Have you ever wondered how athletes transition to "real world" careers after their sporting journey ends? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Olivia King, the former University of Victoria swimmer who switched gears to rowing and made it onto the Canadian national team. Olivia shares her candid story of balancing academics and competitive sports during her university years, the shift from swimming to rowing, and the unique challenges she conquered as the youngest member of the national team.
Olivia's tale of determination and resilience is nothing short of awe-inspiring. She didn't make the national team in 2016, but instead of letting this setback break her, she used it as fuel. In 2017, she proved her mettle and earned her place back on the team. Olivia helps us understand that setbacks aren't failures, but essential stepping stones in our journey. She exemplifies that resilience is not just about returning to the battlefield, but also about learning, growing and moving forward with even more vigor.
But Olivia's story doesn't end at the finishing line. Post her sports career, she took on a new challenge - the corporate world. From working at the local YMCA to joining the police force, Olivia explored myriad opportunities before finding her niche in business. She applies the same discipline and perseverance she learned as an athlete to her corporate career and encourages us all to view transitions as opportunities for growth and discovery. Listen in, as Olivia's journey is sure to resonate with every athlete, every professional, and anyone who loves a tale of resilience and personal growth.
Are you looking for Career Clarity for your next step, for more information, or to book a consultancy, make sure you check out www.2ndwind.io
Have you ever wondered how athletes transition to "real world" careers after their sporting journey ends? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Olivia King, the former University of Victoria swimmer who switched gears to rowing and made it onto the Canadian national team. Olivia shares her candid story of balancing academics and competitive sports during her university years, the shift from swimming to rowing, and the unique challenges she conquered as the youngest member of the national team.
Olivia's tale of determination and resilience is nothing short of awe-inspiring. She didn't make the national team in 2016, but instead of letting this setback break her, she used it as fuel. In 2017, she proved her mettle and earned her place back on the team. Olivia helps us understand that setbacks aren't failures, but essential stepping stones in our journey. She exemplifies that resilience is not just about returning to the battlefield, but also about learning, growing and moving forward with even more vigor.
But Olivia's story doesn't end at the finishing line. Post her sports career, she took on a new challenge - the corporate world. From working at the local YMCA to joining the police force, Olivia explored myriad opportunities before finding her niche in business. She applies the same discipline and perseverance she learned as an athlete to her corporate career and encourages us all to view transitions as opportunities for growth and discovery. Listen in, as Olivia's journey is sure to resonate with every athlete, every professional, and anyone who loves a tale of resilience and personal growth.
Are you looking for Career Clarity for your next step, for more information, or to book a consultancy, make sure you check out www.2ndwind.io
I'm wearing the University of Victoria Vikes swimming jacket and backpack and that's a badge on me that I have to live up to and represent. So it was interesting being at the University of Victoria. They don't separate athletes and regular students in dorms, so both my neighbors in my dorms were their students. They didn't do any sports or anything. So hearing them their reasons to stay up till midnight or 2 am to study for a test, versus my reasons or me having to put an assignment in early Because I'm going to be away racing all weekend. We were in the same place taking a lot of the same classes. We had very different experiences and even coming down to like your partying time at university, like, obviously mom was way more limited, definitely still did it, but the value and the fun and the hype that I got to when it was time to like let loose a little bit, was so much more valuable to me and I took it so much more meaningfully than, I guess, others, but it was just so fun.
Speaker 2:I loved it. Hi, I'm Ryan God Salvers and welcome to a second win Academy podcast, a show all about career transition through the lens of elite athletes. Each week, I invite a guest to the show who shares their unique sporting story. Please join me to delve into the thoughts and actions of athletes through a series of conversations. Don't worry, there's plenty to learn from those of you that are particularly sporty. Elite athletes are still people after all. Let's be inspired by the stories of others.
Speaker 2:Today's guest is Olivia King. Competing for the University of Victoria in Canada, she became a student athlete, originally in swimming, but by the third year she was scouted to join the talent ID program to be part of the Canadian national team contingent that had eyes on the Rio and Tokyo Olympics. We'll step through her path from there to moving across the world to Australia, and the capabilities she developed along the way that help her thrive in her career. Second win what you're going to recognize in Olivia is a love of learning and a strong sense of individual and community engagement. Now listening as we delve into her story of lifestyle experimentation in the sports she competes in, as well as the jobs and environments she operates in. Olivia, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to our conversation tonight Really to get a bit more about you and the transition one inside sports, so that transition in sports, but then also that shifting countries and moving into well, into recruitment or into that corporate sphere. So it'd be really good to tap into your perspective on the steps you have taken and perhaps shed some light on those who are listening as well. I love it. You're ready just to kick in there and I want more of that. That's awesome. I want to start, then, with, as you growing up, sport for you, just to try and get a bit more of that background as to what sport meant to you as a child growing up and how that was really structured for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question, great way to start. Sport was always a part of my life. I was quite an active child. I definitely have my parents to thank for exposing me to lots of different sports. I grew up in Canada, so everything from ice skating to skiing, to running, to swimming, biking my dad was like real old school fan of rollerblading, so definitely was immersed in all the sports as a kid growing up. My parents are really active but I really I really latched on to swimming as a young child and swimming very much became a bit of an identity to me growing up. So I got tossed in a pool by my dad could float, so they'll pass the initial test when I was really young.
Speaker 1:And then what got through? Swimming lessons and my parents put me forward for like a more competitive swimming program at about age seven and then by the time I was eight, kind of tried out for the competitive swim team, which was an external club like outside of school, and made it. And that's kind of where my big time sport journey started. So I was a swimmer and swimming to me was everything. It was where my best friends were. It was where I could really express myself. It was the only place you'd find me outside of school hours.
Speaker 1:I was at the pool, I lived, eat, slept there sometimes so and I think sport became not just a part of my identity but a big part of, like my family's life as well. My parents were really involved. I mean, someone had to drive me to 5.30 am, practice Monday to Friday before school, pick me up, take me to school, drop me back off. So sport, and specifically swimming, was a big part of my life and even throughout, you know, middle school and high school, I always tried to play all the sports at school as well and, yeah, I'm really grateful. I think the biggest takeaway from sport growing up was just the opportunity it gave me to express myself and be really vulnerable.
Speaker 2:Oh wow. When you say vulnerable from your participation in sport, what do you mean?
Speaker 1:For me. I liked school, but I didn't always love school. I loved my friends at school. I love the social aspect of school, that kind of thing, but swimming when I got to the pool I could really be me and I didn't. Coaches were there to push you and bring out the best in you, whereas I felt like teachers were just there to punish you or scold you or you know, and I didn't really gravitate towards that well, and I just always connected with, like my swimming friends a lot more than I did my school friends.
Speaker 1:I had some amazing school friends growing up, but I think that vulnerability and that full expression of myself got to come out on the pool deck Having really open and honest conversation with coaches. Teachers, I feel like, guide you to where you want to go, but coaches really bring out like that best in you and they show you how to be competitive and they show you you know what it takes to be the best and they set dreams like the Olympics from a very young age, especially in swimming. So I think that vulnerability and that expression just came out from, yeah, being able to be my most authentic self in sport more than any other aspect of my life.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's really interesting to hear that from that. Even just the authenticity that you talk about as a young person finding, you know, sounds like you found a good place, a place where you could be yourself. What did that mean to you academically? How was that tackle?
