Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 243. Margo Hayes, Pro Climber

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243. Margo Hayes, Pro Climber · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So it's like whether or not you're successful, did you
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: give it? What you're proud of?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: What is shaken? Emily A. Bodi. Here.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: You are listening to episode two hundred and forty two
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast. Reconnect with everyone from
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: your favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: their highest highs, toughest moments, and everything in between. We
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: all go through hurdles in life, and my goal through
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: these discussions is to empower you to better navigate yours
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: and move with intention so that you can stride towards
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: your own big potential and of course have some fun
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: along the way. For today's episode, I am chatting with
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Margo Hayes. She is a professional climber who has really
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: paid the way for other women in her sports. Starting
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: at such a young age at ten living in Boulder, Colorado,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: with her father by her side, who was also an
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: avid climber, she soon made a name for herself and
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: snagged a spot on USA Climbing's national team. In twenty thirteen,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: she earned the north Face Young Gun Award, which honors
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: up and coming climbers, and then three years later, in
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, she won three golds at the World Youth Championships,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: and that was only the beginning. Margo went on to
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: be the first female to ascend Laurambla, which we talk
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: about why that was such a big deal, and also
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Margo gives us the lowdown on how climbing grades work,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: starting at one, which is super easy, and going up
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: from there.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Margo gets really vulnerable about what.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: It was like for her to not snag a spot
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: on the twenty twenty Olympic team and what her sites
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: are set on now, navigating a difficult health diagnosis and
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: really trying to just do the.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Best she can with what she has.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I always love getting to interview someone who hasn't done
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: a lot of podcasts, especially when they are as much
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: as a rock star as Margo is.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: This was really phenomenal.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Truly, she is one of the best American climbers period,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: so I'm so delighted at the opportunity to bring you
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: part of her story this week. If you are not
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: yet doing so, you know the drill, make sure you're
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: following along with us over on social at Hurdle Podcast.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: I am over at Emily a Body and La I'm
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: coming for you next week hosting our conversation on runners
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: safety leading up to the Los Angeles Marathon.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: The conversation is going to.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Start at seven pm over in Venice at the Rose Room.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I love to see you there. I'm going to have
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: an event bright link.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: If it's not in the show notes today, I promise
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: you I will be sharing it in my Instagram stories asap,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: so check it out. Last little bit of housekeeping. If
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: you're not yet subscribed to the weekly Hurdle newsletter, get
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: in on that. Yeah, a link to do so is
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: in the show notes. And with that, let's get to it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Let's get to hurdling.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Margot Hayes. She is a
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: professional climber. How are you doing today?
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I'm doing well, thank you. There's sunshine today, so I'm happy.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I'm like, maybe i can get outside.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Maybe i can get outside. So you're in Boulder, right.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I'm in Boulder currently. Yep. That's home based at the moment.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: It's cold. It's really freaking too cold for me here,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: but it's kind of this time of year's kind of
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: like hibernation season for me, where I'm just focused on
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: my training. I'm not really climbing outside mostly just in
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the gym, you know, every day, and that's kind of
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the schedule at the moment.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Well, I am so excited to talk to you for
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the show today because you and I were riffing on
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: this a little bit before we started recording. There's no
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: solid podcast episodes with Margot Hayes.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Is there a reason for that specifically?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Oh? For sure, for sure. I actually this is like
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the first yes I've said basically since maybe like when
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: I was really young, I did one. But I'm a
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: very private person actually, and I am. I consider myself
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: an extroverted introvert because I'm very bubbly. I like to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: be social. I like to go out. I love my friends,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: I love meeting new people. But also I'm kind of
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a little hermit. Crap, I'm kind of a gramdma. You know,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I'm only twenty five, but I I kind of keep
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to myself in some ways. And also that's kind of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: how I am with media and interviews and such. I
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: definitely pick and choose.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you for saying yes to hurdle.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Did you have a negative experience that made you this
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: way or was this.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: How you feel like you've always been you.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Know, I think I like sharing my story with the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: outside world, but I think I also very much value
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: my privacy. Like I said, in a certain way, I
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: think sometimes we live in a culture of oversharing now
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: with so much social media, and there's no judgment on that.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a time and place to
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: share everything, and everyone's different, but some people just do
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: better being a little more reserved, and some people need
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: a thicker skin, some people need a thicker bubble, and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I definitely keep my bubble.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: So keep my bubble. Hey, You're entitled to it. You're
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: definitely entitled to it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: And it's not surprising, honestly for me because you got
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: into sport at such a young age. It runs in
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: your family, not just climbing, but being outdoors. Tell us
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: a little bit about how that shaped your desire to
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: get into what you do now.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. I was
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: that kid who was always like running around naked in
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the dirt in the sunshine, just like Super Tam. My
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: hair was like bleach blonde because we were constantly outside
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and so I feel like from day one I had
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: this appreciation for nature because my parents just let me
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: play in the dirt. My mom's always been a huge gardener.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: You know. I would grow up during the summers like
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: eating from the garden, like the food that I would
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: plant then I would eat, And so I feel like
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: it created this really strong bond and connection and relationship
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that I had with the earth, with the outdoors, with nature.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And then, as you said, sport does run in my family.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: My mom's father, he was a mountaineer. He and so
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I climbing was never foreign to me because you know,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: he did mountaineering. And then my father, who also grew
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: up in California, he started climbing when he was in
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: college at UOP and he used to go to Yosemite
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: every weekend. And actually that's he met my mom in Stockton,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: and then you know, they would drive down to Yosemite.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: So that was kind of part of the birth of
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: my family as well. My dad would take my sister
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: and I out once in a while to go climb,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: but it was pretty minute, like it wasn't a lot.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I from the time I was five or six, I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: jumped into gymnastics pretty seriously. And I know that sounds
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: so funny, like five or six, like seriously into That's
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: how gymnastics works. You know, a lot of the time
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: your career is over by eighteen ish or earlier. You
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: never know. So you get serious really quickly if it's
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: something that you're passionate about, something that you have skill in.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And so gymnastics was kind of my world. It was
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: my focus. I've always had so many other passions, but
