Voices for Voices®

From Olympic Ice To Inner Healing: Nicole Bobek On Pressure, Addiction & Owning Your Story | Ep. 353

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 353

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From Olympic Ice To Inner Healing: Nicole Bobek On Pressure, Addiction & Owning Your Story | Ep. 353

A tiny blade, a roaring arena, and four minutes that can rewrite a year—Nicole Bobek knows what it means to balance grace and grit on the thinnest edge. We sit down with the former U.S. champion and Olympian to explore the real story behind the spotlight: the sacrifices that fuel elite performance, the psychological pressure no camera can capture, and the complicated work of rebuilding a life once the music stops.

Nicole takes us inside the craft of figure skating—short versus long programs, required elements, and the relentless repetition that creates true muscle memory. Then she pulls back the curtain on the inner battles: emotion versus execution, identity splits between “the skater” and “the person,” and the moments perfection culture leaves you gasping for air. We talk addiction and recovery, the decision to leave an abusive relationship, and the long, vulnerable road of IVF that led to her son. Through it all, she leans on a simple anchor—anxiety is the future, depression is the past, live in the now—and the practical support of alignment coaching to revisit hard chapters without drowning in them.

Her new book, Bobek: The Wild One, ties those threads together. It’s more than a sports memoir; it’s a mirror for anyone who has chased excellence, lost themselves, and fought to return. Nicole shares why she wrote it now, how motherhood reshaped her perspective, and why getting the smallest details right matters to the people who have walked with her for decades. We also talk about that iconic Vogue spread, being enough without selling a brand, and what it really takes to hang up the cape and keep the lights on. If you’re seeking a story about resilience, self-acceptance, and telling the truth that sets you free, you’ll find it here.

If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find the show. Your support helps amplify voices that make a difference.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome, Mission, And Lofty Goals

0:57 Audience Support And Global Reach

3:17 Introducing Nicole Bobek And Her Book "The Wild One"

6:45 Vogue Spread And Being Enough

8:25 Nicole’s Start And Sacrifices In Skating

13:44 Training, Programs, And Performance Pressure

18:19 Emotion Versus Muscle Memory On Ice

21:46 Identity Split: Skater And Person

24:08 Human Connection, Honesty, And Comfort

26:28 Alignment Coaching And Living In The Now

30:37 Justin’s Mental Health Crash And Insight

34:14 Owning Your Power And Leaving Abuse

37:24 Self-Critique, Aging, And Acceptance


#NicoleBobek #OlympicIceSkating #TheWildOneBook #WildOne #InnerHealing #MentalHealthAwareness #AddictionRecovery #PressureToPerform #PersonalGrowthJourney #OvercomingObstacles #StorytellingForHealing #AthleteMentalHealth #InspirationFromSports #SelfAcceptanceJourney #LifeAfterCompetition #ResilienceInRecovery #EmpowerYourself #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices353

