one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty percent agree. The way that Marcel was in
Speaker 1: this firearms safety courses, both of them on both days.
Speaker 1: He listened and he made people feel good in the space,
Speaker 1: and that to me, like you can have knowledge and
Speaker 1: deliver knowledge, but how you deliver it, the capsule that
Speaker 1: you move it from you to the other person, that
Speaker 1: to me is equally as important. How you make people
Speaker 1: feel matter just as much. If I walked into my
Speaker 1: firearms safety courses yesterday and then the second one separate,
Speaker 1: but second yesterday was a prerequisite if you chose to
Speaker 1: do the one today, and I want it all. I
Speaker 1: want the full everything. So if he mistreated me or
Speaker 1: made me feel stupid yesterday, I would not have showed
Speaker 1: up today. And the same thing as when you go
Speaker 1: into a fitness class. We have people that come back
Speaker 1: class after class after class because we hope our number
Speaker 1: one thing and this is our This is the foundation
Speaker 1: that the entire gym, the transformation station is built on,
Speaker 1: and that's making people feel good. I want you to
Speaker 1: feel better leaving these doors than when you walked in.
Speaker 1: And I believe that my instructor yesterday made me feel
Speaker 1: like that, that I felt good walking into my course today,
Speaker 1: and that's what people remember, like they remember, do they
Speaker 1: feel welcome did they feel respected. If someone feels embarrassed,
Speaker 1: they're probably not going to come back. And that's true,
Speaker 1: Like it doesn't matter what you're teaching. Can be teaching golf,
Speaker 1: you can be teaching football, you can be teaching sports,
Speaker 1: you can be teaching violin whatever, Like I would just
Speaker 1: pull that out of my ears, Like you can teach
Speaker 1: anything right, like cooking. The thing that matters the very
Speaker 1: most is that people feel safe and like they can
Speaker 1: ask questions. And that's how you know that they can
Speaker 1: excel within those four walls, within the space. And like yesterday,
Speaker 1: we repeated things over and over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: and repetition isn't boring. And the more we practice and
Speaker 1: I didn't say like Okay, I get it, like I'm
Speaker 1: not one of those people. I'm like, okay, let me
Speaker 1: just remember it, remember it. We did a lot of
Speaker 1: hands on training yesterday. I was so thankful for that.
Speaker 1: We didn't just sit for eight hours and practice for
Speaker 1: two hours. We went back and forth to a bunch
Speaker 1: of things. We intertwined how we learn, Like we did
Speaker 1: the hands on then we read it in the book.
Speaker 1: We had the pre exam questions that are in the
Speaker 1: manual and then we did hands on. We practice it again.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, okay, so I learned hands on. I
Speaker 1: saw the charts and the graphs and the words and
Speaker 1: why it makes sense in the writing. Then we went
Speaker 1: back to do it again physically, like touching our firearms,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Oh, this is the greatest thing
Speaker 1: because there was time for the thing, for the same
Speaker 1: things to be repetitive, and that that, I think is
Speaker 1: what not. I think. I know for myself that is
Speaker 1: what made me successful at the end, because I understood
Speaker 1: why and that repetition it creates confidence. There was a
Speaker 1: woman that was beside me, doesn't matter her name, her age, whatever,
Speaker 1: So she was a beginner, the same as a lot
Speaker 1: of us worth. I mean, there were some people there
Speaker 1: that were like they were military prior, so in that
Speaker 1: specific chorus, there was one woman she wasn't. At some point.
Speaker 1: We did pairs yesterday, we did today. I loved being
Speaker 1: in pairs. I love partner workouts, so I loved going
Speaker 1: there yesterday and over the weekend and being put in pairs.
Speaker 1: And I had a different partner one day, I had
Speaker 1: a different partner the next day. There's some people were
Speaker 1: in my chorus for the Sunday who are also in
Speaker 1: my chorus on the Saturday, and then there's a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of new people as well on the Sunday too. So
Speaker 1: when we had to work in pairs, there was one
Speaker 1: woman working beside me, and she was not my pair,
Speaker 1: but we were both doing what we needed to do
Speaker 1: at the same time. And when she was doing her things,
Speaker 1: something that's really important is that your finger does not
Speaker 1: touch the trigger. Otherwise you lose two points. If the
Speaker 1: barrel is pointed at someone and you have your finger
Speaker 1: on the trigger, doesn't matter if it's on the trigger
Speaker 1: or not, you automatically fail. So when she was doing
Speaker 1: her thing beside me, she put her finger on the trigger.
