Leave Your Backpack at the Fence

What if the secret to building a state championship team wasn't drills or plays, but teaching kids to drop their mental garbage at the fence before practice? This week I sit down with Janet Dickey, head field hockey coach at Westbrook High in Connecticut, certified mindset coach, and founder of Victory Mindsets. Janet is entering her 36th season coaching the same small-town program she played for as a kid, and she's built one of the smallest schools in the state into a conference champion.

We get into the "blade 54 generation" of kids who want to be told exactly where to run, how a 2016 state title pushed her toward mindset coaching, and why she's stayed at the same school for three and a half decades while everyone else was leveling up and moving on. Plus, sibling rivalry as rocket fuel, raising problem solvers instead of rule followers, and why "I loved watching you play today" might be the most important thing a parent can say on the car ride home.

Find Janet at victorymindsets.com or on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Want to be a guest on Drink O'Clock? Send us a message on PodMatch here: podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/drinkoclock

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:36

You know, this is a new software, so I gotta tell you, I'm not I'm not used to the countdown. I can turn it off, but I kind of like it a little bit. I kind of like it a little bit. Gives you gives you gives you you know something to expect. My old one was like record boom, you know. Uh you have the those couple extra seconds that get you can compose yourself. But um, this is the Drink a Clock podcast. Um my I'm the host, Rob Valentius, and I have the pleasure of having with me now uh Janet Dickey. Now typically takes a little bit for me to figure out names. Yours, I'm good. I'm not gonna mess up uh Dickey. I at least I hope I didn't mess it up. So I probably should have asked you anyway, just in case there was a way to say it. No, we got it. Uh awesome, awesome. Now, Janet, you're a head coach, you're a certified mindset coach, and you're also the founder of Victory Mindsets. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Thanks for having me on. This is fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Good, good. Yeah. I mean, hey, look, uh, PodMatch has been good to me. Um I have really professional site. I like it. It's uh, you know, it's a it's a great way to find people to talk to that are legit because when I first started, so I'm in this year in August, it'll be year four. So when I first started, uh I got everybody from Reddit. Now Reddit is an interesting place to find people to chat with. Um some people are flaky, you know. In the beginning, you know, I had people that just didn't show up or they tell me they forgot, whatever the case is. Um, so it's not like I could rate somebody from Reddit. And then I have the crazy people, which were always so much fun to interview. For me, I love the crazy people because uh I could probably let them talk all day and uh you know go to town with that. But um, you know, I I podmatch has been uh a great utility um for this podcast. I don't know what your what your thoughts are on on PodMatch.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

I've had a wonderful experience with it. Um, I didn't realize it was a thing until someone recommended it to me. And I was like, wow, this is really a thing. And it's it's yeah, I've had some fun interviews, I've had some kind of dull ones. Um, I've had ones where we're not face to face, and that's kind of freaky for me. But like, um yeah, I and I'm going to a live recording. I'm in Connecticut and I'm going into the Bronx on Saturday to do a live recording, so I'm wicked excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Man, if I had a real studio and this wasn't like my bedroom behind me, I would have had to come record with me. I'm out of Philly, man. Oh, that would have been fun. Philly born.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

I love to love Philly. You gotta be a Gino Ari Emma fan then.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah, look, man, uh, I gotta tell you, sports here has been a little rough. Um except the Eagles. The Eagles are always have always been a uh kind of a light to our darkness here. Uh it's awesome to see the Flyers in the playoffs. Um, I'm not hockey's like fourth for me. Uh basketball being number two, the Sixers have been a dumpster fire for years. Ever. And they're still a dumpster fire, and you know, we're missing our best player going into you know, fucking Boston, who's you know, arguably the I think they're better than the Pistons, so they're probably the best team in the East. And uh we're probably gonna get smoked. If we get one game, I'll be happy. Two, I'll be shocked. So uh we'll we'll see how that goes. I mean, playing in Philly is a little tough, but we always choke against Boston, um, unfortunately. And they got Tatum back, so it's and then the Phillies are just uh you know, when you run it back every year, yeah. You know, it's awful. It's all I don't know. Well, who are you a fan of up there?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So we where we live is smack dab in the middle, um halfway between Boston and New York. So our whole town growing up, it was always 50-50. Um I am more of an amateur sports fan. I love college athletics, anything college athletics. Um, I really enjoy watching. Um, but growing up, um, I'm gonna date myself, but it was the New York Rangers because they had um the Maloney boys and they had Ron Duguet, and and they were always doing ads on TV for like I think it was Sasson Jeans or something that Ron Duguet did. Um, and then so the Rangers um ice hockey was is my team. Um, I have two boys that are New Jersey Devil fans, um much to my chagrin. And my daughter is uh Maple Leafs fan. So um interesting. Yeah. Uh she she was dating a guy who was a heavy Boston fan, and when they broke up, she's like, I'm gonna go with their rivals. So, and then she's she loves Austin Matthews, so that's her her thing. Um that's funny. Yeah, I mean gone to games at Yankee Stadium, I've gone to Fenway, I've you know, and but for me, it really like UConn is obviously um a big uh draw for us. University of North Carolina field hockey is like you know, our favorite. Um, I was watching UNC and Duke lacrosse game before I left um to go out earlier. So yeah, more collegiate, anything collegiate I'll watch, like gymnastics, not really swimming and stuff like that, but any collegiate competition. And then um I like to watch uh the Premier League from England every weekend, and Man City is my team.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

