Latest / Daily Influence / 579. Beyond the Game: Hayley Williams on Resilience and Responsible Influence

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579. Beyond the Game: Hayley Williams on Resilience and Responsible Influence · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the daily influence where our mission is to deliver a daily dose of positive influence that can uplift you personally or be shared within your sphere of influence.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: While not every episode may directly apply to your unique circumstances, we strive to provide insights and inspiration relevant to most people's daily, weekly, and monthly lives.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether you are tuning in during the morning, noon or night, the daily influence is here for you.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, share, and embrace the power of influence in your life.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Daily Influence.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Greg Kalino.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: Today, we're joined by Hayley Williams, a trailblazer in women's ice hockey and a passionate advocate for athlete development.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hayley's journey spans continents and leagues from scoring the triple overtime game winner at the 2008 USA Hockey's Girl, 19U, national championships.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: to competing professionally in the NWHL, the WHL, and Russia's the HHL.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: She represented both the United States and Hungary on the International Stage, earning a bronze medal at the 2013 Winter University Ade.
• 1:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now, as the founder of Hockey Worldwide Academy in Central Glory, Hayley is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of athletes, focusing on holistic development through body, mind, and fuel.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: Her story exemplifies the essence of die and team, individual resilience, global perspective, and a commitment to uplifting others.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hayley, welcome to Daily Influence.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, can you share a bit about your background and what led you to where you are today with our listeners?
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I just finished my 10th year of professionality.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's like really definitely a very rare thing to be able to say as a female hockey player.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are professional leads around the world, but it's usually like a couple of years stint at a female athlete would play.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't want to say it doesn't happen.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are others that have had been playing professional hockey for this long, but
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's different than the men.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we have, we have a lot of other things that we have to incorporate into our lives when it comes to Even just like financially like to create a good financial foundation for ourselves.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So my first three years of playing pro were in in North America.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I played one in Buffalo, New York and then two in the Toronto area.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: one in the National Women's Academy, which you stated in a two-in-canada, and during that time I had to have other jobs where I was just trying to live, you know, make a living and also play at the same time.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I guess you can consider that like semi-prote, even though we were told or professional hockey players, but then I went overseas, I went to Russia in 2018, and that's where I found this like whole new world, like literally and figuratively, because like I was first time
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, people were like nervous for me.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, you're going to Russia.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's scary, you know, all of the stuff.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, okay, maybe a little bit, but I'm also really excited.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when I went to Russia, I was able to finally just be an athlete, just be a professional athlete, because I would have a regular salary.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had a, they put me in an apartment that they paid for, and they also provided my meals.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I didn't have any, you know, any expenses that I need to
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: wasn't athlete.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I wasn't used to that though.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like when I go to the rank and I'd be there, you know, four hours and then, you know, a few months past and I was like, what am I supposed to do with all my extra time?
