Latest / The Standard / You're Not Starting Over — You're Translating Everything You've Already Built | Ep. 75 Dr. Jill Muhe

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You're Not Starting Over — You're Translating Everything You've Already Built | Ep. 75 Dr. Jill Muhe · The Standard

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hey team, welcome to the standard podcast where we raise the bar, rebuild the culture, and call out the lies or misconceptions that nobody else will.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't motivation, this is a movement.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Thomas Rowe, alongside my co-host and co-founder of Blueprint to Blue Chip, Aaron Charles.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: And today we're sitting down with Jill Mu man.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: I should have asked you this.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Mew.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Muhei.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Muhei.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I should have asked you this off camera.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Muhei.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Jill Muhei, a career performance coach and former professional beach volleyball player.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Former NCAA, head volleyball coach, and leadership educator who helps former athletes translate the mindset that made them successful in their sport into a meaningful career into meaningful careers and substantial performance after competition.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Jill is a former AVP professional beach volleyball player with 28 top 20 finishes.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: She was an NCAA head coach, head volleyball coach.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: She holds a PhD in organizational behavior and an MBA.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And in nearly six years of career coaching, she has worked with more than 1,200 athletes, helping them build the structure, systems, and confidence needed to thrive well beyond the sport.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: She shares her insight through Beyond the Game on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Substack, a platform built on one conviction.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: The mindset that made you elite in sports is the same mindset that will make you exceptional beyond it.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: The transition isn't the end, it's the beginning of something harder to build and more much more or much work, much more worth having.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're diving into the truth behind what it really takes to build identity, discipline, and legacy in sports and in life.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Jill, thanks so much for joining us.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Erin and I are super excited to have you.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you very much.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really excited to be here.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_04: Looking forward to it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Jill, you're a career performance coach, former AVP professional, former NCAA head coach, and someone who has worked with more than 1,200 athletes who've transitioned, helped help them through transition out of sports.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: What does raising the standard mean to you and the work you're doing and helping former athletes build what comes next?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what it what it really means to me is the fact that, you know, we we talk a lot about the transition, you know, in regards and we see a lot about, you know, you know, we've all seen the ad, you know, 95% of NCAA student athletes will go pro in something other than sport.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_04: And so we all know that this transition is is happening, is here.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_04: We also know that it's hard.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_04: We also know that there's challenges that go along with it.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the things that I've realized as I've spoken with so many different athletes through this transition is that the transition itself doesn't end with the job.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: It we focus a lot on that.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: We focus a lot on getting that first job out.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_04: We focus a lot on, you know, who am I beyond being an athlete when sport ends?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: And those are all critical things.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_04: But the other piece to that puzzle is how do we set ourselves up to thrive and perform once we have made the transition?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_04: And what are we looking for in regards to set ourselves up for success?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because we've grown up in this ecosystem over here of sport.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the that's really the truth.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_04: We've grown up over here, and then we transition into this different ecosystem that's very different.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_04: And how do we take what we learned over here, take what we developed, all the wonderful things we have, and set ourselves up to thrive in this new ecosystem?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_04: What do we understand about ourselves from over here that we can take to this new ecosystem and set ourselves up for success?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_04: What do we lose when we leave?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: Because we think a lot of times about losing the sport, but we also lose structure.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: We lose feedback, we lose teammates, we lose coaches, we lose rest intervals, we lose seasons.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_04: We we we take the athletic drive with us into this new environment, but we lose a lot of the support structure that allowed our athletic drive to be phenomenal.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: And so we take the drive and then wonder why it's so hard over here.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: And so understanding that and helping set ourselves up to thrive in this new and perform in this new ecosystem is really, in my opinion, raising the standard of helping with that transition.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Totally agree.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well said.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Lucio, building off of that, what's the biggest lie the culture of sport the sports world has sold athletes about what life after competition looks like and what does the reality actually feel like for most athletes you work with?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, I I think one of the biggest challenges, and and I don't know, I don't know that I would technically classify it as a lie.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_04: You're not, but I I think one of the biggest challenges is the fact that as athletes, when we are in the ecosystem when we are playing our sport, we are we're in a system that we're focused on some very specific things.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: And we're really good at focusing on those things.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_04: And if we start to kind of think about what happens after sport, if we start to think about laying some groundwork, if we start to think about, you know, networking or kind of going, okay, what am I gonna do?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_04: How am I gonna do what what what environment would I be successful in?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: What do I want to learn more about?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_04: It almost feels like we're we're cheating.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_04: Because it's pulling, it's pulling, we feel like it's pulling our focus away from what I'm supposed to be doing right now, which is my sport and my teammates and the goal that I have set in front of in regards with this, with this, with this environment, with this sport.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I have a limited time to play my sport.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: So I should be all in.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_04: I should be only focused on that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, that's that's where I'm supposed to be.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_04: So then when the transition happens, now we're kind of like, okay, well what do I shoot?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_04: What do I do now?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_04: Type of thing like that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: And we're having to build what we feel like is from scratch.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: In my opinion, it's not completely from scratch, but we haven't set that up from the standpoint of being have have groundwork laid and and a foundation laid.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_04: And the truth of the matter is, is that we can lay that foundation and still honor our sport and our commitment and our goal and that type of thing, and do it in a way that that still sets us up for success once that transition actually happens.