So nice, okay. Yeah, see, I uh the the soccer thing or you know, football is you know, and when if you're in Europe, um I'm still I'm I'm not quite there yet watching that. I got a couple buddies who are uh Cuban, Puerto Rican, uh they live in Miami, they're coworkers, and they're they're obsessed with soccer, so that's all they talk about. And uh I I've never really I played a lot actually when I was younger, uh, but I never really got really into it. Um UConn though, tell you this. I'm a Nova fan. And UConn is uh I know we're okay. I grew up I grew up like 10 minutes from but maybe 15 minutes from Villanova University. So it was always a dream of mine to go, but you know, when you're when it's 35 grand a semester, uh as a poor kid, you know, unless I was I'm I'm smart, but I didn't apply myself enough to get you know a full ride. So that was that was a no-go. But uh I actually will date myself here. I remember I stormed the court. Uh me and a buddy of mine, we were at the Wacovia Center. It was probably actually even long before it was Wacovia. I forget what the hell it was before that, but um well the Palestra is uh uh at their college, but this was like when they because they would play sometimes, they'd have like a four-game package where they actually play where uh the Sixers play. And I stormed the court with a buddy of mine when we upset UConn. UConn, I think, was ranked at the time, and we weren't. And uh we stormed the court because it was a last second thing. And uh, this was when Randy Foy played for Nova. Um, a very young freshman, Kyle Lowry, was playing. He wasn't even, I don't even think he was a starter yet. Um, and they had some other players that we really got into that that did a couple of them got drafted, but never really did much. Randy Foy, I think, was uh outside of Lowry. Lowry was obviously the you know the headliner there, but uh that that was uh a cool experience. But now in my I I don't um I don't follow Nova as much, but they're local, so we always want them to do well. But it's not like I wanted UConn to lose. I know their women's basketball is really good, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yes, yes. Um Gino is a Philly boy. He um he came up through the system in Philadelphia. Norristown is where he was from. I'm a huge Gino Ariana fan. I just love how he coaches and what he demands of those girls and uh the bar he sets. And I have been for a very long time, but I'll tell you a funny side story. So um my husband and I had the same Spanish teacher in high school. He he's four years older than me, but we had the same teacher, and uh he was a Nova, heavy Nova alum. And this is how I got into college bat watching college basketball. Our TV got our black and white TV got two stations, and CBS would show a game of the week every Saturday, and oftentimes it was Providence um and or Villanova or Big East game. It was never, never UConn back then, but it was you know something. If we could tell him what the Villanova score was on the next quiz, we got like 10 extra points. Um my husband got he got, I don't want to say he got passed in that class, but he got a good grade because he could sing the Villanova fight song. So that was my introduction to like Rolly Massamino and all of them. If I would watch every Saturday whatever I could for c men's college basketball, and it literally was like a doubleheader, I want to say, on Saturday afternoons that they used to show back then. Uh, and it would have had to been CBS because liter ABC and CBS were the only two channels we got.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

So yeah, college basketball is really fun to watch, especially March Madness. I mean, it's just the the stuff that could this year was a little lackluster the first two rounds, maybe, but once once you got really to like this, you know, the sweet 16 Elite Eight, there were some crazy games. And then obviously, uh, you know, the the game winner uh was it against Duke, right? Yep, and that was just and of course I picked Duke. I had a nice little parlay going on. I'm like, oh yeah, I got this. And then I was I I knew he was gonna hit the shot. As soon as we took it, I'm like, damn it, I lost. I only I'm not a big better, right? You know, I bet five bucks here, five bucks there, but I was like, ah, that's a I would have won 30 bucks. I'm like, well, I lost five. Uh, it is what it is, you know. Uh but it's uh college sports is fun. You know, you can really see the passion when you're dealing with kids. Uh I don't follow, I just don't follow it as much as I do pro, but I know enough to be dangerous, especially during the draft, because I'm one of those research people. So before the draft, I'm like, I'm looking at draft boards, Mel Kuiper, uh, you know, and I'm like like really into figuring out, trying to figure out who the Eagles are gonna draft, what they're gonna do. And then they always just do the exact opposite of what you think they're gonna do. But well, look, let's uh let's talk a little bit about you, right? That's this podcast is for um talk to me. Uh let's just talk a little bit about growing up, you know. Obviously, we talked about uh, you know, you you're you're in Connecticut. Did you always were you born there? I was born in Narrestown, by the way. Uh so I was born where Gino was. But uh talk a little bit about growing up and you know what got you into sports and and ultimately uh lacrosse, right? Is is your is your big one there.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Field hockey.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Field hockey. Field hockey.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yep. Um, so yes, I actually live on the street I grew up on. Um now. My son, my youngest, lives in the house I grew up in. That's cool. Um yeah, we it was a piece of land that my dad had um in his family that we ended up putting our house on. But yep, born and raised in Westbrook, Connecticut, very small population. We are in a beach association, so we go from about 5,000 in our town in the winter to about 15,000 in the summer. Um, my bestie is is one of the only summer people I ever really hung out with. Um, we've been besties since we were 12. Um, so we're going on a good 50-year anniversary of our friendship. And um, yep, got uh went to college. So I was the eight years younger than my sister, and my sister is just phenomenal. She still is, it kills me. She is one of those naturally athletic people. Like, she was like, uh, we went skiing one time. This was like 30 years ago, and she's like, I think I want to try this snowboarding stuff. I'm like, okay. Next thing you know, rant, rant, rant, rant. I'm like, really? I'm on the skis doing this as I'm going down. But so I was the little kid that traps behind my sister who played three sports right after Title IX came. Is it Title Nine? Yeah, Title Nine, I had to think for a minute. Right after Title IX came through. Um, a phenomenal uh phys ed teacher at the school who coached all three sports. Um so she played field hockey, basketball, and softball, and they were competitive in each one. And all of her friends, I was that annoying little, you know, I was in first grade, she was a you know, fourth grade, I was a uh she was a senior in high school. So I was the annoying little sister, but they all of her friends were so good to me. And it was, I would get home and I would take her extra sticks out in the side yard and get my two friends that lived in the neighborhood year-round and say, Let's play, let's play, let's play, let's play. You know, always out in the yard playing something kickball, badge ball, you know, field hockey, basketball, playing horse, shooting hoops, trying to do whatever we could. And then it morphed into I started playing field hockey in middle school. And in the eighth grade, I had my math teacher was our coach, and she was phenomenal. I struggled. My sister was the Val Victorian. She went to Connecticut College um on a triple like biology major, you know, uber, uber smart. I I, you know, struggled every time my mom would come home from open house, I'd be like, Oh, here we go. Here's the speech. You don't apply yourself, you don't focus. Well, not for nothing, people. Massive ADHD, but it wasn't a thing back then in the 80s, and it certainly wasn't a girl thing. So um, I had a math teacher who was also our field hockey coach, and she taught math in a way that I got it, and we connected uh at field hockey. So she really, I think that eighth grade year really solidified that love of the game for me. Um, went through and played, um, you know, did fairly well, and went to college and couldn't get my footing in college. I I was on the team, but then I was like, uh, this is not what I expect. You know, I wasn't prepared for being in college and being on a c collegiate junior college, but still, you know, on that type of level. So, and and having competition for my spot. I was always one of the best ones at my spot, so I never had to compete for my spot from freshman year on. So um, it was all kind of brand new to me. And ended up um getting married when I was 19. I met a guy, he went into the Marine Corps. We lived in uh California for a little bit, and then we lived in Hawaii, which was flipping awesome. I every oh I gotta tell you, it heritage is so fascinating. It really, really is. Um, I worked with a woman who was seven years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and you know, we learned about it in our history books and like you know, those old black and white movies that they always show in our classes. This is someone who said she was walking to church when they the planes were going over, like you know, so just very fascinating. Ended up coming back to Connecticut, um, no longer married to that person, but the head coaching job at our school opened up, and I was 23, 24, maybe at the time. And I was like actually the JV coach uh opened up. So I took JV for two years, and then I in 1990 I took over as the head coach. So had a great life living in Hawaii. Jettison, that husband, got a great husband now. We've been together 33 years, and uh yep, we have three children. Um, my daughter was a regional All-American, she played for me, and she went on to play in college and also coaching collegiate um the collegiate rank. She was an assistant coach at Western Connecticut.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

