BONUS: Get Real: Shawn Johnson: how visualization led her to a gold medal in gymnastics at the Olympics, winning Dancing with the Stars

Shawn Johnson started pursing her dream of gymnastics at 12 years old. At the age of 16, she took home the gold medal at the Olympics. She explains how mental training and visualization was just as important as physical training for her big win. We talk about how she was lost after winning the highest award in her sport plus how it felt to win Dancing with the Stars and why she decided to walk away from the Olympics for a second time just a week before tryouts. We also talk about our pregnancy’s, fears of motherhood and heartbreak of miscarriage. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, this is Caroline Hobby. Thanks for checking out
the Bobby Bones Show podcast. While you're here, I wanted
to share an episode with you of my podcast called
Get Real with Caroline Hobby. Each week I sit down
and I talk to the wives of the biggest artists
in country music. But not only that, I also talk
with female entrepreneurs, influencers, and all sorts of fascinating ladies.
I recently had Sean Johnson stopped by. We talk about how,

(00:22):
at the age of sixteen, she took home the gold
medal at the Olympics and then went on to win
Dancing with the Stars. Check it out Get Real with
Caroline Hobby. It's honest, women, honest talk. Subscribe on Apple Podcast,
listen on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcast. Here's
my episode of Get Real with Caroline Hobby featuring Olympic
gold medalist Dancing with the Stars champion Sean Johnson. On

(01:09):
this episode of Get Real Podcasts, I have Sean Johnson,
the Olympic gold medalist. She won a gold medalist when
she was so young for Beam and gymnastics, and we
talk about all of it, her journey to the Olympics,
what she learned from being an Olympian the power of
the mind, how training your mind is so important, and

(01:33):
we talked about Then she went on to Dancing with
the Stars. She won that, she went back on All Stars.
With Dancing with the Stars got second. What it's been
like falling in love with her husband. They've been together
for almost a decade, and how he balances her out.
It's just amazing their partnership. They have a YouTube channel together,
they work together, and they're just perfect. They're a perfect pair.
And Sean is just wise beyond her years. She's gone

(01:55):
through so much and lives so much life to only
be I think she's twenty seven. She's started her journey
the Olympics when she was twelve, so she grew up
really fast, and she's learned so many incredible life lessons
at such a young age. Really done a ton of
self discovery, and she's so open and honest about sharing
her journey. We both have been pregnant at the same

(02:15):
time together too, which has been so much fun. We
took a picture together, so by the time this airs,
I will have had my baby, she'll be getting close
to having hers. But it's been fun to follow her
journey as a beautiful pregnant mama to be, and I
can't wait to see what they're having. They're not finding out,
but what her journey continues to look like as a mom.
She also suffered a miscarriage and so did I, so

(02:37):
we talked about that and just learning from that and
what it does to your mind and working through that.
She's just such an incredible soul. So you guys, get excited.
Here is Sean Johnson. Okay, I am here with the
incredible Sean Johnson. Hello. What's up girl? Oh nothing, just
baby buffing, pregnant. Yeah, thirty one week thirty one, you're

(02:59):
thirty eight. This is probably when this airs. Hopefully I
will have had a child. Yes, that is the goal,
and you will be very close to having delivered or
about to go into labor when this airs. Yes, I'm
getting far ahead. Really terrifies me. Are you scared about
the labor process? Yeah, I'm more scared about having a

(03:19):
kid like for the rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah.
I keep saying, it's not like a dog you have
them for like twelve years. You have them forever and
they like that might sound really bad. No, I hear
you though, because It's like they're going to affect your
mental well being for the rest of your life. We're
gonna care about everything our child does. Stressed about everything,
worry about them. Like I'm already thinking about teenage years.

(03:40):
I'm like, how do I deal with like when drinking
and boys come into play and I don't want I mean,
I'm like, and then I think about college and I'm like,
almost don't want her to go to college because I'm
my college can be crazy, you know, I'd rather just
become a musician to live on the road and people
exactly crazy. But I'm like, oh god, but she's gonna
do what she wants. Oh yeah, about any of that?

(04:00):
Oh absolutely all of it. I just stressed about, Like,
how do you teach your kid to be a good person?
I don't know. I don't know either. Is it just
you have to show by example? But then are we
good enough people? I don't know. I don't know. I
just like I'm scarred by the whole concept. And it
isn't it crazy? Because you were kind of talking before,

(04:21):
like you try so long not to get pregnant, and
then we were because we've both been on a pregnancy
journey and I love that you've documented yours. Thank you.
It's actually very hard to get pregnant and stay pregnant. Yeah,
it's like a miracle because we both actually went through miscarriages.
What how far along are you? I was really early.
I was like eight to ten weeks. Say we're here.

(04:42):
We were like seven yeah, week seven, eight weeks. But
still it's one of the most emotional experiences I've personally
ever been through. Same because you, I mean, you find
out you're pregnant, which is like, especially when you find
out you're pregnant in the first time. Yes, I never
cried some my life ever of happiness or just scared

(05:03):
away all of it happy, scared, terrified, um, and then
you kind of wrap your mind around it, Okay, I'm
going to be a parent, this is it. And then
you lose it and it's just yeah, it's an emotional
roller coaster. You don't you don't know how to deal
with it. What did you what was going through your
head when you were miscaring? Um? Did you take it
personal or what did you think? Because I feel guilty.

(05:26):
I was like, what did I do wrong? What did
I eat? Like I if I can't even take care
of a baby, and inside of me? How can I
take care of a child outside of me? It was
just like a rush of guilt. I felt bad for
Andrew because I was like, I lost your baby. It's
just like, I know, what do you feel like? And
then I felt like my biggest struggle in life is

(05:48):
that I'm not good enough. And so I was like
see this next to cry. I think. I think I
worked through all my stuff and then I talked about it.
I get emotional, but I were pregnant, so it's like
I don't deserve to have a baby. I like, I'm
not good enough to go a mom. I thought about
all the like mistakes I've made in life. I'm like,
is this somehow I don't know, the world showing me

(06:08):
that I don't deserve the baby? And yeah, oh yeah,
it's crazy what it gets to your brain, I know.
And I felt like the universe was telling me, like,
just kidding, you're not supposed to be a mom. Yeah,
And it was just like oh, and then it's like,
will ever be able to hold a baby? Like you
can carry one? And then you think about all the
people who never can get pregnant yep, And it's just
like the whole process. It is insane. And then you

(06:31):
try to you start trying to get pregnant again, and yeah,
then it's a whole different rush of emotion of like, Joe,
I want to go through this again? Yeah, am I
going to be able to? And then it becomes instead
of just like this happy process, it becomes such a
like stressor on your marriage and your life and oh
my gosh, it's just give me pregnant. It's hard. It's hard.