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: But we have to realize that part of the reason we don't want to do that is because A, it's scary.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_04: B, we may not know what to do.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I know I should be doing something, but I I don't know.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know what it is.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_04: But also that it's not, it's it's it can be done in a way that's not pulling away our focus from our goal at hand.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_04: So we don't feel like we're we're we're cheating or we're not focused or or something like that on what we should be focused on.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Agreed.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Totally agree.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: You competed as an AV professional beach volleyball player for with 28 top 20 finishes.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: You were an NCAA head coach, then you made your own transition out of sport.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: What did that feel like from the inside?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And what did you discover about yourself that surprised you?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, well, I'm gonna throw in there too, because while I was an NCAA, well, sorry, while I was competing as an AVP pro, I was also a head athletic trainer at the Kleene level.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_04: So um I've actually and I I grew up in sport.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_04: I really did.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: I think I started in second grade with T-ball in the second grade.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_04: There is a picture in my parents' hallway of me on second base with a backwards baseball cap and just this huge grin smile on my face, t-ball in the second grade.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's really something that's always consistently been a part of my life.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_04: And I jokingly say I delayed the transition out for about as long as you could without becoming a full-blown lifer.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right from that standpoint.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_04: But I think one of the biggest things that that I learned through my journey was, you know, I graduated from college, I played at for played for UC Davis, I graduated with a degree in exercise science, and the goal was to be a certified head athletic trainer, which I achieved.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I thought I would do that for the rest of my life.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_04: And I did it for a long time.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: And I very value the experience and the knowledge that I have because of it.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_04: And it allowed me to be able to pursue my dream to play a professional beach volleyball, which I am also incredibly proud of the fact that I did.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, I've stood in literally against the best in the world at the time, which was just, I mean, I played during the Misty and Carrie era.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: And so that's they're literally legends of the game.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: And so I that experience was amazing.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: But as I was burning out as an athletic trainer, because that's a high burnout profession, I transitioned into college coaching.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I figured I would do that for the rest of my life.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, I did that for I did that for 10 years.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I was a head, I was a head coach, and and I had some great experiences and coached some amazing athletes.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_04: And there's so many parts of that job that I absolutely positively loved.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_04: But there were many parts of that job that just did not align with what I wanted and how you know things changed and evolved, and eventually I ended up leaving that profession as well.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_04: And it's challenging because we're somewhat thinking when we graduate from college, I'm gonna get a job, and that's gonna be my job for the rest of my life.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_04: And the truth of the matter is, is that is not the case any longer.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_04: It may have been the pay case in the past, and there are some people who still do it.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_04: I want to be a, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a fighter pilot.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: Clearly to find steps on how you do that, and you can do that for the rest, you know, that can be your career.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_04: But a lot of us are left over here kind of with this muddled mess of well, what exactly does a business career look like?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: And how do I what what what can I be good at?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: And what what type of job should I be looking for?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, type of thing.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of it, in my opinion, stems from the fact that we have to understand how we work and how we think and how we're motivated, what types of environments we actually enjoy being in, you know, what motivates us on the inside, intrinsic motivators is what I call it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of times you can bring that back to sport.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: If you can look at your sport career when what you grew up in, and a lot of times we get asked, you know, why did you play sport?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of times you don't get a really good answer because we don't really know.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_04: We just know we did and we loved it and we felt at home there and it was great, but we don't really know why.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_04: And so the question that I ask a lot of times is not why did you play sport?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_04: The question is, why did you stay in sport?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: Because sport is hard.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_04: There's sacrifices that go along with it.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: There's so many different challenging things that go along with it that there had to be a reason why you stayed.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of times that's an intrinsic motivator.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_04: That is something that sport was tagging an intrinsic motivator on the inside for you that made it so I so you stayed.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_04: So I stayed.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: And so if you can know what those are, you can look for them in other environments, which now makes it now.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_04: We're looking to go, okay, what type of environment?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: Now we're less about the title and the the company and the industry and the kind of all this transactional stuff.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_04: And we're trying to figure out, okay, let me build a career on something that's going to motivate me.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of times people say, Oh, well, that's passion.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_04: No, not exactly.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: Because, you know, I was passionate last night while I was watching Argentina play and Messi scoring his hat trick because that's cool, you know, and that's something that I love to do.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: But that's not the same as figuring out an environment that I thrive in and that I want to be in, and that tags my intrinsic, my intrinsic motivators, and that I want to grow and develop in that environment.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well said.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: On that one, I'm going to turn it over to Aaron for segment two, which is identity transition and the athlete mindset.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron, take it away.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Jill, everything you said resonated so deeply.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um thank you, Aaron.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I loved it.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: I I stay quiet because um, if we get we can get a little bit of feedback sometimes.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: But I want you to share with our audience, I think it's always important, like, you know, Thomas shared all your accolades and all the amazing things that you've done.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: But who is Jill?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well beyond all of those things, how would you define yourself today?