Building A Life After College Sports

The final whistle doesn’t have to mean game over. Former D1 soccer player Case Montanile joins us to unpack how injuries pushed him to step away from the game he loved and redirect that same competitive drive into commercial real estate. What emerges isn’t a sob story—it’s a playbook for turning athletic grit into career momentum, without losing your love for sport or yourself.

We walk through the real stuff athletes rarely say out loud: feeling your identity shrink when the schedule stops, the quiet grief of recurring injuries, and the slow realization that the cost of chasing your dreams might not be worth it to your body. Case explains how a lifelong habit of team-first thinking, paying dues, and staying coachable translated directly into the workplace. He shares why confidence is the most portable skill you own, how to rebuild structure when no one is setting practice times, and why new associates and college freshmen have more in common than you think.

You’ll also hear tangible strategies for stability during transition. Case breaks down his morning routine—early runs, a daily Murph, time in nature—and how those rituals act as active meditation that resets the nervous system before a day of prospecting, calls, and client meetings. We connect the performance triangle from sport to work: preparation, execution, and recovery, with simple ways to design a “nurture” outlet so you don’t burn out trying to replace the adrenaline of game day.

If you’re a current athlete, a recent grad, or anyone facing a forced pivot, this conversation offers a grounded, hopeful path forward. Expect clear takeaways on transferable skills, building a second identity before you need it, and using perspective to turn “unfair” into “opportunity.” Subscribe for more honest, practical stories from the world of human performance, and share this with a teammate who needs a nudge. Got your own post-sport strategy—or questions we should tackle next? Drop us a note and leave a review to help others find the show.

The only podcast that is all about Athletes Supporting Athletes!

Transcript

Case’s College Soccer Experience

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Hey guys, welcome back to the Plan B podcast. I'm Coach B, former pro athlete, sports psychologist, and now a doctorate. Actually, I can't say I'm a doctorate yet. I'm a doctoral researcher in human performance. And tonight I have a very special guest. I have a former D1 collegiate athlete. His name is Case Monteneal, and he's talking with us tonight on a really important topic. It's a topic that every athlete is going to face at some point in their career. And that is life after your sporting career comes to an end. And if you look on social media, and I certainly do, you know, scan this topic because I went through it, it often is tainted with kind of like a bit of doom and cloom. But that certainly hasn't been the case before Case. So it's great to have you on the show, Case. And thank you so much for uh giving up your time and joining us tonight because you certainly have transitioned from being a you know D1 college athlete and then straight into life and into a full-time job. So hey, can you talk to us a little bit about well, first of all, you know, take us back to life as a college athlete and what was that like for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah, college was college was a good time. Playing definitely, it's it's definitely something special to play a college sport. And I'd heavily recommend it towards anybody that's kind of looking at that in the future. It's just something about that environment and being a part of the team that's really special. So that's definitely something I'll never forget. And I enjoyed every second of it. Doesn't hurt at all that I did it while living in Newport either. That that definitely helps living in Newport Beach, but it was a great time. And yeah, I mean, looking back is only good memories now and not much regret.

Athlete Identity And Balance

SPEAKER_00 2:25

You know, we often talk about athletes having, you know, that identity as only having an identity as an athlete. Is that something that you felt? Like, did you only ever see yourself as an athlete? I know that you were in college studying, obviously, something else, but was that ever something that you struggled with? Being a D1 athlete, which, you know, for those of our listeners that don't understand, that involves a lot of training. Sometimes after five hours a day, it's nearly 12 months of the year round competition. Did that identity crisis, or is that something during your four years, is that something you ever faced?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, I think, I think definitely going in. I mean, I always I always saw myself as a as a soccer player first, as like that's that's who I am, that's what I want to do. And I think everybody in our locker room thought that as well, as like a soccer player first, which I think is important, especially if you're trying to improve or go professional, or if you want to be at the top level of your sport, you need to see yourself as that first. But yeah, like you're saying, it's that's not the only thing you really are. I think a lot of people have different outs that they they take. For me, it was trying to be as social as possible, having like a social life, whether that's going and meeting friends or or going in and going on a trip with my parents or just some something that would get me out of out of practice or my house. So that I think was something that I use. I know people that use school as as kind of an out and studies um that find enjoyment and reading and all that kind of stuff. Or there's there's plenty of ways that you can that you can find an out, but I think that that is definitely something important, something to have a balance, not just be all right, I'm just a soccer player. And once I'm done, I mean, you're not training every second of every day. So there's there's going to be downtime where you kind of need to figure out, you know, who you are and enjoy life.

