Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Gil 1918 Project,a podcast series by coaches, for
coaches, powered by Gil Athletics.
Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
track clinic straight to your ears daily.
Interested in creating your own episode?
Everyone's welcome to participate.
(00:21):
Check out the show notes below For more information.
Now let's get into today's topic.
Hi there, my name is Mike Pietro.
I am a track and field recruiting coach at NCSA College
Recruiting and today's topic is cleaning your inbox.
How can we, you know, become more efficient in replying to
pertinent emails and take our time to reply to emails from
(00:44):
minutes to seconds? So a bit about me.
I spent 10 years as a college track and field coach, 10 years
in higher education where I balance a number of
responsibilities. I was an assistant cross country
track and field coach. I was a head cross country and
track and field coach. I served as a program track and
field cross country recruiting coordinator.
(01:05):
I've served as a strength and conditioning coach, whether that
is for my team or a number of other teams on our campus.
I also served as an adjunct instructor and primarily working
at smaller institutions, got bogged down with a a lot of
those emails about clubs and organizations that quite
frankly, I don't care about. But now transitioning into my
(01:25):
new role, I am a track and fieldrecruiting coach here at NCSA
where I coach hundreds of student athletes in all facets
of recruiting and help those athletes find their next home at
the college level. Now, why is this presentation
important? Well, Simply put, you could be
like me and you get hundreds of emails per day.
And if you get all of those emails, it is very, very
(01:48):
difficult to respond to all of those emails and address those
emails accordingly. So if you can't get to those in
time, you miss important deadlines.
You keep people waiting, whetherthat is your blue chip recruit
that is expecting response from you in a timely manner.
The meet director for your upcoming championship meet as a
piece of legislation you need toreview for your administrators
(02:10):
need some sort of update, whether that's financial or in
terms of, you know, sponsorship or eligibility.
Just ultimately you're putting yourself at A at a disadvantage
in being able to come off as an organized professional, both in
terms of, you know, a coach standpoint as well as a
representative of your organization.
And you know, Simply put, where I'm coming from with this, I've
(02:33):
seen it both ways. Like look, coach, I've been
there, I've done that. I've gotten all of those emails
and I did a terrible job replying to those recruits.
So I want to be a part of the solution.
And, and especially right now with my position, I'm helping
those recruits who want to compete for your program.
They meet your posted recruitingstandards, they'll qualify for
(02:53):
your conference meet or score atyour conference meet.
They have good grades, they're super excited to be in contact
with you. And then you don't do anything
with their e-mail. So how can we fix this problem
both for you as a professional to be, you know, a, an organized
individual to attend to all of the emails in your inbox, as
(03:14):
well as putting yourself in a positive light for anyone
reaching out to your organization.
And the tool that I want to showyou today is Text Blaze.
Text Blaze is a free extension that I use for Google Chrome.
It also has a Windows or a Mac App.
I have not dove too much into those, but I use Text Place for
(03:38):
Google Chrome. It allows me to have some auto
templated responses or or commonmessages that I'll send that
instead of copying and pasting gives me the opportunity to
assign a phrase or a shortcut for that template to auto
populate. So once you download it, the
dashboard looks like this. You can see all of my templates
(04:00):
are over here. You know the example I'll use
back slash. Hello.
I came up with my beautiful title sequence for this
presentation. So coaches, I think this is
super valuable in terms of recruiting.
You can preload a bunch of stockresponses and edit those as you
see fit. So, you know, first and
(04:21):
foremost, that blue chip recruite-mail hits your inbox that that
student athlete has everything you're looking for.
Yeah, I definitely want to talk to that student athlete back
slash. Yes, the e-mail pops up ready to
go. One bonus tip that I have for
you, if you're going to have an e-mail template that you have to
edit in some capacity to make itpersonalized, always use TK or
(04:46):
TKTK as the placeholder. The reason being it's very
common thing to do in journalism, and that's because
the letters TK, when they are, you know, back-to-back or TKTK,
it's it's very rare to find a word in the English language
that has the letters T&K right next to each other, unless
(05:06):
you're talking about the Kitchuck brothers, if you're a
big ice hockey fan. Yeah.