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's a great question.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it's it's one of those questions that on some level you feel like should be really easy to answer.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: And on other levels, I think if you have an easy answer for it, sometimes that's actually not probably the true answer at that point in time.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_04: I think one of the biggest things that I realized as I've kind of as I've as I've grown up, or or whatever the appropriate phrase is, is that my what motivates me is that I want to do, I want to do a good job and I want to be very good at things that I do.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: And so as a result of that, I want to constantly be growing and learning because I also like the challenge of getting good at something or learning something or or or you know, just that growth and development.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: And if I'm in an environment where that's not the case, coming back to my other thought, I have a tendency to get to start to feel stuck or or you know just not aligned, so to speak.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: The other piece of that is is that I really enjoy helping people who want to get better or who want to be better aligned or want to perform.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_04: I love helping them perform.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_04: I love helping them realize unlocking the potential that they have.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: When I talk a lot about, you know, I talk a lot about, you know, the the business world versus the athletic world and different things like that.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we talk about, you know, managers manage, you know, mentors advise.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: In my opinion, coaches, which is really what I've been my entire life, took me a while to figure that out.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: But I have actually been a coach my entire life.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: I think I technically started coaching in the ninth grade for my dad's summer camps.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_04: But it took it, it took me a while to embrace that part of it, to be perfectly honest.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: But coaches unlock.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: A coach is gonna be able to see the potential that you have and help you unlock that potential.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's not always gonna be easy, it's not always gonna be you know comfortable, but it's the ability to help somebody realize their potential and how well they can perform.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_04: And when we think about performance, we a lot of times we think of Vargentina last night and Messi putting three goals in the back of the net.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_04: But performance can be a variety of things.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_04: Performance can be performing in your everyday life, of balancing if you're if you're older, if you're an older athlete, balancing family and work and yourself, making sure that you are giving yourself what you need.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_04: If you're an athlete that's now starting to transition out of sport, it can be the performance of, okay, how do I figure out what type of role I should be looking at?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: What type of career should I be building at?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: And what environment am I going to be in that's gonna help lay the groundwork for me to perform?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_04: It's not gonna be easy.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_04: It's not gonna be, you know, it's not gonna always be sunshines and roses, but sport wasn't either.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, how figuring out what that environment is, that's a that's performing because I'm performing my job search and that transition and that stuff correctly.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_04: So performance takes on a different kind of, you know, a different kind of meaning in the different settings.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_04: But when you're but helping people go, yes, that's me.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: I I just had I just had somebody tell me an athlete that I've been working with who told me she's like, I just, I just, I finally got the job, I got a job, and this is so aligned with everything that we've been that we've been talking about.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm so excited, type of thing like that.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_04: Though that that type of stuff is really cool to me.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I love that because it's you said it, it's a coach is helping people really unlock their potential or step into their fullest potential.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: And there was something you said there that really resonated with me that there as the older I get, I don't think I really realized this before, but there's these moments where it's kind of uncomfortable and tough.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I actually welcome those because it's inviting me in to go, okay, who do you want to become?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: And how do you want to use this moment to transform?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: Versus I think we think that life is about ease and it's never uncomfortable.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like I think people want to get to that state, which I trust me, I think we all are just like, oh, nothing bothers me.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: But I think there is an element of that uncomfortability that really is that challenge that I think sports provides that's slightly uncomfortable.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: That it's like, okay, I can step through this, even though this is tough.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_04: One of the phrases that I used a lot when I was actually coaching was being comfortable, being uncomfortable.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_04: And we've heard that, we've heard that phrase before.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_04: After transitioning out of sport into, you know, into you know, the real world or whatever we want to call it, one of the things I really think that sport gives us is the realization that we have done hard things, we have done hard transitions before, we have been uncomfortable before and gotten through it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_04: So now when we're sitting in adulthood or the real world or whatever we want, and things are, you know, things aren't clear or things are kind of juggled in the air, and you're just like, I just don't know right now.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: The truth of the matter is, is you can if if remember you've been there before, you've been in a situation where you didn't know.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_04: When you walked into the gym, your freshman year of college, you know, you were going from a big fish, little pond, into a big pond, and now you're a little fish.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, my freshman year of college, I thought I was terrible at volleyball.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_04: Really, I wasn't, you know, type of thing like that.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_04: But but the remembering that I've I've been there.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the traps we fall into a lot of times when we're trying to, as athletes, as we as we progress and as we grow and as we develop, and that type of stuff like that, is we remember, we compare ourselves to the senior athlete, the one that's the all-conference one, the one that's played for four years, the one that's done all the strength training and done all of this, and phenomenal, that's that's how I remember myself as an athlete.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_04: Why don't I feel that way anymore?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_04: Well, because you're not that senior right now.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_04: You're the freshman that's walked into the gym and gone.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: Some days you're like, this is great, this is awesome, I'm awesome, fantastic.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_04: And other days you're like, what have I gotten myself into?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: I am drinking from a fire hose and I'm drowning, type of thing.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's you know, so it's it's remembering that sport gave us both sides of that and making sure that we're remembering the fact that when it gets hard when we're in we're stuck in a situation, we've been there before, but we have to do the things that helped us before as well.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_04: We have to ask for help, we have to learn and grow, we have to figure out how am I, how can I, you know, what what how can I set myself up better for success?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: You know, what do I resources do I need?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_04: What questions do I need to ask?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_04: That type of thing.