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Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us. Whether you're watching or listening here in the United States or uh across uh 90 countries and uh pushing 900 cities uh across the world, uh we're grateful we're over 350 episodes going strong. And again, for those who uh aren't aren't aware that uh this show, uh this organization, uh I founded uh after my mental health uh crash in in November of 2017 and wanted to not only be able to share my voice uh but share the voice and the stories of of others. And we have this huge goal and we still have it, and uh we're gonna keep going down the road of trying to help three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. It's a huge, lofty goal, uh, but with your help and your support, uh, if you can smash that subscribe button, if you can uh give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, share, all those free things uh to do really help us uh get towards uh that goal of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. Uh speaking about beyond, I'm beyond and we're beyond uh honored to have uh uh the the guests that we do today and excited to get into the conversation. I'm gonna just give uh a little bit of a bio so uh uh you have an idea, uh, and we will uh introduce her and have uh uh a great uh as she mentioned in one of her texts, you know, everybody's got skeletons in the closet. Um uh we all do, so whether we think we do or we don't, I do. I've had skeletons in the closet and kind of work through as many of those as I can uh in 2017, but as we know, life uh nobody's perfect. So uh I'm gonna hop into uh introducing our uh our our guest. Uh our guest is a uh a retired American figure skater. Uh she uh is uh just from an accomplishment standpoint, uh just just amazing from the US championships to the world championships to competing in in the Olympics uh and and and figure skating. Uh it's just an incredible the um the amount of time that she she mentions, uh early mornings, uh late evenings, uh going through um uh addiction, which I re relate to uh as our uh die hard voices for voices of uh listeners or viewers uh know and we're just excited because not only uh is is that uh her her background, but this is what I am also excited, we're excited to share. So I'm gonna actually share my screen so we can uh all see her uh her book. Her uh her book is out on uh it's out on Amazon and paperback uh electronic version as well as uh hardback uh on Barnes and Noble. So I am going to try to share. Okay. See if this actually works. Okay. So let me see if I can move this. So uh hopefully you're seeing uh if you're watching and if you're listening, uh you want to head on over again to Amazon uh dot com. Uh you want to type in Bobek, uh B-O-B-E-K. Uh and uh as followed by the wild one. Um and and so our our guest is uh Nicole Bobek, and I'm gonna just as we get into introduction, I get a little bit uh a little bit more of a uh a proper introduction. I'm just gonna quote a little bit of uh what's listed for the description of her book. But before I do that, I just wanna mention that her book is a number one new release in ice skating and figure skating, and that's a huge honor to to get. And uh just again, uh so uh so grateful that she's joining us today. So I'm gonna I'm gonna quote a little bit of the description and then we're gonna we're gonna talk to Nicole Bovac, which is just amazing. Uh so quoting uh the description, she was the wild child of figure skating, graceful, rebellious, unforgettable. This is her story in her own words. Nicole Dencha skate, she soared, spiraled, and crashed in ways the world can never look away from. With a ponytail flying and a link to judges, she captivated audiences in the 1990s, redefining what it meant to be a figure skater. But behind the sequence and spotlight was a girl fighting battles far from the ice, battles with identity, expectations, addiction, and the crushing pressure to be perfect in a sport that demands nothing less. And uh and then lastly here, told in her unmistakable voice, and so that obviously gets us to uh a little bit of why we wanted to have her on on the show, because uh she's raw, authentic, as well as I was looking through her uh uh some of the uh some of her posts on on Instagram and the here we go, where's Oh here we go. Hold on, okay. Uh let's see here, where's uh here, okay. 1995, so I was four fourteen years old at the time, I was born in 1981. And uh in in Nicole's uh Instagram account, and this is just incredible, in 1995, and still today, uh, and so does it speaking in her voice. I'm the only figure skater who got a two-page spread in Vogue magazine, and no, not advertising for a company or a clothing line strictly for being who I am and was. Uh, and then uh obviously wants you to go out to Amazon, uh, get her book, uh, whether it's electronic, uh paperback, or get the hardback copy at uh at Barnes and Noble. And and so the this this post uh mentioning uh being that two-page spread in Vogue magazine, that is also another reason we wanted to have her on, because she again to her post, she wasn't representing uh a particular product or service. That it was just her being herself. And I think a lot of us, and I'm speaking for myself at least, uh, we we can get caught up in the uh you know, we're not worthy, we're not enough. And that right there is just another reason that uh not only is she worthy and enough, but we are too. So that long introduction, we are bringing Nicole Bobek to uh to to our show. And thank you, Nicole, for for joining us.

Nicole Bobek:

Thank you so much for having me.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

You're welcome. Uh maybe maybe you can start a a little bit about that figure skating career at the at the beginning and the the work and the intensity that goes into trying to be as perfect as you can from a young age, and then how you grew grew up, and then we can we can get into the the uh uh almost just like a timeline of of life, I guess.

Nicole Bobek:

Sure.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

And then we'll finish with uh with the book and how people can find it and all those great things. So the floor is yours.

Nicole Bobek:

