Beyond the Cleats
Join us, as we go Beyond the Cleats and explore how our athletic passions transform and shape our personal and professional lives!
Biweekly Podcast
Steam now on your favored platform of choice!
Beyond the Cleats
Mentorship: The Game Changer
Can the distinction between mentorship and coaching transform your athletic career, as well as your personal and professional life? Join us as we uncover the profound differences and potentials. We paint a vivid picture of how goal-oriented coaching, often systematic and technical, contrasts with the long-term, trust-filled journey of mentorship. Through personal stories and experiences, we explore how each approach can contribute uniquely to your growth and success.
Ailaina and Mina share heartfelt anecdotes about the power of relationships that go beyond mere coaching. Discover how a coach who invests in an athlete's overall well-being can leave a lasting impact that reaches far beyond the playing field. We delve into the dynamic nature of mentorship, where both mentor and mentee grow together, often forging bonds that outlive the initial purpose of their connection. The importance of potential, work ethic, and mutual respect in these relationships is emphasized, highlighting how some coaching interactions evolve into lifelong supportive connections.
We also discuss actionable insights on professional mentoring, particularly for recent graduates and budding entrepreneurs. Learn how to identify and engage potential mentors by focusing on their journeys and experiences. The transformative ripple effect of mentorship is also a key focus, illustrating how positive influences can spread through your life and those around you. We emphasize the critical role of trust, respect, and mutual growth, and how peers can also be instrumental in one's personal development. Join us for an inspiring episode that challenges you to seek out and cultivate meaningful mentoring relationships.
Connect with us on various platforms
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/beyondthecleats?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=52ba74f4-6a12-4c27-a4c3-a5b6fd58a253
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondthecleats/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beyondthecleats?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
YouTube: Beyond The Cleats - YouTube
Welcome back to the Beyond the Cleats podcast. I'm here with Ms Elena Keeley and today we're going to be talking about something that I know is near and dear to my heart. When Elena brought it up to me and said, mina, we should talk about this, I was like, absolutely so. Today we're going to be talking about mentorship and coaching. What's the difference, what's the importance of it, and how can you become a really good and how can you become a really good mentor, or how can you find a really good mentor? We're going to get into it today, so, without further ado, I'm going to let Elena kick it off for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So I think the first part of it is finding the definitions. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:What's the difference between a coach and a mentor? And a coach? A lot of people know it's like you know, you see them on the sidelines, they're standing there barking a bunch of things at people, but like there's a lot more to it, right, it's very goal-oriented and systematic and there's usually some sort of timeline involved with coaching. So, for soccer at least, like we want to get to like a championship, which I feel like most sport teams do so like we have whatever 12 games, 18 games, whatever it is that season, and we'll have specific goals throughout the season to try and accomplish that goal of the end, all which is winning the championship which every team wants, everyone likes to win.
Speaker 2:Mentorship is a little bit different. For me, mentorship is a lot more long-term and, unlike coaching, it's not necessarily like a step-by-step of what we need to accomplish to get something done. It's more of like a professional development or could be also a career developmental stage as well, depending on what you're looking for, what you're seeking out. But a lot of it is not only like just sports or just like parts of your lives. It's all encompassing every part of you and what you're looking to develop and grow as a person, and I think a lot of mentors. They just have the ability to pull out things of their own lives to share with whoever they're trying to mentor, you know.
Speaker 1:So would you say coaches from a coaches versus mentor perspective? Coaches are more on the technical skills aspect and have a more focus on kind of the technical skills. So for soccer, you know footwork strategy, if it's in the sales space it's, you know, cold calls like those kind of hard skills, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's tangibles. You can measure it.
Speaker 1:Where mentorship is more so kind of those intangibles you can't measure it right.
Speaker 2:You can't measure how much of a relationship you have with someone and it's based off of mutual trust and respect. That's the big thing with mentorship that you don't always get with coaches. You can have a coach who is also your mentor, but sometimes you don't have mentors that are coaches. It goes one or the other.