Speaker 1:My parents. You know they wanted me to be really strong at school as well. Obviously, every parent wants a kid to be more rounded and everything. But I think it made me have to really focus on time management. Yes, I got to go to the pool deck and express myself and deal with my swimming friends, but I did have to do well at school. That was still a non-negotiable for my parents.
Speaker 1:So my parents I don't know how it works, probably a bit differently in Canada, but I was in the public school system up until year five and then, from six to ten, my parents did decide to put me in private school, which definitely asked for a bit more academically, and that was a big juggle for me. I was one of the only kids that missed a bit more school than most kids because of swimming, races and traveling overseas to compete. But it did kind of open my eyes to that time management side of things and it was also probably a way that my parents motivated me. If you want to keep swimming, you have to do really good at school. So I was like oh, yes, ok, must stay up and must study for this test. So I do well. So you know, swimming doesn't get taken away, and so they definitely used it to their advantage to keep me motivated. But yeah, I think that time management aspect and listen like I had really great friends at school too, but I really understood that value of friendships and I think it taught me being able to relate to people on another level, I never really related to my school friends as much as I did my swimming friends, so I think it taught me a lot about relationships as well. And then I Finally won the fight against my parents when I really didn't want to go to private school or be in private school anymore.
Speaker 1:So my year 11 and 12, I went back to public school and I think what that taught me is I ended up going to a really great public school in my neighborhood that I could walk to every day. So it definitely cut down on commute time after training and stuff and it made me take a lot of responsibility for my grades, because at that point in year 11 and grade 12, you're an adult for the most part. So it definitely put that self-discipline into me to be like, okay, I want to keep swimming, I want to get a scholarship to university to swim or I want to swim at university level, but I also have the grades to do that and, oh my gosh, I'm at public school Now, live close to a lot of my school friends, which I never did before. So I also want to see what the real world is like and have a social life. So it brought a lot of juggling acts in, but I'm really grateful for it, because 11, year, 11, year 12, or by far my favorite year, is in high school.
Speaker 2:And it sounds like for those years you had that a perfect mix of friendship groups, of sport and a bit more of a focus. Well, you had a reason to be good at school, because it sounds like you saw college as as that next step for you.
Speaker 1:Definitely. Yeah, that reason, I like that Definitely.
Speaker 2:Yes, we always need one, or else, well, we'd probably just stay on the sport field or in the pool. Yeah, and you just mentioned there that college or getting through to university was something that was important to you. Where did that sort of idea come from? Where was you know what made that sort of part of your journey?
Speaker 1:Yeah, good question. I mean something was obviously my sport, so a bit of background with swimming. You peak quite early in swimming. Something is definitely a younger sport. So people are starting to look at colleges and universities at quite a young age, like 15, 16, you're kind of starting to look where you want to go.
Speaker 1:I did consider writing the SATs and maybe applying to the States, but for me getting out of private school in year 10 was a priority. So I really enjoyed my grade 11 and grade 12 years and I didn't quite put that focus and emphasis on going to an American college. But I'm really lucky that my parents were really open for me to go to university far away. They were of the mindset that hey, this is your shot to go somewhere. Go live somewhere else as far as you can. They weren't parents that say you must stay around here and come home for dinner on Sundays. They were not those parents. So I'm really lucky that I had that support from them and they really let me branch out and look at my options. So I mean, from probably age 16, my parents were already talking with some coaches and I was looking at what the older summers were doing and being trying to be inspired by where they were going. So yeah, setting up college or university tours around Canada was what we did and I ended up going out west, so the west side of Canada I'm from the east Toronto. I did look at Dalhousie University out east, like as far east as you can go, and then I ended up going as far west as you can go to both SFU, University of British Columbia and then the University of Victoria, so all the big trifecta, three kind of at west.
Speaker 1:And yeah, my decision was I don't want to say it was easy, but like I really knew in my gut as soon as I went to the University of Victoria that I could see myself there. It's on the west coast, which is quite close to California. I have a family over there and my aunt and cousins and my grandmother, so that was a pretty easy decision. And then a couple of really good swimming friends. They went to UBC.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it was a really cool process to go through and I'm glad I got to like keep swimming a part of that because I wasn't just choosing where I was going to go live or where I was going to go study, I was also choosing where I was going to swim and that's obviously was a big part of me. So being able to go to campus and see the library and the dorms was really cool. But then being able to go see the facilities, so seeing the pool where they train, it's like oh cool, I can actually see myself there. It wasn't until I saw the pool at all these places where I was like, yeah, that's like that's where I want to go, so and it's way warmer out west than where I'm from, so that was like a really easy decision to. It does snow still, but like not nearly as much. So that was definitely a factor.
Speaker 2:Those sound like perfectly good factors for selecting university over another. I think a lot of it comes down to that. You know. You talk about the feel, the feel that you have. What did you have in mind to achieve from a swimming perspective at college?
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question. I as a kid and I mean kid like that, 11 to, I'd say, 15, I was like, yeah, olympics, I want to be an Olympic swimmer. I write that down and like all my goals and tell my teachers and all that stuff. And I think when I started resenting private school and that kind of stuff in year nine, 10, and then making that decision to go to public school solely based on the fact that you know, I did not feel like I fit in at my private school. That's where I took a little bit of backpedal from swimming but knew I was still talented enough and had it in me to go somewhere to keep swimming in my university years.
Speaker 1:So my goal coming out of grade 12, so it was obviously to get good enough grades to get to have a plethora of options of university in Canada. And I said to myself get to a university where you have a really amazing rookie year, you get faster. So I wanted to not only, you know, just get there and swim. I still wanted to keep improving on my, on my PBs, on my personal best times and that kind of thing. And I did set a goal.
Speaker 1:You know, in my mind it would be really cool to be like a university champion, whether it's on a relay or in an individual event. Let's like go there and let's let's make a name for myself so you know, be have my name on like the swimming wall at university or you know, just be like a like a well-known athlete on campus. That was kind of a goal of mine that I probably actually didn't, up until now, like really share with most people. Like I think my parents were like, oh, she's going to go to uni, she's going to swim, cool. But I was like, no, I want to like do something. So that was always in the back of my head, but I was just I was really excited overall to move away from home. It's definitely one of those kids that just wanted to get out and be independent and, yeah, to continue my swimming journey and whatever aspect, but being on a university like a well-known university team was important to me.
Speaker 2:So tell me what was the experience like.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I to this day and I think I will say it for the rest of my life if you have the opportunity to be a student athlete, do it. It is the most valuable lesson and experience that I think any human can have. Being a student athlete whatever sport, even if you're at like a little college, it doesn't matter. But being a student athlete is rewarding. It teaches you so many lessons that I just don't think I don't want to say regular students, but people that just go to campus as a student. I guess I don't know about a way to say that you get so much more out of it. I've loved, I loved it Everyone that I was around. I mean, maybe I just got really lucky. I had a really awesome year of rookies that all joined and the senior summers were really great, had a really awesome coach. He'd been around forever. He's still around to this day. So I think that continued pride of a university student Great Check Done. I got to get good grades and I'm an adult now and I'm living on the other side of the country through our time change, but I'm representing my school. I'm wearing the University of Victoria Vikes swimming jacket and backpack and that's a badge on me that I have to live up to and represent.