So following in the footsteps, huh? That's gotta be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Yeah, it was very cool. But you know, I I my sister laughs when I say I really do owe it all to my hatred of her when I was growing up, but my, you know, my incessant need to prove that I could be just as good, if not better. And that really is at the core of what I think drives me internally for everything I do in my life.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Yeah, there's something about sibling rivalry. So my brother is five years younger than me, and uh we shared similar interests. He uh, you know, he always, you know, well, he tells me this now, but he always looked up to me. So he would um he would like the same stuff that I liked just because I liked it, you know. So we played me and him used to play a lot of basketball together, and we uh we had very different games. So um yeah, we we grew up in a family. Well, we grew up in a poor family, you know. We're not you know, we got by, but we also, you know, unfortunately in in the world that we live in, poor families we tend to not uh we're not as nutritious typically. So either not eating or what you are eating is not nutritious, it's because it's cheap. So uh we grew up eating spaghettios, and my mom did the best she could, you know, for a while. My parents were together until we were about uh maybe uh I was probably 10 or 11. And my brother was like five or six, so he was pretty young. And uh, so we were chubby kids. And then uh as we grew up, so when I hit like 13, I'm like, man, I I really want girls to start noticing me. And I don't like people to call me the fat kid anymore. So I put myself on a diet. My mom helped me, like, we would do like fat-free chicken patties and like she made it, you know, kiddie, you know, because I was 13. So I lost like I actually lost so much weight. I went from oh, I was like 200 pounds and I was 13. So I was I was a big kid. I was like carbon. Uh I went from 200 pounds to down to like one. I want to say I was like, I might have been even more than that, but I I lost, I went down to like 130. Like, you know, as a kid, you can just you just follow you just lose it. Your metabolism's insane. Um, I actually lost so much weight in the three months, two and a half months, you know, summer that when I came back, people didn't know who I was. And uh so then my brother at some point was like, oh my brother got skinny, you know. I need to so then he started to to be healthier. And then me and him were just we would just play basketball all the time together. That was like our thing. But my game was a lot different. He was always he's taller than me, of course. You know, my mom smoked cigarettes when she had me. Thanks, mom. Uh, because it was okay to do that in the 80s, it wouldn't affect your kid. Um, so my brother is a little bit taller, he's maybe like 5'8, 5'9, and I'm I'm five five. So he always had a different game than me. He was more of like the power forward, and I was always the point guard, you know. And I always, uh, because I was shorter, I was, I mean, I was fast. That was like my one thing. I was short, but I was fast as shit. So, but I always tried to play smarter. Because when you're small in a sport like basketball that revolves around athleticism, you have to play smarter. It's just like like Kyle Lowry is the same thing. He's a shorter guy, but he always played smarter. So I always had to try to think two steps ahead of the defense. That was like always my game growing up. Um, so I would do a lot of no-look passes behind the back. I would be doing um weird things that people wouldn't, you know, think of because I'm thinking to myself, if I run this way, and if my teammate who I just met five minutes ago, it's harder when you're when you're playing pickup games, uh, cuts this way. His man is probably not gonna be in the lane where I need him to be, and I can kick up a pass and it's an easy layup. It it worked with the smarter people, not so much with the people who are just running around trying to shoot the ball. But um, basketball was like always our thing growing up. We played some football too, but um, it's just funny. And me and him got, we didn't get into like fist fights, but we would definitely, especially if it was just me and him and we're playing one-on-one, there was always this. I had to beat him because I was the older kid. And if he beat me, like he would get mad because if I played fast, then he would play bully ball. So it was like, did you guys ever have that like growing up?

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Like the one-on-one situations and not so much with my sister because she was already out of the house when I was going into like fifth grade. She was going to freshman year at college, and then she never came, she never really moved back. And my brother was 13 years older than me, so he went to college when I was uh kindergarten. But I think like no, never really had that. So that was part of I think what when I went to college I wasn't prepared for was the competition of people fighting you for your for your spot. Like I never really had to fight for it. So that is one of the things that I try to instill in my girls that play for me is you know, we are a small squad, we're a small school, and yeah, you're pretty much guaranteed a spot. You don't have to try out there's no cuts, but you know, you should always play and act like somebody is is out for your spot, you know. Like I I always make it very clear that no, you know, every year it's a fresh slate, and when we go in in preseason, everything is new and and that's it. But um, I didn't didn't really have that. My kids are too so because there was such a big space between my siblings and I, my children are the three of the most competitive people I've ever met in my life. And my sons are much like you and your. Brother. Um, the youngest is four and a half years um younger than the oldest, but Jeffrey can't be any more than five five or five six. And his older brother's six two. He got my husband's height. So the knee hockey games that used to happen in this house, because they were both ice hockey players, were pretty brutal. Sometimes the card games got a little bit out of control or the board games. Um, and I also think it helped my daughter because I think she was always trying to show she was better than the boys. Like she's the middle child, she always has that. I'm the man owned, I'm the only girl, I'm the middle, but you know, I call it Jan Brady syndrome, which is uh, you know, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. I don't know if you understand that, but so there's a bit of that also for her. So I think looking at their personalities, I love the way they turned out because they she is so competitive, like so freaking competitive. And I love you know, watching her when she would play in college, even when she played for me, I you know, I just would stand there and watch her and go, damn, that's my kid. And she is so freaking good, you know, and had nothing to do with me. It was all her, trust me. You know, I was just guiding them along. But, you know, it's just so much fun for a parent to see that.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Competition, uh, you know, regardless of what it's in, um, I really think, especially as a kid, um, yeah, I really think it it helps you grow as a person because it teaches you about winning and how to be, you know, a great diswinner. It teaches you about losing. Because I know that today's day and everyone gets a participation trophy. But that's not how the real world works, right? If you lose, you're unfortunately you're a loser. You can play as hard as you want. You can be the best player on the field, but if you if you're still gonna lose it, you're still lost. And uh it's I think it's a lot of those lessons sports, right? Because that goes into life as well. Um and you know, for me, I think that's where a lot of kids these days. And look, you're you're a coach, right? I mean, I think kids struggle now because a lot of you know, it's a lot of proof. You know, when you're when you're a kid, it's like it's okay to lose, it's okay to do this, it's okay to that. But then, you know, I think they struggle with that later in life, whether it's through sports or even in real life, because they they they grew up getting that that free trophy for no reason.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

