NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 58: Bill Parisi

Bill Parisi, Founder and CEO of the Parisi Speed School, talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about his rise from being a young athlete, training people out of the back of his van, and becoming the owner of a world renowned sports performance enterprise. Topics under discussion include how to sell yourself as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and advice for long-term career development.

Contact Bill through email: bparisi@parisischool.com Find Scott on Instagram: @coachcaulfield

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:00:01.25] Welcome to NSCA's Coaching Podcast, Episode 58.

[00:00:05.85] Right. There's two types of experience. There's expensive experience, when you make mistakes on your own and you waste money. Then there's inexpensive experience by listening to podcasts like this and saying, hey, that was a good point about hiring the right people. And how do you go about hiring the right people? What's your interview process?

[00:00:21.59] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know, but probably didn't learn in school. Their strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.

[00:00:32.67] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Scott Caulfield. Very excited today-- with me, my guest, Bill Parisi, founder and CEO of the Parisi Speed School. Bill, welcome to the show.

[00:00:43.35] Thank you, Scott. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:45.07] And we are here at the NFL Combine. We're at the pro football strengthening-conditioning coaches event. There's a trade show. There was an educational event yesterday.

[00:00:55.62] I guess, first and foremost, I'm sure most of our listeners have heard of Parisi Speed School. But tell us a little bit about what you do in your current role as CEO and founder.

[00:01:06.53] Yeah. It's been an incredible journey over the last 28 years in this industry and owning and operating a business. But currently, right now, I'm really in charge of defining and validating the science. And constantly researching-- and recently just wrote a book on fascia training and this newly discovered sensory organ and its implications on training and the outcomes to training.

[00:01:34.85] And it was great to present to the NFL strength coaches on that topic. But yeah, the role right now is really focusing on the information. And at the same time, I do oversee our locations in terms of supporting them in any way I can.

[00:01:48.42] That's awesome. Yeah, the fascia stuff is amazing. And that could be a whole other episode that may have to happen in the future. You've been an NSCA member since 1988. You've been CSCS since 1990, close to 30 years, over 30 years as a member.

[00:02:05.94] You started your business out of the back of a van, sports performance stuff. Talk about that. Because for people that haven't heard that story, it's just awesome.

[00:02:14.58] I can't stress enough, all the kids in college, to engage fully with the NSCA. I did as an undergraduate student, as a sophomore, and started going to conferences. And still in school, took my CSCS, actually, right after I graduated. And it was the foundation. It helped me lay down the foundation for my education.

[00:02:34.70] And from there, as an All-American track athlete, I competed in the javelin throw. And that was helpful, because the javelin involves a lot of different training regimes to be successful-- strength training, speed training, plyo training, med ball training, all these things. And that's why it's used in a lot of biomechanics books, the javelins, for example, for a lot of educational principles.

[00:02:56.40] So during college, I went to Finland to study and learn from some of the best athletes in the world. I was a very aggressive alpha individual to really attack information. So I put a fundraiser together to go to Finland to train there for a summer and learned a lot of great things.

[00:03:11.41] And then came back, went on to the Olympic trials in the jav. I competed a little bit in Europe. And then started my business out of a van-- based on information from NSCA and based on my experience at Finland.

[00:03:26.16] And back in the 1980s, you got to understand, every gym in America was like a Planet Fitness. It was a sea of cardio equipment, a sea of fixed equipment. There were no functional gyms.

[00:03:36.30] And I started to use functional training in 1991 when I started the business. Med ball training, functional training, physio ball training, and started to share that around the country, so that's how it got started. And just little by little, opened up a first studio in '93. And then a second facility, a third facility, Fairlawn was opened in 2000. And that's our flagship.

[00:04:00.66] And then we started selling licenses in 2005. Now we've had over 100. We're in China, Saudi Arabia, and things have just grown ever since.

[00:04:08.79] Wow. That's amazing. And so when you came out as an athlete, how did you know I want to help athletes? I mean, how do you know? Because I mean, that's obviously been the underpinning of your entire business is training athletes. So how does that happen?