Speaker 1:You can have a really good coach that really knows their stuff, but maybe they're not a good mentor Like I've had. I've had coaches like that, like really good coaches know their stuff, really good with strategy, but when it comes to like stuff, maybe outside the game or like life stuff there's there's maybe not a lot to offer there, or on the flip side, you have really good coaches. I keep bringing up one of the most influential coaches I've had was coach Bustos, who was my batting coach. Not only was she very good on the technical side, literally built my swing from the ground up but also have gave me little nuggets of little like little nuggets of truth of how to deal with teammates and it just came almost for me. It almost came naturally. It wasn't something they were just trying to do, it's just something that they kind of it's almost like they bestowed upon you. It would just be after a workout I'd maybe be talking about stuff. Maybe she figured something was bothering me and she just nugget of truth.
Speaker 2:It's a little magic pixie desk and you can go forward with the information. Right? That's what a mentor is right. They give you something and you can either go with it or not. That's how a lot of advice is right. You can talk and talk and talk, kind of what we're doing.
Speaker 1:We can keep talking.
Speaker 2:People can take what they want. They don't have to take anything from it. But if it resonates with you and you move forward with it and you can teach someone else, it, that's called mentorship cycle. You know what I mean? You take everything that you have ever learned is from someone else and if you think that you're creating something, usually you've probably got it from somewhere else, right? You're not. You're not just gonna come out with something out of thin air. It's like oh, that painting made me think of this. This is someone made that painting, so that came from there, right? So like, that's kind of how mentorship works. They drop some sort of something that resonates with you and you can take it and move forward with it and teach other people oh yeah, 100.
Speaker 1:The best piece of advice I ever got was you were going to be a product of many different coaches. You're going to be exposed to many different coaching styles, many different teachings. Again, this could be in the workplace at um, my fellowship I have I'm surrounded by a bunch of very smart people. Uh, become principal investigators, phds, very awesome people and you're going to take bits and pieces from them. Same thing with coaches. You're going to have bits and pieces from them. Same thing with coaches You're going to have a lot of, especially in the sports realm. You're going to have so many different coaches high school club, ball, college instructors Not everything is going to work for you and it's about taking bits and pieces that work for you, and then that's what creates your foundation whether it's athletically or in the workplace.
Speaker 1:Now let me ask you this Mentorship is so important to both of us, and I think that's also because we've both probably encountered really good coaches and really good mentors. What is a mentor that influenced?
Speaker 2:you. Yeah, I mean, I've had, like you said, you go ups and downs with the coaches and with mentors and things like that. I have been fortunate enough to have some really good mentors that were also coaches, but also professionally have a bunch of them as well. But we'll just stick to the sports, because here we are One of my all-time female coaches that just had an instrumental impact on me.
Speaker 1:What was a golden nugget you took from her that you used not only on the athletic field, but maybe you could also translate to everyday work life?
Speaker 2:To be honest, a lot of the things that were mentorship for me were things that she did outside of coaching for me, and that goes like really far. When someone will stand, you know, come out of what they're supposed to do for you, which is coaching right, she's supposed to be my coach. That's mentorship is going the extra mile, right? Yeah, 100%, I wanted to play college sports. I knew it for a long time and I think it was my sophomore year of high school, maybe, maybe my junior year.
