Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening,
everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the
Never Peak Project Podcast. I'm your host, Coach
Ranger, your California coastside coach, your
friendly neighborhood life coach, your favorite
agricultural consultant. Last year, I did my
walk across the country, and now I am documenting
the stories, lessons, and applications that I've
gained from that experience into this podcast,
as well as some present learnings as I jump into
entrepreneurship by running my own coaching and
consulting practice. If you are an avid listener
of the podcast, you've noticed that I've been
MIA for the last few weeks. It's been super busy
over here at the... um at the range I guess um
that's why I'm going to do this a little bit
of like a lower quality video recording uh just
kind of get some updates on what's been going
on why I've been MIA from the podcast and take
a little bit of accountability One of my biggest
goals with this podcast is to do consistent Monday
uploads for regular episodes and then do some
guest and bonus episodes as time goes on. The
last few weeks, I think I've missed three uploads
now. So a little bit behind on the upload schedule.
Going to have to revamp my entire spreadsheet
that I have for the podcast. But in terms of
the reasoning why is I have had a few programs
start in July that have kept me super... busy.
Back in, what, almost April, May or so, I was
asked by the Renaissance Center over here on
the coast side, which is entrepreneurship support,
to do two different classes with them. The very
first one was going to be Start Smart, which
is a four -week, very intensive, you know, I
have an idea for a business. I don't know if
I want to make it a real thing. Let's figure
it out. And unfortunately, that one only made
it to the very first session because we had one
sign up. We needed at least three people to sign
up for that, and I wasn't able to get anybody
to do it. So that was pretty unfortunate. But
kind of continuing on, kind of was like, okay,
well, let's see what we can do for this next
one. Because starting July, a month later, the
June was supposed to be like a re... not really
a rehash, but more of a preparation for the 10
-week course, which is called Business Prep.
Now, Business Prep is a 10 -week intensive course
where you say, this is my business idea. How
do I launch it? And one of my biggest goals is
if you want to make your first sale during this,
let's make your first sale. If you want to figure
out marketing during this, let's figure out marketing.
It's kind of like one of those general courses
for business owners, but it's like... I know
a bunch of things, but I'm having a hard time
executing it or holding myself accountable to
it. And that's what I really love about these
courses. The best thing is that they're free.
Thanks, government funding, I guess, or wherever
Renaissance gets their funding from. But we were
able to get six people signed up for that. I
ran some Facebook and meta ads. I spent about
three. Now, I think I spent about $225 on that
series, and then I spent more money on the pesticide
class. But I dropped about $200 into Google Ads
for that, and we were able to get two sign -ups
specifically from Facebook and Meta Ads. Now,
it's always hard to say. It's like, did this
ad push them over the edge to sign up, or had
they already heard about that, and that's just
kind of what got them to that finish line, right?
I think that's like the interesting thing is
like all these different touch points are so
interesting to know and to be aware of. One of
the students specifically told me that she saw
my ad and said you know this is too good to be
true because you know I have like half decent
lighting and i'm like holding holding the camera
like influencer style and i'm like my name is
ranger well like i'm doing this free course free
free free and she was like you know i didn't
trust it like i've seen a lot of scams and issues
with you know other coaches or these programs
i'm like what do you mean it's free and i said
honestly i totally understand um when i started
my business i signed up with the valley sierra
sbdc small business development center and I
went through like an eight -week course or they're
like, oh, you know, we have this grant available.
If you go through this course, you can get awarded.
I'm like, what's the catch? And they're like,
literally nothing. Can you please just sign up?
Like, we need people. They weren't that desperate.
But I thought that was so interesting because
she told me like, you know, you seemed very authentic
in this ad, but I still didn't trust it. Something
about it didn't make sense. And she said that
she came down to the center and specifically
asked the Renaissance Center team, hey, is this
real? Do you know this guy? And they're like,
oh yeah, that's Ranger. Like, yeah, they're doing
this course. So I just thought that was so interesting.
I think one of the things that I did well in
the ad, since it was a local ad, I was in local
spots. Like I recorded episodes inside of the
Opportunity Center. I record them in downtown.
I had some things from Halfman Bay in the background
to really show like, hey, like this is real.
I am local. If you walk around downtown, there's
a good chance you'll see me. I am a real human
being. And I really think that is what people
are so starved for nowadays. I think that the
same thing with my walk across the country last
year, where people, especially with AI videos
and skits and prank influencers, there's so much
untruthful content out there. And I think the
biggest thing for me, and she told me this, a
student that signed up and said, What made me
want to go figure this out was because you seemed
so authentic and real. And I just thought that
was so cool. And I said, yeah, like that was
what I was going for. So I think that's like
the lesson from here is be as authentic as you
possibly can be. I moved my mic closer. So hopefully
you could hear me this whole time. So that was
a good lesson. And then the other big thing is
I've been doing my pesticides class. So I am
doing Pesticides 101, which is a study guide
to get people to get their private applicator
certificate, which helps them apply restricted
materials in California and just be trained up
more so on pesticide safety laws and regulations.