Deciding To Stop Playing

SPEAKER_00 3:58

So and you know, when you decided, hey, you know, I I want to hang up the cleats. And and I just want to share this because I remember, you know, I first met Case in 2022, and I remember actually being in the locker room of his college, and most of the guys in the locker room started playing around three. Okay, so you know, when you've been playing that long, it it's literally nearly their entire life, right up until college. So it's definitely a huge component of their life. It it's it's easy to fall into that kind of identity trap. So when you just finally decide to stop, what kind of surprised you most about you know life without soccer?

Grief, Injuries, And Perspective

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Yeah, it's it's it was definitely different. It was a weird transition for me too, just with like how things went, which I'm sure we'll get into like kind of that story. But yeah, I'd say it's just it's just different. Like that's what that's kind of it kind of ties back into that question you just asked about kind of having another identity, not just as an athlete. I think me having a social life and and enjoying going out and getting lunch with somebody or or just creating plans so that I can keep myself busy and and just enjoy my life. I think that was that was a very important thing to have for me when I stopped playing because there was so much more time all of a sudden that it's like, okay, well, I can't, I can't, I'm not training, I'm not doing this. Like there's just so much, such a gap in my life that I need to fill. And I think that kind of took over it, like me trying to be social and reach out to people and and meet and just kind of be uh I don't know, proactive into into trying to get involved into the next stage of my life.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Did you have a a period of of like grieving? Because I I know initially, like when I retired from sport, you know, I it was kind of forced upon me. Uh, not like I I had two kids, like Audrey and Drew, my my daughters, actually came on the triathlon circuit with me. And I was in my early 30s. And then, you know, and trying to do seven hours training a day with triathlon. And then when I I fell pregnant with twins, it was kind of ridiculous to think, Belinda, you've got four kids, you just cannot sustain trying to do the training and travel around the world and be a triathlete. Like it stopped being ridiculous. So, but in my head, I think it was the obsession with trying to, oh, I I don't want to retire, I want to keep going, I still want to be in in sport. And so there was, I had a period of grief where I I didn't want to leave because it was my community. It was all that I'd known for such a long time. Did you ever experience a little bit of that?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah, definitely. I would say mine was more like elongated just because I kept trying and trying and kept getting hurt. So that it it was just kind of like a long period of slowly grieving. But yeah, I mean, I think I think it's just it's different for everybody. Some people are so set on on this is exactly what they need to do. And I just I kind of realized that I hit a stopping point and you know grieved for probably like a few days. And then I I'm just like I I I'm a quick turnaround person. Like that's just kind of my mindset with these things. It could be like, yeah, soccer was probably the biggest loss of my life uh when I when I talked about just like a like any any interaction with anything I've had. That was that was my entire life that I've played for 20 years, and then just in kind of over the next like six months it just disappeared. And yeah, so that it's it's not a nice thing, but like yeah, you just don't have a lot of time to really grieve. Like you gotta turn around and figure it out and start living. Like that's that's just how I how I view it. And like I don't really like sit on these things and mourn it because I don't see the point. I I just would rather mourn when I'm trying to figure it out. Like I just it doesn't it doesn't really stick in my mind like that. So that's kind of how I'd how I took it. And and obviously my my story is different just with injuries. It was like the first injury was probably the roughest. I kind of knew this was probably the beginning of the end, and then then another injury, and then another injury, and you kind of just slowly chip away pieces of it and slowly start to think, okay, maybe I could do this, maybe I can do this. Let's start figuring out another plan if things start going bad. Because when if before that first injury, there was no there was no idea of a plan. It was this is it, I'm going to play soccer. So yeah, it was just kind of a slow transition over probably like nine months from I mean realizing maybe this just isn't for me, and that's okay. I'll move on and figure something else out.