[00:04:27.34] It's interesting how it's come full circle. Training as an athlete, training as a javelin thrower, like I said before, I really was dialed into the information. I was going to every clinic I could get my hands on as an undergraduate college student, saving money, and going to all the events, the national conferences and private clinics. And doing that, in javelin, you need to really train functionally.

[00:04:54.48] And I realized that many people were training functionally. And that's what was the seed in the birth of the Parisi Speed School was this functional total body training. And I never really understood the full science behind the power of functional training and how it really works. But now I do, with understanding fascia and connectivity.

[00:05:13.86] But that's how it really started was an athlete myself, a high level javelin thrower, and very much in tune with the training. That was the foundation for my education. Because I was the ultimate experiment.

[00:05:26.00] Right. Right. Right. That's amazing. And so you started the first one in Fairlawn. That was the flagship.

[00:05:33.44] Actually, it was my third facility.

[00:05:35.01] Oh, it was third. OK.

[00:05:35.40] So the first one was in Wyckoff, New Jersey in 1992.

[00:05:38.11] OK.

[00:05:38.57] And then a second facility in '98. The first facility was about 3,000 square feet. And that was a small training studio. Believe it or not, by 1997, this 3,000 square foot studio was sports performance based, did $927,000 in revenue--

[00:05:57.40] Wow.

[00:05:57.86] --in 1997.

[00:05:59.60] Yeah, yeah.

[00:06:00.78] And I know my colleagues out there like Alan Cosgrove and all these other guys are doing some big numbers in their studios. But that was 1997.

[00:06:08.10] Yeah.

[00:06:08.45] I did $927--

[00:06:10.01] Wow.

[00:06:10.93] --In 3,000 square feet, functional training. Then in '99, I opened up a second facility two miles down the road, a 16,000 square foot facility with sports performance. We got that up to doing $2 million in less than a year and a half.

[00:06:24.83] Wow.

[00:06:25.52] Then a year later, I opened the third facility, 30,000 square feet, Fairlawn, New Jersey, in late 2000, early 2001. We ramped that up to $3 million in sales by 2003.

[00:06:38.24] Wow.

[00:06:38.96] So we had something really special. And we actually did a fourth facility in Morristown. Now we're with Atlantic Sports Health-- fourth facility. That's a 7,000 square facility inside their hospital sports medicine building.

[00:06:49.67] Yeah.

[00:06:50.21] That was in 2005 when we did that. And then we started the license in 2005. But that was the genesis. We had four company owned stores, big boxes, sports performance focused and then decided to license.

[00:07:04.11] And I got to tell the audience, I made a lot of mistakes over those years, a lot of business mistakes, literally hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in mistakes, in terms of just the wrong floor plan, or just things that come up, right-- hiring the wrong people, not having the right agreements in place to run a business. But now that's what really gives me the right to offer a license or to share the information with people so you don't have to pay for what we call what I went through, expensive experience.

[00:07:34.04] Yeah.

[00:07:34.53] There's two types of experience. There's expensive experience, when you make mistakes on your own and you waste money. Then there's inexpensive experience, by listening to podcasts like this.

[00:07:43.33] Sure.

[00:07:43.69] And saying that was a good point about hiring the right people and how do you go about hiring the right people? What's your interview process? Should they sign a non-compete agreement? Should they sign an education reimbursement agreement? What is an education reimbursement agreement? It's all these things I learned over the years--

[00:07:57.12] You never would have known.

[00:07:58.19] --that what you guys are now promoting to help your constituents improve not only their ability to coach athletes, but their ability to monetize their expertise.

[00:08:07.51] Right.

[00:08:08.09] And I think that's important. And I think as strength coaches, we kind of shy away from that. If you're an expert in this industry, you're a CSCS, well, you should be monetizing that.

[00:08:17.51] No I think a lot of times strength coaches will be, like, well, I'm not a salesman. I mean, I don't want to sell anything. But I mean, at the end of the day, you are, whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not.

