Alright folks, we’re finally getting back on the interview wagon, and I’m pleased this week to bring you Nate Drolet. Nate, at 31 years young, is a coach, trainer, and podcast co-host for Power Company Climbing, a well-rounded climber (he has climbed multiple 5.14a routes and V12 boulders), and a master of movement. Nate also takes an admirably pragmatic approach to learning and self-improvement.
In many cases, it might be as simple as mind over matter…
“I can’t imagine a life where I don’t try to get better at what I’m doing.“
Nate Drolet
Introduction
In this interview, we discuss not only Nate’s progression as a coach, but also his advice for those that are just getting started with similar ambitions. In a world of pervasive social media, it’s never been easier to get a following. However, Nate reminds us that we still have to do the work to hone the craft of coaching and provide a service worthy of opening the wallet.
Nate graduated from UT Chattanooga with a degree in marketing, and we discuss whether or not a college degree was worthy of the cost. We also discuss a topic near-and-dear to my heart, value spending.
In the interest of full disclosure, Nate was my coach for the summer and fall of 2018. I’ve summarized that experience in my Power Company Training Plan Review. I debated long and hard about the usefulness (or lack thereof) of a remote coach, and ultimately reached out to Nate in particular. I didn’t regret that decision.
While Nate does not go out of his way to be a social media star, he walks the walk in his contentious approach to climbing, coaching, and personal growth. Let’s see what makes Nate tick…
Nate Drolet on Climbing
CC: You have an impressive and varied climbing resume. What route or boulder problem really stood out as something that brought about a change in you?
Nate: It isn’t one specific climb, but Mikey William’s “technicians wanted” page in the New River Gorge guidebook would have to be my choice. Mikey chose the best technical climb of each grade in the New for this list.
I had never climbed anywhere “technical” before so I decided to move to the New for the year and learn as much as I could by fully immersing myself in the style. That year I climbed sixty-four 5.12’s, eighteen 5.13’s, and my first 5.14. I wanted to become a more technical climber and I intended to do that by climbing every technical route I had time for.
I left two climbs undone on Mikey’s list, but the principle behind it changed my climbing. Since then I’ve really hung onto the idea of going somewhere and learning what that place has to offer by climbing the quintessential routes or boulders. Learning in climbing is endless. That’s really appealing to me.
Nate Drolet: The Early Years of Coaching and Life on the Road
CC: What drew you to coaching? Can you describe how you ended up working part-time at first (through other organizations), and then full-time for Power Company?
Nate: Initially I stayed away from coaching because I didn’t want to have my work and my sport overlap. I really enjoyed having jobs that I could stop thinking about when I wasn’t there, and I worried that coaching could potentially take away from the enjoyment I got out of climbing.
Eventually I couldn’t stay away from it though. I love learning about all of the aspects to improving at climbing and I really enjoyed sharing that with people and helping them improve too.
(Related: The Fallacy of Happiness and Meaningful Work)
Early Periods of Coaching
My coaching started with writing programs and having training sessions with friends. They asked if I could help them with writing a plan, or working on a specific weakness. I was always reading and learning about climbing and training. This was a way for me to bounce ideas off of people and test concepts I was working on. I spent some time working with youth teams, but I was less interested in that.
The year that pushed me over the edge into wanting to become a coach was when I was washing windows during the day and interning as a strength coach in the evenings. I would listen to 6+ hours of podcasts a day on training, coaching, and business. In the evenings I would go do hands-on strength coaching with people from 10 years old all the way up to people in their 70’s. My plan initially wasn’t to do this to become a coach, it was still for my own learning.
I was doing more climbing coaching work on the side at this point. So, I decided to try and make that into a serious side-hustle. I wasn’t sure if it could pay the bills by itself, but I had always worked 2-3 jobs at a time, so if this could take away one of the other jobs then that would be awesome.
Coaching for Power Company Climbing
It was at that time that Kris Hampton started the coaching services aspect of Power Company Climbing. This was exactly what I was looking to create. Initially I had the wind taken out of my sails because I had a ton of respect for Kris, and coming out with a rival company immediately after he started his seemed lame.
(Related Post: Kris Hampton: Popping Your Comfort Bubble)
A few months later I ran into Kris in the Red and we got talking about business in coaching. Long story short, he asked me to join him at Power Company.
The first year I still worked other side jobs and picked up odds and ends work where I could. At a certain point I got fed up with not being able to sink the time into coaching that I wanted to. I was doing it, but I felt like I wasn’t giving myself the chance to excel at it.