Speaker 1:So it was interesting being at the University of Victoria. They don't separate athletes and regular students in dorms, so both my neighbors in my dorms were their students. They didn't do any sports or anything. So hearing them their reasons to stay up till midnight or 2 am to study for a test, versus my reasons or me having to put an assignment in early because I'm going to be away racing all weekend, we were in the same place, taking a lot of the same classes. We had very different experiences and even coming down to like your partying time at university like obviously mine was way more limited, definitely still did it, but the value and the fun and the hype that I got to when it was time to like let loose a little bit was so much more valuable to me and I took it so much more meaningfully than I guess, others. But it was just so fun I loved it.
Speaker 2:Brilliant and as you reflect on it now, you can see, feel the enthusiasm that you had.
Speaker 1:I love talking about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like everybody. Stop what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Don't do it. Take a sport and go to school.
Speaker 2:That's awesome For you, then. Well, you had a goal right. It wasn't just the experience of university, the college life, that you were looking for. How far did you get from a swimming perspective?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, not that far, because another sport came along, which is probably where my next transition happened. But I swam my first year as a rookie and then I swam my second year. I had every intention to swim. Third year I had no intention of change. I went home. So I went back to the East Coast, back to Toronto, for the summer after second year rather than staying. I was off campus by that point so I was living in a house, so it was quite common People would sometimes go home and swim with their local clubs over the summer break. So I did that, went back to Toronto, had a job in the city and lived at home for those summer months. And then rowing I want to say it found me. It's kind of how I describe it. Yeah, it found me. So coming back out to the University of Victoria for year three looked very different than the first two years. So I swam my first years, loved it.
Speaker 2:So all those intentions of the goals and what you wanted to achieve, how did rowing find you?
Speaker 1:I get asked a lot, or had always been asked a lot oh my God, do you play volleyball, do you play basketball in 6-2? So you get those questions, you know, in the grocery stores, on the streets, constant. And it was really weird that summer I was home, people had asked me. Someone came up to me and asked me if I rode, and I just remember looking at them being like I don't know what you're asking me rowing? And I was like no, no, just like basketball, just like volleyball, no, I don't row. And I went home and Googled it and rowing is in the same week in the Olympics that swimming is. It's in the first week. So I was like, oh okay, rowing, cool. And it was really weird because I had gone home, done a little bit of research, looked at it and I was like yeah, no, that looks horrible, no, I don't do that.
Speaker 1:And then my mom was at work and someone at work at her office knew that I was quite sporty and loved being competitive and her son was at a university where they were trying to recruit more rowers and rowing Canada had just implemented the TID program, so what they were calling the talent identification program, where they were taking athletes from other sports and turning them into putting them on track for the Olympics in another sport. So at that point they were really looking at trying to convert some athletes to being rowers. And then I think they were doing a program with Bob Slut as well, trying to create Olympic Bob Slutters. So she showed my mom, like this flyer and the tryouts were happening at a local university and just outside of Toronto and I went home. I got home from work that evening and my mom showed it to me and she was like, well, should you sign up? And I'm like, well, I don't know. Like should I? She was like yeah, and I'm like, cool, I get to go. Like. It was basically looked at like as like a come compete, are you tough enough? And I was like, yeah, I'm tough enough. Like who do I need to show that I'm tough enough? So we like signed up for it on the porch that night and that weekend my mom drove me out to that university just outside of Toronto and I went through a couple tests, like a VO2 max test on a bike and a throwing test and they measured my wingspan and my height and anyways, I got a call back in like a week saying, hey, we would love to set you up at one of our hubs. We have hubs across the country. We know that you go to the University of Victoria during the school year and we have a hub on the island in Victoria. So we would like you to meet a gentleman by the name of Barney Williams when you come back out to school and we would love to get you started and see if you'll fit for the program. So, like at this point, summer holidays from university, I was still like, yeah, okay, sure, but I'm going back to swim, like coaches thought I was. I was still some training over summer. So it all kind of came together.
Speaker 1:When I arrived back at university in September and I borrowed a bike from a friend after Saturday morning swim practice and I biked not knowing where I was going down the side of the Pat Bay Highway in Victoria to this lake because the rowers trained at Elk Lake in Victoria, where it's nowhere near the university campus. So it was one of the only one of the few sports at UVic where, yeah, athletes had to train like trained off campus. And I arrived at the lake adjacent to it, called this guy named Barney Williams and he was like, yeah, you're in the wrong spot. So I had to get back on the bike, cross the highway. Now I'm at Elk Lake and I just massive boat house and it's like University of Victoria, it's like Teen Canada boat bay. I was like what, where am I? What am I doing? And yeah, this gentleman introduced himself and I thought, okay, I'm just going to have a chat. But no, it was like get in the boat, okay, cool. And he had a single skull sitting on the dock and a rope tied to the very front of it and I sat in it when and he held it. So I was like dog on a leash but a person in the boat.
Speaker 1:And from that moment, yeah, I guess that's basically how it started. But I went through a couple weeks of getting to know, yeah, feeling what it was like in the boat. He also brought me into the gym where I sat on an, an ergue and I learned the basics of the rowing machine and a couple of biking tests just to test like fitness and stuff. And yeah, at that point it was really weird because I was living with four girls off campus who we had all swam together and by this point two of the girls had retired and the other two were still swimming. But they were like, what are you doing? Where are you going on Saturdays after practice? And I'm like, guys, I think I'm going to try out this rowing thing. So, yeah, fast forward about a month.
Speaker 1:They offered me a position with, you know, rowing Canada offered me a position within this TID program and it was very official, like they had to feel as if you had what it takes.
Speaker 1:And then, I'll never forget, I sat with Barney Williams, who he's an Olympian super medalist and quite an amazing human. But he sat with me at the cafe on campus and it was a very methodical, like made out plan, like we are going to take you from where you are now and we're going to get you to the national team and to the Olympics. This is how it's going to work. This is what your program is going to look like. This is what your training schedule is going to look like. This is a two year, four year plan. And I sat there and I was like totally getting pitched right now. But on every piece of paper it had the Maple Leaf and the Olympic rings, every page, even like the last page that basically just had a bunch of phone numbers of people to call it rowing Canada and I was like, wow, this is really fucking motivating. So I, yeah, basically signed my name on the dot line and then told my swim coach I wasn't swimming anymore. So, yeah, by October of third year university, I was a rower.
Speaker 2:That's quite a shift from summer just going, giving something a shot, having the appropriate fitness and everything that that came with it to get you going and that completely changed, well, your university, that changed your outlook and where you were going. It seems like you, you fell in love with the idea of that Maple Leaf and the Olympic rings together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like I'll still say to this day that was probably the best pitch I've ever been pitched in my life. So Kudos to Barney. He did a really good job pitching me and I don't know if he'll want to admit this. Barney is a very important person to me in my life. Now he's. He's definitely my mentor. We still to stay in touch even though I'm over here in Australia. But whether he'd like to admit or not, I think he saw something in me and I took just a little bit of that that I got from him and I was like, yeah, I'm going to prove you right, I want to prove me right and I'm going to be honest right.