[00:08:31.88] So if you feel that you're not being properly compensated, or you don't feel well-taken care of, you sure as heck should go out and take advantage of the ability to do that. And that's why we're being pretty cool that we're able to partner with you guys and offer some resources to people, that from your 30 years of experience that you've learned.

[00:08:54.62] Yeah. You know, I think it's not complicated. It's just hard work.

[00:09:00.68] Right.

[00:09:00.99] You know to be successful in this industry, it's really not-- and it's putting in the time. And some of the resources that, obviously, we're sharing with the NSCA and all the CSCSs that want to get out there and develop new revenue streams for themselves.

[00:09:16.88] I mean, we know this industry is limited with jobs. There's so many pro jobs. There's so many college jobs High school jobs, they're coming, but they're not as available as college. So how do you monetize your sports performance expertise?

[00:09:30.69] Yeah, we've done a lot of things to help coaches understand how to do that and how to go out and get team training, how to go out and develop their skill sets. And it's really an opportunity for people to take it to the next level. Because it really comes down to helping athletes build injury resiliency and helping athletes improve performance to reach their goals, and giving them a dream, right, helping them accomplish their dreams. So the resources that we've put together, we're excited to share with your constituents. They're relatively simple.

[00:10:02.07] And if you're dialed into the content, and you have this commitment to excellence, and you're not just in the field, the strength and conditioning, you're into the field. I think-- because there's a big difference in being in it and being into it. And if you're into it, and you dive into the NSCA resources that you guys have developed, that I used for 30 plus years, and the new resources that the Parisi Speed School are contributing with the webinar series that we're doing on how to go out and sell team training, how to go out and use that expertise, use that CSCS. That's a invaluable distinction.

[00:10:33.76] Here at the NFL combine with the NFL strength coaches, they have that distinction. That's a required distinction here at the highest level. So we're going to teach your constituents how to leverage that, have this distinction that the NFL straight coaches have. That's powerful.

[00:10:51.10] So it's knowing how to communicate your level of expertise and show value, right, and that you have value. But at the same time, not coming across cocky or arrogant. So it's a fine line. It's really knowing how to deliver that.

[00:11:07.54] Yeah. Is there any maybe one or two things that you can think of when you're first starting that you really think that these are the two biggest things when I went from that van to like having my own club?

[00:11:22.50] Number one, you have to own the information. You have to really-- if you're going to go out and give a speed clinic or an injury resiliency clinic and do an education for coaches and athletes and parents, which I believe is the best way to go out and build your brand and go out and build a book of business, you've got to own the information. And it's got to be cutting edge. It's got to be science based. And it's got to be research based.

[00:11:46.94] And that's what we've packaged so well. Because it's a sea of information out there, and it's hard to decipher all the information, right? So that's one of the things, obviously, the collaboration that we're working on with you guys has been so great, streamlining it and putting it in a form that's easy to understand to the audience. That's number one.

[00:12:04.25] The second thing is you've got to go out and you got to give these clinics. You got to give free clinics, educational, injury resiliency, speed development clinics, based on the needs of the local marketplace, the coaches you have conversations with. And create goodwill, you know? Some of the books I read over the years, right, one of the classics, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dale Carnegie-- I think it's the second most number of books ever sold next to the Bible.

[00:12:35.85] And I read that book in college. And I'll never forget. I was reading the book in college. I was in the cold tub reading this book, right? And recovering from a workout.

[00:12:42.97] And somebody walked past me and they saw that book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, like, he looked at me. He's, like, loser!

[00:12:49.64] [LAUGHTER]

[00:12:50.55] It was-- I was laughing, right? And unfortunately to say, that guy's not doing too well, pass that comment. But the point I'm making is that to summarize that book, ultimately, if you help enough people get what they want, it kind of works out you eventually get what you want.