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: sport has always been kind of an anchoring point for me.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: So from the time I was about six, I was
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: doing gymnastics. I was that girl who I was never
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: as I never like bulked up with the muscle as much,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and so I was a little bit scrawny and maybe
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: had more of like a dancer body. And I broke
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: so many bones, Like I had so many broken ankles,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: so many broken metatarsals, my fibula. I mean, I think
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I've broken I think I've broken like twelve bones, not
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: including fingers and toes.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little extreme, but I've been lucky lately,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: knock on wood. But so I actually it was during
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: a time when I had an injury and I went
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to school. One of my friends at school, his name
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: was Sean, and his mom actually ended up being my
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: coach but since I was friends with him, she was like, Oh,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: come join my climbing team. While you're recovering, you can
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: do top rope. You don't have to have any impact
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: on your feet, and then you can stay active. And
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: so I started and I joined the team, and I
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: fell in love with it. I loved that with climbing,
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  Speaker 1: I could do it with so many different friends, and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: that it was something I could compete in and also
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: something that I could literally just be back in nature
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: like I always had been as a kid. You know,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: in gymnastics, I was always locked in the gym. But
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: with climbing, I could pursue this and I could be out.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I could be out in the cliffs. I
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: could be out near the beach. You know, there are
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: rocks everywhere in the world. You know, it's incredible. So
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: it takes you to incredible places and gives you a
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: view and a perspective that you know, very few people
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  Speaker 1: have the opportunity to see. So that really made me
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: fall in love with the sport.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: So you fall in love with the sport at a
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: young age, when is it that you get a full
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: understanding of how much potential you have within this sport?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: So let's be honest. I think that when I moved
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: into climbing, I was not I had I had a
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: back and a gymnastic so I was I was strong,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: like I was definitely really strong. That I had zero technique,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: like zero technique, and I also I just I was
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: not as good as a lot of other kids. But
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I think I was talented. I won't say I wasn't talented,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: but I was not the most talented. I was never
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the most talented. But it was that I was passionate,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and because I was passionate, I was willing to work
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: my ass off. I was willing to work very, very hard.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And I remember my coach during the time. She would
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: always say that hard work takes you further than talent,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and I think that's obviously debatable, but I had a
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: baseline of talent, but really most of my success in
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the sport came from hard work, and I knew that
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: in a very humble way, Like I'm saying, I was
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: not the most talented for sure.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: I think that's refreshing to hear, though, because so many
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: of the people that I speak with oftentimes like they
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: had this really innate ability and were then able to
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: work hard to get to where they are. So hearing
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: you say I really had to work hard and really
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: holme in on my skills, I feel like that again,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: it's really refreshing now when you say that you had
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: to work hard.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: What did that look like for you?
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Often I was like number two or number three, so
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I was always kind of right under that cusp and
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: always kind of a bit of an underdog and hard
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: work for me. And also, I mean, yeah, when it does,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: climbing is about so much more than just strength. Also,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: but when it comes down to strength and talent, I mean,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I'm one of the only professional female climbers I know
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: who can't do what when on pull up, Like I
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: think I kind of cheated my way to doing one
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: when I was twelve, but I literally can't. I just
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: can't do that. But hard work. When I was younger,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I mean I was, I was very very self motivated.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: I think even maybe a little delusional in the sense
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that I was like, I can work really hard, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: if I work really hard, then I'll win. You know,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: when you're an adult, you realize that life is way
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: more complicated than that, and you know it's not always
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: if I do a then I get b but when
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you're young, you're like, Okay, if I work hard, then
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I win. So I would spend I mean, I would
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: spend nights in my room doing pull ups. I had
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: a pull up bar. I loved my pull up bar.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I would stay at practice late, I would do extra practices.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: And I was like thirteen years old, but I was
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: so psyched on it, like you know what I mean.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: It did not feel like torture. It felt like this
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: is what I want to be doing because I'm working
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: towards a certain goal. Yeah, I think I always had
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a certain level of intensity, but I think that work
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: ethic was really what got me. I guess where I
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: am now.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: How was that level of intensity greeted by those around you?
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Was it embraced or was there maybe a little bit
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: level of concern with that?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I think both, because I think sometimes having a hard
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: work ethic is admirable, but also I think sometimes it's annoying.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: You know, I think sometimes it's annoying, and not only
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: for the people around me, but also sometimes for myself.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of sacrifice, A lot of sacrifice goes
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: into that. I mean, you actually don't have as many
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: people around you, except for the people who are really
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: focused in that little world. So, for instance, I was
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: never having sleepovers or play dates or anything like that.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I had my friends at school, but I left school
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: and then I had my climbing friends and my climbing
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: friends or my gymnastics friends. They were really my focus,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and they also were in a very similar position, and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: so it was completely normal, you know. It was like,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: this is just what we do, and I didn't know
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: what and like them, you know, they didn't know what
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: it was like to just go home after school and
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: have a playdate, and I didn't either, you know what
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I mean. So it was.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Completely normal and within your family, within my.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Family, my so, my sister and I are very similar
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: in some ways, also very different in others. And she's
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: three years older and now that's nothing, but when we
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: were younger that felt significant. So we were separate enough
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: in our friend groups and what we were doing that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: we didn't have as much overlap. I've always been like
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a total wild child, Like my mother literally used to say,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: I need to go run the puppy because that's how
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: crazy I was when I was little, and how much
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: energy I had. And so I think my parents just
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: embraced that and they were like, you know what, if
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: this is what makes this girl happy is training her
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: ass off and doing pull ups in her room when
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: we're watching a movie or we're reading a book or
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, then she can do that, you know.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And they were always there to support They were always
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: there to support me. They definitely didn't discourage me.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: You start at a very young age to see success
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: because of this work ethic starting to place in different events,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: from the ifsc AT Youth World Championships to moving up
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: to the USA Climbing Sport and Speed Climbing Championships.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: It started to pay off. How did that feel for you?