Floor is mine. Well, I started skating at three. Um, I was a very active child. My mom had to put me in something. I was doing gymnastics, ballet, swimming, you know, all the things the kids, you know, pretty much do. And skating just came very natural for me. Um, there was definitely a talent there the first time I stepped on the ice. And it was like there was something that resonated in me, like, yeah, this is this is what I'm supposed to do, even at that young of an age. And you know, as things progressed, as I got older, we got into competitions. I grew up in Chicago. I still consider myself a Chicagoan, even though I left when I was 10, go Blackhawks. And um, and um, you know, we moved from state to state, we moved out of the country. These are the sacrifices that really go into the sport to really move forward. You know, it was getting lessons from the best people, uh, working out the best programs, and also creating an art out there on the ice combined with sportsman kind of real physical hard work on the body. And I say that because my body is so sore, it's how it comes fresh into my mind. I am 48 now, so it is getting harder. But um, all these things are really part of something when you commit to really anything specific, playing an instrument or if you're doing ballet, you know, there are sacrifices that go along with how much are you willing to succeed and what are you going to give up so you can move forward.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, and I think uh with uh today's fast-paced life of uh everything or a lot of things in in the palm of our hand that we're impatient and want things to happen fast. And so to see the results uh as you started to skate and and and as you mentioned, being kind of a natural, um, I I I use uh analogies about you know just certain certain people the you know they're this they're just meant to be who they are. Well, we're all meant to be who we are. But from like whether that's a sport, whether that's an actor or an actress, that uh there's there's some of us, a lot of us, who are just meant to do certain things, whether that's a certain body fit, whether that's a certain mindset, to be able to memorize lines to shows or movies. And I think that's a big thing for for people to understand that if you're a natural and you find yourself coming back to that, and uh then that means that that's something that you're you're good at, and then you just have to kind of decide is that the path, you know, you want to continue to go down, or you know, try something different. And and the the the great thing is there's no wrong answer because it's you living your life, how you feel, and the only people to know how we feel is ourselves. So whether we have a huge smile on our face, whether it looks like we're having a lot of fun, or uh for for me with uh with with my mental illnesses, uh medications and stuff, people go, you say you're excited about this, but you don't have this huge, bubbly, like uh excited face. And and I think that that's something that I'm battling through. Um so to know that like you said, once you stepped on, it was it was just a natural, natural thing, and and uh and and that that's something to to just to think about. Um now so as far as let's say practicing, what does that all all that uh entail? Because from uh from an outsider like like myself, watching watching you and other skaters on the on the TV or YouTube, uh it we just see you know a couple minutes of a performance, and you're not the lead up into that what wasn't just you know two or three or four minutes.

Nicole Bobek:

Yeah, no, it's true. I mean, the fact in figure skating that we have two programs. We have a short program and we have a long program. In the short program, we have required elements, and in the long program, quote unquote, is called the free skate, where it's when I skated, now it's a little bit different, it's a point system. But the free skate when I skated was basically everything that you could do, you put it in in that program. And those programs, short program is two minutes and 40 seconds, and that can make or break you. You miss an element, you don't get a do-over, so it's very hard. And then also the long program is four minutes, 10 seconds. So it's like we work, you know, almost a whole year for that limited amount of time. And I do have to say, this is where it gets very psychological at skating because I've gone to competitions still prepared and completely bombed. And I've gone to competitions where I really wasn't prepared, but I pulled it off. Really, that adrenaline of that moment and what you not only you have your muscle memory that's always there, because we're just rigorously trained. I mean, it is a committed sport, like any sport. If you either, you know, jump in the pool or you don't jump in the pool, you know what I mean? So you have to you commit so much to it, and then mentally to bring it all down to that one moment of hitting the elements or completely falling all over the ice is it's so much, so much. And every skater, I do believe, has some kind of a different tactic that they play in their mind. Some are very just automatic. You can see it's like muscle memory, it's like just another run through. The the pressure doesn't phase them at all. And then there are others that are incredibly emotionally involved. That's why we get upset when we don't succeed at something because we are human, we do have feelings. And you know, if you don't, well, wow. But you know, you you you blow the season because you had a bad skate, and it is like this flood of uh I didn't do good enough. I let some my fans, my family, my coaches, the association, I let all these people down. I fell on my butt during the program in front of 6,000 people, not to mention the 20,000 watching live on TV. It's like, what? You know, it it's it's a very difficult thing. You know, I think skating is is such a really amazing sport because we we have the athleticism of the jumps and the training, and we're also combining it with artistry from ballet and skating to the music and being theatrical, loving what we're skating out there, beautiful costumes, and still trying to land triple jumps. You know, it's it's mind-blowing when you really think about it. And we're balancing on a very tiny little blade. And this is years of practicing, years of doing something, just consistent repetition of every single thing. And I have to say, when I was younger, you know, you just went out and skated. You really didn't think of the audience, you didn't think of really anything, you didn't, you almost didn't even really, or I didn't think about the responsibility of what I was doing out there. I just skated. It was so easy for me. And then as I got older, the brain starts working a little bit different, you know. Now all of a sudden we got boyfriends, now all of a sudden we got, you know, worried about other people's opinion, if you're gonna be accepted, if you're not gonna be accepted. And to be able to draw a line in between of, all right, I'm stepping on the ice now. I need to put all those emotions on the boards right now and just go out and skate. It's hard. It's hard, especially if you're a skater who skates off of emotion. And I was one of those skaters, and I literally had to learn almost to have a split personality of Nicole the skater and Nicole the person. And I think I struggled with that for a very long time because it's, you know, the people they know you, and people know me from 95, and they know the skating, and they know the stories, and they know the ups and downs of my life. And it's like, okay, well, she's not there now. Now Nicole's normal. She lives in a house, she has a son, she went through a divorce, she had a struggle to have a child. We went through uh my my ex-husband, you know, we went through four years of IVF, you know, that we ended up going to a different country to achieve it. You know, it it's it's traumatizing, it's a lot. And it was like before it was like, oh, I just had to skate, you know. So yeah, we have a lot of costume changes in life.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

