February 1, 2024 • 37 mins
When Olympian Natasha Hastings hung up her spikes, she wanted the world to know she was more than just someone who runs fast. She put an exclamation point on her career with a final post on the Player’s Tribute when she officially retired in 2022. Since, she has embarked on a new chapter focused on utilizing her drive, determination, and influence to address critical issues surrounding mental health. Natasha completed her master’s degree in clinical mental health in 2023 and is on a mission to make a difference. Talking with The Spin Chicks, Natasha emphasizes the significance of mental health awareness and advocates for its importance within communities, particularly those she is closely connected to. Her focus on making a difference within the communities she knows best underscores her commitment to effecting positive change and providing valuable resources to those who may need them the most.
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(00:07):
Hey, Erica came in the showWelcome to the spin Chicks. Well,
we've got a special episode today whichis Part two. We're calling it Natasha
Hastings two point oh because we knewthat we wanted to cover this chapter of
Natasha's life where in her she hasgone back to school. She's very focused
on a particular path that she's taking, and we really wanted to talk about
(00:31):
that in this in this episode.Yeah, I think it was great to
hear about her athletic feats and Ithink something she's very proud of. Natasha
one point zero, but two pointzero she is a mental health counselor,
and I'd like to say she's achange maker, and it's going to be
really interesting to listen to her talkabout why she got into mental health counseling,
(00:52):
why it's important to her, whatshe imparts on people. I really
think this is going to be afascinating conversation. Absolutely, And that's one
thing she said when she retired,that the passion and everything that she brought
to her track career on the track, she is now bringing to this part
of her life, and that isfocusing on mental health with student athletes,
(01:15):
also with black women, and alot of her experiences directly translate to this.
So we are really looking forward tosharing this episode on its own,
you know, completely focusing on that. All right, let's do it,
Natasha. When you officially retired fromtrack in twenty twenty two, you said
that you were much more than someonewho just runs fast, that all the
(01:38):
drive and passion you had for trackwas ready to be put into something else.
So you recently graduated with a master'sdegree in clinical mental health. What
led you from the track to workingin this field? E loaded question?
Now, the straightforward answer is Ibecame a single mom six months postpartum,
(02:06):
so my son was six months old. I immediately got into therapy. I
the middle of my career. Twentytwelve, I started working with a sports
psychologist and I actually worked with asports psychologist here at USC as well.
Well, actually he was a psychiatrist, but anyway, I would say it
(02:27):
was that moment of like me gettinginto therapy after having my son, where
there was one day I was sittingin therapy and we were on the lockdown
again. I'm six months postpartum trainingfor the Olympics, not sure like where
my life is going because I wassupposed to get married, but that ended
(02:50):
up not happening. I also havea non profit in Natasha Hastings Foundation where
we worked with young girls, andI just had this moment where I was
sitting there too myself, like youalready kind of do this work with young
girls. Maybe this is what youneed to do professionally after track. So
it was literally an epiphany moment sittingin therapy, probably breastfeeding my son at
(03:15):
the time and talking to my therapist. So it wasn't something that was a
career goal. Wasn't something because youhad a degree in exercise science you weren't
thinking about, you know, thisis the direction. It was. It
was a like real life aha momentin the I thought that I wanted to
be a chiropractor. When I cameto USC, I chose exercise science because
(03:38):
I wanted to be a chiropractor.I don't think that I imagined my professional
career running as long as it did. So that being said, there was
a point twenty twelve that I revisited, like let me start applying for chiro
school. But yeah, like itwas really a moment. I think the
(04:00):
other piece that I'm probably the biggestpiece that I'm leaving out is when I
searched for my therapist at the time, the Google search was black female therapists
in Austin, Texas, And whenI saw how scarce the options were,
that was another thing for me whereit was like, you know, the
space needs to be filled with blackwomen. So yeah, it was definitely
(04:25):
an experience that kind of pushed meinto this career and how we're going to
talk about a lot of different things. But since you mentioned black, how
important is it for you, especiallymen who black men who don't like to
get therapy. And I mean,we're going to get deep here, we
want to try to keep it funand light. But since you mentioned that,
how important is it for them tosee a black female or a black
(04:48):
male. Yeah, I you know, as a dating, single mom,
that's so important to me too.Like one of the first questions like do
you believe in therapy? But Ido truly think that the representation does matter.