Speaker 2:One of one of those times, um, she wasn't even my coach anymore. Actually, she had stepped back, um, for like personal reasons or something, or she was coaching at the collegiate level, I think at that point. And, um, she knew I wanted to play and she actually reached out to me. It was like, hey, you want to have a sit down and talk about what colleges you want to do, what's tangible, what's not tangible, step by step, how can we accomplish these things to get you where you want to be? And we literally just went to a coffee shop and probably talk shop, for I don't know whatever length of time it took for us to come to a conclusion. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she just kind of took time out of her day absolutely. It was like let's go get coffee, let's go do this and talk about it, like it, but it was like a drop of a hat. She would do it and I, and I'm sure she does it with tons of other people, I'm sure that I the amount of people that she probably touches, is astronomical, um, and that's just because of the person that she is, but also the respect and trust that, like, we've shared um, because I don't, you know, I mean, I feel like if I wasn't the athlete I was, she probably wouldn't want to mentor me either. Right, so it goes both ways. You take and you, you learn from, from everyone that you have um conversations with. And I think that's what's so valuable about the relationship is that it's like she took time out of her life, her busy life, to come in and help help this high school kid get to where I wanted to be in life. And still we have that relationship.
Speaker 1:Well, and if I can be a little objective here, there was probably also something within you, some sort of display like your also willingness and your interest and your work ethic, that also probably motivated her to help you in some way. So I feel like mentorship can also be a two-way street. There you can get mentors who they want to mentor people, they want to help people, but I feel like you're not going to just go out of your way to just mentor anybody. You can be a very giving person, but it's also she probably looked at you and it's like, okay, this kid's a hard worker, this kid is motivated, she wants to get recruited. I'm going to take time out of my day and I'm going to help her out, because I know this kid's a hustler and I want to and I want to help her. So there's a little bit of that motivation there.
Speaker 2:And we're going to take it one step further. And she wasn't even coaching the sport that I wanted to be recruited for. There you go. So it just goes to show that, like it doesn't like, all these things don't have to be like in line, like she didn't have to be my soccer coach to to bring me to collegiate soccer, she just had to give me these nuggets of wisdom that we take golden nuggets some you take some you don Right and it builds you up Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly that relationship, that cycle of that back and forth conversation, deep meaningful relationships, deep meaningful conversations kind of what we're doing here at the podcast. You know things like that that foster the environment in which people feel safe and respected and that also pushes forward growth and momentum and that development that you're looking for in life, because everyone seeks that, everyone wants that, everyone wants a personal connection. You're not going to get that if you don't step out of your. You know your comfort zones and you don't like try first off. I think one of the number one things you can do for people is like mentor and guide people right. So if you have information, why not share it with others?
Speaker 1:it goes back to if you have something to share, they have something to something to share. It's a symbiotic. I feel like mentorship is 100% a symbiotic relationship because your mentor, I think a little bit unlike a coach, if we can circle back, circling back to kind of that coach mentor analogy that you made. Again, there are some coaches that I still follow. I see pictures of their kids at Christmas. There's a relationship there. And then there's other coaches where I hope they're alive, I hope they're doing well. I couldn't tell you where they are but I wish them all the best because there's just not that relationship there. Mentors become part of your network. They become part of your, your growth, because there's something they're not teaching you they're teaching you both the extrinsic, but they're also teaching you the intrinsic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Also just a tidbit on on that real life side text message from a coach this morning asked me how it was that I used to play for now I transferred out of the school, I completely left the school. Like they have no reason to like really invest in, like keeping that relationship. But I still hear from them because that's the relationship we have and, to be honest, I still text them and ask how they are and you know that sort of relationship. Now my, my soccer coach from my other institution only reaches out for money and if they need something right. So that's the difference. If that just doesn't point it out right there, like you know what I mean, I have one coach that asked me how I am and what's up in my life and where I'm at, what I'm doing, things like that. And I have other ones to just reach out because they want me to talk to her or like they want me to donate to the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that becomes part of your network. It's one of those things. Think about it from this perspective. You're a coach, right, and you want to. You're building up your coaching career and it's in its infancy and that's super exciting. Yeah, and you have these other coach contacts. Think about it from. I'll try to use some soccer jargon. Let's say you're at recruiting, you got a kid, that's a forward. Let's say they're a pretty solid, solid, good person, but you're not looking for a forward. You need like x, y and z players. You're calling up hey coach, so and so I got this kid. They're really good hustler. I think they'd be perfect for your team. I know you're looking for a forward. Let me pass along their information.
