Jeanne Rankin | Pathways to Success: Crafting Your Coaching Process

Thrown into the fire — that is how Jeanne Rankin learned, and it’s how she’s developing her athletes and interns at Coastal Carolina University. Rankin reveals how trust is what drives buy-in, performance, and success; without it, even the best program is just a piece of paper. She breaks down some of strength and conditioning’s toughest realities — long hours, relentless demands, and work-life challenges — which require strategic approaches across career stages. A process-oriented coach, Rankin shares practical strategies for setting boundaries, maximizing efficiency, and avoiding burnout when 70-hr workweeks are common. She also delivers real-world insights on career longevity, professional growth, and adapting to an evolving industry. With salary conversations, career sustainability, and the future of collegiate strength and conditioning on the table, Rankin brings an unfiltered, solutions-driven perspective. Whether you are just starting out or an experienced professional, this episode delivers straight talk on what it takes to succeed long-term.

Connect with Jeanne on Instagram: @thegingerguns or by email at: jrankin@coastal.edu | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs  

Check out the 2022 NSCA Salary Survey discussed in this episode and watch for 2025 NSCA Salary Survey results coming soon. Additionally, find actionable strategies to support a raise request in the NSCA’s new article, “How to Ask for a Raise in Strength & Conditioning.”

Read the NSCA’s proposal to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to recognize “strength and conditioning coach” as a detailed occupation in their classification system.

“If you've got a coach who's really bought into what you're doing. You're going to run through a wall not just for yourself, but for them too, because you know that they're doing a good job leading the way.” 9:45

“It's OK to make mistakes. I want it to be an environment where you can make mistakes. So just kind of taking in all the experiences that people give you, I think, is very important for younger strength coaches, learning from mistakes.” 14:30

“My biggest job is, sure, I want you to get better as an athlete, but I want you to be a person who's ready to go into whatever line of work you want to and to help you develop into a better person and human being that's going to make this world a better place.” 24:35

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:02.60] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, season 8, episode 21.
[00:00:08.72] What helped for me was honestly being thrown in the fire, like, that's the best way for me and it's what I do with a lot of my interns now is throw them into the fire, but trust that they're going to make mistakes and we're going to talk about it afterwards. It's not that I'm going to throw you into the fire, watch you get destroyed, and then tell you everything you did poorly afterwards. It's a learning experience.
[00:00:30.74] So being able, as a young strength coach, to look at any of those failures not as a setback, but as a way for you to grow, I think is really important. And it's one of the things, even with my athletes now, if they do something not as well, sometimes you kind of see them go into a shell, and it's just that's what you're going to do along the way. It's OK to make mistakes. I want it to be an environment where you can make mistakes.
[00:00:55.04] This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know but probably didn't learn in school. There's strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.
[00:01:05.57] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon, the NSCA coaching and sports science program manager. Today we're joined by Jeanne Rankin, the associate director of speed, strength, and conditioning at Coastal Carolina University. Ready to talk some shop on college strength and conditioning. Jeanne, welcome.
[00:01:24.16] Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
[00:01:26.20] Yeah, just getting to know you a little bit and talking before the show. It's an exciting time in college athletics. Some of the more recent episodes, we've been talking about, everything from NIL to motivating athletes to just some of the different opportunities that we're seeing across the Division I level.
[00:01:46.97] And it's important for us as a field to really get to know these topics, but really stick to our roots and hear the processes that coaches are using just to navigate their day. So, Jeanne, I'm really excited to get to know you today. Tell us about your background in strength and conditioning.
[00:02:06.24] Yeah. Yeah, so I'm from Oklahoma City originally. And just kind of grew up playing soccer. I guess I went to my first soccer practice and came back home, and my mom asked me how it was, and she said I'd never been so excited. So that was kind of just the sport I stuck with through middle school, high school, into college. Got recruited to play at University of Colorado.
[00:02:31.03] And actually my second year there-- and she's probably sick of me saying this on every podcast that I'm on, but Sarah Ramey was my strength coach. She just took a new job but was at University of Colorado, coaching me, and then West Texas A&M for a long time and is now at UTPB as an athletic director. So she's really moved on up the ladder. So that's my kind of crazy story, is that she was my strength coach in college.
[00:02:56.76] I had enjoyed lifting before. Lance Walker was actually my strength coach in high school, which is super odd. Most people don't get to tell that story. And we've reconnected kind of recently. But always liked the weight room throughout high school. And then my freshman year of college. And then Ramey was my strength coach my second year when I was actually redshirting playing soccer at Colorado.