The Senior-Year Ankle Break

SPEAKER_00 7:56

You know what, Case, I really felt like that was just so unfair for you to have experienced those injuries. And, you know, with at the start of season two, the first episode, we had um Olaf, he's a footballer, and he experienced that taste of unfairness when he got a strain on his knee. He came off, he didn't want to go back on, but he felt the pressure from either coaches or team because nobody else could go back on. He went back on and then he did his ACL and he's a senior in high school and it's potentially ruined his chances for for now in getting picked up in college for football and that kind of sense of unfairness. With you, I remember seeing you for the first time, and Case is unbelievably fast. And it's clearly in his genetics because I've also seen him run 800 meters on the track when he was little. And so he probably could have been a track athlete as well. But when I saw him on the field, he has unbelievable, incredible fast twitch and incredibly explosive, but for whatever reason, just you know, kept getting these injuries, you know, on the field. And they like talk to us a little bit about some of those kind of crippling injuries that you got and the times of those injuries, because I know that there are athletes listening that faced those injuries, and you know, one of the ones that you got was in your senior year of college.

Lingering Hamstrings And Reframing

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah. Yeah, so that was probably the the that was kind of what I referred to as like kind of the end, really, like the start of the end for me was that ankle injury. It was definitely my best season yet thus far, was playing really great. And yeah, just like kind of hit hit like a groove, I feel like in the season towards the middle. And yeah, I think it was the second game of conference, just kind of fuck at stuck in turf and tore everything in my ankle, broke my foot. And that was, yeah, that was a rough recovery. That that was probably the biggest like portion of greeting that I had for probably like a couple days, a couple days to a week of like, dang, are this really this is kind of the end. I had ankle injuries before that, and so I know how rough they are. If you hurt an ankle, you're just bound to keep rolling it over and over again. And so I knew that this was gonna be like this is a forever problem if I kept playing that the ankle was gonna be a problem. So it took longer than I'd hoped to recover from that. I was trying to make pro trials by February. This was in I think October. So it was it was a stretch like to try and get back in four or five months, but I think I got back just after that in March. And then I had like a series of hamstring injuries, and I've had hamstring problems forever, so that was like kind of no surprise. And just kind of kept injuring them like every I'd go on a trial, injure them, kind of be training, getting ready to do uh do a tryout and feel it go again. So it was just kind of something after the next, and they weren't they weren't injuries that were like, okay, I can rest for two months and it's gonna be fine. It's more like hamstring and ankle are you're you can rest, but they're gonna linger and sit there. And so that was kind of another moment too of me realizing like, do I really want to go through this my whole life and just kind of be a shell of a human by when I'm middle-aged? And yeah, I mean many people see it as unlucky. I I honestly have turned my perspective of it to see it more as like a blessing, like that maybe it just wasn't right for me. And I got out when I needed to. And yeah, now I'm now I'm healthy. I can actually like run around, throw, throw a ball, like I can play soccer on the weekends and enjoy it. So I saw it as a blessing, and now I'm in a good spot. So it's just it really is all about perspective and and how you view these things. But injuries are are very unfortunate, but they happen. That's they happen to everybody. So it's how you take it.