So, you know, if I'm looking forall of this information that I
need to edit specifically for that specific e-mail, I can
control FTKTK. And that opportunity comes up to
be able to edit that selection, you know, and the last thing you
(05:26):
want to do is if you are a copy pastor and you know, you send an
e-mail to Johnny and you copy paste it and you go to send it
to Timmy and you don't take all the Johnnies out.
It doesn't look good for you as a coach or an organization.
So again, you know, just a little bonus tip, use use some
sort of phrase that that's goingto be very unique and very
uncommon that you can use as a control F search.
(05:47):
So here's my my yes, template. Yes, that recruited someone that
that meets my standards. Well, hey, you know, I get it.
You know, a lot of student athletes aren't what you're
looking for and it's OK. Please let them know.
Please let them know that it's that you're, they're not what
you're looking for and that's OK.
You know, something like this. Thank you for reaching out.
You did not meet our poster recruiting standards, but I have
(06:08):
posted those standards here for you.
Please keep me posted on your progress.
So what I recommend is if you have anything that has your
recruiting standards as a copy paste, you know, don't put the
standards in the temple itself. Create a new phrase just for
your standards. So here's my no reply but back
slash standards. And then my recruiting standards
(06:31):
pop up. So I only have to edit the
recruiting standards in the event that a student athlete
reaches out to me and I need to send those in that information.
So that is my no reply for for an athlete that's not a good
fit. Hey, you know it's June 2nd.
The 2020 Fives are trying to find a home.
It's OK to tell them that you'reno longer recruiting the 2025
(06:54):
class. This is my too late template, so
back slash too late. You know, on the flip side, you
know what if you have that, thatfreshman or sophomore recruit
that's super eager to talk with you Division One coaches, I'm
looking at you. You know it's before June 15th.
You think I know you can go ahead and send this really,
really brief response. Thank you for reaching out.
(07:15):
Due to legislation, I'm not ableto connect with you about
recruiting until June 15th. So go ahead, you can send that
out to the recruit super fast and easy.
Hey, you know, along the same lines, Division One coaches,
you're in a position where your roster is becoming full.
You go ahead and tell those athletes that you know.
Hey, coach, hey, student athlete, thank you for reaching
(07:38):
out. My roster is full and we are no
longer able to take athletes in your event if things change and
we'll let you know. So again, you know, being
proactive with those communications to those athletes
who you know, for one reason or another may come across your
desk in the future. Now, again, for some of those
programs that are not a full program, you know, I'm talking
(08:01):
about like a Towson University or a Jacksonville State, I'm
looking at you. You can say back slash no men.
If any of those men's recruits come across your desk, could be
good to just get a quick reply out to those.
You know, conversely, you know, my my friend Coach Haber up at
Alaska Fairbanks, I know you guys don't have sprinters or
(08:23):
throwers. What if you get an e-mail like
that? You can say back slash XC.
Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately, we only carry
distance runners on our roster. You know, we compete primarily
in cross country and have a modified track season.
So again, you're just getting responses out to the door to
those student athletes on the last one that I think is super
pivotal for a coach to have is recruits are hitting your inbox.
(08:47):
They you are interested in them,but now is just not a good time.
That is OK. Let the student athlete know
that back slash future. Hello, thank you very much for
reaching out. Yes, I am interested in speaking
with you about running here at Mike Petro University.
I have you on my list and I willcontact you in TKTK.
(09:09):
Please just set that date. Especially now Coaches, I know
you're finishing 2025 recruiting, you're finishing
your transfer portal recruiting.Your 2026 are waiting for you
just let them know when you're going to be in contact just a
quick little reply like this control FTKTK, and you get a
nice little e-mail going out thedoor.
So what I'm going to do next, I have a collection of 10 emails
(09:32):
that have hit my inbox. I want to see how quickly I can
respond to all of these emails using my little you know phrases
that I have inputted automatically to text blaze.
So 10 emails, apologies, my, youknow, my subjects aren't super
creative, so it kind of all condensed together, but I'll go
through 1 by 1. So here I have a hurdler
(09:53):
graduating in 2028, wants to runDivision One.