So yeah, and I and I think that's what makes you so uh so personable, so so down to earth because you you are sharing and you are talking about those those ups and downs, but how early in your career it was just just skate. And and then as we get older and uh other things, uh other topics, other experiences, other people, uh they they they come, they go, uh and and and to uh it's hard to to do to be like, hey, I'm I'm okay with myself regardless if um success. Yeah, accepting our acceptance.

Nicole Bobek:

People will always lean more towards a very human person. You know, there are people who deal with things in all different kinds of ways, and we fall into these patterns of how we self-soothe ourselves, almost like babies do. What they figure out either it's a pacifier or a certain blanket or toy, that's their comfort thing. And I do believe that does carry on in life with so many things. But as you get older, we need human connect. When you see somebody actually feel something maybe you've been hiding, like I'm I will never expose that this movie makes me cry. And then you see somebody just completely cry about it and open up, but you're just like, it's so settling in your heart of like you sit there and like, I'm not the only one, you know. And this is the thing, is that we get we get very deep into ourselves at times that we forget that the other person might be struggling just as much. There are people in worse situations. Some people, this is their last day on earth, you know what I mean? And I have to even consistently tell me tell myself that, like, hey, you've got a roof over your head, you're doing okay, you're not amazing, you're not a star, you're not super mom, you're not any of these things, but you are trying. And you can go to sleep every night knowing I'm okay. All right. And and that's you know, that ties in with real life issues. And I think when you do a sport, um you really have to balance those things out. My process with doing this book, I did work with an alignment coach that I had to speak to because I had to really go back into my life into chapters that I locked up and threw away the key. You know what I mean? That I just like, nope, mom doesn't live there anymore. That house has been sold, demolished, whatever. And almost suppressing those feelings so much that you you almost forget about them. And you can do that, which is incredible. But I had to open these haunted houses. And I worked with an alignment coach, her name is Jamie, and um, she works with Center of Alignment, and she really helped me to regulate those emotions and not to let them take over of what I was going through. And also the simple saying that I say to myself so many times a day is that anxiety is the future, depression is the past. Try to live in the now. And this is really heavy, and it seems like a very simple thing, but if you really think about it, it's exactly what it is. So now I consistently when my head starts going one way or the other, I say, no, no, no, let's just let's do today. Let's get through today because I cannot change my past and I cannot predict my future. I can try to maneuver it, what I want to manifest and what I want to see into helping people and living a fulfilled life. But as far as you know, it's called the past for a reason because it's past, honey.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, um I completely agree. And when when I had my crash and I was in the hospital and the psych ward, it was all those ego things of I could do everything myself and I don't need any help, and I can Google for the answer. And but it wasn't until I voluntarily admitted myself because I was like, I don't have anything left. I I don't know, I don't know how else to handle this. And um, and I look back on that you know that November day uh eight years ago, and it's one of the I say one of the worst days of my life, but then it was also one of the best days because it was when I let other people and and have a a team that actually cared about me, that were specialists, that could diagnose and and help me in ways that I couldn't, and other people and and in my family just because unless that's that's your calling and your background, it's it's hard to um hard to go through. And I mean, and and my my wife was like, we were married for six months at that time, and she's like, just get through it, just go out and go for a walk, just you know, take a deep breath, and yeah, and all these self-help things. Like, yeah, they're great and those help, but uh I had the hundred and thirty eight different things that I had kind of my skeletons in the closet that I had to put out on paper and and go, oh my gosh, I've been holding on to these things, and I I haven't I haven't dealt with them. And some of them are heavy issues, and some of them are not, some of them are just easy things that I just made decisions and it was like like screw you, I'm gonna do this because I know what what's best. And uh first day I was in that that uh that cycle, I sat around and and I was thinking that I was the only one that was going through what what I was, and I was the only one that whatever had these issues or whatever you want to call it. But I sat around a table and you mentioned, you know, this could be our last day on earth, our last minute, our last second. And around the table, it was like, Hi, my name is, and then what are where are you why are you here? And there was probably about five people ahead of me. One had cast on both of his arms, trying he tried to end his life, and he was sharing these stories, and and others were sharing theirs, and how they had suicide attempts, and uh and I was like, oh my god, it almost made me feel in a way like my problems are nothing.