I can tell you here at theuniversity, we're making the effort in
terms of like our intake forms oflike who do you want to see,
(05:11):
because sometimes there is a fear oflike just saying I'd prefer to talk to
someone black, I'd prefer to talkto someone that looks like me. Apart
from being a gamecock and this justbeing home. I wanted to come back
to a PWI and work for myblack student athletes that I have the lived
(05:32):
experience of being one of on acampus that is predominantly white, right,
But also I'm a black student athletein the South, also an athlete where
we're viewed as superheroes, but weactually have very human issues that affect us
on and off the field. ButI think, you know, having that
(05:54):
visibility and having that awareness that Ishow up to practices, I show up
up to games and make it veryclear like I may have a relationship with
your coach, but what we talkabout is confidential. Having that safe space
for people that look like me,I think is invaluable. So how important
(06:16):
is it is mental health counseling incollegiate athletics because I think this is something
that we're hearing more and more about. And you I think I had the
sense. I think we had thesense when we were talking to in our
last episode that when you were astudent athlete, like it just came across
a lot different than what I thought. And when you talked about just the
business, the routine and everything,and it wasn't just all about winning and
(06:41):
all this. You know how howyou felt. So can you just speak
to a little bit about that justworking with student athletes? Now, Yeah,
the the interesting thing is I'm workingwith student athletes in a way that
I have the training, but Ialso have the lived experience, and a
lot of my lived experience is lookingback on my experience and saying, huh,
(07:05):
I probably wasn't the healthiest of things, right, So, like even
kind of reconciling like Okay, youwant to be number one in the world
or you want to be number onein the country. There's a huge sense
of isolation that comes along with thatthat unless you are aware of it,
(07:26):
which most of us are not,there's a huge sense of isolation that can
be not can be is detrimental ifnot managed, if not acknowledged. And
so it's tricky because it's a thingthat I don't profess to have the answer
to. It's something that I amfiguring out in terms of, you know,
(07:48):
wanting to help athletes not not onlybe their best selves on the court
or the field or the track,but they're best selves in person. You
know. Well, even my experienceof going to a sports psychologist, coming
to our psychiatrist here at South Carolina, was for performance, but very quickly
(08:11):
I realized, oh, there's alsoa mental health issue here too. A
lot of times the performance issue andI say performance, that's speaking in clinical
terms. So performance is like specificallylike an athlete coming in and saying,
I am suffering with performance anxiety.I get out there and I'm so nervous
(08:31):
that I just cannot perform the waythat I know that I can perform based
on how I practice, my talentlevel, all the things. But for
whatever reason, I go out thereand I'm the head case. That's performance,
right, And you think that it'sstrictly just something out there, but
you know, as you dig andyou get a little deeper, you start
(08:52):
to see, no, this actuallyshows up in your personal life. This
is a mental health a mental wellnessissue. So the two are tied very
closely together. Although it can beseparate, they do link very closely.
So how how do you help Howcan you help student athletes kind of understand
(09:16):
that hey, something's going on thatI might need to Like, how do
people really know when they need counseling, or when it's something that they need
to maybe look really further into talkingabout it or dealing with it. Yeah,
I think there's a level of youknowing that you need help. Right
again, is it something that youcan recognize and if you can't recognize it,
(09:41):
hopefully you have people around you thatcan push you and there are people
that you trust. I'm very candidabout you know. In twenty twelve,
when I got with my sports psychologists, it wasn't because I asked for help.
In the end, I ended upasking for help, but it was
at the prodding of my mom saying, hey, I see something that you
know. You just don't look likeyou believe in yourself. Here's this phone
(10:05):
number. If you want to useit, it's up to you. But
I'm telling you what I see inyou, right, So you know,
sometimes it's your own level of awareness, whether you're Simone Biles who goes to
the Olympics and says I'm dealing withsome stuff. I can go out there
and kill myself. I'm not doingthis right, or you have someone around
(10:26):
you that you trust that says,hey, I see something going on here.
