Ep. 034 - What is The Spear Method? A Behind the Scenes Look at Coaching with Craig Spear

SNOW NOTES

 Today's episode goes behind the scenes to provide insight into my one-to-one coaching experience.  We'll look at my unique four-pillar approach, and the transformative outcomes experienced by my clients. But that's not all – I want you to know how to kickstart your health transformation journey, so we'll  delve into the various ways to begin your Spear Method journey, and the impact of prioritizing your health. 

So, gear up to change your health narrative with the Spear Method, because your journey to transformation begins here.

TRANSCRIPT

Today I'm taking you behind the scenes and sharing what it's like to coach with me.

Welcome to man in the Arena, your go-to podcast for all things related to health and weight loss for men over 40. Here we discuss strategies that will get you off the sidelines and into the game so you can achieve your optimal health. It's time to lead a legacy of longevity.

Welcome to episode number 34. If it's your first time here, welcome. My name is Craig Spear. I'm the founder of the Spear Method and a men's health and weight loss coach. I help men, mostly over 40 years old, not only lose weight and get in better shape, but I help them learn more about themselves, help them uncover their limiting beliefs, help them uncover what's holding them back and how to change their habits so they stop all or nothing cycle of success followed by inevitable sabotage. Of course, that's just a brief intro into who I am and what I do, so in today's episode I want to dive a bit deeper and provide a behind-the-scenes perspective of what it's like to coach with me. I'll admit that coaching guys to lose weight and live healthier lives is a strange profession.

On the surface. When you coach as long as I have and you coach the number of sessions that I have, you see that we all share common pit bulls and challenges. I've hired many coaches myself in the past and I currently have a coach who I work with, who's helping me grow my business and as a coach myself, I think it'd be hypocritical to sell and provide coaching and not be open to coaching as a practice for my own self. Now I know that when I invest in coaching, I'm investing in myself and, as a result, I show up with way more intention, I'm more effective, I have a plan, I have a path and I realize my goals because I'm focused on so. I believe in the power of coaching. Now, before someone comes on as a client of mine, I always set up a one-to-one private consultation with them. That's the first thing I do, and the purpose of this consultation is for me and the prospective client to learn as much as possible about each other. The reason for this is fit. There has to be an inherent fit between coach and client, and that means getting to two yeses. That's a yes from the client, meaning they believe that I'm going to be able to deliver what they need and help them achieve their goals, and I need a yes from me. I want to make sure the prospective client is willing to do the necessary work and not looking for quick fixes and just rapid weight loss. During the consultation, ask a number of health history related questions as well as take note of their goals, their challenges and opportunities that exist, and then, from there, prospective client has an opportunity to ask as many questions they have about me, my process program or anything else they need to know to make a decision on whether or not they want to proceed.

Now, at this point, I offer a formal proposal which includes key deliverables, costs, references, referrals and just expected outcomes. Now understand that coaching with me one to one is not cheap, but what I offer is truly life changing. I help my clients reach a level in their life that they've never thought was possible, and when they show up to the sessions and they do the required work between calls, it's simply amazing the transformation that takes place. And here's why I work with my clients for a minimum of six months and during that time we get on three one-to-one coaches each month, which take place over Zoom. Now, zoom is just so convenient. Obviously, there's no travel time, so you don't have to worry about planning that into your schedule, so it fits really easily into your day. Plus, I can coach clients all over North America. Like I said, each call lasts 45 minutes and initially these calls are more about teaching. I provide all of the fundamentals, that kind of make up the spear method. So, just like a football player learns how to tackle or block or carry the football, I teach my clients course concepts centered around four main pillars Mindset, exercise, nutrition and sleep. These are the elements of men's health. In fact, it's the men's health acronym, so men's M E N S Mindset, exercise, nutrition and sleep.

