ANNOUNCEMENT!

We just released our new bouldering training program, which has 3 levels of training to choose from and between 32 and 36 fully laid-out training sessions for you. It covers strength, power, skills, and work capacity and was written by Coach Matt Pincus. Learn more here.

About ClimbWell

ClimbWell is a new organization founded by Remy Franklin, Gaby Colletta, and Blake Cason whose mission is to provide resources for climbers to help them grow in their climbing and in life in general. Remy is a life coach, Gaby is a Meditation + Yoga Instructor and Ayurvedic Health Counselor, and Blake is a Wellness Coach, and they are all passionate about climbing.

They have a 4-day retreat coming up in April in Veyo, Utah that will help climbers with the following topics:

• Befriending Fear
• Performance Climbing
• Rock-Life Balance
• Art of Attention
• Successful Climbing Goals
• Yoga for Climbers

They’re offering 10% off for TrainingBeta listeners using the code “trainingbeta10” and you can find more about the event in the link below:

I wanted to ask them about the basics of what they’ll be teaching at the retreat, so I asked all 3 of them to be on the show. All of these topics are so relevant to all of us, but we focused a lot on finding balance in your life while also being passionate about climbing.

Please visit their website to find out more about what they teach and about the retreat at www.climbwell.co.

ClimbWell Interview Details

• What people will get out of the retreat
• Finding balance in your life while being passionate about climbing
• Dealing with fear in climbing
• Wheel of Life Coaching Tool
• Climbing as an addiction – how to find balance
• How are values can guide our actions appropriately
• Visualization practice
• How to find happiness
• How to stop being so black and white about climbing and life in general

ClimbWell Links 

• ClimbWell Retreat (Use “trainingbeta10” for 10% off): www.climbwell.co/retreat
• Climbwell Website: www.climbwell.co
• Gaby’s personal website: www.gabycolletta.com
• Remy’s personal website: www.remyfranklin.com
• Blake’s personal website: www.startyourpivot.com
• Instagram: @climbwell.co
• Remy’s 1st interview on TrainingBeta

Please Review The Podcast on iTunes

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

Transcript

Neely Quinn 

Welcome to the Training Beta podcast where I talk with climbers and trainers about how we can get a little better at our favorite sport. I’m your host, Neely Quinn. And I want to remind you that the Training Beta podcast is actually an offshoot of a website, I created Trainingbeta.com. Over there, you’ll find tons of resources, all about training for climbing, including training programs, and we have our new bouldering program available starting last week, which we’re really excited about, you can find that at Trainingbeta.com/bouldering. But we also have a route climbing training program, finger strength programs, an at home training program, as well as online personal coaching. So you can find all of that at Trainingbeta.com.

 

So in today’s interview, I have the founders of ClimbWell, and ClimbWell a new company that is founded by Blake Cason, Gaby Colletta, and Remy Franklin, these three people came together because they’re all life coaches, or wellness coaches, or meditation, and yoga instructors. And they wanted to form a company that is all about helping people find balance between climbing and life, and helping people be the best versions of themselves as humans as they can be.

 

And they have an event coming up in the event is a spring ClimbWell retreat, it’s their first retreat. And Remy told me about it. And I thought that it was super interesting. It’s a four day retreat in April, April 8 through 11th of 2021, if you’re listening to this later, and it’s going to be sort of on this private climbing area called in Veyo, Utah, and they’re going to help climbers with fear, performance climbing, finding balance between your rock climbing life and your normal life. Successful climbing goals, so figuring out what our climbing goals actually are, and then yoga for climbers.

 

And so I learned about this. And I just wanted to know, like, what are people going to learn? And how can we help people just through a podcast episode, to find balance in their lives and all these other things. So obviously, a one hour show isn’t long enough to talk about all of those things. That’s what the retreat is for. And so we actually ended up focusing a lot on finding balance in our lives, and figuring out our values, and what’s important to us. So in this interview, I talked to all three of them about all of that. And hopefully, you’ll find some tidbits in there that’ll help you find balance in your own life, which is something that I’ve definitely tried to do, especially with this last surgery is finding other things in my life that are important, and that fulfill what climbing fulfills, which is really hard to do. But we’ll talk more about it.

 

Lastly, if you like what they talk about, and you want to do the retreat, they did give you guys as my listeners 10% off of the retreat, and you can go to climbwell.co – not .com, but .co so if you go to the website, and you sign up for the retreat on the checkout page, you can use the code TrainingBeta10 for 10% off. So without further ado, here are Remy Gabby and Blake. I hope you enjoy it. And I’ll talk to you on the other side.

 

Hey, welcome to the show all of you. Thanks so much for talking with me today.

 

Guests

Thanks. Thank you.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, for sure. So why don’t we just jump in. And I’m going to start with Remy and we’re going to go through all three of you individually to so that you guys can tell us a little bit about yourself. So Remy, tell us about you what you do, and how you guys all might be able to help climbers out there listening.

 

Remy Franklin 

Sure thing. Thanks. Thanks for having us, Neely. My name is Remy Franklin. I’m a career and personal development coach and also an educator. I teach life design courses at the University of California Santa Cruz. I started climbing 11 years ago in college, got to get into climbing at Romney, New Hampshire, had some friends in college who were really into it and took me outside and I was pretty instantly hooked on the sport and have been climbing since I really love sport climbing.

 

I have gotten more into big wall free climbing recently. Got to spend some time in the valley in the last couple of years. And I’ve gotten to travel all over the world and climb. So it’s really been my passion this last decade. About four or five years ago, I was finishing grad school and I think kind of you know, unsure what I wanted to do with my life for the five years after college and trying lots of different things. And had a moment where I realized that really wanted to make climbing a bigger, bigger part of my life and also just have a career and a lifestyle that that allowed climbing to be something I did a lot. And I discovered life coaching at that time, I was in a coaching group that helped me answer some of those questions and ended up getting trained as a coach.

 

So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last three years as my main, my main professional job. And I always imagined that sort of a second phase of my coaching business as I got got established would be to really make the connections between climbing, and personal development coaching, or life coaching really, to cultivate that connection. And I had been looking for collaborators to do that with and met Gabby and Blake in September 2019, at an event called out wild, which is all about life designed for outdoor — outdoor minded folks. And we got we got talking kind of about these connections between climbing and our personal growth and, and you know, figuring out our path and how we design our lives.

 

And really just, you know, we connected a lot over those concepts, and basically have been talking for the last year and a half, about what it would look like to have sort of a business or event series that helped climbers with that kind of stuff. So that takes us to ClimbWell. Here we are.

 

Neely Quinn 

Nice. And so ClimbWell is. Tell us a little bit more about it.

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, ClimbWell is a space where we’re helping climbers grow as people and athletes, and exactly what forms it will take is yet to be seen. But I think we’ll be doing workshops in gyms, when when gyms are back to doing that kind of thing. And we’ll also be doing annual retreats. So we have our first retreat coming up this April, in Veyo, Utah, which is just outside of St. George. So that’ll be a four day event where we’ll be doing workshops and hands on climbing clinics, and building community among a group of folks that are really interested in this intersection of climbing and personal growth, mindfulness and holistic wellness.