(06:54):
I know. I felt bad about that because like we
tried for like ten months and I put so much
pressure on it, and like when I'm ovulating and make
sure you like have sex on this day, and then
it's like that's not fun, you know, yeah, telling your
usbant like we have to now, yeah, now, and then
he's like, oh my god, because he gets to stressed
because it's like, you gotta make this happen and we're
gonna make a baby. I know. It's a lot it's

(07:15):
a lot um and then you get through it. Though.
Have you had anxiety during your pregnancy like that you
would lose it or were you enjoy it a little
bit of both. I feel like every day it's just
I don't know, I feel like it took me a
long time this pregnancy to like admit that I was
pregnant or like bond at all, because I was just
kind of like, oh, it's probably not gonna last. I

(07:36):
get that, and I feel like that lasted a long time.
I think like the first Ulder sound maybe not like
the ten week Oulder Shop, but like the twenty week
that one, I like bald like a baby. I was like,
I cannot imagine not having this, like having this baby. Yeah,
I'm gonna We're gonna be like crying masses on this.
I'm gonna start crying. Um, I know, but no, it

(07:57):
makes it, Yeah, it makes it really hard. Yeah, you're
just like in denial the whole time. I know, we
didn't even announce that we're pregnant until twenty nineteen, twenty
weeks because I was so scared we were gonna lose it. Yeah,
but then you get all the way to where we are,
it's like the baby's gonna live on their own. And
now I'm like, my back hurts, I got heartburn. I
woke up bat Sign threw up, said heartburn so bad.
You know, it's like now you're on the other side
of it. Was like you feel all the all the

(08:20):
things with it, but your ls are so grateful to
you get to experience something. Oh yeah, I mean I
just started getting like the really bad hip pain and
night yes, where my hips are widening or something. I
don't know what's going on, and I can't sleep, and
then my back hurts, and then I feel like baby's
gonna fall out of my vagina. I mean it was
seriously like, I'll stand up like it's coming out, coming up. John,

(08:42):
know what it is? We don't. Oh my god, y'all
are crazy, y'all. It wasn't my choice, Andrew to find out. No,
I had the ten week blood tests done so you
could know. I couldn't know. Mallory has my results. She
so she knows, she says she hasn't opened it. Yeah. Right,
And your best friend's Mallory, who is the most amazing
your days or bunny on this planet. Yeah, I don't

(09:03):
know how she has so much energy. Oh god, she
has more energy than anyone in the world. Yeah, but
you have a ton of energy too, now like her.
She that's just a way she is wired. Yeah. So yeah,
I was her judge and this American pageant. Oh my god,
that's how y'all met. That's how we met. And I
literally saw her skip across the stage, not like pageant walk,

(09:24):
but like heinie skip, and I was like, she seems fun.
We did an amazing rice together, and that was like, yeah,
it originally met and I've just never met anyone like
her in my life. Was it her and her dad
on your No? It was her third time and she
was partnered partner. She had a terrible experience on the season.

(09:45):
I was she had like the best experience with her
dad two seasons, and then she got paired with It
was a random pairing with another contestant. It was not
good for her. She did not like it. How did
you like it? I loved it because I was with
my friend jin Wayne Okay, and we um just we
had been in a band together and so we had
been like best friends for ten years. We really knew

(10:06):
how to work together and we had so much fun.
As like, I've always wanted to do that show. I
think even Andrew should do it. We would kill each other,
you think, Yeah, we have very different travel styles. Andrew
just he's flighty. I don't know. Well, that's the thing,
Like a lot of people get very intense with each other.

(10:27):
I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, I don't know if everything
car badge. Oh yeah, I'd be better offening with like
a girlfriend or something than my husband. I feel like
we already almost kill each other when we travel. You
do what what's your travel styles? Oh? He's he forgets
he has a flight book. Oh so he's just like
he's like, he's like, happy, go lucky, not worry. Yeah no,

(10:47):
he's like, the flights in ten minutes, I'll be fine
and he'll still be at home. Oh how's he planning
on getting there? Uber? Does he didn't worry about it?
Does he miss a lot of flights? Oh? Yeah, he
misses flights. Yeah, no, he does it all the time.
Are you s drives me insane? Well yeah. Or I'll
call him and be like are you at the airport yet?
And he's like no, Like, you have a flight in

(11:08):
thirty minutes. You know that you're just to be there
an hour ahead of time. He doesn't care. He doesn't.
He thinks that's a suggestion. What about if he's checking
it back? He never checks the back, so he just
carries on. So he just to roll in and roll
on the plane. He does not want to spend any
extra time there now, so he's willing to miss the flight. Yeah,
on occasion, he'll be like at football practice up until
like the thirty minute boarding time. Wow, and he'll still

(11:31):
shower and like go to the airport like you're out
of your mind. Is that transferred to any other parts
of his life that laid back? Oh? Everything? So how
does that? Because okay, obviously you are Sean Johnson, the
Olympian gold medalist. I swear when when did you win
the gold? When? What year? Was about two thousand and eight?
A long time ago? No? I gymnastics is my favorite.
Oh my god. Yes, and so I remember watching you. Yeah,

(11:52):
you're killing it and it was on floor right, what
do you win? The beam? That's the hardest one. I know,
it's it's scary. I couldn't do it anymore. Well, I
think you deserve break right now. Yeah, but you can
still flip and do all those things. Oh, you're not pregnant.
Not really. I can know a little bit. I can
know a little bit, but not nearly what I could. Okay,

(12:13):
so you are obviously a gold medalist. You have a
very intense work ethic, and you know how to make
it happen. So you went ahead and married someone who's
just the most laid back. Do you think you were
attracted to that to balance you out? Probably because I
had dated the opposite type. I had dated like my
style and it didn't work. Was that too much? Yeah?

(12:35):
We were way too intense. Oh yeah, the way it's
my mouth like red cherries. I don't really care. I'm
scooting this board, can we is it? Look? See, I'm
trying Sean teaching me how to be a professional YouTuber
with good lighting and how to make video. I don't know.
That's my husband, not me. I need to learn how
to do things on it looks good? Okay, great? Yeah,

(13:00):
I think you look great. Thank you? Yeah you too.
Oh I feel like Bobo all the time. I feel
massive massive, Yeah, I mean my boobs lay on my stomach,
they just flop on them. Oh. If I wear like
underwire bras, it like bruises my belly. Those aren't in
my wardrobe anymore. I tried once for an event, and

(13:20):
then I would give yourself a little push. Yeah, they
just sag and yeah, we'll do all their stuff now. Yeah,
actually have milk coming out of my boobs now why,
Oh my god. All right, it's amazing. That's great. You're
gonna really be able to I started, like twenty weeks
it was really weird. You're gonna be a nursing machine.
Shed start pumping and putting in the freezer. I don't
know I actually had the thought, but I was like,

(13:43):
I don't know. It grosses my husband out, but it's
good signed because that means that you can probably nurse.
So that's amazing. Yeah, it started twenty weeks. I was like,
I don't know what is going on. You're ready, Yeah,
I mean, it's happening for you. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Okay,
So Andrew's totally opposite of you. So what is y'all's
dynamic together. Um, he's just he's just a kid, and

(14:09):
I'm the one that's trying to keep order. But it's
fun because I'm very like, I'm very by nature, just
very like strict and rigid, and you are, well you
have to be to be an Olympian gold medalist. Yeah,
and Andrew's just like the happy, go lucky, fun guy,
which brings out like allows me to have more fun
in life, which is cool. Otherwise I don't think i'd
have any fun. Um, do you think you'd be just

(14:31):
too regimented. Yeah, and I care too much what people think,
like me too. Yeah, that's why people please, Oh people
pleasing as my worst and Andrew's not at all. He
could care less, which I do not care. I don't know.
He could care less. And he could care less if
he's terrible at something, and he could care less if
he fails at something. It's just like something that I