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_04: And that also can be hard because you don't have the support group that you had when you were an athlete.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have the coach, you don't have the athletic trainer, you don't have the teammate, you don't have the rest interval to go, I just need to breathe.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: So again, there's a balance there.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: So with that, and you talked about it with the client you were just helping, and you talked about alignment, you know, and one thing we focus on here at Blueprint at Blue Chip is is really that identity piece.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: And so, what happens when somebody maybe tries to build their career or Go out and find this job, knowing they're transitioning out of athletics when maybe they don't have their identity anchored first.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_04: I think that it identity is a hard thing.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: It's evolving, it's constantly changing.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_04: There's influences that are in on it, whether we we know it or we don't know it.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: One of the things that I will tell you is that when I transitioned out, when I first transitioned out and I took my first athletic training job, when I transitioned out, I thought I was gonna, the goal was to be a Division I head athletic trainer.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_04: That's where we're gonna be.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna be on football, we're gonna be on the football field, we're gonna be running out there on TV, they're gonna be cutting a commercial on there, but that's okay, you know, type of thing like that.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: So that was that was what I thought.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: My first job out, I learned a couple things.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, huh.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_04: I learned some things that I liked and some things that I didn't like.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I got exposed to actually a an area of athletic training.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_04: I was actually at the junior college level.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_04: So no big huge staff, no big, no, no TV contract, you know, no, you know, no tons of shiny equipment and that type of stuff like that.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: But I was working with a bunch of different athletes, not just one team.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_04: I was, I was my second role, I was able to get into that head athletic trainer position ahead of time.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm having a lot, I'm working with a lot of different athletes, a smaller group of athletes, I'm managing a bunch of different things.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not having to travel, that was a big one.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: And all of a sudden I realized this is actually kind of cool.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: I kind of like this type of thing like that.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_04: So as you get into something and you learn and you grow, shifting your price, learning and figuring out some things about yourself, you're gonna do that.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: You're there's nobody graduates and goes, This is who I am without without being an athlete.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_04: Switch, done, everything's good to go.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody does that.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_04: But you have to have some idea, you have to kind of have a north star, you have to kind of have a direction.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_04: And then you start to learn and you start to figure some things out, and you start to realize what's gonna align and what's not gonna align.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_04: And then you take a couple steps and you go, okay, this is now an alignment, this is now not an alignment.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: I thought I wanted this, but now I don't, and that's okay.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: One of the challenges is when we go, I gotta have it figured out right this second, and I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna do this because so-and-so said I would be good at it, and that's the way it's gonna be.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_04: Because I just want to have something.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: Chances are that's not gonna be a very good alignment as we're moving forward.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_04: But the other flip side of that is the fact that we have to be able to understand ourselves and what actually drives us and what actually motivates us, and what actually type of environment we thrive in, what we're looking for on more of a global level rather than this really, really tight, small, narrow level.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_04: If we can figure out, and this is the work that I'm doing now, the type of the type of mindset pieces of it, and if you look at it, if you take the athlete mindset and you go, everybody goes, okay, we've got the athlete mindset.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: But the athlete mindset's actually made up of a couple of different things.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_04: And all athletes have all of these things.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're in an environment that's, you know, we'll go back to the intrinsic motivators, if you're in an environment that's tagging one of those intrinsic motivators, you're gonna probably be okay.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: But if it's not your primary intrinsic motivator, if it's not the primary reason why you stayed in sport, it's eventually gonna start to feel misaligned.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: And so understanding how you work, how you feel, how you communicate, what type of feedback that you want, what type of environment you're in, whether it's structured, whether it's a little more free-flowing, whether it's, you know, I need to be around a team, you know, all of those things are important because that's what's going to actually help align you.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: And once you can start to kind of feel that, then you can start to build a little bit of momentum in regards to that identity piece as well.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: I kind of felt like I got a little, did that make sense, Aaron?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_04: I kind of felt like I kind of got a little No, I loved it.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: I got a little high in the clouds there for a minute there.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, I brought it back down.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't just respond so much.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: So no, I loved, I was dragging right along with you because it is kind of, you know, it is fluid.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: Like I think there's a lot of things at any one point that are kind of shaping us, and it's being anchored in who you are.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then how do you take those and go, how does this, how do I use these to now form who I want to be?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's not static, it's definitely not static.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_03: Your identity is not a static thing.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: Who I am as a 46-year-old woman is not who I was as a 15-year-old or 16-year-old, you know, in high school.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: And that's okay.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's okay.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_04: That's another thing.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: That's okay.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: God, right?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_04: And who you are as a senior graduating from college is way different than you were as a as an eighth grader starting club volleyball.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: That's okay.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know, type of thing like that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: And and I think to some degree, the identity also comes with the fact of being, again, this ties back to your original thing, that that's okay.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: That we have to be okay with going, this is who I am right now.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_04: I know this about myself.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_04: How do I make it so that I can use that to set myself up for success so I can get some more experience so then I can figure out who I then become?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, type of thing.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, every piece of it's a stepping stone, you know, in people don't really, it's like embrace that moment because it's setting you up for the next thing, even if you can't see it.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like I think we want this ready now culture where it's like, okay, it's all right here.