[00:03:20.97] And so I just, when you're not traveling with the team and that kind of stuff, as a 5-foot-4 goalkeeper, I was looking for more stuff to do to keep my game sharp. And the weight room was a big piece of that for me. So I went and did more stuff with her in the weight room, and then it just kind of opened my eyes to I knew I wanted to stay in athletics in some capacity, but I had never even thought about being a strength coach.
[00:03:43.43] So when I decided to transfer to Oklahoma State, I just put my studies towards that. Finished out my playing career at Oklahoma State, interned in the weight room while I was also a GA for the rec center there. So I kind of took a different path than most people do with getting a GA spot in the weight room. I was actually GA-ing with the rec center.
[00:04:05.47] And yeah, then just got my first paid job at University of Arkansas under Todd Barber. And then got hired in my first full-time job at University of Missouri at Kansas City. Got hired by Trumain Carroll, who's now at Kansas State. And he played football when I was playing soccer at Oklahoma State. So we had that little connection.
[00:04:26.89] University of Kentucky, six years. And then my wife took a job as a soccer coach up at University of Connecticut. And so I got a-- I was lucky enough to get a job up there because I was kind of a leap of faith when she got a good job. And I had to figure something out and was lucky enough to get a job at Eastern Connecticut State.
[00:04:46.51] And then I had a really hard time standing the winters up there. So we moved down to Coastal Carolina. I got a job down here, and I've been here since July of 2021. So hopped around to all different kinds of parts of the country. But that's just kind of my general flow of my career and where I've been, so.
[00:05:02.70] Yeah, so what I'm hearing, you have traveled quite a bit. You're in a much warmer place now than you were a few years ago, and also that you've had some really impactful influences or mentors. Just the names you were dropping there that you had early exposure to. What's some of the good advice that you got that motivated you to pursue this field further?
[00:05:29.43] Yeah, like, Ramey didn't give me any real advice, I wouldn't say. It was just she enjoyed working with us, and she had fun, and she made us better. And we all valued her and the position that she had. And that was at a time I'd say that maybe strength and conditioning wasn't quite as big for soccer, but we respected her, and we did what we were told to do because we trusted her 100%.
[00:05:57.29] So I think that's one of the things that kind of molded me early, was just like the relationships you have with your coaches and even with my soccer coaches. But if you have good relationships with your coaches, that's really what gets the job done. Like obviously as a strength coach, I need to write a good program. But if they don't buy into what I'm doing with them, it doesn't matter what I write up for them, they're not going to take it seriously and follow my instruction. They want to know that I'm bought into what they're doing.
[00:06:24.90] So it wasn't so much, I'd say, like advice that I got from anyone, as it was the examples that they set for me just in their daily life and showing up the same way every single day and being bought into what they were doing with their job and what they were doing with their athletes.
[00:06:42.80] Well, I get the opportunity to interview a lot of coaches, and that's something I hear on this topic of mentorship is either you're coming from a place where strength and conditioning has been modeled really well for you. It's kind of a lead by example. Sometimes that's a vocal thing, it's like a key piece of advice, and you pursue that. And sometimes that's just hey, I'm in a great place. I have a lot of opportunity to grow or get on the field or recover from injury. You hear these themes.
[00:07:15.88] And then other times, and I connect with this, is I had an OK strength and conditioning experience or maybe a not-so-good strength and conditioning experience. But you learn from that, and you realize through, you might stumble across the field of strength and conditioning and be like, hey, I think there's more out there, and I want to pursue this and actually take it forward beyond what I was exposed to.
[00:07:40.31] So those are really the two areas I see where coaches come from. It's either kind of that hey, a setback mentality where we get to vault ourself forward from a starting point that maybe wasn't as great. Or it seems like you had a really good upbringing in the field and some really good role models to show you what it's all about. So I'll take that to you. How do you take those lessons learned and describe your process of working with athletes for us?
[00:08:10.86] Yeah, and kind of going back a little bit, I played college soccer for five years, and I had four different strength coaches. So most of the time that's not what I want for my athletes. But for me, I think a lot of things that happened to me when I was younger have benefited me later in life. Any of the injuries I had and all that kind of stuff. And so having four different strength coaches showed me four different ways of doing things.
[00:08:38.46] And then having a few different bosses along the way has shown me different ways that people lead, different ways that people coach, and those kind of things. So instead of-- I want my athletes now to have some pretty good consistency, but in where I ended up, it's been pretty beneficial for me.
[00:08:56.44] But yeah, I mean, I guess just kind of really the way that my strength coaches were with me, I think in college was very conversational. They wanted to check in, see how we were doing. And I've just found that to be the best way to do it with my athletes.