That is the biggest battle I think that any coach has these days. Um, is when you were talking about how you used to see, like when you were playing with certain guys, and you'd be like, all right, you're planning the you're planning your thing three three moves ahead. Um I we call this the blade 54 generation. They want me to tell them to run to like because we play on grass, all right, you're gonna run to blade 54 of the grass, and Mary's gonna dribble the ball to blade 63, and then she's gonna pass it perfectly to you. They can't, they cannot think outside the box for themselves, which is this system that I've created, and and I created it with help from another, like even we got coached, my assistant and I, we took a coaching course for a whole year with a great guy from Australia who who has a great company um called the Coaching Lab. And it's about you are the problem, you as coaches are the problem setters. Let the kids be the problem solvers. Because if they can't problem solve in the middle of a game, how are they gonna problem solve in the middle of the day? How are they gonna problem solve in the middle of driving a car? How are they gonna problem solve when they get to be an adult and they've got a coworker that they they can't get along with, or they they have a boss that they just don't know how to relate to, or so there's so much of life lessons that we try to incorporate into it. But this like mentality of you just tell me what to do, coach, and I'll go do it. Well, that's not how this works. So sometimes to make them understand it, we have a pond where we have a beautiful field where we're way away from the high school, we're out in a complex, we're in the outfield of the baseball field, and it it has this big pond around it. And in the fall, it's just gorgeous because the leaves change color. And I just when we walk out there every day, I'm just so happy and lucky to be out there doing what I do and what I love with surrounded by athletes that want to learn and are excited to be there. And I will say to them, and we we actually do different things, you know, at different times, but I will say to them, I can go to Five Below and buy a set of paints and those little um canvases, and maybe tomorrow we're all gonna sit and we're all gonna paint the pond. And you know what? Everyone's interpretation is gonna be different, but that's okay because when you put the pictures together, it's still what we're all looking at to make it tie into that, and they go, uh, you know, like yeah, so you gotta the kids want to be creative, they need to be creative. They can't this leading them around, like I'm scared. I'm scared when I'm elderly. Who's gonna be taking care of me like in a nursing home? Because I totally plan on picking one that has a happy hour and puts me to bed by six o'clock at night, and I can watch whatever I want on TV, preferably somewhere sunny and warm, or just lie to me, just lie to me and have a sand pit somewhere, wheel me out to the sand and let me sell myself. But like, who's gonna take care of me if they can't figure out what I need and and they're gonna freak out because no one told them that I need a medication at a certain time and they have a you know, I must do this, I must do that. Like, you know, and the you've got to foster the competition within your team in a healthy way. Because you're gonna have all those parents on the sideline that are gonna be woofing about, oh, I'm gonna say that one and that, and then why is that one playing? And you know, the parents meeting, I'm very, you know, luckily for me, field hockey is not a sport that anybody's dad has coached since they were little kids. You know, when you get in soccer, I wouldn't want anything to do with coaching high school soccer because every one of those dads has either coached a parking rec team or uh played for Man City, like in their brains. Like I just thank you. They know nothing about field hockey, so or not nothing, but next to nothing. And and so when I have my parents meeting, I can tell them I these are my expectations. When you get in a car with your daughter after a game, or you can't find something positive to say to her, all I want you to say to her was, I love watching you play today. That was so much fun. Thank you very much. And you know, I've gotten compliments on our parents. Like, they I'm like, if you see good play from the other team, absolutely applaud it. Like you should be doing that. And there are certain teams that come in, and my parents afterwards are like, Whoa, their parents are brutal. I'm like, Yep, but it's not us, and never will it be under my tenure how we behave.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

I couldn't be you, I couldn't deal with the parents. I'm sure it is not fun because I couldn't imagine. I mean, I I remember um I remember cheering on my brother. He was in a basketball league, but it was a church league, and I was uh cheering them on and uh this one kid. I I got really frustrated because the kid that was playing, I don't know if he was uh actually the same age as everybody, but he was a foot taller of all of them. And I just remember, and I I'm probably at the top of the kid. I'm like, like, you get up the bastard, you know, I'm yelling. And the the the the church were like, look, I'm gonna have to leave. And I'm like, what? They're like, you can't be yelling. And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. Like, you know, he's my brother. I want him to to dominate. And he would have been the biggest person outside of this gargantuan kid that just had to catch the ball and be like, oh, you know, like it was he was a monster. And that was back then, so you know, it's probably even crazier now for sometimes they see like eighth graders that are you know sixth four, and you're like, Well, I don't even care, you know, uh but destined to be uh a sports uh person of some kind in their future. Now, um, so you're entering your 35th season at Westbrook? Going into my 36th. 36th. So, you know, obviously coaches tend to move around. What's kept you in the same program for three and a half decades? You know, I mean, um, you gotta love it, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:48