 

Neely Quinn 

Nice. Well, that’s exciting. I haven’t heard of anything else like that in the climbing community.

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, we’re really hoping it adds something you know, there folks that are doing this kind of stuff. I think of Arno Ilgner, with the Rock Warrior´s Way and you know, there are lots of climbing retreats and and festivals popping up. But we’re really hoping to build on on some of that work based on the unique experience we’re bringing as coaches and mental health practitioners and yogi’s you know, so anyway, we’ll get to you’ll get to hear more about Gabby and Blake’s background, but I think we’re bringing something that at least has a new spin and hopefully adds a really cool space in the climbing community.

 

Neely Quinn  

Yeah, great. Well, it’s it’s nice to have you back on the show. And for anybody who didn’t listen to Remy, his first interview, it was super helpful, and I found it to be a lovely conversation that we had. And so you guys can look back on the past podcast episode with Remy. But now we’ll go to Blake and Gabby.

 

So Blake, do you want to introduce yourself?

 

Blake Cason 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So my name is Blake Cason. I am a wellness and life coach. I have been a rock climber. I’ve been climbing I’ve been what I call performance climbing for about six years or so I think maybe I first got a harness like eight or nine years ago or something like that. And in those years and especially in the last five or six, it’s been a huge part of my life such a big part of my life that it was the the deciding factor kind of the impetus for starting my own private coaching practice after teaching college for a few years and wanting to kind of create a lifestyle that supported more freedom and effectively more climbing.

 

I cycled I route climber, I cycle back and forth between sport climbing, performance sport climbing and alpine climbing. Like once I get tired of being scared and hiking a lot I go back to sport climbing once I get like once I start wanting more adventure, I go back to alpine climbing. So that’s that’s one of the ways that I keep that relationship really fresh, especially because I you know, I have committed to making a lot of space for climbing and, you know, being really mindful how to balance out with the rest of my life.

 

But as far as wellness and life coaching I I started about 12 years ago. So I’ve been coaching and facilitating workshops for just about a dozen years and and that process has led me to develop my — to start my own private practice and start working more with with folks that want to to create a more sustainable, healthy lifestyle. So I work with climbers, I work with corporate folk, I work with, like a really wide range of people that just want to want to create a life that fits better for their needs and their values and the direction that they want to go. And I was really excited to, to meet Gabby and Remy and to start collaborating on this little nugget of an idea that we started with a year and a half ago, because my experience personally and professionally is that rock climbing is just this incredible classroom for life, incredible classroom for the human experience. And that’s what we’re trying to do. That’s our intention. So that’s what we are doing with ClimbWell is really elevating that human experience in rock climbing and for rock climbers that, that we can perform really well in a lot of different areas of our lives. And what that looks like, and how we start to do that is what we’re really excited to talk today about. And also kind of really, really dive into really show up to that process it you know, in our, in our events and our workshops and in, you know, in, in the ways that we’re we’re creating this community for climbers.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right? Okay, well, thank you for that. I’m going to have follow up questions for you later. But I do want to get to Gabby. So Gabby, can you introduce yourself, please?

 

Gaby Colletta 

Absolutely. So hey, my name is Gabby Coletta. I use she/her pronouns. And I have been have a lot of different a smorgasbord of things that I offer. But my one of my big passions and loves of life is yoga. I’ve been a practitioner for over 12 years and a teacher of yoga, mindfulness and meditation for the past six, mostly based in the Bay Area of San Francisco. And on top of that, I’m also an Ayurvedic health coach and as an ayurveda. So for those who are new to this word, ayurveda it’s one of the other sciences. Yoga was a Vedic science is a Vedic science, ayurveda is another science that emerged out of ancient India. And basically, it’s a mind body medicine system.

 

Um, that has been, like profoundly influential in my work and in my climbing. And what it really does is it invites us to look at how we engage in our relationships and relationships, kind of on a micro and a macro level, how we relate to our five senses, our desires, our cravings, everything from the food we eat, and what that has had that has an impact on our vitality. This the community and the support that we immerse ourselves in and probably most importantly, it also kind of offers a lens into how we relate to ourselves.

 

And so that’s a lot of what my work is around is working with different modalities in mind-body medicine, mindfulness, also different sort of somatic like learning to be back in our bodies and how to use our bodies and collaborate with them rather than like, so often, I find, especially in a lot of like performance sports in general, this sort of wanting to like conquer the body or take over it, and how can we work with our inherent strengths and our also weaknesses and turn our weaknesses into our superpowers. That’s a lot of like, how ayurveda nest into my life as a climber, and just my life as a human being.

 

And then on top of that, I also I like have a huge creative passion for photography. And I also build websites for people who are bringing their ideas to life. And so this leads me to like, wow, all of this stuff, and I love climbing. I spend all my free time I can getting out on the rock, and being in nature. And so balance is a really big piece of kind of what led me to the work that we’re doing with ClimbWell, you know, I’ve like — here I am with, I don’t know, six different jobs, so to speak. And then also this like huge love of climbing. And so yeah, that lens is like such a big part of my journey as a climber. And in the work that I do. I’m between like teaching teachers, also offering courses on like, health and wellness. And then of course, one on one counseling, too.

 

So yeah, and I first kind of got into climbing. Five years ago, six years ago, classic quarterlife crisis moment of like, I had been working in corporate advertising, realizing all of a sudden that like my passion, that wasn’t my passion. And that wasn’t my Dharma and that it wasn’t finding meaning in it. And climbing found me at this point where I was just, you know, my sense of who I was, was completely dissolving into something valuable and unknown. And I was my mind my like monkey mind, so to speak, was like constantly in the past and worrying about the future and the expectations I imposed on myself or the expectations that I perceived others expose, imposed on myself. And climbing became this, this practice and this tool for me to really just drop into being present. And to truly, truly find what it means to just access that freedom, when we allow ourselves to be rather than being trapped in the past or the future, or the cycles of worrying and spiraling, whatever those are provoked by.

 

And then the second piece that became such a big kind of nugget, for me was the embodiment piece, because I find so much in our society that people and at least myself would be kind of stuck in this, like, intellectual space and stuck in this, like, you know, we have this rise of I think of like the rise of the entrepreneur, and how beautiful it is that we have these people creating amazing ideas. And then, at the same time, like how do we bring these into embodiment? How do we make these things real? How do we feel it in the cells of our bodies, and that’s what climbing brought back for me was like, how can I just not only live in the mental space, and get back into like, being in my body and listening and kind of trusting the inherent wisdom that comes from, from being in this like, integrated system that is my body.