(14:51):
envy so much. So he's just like a labrador. He's
just like happy to be here, not worried about it. No,
something doesn't work out, he's gonna move on. Yeah, I
would be traumatized. Traumatized. So he's really rubbed off on you,
and you've probably rubbed off on him. I tried. But
more is it just an appreciation for the other, Like you,

(15:12):
guys both need each other. We both like push each
other outside of each other's comfort zones, which is good.
And y'all worked together. We do. So talk to me
about y'all's family business. Um, it's a schmore sport of
random things. We do YouTube, which sounds weird to say
we're YouTubers. I love it. It's great. He has his
podcast and what's it called redirected? Redirected? Because he is

(15:34):
a football player, Yes, and he just played again, he
just played for the Redskins Redskins, like, but he's played
for like ten different teams. It wasn't this like a
big deal that he just played for the Redskins and
it was his first ever season that he's ever played.
So like he's gone through he signed ten contracts and
he's gone all the way up until season and then

(15:55):
they've cut like released him. And so last year was
the first year he made it your season? How is
that amazing? That's all? It was really cool. It was
really cool because he's never quit, No, never, That's incredible.
But for him again, he could like care less. He's like, yeah,
maybe I'll go back. Maybe not. So, like, how do
you not know? Is he still doing football right now? Um,
he's technically still in like the NFL pool of names,

(16:21):
but he's not on a team. Okay, So how was
it that when he played his first game? I still
documented that too. Yeah, I cried in the stands. I
was so nervous. He's a long snapper. I don't know
if you know that is I don't know if that
was I didn't know. You know the guy who kicks
the ball. Yeah, you know the guy who like throws
him the ball under his legs. Yeah, that's what he does. Okay,
Yeah right, I didn't know. I know more about that

(16:43):
position than any other position in the NFL now, yeah,
And I would like watch him from the stands like,
oh that was bad snapper. Oh that was a good snap.
I'm like, oh is he okay? Yeah, it's dumb, but
it was awesome. I was very proud wife. How is
that okay? Because I want to talk about your dreams
in achieving your goal, but how is that to watch
the person you love the most achieve a dream? It's

(17:05):
pretty cool. Having gone through my athletic career already and
like been retired, watching Andrew now go through it. There's
so many different experiences that I can parallel and I
see him like, I don't know, it's really weird to say,
but where he was when he started his football career
is where I was when I was like twelve and gymnastics,

(17:27):
which is just how it works in gymnastics because you're
really young, and so I kind of would not coach him,
but be able to sit back and be like oh,
I can see how this is going to play out,
and this is really funny and cool, and I know
what you're going through, and like we would cry together
and it'd be like it's okay, there's like a bigger
picture at play. I just remember being at like twelve
years old. I mean I was a child, so of

(17:49):
course I wouldn't know what's going on, but you can't
see the bigger picture. And it was really cool for me,
as like his wife, to be able to see a
bigger picture for him and see him succeed in it.
And it was just like it was incredible. I felt
like proud mom, which sounds really weird to your husband,
but yeah, you're just so proud of What is it

(18:09):
like starting your career at twelve years old? And how
did you even start your career at twelve years old? Um?
So gymnastics is different because I started gymnastics when I
was three, just like you would put three Yeah, well wow,
I mean since we're going to be mom, yeah, you know,
like we'll put our kids in swim lessons someday, right, Yeah,

(18:29):
different parents put me in gymnastics lessons and you just
loved it, and I loved it and I just kept
with it and got to be twelve years old and
at a certain level where I made it to like
a qualifier for the USA National team, and I somehow
made it on. So what is the USA National team.
It's the team that the US selects from for the Olympics. Okay,

(18:51):
So how many people are on that team? Twenty four total?
So is it all over the country. Yeah, so it's
like the best twenty four people girls, yeah, all over
the country, and then the Olympics picks from those twenty
four to make how many go on the Olympic team? Four? Wow? Okay,
so from twenty four across the country, four make it

(19:13):
to the Olympics. Yes, so you made it and made it? Yeah,
obviously you made it. What does that feel like? Did
you freak out when you made the Olympic team? At
were you twelve? I was sixteen sixteen. So twenty four
of those girls, twelve of them are fifteen and under
and twelve of them are sixteen and over, just because

(19:34):
you have to be at least sixteen to make the
Olympic team. So I was one of the fifteen and
under until I hit sixteen, and then they could select
from the sixteen and higher group. Okay, and it was cool.
But again, like remember back when you're sixteen, you don't
really know what the world is at all, and you

(19:54):
can't weigh consequence and you can't understand the magnitude of
a situation. And I it was just a kidney candy
store competing at a bigger arena. To me, it wasn't
like the Olympics. Do you even know what the Olympics were? Really? Yes,
but again I don't think I understood like the magnitude,
which is like thinking about it, do you think it's
kind of a blessing? You know? Oh? Absolutely? I think

(20:16):
that's why gymnasts do so well because they're so young,
is you're just naive. Yeah, you're not thinking about the
millions of people watching and their expectations, and they talk
about people bleasing. I would have had a heart attack. Um.
I'm literally sweating thinking about it, Like what were they
thinking of me? Um? But it's just it's you're just naive.

(20:37):
You're naive to everything, and I feel like your parents
and the coaches try to really protect that so you
don't freak out. Yeah, if I made the Olympic team,
now I would freak out because you know too much. Yeah,
you've seen too much. You do so much. So how
much do you have to practice when you're getting gearing
out for the Olympics? Um? So are you okay? Yeah?

(21:01):
I'm just you know, just moving this ball around. Um
I we were training about forty hours a week. Wow,
so a lot. Are you getting homeschooled? I actually wasn't homeschooled.
I went to public school my whole career, and then
you just train after school, So you'd go to school
all day and then how long would you go to

(21:22):
the gym? Um? So there were two different like regiments
in routines that I would have to follow if I
was following my coach. This is a lot of information
trying to sort out how to tech. Um. So, the
USA national team we only meet and train together once
a month for a week. The other weeks you're back

(21:42):
home in your home state city with your own coach,
training your own like system. So do you make up
your own routine for the Olympics and everything? Yeah, so
you have to have a great coach. Yes, Okay, where
do you find your coaches? M My coach, I was lucky,
was just the close to Jim to my parents' house
when I was growing up. His name is chow Um.

(22:05):
He's Chinese and I trained in Iowa, d Win, Iowa.
But his system was I would go to school until
public school until two or three whenever school it out,
and then I would train four hours after yeah, every
day and I got Sunday off. And then would you
have to go like approve what you're what you're learning?