I absolutely love it. I have a great foundation, I have great support from my administrators, and um I have, like I said, this is my town. It's the team I went, I played on. It's my school that I grew up in and graduated from. My husband graduated from there. Um, like longevity, I think, is something that kind of I don't know if it's a work ethic um really that was instilled in me. My dad was a self-employed jeweler who always was, you know, we're the first to you are art when your name's over the door, you're the first to come, you're the last to go, and you do all the cruddy jobs. Um, and I just think it was, and and you didn't leave a job until you had another one lined up. Like that was either better or equal pay, you you know, or if you had to take a cut was better for you, whatever for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Um so I think it was the work ethic that was instilled to me in me by by my dad. Um, but yet again, our town is is a very close-knit community. My husband's been at his is the first job for him out of college, and he is um in year 42 at the same company.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Unusual, yeah, you know, and very unusual for us. But like I said, I I in like I I love what I do, and and I can't imagine, you know, I did get asked once about let me see, Kevin's 26. He was maybe just had him, or he was one. So 25 years ago, a job came up at a college nearby, and uh an equipment guy who I knew um said, Oh, you'd be great for this, you should go and apply. And I I was like, you know what? I I have no desire. Like I I at that point I hadn't really accomplished everything I wanted to with my Westbrook team. And I felt as though I just, you know, it wasn't my it wasn't it wasn't in my heart. I I didn't feel like it was what I really needed to do. I feel like there's too much of the leveling up. I'm gonna I'm gonna start here and then I'm gonna level up in two years, I'm gonna go here, and I'm gonna go there. And and I feel like when you look at someone's resume and they shifted around that much, that like to me is a red flag. That's just me.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Commitment there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

He yeah, that's a super red flag to me. Like, why, you know, and I think that's actually something that I instilled in all of my children as well. Um, which, you know, I've you know, I have a like I said, I have a son, and he just switched jobs, but he was at the other job for like eight or nine years, and he said, Mom, this is a this is a level up for me, and you know, management changed at my other job, and it like he was trying to sell it to me. I'm like, dude, you don't have to sell it to me. You know, I get it. Like it's fine, but you know, I it's it's very um rewarding as a mom and as a coach to see the longevity of what you've created and values that you don't even know that you've instilled in people that you've instilled in them. My middle school coach is a teacher in our school system, she played for me. So that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, and she's raising two kids in town, and her little one is like playing now. She's she's actually done a phenomenal job of trying to create interest um with the elementary school age kids because, like I said, we're a very small program, and getting, you know, uh competing against towns that have a great feeder program and great park and rec things. She's done a great job with the park and rec stuff. Why? She has a passion for it. This kid loved playing, she loves coaching, and it and she brings that into everything she does. And our fields are kind of like side by side a little bit. Their kids are always running over after practice, the middle schoolers, if we have a game and sitting on the sideline and watch it. So I say to mine, look, you're setting the example for the littles. Like they're you're you're like their idols, they want to be like you when they get to high school. So set a good example for them, which is what my sister's friends did for me.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

That's awesome. You know, um, I live in northeast Philly, so it's a little bit different for us. Like our uh sometimes I I wish we had that small town oriented thing because I feel like you'd you know pe everyone you run into, but uh there's there's positives and negatives, I guess. We don't have a convenience store or freaking have a beer store with a walking distance. So like you know, you get you get some some cool stuff either way. I think it depends on what you're into. Um now Westbrook was one of the smallest programs, right, in Connecticut, but you've built them into a bit of a powerhouse. Um what's year one coaching been like for you compared to now?

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Oh gosh, year one. Um, I don't think we won a game. I was so young, year one. Um, what was I like 23, 24, maybe? Um, and just naive. I coached them like I wanted to be coached, like how I thought coaching should be. Like I was, you know, I'm in charge, and you know, clueless, absolutely clueless. Um, God bless those girls that they still talk to me. Um, one of them is an official in the area now. Um, and yeah, I love, you know, and she she'll make a call and she'll look at me and go, like, she's looking for my approval, and I'll be like, Kel, it's fine. You're good, you're good. Like it's just funny. And then I have to remember she still sees me as her coach. I see her as my peer. She still sees me as her coach. So I have to remember that that, you know, I have that kind of whatever, you know, that aura or whatever. Um, and then, you know, I went along, went along, went along. Got some good players. Um, got a little better, but I gotta be honest with you, when I ended up, and I'm trying to think, Emily's been with me for 20, Mikhail's 29, like 29 seasons. When I got together with my assistant coach, she really is the yin to my yang. Like, she is good at the things that I am not good at, and the coming together of our minds um really is what helped start to change. I think as a coach, you have to be okay with asking for help, um, taking help, receiving information, um, you know, just okay, this isn't working. I gotta go in a different direction. It's okay to be vulnerable like that. And I don't know that a lot of coaches can be vulnerable. I know a lot of coaches that are doing things the way they did them in the 80s. Well, okay, that's great, but what are you creating players that can adapt to a collegiate program? Or are you creating players that play the system that you've taught them that works for you? Like, I feel like we are raising young ladies that some of some of which are gonna play in college and are gonna have to learn how to get along with new teammates and maybe teammates that they might not get along with outside of the field, but when they're on the field, they gotta they gotta get along with them. You know, we're raising these young women to go out and be able to use the voices to talk and and advocate for themselves. Um, you know, our social media, they can ignore any of the social media garbage that that gets spewed on them. I I would first of all, I always joke with my assistant coach. I would have to have broken her phone when we were in high school if we ever knew each other in high school. She went to a different school, she went to a rival school, as a matter of fact. Um, but she's like the got a post, you know, she likes Facebook and all that stuff, and she's always checking in, and she all she'll ask, she'll say, Is it okay if I tag you? And I'll, you know, I'll say yes or no. We she would have been the one that would have been like online telling everybody we were at the keg party in the woods. Like that's just her and her personality, you know. I can't imagine my parents having the ability to check in and see where I was 98% of the time when I was in in high school. Luckily for me, I was eight years younger, so they were a little tired by the time I came along. And you know, I did a lot, I I like to say I was raised by TV, you know, the TV families, the Partridge family, the Brady Bunch, they all raised me. That was good. But is it's a joke now because my sister-in-law and I are the same age, and my husband is four years older than us. He was going to Yukon, and we were uh juniors in high school and seniors in high school. I would tell my parents I was going to the library with Sue, and we'd go up to Yukon. Now, Yukon is about a little over an hour on rural country roads. Now, picture that in uh, you know, I'd put enough gas in so that they wouldn't notice the gas was gone. And but we never thought we were gonna hit a deer. That wasn't a thing then. Flat tire. I don't know what I would have done if I ever got a flat tire. I would have had to go find somebody's house, knock on the door. I would have had to call my father on a phone and go, I'm in, you know, I'm 50 minutes away. Can you, you know, come help or whatever? Never thought of that. Got in the car, went up there, went up to it was the old field house at UConn. We used to watch the games, the basketball, the guys' basketball games, and come home. And my parents were like, Well, you're at the library a lot. Why are your grades so bad?