Nicole Bobek:

Right, right, yeah, no, and it's so true, but this is so important that I feel that very emotional people, we also were very stubborn about what we allow and what we won't allow to happen in our lives. And there's a very good positive to it. But if you can't look at yourself in the mirror and say, I need help, I need to do this, or even the fact, no, I'm too afraid, I don't want nobody to know I have this going on in my life, or this kind of stuff. We are in an era now that we do have a lot of help. And it just is only about how you want to handle it. What you allow to continue will continue and wait, because you know when you're done with something, you are done for sure. So we do have that power, and just even recognizing that we have that power is already your first step of reaching out. I, for instance, uh Instagram for me, if you get on the acrohythm of really good quotes and really good sayings, they help me so much. There are so many people out there with so many issues and so many problems, and it can be about divorce. It can be about I went through a physically abusive relationship. And the first time, because it never happened to me, I didn't know how to handle it. I was kind of like this, he was very sorry, yada yada yada. And the second time it happened, I said, I am not gonna be that person who allows this to happen anymore in my life. I didn't tell anybody for years about what took place, but I did know after that second time when he went to work, I packed my bags up and I got out of that house because I was not gonna be the victim who says, Well, you know, my boyfriend greets me, but I can't leave him and yada yada yada. No, no, no, honey, you can get out, but you have to do it. Nobody's gonna come in and nobody's gonna save you. It doesn't matter about the love, it doesn't matter about the money. There are plenty of places, shelters women can go to get the help they need, you know, but it has to come from you. And we you have to talk yourself into that you do have this power because things food doesn't cook itself. You have to cook the food. You have to wake up in the morning. I have to rack my brain every morning. What am I gonna make my son for lunch today? I have no idea. Every morning at 6 30, like oh, this is my life now. But we do it, you know what I mean? So, you know, the power within oneself is incredible if you can figure out your pros and your cons and address them head on and also just learn to be able to accept yourself. I'm a horrible critic on myself every single day. I don't like the way I look, I always think I'm too fat, maybe I'm not doing enough for my son. What more can I be doing out there on the ice? You know, I'm 48, I'm pre-menopausal, I'm exhausted, I'm tired, I'm trying, I'm holding a house, I'm a single mom. There's so many things. And at the end I say, you know what? I'm okay. I don't need all the answers today. You know what I mean? And I think people, that instant gratification that you were speaking about, we all want that. We all love that. You know, why do people love the gamble? Because when they, you know, do this and the money comes out like that, man, that's instant gratification. And people get addicted to it. So they tend to lean on those things. Same with the drugs, that instant high. I went through my drug thing and at some point it just no, wasn't cutting it anymore. And uh it was a harsh reality. But like you said, what happened with you, those hardest days were the best days of my life because they saved me, really. And I would not be able to talk today here with you about this if that didn't happen.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Absolutely. Yeah, we got about five minutes left. So I want to definitely uh dive in to uh what made you want to uh uh do a book because it's very personal, especially the um what would I? And we gather it's it's very personal. It's kind of like when I go to my therapy points, you know, they're personal, and so like it's sharing things are are hard enough to go through it ourselves, but then have somebody else ask, oh, what about this? And uh tell me why you're here or whatever, whatever. So, what made you uh want to be so authentic? It sounds like that's just your your hyper personality, but to share with the world because people across the world um are are gonna be uh and have been reading, reading or listening to to your book.