 

And so yeah, I fell, fell in love with climbing, mostly tried climbing, sportclimbing too and boulder, but I’m always just down for the adventure. And, you know, when I think of like, landing here in this in this offering of ClimbWell, that we’ve co created, I just think of how beautiful it is that, you know, so much of what we’re doing is like this is an offering from climbers to climbers, and so much of what we’re doing is like, allowing ourselves to explore and access our full potential while living in balance with all the other parts of ourselves that exist. And like really learning to love our edges and turning our vulnerabilities into strengths, and enjoying the process of it rather than just like, kind of grasping on to the end result or the goal. And yeah, I’m just excited to kind of talk more about what we’re going to be sharing and some of the tools that we can use to just allow ourselves to grow in all aspects of our lives. So thank you.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, thank you. This is definitely a much different conversation than I’m used to on the podcast. And then I’m sure that my listeners are used to. And I think it’s a really nice departure from like, this is how you train to get stronger. Because this is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, obviously, coming back from surgery, you know, just like enjoying the in between moments, not climbing and trying to find balance in my life where I’m not just totally obsessed with climbing. And so I’ve heard you all say balanced. And I know that that’s something that you really focus on in your work together. And so I would like to talk more about that. And before we do, I want to get a better sense of this retreat that’s coming up. Because I think that it could be a nice sort of outline for what we can talk about today is if you tell people what people are going to get out of this retreat, or like what the overall outline of it is, and then we can talk about some of those things that you’re going to be teaching people. Does that sound okay?

 

Guests

Yeah, absolutely. Great.

 

Neely Quinn 

So who wants to tell me more about the retreat?

 

Blake Cason 

I will, yeah. So this, I like that question of what are people going to get out of it? Because that’s what we lead. Like, that’s what we’re going for is like, What? How does this impact me? What does this change? What do I walk away with, you know, of any of lots of experiences in our lives?

 

And the first thing that came up for me, when when you pose that question, or that like perspective, just now was the community and the community of people that are having this conversation. There’s, there’s so much more and I’m excited to talk about that, too. And that, for me, was the biggest thing that that came up. And maybe that’s because it’s a big part of my experience with these, with these topics at this exploration, both personally professionally and as a climber is the the real power, the incredible impact and shift that we can have, you know, exploring these things, collectively.

 

You know, I think of an author that I really adore, Parker Palmer and he says like, there are some some parts of our experience that are just too hard to go through alone and we need somebody there to to support us and just to be like, to be there as a as a presence and as a as a sounding board and as a reflection and I think that’s a huge thing that that ClimbWell, offers and these retreats will offer is that space to have these kind of have these conversations beyond just like chewing them and chewing on them in our own heads.

 

Gabby kind of mentioned that like the monkey mind and how sometimes when when, when things are just kind of bouncing around in our own thinking mind, they’re not quite as clear as when we, we materialize them, we articulate them in action and in conversation. So to me, that’s, that’s one of the biggest things is is connecting with others who are having this conversation, being able to have these conversations in a safe space where it’s not only permitted but encouraged. And, and then within those conversations, getting really tangible application based frameworks and tools and techniques and resources for the the what now what next pieces, you know, we can have these conversations, and they’re really inspiring and super interesting. But insight is, is two dimensional, until we bring it into action.

 

So so you know, kind of these, the, the real dimensions of behavior change are part of the retreat. So it’s kind of like some like, bigger aspects of it. But beyond that, it’s you know, up leveling your, your mental game, connecting more deeply a better understanding of yourself as a climber and kind of how to understand your needs, at different times of your climbing journey, that sometimes you might be pursuing a certain type of climbing or a certain type of training or whatever and, and finding it is totally deenergizing. So like getting curious with what’s up with that, and how we might, you know, be more mindful, be more deliberate about how we’re approaching a relationship with climbing.

 

And then within that, how does our relationship with climbing fit into the other relationships both with people and things and responsibilities in the rest of our lives? So kind of navigating the, the equilibrium, or the balance of, of, of the human of this interconnected experience that we’re all having, as climbers, and as climbers who really want to pursue this, this sport and this endeavor wholeheartedly, and, and in a sustainable way.

 

You know, we talked a lot about like, you know, our physical, sustaining our physical bodies in climbing but how do we also sustain mentally, emotionally relationally as climbers with this with this thing that’s so important to us without burning out in one way or another. So we’ll talk more about this, but definitely, it’s for experienced rock climbers, experienced outdoor climbers. And, you know, the the things that that we can offer a 5.11 climber and a 5.14 climber are going to be different. And we’re, we’re being really, really conscious of how we can kind of meet the needs of different different levels of climbers in, you know, through the workshops, and through kind of how we’re how we’re engaging with the community.

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay, that’s great. Thank you. Anybody else want to add anything to that?

 

Remy Franklin 

Cool, I was just — Blake mentioned the workshops at the end. And I thought it might be helpful to just share, like even the titles or a short description of the workshops we’re doing. So this is a Thursday through Sunday retreat, and we’re going to be camping or band camping together in Veyo Canyon, which is just north of St. George.

 

And, you know, I think we’re, it’s gonna be a lot of the value from climbing will come from that full immersive experience in the community that Blake was mentioning, and kind of the the meat of the experience is five workshops that we’re doing. And so those are called befriending fear, where we’re going to really look at, you know, like, our fear, whether it’s a falling or failure in climbing and how to manage that.

 

We’re going to look at performance climbing, so actual sort of tactical approaches to projecting and Blake mentioned performance climbing earlier. And it’s something that has always really been part of my climbing experiences, like how do I climb harder grades, right? How do I climb better? This is just like a big lens on climbing for me. And I think, yeah, we’ll look both at that tactically, and also just our mental approach right to performance on the rock.

 

We have a workshop called rock life balance. And that’s I think the piece we’ve been talking about a lot so far about how climbing fits into our you know, other areas or other areas of our life and how it adds to we’re in some ways my you know, detract from those areas.

 

We have one called Art of attention, where we’re really getting into kind of the mindfulness piece, and how we train our attention when we’re climbing in particular, and then also the lessons we can take away from that.

 

And then we also have one on climbing and goal setting and so you know, what it looks like to sort of pick the right goals and effective goal setting.

 

And another piece we’re going to be doing in there is some yoga for climbers, which, you know, I think it’s quite popular. And I also think actually all three of us are yoga teachers here to different degrees. And I hope Gabby will talk more about this as the one that’s maybe the most experienced, or at least currently teaching the most. But I think there’s, there’s a really cool connection to be made between climbing and yoga, and I’ll pass it off to Gabby.

 

Gaby Colletta 

Thank you, Remy. Um, yeah, something that feels really important to just emphasize too is like, the, what comes when we actually are embodying an experience and information, like there’s so many tools, there’s so much information out there on how to improve our climbing mindset and our performance. But like, it just stays information until you put it into application.

 

And so kind of one of the big benefits of being in a retreat setting is getting to actually move through these tools and work through them and let them affect you and let them affect you, like physically, emotionally, kind of on all dimensions of being human. And that’s when it changes from just being information to being like lived embodied and used a skill on the rocking off the rock.

 

So, yeah, I’m really excited just to speak to that yogapiece. You know, yoga, actually, yoga really offers, you know, not just like, a really valuable practice to keep our bodies in good health. But it’s really, you know, it’s no new ancient mystics and modern scientists will reinforce the the reality that our minds and our bodies are connected, right, like what we eat, our gut health affects our emotions, how our emotions run through us affects our nervous system. If our nervous system is depleted, we might not have the vitality, the energy needed to send that hard project. And even like, the way that we hold these emotions in our bodies, affects how our muscles engage affects our breathing patterns. And so a lot of the yoga that’s offered in the retreat, um, yes, has like physical benefits to it, but also is really working on like the mindfulness and the awareness component, like how are you directing your awareness?