(22:25):
Would chow to the Olympic yes board or team or
the coach of the Olympics, so that once a month
for a week, you would go down to Houston, Texas
and train with the national team and we would train
nine hours a day, seven days a week for a week.
And that's when you like show your skills and what
you're working on and you get everything like approved. Okay,

(22:47):
yeah wow yeah. So how long does this go on? Um?
It's like years or months? Years? So do you work
on the same routine for years? Um? For the most part, yes, wow,
you would. You would change like little things here and
there over the course of years, but your basic foundation

(23:11):
is pretty much the same. Okay. So what is your
life like when you're training? You're here? You are I
guess you start training when you're twelve, and then you
do this? Do you train for four years? I don't
know why I picked four years. Um, how long were
you on the team before you competed in the Olympics?
Four years? Okay, So you could be on the team
for a year. You could be on the team for
a month. You could be on the team for twelve

(23:32):
years before you make the team. Okay, so you made
it right away and then the Olympics are coming up
for four years? Yeah, so you're training for four years?
So what is your life? What are you thinking in
those four years? Like what are you thinking about life? Like?
What are you how are you balancing being a teenager
being in school? But you also have this really big
thing on the side. I was I don't know. I

(23:55):
would say for the first like three years, it was
just like this after school activity that nobody knew about.
I was just like a gymnast on the side. And
then at school I was a normal high school kid.
But for the most part, like my mind was consumed
with gymnastics. It was like, how soon can I get
my homework done so that I can get to practice
and go to bed early? So you loved it? I

(24:16):
loved it. Okay. Yeah. The last year I was psycho.
Like every single person I hung out with, I was like,
how's it going to affect to my Olympics. If I
went to dairy queen, I'd be like, Oh, I can't
eat this because I have to go to the Olympics.
Certain I was psycho, but yeah, I guess that's what
you need for the Olympics. Yeah, I don't know. So

(24:37):
then you can get to the Olympics and what is
that like, because you've been working for this for four years,
Like what do you feel? What goes on through your brain? Honestly,
for me, when I got to the Olympics, I didn't
allow myself to like realize I was at the Olympics
until I was done. So you kind of train for

(24:59):
years on year, like years on end, practice after practice,
just training your mind to kind of go numb. And
so I went through my entire Olympic experience just saying like, oh,
it's another practice, it's another routine, it's nothing new. And
that was intentional, Oh, absolutely, because I mean if you're
in the Olympics, you're like, oh my god, I'm at

(25:20):
the Olympics. You probably have melt down. So you've really
worked on your mind discipline. Yeah, I think it's a
majority of mind. Okay, so you have so you're just
pretending like you're not there, yes, okay, And I get
all the way through the Olympics and then it's like,
when you're competing, did you feel like you weren't there? Yeah,
that's great. You kind of have to. You have to.

(25:40):
I mean the beam is four inches wide. If you're
on the beam thinking, oh my god, I'm at the Olympics,
So what are you thinking about? Um, like, I do
you really want to know? Yeah, it's really weird. Um
my coach. Every coach is a little bit different. But
my coach just like he would teach you a skill

(26:00):
that your body does. He would teach you like every
single word for every second you're like on your apparatus
of what to think. Okay. So I had like an
exact routine in my head that consumed all ninety seconds
of my routine because he always said, like if your
mind ever breaks and gets distracted, you would fall off. Okay,
So what is that routine in your head? What is it?

(26:21):
It would be like like cues for your skill, okay,
So like reminding, reminding yourself to like squeeze your butt
or keep your stomach tight, or for every different move
you had a different cue, so you're you memoriate you
choreographed the cues as well. Yes, so that's all you're
thinking about. Yes, that's actually great. It is amazing because

(26:43):
then you don't have time to like be on the
beam and look over and see Bob cost Us like
commentating your routine. Right, yeah, genius. Does every coach do that?
Or do you think? I don't think so. I think
so he knew how important the mind game was. Oh yeah,
we trained. We trained mental more than physical. So we
would spend four hours in a gym training like your

(27:05):
physical skill and you're conditioning and your flexibility. But then
he would send you home with four hours worth of
like mental training. How do you mentally train? Like what
does that look like? Um? Okay, So I always tell
someone like, think of think of a skill of any
kind that you do. So whether it's like writing a

(27:26):
song or singing a song or performing on stage, and
try to picture yourself doing it perfect ten times in
a row. And for some reason, our mind wants us
to see us fail and like make mistakes, and it
becomes this like muscle of The more you work on it,
the more you can kind of visualize yourself succeeding, and

(27:48):
the stronger you can get, and the more you can
picture yourself. And they say that whatever you picture, your
body's actually doing. So if you're not thinking, if your
mind goes numb, your body should be able to take
over and like autopilot and do what you've been picturing.
So do you picture the whole thing like you just
picture your whole routine? I would picture so an assignment

(28:10):
from my coach would be go home, eat dinner, or
go to bed, and then as you're laying in bed,
I want you to picture yourself walking into the Olympic arena.
He would say, what do you hear? What do you see?
How is the layout? What's the floor look like, what's
it feel like? What's it sound like? Picture yourself walking
up onto the floor and competing routine. How are you

(28:31):
going to salute? What are you going to like? Say?
What are it like? Everything? So you're not no surprises.
So by the time you get there, you've already done
it a million times. Did it fall into place how
you had pictured it? Yes? And now I mean you
can never really picture it, but to a certain extent,
like you go, you go so numb by the time

(28:52):
you get to an arena that it's like, let's get
this over with, like I just need to do it
over time. And then it's after you're like back home
rewatching it on TV and you're like, holy crap, like
I just did that. So what does it feel like
when you win um a gold medal of the Olymics,
Like you can't get bigger than that. It's the most overwhelming,

(29:13):
an underwhelming thing I think you could ever experience in
your Okay, break that down. It's overwhelming because it's everything
you've ever worked for. I mean, it's the happiest, the
most proud, the most sad you've ever felt, because like
you've reached that epitome of your sport and you're kind
of like what do I do now? You've you've reached
the top? Yeah. So I remember like literally being on

(29:34):
the stand thinking like I was sad because I was
like what do I do with my life now? Were
you planning on coming back? No? Okay, so once you
because you want so yeah, like I'm done? Yeah, but
then like what do you do now? I was sixteen
years old, I was like, yeah, get on Weedie's boxes
and stuff. You start doing brand things, But as far

(29:56):
as gymnastics, I didn't know. So it's this. It's an interest, say, feeling,
but underwhelming kind of in the sense of like people
paint that top podium as the greatest feeling you'll ever
feel in your entire life, and to a certain extent is.
But you also stand on the podium just like you've
stood on any other podium. May it be like first, second,

(30:18):
or third, you get a medal, which is looks a
little bit different than others. It's a different arena, but
it's just the same thing. And you're like, is a
set and then you have to wake up the next
morning and do something else? So what did you do?
How did you did you have like a post PTSD? Oh? Absolutely?

(30:40):
How do you maneuver this incredible like biggest moment of
your life, You've worked years to get here, You've got it,
you actually got it? You know first try? Yeah, and
now how do you deal with that letdown? Like? What
did you know? Um? I have always said that, Like
the morning after I remember waking up and feeling like

(31:04):
I had ran like straight full speed into a brick wall.
Because everything in my life was determined by gymnastics. What
I ate, how I slept, who I talked to, who
you know, who I hung out with, my school hours, everything,
And again I'm only sixteen, And for me, it was
like I didn't even know how to operate. I didn't

(31:25):
know how to go down to breakfast and order because
it was like di, I order egg whites with spinache. No,
I don't need to because I'm not training for the Olympics, Like,
can I get? It was just the most confusing feeling
of I didn't know how to be a human being. Yeah,
and I've been so regimented. Yeah. And I think added
too that the kid aspect of I couldn't see a

(31:47):
bigger picture. I could only see like what was happening
right now. And I didn't have a goal in life.
I didn't I didn't have anything. So I was like
I felt lost. So how did you start navigating that
those lost waters? Um? My parents helped. I had an
agent at the time who kind of like put me
through the gamut of sponsorships and shows, and I kind

(32:11):
of did that until I found I found Dancing with
the Stars, Which how old are you when you went
on Dancing with the Stars at seventeen, So right after,
right after? Was it nice to be in a structured
It was an amazing because like, oh, create a familiar
I'm competing. It's structure, it's intense working out. They tell
you what time to show up, what time to leave.
I mean, it was amazing. So you're feeling great now

(32:33):
you found a new place to put all of your
energy into. Yes, and so I wrote that any one
that I did. I mean, you're just a winner. No, yes,
you are very hard things you could win dancing with
the Stars. Oh you could. You haven't seen me dance.
You haven't seen me dance? Yes I have, I've you've
seen someone pushed me around the floor and tell me
what poses to like hit, but get me on dance floor.