Speaker 2:That's on networking, right, I do it all the time I like the same coach that literally was just mentioned, mentioning like oh, we're having a tough recruiting year. I'm like, oh, we have a couple kids who want to transfer, so if you're looking for players, we're looking to help you out. Because I'm not. I am very fortunate that my like head coach is like, has taught me to be the coach that I am right now, because he's just been around the block and he's great, he's phenomenal. He's just been around the block and he's great, he's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I love the guy. Oh my gosh, I could like give him a hug. One of his mentalities is that, like, no matter what, if someone doesn't want to be there, we don't want to force him to be right 100. So if they want to go somewhere else, we're going to help them go somewhere else, even if it's like not on the best of terms, for whatever reason it is, whatever reason it is, of them leaving the school. We'll always give a letter or give a notice and talk highly about every kid that's been there, because we've sometimes.
Speaker 1:Sometimes they're a good kid, but they just might not fit one. That level of play, or they might just not fit into. That just doesn't work, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just doesn't work and if it doesn't work, for whatever reason, we will 1000 give you, whatever you need to go somewhere else, because we want you to still play, we still want you to love the sport that you ultimately loved when you were like eight years old or younger you know what I mean where you fell in love and you were like that little kid that really just loved playing the game. And that's what you always want your team and your players of your team to feel. Is that authentic love for the game when they were a kid, that innate love based off solely wanting to play the sport, no matter what, like fostering that environment in which um players can go where they need, because that's what they need and because of your network and good mentorship.
Speaker 2:Good mentorship because no matter what, we don't want to burn that bridge of being a mentor right? So we want to keep it moving and so, like, if they ever needed something online they know they could still contact us because we still gave that extra mile and gave an extra foot in the door and said, hey, like we give you a great letter of recommendation. We wish you the absolute best. We know it didn't work here, but we still love you and still hope that you continue your career.
Speaker 1:And I would say that's what's different from a coach and a mentor. A coach hey, it's not going to work out.
Speaker 2:You just don't have the X, x, y and z for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, good luck. Mentorship is like you know what. You're a good kid. Let me see if we can find a place for you somewhere else or at least help you get x, y and z better and really the extra mile the extra mile counts 100 for a lot and again, I'll keep going back to it.
Speaker 1:It's a, it's a symbiotic relationship. There's something in that kid that makes you want to go the extra mile, it makes you want to be giving, it makes you want to expand your network. And I feel like, when it comes in the professional space, I see it and I hear it all the time. And I hear about mentorship all the time in the entrepreneurial space oh, you want to find a million-dollar mentor. You want to find a mentor.
Speaker 2:It's all over the place, but you don't need a million-dollar mentor. I'm going to tell you right now the secret of it is it doesn't cost a million dollars to be a mentor. No, it doesn't, and I know from experience, because I don't have a million dollars and I'm not charging a million dollars to be your mentor.
Speaker 1:if you want me to be your mentor, all jokes, but still 100% or they just don't want to put any value forward, like, let's say, the biggest piece, the biggest piece of advice that I give to recent graduates and that's high school that's is, if there's something you think you want to do, go find someone who's doing it and talk to them about it. You want to be a physical therapist? If you want to open up a bike store, if you want to go into the military.