Speaker 1: It wasn't pointed at me, but I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: your finger's on the trigger. She's like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I'm like, no, sweat, So I
Speaker 1: continue to doing what I was doing. And then she
Speaker 1: accidentally put the ammunition. She doubled up the ammunition where
Speaker 1: it was not supposed to be doubled up. Therefore, the
Speaker 1: semi automatic gun it jammed, so she had a color
Speaker 1: over the instructor. I can't do anything about that. That's
Speaker 1: not what I'm there for. I wanted to try to help,
Speaker 1: but I don't know how to fix that. So I'm
Speaker 1: not going to overstep and potentially break this firearm that
Speaker 1: is a needed and required and very expensive. So the
Speaker 1: instructor came over and he was patient. He didn't really
Speaker 1: say much like he didn't make her feel bad. She
Speaker 1: felt bad enough. She didn't need anyone to make her
Speaker 1: feel bad, so thankfully, no one made her feel bad.
Speaker 1: But I heard her say twice and she was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm so stupid. And I said this
Speaker 1: to Chris, my spouse when I got home, and I
Speaker 1: was crying about it, actually, but I said to her,
Speaker 1: and I almost cried in the spot, but I didn't
Speaker 1: because I made firearms training so I didn't want to
Speaker 1: let my crazy hangout in public. But I said to her,
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, you're not stupid, you are learning. And
Speaker 1: she just looked at me. She goes, no, I am stupid,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, so I'm just going to keep
Speaker 1: telling you. Do you tell me that again? I say
Speaker 1: the exact same thing, You're not stupid, you're learning. And
Speaker 1: I finished what I was doing. She finished what she
Speaker 1: was doing the thing was fine, the gun survived, She's okay,
Speaker 1: and then we had to go. It was ceasefire, which
Speaker 1: means you make sure everything's good, you make sure the
Speaker 1: gun isn't armed. We're training, so none of the guns
Speaker 1: could have fired. It's very safe in firearms training. So
Speaker 1: we prove the gun safe, is what it is called.
Speaker 1: We put it down, cease fire, and you stop shooting
Speaker 1: and you back up. So it's a few feet from
Speaker 1: where the line is, so we were standing. We backed up,
Speaker 1: and I looked at her and I said to her,
Speaker 1: I'm like, the nice thing is is that you have
Speaker 1: someone who knows firearms, someone who is registered, licensed, very
Speaker 1: very confident and knowledgeable and experienced with non restricted firearms.
Speaker 1: And thankfully my spouse is the exact same. So we
Speaker 1: both know, you and I that when we leave this place.
Speaker 1: First of all, no one's going to put a gun
Speaker 1: in our hands. Firearm, I want to say, firearms, so
Speaker 1: no one gets overly offended. Same but different, I guess,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, that's not what we're doing here. Like, however,
Speaker 1: when the time comes, if you're going hunting, I'm not hunting,
Speaker 1: but maybe she might be. If you're going hunting. You're
Speaker 1: not a one man's show and you have to have
Speaker 1: it figured it out, and you're gonna see yourself on
Speaker 1: the foot or hurt somebody else. You have someone who
Speaker 1: is your spouse that is with you, that is going
Speaker 1: to be there with you, helping you to gain your
Speaker 1: confidence along the way. When you pass today, it is
Speaker 1: evidence that you are safe and you are trusted. When
Speaker 1: you leave here, it's not like you're just alone and
Speaker 1: you have to figure it out. The same thing happens
Speaker 1: when you go to a group fitness class as coached.
Speaker 1: You're not ever going to be alone. There's going to
Speaker 1: be someone with you. If you want to ask a question,
Speaker 1: there's time. There's a time to ask a question if
Speaker 1: you want to understand why we're doing something like oh
Speaker 1: what muscle group does this use? Or I really like this,
Speaker 1: but I'm not understanding why like this and I hate this,
Speaker 1: or like how come my one is lifting a little
Speaker 1: bit higher than the other arm. So like we have
Speaker 1: our instructors, our experience to explain that to you. There
Speaker 1: are no stupid questions, like even if someone would ask me,
Speaker 1: like hey, Christina, why do we need to drink water
Speaker 1: to stay alive? That's not a stupid question. You have
Speaker 1: to drink water to stay alive. We're like cucumbers. It's
Speaker 1: good for everything in our entire bodies, so like it
Speaker 1: also helps to cleanse the liver and all these other things. Right,
Speaker 1: we need water, we need vitamins and nutrients and minerals.