Van Living for Full-Time Coaching
It was at that point that I decided to move into my van. I lived out of my van for a few years when I was younger, trying to avoid having a real career. Now I was moving back in so that I could cut my living expenses and pursue a career.
I still did odd jobs here and there as the company was growing, but now I’m a full-time coach and I even live indoors again.
Nate Drolet on Viewing Coaching as a Career
CC: Describe how your lifestyle has progressed or changed as you moved from part-time to full-time coaching.
Nate: The big change was that, for the first time, I had a career that I put as much effort into as I did with climbing. Before that, jobs were what I had to do. This isn’t me saying the whole “if you love your job you’ll never work a day in your life” thing, but more that I finally had a job that I cared so much about that I wanted to constantly improve at it.
This was the first time that climbing had to compete for my attention with something else.
“…I was stuck at v6…I got stronger, but just became a really strong v6 climber“.
Nate Drolet
The Pursuit of Mastery
Nate: I’ve never been naturally good at anything. Maybe my memory, but even then I think that had more to do with stumbling across mnemonic techniques as a kid rather than any innate skill.
I was a terrible mover for the first few years of my climbing. Nothing felt natural. It still feels like a tremendous amount of work to move well, and I think it always will be. It’s why I have such a fascination for movement and trying to understand it.
I had to spend years picking apart things that happen unconsciously for so many good movers. Every few months it feels like I peel back a new layer that reveals an entire new world of how to view climbing. I love it. It reminds me just how little I actually know.
The pursuit of mastery feels incredibly empowering too. When I was stuck at v6 I honestly believed I was a pretty well-rounded climber with decent technique and that I just needed to get stronger. I got stronger, but just became a really strong v6 climber. It took stepping back and realizing that I had more to learn that finally let me progress. Two years later I was climbing v10, and I’ve never lacked something to work on since.
Learning and Believing Leads to Progress
Learning in this sport is endless. If you get a little stronger or more mobile then you are afforded all of these new positions and techniques, and many of your old ones can be adapted as well. It works the other way too. If you learn a new technique or have a new perspective on how to move then you have those things to learn, but you also have a new avenue to pursue with strength, mobility, and even conditioning to supplement this new method.
You also need to have the belief that you can do these things. So many people are physically strong enough to climb harder than they do but they aren’t mentally there yet. You can hang on tiny edges with tremendous weight, but if you’ve spent years telling yourself that you fall on steep crimp climbs, then you have to change that way of thinking in order to get the most transfer from your training.
But What About That College Degree?!
CC: It could be said that you didn’t use your college degree, at least not fully, in your pursuit of climbing and coaching. Tell me about the pros and cons of your college experience. What skillsets did you acquire and continue to use?
Nate: Ha. My oldest sister still asks me (very seriously) when I plan on using my college degree.
I’m fairly torn on this subject. Currently, I love learning. I spend time every day reading, listening to audiobooks or podcasts, or going through some sort of course to improve at what I do. I can’t imagine a life where I don’t try to get better at what I’m doing. With this mindset, it’s easy for me to look back at college as a big expensive mistake. I don’t need a degree to be good at what I do. There isn’t much taught in classes that you can’t learn on your own with the right mindset.
However, I didn’t enjoy learning as much as I do now until after I graduated college. About a month after college I realized that I missed learning and feeling challenged. Before graduating, I had probably only read five or so books in my life outside of school. That feeling of wanting to learn is what made me who I am today. I’m not sure if I would have made that same discovery if it weren’t for spending several more years learning in a structured environment.
I did learn quite a bit about professionalism in college as well as how to schedule my time. Both of those still come into play on a daily basis.
It’s easy for me to say that, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t go to college if I could do it again. It’s impossible to know if I would have the desire to learn if I hadn’t though.
So, You Want to be a Coach?
CC: There are a variety of coaching services popping up in recent years. In your view, is there enough demand to support the growing number of practitioners? For remote coaching in particular, do you have any words of wisdom?
Nate: I believe that there will always be a demand for good coaches. Climbing is so multifaceted. Right now coaches are trying to do everything. I imagine that down the road we’ll see coaches specialize more and more, and that will open up a lot of opportunity.
For people aspiring to be remote coaches, my advice is to get as many hours of in-person coaching with adults that you can, and work under good coaches. Learn from everyone you can.
Your coaching methods shouldn’t be determined by what’s trendy that month.