Nicole Bobek:

Well, I was actually approached by uh an editor named Todd Fisher, and I noticed he was always liking my videos, he was a big fan of skating, and you know, we got talking for several months, and you know, he put it out there, and I was asked before, but I didn't feel I was ready for it yet. Um and when I was asked, you know, I thought about it and I said, Well, this is gonna be hard, you know, but I did also feel there were a few uh certain things with the book, you know, doing a book before you have a child, your mind is completely different. Now that I have a son, I always have said it on millions of podcasts already, that that's been my superpower is doing this book because once I had him, it changed my perspective on so many things that I didn't see before. And everything kind of made sense. So I did feel I was couldn't do it, I could do it. It it was hard. It took about six months, and I was also with uh on Zoom twice a week, about an hour and a half, and with uh uh Todd Fisher and Caden, who is the writer, just incredible. Um, they were very patient with me, they understood, and they always, especially when we got into some really heavy stuff, they're like, Do you need some time off? And I said, Nope, I didn't want to. I was like, let's keep moving, let's keep moving. And my mom, who lives about 20 minutes away, you know, she's you know the old school mom with the albums, you know, which is so important because going back, there were so many things that I suppressed and timelines and where we lived and in situations that happened, those books were like the cliff notes, you know what I mean? So I knew what we were gonna talk about the next day, and I would go to her house and do like a cheat sheet kind of a thing. And but it was hard for her too because she lived that life with me. So she gave me her perspective also of what was going on, and then I had to sit and like think about it and well, how did I react to that? And sometimes I didn't know, I didn't remember, you know what I mean? So it was hard not only for her to go through, she had breakdowns, I had breakdowns, you know, big crying episodes. But um, I felt like it was time to really just I owed it to my fans. You know, there was a lot of stuff out there. I did disappear for a while, I did live this whole other life. I got married, I ran away with the circus for seven years. I had a child, I went through a really, really hard divorce. Um, and these are, I think, great things for people to connect with the human nature of the person, not just Nicole the Skater. You know, uh people can relate to it of like, oh wow, I went through that also, you know. So it's not just, I think in in sports, we also want to fit this image of these superheroes, that we are these superheroes. But really, at the end of the day, we go home, we hang up, hang up our cape, and we pay our electricity bill. So, you know, is what people gotta remember, also.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah. Um, so it can you just let everybody know how to find your book, where to find it, um, and and kind of give uh that that that pitch. So we make sure we get that in.

Nicole Bobek:

I I've done the pitch a few times. Let's see here. So the name of the book is Bobak the Wild One, and you can find it on Amazon. Amazon is soft cover and Kindle. And if you want the beautiful, glorious, glossy book, you go on Bardzo Noble and get the hardcover.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

That's awesome.

Nicole Bobek:

And we are in the works of uh uh working on an audiobook. I can give you a date on that because I don't know yet, because a lot of people have requested for that as well, which I I fully understand.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Awesome. Oh, that's great.

Nicole Bobek:

One too many times now, so I don't want to read it.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah.

Nicole Bobek:

Because we have to do edits, you know.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Right, yeah, there's a little process.

Nicole Bobek:

The first two, the first one was like a total. I was like, oh my gosh, because I'm working with two different kinds of audience. You have your fans, you have your super fans who know even more than I do. Like, well, you were at this competition, you wore this dress, and you know, like, so to make those little mistakes, and poor Todd and Caden were like, is it really that important? I said, Yes, it is, because I will get it so bad if I get that coach taught at that rank and he never taught at that rank, I will never hear the end of it. So these were really specific things that we had to work on, and that was hard. Once the skating was done, then I had to relive my drug thing, I had to relive my arrest, I had to relive my marriage, I had to relive IBF, I had to relive a lot of other stuff, and that was equally as hard, but only I could do that. You know, then it was mom was like, I can't help you with that, you know. So that was so it was like kind of like these stages we went through. But working with an alignment coach, um, I wouldn't have been able to get through it without her, really. Yeah, her just align me, being self-aware of what's going on, recognizing and accepting and all that good stuff. I highly recommend it.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Well, Nicole, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, it's been a pleasure, and we're honored and grateful for you uh spending time with us and uh especially sharing uh those just raw emotions, old stories, and events. And again, we want to invite everybody to head out to Amazon and Barnes and Noble and pick out the copy of Bo bek the Wild One.

Nicole Bobek:

So I I I think there's something in there for really literally anyone. You don't have to be a super skating fanatic to just pick it up because it's a typical skating book. So this is why I believe the book is is so incredibly not only written, but the way it flows is like wow. But um, we're really very grateful for you, by the way.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Absolutely. Thank you. Uh and please watch, listen, subscribe, like, share, and we'll see you next time on the Voice of your Voices TV show and podcast. Bye bye for now.

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Justin Alan Hayes

Host