We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alex Beasley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alex, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Reps, reps, and more reps. Everything and anything is a skill that can be learned & improved upon with consistent action. Believing that confidence & self-esteem aren’t inherent traits you’re either born with or without, that they are forged through practice, is half the battle. The second half of the battle is the practice itself; it’s the reps! In coaching, confidence building early on looked like coaching as many people as possible. When I started I coached people for free, for whatever time they had available; I made mistakes & sometimes coached poorly. The accumulation of these hundreds of coaching “reps” is what forged my sense of confidence & self-esteem inside of coaching. Anyone can do that in any arena with the same mentality about practice & reps!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am the owner & head coach of Atlanta Women’s Barbell Club (AWBC). At AWBC we specialize in bringing the gift of physical strength to every woman, regardless of her experience with the weight room. While becoming stronger physically has a number of important health benefits, we believe the true gift of physical strength lies in the expansion of what our clients believe possible for themselves. As they exceed their own perceived capabilities, their sense of confidence and agency grows which lends to bringing more of themselves to the world. We really believe in the ripple effect this has on their families, their communities, and the world.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The single most important area of knowledge developed along my coaching journey has been anecdotal experience with clients. While that has included a lot of “in the background” knowledge & learning that have ultimately informed those experiences, it’s my opinion that nothing beats experience with real people. You can know everything there is to know in the world about strength training & not be at all successful in disseminating that information to actually help people. A desire to learn is important, but not more important than getting out there and doing the real work (which often includes learning the hard way). To become the best coach possible be sure to balance out the books with getting into the world, helping people, and making mistakes!
The next most important skill has been the ability to empathize with & relate to people’s experiences/fears with regard to training. Again, a lot of this has been experiential learning through working with a lot of different people, but the experience with my own body & training has also been key here. Through keeping up with my own training & going through different seasons over different years, I can understand a lot of the frustrations and challenges that come up. Even though I can’t experience every circumstance as an individual, working through complex problems with myself has lent some context & understanding to those who are doing the same. For those who are earlier in their journey of becoming a coach: stay curious about your own experiences & the experiences of the people you work with.
The third skill I find most important is one that I am actually currently working on myself, which is valuing rest & taking care of yourself. Coaching can be a tough gig sometimes; it can be emotionally & physically draining. There are also lot of messages about work ethic and “grinding” in the fitness industry that push people to the brink of burnout. I’ve personally seen this cause really good coaches to leave their practices. Having good boundaries with clients, your work, and money in general is something that’s difficult to implement, but is ultimately good for everyone. With more energy, you can help more people and help yourself too!
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
Our ideal client is anyone who desires to get physically stronger. However, the clients who are most successful with us are excited to learn more about lifting, are goal-oriented, consistent, and know that challenges mean growth. There’s always room to grow with us so we have had a lot of clients grow to become these things throughout their time with us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://atlantawomensbarbellclub.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atlwomensbarbellclub/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atlwomensbarbellclub/
Image Credits
Caroline Koldus