Speaker 2:I take it one step further and I would even say go talk to the person that is best at their craft. Because if you go talk to the person that is best at their craft, because if you're going to the person that is best at their craft, they're going to have the best ins and outs, secrets as to how they started and where they've gone to, and the process of that, that journey of the ups and downs, of finding that balance of failing, but like challenging yourself and also overcoming things. Balance of failing, but like challenging yourself and also overcoming things. Because when you're like looking for someone and they're subpar or they're maybe just good at their job or whatever Subpar is not the right way of saying it but like they're good at their job, they may not like give you those like nuggets that you need. You know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:But like finding the person that's like has the most expertise is. But like finding the person that's like has the most expertise is like the person you want to be at. How do you find that person? It's all off of your perspective, right? So so if you walk into a room and you see, um, a room full of crowded people in your boardroom or something like that, and, um, there's someone in the room that everyone wants to talk to. That's the person I want to go talk to, because they definitely have a reason for where they are, what, why they are where they are right now and like success, and they probably will tell you about it. And if you ask not what they do, but instead how they got to where they are, you'll get the journey, you'll get the the story you'll get all the tips.
Speaker 1:That's a good piece of advice. I like that.
Speaker 2:Ask how they got there, what was their problem, not what they do because everyone always asks, like right, when you meet someone, what do you do? What's your career, what's your occupation on this, cool, awesome. But when you go like, so this was, this is something I learned, like, learn traveling, is that uh, like european culture? They'll be like, oh, how did you get to where you are today? That's what they ask the journey, not what you do now. I don't care what you do now. I'm sure you did a great. You do it great every day, but how did you get there? Those challenges? How do you overcome things, the growth periods, the aching pains that you get, the growing pains, those things that matter because, because everyone goes through them, those are the things that are important, those are what you want to know and that's how you get to the next level. It's by going through those challenges. If you always just go through life and you're at this mundane level the entire time, you're never going to get anywhere. You're never going to get any higher.
Speaker 1:So by asking them about how they got there, what was their journey? Like, what is like an important lesson that they wish they knew when they when they started out those type of questions versus like what do you do?
Speaker 2:or how much can I pay to get there, like, no, you don't want the shortcuts.
Speaker 1:Everyone wants the shortcuts because they're quick into gratification, but they don't want any of the challenges to get where it needs to be successful well, I would say you have to find a mentor that's willing to help you give the foundation and challenge you to find that yeah, but I would also say there's usually something you have to give in return, whether it's I know, for it could be, I know with it could be, I know with internships it's you know, maybe you're working for free your time, money, you're giving something back, or it's something like that. You did that went, that was extra, that inspired them to help you. Going back to your mentorship. So there's always something Give and take. There's always a give and take there.
Speaker 2:No, I think you're right on that, but I think when you're asking those questions of how did you get where you are versus what do you do, that almost is enough give and take in itself.
Speaker 1:You're asking that question. I think that's 100% a good I'd say a good door opener for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah um, I'd say a good, good door opener for sure. Yeah, yeah and uh, professional mentors are extremely important when you're trying to um gain specific skills and fields that you're you're trying to work in right 100, whether it be like you know discipline, teamwork, like resilience, like all those skills come from, like learning from people above you, or you're you can't learn to be a leader overnight. That's someone's guided you and given you some sort of wisdom or tidbit, or something like it's a learned skill, it's an acquired skill. Um, I think we've talked about that a little bit before yeah, 100.
Speaker 1:I think it's also finding a mentor that are going to give you those intangibles but they're also going to give you those hard skills. So it it's, for example, like in sales you want someone who's going to give you help you with those scripts and those cold calls or cold emails, and help you with those kind of hard skills, but also be the one to say, all right, well, you got to be calling and calling all day, you got to be disciplined, you have to be relentless. And again, that's just in sales. That's just one space, but I know it's a very relatable space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. What is like a mentor that has helped you professionally? Do you have any stories or tidbits or anything you've learned professionally?
Speaker 1:stories or tidbits or anything you've learned professionally like. I have one mentor in the entrepreneurial space who's been absolutely super influential on me when I first started working with them. They essentially, before they taught me any like hard skills, like any. Um, I'm getting in kind of like the sales space and copywriting space and they're like, before we talk about sales, before you talk about copywriting, we're going to talk about actually about like health and discipline. They talked about the value of time, the value of being disciplined and the whole body. Kind of like the whole body, like like they did a whole. There was like a whole conversation on like sleep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the whole over on how everything affects you right yeah, how everything affects you.
