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Speech Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:00  

Hey this is Christie Holm mental performance consultant with premier sports psychology. And if you really want to learn how to level up your life, you should be listening to the time to shine today podcast with my great friend Scott Ferguson

Unknown Speaker  0:14  

time to shine today podcast varsity squad. It is Scott Ferguson and we’re at Episode 198. With my awesome sauce friend Christy home. She is a mental performance consultant. She actually works a lot with the Minnesota Twins. She helps athletes attain peak performance. But she can also help just kind of an everyday Joe as well. Stay mindful, stay in the moment break out of slumps and she’ll tell us to pay attention to our emotions and just really be mindful and present. So without further ado, here’s my really good friend Christie home who helps athletes and coaches develop their leadership and resiliency skills. Let’s level up.

Unknown Speaker  1:02  

Time to shine today podcast versus squatted and Scott Ferguson and I have my beautiful friend Chrissy home from the awesome state of Minnesota. There’s only one downfall about her she went to this U of M school this blue flew everyone that knows me from Michigan knows I’m a huge party fan. But that’s okay. I mean if she got through Michigan, then she is a smarty pants which is awesome. And Chrissy is a leadership and mental performance consultant at premier sports psychology in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She works primarily with athletes and coaches to develop their leadership and resiliency skills because he’s a former NCAA and World Champion rower or crew or whatever they call it That’s awesome. I always want to do that as well as a former coach at the D one collegiate level and she left off the she could probably dunk on me if we went if we started a ball and she also played I believe at a professional level in netball if I’m not mistaken, but she’s just a rock star athlete she helps other athletes and other people really level up and Christy thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself the time to shine today podcast varsity squad. But first, what’s your favorite color? And why?

Unknown Speaker  2:09  

Who favorite color is purple? Because it is a sign of royalty? I’m always looking. Yeah, I’m looking to get at that level. Right?

Unknown Speaker  2:20  

You know what athletes that have excelled like yourself, purple is almost 100% their color. And there’s a method in my madness for asking purple you know the color because you know what I can get a feel for the person when they say their color and also to all of your marketing will be built around the color purple, which you’ll see when it rolls out. At least it’s not amazing blue. I’m good with that. But no, seriously, purple is a mix between the cool blue and the fiery red and most athletes have that in them. So I knew you’re gonna say purple actually had a pet with my man, Donnie, my producer over here. I’m like, this girl’s gonna say purple, which is awesome. So let’s get into the origins of you know, kind of growing up. Christie home in which I had her mom and I believe in Episode 140. And then her mom was gracious enough to introduce me to Christie. So let’s get in the origins of Christie and let’s level up and move forward.

Unknown Speaker  3:09  

Sure, that sounds great. Um, let’s see. So I was born in Minnesota I grew up was played all the sports under the sun. I think the only sport I didn’t do was like horseback riding. But as I grew taller kind of funneled into basketball. And so that was my main sport in high school was gonna play at the collegiate level. And then end of my senior year of high school, I felt like I just kind of want to be a student and I’m a third generation Wolverine so not just a Wolverine but a third generation Wolverine

Unknown Speaker  3:45  

legacy to live up to got

Unknown Speaker  3:46  

a legacy. Yes. And so Michigan was always my dream school. And I felt like you know, I to get the most out of it. I want to be a student, I want to be really engaged. So when I decided, Okay, I’m not going to go for a scholarship and after my time spent coaching and really recruiting, I don’t know how my parents, you know, let me leave the house after making that decision. But went in with a fresh clean slate going to Michigan and after my freshman year I had joined a sorority which was great, but wasn’t as engaged maybe in the the Michigan experience as I had wanted. And so I decided that my sophomore year I was going to walk on to the rowing team, I really wanted to be part of something greater than myself. It’s in my blood and so rowing gave me that that opportunity to really push myself to that next level. And I would say that’s kind of always been my calling card is like let’s let’s see what we can really take to the next level and run with it. So rowing was at sport for me and ended up like you said, having a lot of A lot of success on the rowing team learned a lot about myself. But really, that’s how I got into sports psychology and started that really piqued my interest. I know you mentioned having my mom on the show shout out to an Queen as she likes to be known. But she she has background and life coaching. And so I’ve Oh, I was always fascinated with the mind with performance. And I would say in my rowing career, I had both really high highs and then I had a year of difficulty and challenges. And I think I really got in my own way that imposter syndrome came up and that was really when I had to go in and decide, okay, what do you want to do moving forward? And how can we learn from this and, and keep, you know, keep pushing. So sport psychology was it for me, I went on to get my master’s in Sport and Exercise psychology from Brunel University in London, which is where I played netball, which is probably the only sport where we play in dresses. So that was a big like, Alright, here we go. But it was kind of fun to tie in. My similar to basketball and ultimate frisbee are kind of like the two sports that they would come together.