Speaker 1:It was probably the first time where I decided quite a big life thing on my own. I mean, I'm sitting there in that cafe, third year university, on the other side of the country, nowhere near my parents, three hour time change. The girls, the four girls I lived with at the university, two of them weren't something anymore, so they were out of the sport world and I was like, no, no, I'm not done. Like I know I'm not done and this is a really cool opportunity and I'm going to take, I'm going to be responsible for doing it. And you know, leaving swimming and I, that switched a lot. I had to take less classes at school and I had to get a part time job to help support myself, and so it was a big change. But I didn't like I remember now, I didn't flinch when I just thought like when I said yes, it was, it was a pretty easy decision in that moment.
Speaker 2:What do you think gave you the confidence to make that decision?
Speaker 1:I think just wanting to prove something. I think flipping Barney, flipping through those pages speaking to me, but my eyes like beaming down looking at the rings and the leaf and and that you know, spiel of the Olympics, and you know we're going to make something, you're going to make it and we're going to make, help you make something out of this journey. It was. It was like a really I just knew like that's a really cool opportunity that you don't turn down. Whether this works out or not, you don't turn something like that down. And I, third year university student, sitting here by myself making this decision, like yeah, I can do this, and whether I fail or it doesn't matter, I'm going to say that I took the shot and I'm going to do it. So it just seemed like something too good to pass up in that moment and I think I hadn't gotten to the level of sport yet that I thought I was capable at through swimming. So I it was like I got a second chance in a way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so what was success supposed to be? What Olympics were you targeting?
Speaker 1:I mean for swimming. I don't think I put enough thought and effort into a realistic goal for, you know, a certain quadrennial there was definitely so for for this program it would have been Rio 2016. And then the year after Rio as well, was ballpark the program. I was pretty much the guinea pig of this TID program, so whether 2016 was realistic or not, that's what they had kind of set. So, and then 2020, that was what was kind of on that piece of paper as targets.
Speaker 2:You know you spoke about what changed having to change classes and reduce the classes, take a job. What was the hardest part that you went through? What was the hardest part about being you during that stage?
Speaker 1:So I learned more about myself when I was a rower than I think I had up until that point in life. I know that's a bit vague, but that sport and the way I was introduced to it through the program and the environment in which I was training in there was there's just nothing I'd ever been through before and, like I had some dark days but I wasn't a part of this big team. I didn't have a massive support network. You know there was a few of us like washed up athletes or, you know, athletes wanting to transition and signing up for this, that we were all kind of you had a lot of responsibility, like you were there on your own. You know kind of as individuals. So I was, we were in a single skull.
Speaker 1:So from that October where I really started that was 2012, up until the start of my success in rowing, 2014, those two years where I literally learned how to row and learn how to not flip the boat, to start like learn how to sit in a single skull and not flip up until those, like those first two years, it was just a lot of self growth and taking full responsibility and full credit for what you're doing and showing up for yourself. I mean, I didn't go home to a home cooked meal overnight from my parents. I still had to, you know, go home and I didn't have a car over there either. So I cycled everywhere. So I, you know, would wake up, get on the bike at five, 15, cycle down the pitch blackness of the side of the highway, get there to then, do you know, a 20 K row cycle to recovery cycle to weight training, and then cycle to the grocery store to get dinner at night. So it was a lot of like self reflection.
Speaker 1:I said why am I doing this? Why? Why am I putting a garbage bag over my bag right now and over my jacket while I cycle in the pouring rain, to then go sit and row in the pouring rain? Like there has to be a reason why I'm doing this. There's no one else pushing me to do this. So I really, I think, grew and my mom called me one day, and it was about a year and a half in and I was gearing up. The goal at that point was to was to race and perform really well at nationals in the single skull and she goes you're just a different person. Like you're, you've changed, and I really took that to heart like in a good way. So I think growing yeah, I'm really happy with those, especially those first two years of what I learned about myself as a rower and as a person.
Speaker 2:You asked yourself the question why are you doing it? How did you answer that?
Speaker 1:To prove something. I just to do it, to prove to everyone that I had Told about this journey, that I was embarking on that, that I could do it and prove to myself I think also the relationship that I had with Barney was he wasn't a coach that coddled you or, you know, gave you a good job when you know really wasn't a good job.
Speaker 1:It was yeah, that was not good and you sit there and you're like, yeah, you're right, wasn't? What are we gonna do about it? How are you gonna fix it? It's like, yeah, right. So I think those self reflections on I don't want to say failure, but self reflection on you know, when things don't go to plan or they don't work, or you know You're asked to hold a split on the rowing machine and you totally don't you blow up those moments where you have to self reflect on why it didn't work or what's not going right and what can you change.
Speaker 1:We're really eye-opening and One of the early in the early stages. One of the things we really got drilled into us which I still do is like learning to Ask yourself what are the what ifs? So, like, come on race day, what ifs? What if this breaks? What if this doesn't go to plan? What if this happens? What are you gonna do? So, having a backup plan and knowing you know you can only control what you can control and I hope I answer Is that question- that's really that's a hard question to like nail down.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you're your response, your responses, insightful. Your response talks about the planning. It talks about reflection. It talks about taking criticism, and one of the things I often Find with athletes those who have been at high performance is that ability to Reflect, take criticism and adapt, to experiment, to think, oh yeah, why didn't it work? Well, I wanted it to work. That was the plan. Okay, which is?
Speaker 1:being more aware and being really self-aware. I mean, we I was introduced to I would I'd never Journaled in my life until I got, you know, started rowing and we were journaling our training programs. We were journaling, you know, we sat down with nutritionists and journaling what we were eating and it was like, okay, well, you probably, you know that 20k row probably didn't go well on Thursday because Wednesday you were in a thousand calories short. I'm like, oh, didn't even think of that. So you become a lot more open and honest with yourself and you know you're responsible. You're responsible for your performance at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:You know, bar, you can't get in the boat and row it faster for me. My strength coach Can't give me 10 extra kilos of muscle to move any faster. I have to do it. And I think once you realize, when you're going through especially that transition I mean the transition, sport, or just that transition to want to take yourself to the next level in sport or in any part in life like what are the changes that you're gonna make, and hold yourself accountable to, and and by Realizing what those changes are and doing them once or twice and seeing the benefits from them, and then realizing Okay, I just have to keep continuing these and being aware of these, you know adjustments that I'm making, it's gonna work out. That's really eye-opening and really helpful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what I hear from you there is it's fine, been given a plan, a game plan, but it's up to you to go ahead and deliver it. Or you have a. You have an important part in playing, an important part to play in delivering that plan and making it happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, yeah, I mean it's. It's even I. I wrote a single and Probably some of my best races were in the single skull. But even speaking, you know, to which I feel like more, maybe, maybe more corporates can relate to, is that team aspect. So, rowing in an eight, where there's eight of you and a coxswain Like you, you are responsible for your seat. No one can row your seat except you, and your boats only gonna be as fast as the weakest person in that boat. So you are solely responsible for the job of that seat. Every seat has a job and every seat is contributing to that speed and the outcome of that boat. So that responsibility and that self-discipline, even when you're in a team, having that and finding out what motivates you you know I Can laugh about it now and Barney and I joke about it all the time like our banter was ruthless back then.