Speaker 1: There's literally no stupid questions. So that to me is
Speaker 1: reminding ourselves that we are allowed to be in a
Speaker 1: space of learning when we especially when we are learning
Speaker 1: and when we had to go up because there was
Speaker 1: like there was a time in Saturday's chorus that there
Speaker 1: was one type of each firearm. So there would be
Speaker 1: a group and someone would go up and everyone would
Speaker 1: watch them, and the instructor would say, okay, each step
Speaker 1: by step, and you had to do as he was saying.
Speaker 1: But you also have to remember how the terminology that
Speaker 1: he was using, because he wasn't saying, okay, move the
Speaker 1: thing from the thing and do the thing like how
Speaker 1: I just did it. He was saying the proper terminology.
Speaker 1: So highly recommend if that's something you're interested in. Safety
Speaker 1: first always and legal it's legal, so legally safe chef's
Speaker 1: kiss perfect combination, of course, But I was thinking I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go first or go next because
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm doing. Well either does anybody
Speaker 1: else else standing there. We're all learning, right like, and
Speaker 1: we all had and people even the instructor he would
Speaker 1: have had to learn at one time as well. Same
Speaker 1: like fitness, even our coaches in front of the room.
Speaker 1: Again going referencing back because it's still fresh in my brain.
Speaker 1: The podcast episode that I recorded with Tina, the episode prior,
Speaker 1: she had said, like, you assume that everybody in the
Speaker 1: in charge or in front of the room, the instructor,
Speaker 1: has their entire life together, that they're the end all
Speaker 1: and be all, and they don't make mistakes, especially in fitness. Well,
Speaker 1: yeah we do. We're going to read something wrong, we're
Speaker 1: going to do we're gonna make a mistake. We're never
Speaker 1: gonna make the mistake that's going to hurt anybody. But
Speaker 1: there's sometimes when we're going to call the wrong thing
Speaker 1: the wrong thing by accident, or maybe there's sometimes when
Speaker 1: the time clock we're like, oh, shoot, okay, three two
Speaker 1: one and it already had beeped. That happens because we're humans,
Speaker 1: right like, we get we get talking or we're correcting
Speaker 1: someone's form, and we're making sure that they feel good
Speaker 1: on that correction, and sometimes the time clock runs, or
Speaker 1: sometimes we get caught up in helping someone with their form,
Speaker 1: or they're asking a question while they're working out and
Speaker 1: we're coaching them through it, and then we forget what
Speaker 1: round we're on. There's sometimes what I'm asking someone about
Speaker 1: how their weekend was and how their kids doing, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, I totally did not pay attention.
Speaker 1: Is this round three or four. We're not perfect, The
Speaker 1: instructors aren't perfect, So it's okay to be a beginner
Speaker 1: in the space knowing that at some point. It's so
Speaker 1: cliche to say that out loud, but everybody at one
Speaker 1: point was a beginner of everything, everything that it exists.
Speaker 1: If you go to golf lessons, somebody there who like
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods, I don't know if that's if he's canceled
Speaker 1: or not canceled. The don't quote me on this, but
Speaker 1: like Tiger Woods, who I've heard is really really good
Speaker 1: at golf, was a beginner at some point. Like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say George Chavalo because I love him and he
Speaker 1: is a Canadian boxer fabulous. You can google it, look
Speaker 1: up the history. George Chavalo at one time was an
Speaker 1: amateur boxer. It's so weird to say that out loud.
Speaker 1: He's so great, but at one time he put on
Speaker 1: boxing gloves for the first time. At one time he
Speaker 1: threw a punch for the first time. Same as in fitness.