[00:09:15.25] So Coach Tru actually said it when I was at UMKC, I listened to his recruiting talks, and he'd always tell them-- he'll laugh when he hears this, but it's-- he's like, this is a piece of paper, and I can write a really, really good program. But if I'm not good at coaching it and you're not bought into what I'm doing, it's just a piece of paper. That's all it is. He's like, this could be a pretty mediocre program. And if I'm a really great coach, you're going to be very bought into it.
[00:09:40.34] And I remember hearing those talks and thinking, that's exactly the way I think as a person. If you've got a coach who's really bought into what you're doing. You're going to run through a wall not just for yourself, but for them too, because you know that they're doing a good job leading the way.
[00:09:56.08] So that's really like my coaching style. I'm not one of those big like, rah, rah type personalities. I get nervous when my coaches ask me to do something fun. I mean, I've talked to my soccer coach here, and she's like, can you do something fun with them? I'm like, I don't know.
[00:10:12.49] I'm very process-oriented. I think that's why I've done well with sports like track and field and swimming is because I'm-- to me, it's about those things that you do daily over and over and over again and get better and better and better at. So almost thinking, like, add a fun workout in that makes me nervous because I want to stick to the process that we've been in. But I can appreciate it challenges me to do something. And sometimes the best thing for the athletes is to add something different in too.
[00:10:47.69] But yeah, like I said, I'm very like process-based, follow this kind of progression. Obviously, life throws things at both our athletes, ourselves, our universities, whatever. And you have to go off path and figure out how to get it back on.
[00:11:02.81] But really, the thing that holds it all together is the conversations I have with my athletes to make sure that they're feeling good, they're getting what they need. If they want to have any input on stuff, they can have that too so.
[00:11:14.60] Probably something you take from you've had a few different positions, been to different universities. You mentioned having some different coaches, but you really get to learn what you're good at, what your strengths are, maybe what your weaknesses are, and how to overcome some of those. What advice do you have for coaches just in terms of knowing yourself and learning yourself through maybe your first couple opportunities in the field so that you can turn that into a productive method of coaching?
[00:11:43.83] Yeah. Yeah, when I took my first paid job at Arkansas, I had never written a program. I laugh at the internship programs now, like, even some of the ones we view not as good, was better-- and I'm not trying to say anything bad about anybody because everything I've gotten along the way has been beneficial. But even the ones that aren't quite as good now were better than what we had when I was coming in through the field.
[00:12:11.33] I mean, I had never gone to different websites to read different articles. Nobody had ever pushed me in that direction. All I had done was coach. When I was at Oklahoma State, I coached up women's soccer, my former team, softball, and equestrian.
[00:12:29.66] And so I mean, I was a goalkeeper in college. Like, I was pretty good at leading groups and moving people around and giving instruction. But I had never been given any resource to read. We had never talked programming.
[00:12:41.72] And so I kind of laughed at my first position at Arkansas. And Todd, my boss, gave me a few teams. I'm just like, I don't know what to do. Like, I've never written a program. And so I essentially followed his lead.
[00:12:56.32] So he had been doing it for years. I kind of just watched what he was writing up with women's soccer and basketball and any other teams, and I just kind of pulled from it and threw it in. And then I talked to my athletes along the way. I talked to my coaches a lot along the way.
[00:13:15.21] At Arkansas, I was with women's tennis, women's cross country, and women's golf. So not only sports that I don't know anything about, but they were also individual sports when I had done a team sport my whole life.
[00:13:26.74] So that was one of the big things I learned from my tennis coach is it's kind of a different setting. You have to get them-- the tennis players have had a hitting coach. They've had a strength coach. They've had all these different coaches. And so you've got to figure out how to get them to trust what you're doing with them when you're coaching in a group as opposed to individually.
[00:13:46.34] So really, it was what helped for me was honestly being thrown in the fire. Like, that's the best way for me. And it's what I do with a lot of my interns now is throw them into the fire, but trust that they're going to make mistakes and we're going to talk about it afterwards. It's not that I'm going to throw you into the fire, watch you get destroyed, and then tell you everything you did poorly afterwards. It's a learning experience.
[00:14:10.76] So being able, as a young strength coach, to look at any of those failures not as a setback but as a way for you to grow, I think, is really important. And it's one of the things, even with my athletes now, if they do something not as well, sometimes you kind of see them go into a shell, and it's just that's what you're going to do along the way.