Speaker 1:It's like you can go out there and you can be an animal. Yeah, but you have to take care of yourself. And this is before they started talking about like the technical, like scripts and everything and the writing and all of those hard skills. They're like you need to take care of yourself. You need again a whole thing, a whole conversation on sleep. I'm like, why are we talking about sleep? I just want to learn how to make money with words. Why are we? It was this very kind of literally for two weeks, that's all it was which I've had a lot of mentors in the past in a sim, in those similar spaces where they just get directly into the hard skills, like, oh, this is what I'm gonna teach you, and blah, blah, blah, yeah and then you go out and try and do it.
Speaker 1:That's a coach, though yeah, that's a coach, yep, and that's kind of how it was presented, yeah, and then, when I got into this group, they start talking about health and wellness and like the discipline yourself so that you can take care of your career and job, and I'm like oh my gosh, I've never thought about that, I can't even. I can't give hard examples.
Speaker 1:But that was the shift for me, where first thing we talked about was taking care of yourself, taking care of your body yeah, and then they got into like all the hard skills and technical things, but definitely it was a shift and I think that goes back to what you were saying, where it's those intrinsic things of how can we make you better? Yeah, so you can do better.
Speaker 2:Well, when you're at your optimal and your best performance is when, like sports-wise, is when mentally and physically, you're also at your best right, that's a good point. So you're not going to be performing at your best if you aren't taking care of yourself. You're not getting sleep, you're not having proper nutrition, you're not having deep, meaningful relationships with people, you don't have a support system. Those are things that make you who you are and make you a better athlete in return. They go hand in hand. There's not one or the other. You have poor sleep, you're going to have poor performance. I guarantee it, guarantee it.
Speaker 2:If you're a rock star, you can do it for a little bit. Maybe if you're like a Kobe Bryant or something, maybe you could go a day not sleeping, but you know, getting after it. Right, we are. So here. We are all of us normal human beings. We'll have to work at things, need to get proper sleep, need to eat right, need to have discipline, need to have those things that will translate to the field or performance in in your career. Yeah, you have to take care of yourself. You have to take care of yourself yeah, yeah, that's super important.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was such a mind shift. It was such like a mind shift. I'm like yeah, because I'm very much so like okay, let's get down to business, let's get into the nitty-gritty you're so logical and they're like let's talk about sleep, we're going to talk about meditation. They went into like red light therapy, yeah, and I'm like what is this? You're like this is the loony bin. Like what is this Like really smart?
Speaker 2:really smart people Right.
Speaker 2:Well, there's also a thing I saw Don't quote me on who, but someone who I've seen over like I'm not on TikTok but I'm on like the Instagram reels and my Instagram is full of like positivity and like motivation and stuff like that positivity and like motivation and stuff like that. And they talk about how you won't see a lot of like really high entrepreneurs in the world like drinking alcohol and partying and like wasting time on those things. You'll see them like working on themselves, like making sure that the time they were taking away from their craft is putting themselves in a more optimal position for self-love and self-growth and self-development. So they'll read, they'll go exercise, they'll have a healthy meal those types of things that will correlate directly to their professional life 100%, which is like we've been talking about the translations. We can talk about it in sports, we can talk about it in the professional field. It all is one, it's all encompassing.
Speaker 1:Well, and think about those entrepreneurs. And again, it can be entrepreneurs. It could be physiologists, surgeons it could be surgeons.
Speaker 2:They don't get sleep. They're not cutting someone open, probably the same way that they would if they had 12.
Speaker 1:You know they're eight hours asleep yeah, when you think about all these, all these different people and all these different, different professions, they all have a network. They all started with a mentor, then turned into another mentor. They turned it oh, I know this person and it's almost. Then you're paying it forward, it's like okay.