Speaker 1: So that to me is the confidence every time you
Speaker 1: do something like you have to build that consistency before
Speaker 1: you build in the complexity. And that's why in firearms
Speaker 1: training they want you to do the non restricted level
Speaker 1: won the pal before you can do the separate chorus,
Speaker 1: which is the restricted licensing. Okay, So something else was
Speaker 1: realizing how much information or brains process, Like that's a
Speaker 1: less that I took over the last two days. How
Speaker 1: much can we actually process? We're learning something new and
Speaker 1: as coaches we sometimes throw five corrections all at once
Speaker 1: at somebody. That is something I really do advise against,
Speaker 1: but I will do that when I'm coaching the room,
Speaker 1: so I'll throw a whole bunch of corrections to see
Speaker 1: who needs it and where it lands. That's why when
Speaker 1: people are like, are you talking to me, I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I tell you sometimes they're like, was that me? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was you? You know that was you. It will laugh, right,
Speaker 1: But like it's lift your chest, brace your core, drive
Speaker 1: through your heels, push the floor away from you. That's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite cues for a squad or deadlift
Speaker 1: is imagine you're pushing the floor away from you, slow
Speaker 1: it down, breathe through it. But imagine hearing all of
Speaker 1: that when you're already nervous to so going up to
Speaker 1: one single person, I wouldn't just say lift your chest,
Speaker 1: brace your core, dude, Like I wouldn't be in their
Speaker 1: ear about it, like, oh, your elbows are pointed the
Speaker 1: wrong way. This, this is like this, this is like this, Okay,
Speaker 1: now do this and don't blink and make sure your
Speaker 1: eyes are open. Like there's so many things that you
Speaker 1: wouldn't do throwing that right at somebody, like the speed right,
Speaker 1: like when I said, like you have to pace the
Speaker 1: speed when you're helping someone and when someone is learning,
Speaker 1: and the best coaching isn't giving somebody more information, it's
Speaker 1: letting them practice. I know that our coaches and for
Speaker 1: myself on the gym floor, and I know all of
Speaker 1: our coaches are the exact same way because this is
Speaker 1: our this is we're making the same pizza recipe. And
Speaker 1: we've had staff meetings, we've had training, we all do
Speaker 1: the exact same thing. Is you pick maybe one thing
Speaker 1: or if something looks like someone's going to hurt themselves
Speaker 1: and you correct it. You give them what the exercise is,
Speaker 1: You let them have time to practice and something that
Speaker 1: use doesn't really happen now, but it used to happen
Speaker 1: back in the day. I love throwing that in there.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, Oh man, something that people used
Speaker 1: to do was they would try to which the person
Speaker 1: beside them as a participant in the room. That's not
Speaker 1: their job. And also, if we've already made one correction,
Speaker 1: that member doesn't need someone beside them the entire time
Speaker 1: telling them what they're doing wrong and making them feel embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, if I've given them what the form is,
Speaker 1: I said, okay, control the movement. This is what it is.
Speaker 1: This way is appropriate for you. They may not have
Speaker 1: their elbows in the exact same Take out a ruler,
Speaker 1: put in that millimeter and then oh no, but move
Speaker 1: it like that. No, no you're moving it. Okay, move
Speaker 1: it like this. No, no, you're moving it, you're still
Speaker 1: moving it. You're still moving it. I'm dropping those dumbells
Speaker 1: and I'm leaving that gym and I'm never going back.
Speaker 1: A good coach doesn't throw and stay there and pick
Speaker 1: and pick and pick and pick and pick. They actually
Speaker 1: give you space to practice. They give you the right information,
Speaker 1: one correction, one successes, and then you build from there.