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: It's interesting because I feel like everything is is, you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: a two sided coin in a way. And for me
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: when I was younger, I think that success came with
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: less pressure. I mean I was always really nervous at
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: nationals and you know, competitions and everything, and it was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: it encouraged me to keep working harder, Like with anything
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: in life, when you work hard and then you realize
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: it's actually making a difference, that is what encourages you
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to keep going because you're like, oh, this is actually
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: getting me where I want to go. My hard work
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: is paying off. I'm not doing this for nothing. Circling
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: back to what I meant about a two sided coin
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: is that with success can come expectations and pressure, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: that's just the reality of the world we live in.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And it's easy to become a slave to that or
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: become chained to that. But the reality is is there's
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: a way to separate yourself from the performance expectations that
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: other people have, whether that is you know your friends,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: your family, your sponsors, your coaches, and for the most part,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: normally it's yourself because we're normally hardest on ourselves. And
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I can say one hundred times over that I have
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: been harder on myself than anyone else has been on me.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: You brought up the word sponsors. How old were you
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: when you got your first sponsorship?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: My first real sponsor was a jewelry company in Malibu.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I know the family and it was really sweet. It
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: was the first like paid kind of deal I had,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: and I think I was like maybe fifteen years old
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: or something, fifteen or sixteen, and it was really exciting
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: for me because I knew them and this and met
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and I also have fashion as one of my passions.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: And so it was kind of this fun little collaboration.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And so I was pretty young, but I definitely was not,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: like I said, I was not the kid. You know,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I grew up with a bunch of kids who were
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: sponsored at ten. You know, they were sponsored, and it
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: was big sponsorships, and you know, they were already making
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: money and this and that. There's not that money and
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: that much money and climbing compared to other sports. But
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I wasn't that kid that was just the star. And
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I also wasn't ever really just trying to be recognized
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: for anything. I think climbing was really just a passion
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: and a way I could challenge myself. And I've always
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: been very addicted to working hard and trying to challenge
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: myself to see what my limits are.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it all kind of blends together. Right.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: We're talking about not wanting to be super open in
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: terms of like keeping your private life private, holding on
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: to these memories for yourself before you really like allow
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: the rest of.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: The world to get into it.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: So it doesn't surprise me that, like this is the
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: approach that you take when it comes to working with brands.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: I also think that it's interesting because it shows that
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: when you do align yourself with a brand, then you're
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: obviously really passionate about that collaboration and what it is
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: that they.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: For sure, you know, that's definitely something I'm very I'm
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: very keen on staying true to my values, and for me,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that's why I tend to stick with companies that I
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: feel like it's mutually beneficial. You know, it's a mutually
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: beneficial relationship and they align with my values, you know,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: and no company is perfect in the same way that
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: no person is perfect. It's really hard to be perfect
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: in the world today, you know, things are so complicated.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: But I really do try and stick with companies that
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I feel aligned. I believe in, I believe in their mission,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I believe in what they're doing. Yeah, and sometimes that
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: means passing up certain opportunities, but also that means standing
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: for the things that you believe in.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: As you start to become recognized and say within the
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: world of climbing, you also start to up your aspirations
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: when it comes to your adventures outside.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: For those that are listening right now that may not
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: have a lot of intel into why some of the
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: things we're about to talk about are kind of a
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: big deal, aka a very big deal. Give some insight
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: into how climbing.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Works when we're outdoors and the difficulty and how that
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: can shift from one climb to the next.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, So to keep things simple, I'm just going to
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: stick with sport climbing route climbing because that's ninety percent
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of what I do. Anyway, It's complicated enough. So there's
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: something called the Yosemite system, which is where you have
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: grades and it goes from you know, maybe five nine
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: up to now five point fifteen or five fifteen plus,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and each grade has for instance, ABCD, So there are
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: letter grades which are okay, number grades which are a
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: bigger jump, and then every number has you know, ABC
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and D, so as you move up the line, the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: climbs become more difficult.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: No, that's helpful.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: So basically, what you're saying is a climb that's like
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: five four is going to be much less difficult than
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: a climb that's five fifteen. Yes, exactly, you're eighteen and
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: you start tackling some really difficult climbs.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: What was the prime motivator for that?
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Honestly, that's an amazing question, and I don't even know
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: if I can answer that. And I think maybe sometimes,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: you know, I think sometimes that's how passion works, is
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: that you don't necessarily know why you're doing something, but
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: you're doing it because you love to and you have
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: this drive. You know, you have this drive to do it.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: And I think I wanted to see how far I
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: could push myself. And I think I wanted I was
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: really motivated to become the best that I could be,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: or push my limits and see how far I could
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: take climbing, see how difficult I could climb. I felt
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: like my success came from an accumulation of hard work.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: You know, I never I never really stood out as
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: someone who was climbing the hardest or anything like that
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: growing up. And then when you know, my late teen years,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I feel like I really started pushing myself and accomplishing
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: things on my own watch, and it was really cool
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to see that hard work paying off in that way.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, as this passion really starts to bubble up and
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: you take on these more difficult climbs, talk to us
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: about what's going through your mind as you're getting outside,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: looking up at these rocks and contemplating your own potential.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I have always tried not to put a limit on myself.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: And in the same sense that I don't like expectations
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: in general, so and in both senses, I don't like
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: expecting something to be too hard, but I also don't
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: like expecting something to be too easy because I've I
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: feel like it just sets you up to judge your performance,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: whereas if you just keep an open mind and be like, Okay,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: this looks cool, this inspires me. Yeah, this grade's really hard.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I can do it or not,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: but shoot, I'm going to try. I feel like that's
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: kind of the purest form of moving forward and challenging yourself.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: So, as you move forward and challenge yourself and you're
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: looking at these rocks and you're trying to show all
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: these expectations to the side, how do you stay calm?