[00:13:11.00] So we're a big proponent of get out to the marketplace, give information, share information. People say, oh, but I'm going to go to this clinic. And I'm going to give this high school coach all these great ideas. They're not going to hire me.

[00:13:21.80] Well, that's OK! Build relationships. You know, just help people out. You know?

[00:13:27.56] So I had this anatomy professor. I took anatomy, and it was a great professor. And it was a hard course. I mean, I'm sure everyone that took anatomy can relate.

[00:13:37.98] I don't think, like, I ever spoke to anybody that took anatomy that says, yeah, man, that was a breeze or that was a blow off course. No, no, no, it was tough. So I had to work my butt off. And I think I got a C plus, you know, and I was proud of that.

[00:13:52.30] And that course, actually, was at the University of Florida when I took that course. Because I took anatomy and phys postgraduate, because my undergraduate's in business. So I took anatomy, phys, a course in Florida, and then took some at Montclair.

[00:14:07.34] But the point I wanted to make, the anatomy professor, at the end, he said to me, you know what, Bill? Says I know you worked really hard in this course, and I know it was a lot of time. And you know, you're not going to remember everything you learned in this course. And quite frankly, you might forget most of it.

[00:14:24.02] And you might forget almost all of it. But I know you remember the big rocks. But at the end of the day, it's not your understanding of anatomy. You know, what it's really about. If you want to be successful in your field, or in any field for that matter, it really comes down to two things.

[00:14:43.42] And if you do these two things, yeah, the anatomy is important. The science is important. But if you do these two things, you don't have to worry about anything. And those two things are simply develop trust and build relationships. Develop trust and build relationships.

[00:15:03.59] If you do those things, if you build trust, if you go out and you know your information, you do what you say you're going to do, you do more than what's expected-- guys, I started out $50,000 in debt in 1991 out of a $500 broken down van living at home. In debt, living with mom and dad, which wasn't really cool-- you know, I'm 26, 27. Now it's kind of a little bit more popular, which is all right.

[00:15:31.22] And I got doors slammed in my face. I want to help give a free clinic. This is what I did, calling up coaches. What do you do? I'm going to help you improve team speed. This was '91.

[00:15:41.69] You can't improve speed. You're a charlatan. You're just trying to take money from the kids. That was the outcome. I was getting doors slammed in my face.

[00:15:49.76] I kept at it. Kept at it. Kept at it, giving free clinics. And then the brand got some results with kids and coaches talked. And hey, Bill Parisi is a good guy. He really wants to help you.

[00:16:00.95] And then they have something they call the law of reciprocity. The law of reciprocity-- if you help somebody out with good-natured mindset, you just want to help them out, just make-- you feel good, just like we want to help our athletes out. People they eventually-- they feel good paying it back.

[00:16:20.78] They feel good. They want to help you out. It's common sense. But you know what? Common sense isn't too common.

[00:16:26.13] Right. [LAUGHS] That's a great point. No, on one of the first jobs I ever-- first training athletes I ever got I was doing-- I worked in a commercial health club in Vermont. I was doing a kind of example fitness class for third and fourth graders.

[00:16:43.97] And one of the guys, one of the parents who was in that room was the Norwich University rugby coach. He came up to me after this little kind of circuit training fitness class I did for his daughter, who was in the class. And he said, hey, do you think you could do this for a college rugby team?

[00:16:59.22] And I was, like, absolutely. I had no idea what rugby was, even at that time. I was, like, for sure, you know? But if I had never been doing that, it never would have happened.

[00:17:09.35] There you go. There you go. It's connections, right? It's just-- it's network. Your net worth is directly related to your network.

[00:17:15.70] Yeah. And one of my mentors, Jenn Poljacik from the River Valley Club always said it's about results and relationships. And then we keep going back to that. This professional football strength and conditioning coaches association event that we're at, and the guys that got these awards last night were thanking you for spearheading this organization. Tell us a little bit about that.

[00:17:41.33] Because I mean, this NFL, these strength coaches, for people that don't know, I mean, some of these guys have been in the NFL for 30 years. These guys are as professional as professional get. And we're not talking about-- we're talking about education, certification, learning, continuous learning, being at the pinnacle of their career.