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, besides obviously like immersing myself into the culture and learning the language and things like that, like getting that whole experience of like living overseas, but in that, that same year I was like,
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I kind of want to start like a hockey development business and let's see how this goes and I ended up working for another hockey development company for that first year and I realized like I want to do this on my own.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I ended up starting hockey worldwide in 2000.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, technically when it comes to the legal entity of hockey worldwide, it was 2020, but I started working out in 2019 and it brought me to here today.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: So while I was overseas playing professionally, I was also building my business.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: and a lot of it was online training and then doing like camps and stuff in the summer when I was when I was home for the for the summer for the off season um but
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: starting the business also really made me a better hockey player which so like kind of one hand in hand because everything that I was teaching my kids it held me accountable to like make sure that I was living in the way that that I'm preaching and you know the walk to walk like really became like just all encompassing of my life and yeah so I was over
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I ended up getting Hungarian citizenship as well, so I played for the National Team.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I speak in the past tense, but it's possible that I will continue my career.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: As you know, when we met May, I'm going through like an ACL recovery.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm very satisfied with my career, with my playing career and I'm so excited that it's like pushed me into this leadership role with my with my company and I coach you 12 girls now, which takes up a lot of my time.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: You would never believe how much time it takes up when you coach you 12s but I love it and I love like seeing these kids like have like aha moments and like like understanding things that I'm teaching them and seeing it come together on the ice.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: the collaboration of the main things that I teach is like, obviously you have to be, you know how to, you have to know how to skate and stick handle and pass and shoot like technical skills of the game.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to know the sport, you need to have like some hockey IQ and you know sports specific knowledge, but the strength and conditioning portion, having your nutrition, your sleep, like,
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, locked in and then, you know, the mental skills being able to bounce back from from mistakes or like overcome pressure and things like that, like all of these have to go together and to be able to see how that works for my playing career throughout this whole time and then being able to translate it into like all of these kids that I get to have an influence on it, like, is
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just as or maybe more fulfilling as being a pro at best like for 10 years, you know, so, you know, obviously like I have my own business.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's fun.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of like a sport for me to keep building that, you know, it's like, where's my win today, where's my win this week, you know, things like that.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's just all been working together for especially since 2018 when I went to Russia when I was able to just do whatever I want, basically, play a sport and then and then build my business around it.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like just been the dream.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing that how does international experiences shape you as a human is your perspective on teamwork and leadership.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, like I when I went to Russia.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I did have an old teammate that did join me over there after a couple of weeks after I was there she was one who I actually found the opportunity from but I ended up getting to Russia before her so I was with the team for two or three weeks before she got there for the season and nobody spoke English so it was like really like that was the first culture fact thing I was so ignorant to think that everybody in the world speaks English you know like it's just like
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would not have imagined that I would go to this team of like 20 something girls and, you know, four or five coaches and not one of them speak English and I'm just like, all right, well, when I first got there, I was like, I was going to, I was going to have a breakdown and I was going to leave like, and I was like, how am I going to survive?
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like how am I possibly going to be able to like communicate these people and like, like you said, like teamwork and things like that, like just being there and like, like, if you want to learn how to,
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: like express good body language, go somewhere where they don't understand what you're saying.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like go there, like show that you're involved like be there.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you have no idea what's going on in the conversation, you sit around the table and you look at people in the eyes and you use the Google Translate and you try to be there, right?
• 8:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, your facial expressions and things like that, but just like showing that you're there.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: and gaining trust with people that cannot understand you was one of my favorite challenges that I've had to go through because it was like, I never would have expected it.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I thought I'd go over there, like all the girls are speaking, I was just speaking, I was the only non-Russian at that time, so it was like such a whole new world, like I said, and really eye-opening for how to be, you know, an even better teammate when you are the outsider.
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now, what a cool story.
• 8:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: What inspired you to create a hockey world wide academy and central glory?
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: And how do these programs reflect your vision for athlete development?
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah.
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, like I said, I was just kind of like I have so much time.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what can I do with it?
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I knew I had a passion for ice hockey, obviously.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And in the past, I was working as like a personal trainer.
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And things like that.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had gotten my drinking conditioning certification, nutrition certification, things like that.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I had the knowledge.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, okay, let's see what I can do with it.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the inspiration was more like, let's play another game.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's see what I can do, you know?
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, um,
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the athlete development is definitely like it's not just about getting on the ice and that's what a lot of parents think like we need to get on the ice more more more more more more ice time and it's like no slow down like you have to be in the gym you have to make sure that you're recovering properly with your nutrition and sleeping the adequate amount of time for night and then the biggest one that just brings it all together is the just the mental skills which I had said
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's just all equally important, you know, and of course, at different times of your life.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: But what I really want people to know, especially the athletes that want to make it big and women's talking specifically because that's what I work in, is that you have to be above average in all of these things.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not just one.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can't be just a master of one and then the other stuff is, you know, some part is you're not gonna get to where you wanna be.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's like, just like always like preaching, like you have to do it all of this.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like above average, I'm not saying you have to be the best at every category,
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: better than the rest and all of them, you know, I mean, you have to be better, you have to be above average.