Speaker 1:It was well, that sucked. And it was like well, I'm tired, well, what are you gonna do about it? And there was no like oh, okay, we'll talk to the strength coach and maybe you'll do a little less. It was okay when we move on. And you're like okay, we're moving on, like there's no stopping. So I think, yeah, you, you don't, don't take a step. Don't expect to take a bunch of steps back to move forward. Just Analyze what you're doing in the moment, when what's working, what's not working.
Speaker 2:But so you had a plan. It had make leaves, it had Olympic rings on it. Talk to me, where did you get to?
Speaker 1:Where did I get to? So, yeah, my rowing career peaked 20. So you, with the program, you had to get to basically prove yourself. So we definitely mapped out a two-year plan. From when I started I unfortunately, 2013, had a pretty bad back injury with rowing in my disc L5 S1, so I had almost seven months off. But luckily I had something as a background sport and I could really lean into that to keep my fitness up. So my sets were, my sights were set on. You know I had to really make a name for myself Across the country. So 2014, I became the under 23 Canadian national champion in the single skull. With that victory that really kind of punched my ticket to the national team. So eyes and heads were turning Me, but also at the program. You know the program worked for the most part and I then that was November 2014. So, yeah said the first day of February In 2015, I moved to London, ontario, back back to the east, to join the national team and then I was there for a year and a half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:It was really intimidating and scary and just all the feels, and that was like such a big part of the goal and the plan with this program. And my personal goal was was to make the woman's Canadian national team and when it happened it was very surreal but it was like, okay, this is where the real journey and the job actually starts. So I was really proud that, you know, within two years I learned a brand new sport. And then, you know, I got to the national team and it was. It was hard to walk into, not gonna lie, like I was the youngest on the team by a few years. There was some really epic women already there that have been to the London Olympics, that were still, you know, gearing up for for a shot at Rio, and so there was a lot of movement. There's a lot of depth in the program at that point. So I was just like way over my head, I felt at the beginning the girls had, you know, tips and tricks for their blisters and these things I didn't even know about yet and it was my first time really rowing With, like on a team. For the most part I was, yeah, like You're in boats, so if you don't necessarily just train your one boat every day. You're in fours, you're in eights, you're in doubles, you're in pairs. So I had a lot of that experience. I was basically in the single for the first years of my rowing career. So, yeah, it was really interesting to see and be a part of the team when selections happen for Rio that summer, 2015. That summer was Commonwealth Games and it was hosted in Canada, in St Catherine's, which was near the training center. So, with that level of competition being so close to home and seeing the girls that got to go there that I had just trained in the four with a week before, and that kind of thing was really inspiring. So I didn't get selected for that.
Speaker 1:But I knew, you know, clocks keeps ticking and I then actually went back, decided to go back to university because after Rio, you know, I realized, okay, I still need a job. At one point in my life I was down. I was definitely feeling the pressure for my parents to, you know, finish that degree and get it done. So I moved back to Victoria in 2016 and I kind of switched mindsets there. So I guess it was a little bit of a turning point for me to be able to get to the top of my career. So I definitely feel the pressure for my parents to, you know, finish that degree and get it done. So I moved back to Victoria in 2016 and I kind of switched mindsets there. So I guess it was a little bit of a transition.
Speaker 1:Another one where I said, hey, I don't want to stop rowing, I don't want to finish my degree and I want to get back on the national team on my terms. So rowing Canada, let go of the head coach of Canadian national team. After Rio, and I knew there was going to be some shifting a lot of girls stepped away from the sport that were, you know, had been there for a while. So I knew in my head I was like that's going to be a really good time to try and take that last stab and get my degree out of the way. So that's out of my head, so I'm not trying to juggle it.
Speaker 1:So I went back to university January 2016 and the rowing coach at that time, rick, called me up. I didn't even I don't know how he to this day actually got my phone number, but he called me and was like I hear you back on the island. I was like, yeah, who, sorry, who's this? He goes, you know, come row for you, vic. I was like, oh, I didn't even think of that. Oh, okay, sure.
Speaker 1:So within like my first week back, I was, you know, rowing back as a student athlete, which I was so happy to be, and that time as a student athlete was equally as awesome. I got to now row for my university. I was student council president, so I was, you know, speaking with other varsity athletes and that. That point I think I was a bit more mature to understand you know what we're all going through and and take those like extra curricular things that I really wanted to do and be really more of a team leader on my, you know I was. I was a rookie as a summer and now I got to be one of the senior athletes as a rower and I had equally just been introduced to the sport, you know, three years ago.
Speaker 1:So girls that we were recruiting on welcome day that had never rode, I could relate to them. I could be like, hey, no, just give it a shot like you'll like it, and team environment and student athlete, and you know that kind of thing. So I really got to relate to a lot of different girls on the team and athletes and stuff, and yeah, so I went back to UVic, continued my studies road for the University of Victoria and then I wanted to get back on the national team. So me and a pair of partner, I met her through the university, through the rowing program at UVic. We were both kind of like older ones on the team. We trained our butts off in the woman's pair and showed up at the or you're testing me here showed up with the 2017 National Championships and one bronze in the women's pair and that got us invited back to the national for me, back to the national team and on a really big training camp, heading into like World Championships and World Cups, and that was in the US.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that was the next goal. I mean, it was a lot. I was juggling One point. I was juggling you like, the University of Victoria, rowing as a student athlete, my classes, varsity Council President and going to practices and training sessions with the national team, the coach at that point you know he didn't ask us to step away from the University of Victoria, but it was, you know, train one day with UVic, train one morning with the national team. So there's a lot of yes, sleeping in cars, in the parking lot, in between practices and doing all the things to stay alive and awake and energize, but I don't. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Speaker 2:No, it sounds like quite the journey for you and you know you spoke there not making the team of being left out of the program, kicked out of the program depends how you want to put that spin on it. But you were no longer in that national program, that talent ID piece. Talk to me about. How did that feel for you?
Speaker 1:You mean like leaving the national team or going to the national team?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the first time of leaving that national team seeing the Girls who you just trained with, you know, compete. The car games set themselves up then for the ongoing Olympics. How did you feel coming away from that program, and not on your terms?
Speaker 1:for me. At that point I was actually okay with it because I still knew, I kept reminding myself you've come so far in so few years. And I always reminded myself that these women on the team that I was comparing myself to, they have done this sport forever, of. A lot of them had Road, four years of university, college in the States, wherever you know. And I yeah, I guess I Wasn't as gutted as I Guess you think someone would be in this situation.