[00:18:04.61] But they weren't really very good at organizing themselves to have an organization where they could get together and come together. And last night was the biggest gathering, with the most people ever in attendance, from NFL coaches to [INAUDIBLE]. Tell us a little bit about that.

[00:18:21.69] We had 90 NFL strength coaches in the room. Every team was represented. I believe we had 30 head strength coaches in the room with another 60 assistants. It was incredible-- along with some sponsors and some other people, over 130. It was incredible.

[00:18:38.37] I was approached by Steve Watterson, a gentleman that's been in the league for 34 years. He was 32 years as the head strength coach for the Tennessee Titans. They were the Houston Oilers before that.

[00:18:50.70] He had the title of assistant head coach. I think one of the only strength coaches that ever had a title of assistant head coach. He recently retired. He got the Lifetime Achievement Award last night, Steve Watterson.

[00:19:04.56] So Jerry Palmeri-- who was with Coach Coughlin with Jacksonville and then with the New York Giants when they had their run, the two Super Bowls, Jerry has been in the league over 25 years-- they approached me in late 2009. They've had this association or this group. And it wasn't really organized too well for almost 20 years.

[00:19:28.32] Back in 1990 it started out. And it just wasn't going anywhere. And it was maybe 10, 15 guys getting together at the Combine in a side room, just talking and having a good time, and just recognizing each other.

[00:19:43.43] And they said, hey, Bill, would you help us get a little bit more organized? We appreciate your business expertise, your ability to connect and network, and help grow different businesses or companies. This is really not a business. It's an association.

[00:19:58.08] I said, sure. I'll be happy to hang with you guys and share best practices. So my first year was 2010. And very slowly, we built partnerships, obviously, built partnerships with NSCA. It was a huge partnership.

[00:20:14.42] And Gatorade came on as a partner. And every year, we've grown it ever since. And now where it went from 15 guys meeting up at the Combine, it has developed into a very prestigious association powered by the NSCA with really high level advanced education events. We were in Las Vegas last year and had a two day summit.

[00:20:36.69] This year at the Combine, we had our one day summit, educational summit, followed by our annual awards banquet where we recognize the Strength Coach of the Year, which is voted upon amongst their peers. We recognize the Champion Award, which is the Super Bowl winning head strength coach, and then the Lifetime Achievement Award.

[00:20:54.00] So these are the great awards. It's kind of like the ESPYs for the NFL strength coaches, the way it's really set up, the dinner, the banquet, how the evening runs. And it's a closed door event, obviously, to just the strength coaches and the sponsors, obviously. But it's been great.

[00:21:12.09] And the NSCA has just been a tremendous partner to this in getting on board. And when the NSCA got involved, that's when the whole educational component of this was raised to a new level. Because your ability to help get speakers and help review the content has just been tremendous.

[00:21:32.07] And you know, it's interesting. Where you guys are staying cutting edge, you're staying on top of it, you're staying in the know, and I think you have so much great information. The NSCA has so much. It's knowing how to decipher through.

[00:21:44.93] Right.

[00:21:45.15] And one of the great things about professional football, and the guys on the panel here are involved with this very closely, close knit association, is that's what we do. We cipher through. And we find the best and bring them in. And ultimately, it's great. Because then you can share with your constituents in terms of how the content flows down.

[00:22:05.88] Because these guys are great filters, right?

[00:22:07.55] Yeah.

[00:22:07.92] I mean, they're great filters to look at all the different studies, all the different information out there, and help filter it through. OK, here's some of the real stuff that we're going to apply, right? Of course, NSCA does so many great studies, the next step is, OK, how do we filter the studies?

[00:22:22.71] Right. Right. How are we going to actually use it in real life?

[00:22:25.50] Yeah.