 

Because what the Yogi’s will say is that wherever your awareness glows, your prana your lifeforce goes, like, wherever we feed our attention to that has a an ability to alchemize. And so with the yoga practice, we’re working a lot with our attention. And then also simultaneously with breath, which, you know, is a huge topic in and of itself, it could be like many podcast episodes on, on how to work with our breath in a way that really optimizes our performance, and also optimizes, like, what we what our intention is. So yeah, it’s um, it’s just another another tool that we’ll be offering in this weekend workshop or weekend retreat series.

 

Neely Quinn 

Nice. Well, it sounds great. And I hope that you guys have a really great group that shows up for this. I want to talk a little bit more about balance, and how because it seems like there are a lot of topics that we could go into about this, but I know that a lot of climbers get pretty obsessed about climbing, and it’s hard to sort of balance the rest of our lives with it. Does somebody want to start on that topic? And what people can do to begin to find more balance?

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, I’d be I’d be happy to jump in Neely. One of the — actually, I’ve been meaning to share an article with you that I just wrote on this topic of rock life balance. And I’ll just give you a specific example of a tool that might help us get a sense for we’re talking about, but lots of people have maybe done something called the wheel of life, it’s a very popular coaching tool that basically, you know, shows us different segments of life, right? Maybe our health and our fitness or our family or social lives, our finances, our careers, right personal growth. And we you know, it’s just a way to take a snapshot and look like how full Am I in this area right now? Right? And folks could actually do that, even as they’re listening, right? Like, you could take a piece of paper, you could write down the areas I just mentioned. And you could just ask yourself, like, Okay, how full do I feel in this area right now?

 

And I think a really interesting question to ask as climbers is, in what ways is climbing adding or subtracting to that area of life right now? A specific example of this like when quarantine started last spring. I moved back to New Mexico to my hometown with my fiance and we got to be out here but one of the one of the downsides was that it really like stopped my climbing I’m sure like lots of us, right. We just didn’t climb outside that much. Or maybe we weren’t close to climbing partners or we were I was going out bouldering solo a lot. And I experienced like a huge down, you know, I realized that like, I was pretty, like, just sad and not stoked on life. And I think I realized that for me, climbing had become, like, closer to the level of an addiction, where I was loving my time on the rock. But it was actually like the, the joy I was experiencing when I was out climbing was actually subtracting from other areas of my life, like I wasn’t as present or joyful in my relationships, or I wasn’t enjoying my work as much. And so at that moment, I had to realize that like climbing was out of balance in my life, there were these other areas that I had been maybe neglecting a little bit. And it was a good opportunity to look and say, like, Okay, what does it look like to have this joyful thing climbing that I love, actually, like, enhance other areas of my life, you know. And so I think that’s just one example of ways we can kind of take stock.

 

And I guess last thing I’ll say about it is just that, I think, we talk a lot about like, finding balance as if it’s like, we’re going to discover the magic formula, and then it’s going to be perfect. And I think in reality, you know, balancing is active, right? It’s a balancing act. And we have to kind of do this maintenance to check in and say, like, Oh, you know, is it okay with me that like, my career is on the backburner right now? Because I’m going rock climbing four days a week? Or, or do I want more growth in that area? And so for each of us, it’s going to be unique at whatever time and moment we’re in. But, but I think we can do some things to like to get to observe our situation and check in and see what the adjustments might be.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right? And what what were some of the adjustments that you had to make when you realize that?

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, it’s a real — It’s a really good question. Um, there were a few. So one is that I, in a very practical level, I built a moonboard. So I know that seems like a weird, like, that’s an adjustment. But um, but like, I’ve been moonboarding a lot this year. And it’s been really cool that I — like for me, at least I can get the physical training, benefits, and experience of climbing and improving in that context at my house. And so when there are times when I’m either busy, or don’t have access to partners, or, or in just weird moments, like a pandemic, right? When it’s hard to go outside climbing with people, I can still be able to be engaged in the sport in a way that feels meaningful. So I’m not walking around, in the rest of my day, feeling bummed out, because I’m not doing it. Right. So that was, that was one of them.

 

Another big one, for me has just been, has been communication. And we could get way into that. But basically, I’ve made more of a practice of planning carefully, like when I’m going to go climbing and communicating that with the people in my life. My partner, who I spend a lot of time with isn’t a rock climber. So I am always, you know, feel like I’m doing this balancing act of like, how much am I off climbing and pursuing that? And how much am I, you know, doing like home or family life or other activities that she also enjoys? And so yeah, another big one was just like getting better at communication, right? And saying, like, Hey, you know, what, like, here are the days I’d love to go climbing this week. And like, kind of coordinate around with your plans and plan together. So those are just two examples, but there have been many.

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay, and one last question on that. And all of you guys can chime in, if you want. But you had said that you realize that climbing was sort of an addiction for you. And I’m assuming that you are getting something from it. That is this is the moon board now, allowing you to sort of get your fix while in a short burst while also doing the other things in your life or like how did that pan out?

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, I’ll answer and I want to hear Gaby and Blake’s thoughts on such a specific scenario. Neely I love rope climbing. And I love wall climbing. And that’s really like my passion in the sport. Bouldering — I’m kind of mad about bouldering. I’ve gotten way more into it this year, sort of by necessity. But I think when I noticed I was addicted to climbing at some level it was it was that I realized that I was in such a happy place when I was literally on the wall climbing. Like I’m pretty good at cultivating that flow state and sense of engagement that I think gives us that full presence in climbing and for me, that’s what I would — I would even call it a spiritual experience where I’m like really, like, fully fully present in the moment and my mind and my thoughts drop away. And I get that experience a lot when I’m climbing and I love it. It’s It’s so huge for me. And I think if if I then leave that context and come back to the other things I’m doing and I’m just like kind of sad and bummed out. It’s not spilling over right. The like the joy of climbing is not spilling over. So for me, that’s the the maybe the endorphins, we could call it whatever the, you know, happy hormones are that are flowing through my brain and that moment are probably the thing I was addicted to.

 

I don’t get that in bouldering. So I wouldn’t say the mood board is a fix for it. I would say it. I mean, I got a lot of coaching, to be honest, we got through that experience. So it wasn’t just, Oh I see it. No it was like, I got a lot of support from mentors and coaches, to figure out what is the relationship I want to have with climbing and that I can have with climbing given my current circumstances. And so I think it was a big shift from like, chasing that experience of flow and engagement, to coming back to what I want from the sport at this moment. Realizing that I can find that same level of presence and other parts of life, you know, like with with training of the mind, I can find that experience when I’m writing, I can find it when I’m having a conversation with someone, I can find it when I’m going for a hike in the woods. And, you know, just realizing that at this moment, because of quarantine, I’m not going to be climbing outside as much on a rope as much as I normally do and learning to find joy in other parts of the sport.

 

Neely Quinn 

Great. Yeah, that’s great. And it’s nice to hear like a personal experience with that, and how you sort of bounced it out. Anybody else want to talk about that?