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, no, it's it's a process part of it.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: Don't they say the whole evolution is the journey, you know, you love the journey, not the end point, you know, kind of that loving every moment along the way.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and as athletes, we are designed, and I talk about this in the I talk about this with the job search.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: You know, there are roles that you graduate from college, you know, go back to that doctor, that lawyer, that fighter pilot, that teacher, that accountant, where there are clearly defined steps on how you get there.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you can Google it and it's gonna give you clearly defined steps.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_04: And that type of a pathway makes sense to us as athletes.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, yes, here's the big goal: goal number one, goal number two, goal number three, that type of thing makes sense to us as athletes.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it's structured.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_04: We like structure, even though we don't always like to admit it.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_04: We structure.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, and and like I said, what we like structure, even though we don't always like to admit it.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_04: But one of the things in regards with that is that we can't just pick a job because of that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's still gotta kind of match, and there's a tendency to move.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: Anytime we're doing any kind of transition, there's a tendency to move to something that's familiar.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_04: That's why a lot of athletes stay in sport because I at least know the rules of the game over there.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: I know how I know the environment.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: I I'm gonna be a doctor because my parents were a doctor, so it's familiar to me, you know, that type of thing, like that.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_04: This path structure, just like I was on, I was an athletic trainer, clearly to find steps on how to get there.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_04: So when someone asks me, what's your plan for after sport?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: I had one.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: That's a great feeling, you know, that type of thing.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_04: But here's the kicker, and this goes back to your original the original thought, Aaron, about how every step is, you know, is this and that, and you don't know exactly where they're leading.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_04: I got my PhD and I did my dissertation on emotional intelligence and how and if it relates to winning percentage in college volleyball coaches.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: So I took a business PhD and I took a business concept and I put it into the athletic world.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_04: At the time, I had no idea why I did that.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_04: But if you look at the work I did with each of my teams in regards to trying to figure out how we know ourselves and how we communicate with each other and knowing emotional intelligence is all about knowing about how your emotions affect yourself and your judgment and other people and how to work with them and how did that type of thing like that.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: And now, if you look at the work that I'm doing now, I now know why I did it.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: But at the time, as they say, a the best dissertation is a done dissertation, but I didn't know exactly where that was leading.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, now here we are.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's so true.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I think, you know, that's such a their kids trust the process.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: So my next question before I kick it back over to Thomas is what's one truth you wish every athlete, coach, or parent understood about the transition out of sports that most people aren't willing to say out loud?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's it's a it's a great question.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I think to be perfectly honest, I think one of the biggest things that people are afraid to say out loud.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_04: I I think it's like the yips.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: It's almost like people don't want to talk about the transition.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: That's a great, that's a great analogy.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: We're just gonna keep our head in the sand.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's not happening, it's not to deal with that today.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_04: It's just we're not gonna talk about it, you know, type of thing like that.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_04: Or the flip side of that is is that's all they talk about.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_04: And what are you doing and how is this going?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: And where are my resources and this, this, this, and this.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_04: And we're in this weird state of flux right now.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I've been in, I've been living in the middle of this job market for the last, you know, six plus years, and it's constantly shifting and changing.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_04: And now you throw, you know, we've got AI in there, and we've got on the athlete front, we've got NIL in there now.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_04: And we've just got all of this stuff that's swirling around.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the biggest things is that it's it's very it's it's uncomfortable to go back to our to go back to one of our recurring themes here.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_04: And the the the situation itself is uncomfortable, and a lot of what was true two years ago, five years ago, 20 years ago, is not anymore.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: And and how we have to navigate and what we need to look at and how we should be looking at things and resources that we have or don't have have shifted and changed.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_04: And so one, it's okay, it's okay if if it's confusing, that's fine.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: Two pressure to the first job you get out of school, that is not your forever job.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_04: That is not the job you do for the rest of your life.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_04: It feels that way sometimes.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, oh my God, I have to know.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_04: No, you don't.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_04: We want to look at something that's gonna give you a nice, broad base, some good foundational experience.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_04: Let's get some experience, some skills, learn what we like and what we don't like and what we're good at naturally, what we need to work on.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_04: But the other part of it is the fact is that there's, in my opinion, there's just more work that's now required to A, get that first job, B, get yourself in a spot where you're laying good groundwork.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: C, knowing yourself and what to look for.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_04: And the truth of the matter is that's that's hard to do on your own.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's hard for some of the resources that you have around you to help you with.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_04: They want to help.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: You know, your coaches would love to help, but they're they don't have the time, the money, the resources, the connections, that type of stuff like that.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_04: And so figuring out what you need and who to have that conversation with can help shorten that time frame and create some clarity where right now it feels like none exists.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that totally makes all the sense in the world.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: So, with that, I'm gonna turn it back over to Thomas.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Aaron.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: You specialize in career transition, job search strategy, and helping high performers build the structure, systems, and confidence they need to thrive beyond sports.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: Most athletes never had to build these systems themselves.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was always provided for them by sports.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: What does the gap look like?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: And how does that help out?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: How do you help athletes close it today?
