AGC #002 - How to curate and consume coaching content

Today, I’m going to talk about the best ways to find and store useful coaching content.

Whether they admit it or not, every coach is a magpie.

We are all looking for shiny objects - ideas we can steal and adapt to our own environment.

But if you’ve ever struggled to find that cool thing you saw on YouTube a few days ago - usually when you’re trying to show someone - then you’re a willing workman with bad tools.

Here are 4 tools that will help you separate the signal from the noise:

Stoop Inbox

Newsletters are the best way to consume written content from thinkers you admire, but your email inbox is fighting against you.

It’ll funnel their content to secondary or junk folders, meaning the good stuff you actually signed up to read is hard to find, or gets missed completely.

Stoop Inbox provides you with an email and an app that’s solely for newsletters and blogs, so you can subscribe and read them all in one place without having to sift through spam or marketing BS.

Real-world example: Here’s some of what I’ve been reading recently. Leaving things unread is my best way to remember to come back to them, but I also like to maintain ‘inbox zero’ in my emails. This gives the best of both worlds!

Twemex

The Google Chrome plugin you never knew you needed. This essentially replaces your Twitter search bar, and allows you to surface the most popular tweets from any given account.

If someone’s tweet grabs you, you can immediately see if the rest of their content is up to scratch. When you find an account you vibe with, it’s like a snowball rolling down a hill and becoming an avalanche in terms of the value you can get.

Real-world example: One of my favorite coaching books I read over the last year is Cody Royle’s The Tough Stuff.

A friend had recommended it, but I was quickly sold when Twemex helped me see that Cody pays a lot of attention to the struggles coaches face and is an authority in the coach mentorship space:

Save To Notion

Notion is my external brain - it’s where I organize my life, and it is the best productivity app for my money. Save To Notion is the Chrome plugin that ensures I don’t miss anything, and allows me to database stuff I like, with context.

Real-world example: Geir Jordet compiles outstanding, detailed Twitter threads with video examples on football psychology.

His analysis of Kevin De Bruyne provided lots of inspiration and ideas on scanning that could be adapted for my world of coaching field hockey, so I saved it to a database with relevant tags to describe it:

Twitter Lists

Social media’s main double-edged sword for me is that it’s full of brilliant ideas, but is designed to lull you into mindless consumption.

Twitter lists are my primary method of fighting against the algorithm. They are under-utilized by most people, although Twitter has recently made them far more prominent - they used to be hidden away in a submenu.

Taking the time to create one or more lists with the accounts that provide the most value to you has multiple benefits:

• You’re less likely to miss valuable stuff from creators you like

• Makes it easier to avoid getting distracted and going down other rabbit holes

• Lists are presented chronologically, so you’ll actually reach the bottom of the ‘content well’ and know when to stop

Don’t leave yourself at the mercy of the algorithm!

Real-world example: My friend Lucas Piccioli at Spiideo made a list of all the NCAA DI field hockey accounts during his time coaching at Louisville a few years ago. It remains the easiest way for me to get score updates in-season, as well as seeing what the ‘competition’ is up to with their social media output.

There you have it - my top 4 tools for finding and storing coaching content. What are yours? Give me a shout on Twitter @agoodcoach and let me know!