[00:14:29.04] It's OK to make mistakes. I want it to be an environment where you can make mistakes. So just kind of taking in all the experiences that people give you, I think, is very important for younger strength coaches. Learning from mistakes.
[00:14:43.97] And then, one thing when I was at Arkansas, too, was I would be there from 5:00 in the morning till 7:30 at night. I'd go home a couple times to take my dogs out. And I remember at the time thinking, it's crazy how many hours I'm on the floor. I feel like I have no time to myself.
[00:15:01.60] And then five years later, I was-- couldn't have been more thankful for that because I worked with every single sport except for football and men's basketball. Like, what better way to set me up for success in the field than to have me work with every single team and help out with every single group?
[00:15:20.03] So while at the time it was a little bit frustrating that I'd be at work so long, I don't think I'd be what I am today if I hadn't had that experience. So just take all the experiences in, like, don't look at anything as well, they're having me do this. They're making me do this. Take everything as an opportunity, because we're only giving you stuff because we trust you to take care of our athletes.
[00:15:44.61] Yeah. I mean, you really nailed some points there, starting with internships are better today than they were years ago with GA positions. Entry-level experiences are just night and day above and beyond where they were. I was in a conversation recently with a grad student, and she's a GA and was just talking about what her end of grad school experience was and things they were building and programs.
[00:16:14.59] And one thing that came up, just some of the different needs coaches have today than maybe what we thought of back then. And it's something that I was giving some advice. I'm like, one thing I wish I had done back then was really just build an arsenal of exercises, a video, videos.
[00:16:33.81] Oh my gosh.
[00:16:34.54] And me coaching this just so that I can communicate things out, whether offseason or whatever it may be, and talk about adding that to your toolbox early so that you don't have to double back. Because we know how busy we get and how tough that can be when we want to put up a website, when we want to start programming digitally, or just catch up to the digital age we're in.
[00:16:59.22] So I think it's a really good habit for us, as we're in our career as coaches, to think back on, man, this is a pain point now. I want to make sure my interns and students and people that I'm influencing aren't going to be experiencing that same pain point.
[00:17:22.20] I love how you mentioned-- I thought you were going to talk negatively about being at the complex from 5:00 AM to after dark. But you took so many positives from that. And that's another takeaway, I think, for students, is this is a time in your life when you can afford to really pour into yourself and develop skills.
[00:17:46.67] And you don't need to be constrained to a 9:00 to 5:00 to do that. I think a lot of us, or probably all of us in this field on some level, feel the push to go above and beyond that. Whether it's a position we have or just our drive to be great at what we do.
[00:18:03.67] This is around recovery, performance. These are around the clock for the athletes. I mean, I think at times we were on late-night flights after games, and you're talking to someone, or even if you're not, that athlete is still in it. They're still recovering. They're still getting ready for that next day, whatever it may be, practice, game, and you're there with them. And so this is around-the-clock job. It's impactful to dive in headfirst.
[00:18:35.92] You mentioned throwing, getting into the fire, thrown into the fire. That's a phrase I've used quite a bit. It's a sensitive balance, though, because we're maintaining a pace at that stage in our career that maybe we can't sustain forever.
[00:18:53.83] Yeah. Well, and I was going to say that I was talking to one of my interns the other day, and I was trying to get a good feel of what she wanted to do with her career. And this is not the first time I've had this conversation, but talking to someone. And they said, like, well, I think maybe I want to do this for-- like maybe I want to be a strength coach for 10 years. But then I want to go on to something else.
[00:19:15.82] And maybe it's just because I love this field. And I thought, what else would I do? But I don't have any grand ideas of what else I would do. Which is probably a good thing and a bad thing. Maybe it means I'm in the right place, but maybe I do need to know what I could go to if this didn't work.
[00:19:36.05] But dive deeper into why is that? Why do you think it would be something maybe you'd only want to do for 10 years? And it came down to you guys work crazy hours, and I just don't want to do that for forever. And I started laughing because while I could appreciate what she was saying, I'm not around for 12 hours a day in the weight room.
[00:20:00.38] So I mean, I've gotten-- I've been doing this for 17 years. I've gotten pretty good at I still write up a new program every year for my teams, but I've got a really good idea in my head of what I want to do. And so if it used to take me six hours to write a cycle because I'm a big overanalyzer too when it comes down to it with programming. So if it used to take me six hours to write a cycle, maybe it's like two to three now because I've already been through all these scenarios in my head of what they need, how it's going to go, what kind of athlete I have right now.