Confidence As A Transferable Skill

SPEAKER_00 11:07

You know, and I think that's an excellent message to share, you know, with our athletes listening, because I think one of the things that's really important, particularly with hamstrings and ankles, and when you're an explosive athlete, like Case was, and he's pushing himself at a D1 top level of the game, and he is one of the fastest athletes on the field. Uh, so he every time he gets on the field, he's expected to go from zero to a hundred, game after game after game after game. And, you know, getting something like, you know, basically turf toe, where you get stuck and and you're trying to go to a hundred and then you tear something, and that kind of likeliness of happening it happening again. It's just that now you've got a weakness there. I think it speaks volumes to you, Case, about your ability. And I'm wondering, and maybe, and I'd love you to answer this, do you think sport and your training over the years developed your mental mentality to be able to look at your situation the way that you you are? Because you've really, you know, from the age of three to now, whether it be from playing all the sports and the coaches that you dealt with, your teammates and the years of of conditioning in sport really has enabled you to continue to keep going. And you have, like, sure, you've stepped away now, but look at the career that you've had. I mean, that's what I look at. I look at, yes, perhaps one could say you stepped away prematurely, because I would like to mention that there were pro teams in South America and Germany inviting Case to keep going. And I know I was one of Case's biggest cheerleaders saying, come on, Case, we can still keep going. Like, come on, please keep going. And uh, and that was really only me having been a pro, wanting Case to experience what it was like as a pro. And and Case was like, you know what? No, I'm good. Do you think that perhaps your life as an athlete enabled you to be able to do that, to have that, you know, like all the lessons of sport and gave you that ability to have that stress resilience that you've developed?

From Soccer To Commercial Real Estate

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think uh something that that soccer's taught me for sure since I was young is like how unbelievably important confidence is when it comes to anything you do. So just you could you could you could have no idea what you're doing, but if you have like a little bit of confidence, it just it shows and it's something things are possible when you're confident and you have a belief in yourself to be able to do something. And so the reason I bring that up and kind of ties into this is I do think if I wanted to play, if I really wanted to play pro and make it, I do think that I could have. I I don't think it would have been easy, it would have taken a lot of time and effort and a lot of money, but I think I could have done it. And the difference was I just didn't I that that route for me didn't make enough sense as the route that I'm taking now. This this route just I think when I when I kind of started to see this side of things, I started to see myself and be like, okay, I can do this. Like I I know I can do this. Like this unwavering belief of I have no idea what I'm getting into. I still don't know half of the stuff that I that I work on daily, but I I have just a belief that I can do it. And I think that that's that's something that sport teaches you is to just that that it might be completely unwarranted, but the confidence to have in yourself that you can succeed is gonna push you to to something that you can't really see at the moment, but you will will succeed something in the future.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, and so that you know that's what we talk about. We talk about the skills that we take away, you know, and that's you know something that I feel like we don't emphasize enough. There are so many skills that you have as an athlete that are transferable into your career. And and you've just mentioned like the confidence that you have as an athlete. You're now used that to step into a brand new career. And what is that career that you've just so you you know, you were a college athlete, D1, soccer player, and now today, what are you, Casey? What are you working on?

SPEAKER_01 14:35

I'm uh so I'm a commercial real estate basically just like a salesperson associate for my team. But yeah, we specialize in retail real estate in Arizona, but yeah, I kind of do everything.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

So how do you translate being like a team player that you were in your soccer team? How does that relate into the workplace?