(32:56):
I can't. I start sweating. Yeah, but you have that
ability to mentally crush. Thank you, thank you. So okay,
So you're so relieved you found Dancing with the Stars.
What did that feel like? Did you feel like you'd
come home again or something? Absolutely, it was a new
sport for me. It was a new Olympics. It was
a new goal. I knew how to train, I knew
like everything, and so I kind of went through that,

(33:17):
ended up finishing that and kind of rode the PTSD again.
So now you're like, oh great, I feel awesome again.
But now it's the same letdown. So you're having this
pattern of like now you're having huge accomplishments, huge wins,
and then giant letdowns and like what's next? Yea, So
how do you navigate now, the next, the next, what's next?

(33:37):
So I did. I kind of lived in that what's
next lost life for probably another year. This is a
lot summarized. But I went skiing on my eighteenth birthday
toward everything in my leg. Oh you had an accident. Yeah,
it wasn't a bad accident, Like it was like a
bunny hill accident. It's embarrassing. So you never hurt yourself
in gymnastics, never or dancing the stars. Skiing accident, Yeah,

(34:01):
I'm telling you. I think skiing is so dangerous. It
really is. I don't know why anyone does it. No.
I always think that I go back every year and like,
do you still ski barely? Yeah? Like I'd cry the
whole time. It's just traumatizing. Yes, but I tore everything
in my leg, did a reconstructed knee surgery and then
felt even more lost in life just because I didn't

(34:21):
have anything. I didn't have my body because now your
physical body is not able to it wasn't able to
do what it could do before, not to healed well.
So I ended up going back to gymnastics to heal
my leg and like heal my body, and went back
to gymnastics kind of found my identity again because I
was like, oh, I have my structure, I have my coach,
I have everything. Tried to make the twenty twelve Olympics

(34:43):
and ended up a week before Olympic trials retiring just
because I was doing it all for the wrong reasons.
I came back trying to look for an identity that
wasn't there anymore. How did you realize that that's profound? Um? Thanks,
I don't know. I had. I had been back in
the sport for two and a half years. I had

(35:04):
made it back to world championships. I had been pretty successful,
but I just felt empty. I remember doing gymnastics for
the two thousand and eight Olympics and feeling like I
was on cloud nine. It was something I truly loved,
but for two and a half years I was doing
gymnastics because it's the only thing I knew. It's not
because I loved it anymore. And so I got to
a week before Olympic trials. I had set myself up

(35:26):
to be a pretty good contender for the team, and
I remember thinking to myself, if I make the team
or just like realizing I was more concerned about making
the team and hoping that I didn't, then hoping that
you didn't make the team. Yeah, wait, so you wanted
to make the team but you didn't want to make

(35:46):
the team. No, I was. I was more concerned that
I was going to make the team, and you did
not want concerned I was, I didn't want to So
you're in this process of like getting back involved with
being on the Olympics. Yeah, but like you don't want
your gut is saying I don't want to be on
this team. Yeah, how did so you're able to hear
your gut? Yes? Okay, So what did you finally reached

(36:07):
a breaking point? And you're like, I reached a breaking
point where I had I had I was miserable. I
was probably the unhealthiest I've ever been. I was pretty
much like a depression, and I remember my parents just
saying like thanks. I remember my parents kind of watching
me struggle and saying pretty much like as any parents would,

(36:27):
like you have a week left. You literally have a week,
and then you're gonna make it to the Olympics and
you're going to set yourself up for life, like you've
got this, just like it's just it's just a mental break. Yeah,
Like I had gone through mental breaks before my career.
They kind of helped me through it, but this one
is different. I just like couldn't I couldn't kick it.
And so I got to the week before Olympic trials

(36:49):
and all my heart was telling me was like I'm done. Wow,
I don't want to be a part of this. I
just I couldn't do it anymore. And when you're in
a sport that's so mentally taxa where you have to
literally think through something every second of every routine, I
was finding myself like on the beam, being distracted by
this thought of like I'm just miserable. I don't want

(37:11):
to do this. And so I ended up retiring and
feeling the greatest I ever had. Really a week before
you probably would have made the team. You retired, Yeah,
and I was ecstatic about it. You were, oh, yes,
but you now you still don't know what you're gonna
do next. I got a call from Dancing with the Stars.
Oh it was that after so Dan Dancing with the

(37:32):
Stars was gonna start while the Olympics were running the
All Star season. So back again. Yeah, So I went
through it. I went throughout. Oh yeah, so you've had
a love relationship with gymnastics dancing and star with gymnastics
Dancing at the Stars. Did you go back on dancing?
Did you win? I came a second. I didn't win.
Oh my gosh, yeah, So how did that feel? Not

(37:53):
to win? Kind of sucks? But it was fine. I
had a blast um. And then it was after Dancing
at the Stars where I finally was like I was
twenty at the time and able to see a little
bit of a bigger picture and just kind of saw
myself going through this whole process again, and I told
myself I wasn't allowed to go back to gymnastics, okay,

(38:16):
I wasn't allowed to ski, and I had to like
find myself outside of both of those. So you had
now lived through enough highs, enough lows, and realize that
now you have to get something outside of a organization,
like outside of like gymnastics, outside of dancing starts. You
can't just like plug into something. Yeah, you were going

(38:37):
to plug into yourself. Yeah, twenty years old, that is
pretty wise to be able to grasp that. Yes, I
would say yes and no, only because at twelve we
were started, like we were starting to be taught to
be adults. I mean, we had to operate on such

(38:57):
a grand stage that we had to present ourselves like adults.
And yes, you're still a child. You don't understand the
magnitude of anything. But by the time I was twenty,
I had experienced so much in the company of so
many adults, like other Olympians and other sports, that I'd
kind of seen people struggles and talked to them. And
I was only twenty, but I had talked to Michael

(39:17):
Phelps and heard his story and his roller coasters and
just learned learned a lot about the passion of your
sport and what's necessary, and was able to kind of
see that I needed to step away. Wow. So, okay,
twenty years old you found out? How did you find yourself? Then? Um?

(39:38):
Still working on that? Great things? As how old are
you know? Twenty seven Okay, So for the past seven years,
what has been going down in the Sean Johnson self discovery?
The first thing I did after Dancing with the Stars
was I started college, which I had deferred for a while,
but I had become certified as a trainer, so I

(40:02):
knew how to like work out without a coach. I
got certified as a nutritionists, so I knew how to
eat as a normal human being and not a gymnast.
I kind of like all these things that I was
relying on other people to tell me. I would go
and kind of educate myself on and be like, Okay,
I can I can handle this. I can go into
a gym and not flip, but like lift weights and
just be normal, kept working, kept doing motivational speaking, and

(40:26):
then I would say, honestly, the best like self discovery
was meeting my husband. He was just able to like
cut through all the crap and he's like, I don't
care about the gymnast, I don't care about anything, Like
who are you? And what did meeting him do for
your soul? Made me just feel comfortable and who I was?
I feel like for so long, especially coming from gymnastics.