[00:22:25.67] Like I said, Jerry Palmeri, who retired and is still involved, he's been such a great, great asset to this organization and to strength coaches. And I just saw his name come across my desk. He's speaking at another state or regional NSCA event, which is super cool.

[00:22:43.92] I mean, you've spoken at national levels and smaller ones. I mean, again, I think, I say that five people that have listened to me on this show say, heard it before. But that's really what separates the NSCA in my opinion is the state and regional involvement. And your opportunity as someone maybe just getting into the profession to get involved at the state and regional level is really what separates the organization.

[00:23:09.79] And then, of course, being able to be a resource to you throughout your career. That injury resiliency summit that we did with you in March, awesome-- we made that content available to our members. Also some of your Combine training stuff that we've made available. I mean, if people want to continue to seek that stuff out, they should definitely check it out as it's still available. And more to come, right? Yes.

[00:23:36.39] There's a lot more to come.

[00:23:37.31] I think we're only kind of at the tip of the iceberg here. And it's going to be exciting as we kind of move this thing forward and keep it going.

[00:23:45.10] Yeah. It's very exciting. I mean, again, what you guys are doing and how your leveraging this relationship in a good way with the NFL strength coaches and identifying cutting edge content and filtering it through the way you guys do. And your journals every month, the scientific study reviews, it's been a huge resource for me. And I've deciphered through a lot of this stuff, and I've got the privilege to talk to these 32 NFL strength coaches and actually, the privilege to talk to a lot of the top people around the world.

[00:24:19.63] You know, I mean, building up the Parisi brand, I can get access. I mean, I can get access to a lot of high level people and say, hey, explain that study to me. I don't understand it, can you?

[00:24:29.46] So I can get people on the phone. I have a great relationship with Dr. Stuart McGill. I've spoken to Peter [? Wayan. ?] I mean, some of these guys-- Frans Bosch, I've went to his events and spent four days with him.

[00:24:42.34] So Dan Path, different guys, so just different super high level guys that have enough hardware in terms of Olympic gold medals, in terms of athletes they trained, I'm talking dozens, right? And just aggregating that information and siphoning through. And you guys do a great job bringing different people to the table.

[00:25:02.52] And I think we were talking about this before we started recording, too. But our paths crossed a number of times. And actually, in 2010, again, people who may have listened to the episode of Martin Rooney may remember this. But I was able to do a three-day mentorship with you and Martin down at the Fairlawn flagship, Parisi.

[00:25:23.08] December 2010-- I actually started my job at NSCA in January 2011. And I mean, that three day mentorship kind of changed my life. It made a lot of things. It was super cool. I mean, you can talk about it a little bit, too, in what your guy's goal with that was.

[00:25:41.35] But we had-- I think, eight people were there. It was the first one you ever did. And we talked about a lot of different things besides just training.

[00:25:52.48] Yes. It was incredibly-- you know, Scott, you came to that mentorship. And one of things I pride myself on is that the Parisi Speed School has been a platform for so many people. Right? So you get guys that come through, like Joe de Franco came in as an intern and stayed with us for three or four years to springboard his career.

[00:26:11.68] Martin Rooney was with me for 13 years. And founded his Training for Warriors, it was incubated at the Parisi Speed School. A lot of the training methodologies were incubated in our laboratory, if you will. He broke out on his own back in 2013.

[00:26:29.50] And it was great to see Ed Gray here. He's a strength coach for the Los Angeles Rams. He came to us and was with us a number of years. So it's so great.

[00:26:38.59] Obviously, you did the mentorship program. Now you're at the NSCA working at that. So for me, it's great to be able to just help people grow, just like I'm promoting for all the coaches listening.

[00:26:52.09] Go out and help coaches. Go out and just do good things. Help them advance their careers. And again, it's all going to work out.

[00:26:59.65] Yeah.

[00:26:59.92] It really does. So all these guys that have been through the system, people say, oh, yeah. But they came in and then they left.

[00:27:06.85] And that's fine. You know? It is what it is. If people want to snack-- I've had guys with me 20 years. I got guys like Steve Leo, John Cirillo. These are 20 year guys. They kind of pitched their tent with us.