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_04: The gap, in my opinion, is bigger than we really think it is.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Totally great.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_04: And and it's it's it's bigger for a couple of different reasons.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_04: I can't tell you how many athletes, you know, and how many, you know, people tell me, you know, my first couple years, they were a mess.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_04: That's a direct quote from somebody.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_04: They were a mess from from that, you know, just just because it's just so jarring.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_04: And some of us luck out.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_04: I've also I've also got friends of itself who are lucky enough to, you know, their boss was a former athlete or they're working with former teammates, or you know, type of thing.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_04: We can luck out and get somewhere that's gonna set that groundwork, you know, for us, but uh majority of us don't luck out.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_04: And so now what's happening is is we're we're athletes and so we're wired a certain way, and we come in and you know, one of my one of my posts on Substack is titled, Your Drive is not the problem.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we come in and and we want to work hard and we want to be good at our job, and we're motivated by you know clear goals and or or being part of a team or whatever it is that you know that our intensive motivars, we're motivated.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_04: And motivation is not our problem.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_04: The problem is that a lot of times we get into an environment that doesn't support that motivation, just like you said.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, when you think about it as an athlete, there was there was there were systems in place, like you said.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_04: I had an I had a I had a performance season, I had a season, I then had an off season, I then had a building season, I then had a ramp-up season.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_04: I had an off season, like I had seasons built into it, so I could push really, really hard, knowing that it was eventually going to end and I'm gonna get a break.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_04: When I when I would come out of playing, you know, the AVP summer, summer is summer is when it would end.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_04: We would usually end right about like the middle of September.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: And my strength and conditioning coach would say to me, it was literally written on the form, go away, don't play volleyball, put your feet up, eat a pizza, and I'll see you on October 5th or whatever it is.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, get out.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_04: Go do something.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_04: You can go be active, go for a bike ride, go for a walk, you know, do go do something else, but just go away and recharge and reset and that type of thing.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: There was a period of time where I would come, we would come back and we would be really focused on the gym work, but not really being allowed to touch a volleyball, which some people thought was kind of crazy.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: But here's what it did.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: When I got to be able to go back to touch that volleyball after that that two-month break, I was all in on every boring drill that you could ever want to run because all I wanted to do was touch that ball, type of thing like that.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: So there was a structure and a system and a plan, and somebody was looking out for making us setting us up to perform.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_04: When you were in a really hard workout, you knew a rest interval was coming, right?
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: Might not be coming fast enough, but you knew it was coming.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so you trusted that.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_04: When we transitioned into the real world, we look around and some of it is similar enough, you know.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: A manager, oh, that's like my coach.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe, maybe not.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_04: Not all managers are coaches.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_04: Managers can be coaches, but you know, not all of them are.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, my co-workers are my teammates.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe, maybe not, you know, type of thing.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, so and so has so-and-so has left the office.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_04: We need you to take this on for a period of three weeks.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_04: Can you take this responsibility on until we find somebody new to come in?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, sure.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_04: Four years later, it's still yours, you know, type of thing.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_04: We're we're wired to trust the process because we've been told that and there's been a process in place.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_04: When we transition into the real world, unless we build the process, there's a good chance that it's not in place.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_04: And can we build our own process?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_04: Do we know we need it sometimes, sometimes not?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_04: Do we have time and to time to do it?