So with this, I establish a really comprehensive plan for each client, including their baselines and growth opportunities, based on their needs and their goals. Now, nine times out of ten, we start with nutrition, because this offers the greatest upside and it offers the biggest impact overall. Now, once I teach each client the spear method, we dive into actual coaching and identify exactly what's holding them back. I believe that our personal realities, the results and outcomes in our lives are due to our personality, and our personalities are simply the culmination of the way that we think, feel, and so if you want to change your personal reality the amount you weigh or fitness level, even the amount of money you make or the relationship with your spouse you need to change your personality. You need to change the way that you think, feel and act. So a big piece of my coaching is helping my guys become more aware of their condition, thoughts, feelings and actions. So that's a big piece of my coaching. As I mentioned, we work together for at least six months and we meet three times per month and that one week that we don't meet one to one, we have what's called a super week. During super week, I host a group Zoom call, where all of my one to one clients and members from the arena come together on one call and I introduce behind the scenes concepts that I've been working on, where I share some personal experiences that have been going on in my life as a way to provide a different perspective.

And then, of course, we do some group coaching as well. Speaking of the arena, this is included as a bonus for my one to one client, so my one to one clients get access to this community, which is a monthly membership that anyone can join, but the one to one clients get it, the bonus. And in the arena, we not only have that monthly super call, we have a weekly greatness call and on this call, which is the first thing every Monday, we get set for the week ahead, we reflect on the past week and we set ourselves up for success. After all, success is the culmination of intention and execution, and without both of these things, we often resort back to who we are and what we've always done, and we keep getting the same results we've always done. So that greatness call is all about setting ourselves up. My one-to-one coaching not only offers exclusive coaching with me, but it offers this amazing community and support, and this is something that I am really proud of having created, because it's a real difference maker and I've seen just how much the guys who are already doing this work really value having a community that they can be involved in. Now, lastly, let me say this about my coaching yes, I believe deeply in psychology and mindset, but I'm also a bit of a tech and data nerd and I love opportunities that technology offers us, especially when it comes to weight loss and fitness.

So I infuse a lot of tech into my coaching. I like to set my clients up who see the value in this, with different modalities like whoop fitness, the REMPOS scale or a continuous glucose monitor. At the same time, I also believe in blood analysis as a way to get a better understanding about real health metrics, and I offer this as well in my coaching. Now, these things aren't mandatory, but it does offer a different and data-driven type of experience that other programs might not offer. One more thing about the tech side all of my clients have access to their own personal portal. They log in and they get access to a number of different exercise programs. They get access to different monthly challenges and, most importantly, they have access to their session notes and different agendas that we keep track of, and they can sort of go here and see all of that stuff in the portal. Overall, my clients have amazing outcomes, with expected weight loss surpassing 60 pounds in some cases during those six months. But more than that, my clients think differently about food. They stop obsessing about it. They also stop the incessant critical voice in their heads constantly berating their efforts.

They drink less, sleep better, they move more, and all this leads to a much more fulfilling look. I recently asked my clients what words would you use to describe to people that don't know me and the common threads that came through were trusting, inspiring, passionate, supportive and I say this not to toot my own horn, but to give more context the type of coach I am and the service I provide and what you can expect. You reach out to me and you want to transform them. After six months, some clients are ready to go on their own and integrate the tools they learned. Some clients need more time and they're new. Other clients evolve into other areas of their lives, whether it be career, relationship or finances. Best of all is when I have a client who sees their newfound health as an unlimited potential and they want to take on a new challenge, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, running a first marathon or traveling to Spain and doing the Camino de Santiago. These are just some of the things that a lot of my clients who worked with me have gone on and done.

If you like the sounds of my coaching and you're curious about what's next, I encourage you to head on over to thespearmethod.com and schedule a free consultation and let's see if we're a good fit. Or you can jump into the arena and get introduced to The Spear Method that way before you grow into one-to-one coaching. Either way, I encourage you to make your health a priority and start taking steps to change the trajectory of your health, and hopefully you'll consider doing that with me in The Spear Method. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you for joining me and I'll see you again next week on Episode 35.