I think the hardest thing, though, is again, being an athlete,
we are viewed as superheroes, andI think you know, throughout my
career that was one of the thingsthat I did try to be intentional about,
Like I didn't want to just tellthe stories that were like the hero
(10:46):
stories, Like I also wanted totell the stories of like I didn't really
feel like doing this workout today.I didn't really perform the way that I
wanted to perform today. And I'mnot here to make an excuse about not
performing the way that I wanted to, but it just didn't happen today.
Like I made the conscious effort oflike showing the human side of who I
am in terms instead of like justthat part that just goes after that one
(11:11):
percent, right, that level ofexpectation that it's hard for some to even
imagine. But yeah, I think, you know, having that awareness,
which I think we're getting to aplace now where you know, younger athletes
are more willing to ring that alarm, but also having the people around you
(11:31):
that you trust that can can bringyour ear in the sense that like,
hey, I think we should trysomething different here. And You've talked in
the past about having some imposter syndrome, which a lot of athletes do a
lot of regular people do. Imean I still has a business owner.
Yeah, So how do you dealwith imposter syndrome? And I know this
(11:52):
isn't like doctor Laura here, butjust saying like, how do you when
you talk to athletes? Can youidentify that? How do you talk them
through that? Yeah? I meanI'm still talking myself through it and a
lot especially like going from being anathlete my whole life to now a whole
(12:13):
new career right where I do questionmyself like am I good enough to do
this? Am I reaching these athletes? You know? Am I doing?
Am I using these modalities correctly?But a thing that I worked with myself
throughout my career is a question thatI asked myself, is this real?
Or is this something that I havemade up? Right? And like really
(12:37):
making that distinction between like how muchof this thought is based in fact and
how much of it is based upin fear, assumptions just ridiculousness. Is
this real? Is it not?The more that I can anchor myself to
what is real, the better I'mable to be present and pushed through but
(13:00):
also giving myself grace. Right,And you hear that so often, but
I mean again, being a partof a one percent, going after a
one percent, there is a levelof perfectionism that is just impossible, right,
And so giving myself the grace that, you know what, sometimes it's
not going to be perfect. Mosttimes, actually it's not going to be
(13:22):
perfect. So not being afraid totake risks changing my relationship with failure that
like, a failure isn't necessarily afailure, but a failure is an opportunity
to learn to get better. Also, all of the wins that I've had
from in my career, a lotof them came from having failures because I
can tell you I learned a lotmore from my failures than I've ever learned
(13:43):
from any one of my wins.So, you know, changing your perception
of those things and changing your relationshipwith you know, having to be perfect
and getting it right every single time, but giving yourself grace to just be
human at the end of the day. Wow, I'm motivated, aren't you?
Well? You know this, I'mjust all these thoughts are running through
my head and I immediately think ofwhen you talk about student athletes, they're
(14:09):
just the elite level, but allthe levels and then if you're dealing with
these things just you yourself, thenmaybe you yourself, your family, your
team. But now in some casesthis fan base social media, these people
who are watching and I know yousaid, you know we were talking about
Twitter kind of started when you werecompeting professionally. But let's talk about how
(14:33):
that layer thrown in there just ignite, right, I know, I know,
not enough, but like more,what's like, what are you telling
these kids? Yeah? How dothey just how do they navigate all this?
So let me start off by sayingI have a love hate relationship with
(14:56):
social media because it can be sucha power tool. It is such a
powerful tool, but if you don'tknow how to use it, and if
you don't know how to quiet thenoise, you're in trouble. Right.
Boundaries is a hot word, butit's the truth starting from you know,
if you're a person that you knowthat certain things are going to, you
(15:22):
know, disregulate you or throw youoff your game, you need to be
setting times that you're this is thetime that I don't look at my social
media. Social media now has thingson it where you can put certain words
into like the block machine. Soif someone comes and tries to say something
crazy to you, the comment doesn'teven show up for you. Right,
(15:43):
There's so many different things to protectyourself from people, right, and I'm
going to say people, people inbots, right, but you know there's
all the things right where there's peoplethat Now you can say whatever you want
to say because you're behind a keyboard, right, But that doesn't change what
(16:04):
that feels like when you read thosewords, you know. Like I remember
going to a parade after twenty sixteenin New York and it was this woman.