Speaker 1: You don't need to make five things better all at
Speaker 1: the exact same time. Pick one and then practice it,
Speaker 1: make it boring, make it repetitive, and then you can
Speaker 1: grow from there. To me, when you have confidence, and today,
Speaker 1: my introduction to everybody is my confidence level is normally
Speaker 1: at a ten, but there is certain things where my
Speaker 1: skill might be a four or a five. Let's say swimming,
Speaker 1: my confidence is a ten. My skill is like a three,
Speaker 1: and I can doggy paddle, Okay, I can float. That's
Speaker 1: where I get the three in the skill level. But
Speaker 1: beyond that, that's just how I'm as a person. I'll
Speaker 1: come in and be excited. If someone wants me to
Speaker 1: do something, the number one thing, I would be like, yes,
Speaker 1: I can do it, and if I can't do it,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna learn it and I'm gonna be excited about it,
Speaker 1: but I need that skill to go in there. But
Speaker 1: that's a different type of confidence is the excitement, but
Speaker 1: the confidence in the skill. It only happens after you
Speaker 1: start doing it. Because that's something I thought about too,
Speaker 1: right like how I said, Like when I first walked
Speaker 1: into the firearms training, after five minutes, I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: never going to retain this. I'm confident enough to show
Speaker 1: up and be like, yes, I'm gonna do it, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to foresee it to its best potential. Hence
Speaker 1: why I have all those questions that I always ask,
Speaker 1: even about things that are not on the exam, because
Speaker 1: it's not that I want to pass the exam. I
Speaker 1: want to know these things for life, like I want
Speaker 1: to know every detail about it so like And I
Speaker 1: guess that's why now I own a gym, because I
Speaker 1: love fitness so much for years and years and years
Speaker 1: and years that I'm just like a sponge. And that's
Speaker 1: why I do so many certifications. I'm gonna say every
Speaker 1: two months, every three months, I'm picking up more certifications,
Speaker 1: I'm doing more choruses. I want to be very enriched
Speaker 1: in my knowledge, not just for myself but for other people,
Speaker 1: So like, no one walks into the gym knowing one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty percent that their skill and their confidence
Speaker 1: is going to be a match and is going to
Speaker 1: be amazing, saying like with firearms training, like confidence wasn't
Speaker 1: a requirement when I signed up for the chorus, but
Speaker 1: that was the result, and I was confident in the
Speaker 1: skill the more that I had time to practice. So
Speaker 1: when I walked in there on Sunday's chorus, I already
Speaker 1: knew what there's these lam I think they're called abbreviations,
Speaker 1: Like I knew what acts was walking into my restricted
Speaker 1: license because I had learned it in my non restricted
Speaker 1: I learned what prove means. So when I walked in
Speaker 1: there today, I already knew, Okay, this is the trigger,
Speaker 1: this is the barrel, this is your safety, this is
Speaker 1: how you use a trigger lock, Like I already knew
Speaker 1: those things, and I felt so much more confident walking
Speaker 1: into the restricted and saying that they're different. So I
Speaker 1: had to learn a new set of skills, but then
Speaker 1: I was confident knowing that I will learn these because
Speaker 1: how I walked in yesterday zealous and excited and confident. However,
Speaker 1: being a little nervous about what I would retain for
Speaker 1: the skill ninety eight percent. And that's a practical and
Speaker 1: a written exam, and if you fail one, you got
Speaker 1: to read you both thankfully. Knock on wood. I retain
Speaker 1: the information and I remember the information. But that's what
Speaker 1: I hear at the at the gym. Like when people
Speaker 1: walk into the gym, one of the most common things
Speaker 1: that I hear is that people want to be more confident.
Speaker 1: They want to gain their confidence, so that's why they're
Speaker 1: walking into the gym. On the contrast, something I hear
Speaker 1: is I'll come to the gym once I lose weight
Speaker 1: or once I figure out at home what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: because underline what that is underlying and to hear someone
Speaker 1: say that is that they want to get confident before
Speaker 1: they join the gym. They want to know what they're
Speaker 1: doing because I don't want to embarrass themselves when they
Speaker 1: get to the gym. But that's literally how you gain confidence.
Speaker 1: You don't need to learn and struggle by yourself. You
Speaker 1: can come into our space and build your confidence, not
Speaker 1: just your confidence and how you feel and how you
Speaker 1: look and how your energy is, but in your skill
Speaker 1: that you're learning as well. Like it's funny. So I
Speaker 1: really we have a member, and I just think she's fantastic.
Speaker 1: That could be literally anybody when I say that out loud.
