Ben Dziwulski is the founder of WODprep, where he and his team of coaches teach CrossFit athletes the fundamentals of advanced skills. Ben has helped thousands of people learn new skills and built an impressive online business in the process. This episode is not just about CrossFit, but about foundational principles of teaching, asking probing questions, and deeply understanding what people want in order to better serve them and help them reach their goals.

Check out more from Ben and WODprep here:

• Website: www.wodprep.com
• Instagram: @wodprep
• YouTube: @wodprep

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Show Notes:

• [01:30] True expertise comes from being able to explain things simply and prioritize effectively – how Ben avoids the “curse of knowledge" and breaks down coaching cues in ways that people can understand and relate to their goals
• [07:30] Consistency is more important than perfection. When learning new skills, it’s much more important to start somewhere, work on figuring out a basic level of competency, then iterating over time.
• [12:40] How to understand what a market actually wants and what will pay for – as opposed to just what they say they want. And some miscalibrated predictions that Ben has made throughout WODprep’s history.
• [23:00] The danger of going it alone when learning new things: People tend to want to either skip steps, or they will think they have to check off an endless list of prerequisites before they even attempt the thing that they’re working on. Having a coach can eliminate both of these problems.
• [31:24] People are motivated to do silly things both by blindly copying others and by trying to increase their status in their group. Plus, two stories of CrossFit heartbreak including Ben doing an Open workout with a sever staph infection and Gary Helmick breaking his ankle right before Regionals.
• [41:54] Everyone understands that you should spend some time training your weaknesses, but how do you honestly look at yourself and figure out what’s holding you back? For many people, the lack of consistent focus and being willing to tackle one thing at a time is a bigger issue than anything else.
• [47:10] What has been changed and iterated on with WODprep in order to better help people? The value of making things simple and having clear step-by-step instructions in order to increase compliance, hiring great people and giving them autonomy, and giving more options and avenues for clients to communicate with coaches.
• [58:00] Sign up for Ben’s newsletter – and the new WODprep course on hip mobility

Links and Resources Mentioned

• How to Snatch: And then…a miracle occurs
• Richard Feynman
• Blue Crab CrossFit
• Muscle Up Madness: Learn Muscle Ups Faster
• "Eva" – Named CrossFit Workout
• The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich
• Michael Jordan’s Sweatband Position
• Gary Helmick
• Jordan Troyan
• Ben Smith
• Mathew Fraser