 

Blake Cason 

Just because coaching is a newer field, just like a definition of coaching like Remy just talked about getting coaching to work through that experience of his and something else about this retreat and ClimbWell, and and what we three is individuals offer with like, a just a boatload of years collectively, is coaching.

 

And like my how I define coaching, and y’all please add, if it speaks to you, coaching is drawing out somebody excellence drawing out their potential, drawing out their best towards where they want to go. And that includes when they’ve exhausted their resources, maybe some suggestions or some added tools or techniques, but it’s primarily about creating a container for an individual or group to to explore their best and explore the tools and resources that they already have to get to where they want to go. At least that’s how you know the life coach, the wellness coaching, the everybody coaching that we’re talking about, is drawn by, which is a little bit different than, than maybe like a football coach. In some ways. A football coach might be more like directive, like this is how you do it. And the the approach that we have to coaching is is more like the traditional life coaching set. So I just –that just jumped out at me as Remy was talking about talking about getting coaching and that, um, that definition might support folks listening, like as we move forward.

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay. Yeah, thank you for that clarification.

 

Gaby Colletta 

Something that I want to add – this is Gaby – just kind of, as Remy shared his experience, and this question of like, is climbing becoming an addiction? Or like to what? At what point did you have to ask yourself that question and something that I often ask myself and look at taking from like yoga, my Yogi background is, like, what are my — What am I attached to?

 

Like how much am I attached to my desires, and my wants, and my cravings, and if I step away from it, is that going to create is the sense of like, such a big attachment to it gonna create my own suffering? And I think that’s where we get to, like, have another opportunity for practice and like questioning, like, whether this is becoming a harmonious relationship, or an unharmonious relationship is like, to what degree are you attached to the thing that you’re desiring the most? And are you willing to kind of like, hold it loosely, and let it change and let it evolve as things do as nature does? Because that is nature changing – Always. So I just wanted to offer that as like, a question to ask yourself is like to what degree am I attached to this, and kind of seeing how our attachments might lend itself to a little more suffering or discomfort if we hold things too tightly.

 

Neely Quinn 

So I get that concept. And I wonder, I wonder the motivation behind doing that exercise and coming out on the other end with like, Oh, I want to change my life. Because people can say, yeah, I’m attached to this, and I’m attached to this, and I don’t care that I’m attached to this. So what’s the motivation to not be attached?

 

Remy Franklin 

Neely, I think one way I think about it, it’s it’s related to the definition of an addiction is that it has negative impacts on your life. You know, I think like, like, it’s really it’s the reason coffee isn’t, isn’t categorized as like an addictive substance. It has all the qualities of something that’s addictive, but it’s actually like not really bad for you. Yeah.

 

Neely Quinn 

Woah, woah, woah, we’re gonna have to have a separate, different —

 

Remy Franklin 

You’re the nutritionist. I’m sorry. But I think, you know, there’s no like, there’s no clinical diagnosis of like addiction for coffee, right? Because at least I don’t know, the studies I’ve read have long term health impacts that people that drink a lot of coffee actually have shown that it doesn’t it doesn’t negative impact impact health, but maybe that’s a bad example.

 

Neely Quinn 

Use a different example.

 

[Laughter]

 

Remy Franklin 

Alright, anyway, but but you know, you get my point, which is that I think the like addiction is negative in so far as the thing like it may in the moment, make you feel great. Right. But it’s it’s negatively impacting your life in some other aspect. And I guess, when I hear Gabby explained the attachment piece, that’s that’s what I’m hearing. It’s like, when I see the attachment is not serving me.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right. Yeah, that makes sense. That helps to delineate things.

 

Remy Franklin

We’ll talk about —

 

Gaby Colletta 

I think. And I think it’s really different for each person, like the same way that coffee can affect each person very, like. And we just have to remember that. And I think that’s one of the beauties that comes out of life coaching in general is like, yes, we’re here with like, all these different tools in these practices, but it’s not a one size fits all model. And part of the practice is like learning to recognize for yourself, what will be a good use of your energy, what will bring you more like vitality and focus or whatever your your purpose or your goal is, versus what will detract from it, or what will deplete you, or be unsupportive to yourself. So just remembering that it’s very individualized.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right? Yeah. Um, one of the things that you guys had mentioned, before we started this conversation was personal growth, and asking yourself, how can climbing enrich my personal growth and asking questions like, am I improving as a climber through climbing? Am I improving as a human through climbing, and I think that this one’s really interesting, because I was getting really psyched to start climbing again.

 

And I was talking to my husband about this recently, and he was like, do you — Do you actually want to go back to what you were doing with climbing and putting all that pressure on yourself? Because you seem happier now, as a human than you were when you were like, really psyched on projecting things. And, and I was like, hmm, maybe I should take note of what my husband is saying to you right now. But what are your thoughts on that? And how can what can people take away from this? That that concept?

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, I, we’ve all we’ve all seen those people at the crag that aren’t having fun. Right? Have you have you noticed that? Maybe you’ve been one of them, too, right? Like, I’ve definitely been one of them. Where it’s like, you’re, you know, you’re getting like hate burns on your project, you know, like, just wanting it to be over, right? We know that experience, whether you’ve seen other people doing it, or that’s been you. And it’s just a great moment to step back and ask yourself, like, Oh, you know, why am I choosing, you know, to whatever it is drive four hours to Rifle and spend my weekend, climbing some route and being mad about it, you know, and I just anyway, so we can do that any time. And I’ve certainly, like I said, I’ve been in moments like that.

 

And I think it’s not, if we, if we take a pause, we realize that’s not how we want to engage with the sport. And that there are other ways to go about it. But we can get so caught up in it, right? Because we care about it a lot, we start to care about our performance. So anyway, I’ll just say that I think, I think we’ve all had that experience at some point. And I think it always starts like the answer always starts by at least pausing long enough to notice that that’s how you’re being with it. And then to ask yourself, Well, what would need to adjust for me to have like, a better relationship with this thing, right? To enjoy it more, to be getting what I want to get out of it. And you, of course, in that you have to define what your goals are. And the purpose, you know, for you behind doing the thing, which I think we we don’t actually pause to do that often as climbers, you know, we just get into it. And it’s like, well, now my goal is to send 5.11 and now my goal is to send 11c, you know, or whatever. And, anyway, so I think one one thing we’re offering hopefully in this space and April, and maybe with this conversation as a chance for folks to step back for a second and ask themselves what do I — what do I want out of climbing, you know, this month, this year, this week?

 

Neely Quinn

This lifetime.

 

Remy Franklin

This lifetime.

 

Blake Cason 

Yeah, and I’ll add, Neely It sounds like with your — You said you had a surgery was that it?

 

Neely Quinn

Uhm, hmm.

 

Blake Cason

Yeah. So with with those kind of forcible or chosen transitions that we have in climbing and in life, they, they create a one, they can create kind of like a scary, spooky unknown zone where we’re like, well, now what I had, like things were moving along in a certain trajectory, and then they changed like, oo-okay, now I have to, like rewrite the rules, I guess. And in that buffer between, you know, transitioning from one thing to another, there is so much there is so much space for, for checking in for being more mindful for, for kind of assessing where you’re at and what you need, and then launching into the next transition with that in mind.