[00:20:35.63] So I'm like, you know, yeah my first job, I was working 70 to 80 hours a week, and it was insane. I don't do that anymore. Like, I have to have some sort of balance, or I would end up getting out of the field. And I do think that my experiences are valuable for my athletes, for my department. Obviously it's something I love doing, but it changes over a career.
[00:20:56.90] And it's also about I always used to wonder how strength coaches would say, I set boundaries about what I do, and now I get it because I've got boundaries about what I do. When I took this job at the pay that it was, and then having my wife leave her job, I can't just be at work 70 hours a week.
[00:21:17.76] It isn't sustainable. It's not good for my marriage, obviously. So there were things I had to do to put my foot down about this is what I'll do. And I will do a phenomenal job at it. But I don't want to be at work for 12 hours a day.
[00:21:32.53] Yeah. I mean, you speak to making our processes more efficient as coaches. We can be very process-oriented. Like you said, we can be so dialed in, but you want to do that with laser precision. You want to do that in a way that you're not wasting time.
[00:21:52.78] I mean, I know as coaches, we hate wasting time. I mean, we hate when times get pushed back and you're just waiting to warm the team up or whatever it may be. Like, those are pain points for us in these jobs. And so the more efficient we can be.
[00:22:09.91] Maybe the challenge there is we have to actually be better with our downtime. I know there's a lot of coaches that need it, need a release outside of coaching just to be fresh. And there's an argument that it can make you better and more well-rounded when you get back to your athletes or in your job.
[00:22:26.14] Yeah. No, I agree.
[00:22:27.61] Also today there's a lot of different opportunities in the field. I know we're talking on this work-life balance. I know a lot of coaches jump from college or professional sports and want to work in, say, tactical or another area where the schedule is a little bit more traditional business hours. What is it about college athletics for you that makes it unique and special to work in?
[00:22:53.72] Yeah. And I've even thought about trying out different things. But once again, when you've decided to go about life with another person, you can't just go and experiment with different things and hope they work out.
[00:23:10.52] But it does always come back. Like when I've thought about taking a high school job or I've thought about tactical, I've talked to a lot of people to figure out what's different about it. It's like talking to high school strength coaches to figure out why did you go from college to high school. What do you see? What's different? What do you like? What do you not like? Same with tactical. What do you like? What do you not like? And none of those things have been big enough for me to say, ah, that's what I want to do.
[00:23:38.70] For me, really, this age population 18 to 22-year-olds, it's really for a lot of them the first time that they're away from home. And it's-- you know, those of us who went to college, and probably especially those who, I might be wrong when I say this, but probably especially those who were athletes and dealt with the stressors of that. And then the failures and the successes. Like, we went through a lot in college.
[00:24:08.58] So I think I'm very compassionate with them and understanding what it is they're going through. And so I just can't see myself doing any other age group because I think that I can just help them so much develop as people during those four to five years, and in a good way.
[00:24:33.75] I always kind of say to my athletes, like, my biggest job is, sure, I want you to get better as an athlete, but I want you to be a person who's ready to go into whatever line of work you want to and to help you develop into a better person and human being that's going to make this world a better place.
[00:24:52.13] And I think a lot of times we kind of put that away and don't necessarily think that's important to our jobs, but for me, that almost feels like a main focus. And if I can help mold you into a better person who does things the right way, you're going to get better at your sport. I can guarantee it.
[00:25:08.57] So I just, I don't think I could do that in high school. I think I've heard there's a little bit too much with parents. I'm not sure how well I would navigate that. I think they would know that I cared about their kid, but I think I would have a hard time navigating that.
[00:25:24.50] And then tactical. I think just different populations, like some of them are deployed a lot, and then I don't get a lot of time to spend with them. And I really like the developmental part. Honestly, I love offseason because I love building a team up and forming a culture that's going to perform during in-season. So I just, I don't see myself getting that anywhere else.
[00:25:47.05] So on that topic of building culture, what's the balance as a strength and conditioning coach of weight room skills versus non weight room skills? How do you see that unfold?
[00:25:59.32] Yeah, I think one of the things that I'm good at probably from the different levels. I've been at and from being at schools where my sports aren't going to get everything, it's not like I'm working with football or basketball, where for the most part, if a coach asks for something, they're getting it. And I've worked at a D-III school, I've worked at some lower-level, quote-unquote, lower-level D-Is. And I've worked at higher, quote-unquote, higher-level D-Is.
[00:26:28.44] So I've worked on a handful of different levels. And I think I've just learned how to think outside the box with stuff. Like even at-- people think that when you're at Kentucky that you have everything at your disposal, you don't need to ask for anything because you've already got everything. Even those schools, like still could use some stuff. You've got everything you need, but you could use some stuff, whether it's having other people helping out or whatever it is.