Paying Dues And Team Mindset At Work

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Yeah, I one thing to mention too, uh just with commercial real estate in general, is one I didn't notice this until I got into it, but there's like 30% of us are athletes. Everybody's an ex-pro, ex-college athlete, they're everywhere. Um it's just because it's such a competitive nature and because it's such a it's like a sport in itself, really. But yeah, something that translates team-wise into what I do now is kind of realizing I think this is a very important thing just for everybody out there that plays sports. There's there's been a point where you're kind of at the bottom of the barrel, you know, and you're I I know people say like you pay your dues or you're you're kind of doing a bunch of dirty work or whatever. I mean, if you're a freshman on a college team, you're putting out all the equipment, stuff like that. And I think that that that's a very important thing that happens in the real world. Yeah, I mean, your first few years, you're you're kind of paying your dues. You're you're learning all the ins and outs of everything under it. I mean, you're you might be doing a bunch of needless, like kind of just busy work and things that maybe that your superiors could do 20 times faster, but they're things that you need to get done to learn and to also become a part of the team and show that you can do things and build trust. There's just that that understanding of knowing, like, hey, right now I might not be in a good place, but in the future, if I stick around, it'll come. It's kind of like that same understanding if you're on a college team. As a freshman, it's like I might not be getting playing time, but if I keep training hard, if I keep working at it, if I keep doing stuff, keep doing what I'm doing, building relationships with that team, I'm gonna I'm gonna be playing as a junior senior. So it's it's the same, the same mentality that I think a lot of athletes have.

Rebuilding Routine And Time Management

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Yeah, and I really love that you shared that because and I think it it I think it's so important that people embrace that concept. And and I love that you from your generation has because I and I don't want to speak out of line to say, hey, I I don't know whether everybody would, but I really hope people do because it's it's a necessary part. And I've spoken about this before on another podcast about college athletes wanting to go into the pro ranks and realizing that, hey, I can't just leave college sport and walk in walk into a pro team. Like I have to leave college sport and then go into a C grade kind of protein and then work my way up. It's the same thing. If you study computer science, you're not gonna walk into Meta and be the CEO. Okay, you're gonna walk into a software company and be at like right at the bottom. And it's even the same, like in my field, when I was today, I'm doing my, you know, studying for my PhD, but back in 2022, when I was with Case's team, I was doing volunteer research with college men's team. And I was driving seven hours down to LA every other week to collect data and not getting paid, going back and forth from NorCal to SoCal and forming a thesis on on men's D1 college teams, on mental health of youth of male athletes. And that was part of building and building and building. And that's some of the hard yards that you have to do to work your way up. And sadly, I feel like there are some generations or younger generations are wanting to step out and want it now. And it just doesn't happen. It didn't happen when I was young, and it's still not happening today, but it's worth it if you're prepared to put you know the hard yards in. So possibly we might be looking at case might be a future like real estate mogul, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Probably. Hopefully, I have the same passion for this as I did with soccer. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah. Well, I mean, what do you think the secret might be? What was the secret of your success with it with soccer when you think about it?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

I think enjoyment was probably number one.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Yeah, enjoyment, enjoyment, passion, uh, you know, and love, love of the game.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, I guess if you can find that. What was the hardest part about entering the workforce after you know, you were in a structured athletic schedule for literally your entire life, and now no one is no one's telling you except you. I guess now you have a boss, but what you know, what were some of the other hard parts of leaving that structured environment?

Finding An Outlet And Daily Murph

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, I think like honestly, it's not that different. I I've I've noticed, I feel like, at least for for my personal schedule and the things that I I do. The hardest part was like I guess after training at one after you've done training at one o'clock from college, it's like you kind of have the rest of the day off, like you can kind of figure stuff out. Like, so that's that kind of sucks, you know. I don't have uh I don't have as much free time, I feel like now. But I don't know, it's just it's just different. I think the hardest part's probably trying to figure out your schedule, like that first like three months of like trying to just find things at work, like figuring out meal prepping, figuring out okay, I need to eat here, I need to work out this time, like I probably need to save some time here just in case something happens. Like there's just it's it's with every field, it's different. For me, I I I like getting up in the morning early and working out in the morning and getting that over with, and then showered and good to go for work, and then that leaves me with the rest of the day to set up meetings if I need to, or if anything changes, I can just kind of go with it at a flat. But yeah, I'd say scheduling is definitely a little bit different. Also the fact that you don't have like you're not leaning on all right, somebody's telling you, okay, 6 a.m. this time, like 10 p.m. this time, come to meet me here. Like, let's do like everything is kind of scheduled when you're in sports. You're not you're not your own leader. Whereas kind of now you kind of have to I have to have a calendar on my phone, so I remember all the stuff that I have to do. So it's just different. But yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah. Do you find yourself like seeking out the kind of, you know, because all athletes it somewhat, you know, some sports are more extreme the uh than others. Like, you know, you've got your you know, downhill mountain bikers. I'm not sure what what kind of work career they would try and go into or the or the or the uh you know the the mountain the rock climbers, but what about the adrenaline fix that where do you do you still like do you still have those urges? Because now like athletes are a cut from a certain mold. I I truly believe that, you know, and that's why they all get along so well together because we're very similar in some way. How do you fill that gap?