Unknown Speaker  6:23  

dribbling,

Unknown Speaker  6:24  

dribbling, nope, you run with a ball and it was fun to kind of come in as the American I was at a goal shooter and we’re all the the girls from the UK would you know, stand on their tiptoes won’t even jump to shoot the ball. And here I am, like doing a jump shot. And, you know, dunking a couple times. There’s a lot to it today but no backward, right? No backward. So if you miss you miss is

Unknown Speaker  6:50  

like not even a brick. I

Unknown Speaker  6:51  

mean, it’s not. Yeah, so you’re not here

Unknown Speaker  6:54  

with with you did? Did I hear right that you kind of took your senior year off from sports in high school.

Unknown Speaker  6:59  

So I kept playing basketball but just decided I don’t I don’t want to go for that scholarship. I don’t want to continue playing.

Unknown Speaker  7:07  

Yeah, that’s what your parents think about that.

Unknown Speaker  7:10  

Like my dad cried, it was maybe the first time I’ve ever seen my dad, right. But But my mom, the enthusiast as she is, kind of let me have that experience and was was supportive. And I think, had they been had they forced me to pursue basketball at that level. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it wouldn’t enjoy. Freedom is definitely a big value for me. And so yeah, I really appreciate them kind of stepping back, swallowing that one. And let me figure it out. And ultimately, I think it ended up really well.

Unknown Speaker  7:47  

So you’re in a sorority, you’re Greek. So but I bet from what I’m hearing, you probably missed out on competition, because you don’t really have much of that within the sorority. Right. So you that’s where you kind of was like you got a competition bog maybe and went out for the crew rowing team.

Unknown Speaker  8:03  

Yeah, I think where were those two rowing? and sororities? I was in sigma cap, I think were the two really met was and found their sweet spot was at the Michigan mud bowl, which is where it’s flag flag football and quarterback, oh, I you know, I’m running on my skin in the mud and really taking it to the next level. And they’re like, Who is this girl? What is she doing?

Unknown Speaker  8:28  

She’s a beast.

Unknown Speaker  8:30  

Yeah. She come from and why is she taking this so seriously, but that’s always fun in my nature. I’m like, 110% all the way.

Unknown Speaker  8:38  

Love it. So what do you think makes a great mental performance coach or consultant?

Unknown Speaker  8:43  

Hmm, good question. I would say the ability to really connect with an athlete with a client and get in their shoes, get in their head really understand where they’re coming from. I know that I that’s something that I’ve had to learn kind of a hard lesson I had to learn was that it is really important to really to come in to get to know whoever you’re working with and not just shove all these, you know, skill sets down their throats, they’re not ready for it. It’s

Unknown Speaker  9:19  

Yeah, they want a coach kind of where you give them the tools in a sense, but they’ve got to perform it right. I mean, so you’re there. They’re kind of taken over where like, like, you don’t see Bella check or someone like that on the field. You know, you see the actual player. So what is your secret sauce then to helping an athlete maybe find their blind spot so they can excel?

Unknown Speaker  9:43  

Hmm, yeah, I love that you brought up self awareness because I think that’s, that’s so that’s so huge. Really, it’s slowing, it’s helping them to slow things down and really notice where they’re putting Their energy and attention. Where are they focusing? think there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of bells and whistles, in mental performance coaching in sports psychology and what it really, if you’re not able to be aware of what you’re thinking about what you’re doing in the moment, it’s just extra. So where I really like to, or what I like to bring in is mindfulness. And I know that’s kind of a buzz word, everybody talks about it, like, you know, just whatever you got throw some mindfulness on it, it’s like this band aid. Right? Thank you those, right, those who really practice it and understand it, know that there’s nothing sexy about it. It’s really just sitting down and training yourself to be able to focus, get engaged with the present moment, and slow slowing things down is kind of the first step to kind of look around and be like, okay, yeah, here, there are some blind spots. And if I move in too fast, I’m not gonna I’m not gonna be able to really look at those, you help them do

Unknown Speaker  11:07  

that. And so what’s important, like, I have a very high end, she plays behind the, you know, he’s a catcher, and maybe Major League Baseball that I coach with mindset right now. And we talk about this a lot. But like, how about the importance at the level of people that you’re coaching Chrissy on visualization? Like, how important is that? In? What maybe some secret sauce steps might you implement to help them be mindful and visualize their success?

