Send us your input for Season 5, We would love to hear what you want us to cover and any subjects you would like us to go deeper on, guests you'd like us to interview.

Rachel Steadman hops on with Mikki and Jeff to discuss a little "how we got here" CrossFit history, 2006, fish tacos, and some serious guidance. The community has grown up over the past two decades and Rachel's knowledge on how gyms can plan ahead to avoid "the risks of not managing risks" is pure gold.

Episode Highlights:

1. 1:30 CrossFit and Rachel's Professional Background

2. 3:16 Message Boards and Painstorms

3. 4:45 Internet Friendships

4. 6:56 Level 1 at the OG Brand X® in San Diego

5. 8:12 Coaching evolution

6. 8:59 Ellipsis Training and Adventures, Environment, Safety and Quality

7. 12:31 From Safety Lady to teaching kids to Recognize, Assess, Manage

8. 14:46 Risk & Challenge and how they are different

9. 17:12 Addressing both Professional Competence and Legal Compliance

10. 19:00 The cost of not investing in Robust Risk Management

11. 21:49 Most Common "problems" encountered, and youth specific concerns

12. 27:25 Advice to Parents, Coaches and Owners in regard to Social Media exposure

13. 31:45 Creating structure to limit Coaches use of phones during training

14. 35:47 Thoughts on Teens in Adult Class

15. 39:47 Teens, brain development timelines and the high possibility of "poor decisions"

Links and Hashtags:

https://ellipsistrainingandadventures.com

https://www.instagram.com/ellipsisaffiliatesystems

ellipsisaffiliatesystems@gmail.com

https://thebrandxmethod.thinkific.com/collections

https://www.instagram.com/thebrandxmethod/

https://www.instagram.com/theacn.app/

#BusinessRiskStrategies

#RiskManagement

#gymbusiness

#ellipsistrainingandadventures

#thebrandxmethod

#YouthStrengthTraining

#TeenFitnessTraining

#TheAthleteCoachNetwork

Keegan and Mikki share proven strategies for positive coaching through growth spurts. Keeping youth engaged when physiological changes and challenges can create extra adjustment for both the youth and the coach.

Episode Highlights:

1. 1:31 "Early Bloomers" kindness, options, normalizing the experience and getting back to mastery

2. 3:29 Highlighting how their new body proportions have advantages

3. 6:32 Defining "Spend time in new positions"

4. 8:43 Awareness that the results of spending time in new positions are often discomfort, pain, struggling through tightness, and the need for specific mobility exercises

5. 10:55 "New Range of Motion is weak Range of Motion"

6. 11:36 Plan to incorporate more midline, core exercises, building core from more than a single direction- includie proprioceptive, rotation and anti rotation

Links and Hashtags:



https://thebrandxmethod.thinkific.com/collections

https://www.instagram.com/thebrandxmethod/

https://www.instagram.com/theacn.app/

#thebrandxmethod

#PositiveCoachingYouth

#YouthStrengthTraining

#YouthGrowthSpurts

#TeenFitnessTraining

#TheAthleteCoachNetwork

Dan Uyemura, Founder of PushPress joins Jeff and Mikki to discuss a myriad of topics from how fear of failure can be a real motivator, Glee Club and the positive outcomes of challenges, Staying humble, having true empathy and how a Coaches impact can be lifelong for youth. We discuss the similarities and differences in Adult and Youth Program needs, How actual human experience is still key for accurate data, and notably why PushPress is leading the way in SaaS for gyms with excellent products and strategies that help their customers (gyms) do their jobs helping their customers (members) to feel good about their experience.

Episode Highlights:

1:00 A focus on solving customer pain points.

3:54 Play History, A typical day after school.

5:26 Fear of Failure as a motivator.

9:00 Resilience from a bad experience "...can be so defining".

10:52 Resilience from choices, belief in humanity and empathy.

12:39 "Do the right thing every day".

14:09 How transparency enhances the culture at PushPress.

16:03 Be humble, admit when you're wrong.

17:31 Remember how tough youth culture can be, how empathy can provide a safe place

20:15 For youth, a Coaches impact can be lifelong. The importance of "they showed up for me".

22:35 How PushPress helps gyms do their job

24:46 Making the customer experience memorable "I love Coach Dan" and manufacturing for the desired outcome.

27:18 Thinking of a youth program as a business.

28:50 In business, work on one thing and fix it, which may break something else, fix it.

31:14 Parents want their children to reach full potential.

33:07 Challenges are motivating.

36:22 Data in a holistic gym setting to define who is successful and why, it can corroborate, improve and refine the human experience.

39:40 Data concerns include bias, skewing of definitions and more. We still need both data and actual human experience.

46:21 New PushPress tools.

49:05. How we look at problems and creating solutions that are as aotomatable as possible.

51:33 The Question no one has ever asked.

Links & Hashtags

www.pushpress.com

www.thebrandxmethod.com

Brand X® Kids & Teen Programming now on PushPress Train

PushPress website: PushPress.com

The PushPress Podcast: https://www.pushpress.com/podcast

Dan's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danuyemura/

Dan's Instagram: @danielsan

#Gymmanagementsoftware

#PushPress

#SaaS

#YouthAthleticDevelopment

#YouthFitnessBusiness

#YouthPrograms

Keegan and Jeff share effective systems for appropriate Intensity when training Youth. They talk about what is ineffective, effective, dose response evaluation and the vast difference between training for health and longevity and training for competition.