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: There's there's another one right there, you know.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_04: Do we have time to do it?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_04: And do we have the ability to look at it and go, well, I know I should get to the gym, but I'll do it tomorrow.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, am I doing it tomorrow because I'm really actually tired and I need to take the day off?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_04: Am I doing it because I'm trying to work out in the morning and I don't like working out in the morning, but every internet every internet site says I should work out in the morning.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_04: But I would actually be better if I worked out in the evening.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: Am I doing it because I need to be around a team in order to do it?
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_04: Like, where's the disconnect?
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_04: Where's the misalignment?
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: I know I need to go to the gym.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_04: I know I feel better when I do, so why am I not doing it?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_04: That system just needs to be there.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_04: And like I said, it's just not built in like it was with athletics.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_04: And so if we don't build it ourselves, it won't get built.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: With that, you share your insights through Beyond the Game on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Subsex.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned that.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: What is the conversation you're trying to start with the platform?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: And what does the response from athletes tell you about how badly this conversation is needed?
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_04: Well, one of the things that currently, right now, is basically in a beta test at this point in time is I've developed a framework on regards to how a foundational framework in regards to figuring out of how we're wired as athletes.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_04: Like I took that athletic mindset, like I said, and it's broken into a couple of different things.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_04: Which one is your primary motivator?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_04: Which one is your secondary motivator?
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_04: Which now influences this is not a personality test, this is not type, you know, that type of thing like that, but it influences this is how this is how you think, this is how you're wired.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_04: To be perfectly honored, it answers a lot of questions as why you stayed in sport.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and and you know, so as a result, because of this, this is the type of environment that you're probably going to feel at home in.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, this is the type of this is the shadow side of what, you know, this is how you communicate.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_04: This is what frustrates you.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_04: This is when you take things too far, you know, this is how this ends up.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's learning about what you do, but it's through the athlete lens in regards to that, because that's what we know.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_04: And right now, everybody who I've worked with or I've explained this and worked with this framework on has literally said, Oh my god, I've never heard it explained that way before.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_04: And it makes complete and total sense to me.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_04: Because the challenge becomes, you know, you'll have some people who'll take personality tests and disks, you know, disc profiles and all this type of stuff like that, but it's not built around that athlete mindset.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_04: The challenge is taking, the challenge is not to reinvent yourself.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_04: The challenge is not to discontinue being an athlete.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_04: The challenge is knowing what to take that you developed as an athlete and how to put it into the new environment so that you can perform and thrive and be aligned.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_04: At the end of the day, that's the challenge and that's the conversation.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: For the college athlete right now who's in their final season, already starting to feel the anxiety of what comes next and not sure where to start.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: What do they need to know right now before the final whistle blows?
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's it's it's a great question, and it's a question that comes.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: Up, you know, a lot of times I you know I what is the saying?
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_04: The the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's very it's very similar, you know, from that standpoint.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_04: Is is is the time to start is now, whenever you're thinking about it, getting your ducks in a row.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_04: But one of the biggest challenges is that well, I don't know what to do, type of thing like that.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_04: And and how do I figure out what I need to do?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_04: And when we don't know, it seems like this just big, this huge task.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the things that I do or the work, the work that I do is coming up with, okay, here's the plan of attack.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_04: And again, just like being an athlete, let's break it down into little chunks.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_04: Let's be smart about, you know, we're gonna, we don't have to find the job tomorrow.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_04: What we need to do is we need to be laying groundwork and doing things that are going to eventually make things easier for us when we actually go to do that transition.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, networking, doing job research in regards to, I mean, it can be as simple as just reading job descriptions and going, well, that sounds cool.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my God, no, not that, you know, type of thing.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_04: So there's little bits and pieces of things that we can do that aren't going to take up a huge amount of, you know, a huge amount of time, that are not gonna take up a huge amount of brain space, type of thing where we can still be focused on what we're trying to accomplish in our senior year.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_04: And here's the kicker.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_04: If we have a plan, it will quiet that piece of our mind that's freaking out, whether we know it's freaking out or not consciously, and it'll probably free it up to be able to help you perform better in your sport anyway.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: On that one, I'm gonna send it back to Aaron for the rapid fire round.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron, take it away.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm this is my favorite sacred here, Jill.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: This is fun.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I start a sentence and you're just gonna finish it for me.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_03: Discipline equals.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_04: Discipline equals performance.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_03: I like that one.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_03: Identity equals peace.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_03: Legacy equals.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just going, I have the word, hold on, it'll come to my head.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_04: Legacy equals standards.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's a good one.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: What is one thing you would never compromise on?
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_04: One thing I would never compromise on.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_04: I would say I had like four that like popped into my head there.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know which one I want.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_04: One thing I would never.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_04: You know what?
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just gonna go with the original one.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_04: The one thing I would never compromise on is my health.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, we should be all grateful for our health.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: And if you could put a message on a billboard for the next generation of athlete in their final season, what would that billboard message be?
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: It will all be okay.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's all gonna work itself out, everybody.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_04: It will need to be it, it it will all work out.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: It may not work out the way you think it will, right?