Hey, that's a pretty easy 1 reply. back slash early.
Can't talk to you until after June 15th.
I'll send that. All right, second one junior
graduating in 2026. Hey, I have a 55 second 400
(10:15):
hurdler, 15 second 110 hurdler. You know, that's definitely
someone that I am wanting to talk to.
But hey, I'm going to say it's not a good time.
I'm just going to go ahead and and use that as my example
there. Hi Mike, thank you for reaching
out. I will contact you and I think
August will be a good time to talk to the student athlete send
(10:35):
and where's my last one? I think it is right here.
My coach Mike Pietro, 400 hurdler run 85 seconds in the
400 hurdles, also ran 25 secondsin the one 10s.
I unfortunately that student athletes not meeting my
recruiting standards. So back slash.
Nope. And then in the body of that
(10:57):
e-mail I'm going to say back slash standards just for that
student athlete to be aware of. So good to go there. 3 emails
there. Let's go to my throwers.
All right, we have a thrower. Yeah, this student athlete does
(11:18):
meet my postal recruiting standards.
So I'll say hello, Mike. Let's go ahead and get a call
set up. Put the ball in that recruits
court. 2027 graduate, PR 110 andthe javelin.
Yeah, that student athlete meetsmy standards as well.
So I'll go ahead and say yes, but you know, maybe let's talk
(11:40):
in in the future. So again, not a good time, but
you know, I'll prioritize my throwers.
I'll put them in July. So second e-mail is out and then
the last e-mail I have here, Mike Petro, 2026 grad meets my
timeline. I have a 203 foot discus so I
definitely want to talk to that kid 100%.
(12:07):
Awesome, 6 down 4 to go go to mysprinters.
I coach on side 2025 good PRS. Am I still recruiting for the
2025 class? Unfortunately, no, I'm not.
You know, I have a school that you know works with early
decision and it and it's going to be a little bit too late.
So back slash too late. Sent to that recruit.
(12:33):
I have a man looking to run at Towson University.
Dead giveaway I put Towson in there.
Doesn't matter what his times are, I just don't have those.
So I'll go no men. So thank you for reaching out.
We're a women's only ex ETF program.
Cool, cool. Unsigned 2025 sprinter.
Are you still recruiting for the2025 class?
(12:54):
If so, do you have space for me?Unfortunately, no, I'm not.
I'm full right now. So full.
And then my last e-mail here, 2026 sprinter Mike Petro
interested in Alaska Fairbanks. And you know, as as you all
know, you know, I do not carry sprinters or throwers on my
roster. I'm XE only.
(13:15):
So I can't really help that student at the at this time.
So there you have it, 10 emails out the door, one to two minutes
or so, you know, we're able to get those punctual replies out
to the student athletes, you know, make sure that we are
putting ourselves in a great position to answer those emails
and just, you know, be on top ofour organizational items that we
(13:38):
need to check off when we are inthe office.
So that said, I want to thank you all for your time.
You know, I hope this was super helpful.
I want to thank Mike Cunningham for this opportunity.
I want to thank him for everything he does for our
coaching network. I think it's fantastic to have
someone like Mike in our corner.And now again, I can't thank you
enough for everything. And I want to thank you coaches,
you know, thank you for everything that you're doing for
(13:59):
your student athletes. Thank you for the opportunities
that you provide and and your impact goes a long way more than
just your sport. So if you want to connect with
me, you can go ahead. Follow me on Instagram at coach
under score Mike under score Petro.
Otherwise, feel free to connect with me.
If it's a professional inquiry, mike.petro@ncsasports.org is a
(14:19):
great way to reach me. Otherwise, if you want to
connect with me on a personal level, you know, Petro,
mikej@gmail.com, no problem sending my personal e-mail to
you guys. So again, thank you so much for
your time. Hope you enjoy this and yeah,
looking forward to hearing from you.
Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
(14:40):
That's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
amounts of value and I hope thisone hit the mark.
The Gill 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
there. So please get a hold of me,
(15:01):
E-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
Project. Hope you enjoy the day, they
will see you tomorrow.