(40:50):
Gymnastics can be really, I feel like dangerous as a
sport because it's a sport that literally teaches perfection. Yeah,
when a score is literally a perfect ten and that's
all you strive for. It can and it's subjective to
people's opinion. Yeah, yeah, like you can actually be deducted
on how you look. Wow. It's yeah, it's a brutal
sport that way. And I felt like I was living

(41:13):
my life trying to attain perfection. And my husband was
just like the first person who was like, I don't
want perfect Like that's the last thing I want. I
want you to just be you. And I think he
was the first person that ever like allowed me to relax.
So did you even know how to be you? No?
How did so? Did he kind of help teach you

(41:34):
how to be you? Kind of you? How did you
learn how to be you? And who is you now?
After all this? Who would you say? Who have? After
everything that you have gone through? Like? Who would you?
How would you define yourself now? I have no idea,
I have no idea. I don't know. I feel like
with my husband it would just be like these little

(41:55):
glimpses of a personality that he would see. He always
he always described it as like I had a game
face and then I had me And he said, if
anyone came around and recognized me from the Olympics, I
would become this almost like cold figure of I had
to be perfect. I had to say the right thing.
I had to look the right way. I had to
you know, I couldn't be seen in public unless I

(42:16):
had makeup. And it was just this perfection. And with him,
he just got really tired of it. He's like, I
don't like that. Why did you act like that in
front of that person? Like, well, that's what they expect.
He's like, no, they could care less. And he would
just like challenge me all the time to to not
put on a facade that was politically correct. And as

(42:39):
for who am I I have no idea. Was that
hard to not put on a facade? How do you
break that? Because I kind of get that on a
very different level of being like in a band, for
everyone being on oh yeah, like you know how to
just like turn it on, oh yeah, people what they want?
And especially you said you're people pleaserre me too being
a people pleaser. On top of it, you kind of
read someone's energy and see what they want. And like

(43:00):
how they want you to be. So it's exhausting. It's exhausting,
and I think I still struggle with it too. I
mean I think it's probably something, Oh yeah, that'll always
be something to work on, absolutely, But I think the
way that I started to work on it was no
matter what event I would go to or where, you know,

(43:20):
I had to be, where I would usually be on,
I would take my husband with me, and it was
always this like comfort of I'm okay to act like
me in front of him and I want you to
act like yeah, and I can look at him for
reassurance like you're good, just be you, and I'd start
to like turn on again. He'd like, you're fine, just

(43:43):
be comfortable. You don't have to do anything like I
don't know, it was just he's just been my like token.
I don't know how amazing is that. He's awesome? Yeah,
So what have you learned like the highs and the
lows of being an Olympic gold medalist spending all this time,
what would you say are the greatest assets that you
learned from this intense journey of perfectionist to what have

(44:07):
you learned that you maybe wasn't maybe it was the
low but it's still a lesson. Wow, I think one
of the greatest things. It's the most cliche and cheesy
thing you could ever like you learn as a kid,
but truly hard work pays off and you cannot succeed
by being perfect. I mean, it just will never happen.

(44:29):
One of my favorite things about gymnastics, even now I
get to work with like a lot of young kids,
is it's the most humbling sport you'll ever be in.
You literally have to fall in your face before you
can like succeed, like literally yeah, or split a beam
or break a bone I mean, which sounds terrible, but
it just teaches kids that, like you have to fall

(44:51):
in order to attain success, which I think was the
greatest lesson for me to learn as a kid. But
even through like the hardest time tis I would say
something that I learned, like during my comeback when I
tried to make twelve team was a lot of times
we get pressured just by society and other people to

(45:12):
do what other people want, people pleasers. I had so
many people who said, you know, this makes sense for you.
Just finish out the week, make the team, do all
this and you can so easily fall victim to doing
something that you don't love and that's miserable. And I
think it took a lot of very hard lessons, multiple times,

(45:34):
multiple Olympics, multiple dancing out the stars to kind of
learn that about myself and learn that it's okay to
say no to people and truly just like follow your
own heart, because I don't think you're benefiting anyone unless
you do that. But it's hard to walk away from
such big things, like these things that you're walking away from.
It's not like, oh, I'm just gonna walk away from

(45:56):
like a job, interview, opportunity, or like, I don't know,
something even that feels big, Like I can't even imagine
you're walking from the Olympics. I mean that's huge. It is,
But is it all relative? It's all relative because it's
it's that like again cliche moral like moralistic story of

(46:19):
if you make if you win the lottery, are you
really going to feel like feel fulfilled as a human being?
And you probably won't. There's no money, there's no title
that will make you feel fulfilled because you're always going
to want more and it's always going to feel like, oh,
what's next? And I got to stand on Olympic gold
medal podium, and yes, it was the greatest feeling ever.
But I still didn't feel like, oh, I'm fine with

(46:43):
my life being done and I can just go sit
on the couch for the rest of my life and
be happy. So being able to turn down these big
experiences it was all because I knew, at the end
of the day, if you're not enjoying what you're doing,
like it's not going to matter. Did you have fear
that you're making mistake by turning down those experiences all
the time? How do you deal with that? Because it's

(47:04):
like what if you know, like, what if this was
the right choice? Do you just have to be so
in tune with your gut? I think so. I mean,
for me, I was sitting like on my gut feeling
for so long that I knew my gut didn't want
to do it, and I knew the world was saying
like he should, and so I sat on it for

(47:25):
probably a year, and finally I was just like, I
can't deny this anymore. And so when I finally retired
and said I was done, I don't know, I just
felt right. It felt easier day to day what do
you think the gut feeling is, like, what what do
you How would you define that? What does that mean

(47:45):
to you? Yeah, like, because it's it's your inner voice,
it is how do you define that? And how do
you know that you're supposed to trust it? Because as humans,
I feel like we want to ignore it a lie.
I would say, Oh, that's hard. I don't know. I
have like a lot of gymnasts that will come talk

(48:06):
to me and say, like, how did you know when
it was the right time to quit? And I just
always tell people like, if you can ask yourself day
after day, like what is the intention behind it? Did
you have a bad day? Did you meet a bad person?
Did you have a bad experience that's causing you to
impulsively be like, oh I don't want to deal with
this anymore? Or is it a true, like systematic thing

(48:30):
that you want to change? And if you can sit
on your gut long enough and keep asking those questions
and every time come to the same conclusion, I feel
like your gut's probably right. So what does it feel
like to you? Like when your gut was saying I'm done,
I'm done, I'm done, Like what was the difference in
that feeling, as opposed to when you went to the
twenty twelves, where we're like, I'm excited to be here,

(48:50):
this is awesome. Like what does the difference feel like?
Because I feel like that's something it's so abstract, you know,
So how do you put that in words? I would
say at the two thousand and eight Olympics or two
thousand and eight, sorry, I forget sometimes coming two thousand,
two thousand and four. Um at two thousand and eight,
I had gone through injury, I had gone through failure,

(49:14):
I had had meats where I fell fla out of
my face, I had I had a lot of hardships,
but they didn't feel like hardships to me. They felt
like just challenges that I had to somehow figure out
and get through. I would, you know, get a cast
on my leg and I'd be like, Okay, this sucks.
I would cry through it, but it would be my

(49:35):
mind would instantly go to how do we get around this?
Like how can we fix this? What's the process to
come back? Whereas in twenty twelve I almost had to
force that and it became it became more taxing trying
to get the motivation to even show up to practice

(49:58):
than it was getting the motivation to you know, work
through a challenge. Challenges to me like roadblocks. I had
a sprained ankle in twenty twelve and it was life
like career ending to me, and I almost felt relieved
by it. I don't know, you can, just like you
have to be able to take a step back and

(50:19):
really look at your feelings and understand a bigger picture.
Otherwise I don't know. It's just what do you do
with feeling like you're letting people down? Oh gosh, how
do you deal with that? Because you probably felt like
you were letting people down walking away a week before
the Annaci's going to be on the team. How do you,
especially as a people pleaser, how do you do that?