 

And they can be really scary, because like we’ve been talking about, I’ve definitely had experiences where I’m like, but I’m gonna get weaker, and that sucks. And I put, like, so much work into this, and then I’m gonna get weaker, but I really want to do this other thing, this work development, or whatever it is. And one of the tools I use is kind of cycling in and out of, of really elevating and really prioritizing, climbing versus really elevating and prioritizing other areas of my life. And then in other times just kind of putting those in maintenance mode, putting work in maintenance mode, putting climbing in maintenance mode, and other important aspects of my life while I prioritize something else. So that just jumped out at me as as how sometimes scary and uncomfortable those transitions can be, and how they’re really, really great spaces for checking in and for taking that next leap of growth, that’s often kind of like waiting for us, it’s kind of waiting for us at the end of that transition in that, in that blank space, there’s often something that that we can really — can really add to our our skill set add to our like, human skill set, as it were, and take that into, well, how do I want to live and be and feel in a way that feels more aligned? Or, or just feels better?

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. And it seems I mean, I’m assuming you’ve put you all have put a lot of thoughts and intention into how you approach your lives and how you approach your climbing. And what comes to mind for me with this is like, knowing what your values are — like I did this group therapy thing for a few months, a few years back, and one of the things they had us do was really hone what our values were. And I think that a lot of people don’t actually know what their values are and what they want to get out of life. And it seems like you are able to say, this is my value, my value is learning about this thing, or excelling at this other thing. And so I’m going to put everything else on the backburner for a while so that I can, you know, like, sort of nourish that value. Is that something? Does that make sense to you? Or does that resonate?

 

Blake Cason 

Yeah, definitely. That’s the way they did that exercise with you. I consider values, I think like the coaching model is values are like these really fundamental guideposts in our lives. So that’s yeah, that’s cool that they that they get to do to even exploring those in that moment, because they change. Our values, kind of have seasons and have their own evolution. So that’s awesome.

 

 Neely Quinn

That´s true, yeah.

 

Remy Franklin 

I think the benefit of doing that Neely is that when you know what your values are, and I think we actually all sort of know what they are, but we haven’t articulated them, they may not be conscious, right? Like, we all have things that are important to us. But what you did in that exercise, and I think probably what all of us do at some level with our coaching clients early on, and working with them is articulate them, right. It’s like, let’s write them down or name them. And we have, you know, lots of ways to do that.

 

But when we have them articulated, we can use them as a compass more consciously, in our decision making, or just in checking in, you know, and so, like, if I, if I really, you know, if I really value like, being at my, sort of my best physically or performing at a high level, like that can influence my climbing, you know, but if I really value like, chilling out on the weekends, and not being so driven all the time, you know, like that can also influence how I approach climbing. And so both of those things are great. It’s just about starting to articulate what’s important to you.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right. I mean, I don’t, I didn’t even know exactly what a value was, and those things that you just said, like I value chilling out on the weekend, or I value climbing at a high level or whatever. Those are values and I think that people need to understand what values even are. And so is there is there some tool that they that people can use to figure out values like is there some worksheet that comes to mind anything?

 

Gaby Colletta 

Before a worksheet, I just want to like kind of offer that while this might be a really simplistic tool. It’s like integrall to figuring out what your values are. And that’s awareness. And that’s even just taking the moment to pause and notice what scripts you have in your head. Because so often, like we grow up with these, you know, different narratives and different beliefs, and sometimes they’re not even our own beliefs, or they’re not beliefs that we truly feel like at the core of our being. And so, so much of like, discerning, do I actually care about this? Does this actually matter? Do I want to prioritize this? It’s like, stepping back, and becoming aware of that, and then parsing through it and saying, like, Is this mine? Or is this somebody else’s? So awareness and mindfulness? It’s like, it’s simple, but it’s, we often overlook it and forget to do it.

 

Neely Quinn

Right? 

 

Blake Cason 

Yeah. I’m seeing an image of like, somebody’s going through, like their luggage or their climbing pack and being like, whose is this stuff?

 

[Laughter]

 

Blake Cason 

That’s such a great point, Gaby. Yeah, how I leave this. And I’d be curious, to if you guys have any other riff of who this how I leave this, and especially in that in the light of like, what is actually important to you. So what’s intrinsically your intrinsic value, not like a societal or familial or, or your workplace value.

 

I use a lot of visualization and meditation in my coaching practice, and in my groups and guiding people to do reflect on either just like quietly journaling, and or visualizing reflecting on times where they felt really, life felt really good. It could be a moment, it could be a trip, it could be a, like a time of life in different areas of your life. And like when you felt really alive, you felt really energized, you felt really at peace, you felt really yourself. And what were the things that you were doing that made you feel that way? Like maybe you were experiencing adventure, maybe there’s a lot of connection, maybe you were performing at a high level, maybe you were learning things, like what were the things what were the what was what were the elements that are the ingredients that led you to feeling really yourself feeling really good, feeling really proud, whatever.

 

And similarly, a time when you felt really misaligned, like things are not working things are –like the wheels are falling off the bus, like something about it is is not not in line with who you are with your needs with where you want to go. And what was missing in those times. I really needed more joy, I really needed more beauty. I really needed more play. And then that way, kind of triangulating what might some of the values be in your life historically, and then looking at that and being like, well, what are they now what of those ingredients feels most important now?

 

Remy Franklin 

So if you’re listening, pause and do that right now. Actually, though, right, like, write it down, you know, like, for you in the last week, or the last month or the last year, right? And, and even that simple act of doing that will really make a difference. But sorry, Neely, I cut you off.

 

Neely Quinn 

No, I mean, that’s great. I, I just, I’m trying to do it myself right now, as you’re talking. And this is awesome. And I think reflecting on these things is so important. And for me, I’m like, well, it was when I was on that climbing trip, and I wasn’t working. And I was hanging out with friends All the time. And I’m like, why can’t I just retire, you know?

 

And I think that that’s where a lot of us go is that this black or white thing? It’s an either or, like, I’m happy when I’m not working, and I’m unhappy when I an. Not that I’m unhappy, right at this moment. But, but you know what I mean? And so we’ve got to find these — this sort of compromise. And I think that’s where people including myself, really struggle. And so my question is, how do people find the compromise between all or nothing?

 

Remy Franklin

Such a good question.

 

Gaby Colletta 

Well, you know, Blake mentioned this, like cycling in and out practice. And I just think that like it, it’s important to look at, are we trying to have like a really dualistic or binary way of like, doing it all or doing nothing? And can we live in the gray space and like, be more comfortable in it. And I think part of doing that part of being in that like gray space requires that we don’t look at one or the other as static as like, it doesn’t change and that it’s actually like a dialogue or a cycling in and out of like times where we do feed one end of that at that binary more and then like kind of move to the other end and be okay with the conversation between both ends.

 

Remy Franklin 

I think there’s a really important element of what Gaby just said which is also like acceptance, which like as we’re having this conversation, you might think we’re like really not into acceptance as coaches, you know, like, we think you should, you know, change your life and make it amazing.