Speaker 1:I just knew that I had a lot more to give and I wasn't done. I didn't ever think like, okay, rowing's over, it was okay, I didn't make this team. And but I still felt, I don't know, I mean a weird way, I still had a big sense of pride because these girls that we're making the team I had sat in a boat with. So I'm like, well, I mean, okay, I'm not good enough yet, but I'm gonna see them on TV racing at this, you know, at this incredible event and at the world stage. And I'm gonna say, yeah, I've been in a boat with her, I've sat in a boat with her and gone for tacos after practice with her, and that was still enough to motivate me to be like you're stepping away for now. Schools now work, schools now the priority. Let's get back to university Finisher degree so you can totally focus on rowing, and I think that was a big motivating factor for me to not feel like gutted about it was you have?
Speaker 1:you have time times on your side, like it's so vouch that. I was the youngest on the team, so that felt really good and I just knew I wasn't done. So I didn't feel like leaving the team and going back to you, vic. At that point I was like, oh, I won't grow. It was no, I will, but it's gonna be on my terms. Now I'm, and I'm gonna be able to solely focus on it when I get my degree done so it's.
Speaker 2:You know, we talk a lot about resilience in athletes. In fact, you know, in many people say resilience it's a key skill. And as I break down resilience, and I look at that, that energy or that passion, to that energy and passion to achieve a goal over a long term, over the long term, you've just described that. So you've just described what someone said Wow, that's just grit, that's resilience there, whereby that's a massive setback. You know, that's not a. Oh yeah, I hurt my hand so I couldn't compete, but it's okay, I'm. I'm still in the team. That this is a. I Didn't make the games. I'm no longer in the team. I need to go do something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely resilience, but it was a choice. I could have easily, that summer, have stayed in Ontario on the East Coast and, and you know, put my boat, my skull back up on the trailer and woke up the next morning and gone to the training center and, and you know, done the next day work out on my own while girls were packing up to Travel and race. I could have done that, I could have chosen to do that, but I think what you were describing, that resilience, came from wanting to Achieve as much as possible and not close any windows and know that the fire in me to keep rowing isn't gone. It's just the next step is gonna have a bit of a pause and I got to go back and finish something else first to keep going. So I yeah, resilience.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good way to look at it. Resilience doesn't have to be A way to describe always constantly moving forward. I think resilience can definitely be described in having to take a few steps back in order to move forward or, you know, focusing on something else in order to have the bigger picture work out, and just keeping that high performance mindset in Different aspects in life, not just sport. So Resilience, for sure, but in a maybe a different, different kind of way.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's resilience in a way that I didn't even realize. I was being resilient because I wasn't finished yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wasn't, I can, I can. Yeah. And the resilience to not like sit in your stulk. I mean, what was that? What was gonna? That's not gonna help. I'm gonna sit there and be like, oh, I didn't get to make it, well, it's, hang on. I'm in this position right now Not making the team because I got myself on the team, so let's like start there. I still have a lot of odds against me, but I still want to continue it. Let's just bring this resilience back to the basics. You know, be resilient and getting my school done, getting some other things dealt with and then coming back to it. So, yeah, a backwards resilience.
Speaker 2:You were still moving forward. You got back onto the team. You made nationals again. You know, previously you did it by, you know, single. This time you found a partner you. So, you, you shifted your strategy, you, you changed that in order to get back, to get back to that level with you know, which in itself is, you know, amazing, amazing to do that, and you know, see it as hey, it's not resilient. I was just doing what I needed to do. You, we're going to chat forever and we haven't even got onto your life.
Speaker 1:Second, third win yeah, I've got my third win. How many wins do you get?
Speaker 2:That's right. You know, we get a lot nowadays, I think, but we don't always realize it. I suppose we should close the chapter. We should close out the chapter in terms of the sport. You got back in 2017, I think we got to in terms of you being back in the national team. That probably meant what is that? Birmingham? A little bit Birminghamcom games, maybe, and sort of a distant Tokyo in your mind. Yeah, that was it. Everything else mattered Tokyo. So where did you get to?
Speaker 1:I got to I mean at that point back on the team, I was in the mix to you know, try different boats, pairs sitting in the women's eight and training that was a big goal of mine. I think that that aspect of trying new things to get back on the team was not only just finding a pair of partner, but it was also sweeping, as opposed to sculling. I had never done that before, so I had to learn that from scratch as well. So I got to the point where my pair, partner and I, were selected to go to Sacramento with the national team leading up to World Cup that summer for what was basically going to be a training camp and then finish off with seat racing for selection.
Speaker 1:And that was a very hard two weeks in Sacramento, california. But again, nonetheless it was. It was eye opening. It showed me that I still have a lot more work left to do, but at that point I had really loved racing for my university and I was lucky enough to kind of fall back in love with the sport. And it was weird because you go through that stage where, like at university, you do it because you love it, but on the national team you're doing it because it's quite frankly your job and trying to get carding again and being paid to do it is a whole of the bag of beans and also very hard and there's a lot of rules and stuff around that. So my pair partner got pretty injured over those two weeks. So then I mid training camp switched to sculling with somebody else in a boat and I was in the double and her and I raced seat selection I was really proud of how we did.
Speaker 1:We were the only woman like we were the heavyweight women's double to race at the end of that camp. In my mind, I thought we performed very well, considering that I had started that camp sleeping and then, all of a sudden, was had two blades in my hand and was stroking this double, and it was just at the end of August 2018 selections. They didn't. They weren't going to send the woman's double. They decided to that summer of competing internationally and I wrapped up unknowingly in the moment, but I wrapped up my career. Then I went for a row one morning where I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't plan for it. It was like a feeling in a moment and I walked away from the sport. So my, I guess my, my leave from rowing was a bit anti climactic. But I, we, those of us that were left at the training center, you know, were given rows and workouts to do and I had a sold that morning was a was a solo row, so I wasn't in a boat with the like the girl that I was rowing in the double with. I had to take the single out and do a 20k row and that was on the program and I did and it was. I can.
Speaker 1:I can actually remember exactly what was on the lake where I, like put my blades down to have a sip of water and I was like I think I'm done. I just I don't want to be here right now. I don't love my environment, my training environment. I'm not getting on with other aspects of my life that I thought I could keep going while doing this, and I wasn't doing it for the love of like rowing and racing and competing anymore. My fire had definitely been just burnt out and diminished from a lot of aspects. I mean, talk to any elite athlete there's always politics involved. There's, you know, coaching matters. There's. There's lots, you know, takes an army for national programs to happen, but it also takes a lot of, yeah, personalities as well. So I just I really fell out of love with what, like I guess, the main reason why I was doing it. So I guess my unknown to answer your question my unknowingly stepping away was I brought my boat in. I, as you usually do, put my boat up on the rack, wash it down, put my blades up and I walked out and I didn't in that moment say I'm not coming back. But I didn't go back. So I wrote a letter to like head coach and all that's who I thought needed to know, a double partner, my pair partner, and that was. That was it.
Speaker 1:It was a very, probably the strangest week of my life still, where you just feel like disconnected from everyone and from yourself and you literally don't know what to do. When you I didn't even know if I should set an alarm the next morning on my phone. I didn't know what to do. But it was a week of a lot of conversations, calling some really important people in my life to ask their opinion, to express how I was feeling and ask them if I thought I was making the right decision. And it was kind of a week where I got to learn about myself from other people, and it's something I encourage people to do, because you never take the time to.