(50:40):
I probably I stayed in gymnastics probably a year longer
than I should have, because I was terrified of letting
people down. I had my dad, who was like my
number one cheerleadter my whole entire career, just saying like,
you know, don't quit, and just those like stereotypical dad
things that dad say, and he was so proud and

(51:02):
he loved so much to watch me compete. And I
had my mom and I had my sponsors, and I
had my agent, I had contracts for like Nike and
Coca Cola and all these people a lot, a lot,
and the fear of letting them down is consuming, like

(51:23):
that will keep percent of the population from ember doing it.
But it got to be to a point where I
felt like my well being was at jeopardy trying to
please them, just like my mental health, my physical health, everything.
I couldn't operate in a way that would have made

(51:46):
them proud and done them justice. So even if I
went to the Olympics, I wouldn't have represented any of
them in the way that they truly knew me. And
so I felt like I would be letting them down
on both sides, so I might as well choose the
one that makes me happy. And how did they all

(52:08):
handle it? Hmm? Some great, some not so great. My
parents we're fine, We're like very supportive. They were a
little bit in shock, just because it's like, what you're
a week from the Olympics, like are you sure about this?

(52:28):
Are you are you sane? Or like what's going on? Um?
But I think my parents could see such an instant
flip of I went from being like this miserable kid
to the kid that they knew, and they could see
that it was the right decision. My agent didn't love
it right rightfully. I mean that speaks for herself. The brands,

(52:53):
probably brands didn't love it. But and still to this day,
there's probably a couple of brands that I have very
that are still resentful of me. Yeah, but at the
end of the day, business is business, and bad things
happen in business, and it's not personal. So I think

(53:14):
for the most part everyone got over it, and then
it happened to be one of the greatest teams in
the history of gymnastics. Did you have pomo that you
weren't on it? No, you didn't like you didn't feel
like No. So that's how you especially know that again
the right thing, because you're not like, Shoot, I could
have been there. No, I was sitting in the audience there.

(53:35):
I actually went to the twenty twelve Games and watched
every competition from the first row, and you had no feeling,
of means that you weren't there. I had the feeling
like any person would, musician, performer of any kind, like, oh,
I want to be out on the competition floor. But
I didn't look at it and say, oh, she has
my spot. It was just kind of like, I'm so

(53:56):
proud of you, guys, touchet, I'm good right here. That's incredible. Yeah, dang, Sean. Yeah,
what a journey. So how has life been out? How
did you get to Nashville? My husband? So I was
the creepy girl that followed him. Did y'all meet online? No?

(54:17):
So because I followed him, I immediately think like Instagram, Oh,
probably no followed him here? Yeah. So because I didn't
compete in the twenty twelve Games, okay, and I was
a spectator, I got to go to other events. I
went to the USA Cycling event, which is like Lance
Armstrong track cycling, and I met this USA athlete. His

(54:38):
name was Guy East. We had very long conversation and
he just kept telling me I have to I'm perfect
for his younger brother and he when we flew back
to the United States, he set us up on a
blind date. That was it. Yeah, pretty much? So guy
knew evidently yeah way, yeah, So guys a athlete as well.

(55:00):
He's an Olympic cyclist. Yes, dang, I know, y'a are
just a bunch of athletes around here. We've laughed though,
like our baby's probably gonna be a musician, which like
we are not musically in hind at all. They're going
to be the most unathletic, most artistic creative, you know, kay,
of that kid out there? So what brought Andrew Nashville? Vanderbilt? Okay? Yeah?

(55:22):
And I was looking I was I was looking at
going to Stanford. I was getting ready to start, but
I had deferred Stanford four years and hadn't pulled the
trigger yet, so you weren't really worried about starting exactly.
And he went to Vanderbilt and he's like, I'll give
you a tour of Vanderbilt. And I was like, okay,
so did you go to Vanderbilt? I was supposed to

(55:43):
start And it was like the first month of when
I was supposed to start at Bandy, I got booked
on another TV show? What show? Celebrity Apprentice? How was that?
It was not my favorite show? So you know our president?
I do know our president. Are y'all buds? Jackie Boum
politically like all politics aside? He was very nice on

(56:06):
the show. Oh I'm sure, yeah, Oh you're fired? How
far did you make it on that one not far did.
I got fired real soon. But I couldn't. I couldn't
do like the conniving stuff. No, so I bowed out
real quick. Okay, yeah, well that's fun. Yeah, but Vandy
wouldn't work with that schedule. So I ended up transferring
to I went to school and pen like Penn State online.

(56:27):
It was just like an online program. Okay, so did
you finish college? Yeah? Oh, where it go? Well kind of? No? No, no,
I have one more year ish. I mean you don't
need college. No, my husband god to go to college.
I honestly, I hope our child doesn't go to college.
I know that's weird. No it's not. I I okay,
not to disk colleges out there, because college is great.

(56:49):
It was I've never been more mad at life than
doing online college. I was like, you were eating my
money for no reason, and this is a bunch of crap.
Yeah just for a peace paper. Yes. I got so
annoyed with it. I know. I mean I feel like, yes,
if you want to be a doctor, or if you
want to be a lawyer or something like that, that
you need the structured school system for it, go for it.

(57:13):
But no, not everyone needs to go to college. No,
especially if you know your passion, yeah, or especially like
if you like you like you've had all these things
happened to you that you're not really needing college for
a career. You know. I was again, though, people pleaser.
I was the kid in school that had an absolute
meltdown if I didn't get straight a's. And I wanted

(57:33):
to be a doctor. I wanted to be a surgeon.
I wanted to go to Stanford, and then gymnastics kinds
threw a wrench in that. So then study psychology and
threw a lot of money away for online tests that
I could google the answers of I was just Oh,
I was so mad. Oh my gosh, that's so mad.
So what has life been like for you in Nashville? Awesome?

(57:59):
So I came from De Moines, Iowa, where it's just
like everyone knows everyone and any type of name. It
makes it really difficult, which is a beautiful thing. Like
I love Iowa, not to disc Iowa at all, but
Nashville just became this place where I could be my
own person. There's so many people who've had success and

(58:21):
like amazing things happened to him and everyone like respects
and loves it, but no one cares. No one cares,
which I love. Yes, I loved how I could go
grocer shopping for the first time and someone wouldn't stop
me and say, oh, you know, how's your mom doing?
And how's you know? Western ge Elementary and just like
all this stuff. It was it was great to blend
in for a while. And it's such a good community.