[00:26:57.10] But I think that probably a skill I learned as a goalkeeper is just thinking outside the box. I mean, if you think about that position it's oh man, something went wrong, we turned the ball over. OK, I need to move this person here, this person here. Like, it's setting everything up to make sure they don't get a shot on goal.
[00:27:16.09] And it's the same thing I think in my role is, OK, where do we have shortcomings? And then what can I do to fill those gaps in? And then what are we doing really well that but we just need to continue doing?
[00:27:26.76] That's always my question for my coaches at the end of the year, is what did I not do well that I can improve on? And what did I do really well that we want to keep on doing? And then is there anything else that we want to change? So I think just kind of that ability to adapt is really, really important.
[00:27:42.02] And then I don't know if this is answering the question or not, but one thing I've been thinking about recently is just the pay is what it is right now. We can all sit here and complain about-- I've done things to try to help out with this, but we can all sit and complain about I don't get paid enough.
[00:28:03.89] But the reality is you might go somewhere else and get paid the same. You might-- you just don't know. It's not-- none of us came here to make tons and tons of tons of money. We came here, I would hope to make an impact. But at the end of the day, you gotta pay bills, you got to take care of your family.
[00:28:25.67] So I think one thing I've-- instead of recently just complaining about the salaries, I've tried to figure out ways to counter it. So when I took the job here, it was OK, what else can I do in Myrtle Beach, in the Myrtle Beach area? There's different populations of people that I could work with to make outside income.
[00:28:46.97] I knew that I wasn't going to have a ton of stuff to do during the summer. Like the number of athletes I have staying over the summer is way lower than other schools I worked at.
[00:28:57.89] So I mean, honestly, people are going to laugh about this, but during the summer I live with mostly retired people. I like a quiet neighborhood, but they can't do everything around their house. So I was doing lawn work for one of my neighbors, and I enjoyed getting to go hang out with her, talk to her, do something that helps her out.
[00:29:16.45] Hey, that's your cardio right there. You're getting your cardio.
[00:29:18.83] Yeah, yeah. And I made money doing it. And then it's like you talk to one person and they're like, oh, I heard you did this, could you come over and do this? So like I said, I've had even some coworkers being like, I can't believe you're doing that. And I'm like, I get paid like 30 bucks an hour doing this stuff?
[00:29:35.11] And I get to go hang out with people who've got so many stories. So I think, like I said, instead of complaining about the salary, what I've decided is to-- it just takes so much effort for me to do that anymore. And so I just want to stay more positive and figure out ways to make sure I can pay the bills.
[00:29:53.62] And then any opportunities that come up for my wife that might either make us more money or make her happier or develop in her career. Let's do it. Like any of that stuff. Let's do it. This is the time and place to do it.
[00:30:08.37] Yeah, it is important to reframe the negative at times in this profession and find solutions. Find solutions so that you can stomach maybe some of the things that are adding stress because we love this job, we love our athletes. We love where we work and the people we work with. That is really what it is about for us.
[00:30:34.10] And we all process this in different ways, right? Of how we're making incremental progress in our careers. I know at the NSCA, we have a salary survey that we're doing every three years to continue to at least report progress in the field or give coaches a baseline of hey, this is what other coaches are making, just so you know because you're not always in that open communication on these, especially salary topics.
[00:31:06.49] I like how you mentioned finding ways to counter where you're at in terms of salary. I hear coaches that mention camps a lot of times at their schools. Sometimes that's an option for making a few extra bucks certain times a year.
[00:31:22.97] I mean, gosh, I think back on asking for more continuing ed money, or travel stipends, or whatever it may be, depending on where you're working, what might be available, what's being offered to other departments, and things that you might be able to tap into.
[00:31:40.19] And so it really challenges us to learn our institutions really well so that we can continue to pour into that institution, a little bit needs to come back to us. And it's tough talking about salary in this field.
[00:31:56.72] I mean, I'm sure we could really, really talk on some of the negatives that just jobs we've maybe had to take just to get where we're at today. But it's something that there's a lot of encouragement in that as well. And we want to keep it positive. We want to take it forward.
[00:32:15.41] So with that, we have some negatives in our field. Tons of positive. Tons of opportunity. What does the future of strength and conditioning look like for you? Maybe the next 5 to 10 years?
[00:32:28.08] Yeah. Well, I'll be the first to say, as you were talking at the beginning of the show about NIL and this, that, and the other, that I am-- this is bad, but I'm relatively clueless on that stuff. I think when it was really popping up, I was no longer at a Power Four school. And so I haven't been in on those talks as much.