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I might look calm, but no
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I'm not. Sometimes i'm calm. I used to be very
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: focused on like I want to try and get into
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: a good headspace or this or that, and then I
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: learned that sometimes we waste energy trying to get into
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: this perfect headspace, and instead you just go with what
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: you have and it will work or it won't work.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Either way. It's okay. I definitely think though that breath
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: work for me, and you know, I've talked to other
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: athletes about this too, is so big when it comes
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: to preparing to perform, calming yourself down, and also in climbing,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: for instance, it's really easy when you're on the wall
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to be holding your breath because you're you know, you're
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: physically trying so hard, but the moment you stop breathing,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you're not getting oxygen to your muscles, you know. So
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I definitely always try and take conscious pauses on the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: wall when I'm trying to send something difficult to just
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: come back to myself and breathe, just come back to
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: that kind of that checkpoint of okay, am I feeding
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: my muscles with oxygen?
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: Did someone teach you different breathwork techniques or how did
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: you start incorporating breathwork into your training?
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Okay? So I did learn techniques from various coaches or
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: people who had an influence on my training or my performance.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: But also even when I was really young, I mean
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I feel like I was, you know, such a little
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: freak in the sense that I like, I literally would
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: research things, you know, I would be like, Okay, how
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: do I meditate? How do I do this? How do I?
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Because I always wanted to do whatever I could to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: get better. I mean now like, I try and meditate
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: every day if I can. I don't. If I said
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I meditate every day, I'd be lying to you. But
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I try to, you know, I try to make time
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and I try and do that because breath work is
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: so important, I think, especially in this world that we're
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: living in that is so chaotic, you know, it's so busy,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: we're constantly on technology. But I definitely learned early on.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I learned probably the first breath work I learned was
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: from my coach's husband, d Da, who also was a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: professional climber from France back in the day, and I
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: remember he taught us a few things and that's kind
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: of what opened my mind to, oh, wow, like this,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: you know, this can make a difference. This actually can
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: physically calm your nervous system. It can create balance between
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: your sympathetic your parasympathetic and put you in, you know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: maybe not the perfect state to perform, because you're never
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: going to be in the perfect state unless you hit
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: flow state, which I don't know if someone else out
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: there has control over that, but I don't. I definitely don't.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: When it happens, it's amazing and I'm like, that was
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: so cool. This probably won't happen again for a long time.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: It's just the real, the reality of it. But I
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: definitely learned early on some breathwork from him, and then
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I kind of took it from there.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Beyond that breath work meditation on the mental side, it's
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: also important for you to kind of get a rein
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: on how you speak to yourself. Talk to me a
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: little bit about what the evolution of that has been
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: for you, your inner self talk.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: You know, it's definitely been a mixture of things where
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I think that growing up in sport gives you a
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: lot of confidence in certain ways, it also can give
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: you a lot of insecurities. But I definitely learned early
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: on that like talking to yourself in a kind way
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: is important, you know, encouraging yourself, believing in yourself. But
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: also I've always been someone who's really hard on myself,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: you know, and so like there have been times when
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I have not been very nice to myself, and there's
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: still there still are those, but I definitely try to
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: be kinder to myself now than I used to be.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: And I think part of that has really come with
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: learning to be okay with failure, because when I was younger,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: failure was not an option. I mean, I didn't even
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I was like, failure is not a thing. If I fail,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: it's only because this just wasn't It wasn't like I
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: didn't win yet, you know what I mean. So and
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: now I think learning how to accept failure and learning
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: that that's really a part of life and a huge
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: part of sport has also made it so when I fail,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not down on myself in the same
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: way that I used to be. And my coach actually
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: he sent me this article years ago, and this article
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: made such a difference. It was so insightful and basically
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: it was about why self compassion is more important than
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: self esteem. You know, self esteem is when you're high.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: You're high and you're happy and you're doing well, but
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: when you're not doing well, it all crashes. Like you
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: don't have self esteem because you're basing your worth off
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: of your success. And self compassion you can have at
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: your highest highs and at your lowest lows. And that's
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: what's so beautiful about that.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. I love that sentiment.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: And to just go back to talking about like having
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: negative thoughts, I mean, you're certainly not alone in that.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: I believe it's a National Science Foundation found that eighty
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: percent of our thoughts are negative and ninety five percent
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: of our thoughts are repetitive.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: So if we think about that, about how.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Likely it is for us to be repeating the same
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: negative things to ourselves all the time, Like, you're not
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: alone in that, and no wonder why it can be
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: overwhelming and stressful and whatnot. So this idea of self compassion,
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: it's so important.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I totally agree.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: We talked about.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: Some of these big accomplishments happening for you at eighteen.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: At nineteen, you become the first woman to send Laurambla
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: tell the hurdlers what the grade is on that one?
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Five point fifteen A.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: A five fifteen A absolutely incredible, and your success goes
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: viral almost overnight. I know that there was another photographer
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: that was out there with you, and there's this amazing
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: photo of you afterward, just looking like, how the hell
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: did that just happen?
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Was that insane?