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Yeah, you have to have something that you like just like for me. It's I I love running for some stupid reason and I love golf. So golf's golf's a good one, it's an easy one. But yeah, like I I've been doing the same thing every single morning for this year because I just want to see if I can challenge myself to do it. But it's like this is the stupid things that athletes, I feel like a lot of athletes kind of they have to figure out. Like I've been running a Murph every single day of the year just because I want to see if I can keep doing it. So I just do it every day. And I I ran a marathon, tried to run a marathon like two months ago. I'm like, yeah, just this kind of stuff. You can find time to figure it out. But whether that's you, it has to be something active, is what I've noticed. Like, I just need something active, a sport that you can focus on that you think about during work that you just, you know, it's like another passion.

Neuroplasticity, Recovery, And Solitude

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Yeah, athletes definitely need, you know, an outlet. And and that's one of the things that I've always tried to incorporate in even in my sports psychology practice, is that I've always had this, like I have this whole philosophy that just talking alone is neurologically uh illogical because athletes talking's great, but we need an outlet. So it's like we have to combine some kind of expressive outlet, whether you know that be some kind of balancing activity to complement whatever it is we're dealing with, we need an outlet to express that. So, you know, I'm a massive believer in that. So here you are, you've gone from your D1 soccer career into commercial real estate. What influenced that? Was that just something you you came across? Or how did you find commercial real estate? You know, what was the segue?

SPEAKER_01 21:56

My dad was was pretty passionate about me trying commercial real estate for one. I I know a bunch of athletes that have gone. My dad's not in commercial, like sort of is in commercial real estate, just not in the field himself. And I know plenty of athletes that have gone into it and succeeded. One of my old coaches is his name's Zach Pace, actually. He's from Arizona, played professional soccer, I think in Portugal, and then started his commercial real estate career in Arizona. And he's now one of the top kind of retail brokers in the state. And he kind of helped me get in front of people and interview, and and I just kind of met with my team, and they're like, listen, if you want to do this, this is this is a grind, but it's fun. And that just kind of sparked something of like, all right, I want to grind again, like I want to I want to feel like I'm kind of nothing and just slowly I want to feel the slow build again, like that that feeling you get just training at night, or it's like when you're Doesn't feel like anything's getting better, but you keep going back every day and maybe it's just little pieces that you're picking up. I just wanted to feel that again. And so I don't know, it just sparked it and I'm like, shoot, let's go for it. Let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

So it always sounds in a way, case, like there there's a lot of similarities between the grind of college sport. Sounds like a little bit of a crossover, and it's just a different arena.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Just a different world. Now, in this whole transition, is there any advice that you wish somebody had told you that you didn't get?