Episode Highlights:

1:58 Defining What is effective

2:42 Dose and Volume- Using speed, reps and load for positive effect.

4:04 Health & intensity, balancing goals, recovery and fun.

6:09 Effective Youth models differ from Adult models.

7:35 Leverage High Skill Low Skill pairings.

8:48 Evaluating Sport- Seasons, Cycles and stressors.

10:50 The goal is to boost performance in their Sport of choice.

11:19 Coach Movement rather than Cheerlead Intensity.

11:50 Know your athlete with planned facetime and interaction.

13:35 The whole goal is to make training gains while still recoverable to be effective.

15:24 What is the appropriate age to sprinkle intensity into training?

17:16 Training for Health vs. Training for Competition, redlining carries risk.

17:55 Training for Health and Longevity should be and look different.

Links and Hashtags

https://www.instagram.com/thebrandxmethod/

https://www.instagram.com/theacn.app/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikki-lee-martin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-martin

#intensityinyouthfitness

#sportperformance

#youthsportperformance

#effectiveyouthstrengthandconditioning

#teenfitness

#youthdevelopmentprograms

#youthfunctionalfitness

#gyms

#sportsfacilities

#youthtraining

#boutiquegyms

#wellnessbusiness

#youthhealth

Mikki and Jeff host Farran Mackay to discuss her unique and client centric approach to creating success for gyms, coaches and clients.

Sustainability is the goal through optimal member experience planning.

Episode Highlights:

1:32 Teaching through love of Sport

2:43 Researching long term changes for positive practices in teachers

4:32 "Unless you can support the person in front of you to take the next steps in their growth, whatever it is then it doesn't matter what the content is"

5:41 Strategies for accountability

8:34 Templates only go so far

9:50 Choices based on the right information

11:50 Understanding why members are there in that moment

13:14 Create space to connect

15:30 The old way and the new way, generational change

17:05 You don't have to muddle through, get a mentor

22:14 What is meant by "just be better"?

24:11 Expansion of member analysis is leaning into healthspan and innovation

27:16 Development of expanded measures and benchmarks beyond the rehab model to an opportunity model

33:38 All investments have time horizons

37:40 Developing a human takes at least 18 years

45:38 Defining explicitly exceptional member experiences

46:15. Considering development path for trainers and coaches as integral

48:06. Putting yourself in the shoes of every type of customer

50:43 Farran: What question have you never been asked on a podcast, that you would like asked?

Links and Hashtags

https://www.virtuouscoach.nl/

https://www.instagram.com/virtuous.coach.development/

https://nl.linkedin.com/in/farran-mackay

https://www.instagram.com/thebrandxmethod/

https://www.instagram.com/theacn.app/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikki-lee-martin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-martin

#fitnesscustomerexperience

#customerexperience

#youthdevelopmentprograms

#youthfunctionalfitness

#gyms

#sportsfacilities

#youthtraining

#boutiquegyms

#wellnessbusiness

#youthhealth

Jeff and Mikki talk with Stephen Kinsella of FSM Youth (Bray Ireland) about his recent project and ebook "The Edge" and the why behind helping this generation through adversity.

Episode Highlights:

2:36 The Youth Mindset angle and asking the right questions

3:56 "The Edge"- 9 Lessons and exercising the mind

7:13 Post adversity discussion and moving to "What are we going to do about it now"

9:32 The gym as a safe environment, delayed gratification and perseverance

13:54 Trust and great coaches

16:05 Outdoor Challenges and teens excelling

25:50 Brand X®, Psycho-Social Gaps defined alongside Movement Gaps

30:03 Allowing adversity

35:25 "It all comes back to getting them to lift weights"

36:18 Other projects "The Youth Coach Summit"

41:25 The 1 Question..."Stephan, Why is it so important to you to help impact Kids?"

Links and Hashtags

https://thebrandxmethod.com/

https://www.instagram.com/fsm_youths/

https://www.instagram.com/theacn.app/

2025 Youth Coaching Summit 2025

https://fsmbray.ie/kids-program/

#YouthMentalHealth

#YouthResilience

#YouthAthleticDevelopment

#YouthStrength&Conditioning

#YouthFitness

Jen Broxterman, who metaphorically is "the joyful food in your nutrition education menu" talks with Jeff and Mikki about how to build a healthy plate, how that works with youth, as well as addressing the sweet treats culture in schools and organizations as both reward and celebration- how much should we actually focus on that?

Episode Highlights:

1:30 50% Vegetables, 25% Protein, 25% Carbohydrates and how to communicate individualizing to level of activity

5:06 Reviewing the Division Of Responsibility for parents & kids

8:00 Relative needs discussions with Teens and Tweens

9:16 Matching plates to output

11:19 The Quality of the gas and the distance you'll need to go

12:56 Advice on Sweet Treats Rewards culture

17:00 Banned things get elevated in kid's minds, Food should be joyful

18:06 "As you know better, do better"

Hashtags & Links

#youthfitness

#youthathleticdevelopment

#youthperformance

#JeffMartin

#MikkiMartin

#TheBrandXMethod

#TheYouthFitnessPodcast

#TheAthleteCoachNetwork

#ProsperNutrition

#JenBroxterman

https://www.prospernutritioncoaching.com/freebies

https://thebrandxmethod.thinkific.com/collections

https://linktr.ee/theacn.app