Speaker 1: But I got to know her more because we had
Speaker 1: our summer social. She's been a member now, I thought forever,
Speaker 1: because that's how I feel like I know her. She's
Speaker 1: been a member for like four months. And she said
Speaker 1: to me, she's like, Christina, remember the first day? She said, no,
Speaker 1: she said, I remember the first day. I said, where's
Speaker 1: the ropes? I was like yeah, She's like, you set
Speaker 1: me up the battle ropes. I was like, that's not
Speaker 1: what you asked me for and she's like, I meant
Speaker 1: to skipping rope. I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why didn't you tell me? Then she's like I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm like, did you use them the battle ropes? And
Speaker 1: she was like yeah. And I'm like, and you use
Speaker 1: them well, but that was your first time and she
Speaker 1: was like yes because I she had asked me for
Speaker 1: a skipping rope and it was ropes, So in my
Speaker 1: brain I went, oh, ropes, battle ropes. It was at
Speaker 1: a six am class and I just gave her the
Speaker 1: battle rope. She did it, and she did it well,
Speaker 1: and now she still continues to do it and do
Speaker 1: it well. I think that's a song, do it and
Speaker 1: do it and doing it well? Or is it wild?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. But she kept showing up. She gained
Speaker 1: confidence that literally was from day one. Like a lot
Speaker 1: of people are like, oh, I'm intimidated by the battle
Speaker 1: ropes or whatever. I will always clarify. Now when someone says, hey,
Speaker 1: can you get me the ropes or wear the ropes?
Speaker 1: Don't worry, I'll get it for you, I will clarify.
Speaker 1: Do you mean skipping it a ropeword? Do you mean
Speaker 1: battle rope? So? Yeah, So like the confidence, it shows
Speaker 1: up literally as you keep showing up. That's how you learn.
Speaker 1: That's how you get to the next stage. And not
Speaker 1: in the next stage of fitness level, I mean to
Speaker 1: the next stage of what you're learning. Next experiences. I
Speaker 1: always call it like the experience, notch in the experience built.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, confidence, you don't just walk around and
Speaker 1: find it on the street. It's something that has to
Speaker 1: be built. And in order for that confidence to be built,
Speaker 1: we also need to respect the process. Trust the process,
Speaker 1: respect the process. Me in firearms training does not make
Speaker 1: me an expert by any means. When someone is going
Speaker 1: to the gym for the week, a week's worth of
Speaker 1: gym attendance doesn't transform your body. If that's what your
Speaker 1: goal is, one week at the gym will definitely transform
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of really amazing things right away. A
Speaker 1: week at the gym, you're going to be stronger on
Speaker 1: Friday than what you were on Monday when you first
Speaker 1: showed up. That's the process. Respect the process, trust the process.
Speaker 1: Everything and anything that's worthwhile takes practice. It takes feedback,
Speaker 1: it takes humility, it takes consistency. Like when I walked
Speaker 1: in there, I was zoned in. I was stoic. It's funny,
Speaker 1: so a long time ago, like eight years ago. There's
Speaker 1: some people. So I originally wanted to be an RCMP officer,
Speaker 1: and I have said that before I did my school
Speaker 1: stuff for it. I got what I needed to get.
Speaker 1: I excelled in fitness, especially because I knew there was
Speaker 1: a physical test. I did anything and everything leading up
Speaker 1: to going to Saskatoon for training, and then I started
Speaker 1: the transformation station. So I did not follow through with
Speaker 1: my RCMP training or that whole thing. A lot of
Speaker 1: people say to me, They're like, oh my gosh, you
Speaker 1: would be a fantastic officer. And there's some people that
Speaker 1: are like, but you're overwhelming, like you have too much energy.
Speaker 1: Two things. I say this every single day these days.
Speaker 1: Two things can't be true at the same time. So
Speaker 1: years ago, like maybe eight, nine, ten years ago, maybe
Speaker 1: at this point where I was living, it was fairly
Speaker 1: late at night, and I heard somebody screaming and it
Speaker 1: was a state of it was beyond a state of
Speaker 1: an emergency, and everyone was freaking out and they needed
Speaker 1: someone to call nine one one, and people were crying
Speaker 1: and consoling each other. And I just walked in and
Speaker 1: I looked at the person who I knew was my contact,
Speaker 1: and I walked in. This doesn't This is not going
Speaker 1: to tell you that I'm going to be a good RCMPO.
Speaker 1: I would have been a good RCMP officer. I'm just stating,
Speaker 1: in a case of chaos and learning, I'm actually incredibly calm.
Speaker 1: So I looked at her and I said, who are you?
Speaker 1: What's going on here? Has someone called nine one one? No?
Speaker 1: She tried to get someone else to call ne on one.