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_03: And to quote Ted Lasso or the way you want it to, but it will all work out.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's so true.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_03: That is so true.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, that's how fast it was.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_03: Jill, you're gonna go back to Thomas now.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's some good stuff, Jill.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks a lot, Aaron.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: Jill, before we wrap up, we'd like to turn it over to our guests, kind of an open forum.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something that we didn't touch on today that you feel athletes, coaches, or parents need to hear about the transition out of sport and what it really takes to build what comes next?
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: It will all be okay.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh true.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's the podcast, people.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: Everything's gonna be okay.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's your one takeaway.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I mean, joking aside, I mean, if you are if you are concerned enough that you are listening to this podcast and asking some questions and trying to figure out what to do, right?
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_04: It will it will be okay.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_04: And and and you're not crazy.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_04: The job, the job market and the transition itself is crazy.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_04: But the other thing is that there's phases to it.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_04: You have the transactional piece of of getting that first job out and and laying the groundwork and that type of stuff like that.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_04: But then you have the second half of it, which is learning how to thrive and perform and set yourself up for success and progression.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_04: Working with an athlete who who's who made the transition out a couple of years ago, and he's talking about his current role, and he's he's trying to basically what he's trying to tell me without telling me is you know, I've this has been great, but I've outgrown it.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_04: And so I finally said, You're you don't have the bad thing to say about where you're at right now.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_04: I go, but you've outgrown it.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_04: And he's like, Yeah, that's okay.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: That's what we do as athletes.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we we fig we put ourselves in challenging positions, we figure out how to get good at something, and then we start looking around, going, okay, what's next?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_04: How do I get better?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, because that's how what made us good is that made us good athletes.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_04: The same thing will happen with you during your career, and that's okay.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_04: But getting the the don't be afraid.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_04: I think one of the other biggest things that happens is that don't be afraid to get the help that you need.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_04: It seems like once we transition into the real world, we go, well, I'm not supposed to have a coach, or I'm not supposed to have, you know, resources outside.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm not supposed, you know, oh, you know, my my friends or my parents or something, that that's enough.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_04: It may not be enough.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_04: So don't be afraid to get to to get that outside person who's looking in, going, okay, let's see how we can we can help you out and help you perform and get you aligned and and that type of thing like that.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_04: Because at the end of the day, you're investing in yourself.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, sometimes you need a little bit of help to invest in yourself.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: We all do, for sure, for sure.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: Jill, you went from rapid fire to the hot seat.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: I always love to ask this to former athletes and current athletes, which you are top three sports movies of all time, according to Jill.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: Top three sports movies according according to Jill.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: Rudy?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_04: Remember the Titans.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_04: Those are my two go-to.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_04: And whatever.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_04: Oh.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just gonna go with those two.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_04: Can I just go with two or do I have to come up with a third one?
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_01: Of course you can.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's great.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_04: No, I got it.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_04: I got it.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_04: Cool runnings.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, a little bobsledding.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: All right, you're going way back.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: Joe, where can people get a hold of you?
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's uh email or whether it's uh website or your social media handles.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_04: So beyond the game.co is the Instagram handle from that.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_04: Substack is where I have a lot of where you'll get the long format in regards to a lot of the different things and work that I do.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_04: You can look for Jill Muhei at Substack.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_04: I believe it will also come up if you if you look for Beyond the Game.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_04: Email for me is simply Jill at Jillmuhe.com.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: That will get to me.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_04: And then there is also a website of Jillmuhe.com where you can get a little bit more information on me.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_04: Jill, thank you so much for LinkedIn because of the job component, very, very active on LinkedIn.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry, sorry, Tom, let me get you up there.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: Jill, thanks for dropping knowledge today for these athletes and building something that actually helps them move through the transition.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: And team, if this conversation hit you, do two things for us.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: One, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, a former athlete trying to figure out what next, what next, what a college athlete in their final season who hasn't started thinking about this yet, or a coach or program that wants to do better by the by their athletes after the final whistle.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: And two, follow Jill on all of the we'll have it in the show notes, beyond the game, Instagram, LinkedIn, and subscribe to her Substack.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: Jill, Jill, I'm gonna do Muhei at substack.com.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: I got it.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is where the real conversation about life after sports is happening.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're an athlete parent or coach ready to raise the standard, check out Erin and myself at blueprintbluechip.com.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: We help athletes build identity, discipline, and legacy that goes well beyond the game.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_01: And if this episode has resonated with you, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: It helps us reach more athletes and parents and leaders who need to hear the message that Jill just shared today.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_01: This is a standard podcast, this is a movement, and this movement only grows when we raise the standard together.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: Talent fades, but truth endures.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: Let's raise the bar, rebuild the culture, and become the standard.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: Jill, you're an absolute rock star.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day for joining us.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron, thank you for making my job so easy.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies, you guys have a fantastic time.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: Team, we're gonna see you next time.