Unknown Speaker  11:37  

Yes, excellent. I love that you made the connection between mindfulness and visualization and how you kind of got to be able to get your get yourself in the moment to then kind of imagine what your what you want to do. And, and I want to clarify a little bit, so visualization, you’re, you’re really picturing what your what you want to be doing, or going through a past experience, I’d want to tweak and do and do better. But I want to take it to that next level of imagery, which actually incorporates all five senses. And so what what that looks like is, you know, if I were to work with a client, the first thing I would have them do is to just think about their favorite memory from their sport, like something super vivid. And I would ask them to describe like, what do you what do you see? What do you hear? Hey, can you? If it’s sports, what can you smell like the sweat? What does the gym smell like? Yeah. Can you hear the squeaks of your shoes on the basketball court? Yes. What do you you know, can you feel all the silk, the the slickness of your jersey, and when you start to incorporate those things, and make it really vivid, that’s where it becomes powerful, because what we see is that the same parts of your brain light up as when you are thinking about doing some aspect of your performance as when you’re actually doing it. So it really is this mental rubber repetition, you’re creating this mental blueprint of how you want to perform. And it’s great for, again, changing or figuring out how to bounce back from adversity. And also to anticipate future challenges and think about, how do I want to step in that so you’re really primed and grooved and ready to go.

Unknown Speaker  13:35  

This is amazing stuff that bounce back from it. adversity that is in sports, there’s a lot of failure, right? I mean, and that’s where, you know, like, I’ve been told, you know, when you fail, you fail forward, right. So, like, what do you do with athletes who might be in a slump? I mean, you work with the Minnesota Twins a little bit right, if I’m not mistaken.

Unknown Speaker  13:57  

Yeah. So our our group, premier sports psychology works with a couple different professional teams in Minneapolis, which is really exciting to me, I’m pretty young in my career. So to be able to be connected with those kinds of clients has been awesome. But yes, slump, you’re talking about slump you with that. When you’re in a slump, there are a lot of negative thoughts, emotions that you might be having, like it sucks to be in a slump IQ. There’s no there’s no way of getting around that. And when we try to get ready to get rid of those negative thoughts, get rid of those negative emotions, like Oh, God, I don’t want to deal with this. I don’t this is horrible, make it go away. you’re investing a lot of energy into changing something that’s not really tangible. It distracts you away from what are my actions in this moment. How is this contributing to my action? performance, what is required of me. And so where the mindfulness piece comes in is that you’re you’re really being with you’re being present with yourself without that judgment. Without that I need to get rid of these negative thoughts. And I’d like to call them more natural, right? That’s part of the human experience. But if you accept them and see them as something, the thoughts and the feelings are just going to come and go and refocus to the task at hand, what’s important now, that behavior happens in the present moment doesn’t happen in the future doesn’t happen in the past. So I would get I would get them to really focus on what are the specific actions that you need to take to build yourself out of this slump and can And along the way, can you accept whatever thoughts feelings, negative challenges, sensations that come along the

Unknown Speaker  15:53  

way? That is awesome, because you just said, basically accept them to embrace them to understand that it’s going to be part of the process. And but be mindful of what you’re trying to accomplish? Am I hearing that correctly? I mean, accept it. Don’t. Don’t like accept it and live with it. You know, you’ve accepted it as part of it. But you know, you’re still trying to progress and level up. That’s amazing, amazing advice. So Christy, if we were to have you seen the movie Back to the Future?

Unknown Speaker  16:25  

Once when I was younger,

Unknown Speaker  16:27  

yeah. Anyway, so this is due to get some DeLorean he goes back to 1955 and changes a lot of the stuff in the future. So if you got that DeLorean and went back to say, the 18 year old Krissy, what kind of knowledge nuggets as we call him here? Time to shine today? Would you drop on her to maybe shorten your learning learning curve, blast through and level up maybe just a little bit quicker?