Nate Drolet
The Influence of Social Media on Today’s Coaching Landscape
CC: How has social media changed the landscape for marketing as it pertains to coaching?
Absolutely. You can see this in all types of coaching from climbing to strength and conditioning to “lifestyle coaching.”
The marketing aspect of business is the easiest it’s ever been in history regardless of what your industry is. Thanks to social media there is no gatekeeper to prevent someone from getting their information out. This has allowed a lot of people more opportunities than ever before. Rather than needing to know the right people to get your info in a magazine or on a website, you can do the work yourself. That’s incredibly empowering.
However, it does come with drawbacks. Social media rewards new and shiny things. Reminding people every day to spend their next several years following the fundamentals won’t gain you many followers. It’s important to find a balance between having eye-catching content and speaking to what’s important. Your coaching methods shouldn’t be determined by what’s trendy that month. In all, I think social media has been a big plus for coaches and marketing.
Nate Drolet on Life on the Road
CC: You’ve spent a lot of time living out of your van. Please tell us more about your van and any logistical considerations for full-time travel.
Nate: I have a mini-van that I lived out of for nearly seven years of my adult life. It’s simple, but it got the job done. My van is also less conspicuous than a full-sized Sprinter that’s covered in climbing stickers. Not that I have anything wrong with Sprinters. If I’d had the disposable income I would have loved a vehicle that I could stand up in. I like that my van didn’t telegraph to the world that it was being lived out of though.
(Related Post: Van Life: The Economics and Trade-Offs)
For full-time travel, I’m a fan of building routines to make it feel less like I was constantly on the move. I enjoyed having consistent coffee shops in different towns that I would work at. Or parks that I could cook in and relax and read at were big for me. It can feel exhausting to constantly have things change.
Nate Drolet on Value Spending
Financially, it was important for me to choose between what expenses were important and what I was indifferent about. If I didn’t love something then I wouldn’t spend money on it. As an example, I don’t get much out of going out to eat at restaurants. I love my own cooking, and eating out is so expensive that it’s hard for me to enjoy it. When I’m on the road, I’m more than happy to meet up with friends at a restaurant if I’m passing through town. But for regular meals, I cook for myself. That was such an easy way for me to keep expenses low.
(Related Post: On Deprivation: Food)
(Related Post: How to Make Food at Home That Doesn’t Suck)
However, I have no problem getting a latte when I go to a coffee shop to work. I feel like it’s the classic financial advice to cut down on “expensive” coffee drinks. However, that’s an expense I’m completely fine with.
Life and Career During the Pandemic
CC: With the pandemic, subsequent lockdowns, and staggering unemployment, how has demand changed for remote coaching services?
Nate: Demand has dropped, but not the way it has for in-person coaches. Climbing is important to people, and even with everything going on they still need that outlet to help balance their life. This means that even with gyms closed there are still plenty of people building home walls or training with whatever means they can.
Personal Outlook from the Pandemic
Nate: In terms of climbing, it has reminded me how much enjoyment I get out of climbing and even training. It’s easy to become so focused on improving that sessions can stop feeling like something we get to do and turn into something we have to do or even have to do well. Coming back to climbing has been such a joy. I’m still focused on training and improving, but I appreciate the opportunity to do it so much more.
As far as life and career goes, I wasn’t too terribly affected. It was a change for sure, but I was healthy and able to keep working so I was incredibly fortunate in that sense. With everything going on in this country right now it’s hard for me to look back at quarantine and feel like my state of ennui was anything worth fussing about.
Nate Drolet’s Final Advice for New Coaches
Nate: Find mentors to work with. Read. Never stop learning.
Start with the basics. They work if you let them. Ask people what they want. Not everyone wants to climb v10 and 5.14. Just because that’s what you want doesn’t mean it’s what they want. Maybe they just want to get strong enough to climb on the same routes as their wife when they go sport climbing on the weekends. Ask.
It’s more important to get your client to their goals than it is to show them how smart you are. It’s about them, not you.
Summary
Well, as usual, these interviews get a bit long in the tooth, don’t they? I’ve admired Nate’s approach to climbing, training, coaching, and most importantly⏤learning, for a number of years. If you have any questions or comments, please politely drop them in the comment section below. Also, please, please, please hit me with any further interview ideas!
To get in touch with Nate, here is where you can find him:
Blog posts at powercompanyclimbing.com
Nate also writes the Power Company newsletter: The Current
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Thanks guys, see you next week.