Speaker 1:You know, have you ever asked your best friend or have you ever asked, like your aunt or your uncle or someone really important your life, hey, what do you think of me? Or how do you think I handle situations? Or, you know, what do you see for me in your, in your future? What do you see for me? And because you're always like trying to ask yourself but sometimes it's really good to get other people's opinions and I, yeah, I just got some really honest answers from family and friends and obviously I called Barney and, um, yeah, kind of weighing out my pros and cons to keep going or not, and I stuck to finishing up. Then, oh, yeah, lots.
Speaker 1:I definitely had some family members tell me that they you know we're concerned I didn't really seem exceptionally happy anymore. I did have some family members that were, you know, no, stick it out. You know you've got the Olympics, you just graduated, so now you can really focus on everything. And um, yeah, I think, some other close people in my life really, really shone a light on. Well, what do you, what do you want out of this? Okay, let's say you make it. Then what? What are you going to do after that? I was, like I have not even thought about, like, what I'm going to have for breakfast tomorrow morning. I don't know what I'm going to do after rowing. Like that is such a I haven't taken time to think about that.
Speaker 1:Um, and I did call like a couple of the staff as well. So, um, some of like the team Canada staff, like not the coaches, but, um, trainers and and nutritionists and Dave. They've obviously all worked with athletes for years and you know Olympian, successful ones, unsuccessful, and a lot of them was, you know, you have to just realize the reality of. You know what you're willing to give up or I don't know, I either weren't give up or sacrifice but choose to not have for, you know, a couple more years to come.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, some of the conversations were really hard to hear. Some of the conversations were really supportive and some, but mostly it was just all that honesty that I think I needed. And and then being able to be honest with myself and I wasn't happy, um, deep down. I knew I wasn't done, but you know you can't show up in an environment every day where you don't feel like you're being heard or you don't enjoy it and you can't. I think you can only push yourself internally so much where you really do sometimes need those external factors to really cross over the line. Um, and that I, I just didn't have that Um, so yeah.
Speaker 2:So how did you go from not knowing if you should set an alarm, not knowing what you should have for breakfast the next day? Who get in a plan together? How did you gain clarity as to what's next?
Speaker 1:The unemployment ex athlete plan. It's a grim plan Like I don't envy anyone that has to start this plan, but it is a clean slate. Um, I took a couple of days of just complete space cadet. I didn't set an alarm for the first time ever in my life, um, I just took some time to for me, I, honestly I was, I was like so lost phone calls, conversations with friends, um, and in that moment, you know I, you know reality obviously sets in. Okay, I need to make some money, gotta have an income coming in. Um, I need to get up and do something. I'm not someone that can sit still, um, yeah, and just filling my time with connecting with people that I hadn't connected with. Any. Any elite athlete will tell you you miss all the important events in life. You miss weddings, you miss birthdays, you miss reunions, you miss everything. So I definitely had an unlimited amount of people to connect with that I hadn't connected with a long time and have really great conversations with.
Speaker 1:And my plan at that point was okay, get a job and get some income coming in so you can, you know, do some activities that you usually couldn't do, you know, when you were training. Um, and then just get excited about something again. My goal at that point was let's get excited. What can I get excited about? Money coming into my bank account, cool, learning a new sport, cool, setting an alarm at like four am and getting up in the dark, but not rowing and running, maybe what's what's running? Let's try running. So I decided to go running and then swim at a different pool every week because I could always go back to that sport that I loved. And, yeah, I just started filling my days with like really interesting, weird tasks, but I ended up getting there somehow and yeah, then I guess you could say, my, that was my transition into real world or the non athletic world. Um, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:From there. How did you get to where you are today?
Speaker 1:I. That's a good question. That's a loaded question. Short and simple. I just took a lot of risks. I just done me. As lame as that might sound, I really just put myself first.
Speaker 1:In the last four years I'll be honest I didn't stray too far away from sports. Right at the beginning I ended up getting a job. I was already working at our local line like the local YMCA, really thankful for that community. I worked at the YMCA when I originally left the national team the first time a couple days a week and then they graciously let me work there every Sunday Just to kind of stay in the community. So picked up more hours at the local YMCA.
Speaker 1:But then I worked for Lou Lemon, which is big athletic Clothing brand. It's Canadian owned and at that point there was actually only one little lemon on the island so you can imagine every athlete would go there to do their shopping and it was a really special place. It was a really cool community of people that worked at this Lou Lemon. There were ex-olympians, current Olympians, retired athletes, university level, high school level. So I said I fit right in, applied for like your typical retail floor job at Lou Lemon, got it and that's where I, I guess, started my transition and it was really cool because it was I People know I rode, I was still like Olivia the rower, but I also got to talk about what, what a and ask questions about what people were doing, like what are you gonna do or what are you doing, or what was your, what was your, what's your story and basically what you and I are doing now, ryan, interviewing my co-workers and my new colleagues and my new friends on their journeys and being like, oh, I never thought you could do that or oh, that's really cool and yeah, I'm really grateful.
Speaker 1:Lou Lemon really encompasses like leadership and goal setting and Self-reflection and you know all that stuff. I did yoga for the first time and never done you. It was something I said in my interview at Lou Lemon. You know, have you ever done yoga? My answer was no, never, and I was like, oh shit, I just lose the job cuz I said I Never did.
Speaker 1:You got a very high and yeah, I was like, oh, that was probably not a good response. But they're like, no, we love your honesty. I was like, great, help me, touch my toes. So yeah, it was really cool just to talk to people. So my journey then fast forward.
Speaker 1:Right before I got to Australia I thought I was, I thought I wanted to become a cop. So I ended up picking up a lot more shifts at the YMCA because there was a couple really cool programs. The local halfway home had a lot of their Individuals come and integrate back into society through their local YMCA. There was a young mums program and that also got me a couple jobs at like the local soup kitchens and stuff. So I got to work a bit more in the community. I stayed at Lou Lemon as well, working in that community pillar and stuff.
Speaker 1:And then I applied for the to the police force. So apply to the police force in Victoria. It was quite a length. It's a lengthy process. It takes, like you can take a over a year, usually 12, 15 months. I was moving through it quite quickly polygraphs, physical tests, written tests and and at one point I I had some you know, relationship status changing in my life and I was really just on my own and being myself, which was really cool. And I decided I've.
Speaker 1:I've traveled a lot with sport, I've traveled a lot with family, but I haven't really traveled like just for me. And so I I did look into, you know, some transfer programs. So with Lou Lemon you you can transfer stores kind of anywhere in the world For a short period of time, as long as it's within the same. You know a certain realm and so I, yeah, through Lou Lemon community news and people, and I got to know them personally in Australia. But I knew they were here and I applied for that, didn't really think much of it, I was quite focused on my police force application and, lo and behold, I walked out of the gym one day after a training session and I had two emails in my inbox. It was congratulations, you've been accepted as a police force and Congratulations, your visa to Australia has been approved and you can work at Lou Lemon.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh my gosh, what do I do? So I decided that the police force will always be there. But how did I decide it? I flipped a coin. Yeah, I didn't flip a coin. Um, no, I did not flip a coin. I am in a weird way it wasn't a hard decision.