What He Misses And Keeps

SPEAKER_01 23:08

I'm gonna spin your question just a hair, just because I think this is this is pretty important. But uh I would say it's more of advice that I did get that really it had helped is like yeah, just have the support group that you surround yourself with and like the the people that support you is so extremely important. And I think I I had so many people that kind of as I was going through those rough patches in soccer of like, shoot, like this is gonna be rough, like I don't know if I'm gonna keep playing. That they were like, it doesn't matter what you like. They yeah, they were very much like they want me to play soccer, and that's that's ideal. Like if you can keep going, keep going for sure. I encourage that entirely. But they were I had so many people tell me, like, hey, like it doesn't matter like what you do, like you're gonna you're gonna succeed. Like they there's people around you that believe in you and believe in kind of no matter what you do, you're gonna be fine. I think that that was some of the best advice that I've had for me to have the confidence to be able to be like, all right, you know what? Yeah, like this this doesn't feel like it's working. Let me try something else. And if this many people think that I can succeed in this, then I'm sure I can't. You know, it's it's just kind of having people around you that believe in you, I think is such an important thing to have.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Yeah, you know, I and I I really love that. And that that's gold because you really, you know, when you believe in yourself and and like you said, and you have the reinforcement of others around you, you know, that's where the magic happens. And uh, you know, athletes, when they put their mind to something, can do great things. And, you know, our sporting careers are short-lived, and that's due to the you know, the the challenges that come with physiology. But just as importantly, you can pivot and you can take all the skills that you have already in you and just channel it. So I've never looked at, you know, when I when athletes say, oh, you know, that's coming to an end, or or whatever is coming to an end, whether it even be you're in a place of employment and that has come to an end for whatever reason, take what you've learned and pivot. When one door closes, it's closed for a reason, and just use whatever experiences that you've had and channel it in a new direction and and don't lose hope. And yes, you know, sometimes it does hurt when you've if you enjoyed where you were or you enjoyed what you were doing, but it can also be a fresh start and a start of something new and start of something exciting, which could lead to, you know, new opportunities, new friends. So yeah, I've I'm always a big believer in new chapters and new beginnings, which sometimes we don't look at, you know, the right way. Sometimes I feel like we we spend too much time looking backwards rather than looking forwards.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

So is there anything that you, you know, on along those lines, is there anything that you miss about kind of like your your old life?

Advice For Graduating Athletes

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah. Um it's definitely I'm never gonna get that level of competitiveness back and like the the locker room and stuff like that, like that just group of when you're when you're going that hard every day and that competitive every day, and it just builds like such a good bond as a group. So I'm definitely never gonna have that that again. So that's definitely something to miss. But yeah, I'd say, yeah, and and then on the flip side of like when you guys are kind of on the field together or playing together and you're playing big games with it with this group of guys that you built a tight connection with. I mean, there's yeah, there's nothing like that for sure.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

And have you been able to maintain that connection with those guys or at least a few of them?

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Um yeah, I think a few. Yeah, I'm definitely not the best communicator when it comes to being far away from people and uh yeah, being busy, it's tough. But yeah, I probably should be better about that side of it.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Um, if you were to go back, okay, and prepare your college athlete self for for this transition, is there anything that say you would you would have done differently or or that you would like encourage other athletes who are, you know, where it won't be long now before you have a lot of athletes that are graduating and that are finishing their, you know, their their college sporting career. Is there any advice that you might have for those athletes?

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Yeah, I I mean I think just going back to kind of the first question you asked, I think figuring out what you really enjoy, that's second, that second outlet. I mean, number one, you're a college athlete and that's that's your sport, but you need you need a number two to fall back on. You need something that like this is also who I am. And you can't kind of, or at least in my mind, you can't just be and just be an athlete. There needs to be something else, something else, whether it's like a personality, whether it's you know, you need there needs to be something else. Um, I think so. I think finding that definitely helps kind of push through whatever if something goes wrong. Because if if you're just an athlete and athletics aren't going well, then you know what what do you have then? I think that's that's something important to for people to kind of find out about themselves.

Final Encouragement And Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 27:26

So I've been pushing this analogy case, and I know that you know when we were working together, I was pushing the big neuroplasticity on you. And you know, it's I know sometimes it's it's a hard thing for people to get their head around, but you can use it in any kind of setting. Okay, so you've got your work and it's basically that's your performance. Okay, so you're performing, that's your work. Okay, your training, that's your fitness. Okay. Now, what is your recovery that you're doing? Okay, now your recovery, we could say it's your golf, okay, or we could say it's your running, but it's it's more got to be what is your nurturing activity, so your neuroplasticity activity that you're giving back to your body to balance because don't forget your performance, it has a kind of high level of stress. Your prep for your your work. So you're when you're actually dealing with clients, that's your performance. Your training is with your workmates and your preparation for that. So, what is the nurturing side that you're actually doing to decompress and to give back to yourself to kind of release the pressure valve so you can actually come down and and be ready for work on Monday? What what do you do to decompress?