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, to be honest, it was a little bit of
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: a crazy experience because I had friends at the time
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: that were going to go to Spain and they wanted
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: to try this climb, and I thought, okay, you know,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I've climbed nine A. I was like, I can you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I'm going to try this. Maybe I can do this climb,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: And so I told them I was going to come along,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: and I was really psyched. I was a little obsessive
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: about it. I was like, you know, very focused on
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the route. I watched on a bunch of videos of
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the route of people climbing it, and I remember I
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: got there though, and they definitely didn't think I was
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: there to climb the same route they were on. You know,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: they definitely thought that I was just gonna kind of
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: climb other things and hang out. But I was like,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I want to challenge myself, you know, I want to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: try this. I don't know if I can do this
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: or if I can't do this. And at that time,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I knew that no woman had climbs five fifteen. You know,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: there had been some slash grades or some debate about it,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: so I wasn't really sure. And although I was like
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: that's a cool thing, that's a really cool accomplishment, I
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: was like, I just want to do this to challenge myself,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you know, because this is the next step for me.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Regardless of whether or not another woman has climbed this hard,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: it's the next step for me. So I got there,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I started trying the climb. It was definitely next level
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: for me. But I felt like I was capable, and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: when I ended up doing it, I did not. I
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: had no you know, preconceived expectation of how that photo
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: or that accomplishment was going to blow up in the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: way that it did. I that was not what I
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: was looking for. That was not the reason I did it,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: you know, that was not my motivation, and it actually
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: kind of freaked me out, you know. And I think
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: this is the thing is from the outside, I think
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: sometimes people see someone's getting a lot of attention for success,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: you know, for an accomplishment. But at nineteen years old,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: that happened and I think, I mean, I think I
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: gained like sixty thousand followers overnight, and it totally freaked
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: me out. I actually remember the morning after I did
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the climb and that photo was posted. I woke up
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: in the morning and I remember I was I went
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: into the kitchen, I was talking with the guys I
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: was there climbing with and I remember I started crying
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: because I was like, I was like, I wasn't ready
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: for this. I didn't expect you know, I didn't expect
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: people to think this was such a big deal or
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: anything like that. And like I said, I'm a very
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: private person and I'm an extroverted introvert, but I'm an
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: introvert at heart. I was honestly afraid of all of
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the attention. It was a lot. It was a lot
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: for me. And I also felt like once I once
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I sent that climb, all of a sudden, I felt
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: like the world had expectations for me to send harder,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: for me to do more. And I also, even more
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: than you know, what the external world expected me to accomplish,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: I expected myself to accomplish more. I was like, holy crap, Okay,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: what's next. Because my entire life, growing up, my entire
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: climbing career, it was these steps, these jumps, what's next,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: what's next? One's next? And then once I had that accomplishment,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: I was like, this is going to be really hard
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: to beat. You know, this is going to be really
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: hard for me to do better. Then sometimes there's a parallel.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: For instance, you hear with like musicians who release a
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: great album and then they're like, how can I beat that?
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Now everyone's going to be disappointed. And I think it
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: can kind of be a similar thing in sport. And
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know for Olympic athletes because I'm not an
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Olympic athlete, but I can imagine that sometimes they go
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: to their first Olympics, they win a gold medal, and
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: then the next Olympics they're like, shoot, well I have
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: to get a gold or multiple golds in order to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: beat what I did last. And I think because we
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: are our own hardest critic, and we compare ourselves to ourselves,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: you know, to move forward and to make progress. When
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: you accomplish something that is really big for you, that
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: can be really scary because you don't know if you
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: can keep climbing higher. But I think that was definitely
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: challenging for me because I was like, Okay, well now
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I have to do another one.
• 32:55
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• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Your sentiments about not only feeling concern over others, how
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: having expectations for you, but then you also starting to
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: develop these new expectations for yourself. It's understandable that you
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: felt overwhelmed. It's understandable that you're like, what's next. And
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: so when you start to think about what's next, where
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: did your head go at that point?
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I remember I sent that climb, I came home and
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I need to go to sey
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Use and I want to try this route now. And
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: now that I look back on and you know, I
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: was so immature, I mean, I was so It was
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: like I was running on this treadmill of Okay, what's next,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: what's next, what's next? And there was so much beauty
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: in that accomplishment, but there was also okay, I have
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: these expectations. I didn't even give myself time to breathe.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: You know, I didn't give myself time to breathe. I
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: made plans to go and do the next challenge, which
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: was also five point fifteen, but maybe arguably a harder one. Yea,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: and so, and I think I felt like I didn't
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: even give myself time to really celebrate. For myself, I think,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe the climbing community and externally there was
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: a celebration about it, but for myself, I was like, Okay,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: now I have these expectations for myself that I can
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: do better, yet, you know. And so it was literally
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I think I sent Laurambola in February after my birthday,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: and then I think it was maybe May or June
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: that I hopped on biography for the first time, so
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: it was quick turnaround and between that, you know, between
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: those two I had nationals I had, So it was
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: there was no There was no breathing room.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: In twenty sixteen. So before all of this happens, in
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, it's announced that climbing is going to become
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: an Olympic sport. So when you're starting to tackle all
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: of these crazy, difficult climbs, in your head, is making
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: the Olympic team something that is on the radar.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: So the Olympics have been a dream since I was six,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: since I was a gymnast. You know, that was my
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: goal in gymnastics, and then that obviously didn't happen. Was
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: it meant to be? And then when you know that
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: was accepted for climbing, I was like, oh, yeah, you know,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: like of course I'll try for that. And at that time,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: we didn't know how many people would be going, We
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: didn't know what that was going to look like, but
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: it was definitely something in the back of my head.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: And you know, during this time, I was also competing
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: a lot. I was doing a lot of competitions. I
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: think that my competition performance was more spotty when it
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: comes to my success. It was kind of going up
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: and down, and I was I hadn't really experienced that
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: because I feel like when you are in youth climbing,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: and especially with how the style used to be, it
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: was kind of like if you work hard and you
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: know you do well under pressure, then normally you perform.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: But as you go onto the World Cup circuit, things
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: become like a little more complicated and the style, the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: paradigm of the style started changing, and so sometimes I
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: was really successful and other times I really was not successful.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: And when I go back to how hard I am
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: on myself. That was definitely a challenging roller coaster.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I remember at the time, you know, the
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: headlines it was you and a Shima that it was
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: just like such a surprise that the both of you
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: weren't heading out there for you How did you find
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: self compassion in those moments?
