Alumnus expands from coaching athletes to helping leaders build their strengths
By Tim Crosby
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Don’t call Brett Bartholomew a life coach.
“I don’t use that term,” the 2012 SIU Carbondale graduate said from his home in Georgia recently. “I've always found it to be associated with gurus who hop on stage and spit motivational cliches at folks. I always wanted to help people solve some of their most meaningful problems and overcome limitations, whether physical, psychological or otherwise.”
There’s no question he’s gone a fair bit down that road. A top performance coach, author, keynote speaker and host of a highly-ranked podcast, Bartholomew’s resume has grown to include working with members of Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. Special Forces, sporting organizations and professional athletes. His book, “Conscious Coaching: The Art and Science of Building Buy-In,” achieved international bestseller status in two categories and has been ranked among Amazon’s Top 100 Books Overall.
But it was his desire to help others overcome obstacles that first led him to the highly competitive strength and conditioning field, where he served as a coach for 15 years, including several as a graduate assistant working in SIU Athletics.
Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a financial adviser father and a Mensa member mother who worked for the federal government, Bartholomew spent time playing sports and dabbling in “normal neighborhood trouble.” The nearby Nebraska Cornhuskers football team loomed large, as did adopting the work ethic instilled by his parents.
“I've always appreciated the way they blended a love for the technical aspects of their craft with their appreciation for people skills and all things communication,” he said. “They knew regardless of the profession you were in, it always came back to how you dealt with people.”
Nearly losing his life as a youngster because of poor medical care was another profoundly affecting experience, however. The experience eventually took up almost 50 pages in “Conscious Coaching” and helped shape his desire to help others.
“After that, I studied everything I could about the human body, psychology and the like. This is what initially set me on the path with respect to human performance/strength and conditioning,” he said. “Later, it’s what led my becoming the founder of the leadership-development company I now own and operate.”
A tip from a coach at Nebraska, where he was finishing up another internship, led him to SIU in 2009.
“The opportunity at SIU was going to be great, since it would give me a small stipend, allow me to get my master’s degree and get experience working with even more sports,” he said. “The opportunities afforded me the ability to experiment, fail and learn in countless ways, and I was immersed in firsthand exposure to coaching under a wide variety of constraints.”
Bartholomew credited Associate Professor Phil Anton and Professor Julie Partridge, both of the School of Human Sciences, as well as former faculty member Jared Porter, with challenging and encouraging him.
“These individuals possessed tremendous passion and intelligence and also an uncanny mixture of wit and patience,” he said. “They were true guides, and they understood the challenges I faced, essentially working a full-time job while also working to obtain my degree.”
After completing his Master’s Degree course requirements December 2010, Bartholomew left SIU and started work in the private sector as a strength and conditioning professional at The Andrews Institute. He completed his master’s theses and graduated from SIU in 2011. In 2017, he launched “Conscious Coaching: The Art and Science of Building Buy-In.”
“The book was about the human side of coaching, communication and the nuances of learning how to deal with a wide range of personalities and archetypes, which was something I believe many coaches and leaders forget about or believe themselves to be better at than they are,” he said.
With its universal themes, the book found broad appeal among many professions, eventually crossing over into the worlds of tech, finance and the military. Its success led to speaking and consulting opportunities and opened the way to starting his own company.
“I really enjoyed how it allowed me to serve and support a much broader audience than just athletes,” Bartholomew said.