Unknown Speaker  16:49  

Whoo, I love that. Well, one consistent mindfulness practice. But to is to really trust my my inner Chrissy, which is very enthusiastic and excited about any new challenge or possibilities. And to just keep my focus on what what’s important now like, what what do I find? How can I be curious about whatever challenge I’m going through. And when you have that curious lens and bring out it with a lot of joy is like, Hey, this is awesome, I’m learning. you lean into it a little bit more. And when it gets uncomfortable, you stick around long enough to really be able to change things. So I would say, trust your inner Chrissy trust your inner joy, and lead with that through challenges and you’ll be successful.

Unknown Speaker  17:43  

Wow, that’s amazing. You’re so young. They say that stuff is it’s awesome. So give me some bad advice you’ve received.

Unknown Speaker  17:57  

bad advice I’ve received? Probably too. Not. So I say. I want to preface this a little bit. I know that I say except don’t try and change your thoughts. Don’t try to change your emotions. But it doesn’t mean ignore them. And some bad advice would be to just ignore it and keep grinding, right. Like we get told that in sports all the time. Like doesn’t matter what you’re feeling. Suck it up and just go for it. And it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. Yeah, it’s a fast track to burnout. Yeah, so really just using my emotions, emotional intelligence, another buzzword but that’s sure there’s a lot of research behind how that affects performance, especially with athletes. If you’re understanding what your experiences emotions really are signals, to tell you to pay attention to something and that helps you get into the present moment where you can have where you can change your behavior.

Unknown Speaker  19:07  

Wow. So how do you want your dash remember that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration that your life date and death day? How do you want when it’s all said and done which hopefully it’s a long long time. But when it’s all sudden then how do you want Christie’s to ask you remember?

Unknown Speaker  19:25  

Hmm

Unknown Speaker  19:30  

I would say I want to be remembered as someone who authentically impact positively impacted everyone around her. Hey, I I know I have a little bit I have a big personality. I come in hot sometimes.

Unknown Speaker  19:50  

No way.

Unknown Speaker  19:52  

And I don’t I don’t want to dampen that. I think you know if I if I try to be small and to You know, if I get in my own way, get my own head. I’m not letting that shine through. And so trust trusting that and really using that for good and impacting others, and so that they can achieve their best to be their optimal selves,

Unknown Speaker  20:18  

you don’t want to do that authentically

Unknown Speaker  20:19  

want to really do that through connection. I

Unknown Speaker  20:22  

love it. I love it. And so what keeps Chrissy up at night?

Unknown Speaker  20:29  

What keeps me up at night?

Unknown Speaker  20:33  

I think

Unknown Speaker  20:37  

distractions I think trying to take on too much sometimes. And I’ll get I really get spinning. And so, you know, I it’s been important for me to not only preach mindfulness, but to practice it. And I’ve over the last two months, I’ve stuck with doing 25 minutes a day first thing in the morning. And that’s that’s really helped. But when I when I zoom out a little bit and look at society, it’s so easy to be distracted. And when you’re distracted, you are pulled in every which direction besides what’s happening now. And so I see in my work and just in my personal life, people who are unhappy because they’re either glued to their phones or just caught up in like trying to predict what’s going to happen and so not only for myself but but others like that’s, that’s something that gets me really fired up is how can I How can I slow down enough to eliminate distraction to better handle distraction distraction, or attention is our greatest commodity. But how can I help others as well I

Unknown Speaker  21:56  

love that you are such a go giver. And so let’s take out our cell phone. Let’s take out anything electronic what are three things that Christie can’t live without?

Unknown Speaker  22:05  

Oh, let me see what’s on here that I can’t live without I have a meditation timer. Insight. My, this is gonna be kind of lame, but my my giffy app I love I like if I’m going to be connecting with someone over text. I want to have the perfect gift or sticker to really just liven it up. And then I would say audible. Audible is bad knowledge there. Yeah, and I love that you’re a lifelong learner and I love that if it’s at my fingertips and I can be as much as I don’t want to go off on distractions it is it is a good kind of multitasking.

Unknown Speaker  22:57  

Love it and Chrissy what would your definition of a life well lived

Unknown Speaker  23:05  

a life well lived would be one that is shared with others connected with others. We think we’ve we’ve learned over this last year how important it is to be connected. And you know, I yeah, it can be when you’re when you’re really chasing something you’re pursuing a high level of whatever you’re doing that can be isolating at times. So making time to really share that with people

Unknown Speaker  23:34  

got it. Love that. Yeah, that’s connection is so hugely you just said especially in our the pandemic run day like 9280 of this quarantine thing, so, but Okay, so we’re gonna move into our leveling up lightning round. Are you gonna be ready to rock with that? Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker  23:50  

All right.