SPEAKER_00 40:22

I'm like, jeez, I I I'm trying. Yeah. Must be the teacher. We lived, we lived in a different like, because I'm, you know, I grew up, I was born in 86, so I I'm a millennial, but I was kind of like the last generation that grew up without cell phones. You know, I didn't get a cell phone until I was in high school, right? So I grew up up to 13, 14, 15 ish before I had a cell phone. And I think, you know, um I appreciate that time now as an adult because hey, my mom would be like, be home by six for dinner. You're not home. I'm assuming you're being kidnapped, I'll call the police. You know, like my mom was was uh, you know, very uh protective, but you know, it was a weird time frame. Now, you know, if you're it's like everything's instant contact, you know, it's it's very hard to break off that grid, to leave the grid of you know, everyone can get to you, whether it's your cell phone through text and call or social media, right? Facebook message or whatever. You're always reachable. And I I I did appreciate uh, you know, uh being able to unplug or just if I didn't want to talk to someone, I didn't have to. And I think the kids now it's you can't unplug. Everything is interconnected with everything, you know.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

And and our kids are so afraid of fear of fear of judgment and fear of failure. Yeah, they are, you know, because it's gonna be splashed everywhere. And that is my biggest thing is they when they come in, so we're in the outfield of the baseball field, and they come into the like all in the fences, and they leave their imaginary backpack of garbage from the day on the outside of the fences. And and there are days when I go, you know what, I need to go outside the fences, drop my garbage, and come back in. Like there'll be days when I'm a little scattered and I'll be like, Yeah, I gotta go do this right now. And the the phones stay in the bag. Like when we have a water break or we're having a little bit of a transition time, you know, the phone stays in the bag. You're there, be present with your friends because you're never gonna be present in this moment again. And I think that's one of the things that they truly actually appreciate is the permission to be present in the moment and not have to be constantly checking those phones. And you know, the captains are all making TikToks after the game, like with whoever scored a goal or had an assist or whatever. That's awesome. And they're doing their TikTok and then they're done, and then the back the phones are backstahed again. And I explained that to the parents at the beginning. Don't expect to get instantly in touch in touch with your kid during practice time, because you know, if if it's my time, I'm with them. I don't answer my phone then. My phone is in my bag, and I don't even look at it until the end of practice. I have a radio if the AD needs to get me or the athletic trainer needs to get me. If there's a hurricane coming and they need to radio something, I have a radio and I can hear that instantly. Otherwise, it's my time with my girls.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

And I I appreciate that. I I think uh more people kind of need to follow that direction because we don't we don't have a lot of that. Old school, right? Um now you became a certified mindset coach in 2019. What was happening in your coaching life that made you say, I need to go get certified in this?

SPEAKER_01 43:48

So what happened was in 2016, we won a state title with um 16 kids on our team. Now it takes 11 just Like soccer on a size. And and most of those kids were like freshmen. I want to say maybe five or six of the starters were freshmen. And I had kind of been doing different things. I would go to different conferences, get different ideas from different coaches, and I kind of belt blended it all together. Well, after that game, I realized that I'm onto something here, but I didn't really know what. And the training popped up, you know, like much like when you talk about something and it pops into your phone or whatever. Um, from po yeah, positive performance, um, Lindsay Wilson. Um, and it was uh, you know, get certified. And I thought maybe I, you know, maybe I could turn this into something, um, you know, in addition to what I do anyway. So um I did the certification mostly through COVID, I I want to say. I started that September, so September 2019, and uh it was a year-long thing, and um started using more of the techniques that I learned from Lindsay that I that I teach now that she certified us in. And um this past season was so in 2021, we didn't have enough for our own team. So we um reached out to a former player who's an athletic director at a nearby town, and we ended up with a co-op team. So a school who had never had field hockey, although their AD played for me, and our school. So I had girls coming over from that school, and this is the fifth year in the cycle, and employing all the techniques that I I've been employing all the way through, and um combining it with the coaching lab with our friend Jack from Australia, stuff from him, made this whole bundle of stuff, and I'm like, wow, this really works. And I see so many of my fellow coaches struggling. Like, we're the first co-op in, I don't know if it's in the state, but I definitely know it's in our conference to win a conference title. We won our conference title. Um, we had 15, 15 wins this season. We're 15, two and two, I want to say. And um, yeah, and I want to share it. And I'm like, well, I should you know, this is a great side gig. Like, I love sharing it, but I I also like that I can say, hey, this is my job. I get to coach people for a living. I love that because that's what I love to do. I was born to be a coach. I I didn't know it. I wish I had known it back when I was trying to figure out what to do in college. I probably would have gone to be a teacher, but back in the in the early 80s, um teaching wasn't a profession you went into. My dad wanted me to go into business because of the business. Um, you know, get that business background, get that business degree, and you know, not not run off and get married to a Marine. You know, that's it's okay. It is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Life is life. Um, you know, I do have a lot of young people that listen to this, and I always try to guide them in the right direction. I always tell people, you know, uh, I think what makes us human is making mistakes, man. And uh, you know, as you get older, you own the mistakes, and then as you get even older, you you kind of turn those mistakes into uh a philosophy, or you turn that into something and and you make a positive out of it, I guess is the best way to put it.