(58:43):
It's such a good community. It's a it's a very
small community, which I love. But again it's like nobody cares,
no which is cool. So have you found what have
you found out about yourself now? Because we kind of
were talking about this earlier. I was trying to get
you to really define who you are now, which is
a hard so I don't know, because who can do that?
But like after Olympics and Gymnastics, after Dancing with the Stars,

(59:06):
after falling in love with Andrew and him helping to
bring out this other side of you, realizing that you
don't have to be on all the time, Like what
how has How how do you view life now? Because
like you said, you were perfectionists for so long and
are you able to drop that? Are you able to

(59:30):
see life through? Like what is the lens that you're
looking at life through now, Um, you ask hard questions.
I would say for me like I will always be
challenged with my past self, the people pleasing, perfectionist mentality.
It's just it was ingrained in me for so long.

(59:53):
But with the help of my husband to just kind
of like keep me on track, I feel like I
view life has just I don't know. I feel like
I'm I'm very anti what the world has to say,
and I hope that sounds okay, but I feel like
social media just kind of the world we live in.
Everyone's trying to tell you who you are. And because

(01:00:16):
I went through so many roller coasters of trying to
please people and never succeeding, I'm constantly trying to just
do my own thing and show the world that that's okay,
even though like inside, I'm kind of having meltdowns all
the time. I'm like, what do they actually think? I'm
reading all my Instagram comments, I'm like, oh my gosh,
you read through all of them. I okay, this is

(01:00:38):
really bad. We have a lot of really young kids
because of gymnastics, who follow us, so I read every
single comment to delete anything that I don't want a
kid to read. That's sweet. It's sweet, but it's such torture.
And it's probably the most part that people are nice
for the most part, but then you have those people
who are like and it's easy to hang on to

(01:00:58):
the bad ones. Oh, I only hang on to the
bad ones obviously. Isn't that crazy? People can compliment you
a million times and one person says something mean and
that's the only thing you'll remember. I know what, I know. Yeah,
but I again, I'm constantly trying to like set an
example for kids of like, don't listen to the world.

(01:01:21):
What are your views on social media? I hate it
and love it. I hate majority of what it stands
for because it's it allows people to sit behind a
screen and have no interaction with people and no consequence
to their actions. But I also love it because it
is truly a community that has helped us in so

(01:01:43):
many ways. It was truly the only thing that got
me through the miscarriage. I mean, really being able to
read people's stories. I'm not the kind of person that
asks for help and tells people what I'm going through,
which is weird that my life is on social media,
but being able to read people's stories and hear how
they got through it and have that community really helped me,

(01:02:03):
which I saw for the first time, the good side
of social media. But I don't know, I don't know
what I think of it really right in the middle.
What do you think about being a mom? Like what
are your what are your fears? And what are you
most excited about? What are you most scared about? I'm
scared about everything, literally everything. I went to a baby

(01:02:24):
class last night and they're like, what do you want
to learn? I was like, everything, I don't know anything,
literally scared about everything. How do you teach your kid
to be a good person, a nice person? How do
you teach them not to listen to the world and
not to conform to all these dumb societal pressures and
expectations we have. And if we don't know what we're having,

(01:02:48):
so like, it was a girl, what is she going
to have to deal with? And if it's a boy,
what is he going to have to deal with? And
I don't know, what are you most excited about? Right now?
Holding our baby for the first time? Oh my god,
Like I can't even imagine like actually holding the baby.
I know, and it's getting close. Yeah, it's I feel

(01:03:09):
that sandwich like it could be today for you. I
was hoping it was yesterday. I had told her that
we were going to come on the twenty second, and
she it's not. She didn't do it, so she's obviously
the wives tails like squats squats. Okay. I asked a
lot of your oil castor oil apparently makes you poo
and makes your baby come, which I would do it

(01:03:30):
fine with that, I would do it evening primrose oil
taking Oh yeah, taking that red Do you have some? Yes? Okay,
I would say I have a whole bottle if you want.
Oh great, I'm not taking it right now. You're just ready,
I'm ready? Yes, um raspberry leaf tea. Yes, you need
to go see and I an acupuncture. Yes, Gil, we
have this great acupuncture, so I need to go to him.

(01:03:51):
Maybe he can help acupuncture. Foot massages because apparently this
pressure points on your feet that make you go into
labor um sex. Yeah, everyone says that. Bouncing on a ball. Yeah,
I've heard from some people if you drink a glass
of wine, like it'll make you go into labor. And
I haven't really been drinking this whole pregnancy. She started

(01:04:11):
drinking a little bit like SIPs here at the end.
I don't know. I'm not endorsing that one. Everyone who yes,
it's fine it don't drink wine when you're pregnant. But
I made the mistake about a vlog one time showing
that I had like a couple of steps and oh yeah, yeah, yes,
not endorsing it. No, not endorsing it. But I mean

(01:04:31):
I have heard from multiple people it's totally fine if
you have a little bit of wine. Yeah, but doctor
would even say, but everyone you do you? Um, I
don't know. Those are kind of the top ones that
I've heard. Have you heard anything else? No, I'm trying
to keep baby in right now. Yeah you want to
be baby in. Yeah, baby's gotta cook. Yeah, baby's still cooking. Yeah.

(01:04:51):
You just need to have a day of like where
you do all of it. I know I'm going to
talk to my kind of colleges about the castor or
I'm nervous about that one where she gives it to
go ahead. Thank you. You've had friends that have done it.
I've had friends that have done it and had great
success with it. So I just like looves everything up,
loaves everything up, cleans everything out, gets the contractions going,
I mean, I mean, you know, I don't know, we

(01:05:13):
shall see. Yeah, Okay, so I wrap all my interviews
leave your light. Ok You obviously are such an inspiring person.
Thank you, and so many people look up to you
in the world. Thank you. And you're so real and honest,
which is amazing that you share your heart like you do,
because I think that's one of the greatest gifts you
can give to the world, is having a platform like

(01:05:34):
you have and being real and sharing your soul because
it just lets us all know that we're all in
this together. And we put people on pedestals, and when
you realize that someone that you've put on a pedestal
is actually a real human, it makes you feel better
about your own experience and not alone. So way to
go on being that kind of amazing person. What do

(01:05:54):
you want to tell people? Just like what you have learned,
like some advice, some knowledge that you have, something that
maybe you wish your twelve year old self would have
known that you've just gathered over the years. Something to
inspire people who look up to you or who are
trying to find their way. My guess and kind of

(01:06:19):
what I've been talking about, I feel like I'm still
trying to convince myself of this. We're talking the people pleasing,
but again, every single person in the world has an opinion,
and everyone thinks what you're doing is right or wrong.
And the sooner you can learn none of them are correct,

(01:06:41):
the easier your life is going to be. And it's
the heart, I think the hardest for both of us,
because where people pleasers the hardest thing to learn. But
when you can just like stop trying to please the world,
I feel like success comes. I feel like happiness comes,
enjoy and life just gets easier. So I love that,

(01:07:02):
and that is such a hard lesson. Yeah, but it's
so true. Yeah, Oh you're seaning. Thank you, You're gonna
be the best mom. Oh gosh, sorry you. Oh you're
a great What do you think you're having? I think
a boy? Yeah, I know, but I can be wrong.
I mean, hey, you never know. Thank you so much

(01:07:22):
for coming on. Thank You're amazing. Thank you you too. Okay, bye,