 

But the truth is, happiness and well being a sense of happiness and well being often come from being grateful for what we already have. And so I think there, there’s two things there. Like when we talk about, like, getting stuck in the binary, one is realizing, first of all, like, what, what’s working well, and can I keep training my attention, my focus to notice what’s what’s working, and one simple way that become very popular recently, I’m doing this, but it’s also a pretty ancient path of practice. It’s just you know, gratefulness journaling, right? Like, every evening, write down a couple of things from your day that you’re truly grateful for, you know, and focus for a minute on those moments. And I think we start to then realize that even if we’re busy working, or we wish we were on a climbing trip, there actually are elements of our day that we can be engaged with and appreciate about, and we can cultivate that appreciation.

 

And then also just realizing what our circumstances are, right? Like, we have to be real, like if I, you know, have rent to pay or a family to support, and I need a certain level of income to do that. That’s just like a situation I’m working with, right? And unless I’m planning on changing that, and really changing my lifestyle to not need that income, it’s a question of, well, how am I going to make that income? You know, and so, I think we also in coaching, we tried to get really practical and realize like, yeah, we’re all working with certain constraints. We probably have more flexibility than we think we do. But it’s helpful to just like, make a list of your circumstances or constraints and realize, like, okay, I’m just, I’m going to accept that I’m working within these. And then within that, where do I have agency? Where can I make make a difference, make a change, that’s going to be more aligned with the things that I value?

 

Neely Quinn 

All right, yeah. Anything to add? 

 

Blake Cason 

Yeah, I would. Well, I’ll add one thing, Remy and Gaby, you guys inspire the shit out of me, because I was just like, just hearing your guys’s perspective on this is so like, this is why I’m working with the both of you. That’s that’s one thing.

 

But beyond that, I will add, so I’m a credentialed positive psychology coach as well. I’ve been trained in positive psychology and a big part of, of what we talk about, we know in positive psychology is our that, you know, the neuroscience of our brain’s real desire to make things black and white, and to really narrow, like, really narrow in the focus on this is the only way that it works. And forget that flexibility that Remy was talking about. So one thing I think I would add is a little bit of compassion and patience for your brain and how it’s trying to do its best is trying to figure things out for you.

 

And, and sometimes there’s often there’s space to challenge those, the, our thoughts, recognize that we’re not our thoughts, when it comes to life, the only way I’m going to be happy is if I’m just on a perpetual climbing trip. Because while that might feel real, there’s probably some additional truth there that our brain is kind of ignoring, like the additional truth that it also feels really good to have other important things in your life, it also feels really good to like, we know that, like employment is like it leads to exponentially more life satisfaction. That’s what we know, like, studies have been done that life satisfaction goes up, we have a job and we feel like we’re contributing. And that’s, that’s one of the things I think is really great about the climbing Wheel of Life is is this idea of contribution. And when we reflect on like, Oh, am I adding to anything because that’s you know, that’s a natural human tendency of, of humans, we want to connect, we want to, to add to support one another, and we reflect on that, we might find that, that sometimes climbing might leave us leave us wanting for contribution.

 

Neely Quinn 

Hmm. Anything else to add?

 

Gaby Colletta 

I think the last thing I’ll add to that, too, is, um, you know, when we create these, like, when we have constraints or limitations, whether chosen or imposed on us, there can be this tendency to see them as like, a bad thing. when in actuality, like maybe sometimes it just requires like reckoning our perception of the constraint and the limitation. And like, make it sort of contextualize that an example.

 

It’s like, okay, so I have to pay rent this week, so I have to do extra days behind the computer. And that’s a limitation that I have to abide by. And if I didn’t honor that limitation, and I go out and, you know, just chase full joy, there’s still going to be this like draining energy or this thing nagging at my mind or kind of like taking away from my ability to be fully present in my joy. And so by kind of working within that limitation, Honoring that limitation. I’m actually enabling my freedom to enjoy my joy to the fullest. And like, yeah, can I just offer that.

 

Neely Quinn 

It’s such a cool concept enjoy my joy, because we really, I really don’t sometimes I’ll be like, I’m sitting on the couch. And finally relaxing. This is so nice, but I should really be downstairs training. Right?

 

Remy Franklin

Right.

 

Blake Cason 

Oh, my God, that should word gets you.

 

Neely Quinn  

Yeah, I just remember when I was a kid. And I was like, yeah, I’m gonna stay in bed. And it’s 2pm. And I don’t even care, I am tired. And all I want to do is sleep and you’re just happy.

 

 

[Broad agreement]

 

Neely Quinn 

I wanted to add a couple things. And because we’re talking about like, trying to find balance, trying to find enjoying our joy. And I think that we can go really big with this, or we can go kind of small. And I want to bring up two quick examples of this. One of them is that conversations like these do really get people thinking about, like, how they can change their lives.

 

And Remy, I want to point this out, I got an email from somebody the other day, who was like, I just want to thank you, you had Remy on the podcast, and I started working with him. And I totally changed my life, I started becoming a life coach myself, and now I have a business and I changed my whole career. And I am so much happier, thank you so much. And so that was a couple years ago. So he’s had time to just like cultivate this whole new life.

 

But on the other end of that spectrum is like, as part of my own mental health, I see a therapist every couple of weeks. And he’s kind of partly my life coach. And I was telling him how overwhelmed I was and how I’m not able to do the things that I need to do or that I want to do. And we just came up with this really simple solution for me, which was I’m going to stop taking new clients right now, because I have so much other stuff going on. And so just the mere fact of me changing a button on my website that says you have to go to a waitlist, just for temporarily, it relieved so much pressure on me. And so just little things like that, like changing things up so that, you know, this makes it so that I have more time to climb and to spend time with my puppy and to, you know, like do the work things that I need to do. So just little things can make the difference, too. And any thoughts on that?

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, I love that example, Neely. And I think we can get so caught up in our idea about how things need to be that like one benefit of coaching. And it sounds like your therapist is playing this role, which is awesome, is to give us a space to actually question that, you know, like, for you it was maybe like, Oh, I need to be taking new clients, you know, and maybe you got a chance to look and see like, actually, I don’t right now, you know, like, I’m gonna be happier and more relaxed and like my, you know, my incomes fine, or whatever, you know, like I’m doing okay.

 

And so I just yeah, I think that it’s, it’s about, you know, Blake talked about creating a space, I think in coaching, right, we’re creating a container for that kind of observation to happen. And then also for us to take action on it. Right. And we’ve talked about that a few times. But the observations great, the insights, great, and it’s like, the coaching hasn’t happened, the change hasn’t happened until we pick a small step that we’re going to do. And it could be something really simple like that, you know, and then it could also be like changing your career and becoming a coach, like, you were talking about, you know, and it depends, right, like, I do this on a day to day with my — just for myself, or when I’m being coached by other people is to like, look at what that what those adjustments are daily, but of course, sometimes they’re much bigger.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right. Anyone else?

 

Blake Cason 

I was just thinking of, I’m so excited that you work with somebody, and that they’re, they’re the kind of therapist coach that, that that, like brings you to your own truths. Something that I found, like, again, to like bring a little neuroscience, something that I I read once and it immediately made a lot of sense to me is that when when we give somebody advice, which we’re also, you know, generally really keen to do to tell people what to do and how they should do it because we see their lives, so clearly. When we give people advice like that the the deep processing, like your prefrontal cortex that does a lot like is your higher level thinking the part of your brain that doesn’t develop till you’re 26. It kind of shuts down. And so when we have these conversations that are really exploratory, really curious about like, what are the what are the immovable objects? Where’s the wiggle room? What do you want? What are your values? What are you moving towards? When we get really curious about some of these life, then they start coming up with their own solutions.