Speaker 2:Because then they can start mentoring other people.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Because if you have had really good mentors in your lives who have shaped you to be who you are, you can take those nuggets of wisdom and share them with other people and become mentors yourself and create generational growth and that is something that you can't measure and you can never have enough of Generational growth.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love that term Generational growth. I've heard of generational wealth, but generational growth I absolutely love that term. Generational growth. I've heard of generational wealth, but generational growth might be better, might be better don't.
Speaker 2:Don't say that I coined that. I don't think I did. I think it probably stole that from someone. So whoever said that first, thank you very much for just sharing the nuggets of wisdom.
Speaker 1:It's just taking all those building blocks creates that ripple effect of positive influence.
Speaker 2:right, oh, 100% Cycle of positivity. It's just, you know, when you have someone affecting your life, you're more likely to affect someone else in a positive way. The same thing can go negatively.
Speaker 2:So that's why it's important to have those positive influences and share those positive moments with other people. You can be negative and you want to have more positivity in life, because there's just no reason to have more negative when the world can be so chaotic itself yeah, oh my gosh, I can go into a whole thing with law of attraction, but again, I'm not but stay on our good vibe like having again.
Speaker 1:If this is going to sound a little wonky talky, get funky with us for a second.
Speaker 1:But you've, you've heard like good vibes, having good vibes, yeah, like they have good vibes, like you said, that ripple effect and that spread and wave of positivity energy. You can feel it. It's almost like a wavelength and the one thing I can always say is like, okay, we're on the same wavelength, we're on the same vibrational frequency, yep, and I think you can feel it not only from a mentor-mentee relationship, but you can feel it within your network. I've been out to dinner with people. You can just feel it's not there. Yeah, I go out to dinner with a different set of people and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is here Good conversation good talks good feelings.
Speaker 1:You can just feel it. And mentorship is. It feels good to be a mentor too, just from a human perspective. It feels good to give back and you're also in turn.
Speaker 2:That's the cycle that you're getting at right. So it feels good to mentor someone else. It also feels good to see, like that meant, that mentee that you're mentoring like grow and develop, but then in return, it also feels good to see them giving that to someone else. It's that loop, because you're you're getting all of that natural dopamine.
Speaker 1:To be a little bit of devil's advocate for a second. That doesn't just mean go out and spout all of your knowledge because some people don't want to be mentored. That's not what we're getting at. There are people that want to be mentored and people that don't want to be mentored.
Speaker 2:Again, it's that symbiotic relationship where if they're giving you something, you give them something and you also can feel that that's the energy that you're talking about right so you know if someone wants to hear what you're saying and you also know when they're giving back to you, because you'll feel that conversation, you'll feel that deep, meaningful relationship You'll feel that vulnerability. Within that, that trust and that respect within that relationship right which is what we talked about was like the core foundation of mentorship Trust in that relationship growth.
Speaker 1:Oh, 100% and respect. Yeah, trust and respect. You trust them, that you're going to help them, they're going to help you and you respect their knowledge and where they're at and they're respecting where you're at and you're climbing together. And that could also be in a peer relationship too. I know we've talked a lot on it being kind of like a superior, inferior, like a wise mentor who's been through the ringer and someone who's just starting out. Peers can be mentors. Peers are part of your network. Your network is your net worth, and I will always say that they're the ones that are going to make you grow spiritually. They're the ones that are going to make you grow mentally. It could be financially, you know in the right circles, but they're the ones that are going to make you grow as a person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Like I said before when I was saying that you want to find the person in the room that has like the most or is at the highest. It doesn't have to mean that they're like a millionaire doing whatever. It could just be like the peer that's like has their stuff together and like you, just like. You want to embody that as well. Right, so it's something that you want to embody. It doesn't have to be this huge gap of whatever. It can literally be someone your age doing the exact same thing. They just are, you know, at the best of what you're looking to do.