So that's been another really big thing that's
been taking up a lot of my time. I've been really
focusing on making that material, and that's
in partnership with JobTrain, which is a workforce
development organization here on the coast side.
So it's just been all of my free time. even on
my days off when I'm doing within range coaching,
like networking or preparation or whatever. It's
just been a lot of that because I have a podcast
that I launched for that, private applicator
certificate study guide in English and in Spanish.
I'm using Notebook LM to make the podcast for
those study guides. They're like 80, 90 % of
what I wanted, but just being able to generate
those so fast and kind of focus in on other pieces
of the material has been so super helpful so
everybody that signs up for the pesticides 101
class was enrolled into the four hour and a half
long courses throughout july they get audio recordings
of the podcast made with Notebook LM. They each
get a binder with paper materials. They get a
flash drive with a presentation and other materials
and so, so much more. When I was an inspector
over in Stanislaus, what I've noticed with the
private applicator certificate is that the Spanish
version had a much lower pass rate than the English
version. So going into this workshop, one of
my biggest goals was to try to make the information
as accessible as possible. I don't speak Spanish.
I know a little bit. I have like a 57 -day track
or record on Duolingo right now, but like I can
say biblioteca. So one of the things I wanted
to do was make the information as approachable
and accessible as possible. One of the biggest
things that I heard from other Spanish speakers
was that the test is written in more formal Spanish.
Spanish and You know people that are farm workers,
especially here in California or you know, they
speak like the Mexican Spanish I don't really
understand the difference. I guess it has to
just do with dialect or slang or other like dialect
changes But when I was generating all the content,
what I do is I use tools like Gemini or ChatGPT
to upload the actual study guide from the private
applicator certificate that's in Spanish, that
more formal Spanish. And I make sure that it
says, hey, this is for a target audience that
speaks a different kind of Spanish. Can you not
change the information into that different type
of Spanish? It almost feels like it's like two
different languages. Like, hey. People speak
language A1, but this isn't language A2. Can
you try to translate this in a way that still
makes sense to those A1, but that they understand
that A2 language? Because I don't want things
to get lost in translation, literally. that can
affect people's chances of passing. And that's
why I wanted to make this course. And it was
like a challenge for myself, just wanted to see
if I can do it, see how effective these AI tools
are. And we're three out of four done. We have
our last one here in just a few days. Then we
start scheduling tests. So we will see how that
actually turns out. But everybody gets access
to me. We have a translator that is able to help
out if they take advantage of those calls to
ask me more questions or get more specialized
advice or assistance. And during this, one of
my friends who moved out here to the coast side,
I was hanging out with him. And, you know, I
want the class to look good. Like I want myself
to look good. I want the people that are in it
to get the most effective, like the most value.
And I want my partner organization to get the
credit they deserve. So I asked him, I said,
hey, like, would you be willing to sign up and
go to a few courses to kind of like. Like, are
you interested in this at all to even sign up?
And he said, no, I'm not. And I kind of joked.
I was like, are you sure you don't want to just
give us the number? And he was like, no, I don't
even want to pretend to give the time. And he
was like, but that's interesting. Like, what
are you optimizing for? And I'm like, you know,
the more people, the better. And he was like,
well, I wouldn't take the test. And I'm like.
yeah no i i hear that like i understand that
and he's like you know that's interesting like
what's more important like asses in seats or
passes in seats and i was like you got me right
and i think i've talked about this before on
the podcast but it's just like the whole idea
of vanity metrics um like what do i want a million
followers like yeah that'd be pretty sick But
does that actually do anything for me and my
brand and, you know, people signing up for my
courses or coaching? Not really, unless I'm making
content that's, like, addressing those people.
And I think it's, like, that same thing that
we hear about a lot of times on socials. Like,
who are you talking to? Who's your target demographic?
Like, that was made in person first, right? So
this course, like, again, it's for people on
the co -side. applicators or farm workers that
want to up their skills in that pesticide game.
So by getting people in the class that are not
that demographic doesn't really help us. Like
it might look good when we're turning in our
financial reports and saying these things for
people that may not be aware of the passes and
seats and they just want to see those asses in
seats. But I thought that was a really clever
way to kind of put that. i know that i've been
struggling with that especially starting off
it's really hard for me to get people in my courses
and in my workshops so again it's just good to
keep that as the focus like we want people to
get the results from the educational programming
that we put out there not necessarily just show
up and be a number But those are the things I've
been going on in the wonderful world of Within
Range. Thank you so much for listening to today's
episode. If you'd like to learn more about my
coaching or consulting, go to withinrangecoaching
.com. You can also schedule a free 15 -minute
consultation down below. Just go and click that
calendar link. Find a time that's right for you.
I will call you, and we can talk about anything
that you want. to improving your life, whether
it's your relationships, you're not sticking
to your diet, you're not able to talk to your
spouse, or you're having these issues, let me
know. I'd be more than happy to help you figure
out how to overcome them so that you can be the
best version of yourself. As always, thank you
so much for listening. And remember to never
settle, never quit, and never peak. I'll see
you guys in the next one.