Speaker 1:I, the police force, will always be there, like that's not going anywhere. I Lived in Victoria now for 10 years. I have, you know friends at our family there and a community that I love really deeply and I knew I can always go back to. So I thought, yeah, I'll go to Australia for six months to a year work at a company that I love. I already have a really great you know relationship and I love the brand and I love what I do at Lou Lemon, so I'll go do that and I can go do it on my terms. So it was. It was my first kind of solo trip to go live abroad For Olivia, by Olivia, paid for by Olivia. I was like yes and yeah. Then that transition happened and my, my plan of six months in Australia has turned into four years and this is where I'm currently sitting in my office four years later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's quite the journey again some big decisions and good pivot moments there for your pivotal moment, for you there. I love the fact you got the emails. Poetically, it was just like wild, wild, yeah. And so today you're you're not at Lulu lemon. So from police to Lulu lemon, yeah, there's a massive leap here somewhere. Yeah, what happens there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, my crew wins again a really cool story, a transition that I actually think was quite natural. So, but again, not something I'd even considered. I didn't know where crew was a job it's not a, it's not a large occupation back in Canada so I knew I could work here in Australia. You know, on a working holiday visa for my first year with the lemon, I did know from the from the beginning lemon does doesn't offer sponsorship, so that wasn't gonna be an option. Plot twist as well, I landed here in the country and three weeks later COVID hit. So I also had to transition into like the world of COVID on my own and I was really lucky that I Got to keep, yeah, my job throughout that time. So I was here doing that.
Speaker 1:But, um, I, for a brief time after my first year, worked for like an NDIS company here in Australia Really awesome startup that's now freaking taking over the country, which is really cool, and it was more like community lead there, kind of doing what I love talking to people, you know. But it was very much in a startup period. But I was having a conversation with a bunch of athletes For the basis of this NDIS program. What ability was using athletes as support workers, which is really cool. It's an awesome story. And what ability was, yeah, taking athletes from around Australia and making them Into support workers to really showcase. You know, sport does have the power to change the world and we can help people living with a disability that way. So it was so up my alley in terms of you know the wise and the reasoning, but, um, I Got on.
Speaker 1:I hopped on a call with someone who I thought was gonna help me reach out to a wider community of athletes and it was a gentleman named Shannon, from athlete to business, and At one point during the conversation I realized that the conversation was like asking me questions and I was like hold on, I feel like I'm in a job interview right now and I thought, like the whole athlete to business thing, I was gonna be able to like meet more athletes and and then bring them on to what ability. But the grand scheme of things, shannon was kind of like showcasing me what, what other opportunities there were, and we talked about sales and then we talked about recruitment and I really didn't know what recruitment was and, yeah, my time at what ability I think was had a great purpose. But I knew I wanted more and I think I wanted to explore that corporate like very corporate life and try and make it big here. So, um, yeah, I got into recruitment.
Speaker 1:My current director, ryan way, here at pathway search used athlete to business to source you know, a new employee and his brief was to find someone that was willing to jump out of a plane and do cool shit. So I not knowingly answered yes, jumping out of a plane, but also answered yes, doing cool shit. So, yeah, that's how I got started in recruitment. So it's been it's almost a year and a half now and I think the the transition in recruitment has been, yeah, not easy, nothing's easy. I've you know it's having mastery yet, but it's just, it's worked, it's clicked. There's a lot of crossover, I think, and, yeah, I really like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny because, as you were talking about your second stint as a student athlete, you focused on recruiting new people and helping them. Yeah, why Ryan was a good thing. And so here you are now. It's like the word that you've used through each of these transitions is natural. It was natural. There's there's a cool story that these things just came together and it was easy to make that decision for you, and that seems to have continued to to where you are today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's actually a really cool reflection piece. I mean, I Think when I use easy, I think I what I mean by that too, is I understand mice, I know my strengths. So I Think, as encouraging as I want to be to tell anybody to step out of their comfort zone and always try something new, it's always really good to capitalize on your strengths and know what you like and know what you're good at. Use those to your advantage before you, you know, step out of your comfort zone and do something that scares you, and that will always come. Those opportunities are always there, but I don't think people often enough step into something really confidently. You know, I think you always go to like motivational speaker series and that kind of stuff, people telling you do something, everybody that scares you and and just say, you know, screw it and jump in headfirst and that's great, like totally do it.
Speaker 1:But I don't think there's enough Emphasis around. Hey, do you know what you're good at? Or, like you know, in those conversations I had after rowing and you know, people telling me, oh, this is what, this is where we see you the happiest, olivia, or this is where you were really shining. We don't see that shine anymore coming out of you. If you can recognize those on yourself and then and then capitalize on those Like you're so much more unstoppable and then you have the confidence to step out of your comfort zone or take those skills and transfer them over to something else.
Speaker 1:And you know, with recruitment there's still some things I'm really not good at and don't like doing. You know, cold calls and BD, like it's still doing. Or I'm in tech, so Obviously I didn't study tech or engineering or anything, so learning about those things is still new and that's stuffing out of my comfort zone. But I really capitalize on the fact that I can have a conversation with anybody. You know, put me in front of someone and I'll find something to talk about with and I am not afraid of of having, yeah, unknown conversations.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Olivia, that that's absolutely, really. Really enjoyed listening to you just sort of summarize that that little piece as far as I've got. Another last question for me to ask you really is when you think about an athlete who is Coming to the end of their career, knowingly or unknowingly, perhaps knowingly coming towards the end of their career, what sort of what sort of guidance would you give to them?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question Whether you're coming out of your career knowingly, unknowingly, successful, unsuccessful. I think my first, my first piece of advice or guidance would be Know that this is the journey is not over. Just know that your next journey is about to begin. And what you've learned in sport Whatever sport it was, however, for however long it was, you can take something from that and put it into what you're gonna do next it, whether it's corporate world, whether it's Anything, it could be absolutely anything.
Speaker 1:I think I would tell athletes to to really take the time as well to learn about themselves outside of sport, because you, you grow as an athlete in this athlete world, but you, you're not growing, you know, amongst the real world, so you don't know your skills yet in that area and you don't know how you can transfer what you have learned in the athlete world Into the real world. So my other piece of advice would be get to know yourself outside of your sport before you make Any really big choices and really take that time, yeah, to know yourself and ask, ask all the questions, ask other people what journey they've been on, how they've transitioned, or you know. Just, yeah, talk to other people and find that stuff out, because your next journey can be just as successful, even more successful or as exciting as your, your athletic journey. So yeah, I don't know would be but the compilation of all my advice.
Speaker 2:It's a good compilation. It's a good album to buy Now. Olivia, thank you so much for taking the time out this evening and Sharing your story and bringing your perspective to you. Know what is everything to do with athlete transition and helping people find their second-win deadline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to the second-win podcast. We hope you enjoyed hearing insights from today's athlete on transitioning out of competitive careers. If you're looking for career clarity for your next step, make sure you check out second wind. I owe for more information or to book a consultation with me. I'd like to thank Claire from Betty book design, nancy from savvy podcast solutions and Saris from copying content by Lola for their help in Putting this podcast together. That's all from me. Take it easy until next time.