We were lucky to catch up with Roy Palmer recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Roy, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.
I believe that risk and reward go hand in hand. I am a strong advocate of the growth mindset, which promotes the idea that your intelligence and abilities are not fixed, and can be developed over time. This mindset empowers you to embrace challenges and see failures as lessons.
I believe that taking risks is necessary to grow, but the risks you take should be calculated and intentional. I think any decision you make, whether risky or not, should be driven by your values. For me, my faith is a huge factor in the decisions I make and the risks I take. Praying for guidance, trusting in God’s plan for me, and believing that he will prepare and empower me to do things I never thought I could do. When I am weak and unsure, he is strong and secure. He comforts me, strengthens me, and guides me. I am also blessed to have an amazing support system that I can always count on. A risk feels less risky when you know that you will be ok no matter how it turns out. It has been important for me to redefine success when it comes to taking risks. While success used to mean achieving outcomes and getting praise and recognition from others, it now means doing my best, learning, enjoying the process, connecting with myself, my God and others. This approach and these resources and lighthouses have guided me through the different phases and iterations of In-Tension Training, each of which has involved some risk.
It was a risk to open a business, knowing that half of all businesses fail in the first five years, not to mention doing so with my then girlfriend and now fiancée. It was then a risk to go full time, betting that I would be able to make it work. That worked until it didn’t anymore, when I took a risk to take a step back from my business to join a larger company. When that wasn’t working for me anymore, I took arguably the biggest risk of all, which was answering the call to pursue a career in nursing and shift my approach to In-Tension Training entirely, shifting most of my business online. I am now taking a risk by hiring staff, including people I have mentored and coached before, and making renewed efforts to put myself and my business out there in order to expand my impact.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Roy Palmer is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and Psychology. He has extensive experience in both sports performance and personal training. Roy has worked with people of all ages, sports, and backgrounds in 1 on 1, small group, large group, and team settings as well as in an online capacity. He has helped numerous high school athletes earn athletic scholarships, worked with collegiate athletes of all sports, assisted in NFL pro day/combine prep, and even trained NFL, NHL, and professional basketball players. He has also helped people of all ages and backgrounds get out of pain, learn to love to exercise, look, feel and move better, get back to doing what they love, and achieve their personal goals.
Roy understands how difficult and overwhelming it can be to try to sift through all of the information and “experts” online today, and to try to create a sustainable, effective program and habit for yourself. His goal is to take all of the guesswork, overwhelm and insecurity out of the equation and make it easy and enjoyable to improve your health, achieve your goals, and create a sustainable habit.
For Sports Performance Training, Roy analyzes the sport and the individual before utilizing signature mobility and stability, speed and agility, strength and power training, along sport specific movements and sport psychology principles to help athletes reduce risk of injury, improve their performance and achieve their goals.
For Personal Training, Roy provides evidence-based programming that promotes whole person health and helps people achieve their personal goals. He utilizes functional movements and incorporates elements of mobility, stability, strength and conditioning to help people look good, feel good, move well, and enjoy their training. Roy provides resources and support surrounding nutrition, recovery, mindset, goal setting and more. He encourages open communication and active collaboration, and tailors his approach to each individual.
Besides his subject matter expertise and extensive experience, what really sets Roy apart is his ability and effort to connect with and collaborate with each individual he works with. He is also very comprehensive, compassionate, and a life-long learner.
Roy offers online programs for purchase, monthly subscriptions, consultations, 1:1 online coaching, and in person training for individuals/groups by request.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey have been purpose, resilience, and compassion.
It is essential to define your purpose and values as an entrepreneur so that you can call on them when making tough decisions, feeling burnt out, or evaluating how things are going. Your purpose may change with time, and that’s ok, but having a clearly defined purpose allows you to determine what you want to do, how you want to do it, and who you want to do it with and for.
Resilience is necessary because as an entrepreneur, and really just as a person, you will face challenges and setbacks. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Ultimately we can’t control what happens, but we can control how we respond. I believe that having an inherent sense of self worth and an identity that goes beyond what you do for work or how well your work is going is essential to longevity and wellbeing as an ambitious person. When you fail or face a setback, let yourself feel those tough feelings, then step out, see the bigger picture, and move on to what’s next.
Compassion is crucial. Both for yourself and for others. Compassion is what allows us to relate to people in a thoughtful and meaningful way. Compassion is understanding feelings and needs, as well as your ability and capacity to work with those feelings and meet those needs. Compassion is the foundation of good relationships, both to self and others. Good relationships with others is what creates buy in, community, and support. Good relationship with self empowers good relationships with others, as well as longevity and wellbeing.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
We are absolutely looking for folks to partner and collaborate with at In-Tension Training!
We hope to do this primarily by connecting people with our programs and subscriptions to help more people be happier and healthier, and encouraging them to share their experience to expand our reach and create community. Whatever someone’s goals might be, we have a program or a coach that can help them get there.
We plan to empower a handful of individuals as ambassadors to lead the way with this movement, and these people will be rewarded for their efforts. Lastly, we are always open to hosting group sessions, camps and clinics for teams and groups of individuals working toward a shared goal. If you are interested in partnering or collaborating with In-Tension Training, reach out via email or text. We look forward to connecting with you!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://in-tensiontraining.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intension.training/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@In-TensionTraining
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