Unknown Speaker  23:51  

Hey, we’re back with Chrissy home mental performance consultant at premier sports psychology and we are going to do our leveling up lightning round Krissy you and I could talk an hour on each one of these topics. But you got five seconds and they can all be answered very quickly. All right, so you’re ready to rock ready to load. Let’s do this. What is the best leveling up advice Christy’s ever received?

Unknown Speaker  24:14  

Hmm. Ah, be present.

Unknown Speaker  24:18  

Love it. share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Unknown Speaker  24:22  

Daily mindfulness practice 20 minutes a day.

Unknown Speaker  24:25  

Who’s had the most profound impact in your life?

Unknown Speaker  24:29  

My mom, she’s gonna love that

Unknown Speaker  24:31  

we then I’m in my doldrums and I’m just not feeling it. You notice it be like Fergie read this book. What’s the book?

Unknown Speaker  24:38  

Oh, I’m mastery by George Leonard talks. Yeah, it’s great.

Unknown Speaker  24:45  

It’s It’s good. I’ll put that in the show. Notes squad. Make sure you pick that book up. It’s great read. Is there any charity or organization like to support or give money to

Unknown Speaker  24:53  

EU um,

Unknown Speaker  24:56  

probably the World Wildlife Fund are kind of hurting a little bit.

Unknown Speaker  25:00  

It is it is. And last question you can elaborate on this one a little bit. What’s the best decade of music 6070s 80s 90s 90s 100%

Unknown Speaker  25:10  

Are you a 90s baby?

Unknown Speaker  25:11  

Oh yeah.

Unknown Speaker  25:12  

Okay, very cool. Very cool. That’s awesome. So how can we find you Chrissy

Unknown Speaker  25:17  

you can find me on Instagram at sports psych Yogi or premier sports psychology.com

Unknown Speaker  25:28  

and I’ll put that in the show notes as well as her LinkedIn or Twitter and like she said her Instagram which I love that the Instagram handle there that you have a sports like Yogi Beautiful, beautiful and leave us with one last Knowledge Nugget you want us to take with us internalize and take action on hmm

Unknown Speaker  25:50  

I would say you’re you’re only one breath away from living your life.

Unknown Speaker  25:57  

Wow. Wow. That is that is amazing. And squad you have just been privy to listen in or watch in on a fantastic masterclass with my really good friend Christie home from Minnesota, my Wolverine friend who values freedom, you know, a good coach has the ability to connect with their athletes or their clients, she’s going to help she’s gonna say help slow things down, where they can focus their attention on what really needs to happen, you know, visualization, visualization and imagery is very important. So Chrissy is so astute to understand that not only like she nailed it, when it came to like the five senses that you have, like when she puts you in a situation of the break time that you have, that’s how you can pull someone forward out of a slump by helping them feel mindfulness, and accept the thoughts and maybe enter a state of flow not so much rejected because Christie made a point that when you’re rejecting things, you’re putting so much energy into that, that you’re not focusing and visualizing in through imagery to really go forward with what you need to do you’re because you don’t have the energy to do that. You know, she said that behavior happens in present moments. And that consistent mindfulness practice be open to new challenges lean into it and trust your inner voice. That’s what she would have told her inner Chrissy and that’s probably what she even tells herself now. You know, she tells us that emotions are signals to pay attention embrace them move forward use them as power to move forward she’s gonna be remembered as authentic person that made an impact that she really cares is the ultimate go giver. She thinks that connection with others is paramount. So any chance you have to connect with somebody whether it’s opening a door with a smile on your face for somebody to walk through, make it happen every day like people know that my new year’s resolution is to make someone smile every day and never meet a stranger. That’s my two things. So Chrissy lives that and she wants you to take away from life all the good things in not focus on the negative and Chrissy does just that. She loves up her house. She loves her. Well she’s absolutely beautiful inside and out. She’s humble yet hungry. An awesome competitor, a Wolverine, but I let her slide today. Christy thank you so so much for coming on. You’re amazing. Can’t wait to collaborate with you in the future and we’ll talk soon.

Unknown Speaker  28:19  

Okay, thanks, Ricky. This is awesome.

Unknown Speaker  28:21  

You’re welcome. Love talk soon. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast, proudly brought to you by southern New Jersey real estate real estate excellence, who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com slash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify iheart radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see our recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you have been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up. It’s our time to shine.

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