Speaker 1: What happened. Emotions emotions. I'm like, I'm calling on my phone,
Speaker 1: thank you kindly. I have your address, I know your name,
Speaker 1: I know the situation. I called and I said to
Speaker 1: her after I'm like, okay, they're on the way. This
Speaker 1: is what's happening. I said, do you need me to
Speaker 1: go in? And she said no. I said, okay, h
Speaker 1: even just fast forward. Last month, I was at Costco
Speaker 1: with a friend and another friend. He was very I
Speaker 1: was walking. My friend and myself were walking. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I hear a guy's voice. First I felt
Speaker 1: his arm on my shoulder, and then I heard a voice.
Speaker 1: I knew it was a guy's voice, and I slowly
Speaker 1: turned and stepped aside, and then I was like, oh hey,
Speaker 1: And then it was like it was just like fast forward,
Speaker 1: like oh my gosh, nice to see you. What are
Speaker 1: you doing here? Like I want to know everything? And
Speaker 1: he was like it was how like nonchalant that you
Speaker 1: were and you didn't even turn your head. But I
Speaker 1: know that I don't react quickly, especially i'm in public. Firstly,
Speaker 1: I was safe there and then and I also know
Speaker 1: how to use my body. I have self defense training.
Speaker 1: And also if I moved quickly, and that was a
Speaker 1: bad case situation. I could have put myself in more
Speaker 1: danger without assessing my situation. So when it came down
Speaker 1: to the firearms training, I was very serious because I
Speaker 1: knew that there's consequence to not failing. I can always
Speaker 1: take the test over again, right, there's a consequence if
Speaker 1: I miss one detail. It's just like when you go
Speaker 1: to make a recipe. And I'm gonna use this example
Speaker 1: from when I was a kid, tried to make craft dinner.
Speaker 1: There was one box of craft dinner left. I was
Speaker 1: not able or allowed, or the cook of the family
Speaker 1: to use the stove to do any of those things.
Speaker 1: There was one box of craft dinner, and I was unsupervised,
Speaker 1: so I was hungry. I made this box of craft dinner.
Speaker 1: And I remember because I think I was actually in
Speaker 1: grade three, because it was my grade three teacher that said,
Speaker 1: if you don't understand a word, read the rest of
Speaker 1: your words and skip it, but then go back to it,
Speaker 1: because then if you get the bigger picture, you go
Speaker 1: back to the word that you skipped and then you
Speaker 1: process it. And I remember even saying to my mom
Speaker 1: to my brother, who was upset because I ruined the
Speaker 1: last box of Craft Dinner. It said drain. What the
Speaker 1: I'm in like the third grade? Okay, what does drain mean?
Speaker 1: It says all these steps and it doesn't say put
Speaker 1: your macaroni into a strainer, not a drainer, a strainer
Speaker 1: and strain the water before putting it back into the
Speaker 1: pot to mix in your powder cheese. So I skipped
Speaker 1: the word drain. Then I went back to it and
Speaker 1: I was like, how come I have soup? This isn't
Speaker 1: what it looks like when Mark, my brother's name is Marco.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this isn't what it looks like when Marco
Speaker 1: makes Kraft dinner. His isn't soup. And I was like, oh, drain.
Speaker 1: So then I drained it, which to me is strain.
Speaker 1: I strained it with a strainer again, not a drainer,
Speaker 1: and I went back. You can't do that in firearms.
Speaker 1: With firearms, you cannot go back after you made a
Speaker 1: mistake because you didn't know what it was right. So
Speaker 1: that's why I was like, Okay, I'm going to take
Speaker 1: my time. I'm going to learn in the space. The
Speaker 1: same thing like in a Finnis class. If you come
Speaker 1: in and you're talking instead of listening to what we're doing,
Speaker 1: which I love talking, so I'm here for that. However,
Speaker 1: if you don't know what you're doing and you're talking,
Speaker 1: then when we start three two one go, you're like, uh,
Speaker 1: what do we need? What am I doing? What am I?
Speaker 1: What was that? What was that? Sorry? I was talking.
Speaker 1: Now I'm expected to stop the class for everybody else
Speaker 1: to explain what it is that we're doing. I will
Speaker 1: go up to them and tell them, this is what
Speaker 1: we're doing. Then I don't have to say anything. They know,
Speaker 1: oh I should have paid attention. I don't need to
Speaker 1: embarrass anybody. They know. There's some times that talking is
Speaker 1: so loud and the instructor is trying to explain what
Speaker 1: it is that we're doing. I'm a firm believer that
Speaker 1: sometimes when you're interrupting somebody, they might be hearing something.