 

And that’s I mean, that’s the beauty of coaching. That’s the beauty of being around people that are curious and are supportive of one another. And an often kind of like, the pitfall of advice is we were not very, like action oriented, we’re not really that like, often very, very attentive, you know, we talked about the art of attention, we’re not very attentive when people just giving us advice and telling us what to do. And that’s why, you know, we’ve been talking about these different tools and application and ways to reflect and places to start, rather than being like, this is how you need to do it. So Blake says she cycles through climbing and she does sport climbing, and then trad climbing. So like that you should do, you should just do that. Because that’s, that doesn’t fit with other people’s life.

 

And I’ve had to, you know, do my own processing and reflection and trial and error, I cannot stress that enough. Like, this is all trial and error. You we learn as much from what doesn’t work as What does. So, you know, you tried, you came up with this technique with your coach, choach/therapist, your coach-therapist, and, and you’ll see how it goes. And then you have total license and empowerment and flexibility to change it as you know, as you find how it works or doesn’t work for you.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right? Yeah.

 

Gaby Colletta 

And on that note, it’s like, that thing could work for you for a month, it could work five years, and then all of a sudden, you’ll need something else. And then that’s like, you know, that’s it’s time for retirement.

 

And I think like something that I just want to really hone in on that, like Blake mentioned, too, is this. The agency is like back in you and like, have you ever had that experience where you, your mind knows something you intellectually know something, but like, your body isn’t doing it, or you don’t like, agree with it. And then you have another experience where someone says something that excites you, and you feel this like giant Yes, with your whole body. And I feel like that’s kind of the difference between advice. And then like what happens in a coaching space, where it gives us time to actually integrate and digest this. It’s not even because we’re minding our own advice, like, as a client of coaching or counseling, it’s like, I’m the one doing the work to like, actually dig up my own wisdom, and therefore it’s mine, and therefore I own it, and therefore I can act on it, versus like, it being sort of an idea.

 

And so I think that’s something that’s really powerful about like creating the coaching space. And then you said something in your experience, that often I think is overlooked too, because we live in this like world of instant gratification. And you said like it was just doing that small change of changing, you know, not accepting quite like going on my waitlist instead. And just a big reminder that like, like anything that we do that’s new, or when we’re rising up to any challenge, it takes practice, and it takes like rewiring our neural pathways to like build that muscle where it’s where it whether it’s a mental muscle or physical muscle or like changing a rhythm in your life. And like, the more that we do it, the stronger it gets. So yeah, of course, there’s gonna be friction and resistance at first, it’s going to be like the hardest thing to change our lives. And then the more that we feed that and feed that the easier it becomes.

 

Neely Quinn 

Practice makes perfect. Well, I want to respect your time because we had those technical difficulties in the beginning. And so I know that you all have lives outside of this podcast. So I want to give you all an opportunity though to tell people where to find you on social media or on the internet. You want to start Remy?

 

Remy Franklin 

Sure. I’m at RemyFranklin.com. R E M Y F R A N K L I N. And also on Instagram @RemyFranklin. So we’d love to hear from folks.

 

Blake Cason 

Yeah, and I’m — so my private practice is called Pivot Wellness and so folks interested in that wellness and life coaching. The website is startyourpivot.com and you can find me on Instagram @BlakeCason and then the ClimbWell website is climbwell.co and Instagram is the same @climbwell.co for finding that.

 

Neely Quinn

Right.

 

Gaby Colletta 

Awesome. And for me, Gaby Coletta it’s just my name Gaby Colletta: G A B Y C O L L E T T A.com for everything. Yoga, mindfulness, meditation, climbing, and on Instagram @WanderingVayu. V A Y U.

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay, and you guys all see clients individually, right?

 

 

[Affirmations]

 

Neely Quinn 

And you’re all working on like — virtually at the moment too.

 

[Affirmations]

 

Neely Quinn 

And then tell me when is the retreat again?

 

Remy Franklin 

Yeah, it’s um, April 8 to 11th. So it starts on a Thursday ends on a Sunday. Like we said before, it’s in Veyo, Utah. So actually, this is kind of cool. Veyo pools is the only climate, excuse me, private rock climbing park in Utah. So, I don’t know if folks have been there before. But it’s, we went and checked it out a couple — like last month, when we were all out there. And it’s actually really rad climbing in this little Canyon, just north of St. George.

 

There, this is outside of the regular season. So we’ll be, you know, some of the only people in the park. And so that’s one reason we felt safe doing like a really small event, or retreat just with 12 people. So this is like a really intimate gathering for those four days in Utah. And we’ll have this like, really neat, we’ll be camping, you know, like 30 seconds from these like, cliffs of really cool rock climbs from like, you know, 5.7 to 5.13. So it’ll be a really neat playground for us to explore all of this, and workshops that will happen, like both, you know, on the rock and off the rock. So we’ll get to just like, practice it as we do it.

 

Neely Quinn 

And all three of you will be doing instructing.

 

[Affirmation]

 

Neely Quinn

Well, thank you all for this conversation. I think that while people have gotten really caught up in like getting stronger, getting stronger, stronger, stronger, better, better. I think that we’re all sort of starting to take a step back and be like, wait a second. Am I actually taking care of myself. And so this conversation is, I think, really useful, and I really appreciate it. So thank you.

 

Remy Franklin 

Thanks so much.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, yeah. All right.

 

Blake Cason 

Keep doing this. Thanks.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, good luck with the retreat and take care.

 

Guests

Okay, thank you.

 

Neely Quinn 

 

Alright, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Gaby, Blake and Remy, again, they’re at climbwell.co not com, but co. And you can also find them on Instagram @climbwell.co. And you can find all of their personal information on their website, as well as in the show notes to this episode, if you want to work with one of them.

 

So one last thing, I just want to remind you that our training program for boulderers is available. We put it out to the world last week, and we had a really good sign up for it. Thank you to everybody who signed up, it is so awesome to see how many people are psyched on bouldering training right now. And it’s available for the foreseeable future. This isn’t like a one time thing you can subscribe at any time. And you can go to Trainingbeta.com/bouldering and find all the details there. But basically, you get three levels of training to choose from. And that’s just based on your training experience, not your bouldering level. And in those levels, you get between 32 and 36 fully mapped out sessions, training sessions and you go through blocks of strength, skill development and power. And you’re always sort of working all of those things plus work capacity at the same time. But these blocks just have you focus on one of those things at a time. And this is the method that Matt has used with his clients since 2017. And he has seen amazing results with his clients as well as with his own climbing. So you can check it out at Trainingbeta.com/bouldering. And if you have any questions about it whatsoever, we’re here to help and you can email us at info@trainingbeta.com. You can find us on Instagram @TrainingBeta. And thank you so much for listening all the way to the end and I’ll talk to you next time.