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: It was actually a very tricky. It was a tricky road,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: and I think it was hard for all of us,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: so like you know, even the girls that made it,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: it was not It was not easy for any of us.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: And props the props to them for forgetting there, you
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, they made it, and I'm so
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: proud of those girls for representing our country because we
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: were all on this kind of this road of kind
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: of turmoil because the qualification process was, in my opinion,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: it was a little weird and it was very uncertain.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of uncertainty, and for them to
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: carry that through to the very end and qualify was
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's really props to the you know, because
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: it was hard on all of us. But I it
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: was tricky because I actually thought that my road to
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the Olympics was over after the last World Cup because
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: the rule at that point was that twenty people could
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: go to the Olympic Trials. It was the top twenty
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: from the all around in the World Cups, but it
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: was only two per country, and I was a third American,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: and so I was like, okay, I'm out. And I
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: had that grieving period, you know. I had a few
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: days where I was like really bummed about it. And
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: I was in Kyoto with my mom after the last
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: World Cup in Asia, and I had to kind of
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: let go of that. I was like, Okay, that Olympic
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: dream is, you know, at least for now, that's to
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: the side and I need to move forward. But I
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: got home, I went to New York for a photo
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: shoot and one of the heads of the USA Climbing
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, there's been a rule change.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: There's been a rule change, and actually now they're saying
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: that they're not putting a limit on how many per
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: country can go to the trials, only to the Olympics.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: And I was like, well, shit, okay, you know, I'm
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: in New York. And then I ended up having this
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: like basically I had like a weird health complication. I
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: got back to Colorado and I was in the hospital
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: for five days, and I was like in the hospital
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: begging the doctors to be like, I'm like, I feel
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: so much better. Can I please go? And they're like no,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: it's you know basically, they're like, no, we still have
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: you on an IV. You can't go. But I was like,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: I think I have ten days fifteen days until the
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Olympic trials, where I have one more shot to go
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and try and make the Olympic team, you know. So
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: I sat. I was like, I'm not training, I'm not
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: speed climbing, and I definitely needed all the help I
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: could get with speed climbing. That's not my thing. I'll
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: never touch the red holes again in my life, I swear.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: I'm like, that is over, that is in my past.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: So I ended up, you know, I got out of
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: the hospital. I think I had maybe ten days from
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: that point until I was competing and to loose, and
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: I was really grateful to have that opportunity, but I
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: also felt like I had been on this roller coaster
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: of letting go of the Olympics, you know, not qualifying,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: letting for the trials, letting go of the Olympics. Moving forward,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I was in New York on this photo shoot and
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: I got sick. Then I was in the hospital and
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: they're like rule change. Then I had ten days and
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh. You know, there was
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: part of me, if I'm honest, that was like I
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: want to throw in the towel. I was like, I'm
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: so tired. But I decided, you know what this is,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: I can give it a hail Mary, you know, like
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I can go out there and I can do what
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: I can do, and you never or no, you never know.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: I could surprise myself and qualify. So I'm gonna take
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: this to the end. I already thought I took it
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: to the end, but I am going to take this
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: to the end again. So when I at the Olympic trials,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I remember my speed climbing was horrible. I mean, my
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: speed climbing was not great anyway, but my decent speed
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: climbing could be enough to balance out with the scores.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: But I did a horrible job speed climbing. I was
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: so nervous. And then bouldering was okay, And then I
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: remember I was kind of like, I'm not qualifying. I
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: was like, I'm not qualifying, and we had lead, and
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: lead has kind of always been of the discipline I
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: think what has come the most naturally to me as
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: like an endurance sport and a sport where you're just
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: staying very focused and you're in this bubble, just climbing
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: up the wall, you know. And I remember walking out there,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, here we go. And I remember
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: it was my best lead climbing performance that probably I
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: had had in years, you know. And I actually timed
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: out well, I almost timed out, and then I rushed
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: at the top and fell, but I timed out, So
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: I really and that to me tells me because I'm
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: a slower climber compared to a lot of climbers, that
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: I was very much in my bubble and I was like,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: you know, this crowd, this Olympic Trial crowd, this doesn't matter.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: I was just in that moment climbing and it felt amazing,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: you know. And then I ended up falling off the headwall,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: which is what we call like the very last section
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: of the wall, and I knew. I was like, I
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: didn't qualify, but I truly felt proud, Like I felt proud.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: I felt proud. Sorry, I'm like emotional, I don't know
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: what I'm a motional, but I felt really proud of
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: my performance because it felt like that climb was I
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: was focused on myself. I wasn't focused on qualifying. I
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: was able to perform at the level that I knew
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: I could, you know. And I got down and I
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: was like, okay, end of chapter, you know, end of chapter.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: And of course it took There was a bit of
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: a grieving process, and it was hard because that was
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: a dream. But at the same time, it was a
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: blessing for me because I was at a point where
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I was like, I need I probably need a break
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: from competition. I've been competing every year of my life
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: since I was six years old and I'm twenty one,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: and I was like, it's time to take a break
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: from competition. I'm going to start school back up. I'm
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: going to focus on climbing outside, and I'm going to
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: put that on the back burner, you know. So honestly,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like I gave it my all, you know,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I gave it my all, and really, when it comes
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: down to it, that's all you can do. So it's
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: like whether or not you're successful, it's like, did you
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: give it what you're proud of? You know? And I
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: did you know that last time at the Olympic trials.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: I felt very proud of that climb, and that's really
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: the only token that I needed to take away from
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: that at that point.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and what a beautiful takeaway to be able to
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: look on that experience and know that, despite not getting
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: the outcome that you had hoped for, you gave it
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: all that you had and that is certainly something that
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: you can walk away and be proud of. Now fast forward,
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: we're three years later. Now, I like doing all this
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: math in my head. A year out from twenty twenty four.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: Are the Olympics still something that you're thinking about.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: I was a little bit on the fence about it.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I was thinking for a while, you know, it was
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: a little bit I wanted to take that time after
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the last Olympics to really focus on climbing outside, focus
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: on my school. And then pandemic hit because that's life,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: right and all of us. That wasn't convenient for anyone,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: you know, and those of us who are here, we're lucky,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: you know, to still be here. So it's like, you
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: put all of that in perspective, We're lucky that the
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: only thing we dealt with was being inconvenienced. You know,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: so I had thought about it, but I really wasn't
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: able to travel and climb outside to the same extent
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: that I really wanted to after that Olympic that failed
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Olympic attempt, the first one. And I also have so
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: I recently was diagnosed with lime disease. Actually, so I've
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: been dealing with that for the last couple of years.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: The treatment, it's something that's chronic. It's a little controversial. Actually,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: some hospitals don't believe chronic lime disease exists. However, there
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: are many people who have experienced chronic c lime disease
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: and many doctors who are they call lime literate basically.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: So there is a big part of me that was,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: like Paris twenty twenty four, I would like to try
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: for this, you know what I mean, I might as
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: well give it another go. However, I would have had
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: to start competing months and months and months ago, and
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: I was not in the position because of the qualification process.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: So it's not like other sports where maybe you do
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: a couple of competitions and then it's like, all right,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: you can just go to the trials and let's see
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: how you do at the trials. You could qualify with
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: climbing right now. It's a long process of one stepping
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: stone the next stepping stone, and if you can't skip
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: a stepping stone, and so those early stepping stones of
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: the road to Paris twenty twenty four, it was not
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: feasible for me. And so that was kind of a
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: moment too where I actually almost went and competed, and
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: then I was like, what are you doing? I was like, girl,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, this is not what you should be
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: focused on right now, because you need to do what's
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: best for you, especially in the long run. And I
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: decided that when it comes to competition, whether or not
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: I want to compete again, what's really important for me
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: is that I do it on my own watch, and
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I do it on my own timeline. And maybe that
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: doesn't you know, I don't know if I'm going to
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: compete again or not. That's really like, I don't know
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: what's in the cards with that, but it's important to
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: me that I do that on my own timeline, not
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: on the timeline of you know, this two year qualification
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: process for the next Olympics. So that's kind of where
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: I'm at with that. But I'm really excited to watch again,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited for the athletes that will make it.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately it's only two athletes per gender again, which is
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: a little crazy. But at the same time, it's cool
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: that the sport is even going to be there.