SPEAKER_01 47:22

Absolutely. Here's my mantra it's how you react to the situations that you're you've been given is what defines you as a person. So that's and that's what I tell the girls. And honestly, looking back now, I think I went through everything I went through so that I could be better prepared to teach the girls now. Like I did a lot of on my own stuff, and I I learned and you know, you you go off to this tropical island, no friends, no nothing, no support group.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Um, and I mean, but if you had to go anywhere with no friends, I mean that's at least a decent place to go, right? It's not like you went to Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I think uh the next station he would have gone to, I think that's why I was like, yeah, nope, nope, not going there.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

But like everything I you know, everything I went through defines me as a person and it prepared me to better prepare these young ladies to not squander their athletic ability, to not feel like they can't accomplish something if they put their minds to it. Um, years ago I had uh you know, that come to me and and they'll be like, hey, how's school? Blah, blah, blah. Oh, I went to the guidance office and I was gonna apply to this school, this school, this school, but she told me don't even bother. I'm like, why? What's the worst they're gonna tell you? No, okay, no harm. Well, do you know that that young lady got into that school and got her degree from that school? Like, I want to walk into the office and go, What are you telling these girls? Like, don't what's the worst that can happen? No is a completely okay answer, but you're not gonna know until you try. And it's okay to fall down and it's okay to fail. I've done it, and let me show you why how I've done it. So, and how I picked myself back up and how I rebuilt, and uh, you know, so I think that all of those lessons are what have made me who I am, but they've also made me the coach that I am, and the value I bring to this program and the and the insights, the personal insights and and everything, make it uh, you know, in my mind it's a no-brainer. I don't know why I don't have a line out the door waiting to talk to me, but well, that's why we gotta get you out there, right?

SPEAKER_00 49:42

Um it's that's why I'm here. Well, it's the it's the famous Michael Scott um quote, right? You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. Uh I think Wayne Gretzky said it too, but uh, you know, we'll get we'll give it to Michael Scott. So I like that. I think that's I think it's important. I think it's good to to teach kids it's okay to fail, man. Um, you know, my generation, um, it that's very much what it was like. It was like, hey, you fail, you fail. If you get knocked down, come back up. I mean, my dad, um, you know, I got my ass whooped. I would Narkstown was not uh not the friendliest place to grow up as a kid. So, you know, I walked to school, no one drove me, you know. I was uh, you know, my middle school was it was in walking distance, so I'd walk. I got my ass beat once, and uh, you know, my dad's like, We're you're going to karate. So I went to karate, I did uh learned some taekwondo, and um, you know, I'm I'm going against this this big kid. And we, you know, we're sparring. And uh he's like, Look, man, it doesn't matter how big uh they are, you got heart. And uh I I remember I'm I'm timid at first because I'm I'm not I'm a lover, not a fighter. You know, that's not my thing. Uh and I remember this kid, he, you know, you got you the red sparring gear, he punches me in the forehead. And I just remember getting so fucking mad that I just went ballistic. I'm hitting him with jabs and left and like I I end up winning the fight, and and my dad's like, you know, they had a uh a room where parents could watch, but it was separated, you know, which is probably the smart thing to do. Uh it has like the see-through glass or whatever. And I just remember that was gymnastics.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

When my daughter went to gymnastics, I had to sit in the room and watch through the glass.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

Same thing, right? And uh I just remember, you know, when it was over my dad, he still brings stuff. You know, my dad's 62. He's like, Do you remember that time? You beat the crap out of that big kid. You know, I'm like, I'm like, Yeah, I do actually. You know, there's certain things you you do remember. Um, and you know, I think uh as it's it's important for you and and what you're doing there as a coach and teaching these kids because um I I worry as well. I deal with seniors now. It's it's you know, my job. I work in like the Medicare world. And uh I I'm worried when I get that, you know. I'm not I I'll be 40 this year, so it's not like I'm that far off, you know. Hopefully they come up with that like longevity drug for humans. I'll I'll be in line, throw it right in the veins, you know. I'm uh I'll be cool to live to like a buck fifty or something as long as as long as I still have my mind, you know. It's I don't want to lose my mind.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Um Yeah, that is the scary part, is the is the uh from what it it just in my family, from what I've seen, either the body goes and the mind is completely sharp, or the mind goes and the body is fine. And I'm thinking to myself, do I wanna know I want to walk across the room and I can't do it, or do I want to not have a clue and just walk across the room? Like you, you're like that's it's a hard one. My plan is to a hundred. I'm planning on living to a hundred. I already informed my kids. I'm I'm going out at a hundred, so we'll see. I you know, I it's tough, man.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

You know, because you don't it all the things that we've been fed and and given, and maybe this is the conspiracy theorist to me. I don't do you watch uh like Netflix and stuff? Did you watch the plastic documentary that they have on there? Don't do it. It just ruin it ruins it ruins everything for you. Now I look at everything, I'm like, oh well, that's yeah, plastic bottle. Apparently, uh they interview like uh uh how many how many couples, babe? They interview three. My my fiance's behind the green screen. Um she's kind of like my producer that's not my producer. Um so there's three couples that they interview and they're struggling to get pregnant. So this this lady who's been talking about microplastics for decades, you know, is basically kind of running an impromptu experiment. Like if we remove all the plastics from your life, will you get pregnant? I got halfway through and I'm like, Jesus, I look at everything that I do as plastic. And, you know, and God only knows what it's doing to your brain. Um I think they said in the um the documentary that everybody right now has enough microplastics to equate to a full plastic spoon. And that's just in your body right now. Um, you know, so I'm trying, I'm at the the age now where I'm trying to like live healthier. And dude, like I weigh my food and I've been doing different things to try to not be a slob, and uh everything just everything's bad for you. It's like it's like you're picking um you know, Emperor Palpatine or Darth Vader, right? It's like which one are you taking today? And that's kind of how you know life is so um it's tough. And you see documentaries like that, man, it kills me.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

Well, and yeah, and like you were saying before, like when you were saying how you the cheaper food is the junker junk food. Why? Why why is the good healthy stuff expensive? That should not be the way it should be, but it is. But um, I grew up with my mom was I would like to say she was very progressive for her day and age. Um, they used to spray for the mosquitoes in the summer, and she would run around now. These are like the memories I have of her, running around the house like a crazy person. Close the window, you gotta close the windows. What was it, DDT that they were spraying? Yeah, like she knew, but she like she was that progressive that she was on to the that's all chemicals, you gotta close it. Like, you know, keep the house, uh yeah. And yeah, I just thought she was being a crazy person because she was freaking out about, you know, I didn't realize it till I got older. My sister, you know, graduated high school in this mid-70s, went to a very uh crunchy, if you will, earthy uh college, and you know, she, you know, was a vegetarian and everything. Mom started to go to our weekly trips to the grocery also included the health food store, which I don't know what the smell was in there when I was a kid, but I don't know if it was patchouli or whatever, but it was just hard. The smell of this, but the all the unblanched almonds, the all-natural. We had a big glass jar, it was like this big, it was a pear shape, filled with sunflower seeds. So I grew up um Lucky Charms are still and will always be my cinnamon toast crunch for me.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Um big cinnamon toast crunch.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