[00:32:49.29] And so I've made a real-- not that I wasn't trying to show up and do well in my job anyways, but I've made a real conscious effort to make sure that if anybody were to get let go, that it wouldn't be me. And I've worked at-- so kind of what I go back on is I've worked with all these different sports throughout my career. I can work with any and all of them. I've been doing this 17 years.
[00:33:15.66] I worked at a D-III where I was a part-time strength coach and I worked with every single sport. So I've done all those things, and I figured out how to manage all those different positions I've been in.
[00:33:29.60] I do think I need to educate myself a little bit more on that stuff because it is going to change the landscape of college athletics. But I think, too, I can sit here and think, oh, it's going to go this route, and maybe I need to get in with basketball because they'll be safe. Or maybe I need to get in with football because that'll be safe. But if that's not where my passion really lies, then why would I do that? I think that I can always find another way of making it work.
[00:33:57.84] I think college athletics is going to be around, but maybe it is that certain sports make the majority of the money, which I'd argue that's pretty much the way it is right now anyways. But maybe they're making the majority of the money, and then maybe the positions like mine that work with the quote-unquote non-revenue sports, and I could go off into a tangent about that as well. But maybe those positions tend to be entry-level for forever.
[00:34:25.34] I honestly don't know. And I'm not trying to say that's what's going to happen. But I think that's why it's been really important for me to say, OK, well, if that happens and I still want to have this job, what do I do to keep a roof over my head and food on the table?
[00:34:41.08] So I just think it's a matter of kind of doing the best you can to stay in the know of what's happening, having a really good relationship with all the people in your department. So that if something does go down, people stick up for you and they say, hey, Jeanne Rankin is somebody that we can't replace. We can't let her go. So I think that's kind of the best we can do.
[00:35:04.84] Yeah, it's important. And I asked that question because it's important for listeners and coaches to recognize maybe where the field is going. And there's eyes and ears everywhere. So hopefully people can take what you're saying and think about applying that to their scenario.
[00:35:22.27] But one thing I hear come through is, especially at the early stages of your career, when you're just making decisions where you're going to go, how you're going to gain experience, you need to navigate your career right in front of you where it's at. And that includes where the field is at today, the salaries that are today.
[00:35:46.00] If you focus so much on those areas, it can be detrimental to your growth and your progress. And yeah, that's a challenge for us. It's a challenge for us to sometimes feel like maybe we're putting our life on hold to do another internship or get another entry-level experience in our mind, whatever that may be.
[00:36:09.34] But there's a lot of encouragement. I mean, we can both speak over our careers. Just the number of opportunities that have grown in the field. Salaries are better today than they were years ago.
[00:36:23.00] So we can be negative about it, but it is improving. We're fighting really hard at the NSCA to get even more recognition for the strength and conditioning profession. And it's important we do that. It's important we stick together.
[00:36:36.45] And one thing I love about this podcast, you guys have a voice. The coaching community has a voice at the NSCA that can bring the pain points to life and try to turn that into policy and action, whatever that is.
[00:36:53.66] Yeah. And I think one of the things I think the salary survey is really important, like you said, because you don't always know what's going on at other schools.
[00:37:03.84] I think one thing that I've found recently, too, is just, I'll tell anybody what I make. I don't care. If it's going to help somebody else or it's going to help me, I will literally tell anybody what amount of money I make.
[00:37:18.88] I think sometimes we kind of hide that information, and I'm not entirely sure why people do that. I would think they've got a reason for it, but I don't understand it. And so I think talking to people in your conference or in your region.
[00:37:33.79] One of the things I've looked at recently through talking to some colleagues is that if you're looking to get a pay raise, essentially you need to have a conversation with HR or somebody through that to figure out what do they look at. Because maybe one school says, maybe an SEC school says, OK, well, what do other strength coaches in the SEC make? But then maybe a school in the Big Ten says, well, we don't care what other schools in the Big Ten make. We want to know people in this area, in this region, or in this state.
[00:38:06.52] So if you don't know what HR is looking for and how they constitute giving you a raise, then you're just blindly throwing darts. You don't really know what you're looking at. So I think every institution does it a little bit differently.
[00:38:20.89] And then kind of last thing I want to say about it is, you mentioned that salaries have gone up, and obviously inflation has gone up as well. But the one thing I don't like is when those of us who have been in the field for a while pull the old, well, I had to do this when I was younger. I had to work an unpaid internship for two years before I got a paid job.