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: So how does that realization, that decision make.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: You feel, you mean, letting go of pairs twenty twenty
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: four definitely mixed, Like, I definitely feel I mean, now
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: I feel good about it, But of course I think
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: I felt a little frustrated that I was, Like what
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: I was, like, it's twenty twenty two right now, and
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: I have to let go of twenty twenty four. You know,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: I have to make that decision now whether or not
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: I'm going to pursue that. So I think I felt
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: a little frustrated in that regard. But it's something I
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: don't have any control about it or over. It's completely
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: on the you know, the Olympic Committee and the ifs
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: and such in USA climbing, and so I felt a
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: little frustrated. But I also and a little sad to
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: let that go so early before I was sure whether
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: or not I you know, I wasn't sure whether or
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: not I wanted to pursue Paris twenty twenty four. But
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: when I had to make that decision two years before
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: the Olympics, I was like, I was like, ugh, you know,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but yeah, I have to let that go.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: How does your line impact you on a day to day.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Honestly, it's pretty hard. It comes and goes in waves.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: I'm doing treatment now, like I just yesterday had an
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: IV treatment for my immune system. It's a very slow
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: process because you have to make sure that your body
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: is detoxing as well. Otherwise the pathogens are just circling
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: in your system when you're taking different medications. There are
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: such things. There's such a thing called a Hirk's reaction.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: So basically, if you do too much to kill off
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: the line, your body can have a reverse reaction and
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: your symptoms get worse. So it's really tricky. It's definitely
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: made travel more challenging in the sense that, for instance,
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: I had an objective in France last year and I
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: ended up having to turn around and come home before
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: even trying it, just because I was feeling really sick.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I have weeks where I feel pretty good, and then
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: I have weeks where I feel exhausted every day. I
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: have a migraine every day. There's really a plethora of
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: different symptoms and it changes. They come and go, they
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: get worse, they get better. Treatment is a little bit
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: trial and error because everyone's bodies different and I'm hyper sensitive.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: I've always been that way since i was little, and
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: so my treatment process is really slow, which is frustrating
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: for me because patience is not my thing. I mean,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: ask anyone who's close to me in my life. They'll
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: be like no, They'll be like, she's always ten minutes late,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: but she has no patience. So so yeah, it's been
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: a tricky process, and honestly, I'm kind of at the
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: beginning of my treatment. Typically it takes about two years
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: for people to put it into remission, but it totally depends,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: you know. But I'm definitely having to organize more of
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: my schedule, my life, my climbing around that. And I'm
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: also coming back to the self compassion piece. I'm having
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: to be like, Okay, I'm not performing in the way
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: I want to right now, but also that's okay, I'm
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: doing what I can right now. I am having weeks
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: where I feel really strong and where I'm psyched, and
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: then I'm having weeks where you know, it's five pm
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm gonna go take a four hour nap.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's kind of just being accepting of the
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: fact that we all have our shit and we all
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: deal with that, and we all are dealop certain cards,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: and to be honest, I feel very blessed, but also
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: lime disease sucks. Lime disease is not. It's no fun
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: for sure, but I'm also grateful that I'm figuring out
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: treatment and that hopefully I can get healthy. So I
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: would say, when it comes to goals right now, like
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: that's my biggest goal is like two basically to get healthy,
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: to focus on my health, and obviously while I'm doing that,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: keep pursuing my climbing, but just be compassionate with the
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: fact that some weeks I'm going to be able to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: do double sessions every day and other weeks I'm going
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: to have to rest the entire week. So that's just
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: where I'm at right now, and that's okay.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing that.
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: And what a metaphor for life, right like just this
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: concept that like, some weeks are going to feel really
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: great and some weeks are not going to feel really great,
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: and all that we can do is show up and
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: give it whatever it is that we.