I remember my bestie coming into the kitchen in the summer, and I'd be like, I just gotta finish my breakfast. And it was plain yogurt, chopped up whatever fresh fruit was in the house, raisins, those a handful of those nuts, a handful of those sunflower seeds. And I remember her being like, What are you eating? But that was, you know, my mom, like I said, very progressive for that day and age. I'm like, that was just what the food that was in the house, never had soda in the house, ever. No soda. Um, just was not what we drank. We had milk at dinner, we had a pewter pitcher that went on the table filled with milk at dinner, and we all filled up, you know, our glasses out of it. And it just, you know, unfortunately, when she got older, um, you know, I think her, like you said, it's like raising toddlers. The seniors are like raising toddlers. When my my son, my oldest, was a teenager, and my mom was giving me a hard time. I I would look at the two of them and go, I'm she lived two streets away. I'd be like, I'm shipping you down to Nana's and you're gonna live with Nana. Because the both of you are going through the same thing at this time, and you're both driving me crazy. So you go live with Nana, have at it. Good luck. Nasping on there, whatever, however they say it. Have a good, have a good life, the two of you. Um, but Karmer comes back around, he's got two little ones, and he's raising by himself an 11-year-old and a six-year-old.

SPEAKER_00 57:42

So hey, you did something right. You got some grandkids, right? So, you know, um, you got them through the the tough stuff, and uh now they can coach their kids just like you coach them. So it's it's a a beautiful circle. Uh the the way the way of the life.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

It is, and that is the thing, yeah. That is the thing that I don't think people connect these days is how connected we are without the cell phones, just through life connections, how connected and what that circle of life kind of is, and how important it is to nurture that circle of life, your your elders and your peers, as well as your children and the future of, you know, what did Whitney say? The I believe the children are our future. Well, I'm kind of scared for the future at times. Uh, I mean, I hold out good hope for the fact that I know that my son is raising his daughters with values that he got from us, but they're the they're the exception.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

I would agree with you. I would agree with you. Now, um, I didn't get to 90% of my questions, which is good. That means this is a good interview, Janet. Okay. Um, but look, I want you to plug away, tell us where everybody can find your content, and hopefully we can uh we can help you grow that.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

All right. So they can contact me, Victorymindsets at Gmail. And um my website is victorymindsets.com. Um, and those I'm on Instagram, I'm on uh LinkedIn, they can contact me through those. Um, and basically, you know, DM me anytime, anything they want to know about my program. Um, please, you know, contact me and say yes, yes, yes. I'm excited. I want to learn more from you. You seem like an amazing coach. And, you know, we would love to have your your uh input into our program. And and again, like I said, no judgment from me. I'm I'm on the like, I'm so excited when people want to change because I see coaches on a sideline and I really want to go up to them in the middle of a game and go, so um, I really like to help you, you know. And some people don't want that help, and I get that. And I see those girls, and afterwards, I'm like, I'll go through the high five line and I'll give them a hug and I'll whisper in their ear something, you know, positive, like, hey, you're doing the right thing. It's okay, keep going, you know, whatever. But it it's heartbreaking to me when I see people just not enjoying what they do, not enjoying the kids, and not giving those kids the experience that they should have.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:12

Well, I think a lot of people pick the wrong jobs too. You know, maybe maybe they're not in where they where they want to be either. Uh I would recommend to you get some good business cards, man. Throw a QR code on there, hand them off at the hand them off at the coach handshake. Like, hey, you ever want to want to chat? Boom, here you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

Yeah, after we after we beat you, I think that sometimes it's a little awkward. They get a little, they get a little, you know, a little uh angry sometimes. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

You should have specific business cards for the people you beat, right? I'm sorry. But if you want to find out how I did it, boom, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

Hey, that's a great idea. I gotta reorder some new ones. I might have to change them around. That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:55

I work in our I work in our marketing operations for my company, so we we try to come up with random shit all the time. So I'm like, hit me with the ideas. I'm here. Well, me and AI, you know, at this point, me and AI are like this.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:08

So um I I'm a television junkie, and you know what gets me? Like, I was gonna tease you before and say, so you basically you're mayhem and his brother outside in the park in the driveway playing basketball. Those commercials during the basketball, during the I think the the commercials during March Madness are sometimes better than the um Super Bowl ones.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

Oh, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Honestly, there's some there's some really good ones. I wish they had would have brought back the ones with with uh Charles Barkley and those guys with the we're Indianapolis. No, no, Chuck, we have to go to Indianapolis. Like that one was awesome that one year. But there are some I love a commercial that afterwards you go, wait, what what was that part?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:48

I love Barclay and and all and all those guys. They they their show and and just him in general. He just says the craziest stuff. I love it. Uh, but it's I don't know. It's funny you say that because it uh we do a holiday party every year, and um I'm on since I'm partly on our our marketing team, we always come up with a skit. And I actually wrote a whole skit for my boss. I made him instead of mayhem, I'm uh I made him uh Mr. Medicare. And he was basically there's a lot of changes in our world all the time. And uh we we basically simulated that in in the auto insurance world, but for for Medicare, and it was it was really funny. So we get a kick, we do that every year. I've made him uh you ever see the progressive commercials where they're like when you turn into your parents, like I made him the old guy. Oh, we talk about him all the time. Yeah, I made him Dr. Bob because his name's his yes, we're both Robert. So uh I made him die. So I I I get every year I get to turn him into some funny commercial person at some point, and then it's it's it's fun. But um, well, look, this was a pleasure. Um, I really enjoyed having this conversation with you. My podcast is drinkclock pod on all socials, drink clock podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as YouTube. Follow me, like, subscribe on YouTube, and uh we'll have this up soon. So um, yeah, thank you so much for joining me. And uh let's do this again soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

I would love to. Thank you very much. What an awesome time. Thanks.