[00:38:42.90] I hope we all recognize that that's not what we want to have happening. And I think a bigger point for me is that we miss certain people in the field when we require that. So in order to be able to do two years of an unpaid internship, you have to have money saved up, and not everybody has that. I was very lucky and very fortunate, and I can recognize that. But then there's other people who don't have that.
[00:39:05.35] And I think every type of person has a place in strength and conditioning because our population of athletes are so much different from each other. They're very diverse. So why not do everything we can to invite every kind of person into that?
[00:39:22.33] So I just, I'm not big about the whole, well, when I was growing up, we had to do this. My soccer players would laugh that that's not true. And I give them those stories all the time. But as far as like salaries and coming up in the field, I think we kind of need to leave some of that stuff behind, I guess, is what I'm saying.
[00:39:37.61] Yeah, I'm with you. The barefoot, uphill both ways kind of mentality needs to exit our field. There's so many more opportunities today. There's a need for us. There's a need for strength and conditioning coaches. There's a need for our knowledge in the world, not just in college athletics. We're seeing new areas that strength and conditioning is growing.
[00:39:58.76] And yeah, this is awesome, Jeanne. I love your positive message that you give to coaches. You've been at this for a while, so I think that it can be challenging to always find the positive in things, and you do a really great job of that. So I appreciate everything you share.
[00:40:17.58] Yeah, I try to. It's too much energy being negative all the time. So I did find that out early in my career. It's just too much energy, so.
[00:40:26.34] Yeah, so I know listeners are going to want to reach out, connect with you. What's the best way for them to do that?
[00:40:32.28] Yeah, I guess the best way for me, I mean, going to the Coastal Carolina website and just looking up email address on there. I'm pretty good at responding to an email eventually. I'm best with a text message. I'm not going to give out my phone number here, but I can also be found on Instagram. That tends to be kind of the one that I poke around on a little bit more. So just messaging me on that. I should get back to it, so.
[00:40:58.05] I wouldn't be too interested in following me. You're just going to find pictures of my dogs. But it's not like these big training secrets. But I can be reached on that as well.
[00:41:06.90] Awesome. So we'll include your social media tags, your email address that you mentioned in the show notes. Going to add a few different links as well to the NSCA salary survey that we were talking about. And just some of the other ways that you can connect with professionals.
[00:41:28.20] One thing you mentioned, Jeanne, was helping get organized, maybe at the conference level or at the community level. We do that at the national or global level through the NSCA. But I think it's an impactful, important message for coaches to say, hey, if I'm in this conference, we need to get together and talk salary a little bit. Whether it's anonymous or everyone's comfortable sharing just so that we can help prepare for those conversations for ourself.
[00:42:05.70] Maybe at the community level, different schools in your area or different types of strength coaches. That could be a different challenge for coaches. But I really like that message of don't just rely on the NSCA to give you that information. Don't just rely on other outside sources. Go seek it for yourself because you're going to always find and know exactly what you're looking for. If you do that.
[00:42:31.85] Yeah. And I think I've heard that it's hard for you guys in the NSCA to do some of that like quote-unquote lobbying. So then I think, if you guys can't do that because that's not the way it works. I mean, I don't work at the national office, so I don't fully understand that. Then OK, well, what's another way we can do it? What's another way we can organize? I think you got to do what you got to do.
[00:42:59.59] Yeah. Well, I mean, in this lobbying political conversation, there's always the grassroots efforts, right? There's always what's happening at the community level. And I do like to think that we are taking steps towards getting our profession more recognized.
[00:43:16.03] Recently, we submitted a proposal to the US Department of Labor for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to have strength and conditioning coaches be recognized. It's kind of absurd to us in the field that it's not a recognized profession. But to do that, we need to differentiate ourselves from other professions. And so we're starting to realize what that process looks like. That went out in a member news pretty recently.
[00:43:47.00] Yeah, I remember reading something about it.
[00:43:49.63] And it is a really exciting development. So I hope for everyone tuning in that we continue to have more developments on that. And we always have some fun projects like that going on at the NSCA trying to push the field forward and really support what we love to do as coaches, support our athletes, support our institutions, support ourselves.
[00:44:12.12] A lot of big themes coming through in this episode. So Jeanne, I really appreciate you being with us today. Thanks to all our listeners. And thanks to Sorinex exercise equipment. We appreciate their support.
[00:44:24.27] My name is Autumn Lockwood, and you just listened to an episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast. And if you'd like to get involved in any sort of way for volunteer opportunity, make sure you head to nsca.com, and you'll be able to find a list of them to get involved.
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