Speaker 1: And I learned this a long time ago. I heard
Speaker 1: someone say this to me because I was always the
Speaker 1: person talking in the room during instruction. And now I
Speaker 1: make sure that I don't do it. And I think
Speaker 1: about this sometimes in my brain still, like fifteen years later.
Speaker 1: Sometimes someone is saying something that might change the other
Speaker 1: person's life and they can't hear because you're too busy
Speaker 1: talking over top of something that you're supposed to be
Speaker 1: listening to. So there's sometimes in a class that somebody
Speaker 1: is nervous because I don't know what they're doing and
Speaker 1: they're trying to listen. But you got three people beside
Speaker 1: yelling and screaming about the weekend, and that person is
Speaker 1: up the creek without a paddle, and now they have
Speaker 1: lost confidence because three two one go, they haven't heard anything.
Speaker 1: That's why I'll put on my microphone before every class.
Speaker 1: It's like it's the bat signal of people that come
Speaker 1: to my life. They know, oh, we're getting busy. But
Speaker 1: there's sometimes I do that to test my microphone and
Speaker 1: there's still ten minutes before class actually through two one go,
Speaker 1: and I'll go tutu. I'm like, don't rush, we got
Speaker 1: ten minutes before class starts. If you want to know
Speaker 1: what we're going over, this is what we're doing. If
Speaker 1: someone asked me what do we need, I'll put on
Speaker 1: my mic and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna tell everybody
Speaker 1: at the same time because there's other people that are
Speaker 1: wondering what we need. All right, So I'm going to
Speaker 1: wrap this up. It's interesting when I podcast and I'm solo,
Speaker 1: I have a picture in my brain and I can
Speaker 1: still keep talking to you. Thank you for listening. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna cut this off right here. It's true. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: leave you with this. Whether you're learning anything that's brand new,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if you're a beginner, whether it's business, fitness,
Speaker 1: public speaking, talking on a podcast, anything that's a new
Speaker 1: skill fararms training, could be anything you got a new job,
Speaker 1: could be that you're going to school, could be that
Speaker 1: you're walking through the gym for the first time. It's true.
Speaker 1: Everything takes practice, feedback, humility, consistency, all of those things.
Speaker 1: That is what this reminded me of this past weekend.
Speaker 1: It's something that's really important as coaches. We should never
Speaker 1: stop becoming students. And the more often we put ourselves
Speaker 1: into those situations where we are the beginner, we are
Speaker 1: the student, where we don't know everything, the more empathy
Speaker 1: that we have for people that we're trying to help.
Speaker 1: It reminded me also that the first class can be scary.
Speaker 1: You can be excited and you can be nervous all
Speaker 1: at the same time. Asking questions can feel uncomfortable, especially
Speaker 1: if you care about what other people think. I know
Speaker 1: that this past weekend, I wasn't anybody to anybody. I
Speaker 1: was just myself going into a class where I think
Speaker 1: I probably asked five times the amount of questions as
Speaker 1: my fellow peers. And there was twelve people in my
Speaker 1: class on Sunday and there was nine on Saturday. Confidence
Speaker 1: comes slow. Learning something new can be mentally exhausting. All
Speaker 1: great instructors they don't just teach you what that skill is.
Speaker 1: It's they create an environment where people can feel safe.
Speaker 1: People can be not just feel safe as in safe
Speaker 1: in protection, but safe enough to keep learning, to put
Speaker 1: their guards down. That was my biggest thing, as you
Speaker 1: had space to put your guard down, to feel comfortable
Speaker 1: and confident to ask those questions. And that, to me
Speaker 1: is what I want every single person who walks through
Speaker 1: the Transformation Station doors to experience. All right, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening today. This podcast has no sponsors.
Speaker 1: I did not get paid for this. I did not
Speaker 1: want to be paid for this. However, if this episode
Speaker 1: made you think about learning in a different way, I'd
Speaker 1: love it if you would share it with someone who's
Speaker 1: about to start something new. I appreciate feedback, likes, comments, reviews.
Speaker 1: Come talk to me if you want to have a conversation.
Speaker 1: I would love that. Until next time, keep on learning
Speaker 1: and remember you don't always have to be confident to begin.
Speaker 1: You just have to begin. Until next time,