• 10:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, so that's kind of how I've lived and that's how what it's teach.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, can you tell us about a moment or experience where you thought you made a positive impact on someone's life?
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like that happens all the time.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't think that I realize how much of an impact I'm making and then I'll get like a...
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: text from a parent and you know they tell me that they're having a struggle within their family and like they thank me so much for bringing in the kid into my program and like how much of a difference that I've made and it's just like if I stop and think about like what they you know what they think of what I'm doing for them it's
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just I don't even know how to explain like how much it's like what they're doing for me, I guess that you know like I'm not giving you like a specific situation right, which is what the question was, but like I just I just feel like like as a coach and as a teacher, it's just like it's the ripple effect of like let me influence one or let me because right now my team is 20 20 players like there's 20 players that I see four or five six times a week.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: that are a 12 years old like the most like influential moment of time of their life where they're like, it's, you know, they need somebody and I just put as much investment into them as I do to my own, you know, so that's what I just know that it's not all enough.
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not for nothing, you know what I mean?
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's just like a continuous thing like live the way that I teach and it's, you know, it's like,
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, show the example and it's making the positive impact like continuously each week.
• 11:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's amazing.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, you've had to adapt to different roles as an athlete, a leader, mentor, and coach.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: How is your understanding of influence involved through these transitions?
• 12:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, I've had coaches where I've been like, well, you just taught me how I should not coach, you know what I mean, like so the influence that I've had on from people like everything's learning experience.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, and I think that the more that somebody wants to learn and the more that they realize that they should be learning the whole lives to want to make those connections and, you know,
• 12:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Learn from anybody, anybody, whether it's good or bad, like I'm learning what not to do, I'm learning what to do.
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously having these guiding people and like mentor type people in your lives make all the difference.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: What message or words have been encouragement?
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Would you like to share with our listeners who aspire to make a positive difference in the world?
• 12:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: In 2021, I was 31 years old and I was the oldest rookie in the world championship for the IHF in the top of the vision of the world.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was the oldest, where he was 31 years old and like the, the, the,
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: normal age for a rookie for a female high player of a rookie would be like, you know, they either are just like they're in college.
• 13:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So they're like 20 or they just got out of college like 22 years old.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I was like 10 years later as the oldest like literally statistically the oldest one that was a rookie like the first time being in the ice F. So in the world championships and
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: like whatever you want to do if you decide to do it like you can work be 10 years later than the average the you know the rest but it doesn't mean that you can't do it like so pretty much
• 13:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: my words of advice would be like if you really want to do something just keep going until you actually do it because if you don't actually hit whatever goal, like specific goal it is you're going to achieve that you want to achieve, you'll at least do something else that you never would have expected.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like we reach for perfection like especially like how you're achieving athletes and just how you're in general high-performing people in their jobs or whatever, like a perfectionism is something that kind of starts to creep in and these types of people
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Perfectionism is they're going to happen and if you're going to reach for productionism at least you're going to achieve excellence, you know, with you know knowing that it's not going to be perfect.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's great advice.
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing your remarkable journey and the impactful work you're doing through, you know, hockey worldwide academy and your dedication into empowering athletes is truly impressive.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: If our listeners want to get in touch with you, what would be the best way to do so?
• 14:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I've Instagram, I have, so my Instagram, my personal Instagram would be Haley Williams Athlete and then our hockey world wide Instagram is HWA hockey.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that would probably be the best way.
• 14:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then you can find my website at hockeyworldwide.com and on there there's you can contact me through email.
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a bunch of different ways.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can pretty much find me pretty pretty easily if you try to Instagram and the
• 14:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: Great, we'll add that information to the show notes.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: Haley, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 15:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you so much Greg.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: For our listeners, remember that leadership and positive influence begins with self-awareness and the commitment to growth.
• 15:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: Haley's story reminds us that embracing challenges and nurturing others can lead to transformative change.
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for spending a few moments.
• 15:18
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• 15:20
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• 15:22
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• 15:28
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• 15:33
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• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: Until next time, keep having a positive, responsible influence.
• 15:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Bye-bye.