[00:27:19.63] And they opened up their own place. They're part of our network. And now some of them are actually-- decided to sell to their trainers.

[00:27:27.26] They opened up a facility and now they're selling. Facility opened, they owned it for seven, eight years. They're selling it.

[00:27:32.52] And they got a teaching job and they're still working. Now they're working for their trainer part-time and now they're teaching. It's just so great. It's so awesome that you just can help people.

[00:27:43.51] And you know, there's a life cycle in this business, guys.

[00:27:46.05] Sure.

[00:27:46.36] There's a life cycle. People get burned out. You got to manage that, where are you emotionally. This takes a lot of energy to be a strength coach and to be a sports performance specialist. It takes a lot of energy, owning a place, operating.

[00:28:00.70] And it's easy in the beginning. You're fired up. But after two, three, four, five years, depending on your burn rate, it's like coaching. To be a coach in the NFL, you got to have a burn.

[00:28:12.37] And you look at guys that have long great runs, right, you look at Bill Belichick. That guy has a burn. I mean, his flame doesn't ever go out.

[00:28:24.37] Right.

[00:28:24.67] Even Tom Coughlin, I mean, the guy's 70, man. These guys burn. They just burn.

[00:28:31.06] They got it. They got this passion. There's not many people out there like that--

[00:28:35.20] No.

[00:28:35.80] --that have that kind of burn. And it's the same thing in the sports performance industry. You've got to identify yourself. I got a guy, Rich Sadiv.

[00:28:41.95] Yeah, I know Rich.

[00:28:42.86] That dude has a burn. I mean, that dude is still deadlifting 600 plus at 52 and he's in the gym at 4:00 in the morning. I'm not kidding. 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning to 8:00, 9:00 at night.

[00:28:54.60] He loves it. He's so passionate about his staff. I've never met an owner that's more passionate about developing his staff.

[00:29:02.14] And Rich went through that paradigm shift. He came in as a coach. And it's amazing to see how he's grown as a power lifter guy who worked for UPS and came in, kind of went through our system, came in, and became a coach, a really good coach, and then became the owner of Fairlawn flagship.

[00:29:22.95] He's crushing it. He's doing incredible numbers. It's probably one of the most successful, if not the most successful, sports performance facilities on the planet. It does over $100,000 a month in revenue.

[00:29:33.37] Oh, wow. That's awesome.

[00:29:34.36] I mean, seven to 17 years old-- I mean, it's a machine. And the guy and his team are incredible. But he has a burn.

[00:29:45.64] Right.

[00:29:46.00] Right. And you got to know your life cycle. You might have a five year life in this industry, a 10 year life, a 15 year life. Or you might be a lifer, like Rich Sadiv.

[00:29:55.20] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that's a good point. There's a lot of different avenues that you can take into this, whether it's maybe you're the guy that wants to be in the trenches and you're going to be coaching, like we heard Steve Watterson say, until that day when you knew-- when he knew-- that he wasn't going to be able to do it anymore. And he said, you know what? I'm going to retire now.

[00:30:17.64] Yes. Yes.

[00:30:18.24] You know? But there's other people who transfer more into an athletic administrator. Or there's people who teach classes and coach, or run the fitness center and coach. There's so many areas within this, or that get out of coaching NCAA entirely and open their own facility.

[00:30:39.22] I think that's the cool thing, too, about this profession. And as it continues to grow in organizations like this Professional Football Strength Coach Association and the NSCA continue to push the profession forward, it's only going to get better, with more opportunities.

[00:30:55.27] No doubt, I mean, the partnership is huge. And you made a good point about Steve Waterson, 34 years in the league. And physically, he couldn't do it anymore. He's beat up a little bit physically. I think emotionally, it's time.

[00:31:06.16] And for him, it was 34 years. For somebody else, it might be three years. You're like an athlete.