Speaker 1:They're doing something you found, that is, they're doing it really well and really good, and you want to take a golden nugget from them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean in the soccer realm. For me personally, I had like seniors when I was a freshman who were playing every minute of every game. So I went and practiced with them because I wanted to be where they were at. Was I at the same level? No, I was a freshman. There was no reason to be at the same levels of seasoned. You know players that were playing internationally at the highest level possible from their home country.
Speaker 2:You know like there was no reason for me to be there. I was not that good but I wanted to be there. So I learned from them and I went and I practiced with them and I did extra and they also, in return, would go to the field with me and do extra because they saw how I wanted to get better and grow. So those relationships, we both get things from it, but they don't have to be like it didn't have to be a professional soccer player like messy, teaching me that it was just my seniors that I trusted and respected.
Speaker 1:Trust me, it's just someone who you saw was doing something a little bit better, doing something a little bit right that you wanted to learn from and take from. And I think that's the key there is figuring out ways to get yourself in that room, get yourself in that space, because I use this term all the time you're're learning through osmosis. They might not be verbally telling you hey, this is what I'm doing, but you see it, you feel it.
Speaker 1:You're in that room, You're doing those drills, You're sitting at the table hearing those conversations and you're taking those little nuggets here and there.
Speaker 2:That's why it's so important. They say to like have all of that, like you said, every realm of it, take it in, see it, hear it, do it, all the senses, as many senses you can attach to certain things you'll you'll learn more from. So that's really important, really cool. I like that part about osmosis. That was important because you're gonna constantly learn.
Speaker 1:It's just, and I think it's just having an awareness of it, even even like in the workplace. I'm taking little tidbits. We have a very open office space, yeah, so there's a lot of conversations, not private conversations, but just like conversations that are just happening openly, right, just listening, you know, not overhearing, but like just kind of like you, you hear, you know how two principal investigators are, you know talking to each other and you know planning on collaborating. I'm like okay, so that's, that's a good back and forth. It's just learning through osmosis and being in that room and just being hungry to learn. I think that's what's going to get you in those rooms and that's what's going to motivate mentors, whatever level. It's good to go for the highest person in the room and the way you're going to do that, I feel like, is by being hungry to learn and being humble about it, right, knowing that you're just not.
Speaker 2:You're always going to be the highest where you are, by being hungry to learn and being humble about it right 100%. Knowing that you're just not. You're always going to be the highest at where you are. There's always something to learn, and I think that's the coolest part about it, because you can always, like you said, you can be a mentor to me and everyone else can also be a mentor to you. It just has to be what you can take and give from people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a give and take. Who you be like, what you can take and give from people yeah, it's a give and take. You know who you surround yourself with is you know who you learn from. It's how you develop habits right and it's it's very gratifying to have if you can find it and even if, like you don't have that circle, if you're trying to find that circle it'll come if you're looking for it.
Speaker 2:I promise you that it might not be the right, the second, but just keep doing it. Just Just keep doing it. Grind it out, you'll find it, you'll find it.
Speaker 1:And again, elena, I was so excited you brought this to the table to talk about, because this is exactly what this is for. We're not these big professional athletes I'd say. We're grinders, we're hustlers, and I'm grateful for that and I'm grateful to have you in my circle. And this is what the Beyond the Cleats this was the inception was to create a space to have these conversations and have the opportunity for you guys to reach out to us. We want you guys to reach out to us If you have questions, if you're struggling with something. We want that door to be open. Yeah, right, and we're not professionals, like like you said, we are straight up the average joes. We're just trying to. We're just trying to figure out life too. Athletes working through some. We're just, we're just here with mics talking about it, trying to figure it out. We don't got all the answers, but it's being in the room, yeah, and we want and creating that space and holding space for it.
Speaker 1:We are on the same wavelength, Elena. This was awesome. Super grateful for this conversation. We'll check you guys next time on Beyond the Cleats podcast.