SPEAKER_01 28:34

I'd say I probably a couple of things. I'd say the best, the best thing that I do though, for sure, is like every morning. So I I just to kind of explain my morning routine. This is definitely it's it's like a workout, basically. But I get up around like 5 40, get my headphones. That's early. That's from bed. Gotta get to work. I gotta get to work early. So I've got to find time somehow. And I like watching the this is it all ties together. Okay, I love these. Get up around 5 40, and then I I like get my clothes, sweats, hoodie, go for a mile run. And usually this is kind of right when the sun is barely coming up, so it's like super cold out, dark, but like just like very nice. Like there's nothing, there's nothing out, there's no sound. You can just listen. Sometimes I don't have my headphones in, just kind of just sitting there with my thoughts and then just listen to music, favorite music. Then I go and do my workout and then do another mile, and then second mile, always the sun's like kind of coming up, the sun, sun, sunrise is super nice. And that like that 40 minutes to 45 minutes is just like extremely calming and just like kind of gets you ready. Like, I don't think about work, I don't think about anything else I have to do for the day. It's I find myself multiple times. I'll just like I'm running, and then all of a sudden half a mile later, I'm like, oh shoot, I'm still running. Because it's just my mind is just running about random stuff that I just start thinking about. So I think that's that's kind of the decompress is that 45 minutes in the morning. And then after that, I'm kind of ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

So it's almost like that that period of solitude you give yourself is your is your way of recharging.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Yeah, it's almost like meditation, pretty much, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:55

It's kind of like active meditation, a bit of solitude in there. It's recharging in nature. I I like the fact that you're kind of tuning into the environment because that's super important. Because I I I sometimes feel like everyone with their either on their phone or with their headphones on, they're kind of detaching from the environment when sometimes we need to kind of tune into our environment to kind of get something back from it. So that that's super cool. And and you're getting kind of supercharged from your environment so you can then lock in to kind of everyone else that you're having to work with through your day.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Pretty much. That's my version of early morning coffee. I don't have coffee, I just do that run and I'm woken up and ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Okay, so you're practically an athlete in the workforce. That's what we're hearing right now. Yeah. Well, hey, Case, thank you so much for sharing with us like your transition from being a D1 college athlete into the workforce. It's super inspiring. We've loved learning about it. And it is such a positive thing to hear, you know, your journey. And I I certainly love watching you as an athlete. And I love just the you know, the notion that every athlete can take their skill set and just pivot and put what they've done in sport just into another avenue in life. And your your sporting career might end, but it doesn't mean that your talents just can't be transferred into something else.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Yeah, yeah. I think last thing, last little comment. Just uh I think another thing that I think athletes should know, in particular, college athletes. A lot of times, I feel like, especially right now, I've heard how many people have problems in the job market and like they're so worried about getting a job or what they want to do next. And I think a lot of times college athletes don't really realize that we're like we are starting so much further ahead of most of the other groups. There's just so much that you learn social-wise, and and like in in the workforce, that's so important that you have learned being a part of a college team that a lot of people don't really have. And I think that's kind of something I've noticed kind of in this first six months working is there's just like you can notice when somebody was an athlete and somebody wasn't a college athlete. There's there's just you can just notice. I mean, there's the way that people interact with each other and the way they interact with with clients, the way they interact with their workmates. Like there's just a big difference of being a part of a team, a college team that's so closely knit you can tell. So I think that's something to to kind of note as a college athlete is you are starting in a good place, and there is it's it's not as bad of a transition as it might seem.