[00:31:15.19] You got to know when it's time. You got to know when it's time. And I think that's the most important thing because you can't be successful if you're not all in.

[00:31:22.86] Right.

[00:31:23.43] You've got to be all in. You can't just be in it. You got to be into it. We said that before.

[00:31:26.98] And you got to be all in. And I think that, to me, that probably should be one of the biggest takeaways. You know, the NSCA is all in.

[00:31:34.92] Right. Right.

[00:31:35.24] You know, you guys are all in. You're doing everything you can to advance the industry. All in-- you're coming up with new programs. You did the partnerships with professional football. You're not sitting back.

[00:31:45.06] Right.

[00:31:45.40] You're attacking. And it's funny. And that was my presentation to the coaches yesterday on fascia.

[00:31:50.68] Right?

[00:31:51.01] Right? It's like this newly discovered organ. We got to attack. We got to learn. What is this?

[00:31:56.07] And that's a great metaphor for this whole thing. I mean, you're in this point, position. You're CEO, and you're executive director of this pro football. I mean, here you are going to Denver for five days to immerse yourself in a fascial course.

[00:32:09.91] You've not decided to just sit around and watch the businesses grow. You're still trying to learn. Well, this is something new, and people need to know about this. I'm going to go learn it and now continue to push it out.

[00:32:22.54] What's amazing is I'm more involved with [INAUDIBLE] now than I've ever been. And people say, you've been doing this for almost 30 years. Don't you know it all? You never know it all. There's more that we don't know than we know.

[00:32:33.57] And this whole fascia thing, I went to a five day human anatomy dissection course, five days with fresh, unembalmed cadavers. And what's really cool? I learned so much that we're putting together now a special two day fascia dissection course on injury resiliency and performance enhancement for the NFL strength coaches. So we're doing that eventually to be offered to the performance coach.

[00:32:57.16] Yep. Awesome.

[00:32:58.93] We'll be coming out with that soon through the professional football that we'll make available to NSCA constituents down the road. But the guys were so excited about the information, about this newly discovered organ, if you will, fascia in terms of the forced transmission properties and whatnot. We'll do-- I'll give a talk, another podcast on that.

[00:33:19.70] Totally. But lots of learning, new discoveries happening from a science perspective, and excited to share it.

[00:33:27.28] That's awesome. No, this has been a super, super great episode. And if you're new to this podcast and want to learn more about NSCA's strength and conditioning certifications, you can get all the details at NSCA.com/certification. I know people are going to want to reach out to you. Are you on social media? What's the best way to kind of connect with you?

[00:33:45.97] Yeah. It's really, believe it or not, I need to improve my social media. I have enough emails every day.

[00:33:54.97] But really, through, yeah, it could be through Facebook. But really through email, you know, it would be best. It's BParisi@ParisiSchool.com. Through our website, I get them. I look through them. And that's best. But that will be the best.

[00:34:12.37] OK. Great. We'll put all that in the show notes, as well. And thanks for being on the show. We really appreciate the partnership with you guys and all the stuff we've done, and even more so to look forward to in the future.

[00:34:24.55] Scott, thank you so much. You've done a great job in how you kind of bridge it altogether, right, you know, your relationships with all the NFL strength coaches and all the coaches in college and high school and the sports performance specialists.

[00:34:37.93] You're a great guy. You're knowledgeable. And you really tie it together really nicely. And I appreciate the opportunity and all you do for the industry.

[00:34:43.96] Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, too, to the listeners. We really appreciate you guys. We couldn't do this without you.

[00:34:50.11] So keep listening, keep downloading, sign up, subscribe, write us a review. And a big thanks to our sponsor of the podcast, Sorinex Exercise Equipment. We truly appreciate their support, as well.

[00:35:02.09] Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.

[00:35:05.05] This was the NSCA's Coaching Podcast. The National Strength and Conditioning Association was founded in 1978 by strength and conditioning coaches to share information, resources, and help advance the profession. Serving coaches for over 40 years, the NSCA is the trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals. Be sure to join us next time.

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