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: Feel like we have.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: You mentioned only two individuals per gender. Clearly you have
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: been a very successful woman in your sport. What does
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: it mean for you to be one of the most
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: successful female climbers that we have seen.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: It's an honor, to be honest, like, it's an honor
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: I think about all of the women in my life
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and also to narrow in, you know, specifically on climbers
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: and athletes that I mean, I've women and so many
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: different genres in my life that have inspired me. But
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: to think of the role that they played, whether or
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: not they know they played that role, because you know,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: some of them like didn't even know me, but they
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: were huge inspirations to me. To think that, maybe, you know,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: things that I have done, or the role that I
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: play helps some young girl believe in herself, you know,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: and helps her get out there and climb or do
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: any sport or any passion, whether that's dance or music
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: or another you know, another sport, whatever it is, it's
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: an honor. Honestly, it's an honor, and I feel like
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: it's also a full circle kind of phenomena, because I
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: think when you're growing up, there's a point where it's
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: mostly just your being inspired, you know, like your job
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: is to be inspired and to do what you can
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: with that. And then there comes a time in your
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: life where you also, you know, you continue to be inspired,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: but also you start giving back by encouraging others. And
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: so I definitely it feels, you know, if I can
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: make a difference in you know, one little girl's life,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: you know, to encourage her to follow her dreams, then
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: that's an honor.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think such a big theme we've kind of
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: been resonating here with on the show here is in
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: order to be her, sometimes you need to see her.
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: And so for you, as you were coming up in climbing,
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: who motivated you to be the best you?
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Honestly, the list is, the list is
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: so long that I don't even want to give a
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: list because I'm going to leave someone off there and
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: then we're gonna we're gonna hang up this call, and
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be like, shoot, oh my gosh, I don't
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: want to mention her. But I would say, like my friends,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: my family, I feel very encouraged by them, and to
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: be honest, like my sister has always been a huge
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: inspiration to me, Like her work ethic is incredible. That
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: girl's incredible, and she's fearless. She's completely fearless, Like she
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: has dealt with her own adversity in life as we
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: all do, and she has overcome so much and accomplished
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: so much. And she's also very humble.
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: You know, Margo, I am so sure that there are
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: women everywhere that are listening to this and literally would
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: say the exact same thing about you. Your humble nature
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: is just like truly beautiful. So listening to you say
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: these nice things about her is awesome. But know that
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: you have this greatness inside of you as well. And
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: I'm so happy that we were able to find the
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: time to talk about it. Right now, someone goes to
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: your Instagram page, they see this outstanding climber and artist
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: and model with almost two hundred and fifty thousand Instagram followers.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: When you look in the mirror, what is it that
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: you see looking back at you?
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: Honestly like a girl that's trying to do her best. Like,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: when it comes down to it, I think that you know,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: a social media is an amazing tool we have, but
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: it's also just half of just half of everything, you
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like for instance, actually just yesterday,
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: I was talking with a friend and I was talking
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: about trolls on social media, and a lot of the
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: time I don't let that stuff get to me. But
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: we're basically talking about the phenomena of like the pictures
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: you see are not the full not the full story.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's like on days that sometimes you
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: can seem like you're really winning, but like on the outside,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: you can seem like you're winning but you're actually not
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: doing well, or you can seem like you're having a
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: hard time on the outside and you're actually living your
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: best life. For me, I really just try to be
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: my best self. Like when I look in the mirror,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: I'm like kindness. Kindness is what it comes down to
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: for me. And that's what my mom taught me, is
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: that when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: you know, Like it doesn't matter how successful you are,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how smart you are, how pretty you are,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: that doesn't that's not what's really at the core. The
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: core is how do you treat other people, and especially
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: how do you treat the people that you know, some
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: people would say, quote unquote, don't matter as much, and
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: that's I hate saying that, and that's why I say
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: quote unquote, I'm just saying that, basically, how do you
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: treat the people that you're going to get nothing back from?
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like, you're not treating someone
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: well to then receive something. You are treating someone well
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: from the kindness and the pureeness of your heart and
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: your soul. And I think when you move through life
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: and you try to do that, it actually makes you
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: a happier person.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: Definitely. What excites you right now, Margo?
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: So many things. Well, I'm trying to finish off school.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: So the thing is is, I started later my thought
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: I would go right to college and move to France.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: You know, life happens. But I'm a biology major, so
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: I actually love science. I'm a total science geek. A
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: lot of people don't know that. So I'm excited about school.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: I'm also very excited about the weather warming up so
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: i can climb out. I have some trips planned for
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: this year, some goals, of course, which I always keep
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: really close to my heart because that's just how I am.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: But I'm really excited about that, and then I'm also
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: excited about just other passions I have, like art and fashion.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: I really like to expand my mind and experience new
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: things and learn from different people. And art has always
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: been something that's just so amazing to me, so inspiring
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: to me, and something I always come back to, and
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: so I hope that I can do more of that
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: this coming year.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: Right now, you have an opportunity to offer yourself a
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: piece of advice. Right after you send Larambla, you feel
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: the overwhelm setting in. You can offer that you a
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: piece of advice, knowing what you know. Now, what do
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: you tell.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Her to slow down? Honestly, I would tell myself to
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: slow down. I would tell myself to let my accomplishments
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: and me feeling proud of myself, let that soak in, like,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: actually take time to enjoy that. And then also I think,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: and this is something that I learned later, you know,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: a couple of years later, And this is why actually,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: probably the third five point fifteen I did is the
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: most notable to me because I really feel like I
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: did it for myself. I did it on my own timeline.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: You should never feel pressure to prove to yourself or
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: anyone else that you deserve your past accomplishments. You know,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: in that moment after I sent la Umbla, I felt
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: like I had to prove that I deserved that accomplishment
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: by just doing it again and doing it again, or
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: doing better and doing better, And not that I would change,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: you know, going and doing other hard clients like, that's
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: still what I love to do, that's my passion, but
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: I would have made sure that you know, I'm doing
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: this because this is what I want to do right
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: now in this moment, not because, Okay, I need to
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: prove to other people that I'm good enough to have
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: done what I've done, or prove to myself that I'm
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: good enough to have done what I've done.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for your time today, Margo. If
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: the hurdlers don't follow you yet, where do they go?
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I have Honestly, I'm not on social media
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: that much. I'm trying to be more active on social
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: media since it's part of how the world works. But
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: I have Instagram and that's at Margot Jane and it's
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: Jai N so m a r g O j ai n.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: That's my middle name. And I recently made a TikTok,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: which I I'm still not sure about, but that's kind
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: of where it's at at the moment and it's the
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: same handle.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, go find her on the socials. I'm
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast. Another
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: Hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.