I knew her from high school.She was a coach, and she
came up to me and she waslike, oh my god, you're so
much smaller in person, or youlook so much smaller in person. And
I looked at her. Now,if you've read articles about me, as
(16:26):
I know you guys have, bodyimage was a thing that I struggled with
because I was bigger than my competitors, right. I was always like watching
what I was eating, watching mysize, comparing myself to my competitors,
all the things. And in myhead, I couldn't say this to her
because now this is another thing.Right, as a public figure, I'm
held to a different standard. Butwhat I really wanted to say was mm
(16:48):
hm, And I bet you wereone of them people in my dms in
my comments saying, you know,if you would just lose a few pounds,
da da da da da, youknow, but I can't. But
also, what if I was oneof those people that and not even what
if I was, It did affectme, you know, I did have
to start like filtering what I wouldlook at or when I would look at
(17:12):
my social media. Right, ButI also understood I had had and have
the relationship that I have with someof the brands that I have because of
my social media presence, connecting withmy fans in a way that I would
not have been able to connect withmy fans without social media. If you
(17:34):
can't afford a Michelle Young, whobetter to tell your story than yourself?
Right, So it's it's a verypowerful tool and it can work for you
in your advantage, but there it'salso very toxic and if you're not careful,
it can completely throw you off yourgame. And I mean we see
(17:56):
it every day with suicide rates goingup about self harm in the work that
I do, Like it's just youknow, if you're not careful, you
can get sucked in really easily.I like your idea of I mean it
sounds simple, but setting boundaries andsetting words, and I think that's really
really really good advice. How muchof sports performance is mental? Like Alan
(18:22):
Johnson I think said it was ninetypercent when you get to the big to
the show. How about for you? I'd probably go even as far as
saying ninety five, because I mean, Michelle, you know me. You've
you've been to my workouts. UsLike, a good workout for me is
one where it ended in me vomiting, right, and where's my hailor?
(18:48):
But I like, I am nota trainer, I do not know where
you're in hailer? Is a betterone is if I vomited and then got
up and still finish the workout right, like I pushed myself to insane levels,
right, and then I would getto the track meet and it was
like, girl, what was allof that that you did all week?
And you can't show up here?And it was because I didn't believe in
(19:11):
myself. It was because I didn'tbelieve that I belonged there. It was
because I had every negative thought underthe sun that you could think of,
as if I didn't just puke mybrains out and push myself probably harder than
anyone else out there. So Itruly, I mean, I don't think
my career turned around the way thatit did, and I don't believe that
(19:32):
it would have turned around the waythat it did if I did not enlist
the help of a sports psychologist.Really really really appreciate your honesty. I
mean, more people need to hearthat, because that's a really important thing
for people to hear. So Ireally appreciate you just saying yeah, yeah,
(19:52):
that was me. Well, andit seems like, you know,
we see these sports just you know, just this past weekend is everything that's
going on. You see these amazingthings happen, and then you just hear
some of the interviews and then justlike you know, no one believed but
I believed in me and that's whatgot us here, and things like that.
(20:15):
It's like, okay, you wantthat to be the truth, you
know, you want to think thateveryone's okay, that's competing at the high
level or competing at any level,because you know, sports is as much
as it's compelling and everything, justall the things around it that maybe give
it a darker side. So Ithink just talking about this, I think
is helpful. But the fact thatnow you have made this, you know,
(20:40):
your work is also pretty inspiring.But can you talk a little bit
about mindset? And I know you'vementioned kind of how it affected you personally,
but how can just even your everydayperson how can mindset empower you.
Yeah, it's interesting because I Ispoke to myself very negatively and even now,
(21:06):
like I still sometimes have to checkmyself, like would you say that
to someone? So don't say thatto yourself. But there really is truth
to you know, how we speakto ourselves and the way that it shows
up and manifests itself in our lives, you know. And there's you know,
the difference between telling yourself the truth, right, but also having a
(21:29):
bit of optimism in there that like, this is going to work out.
This is an opportunity again, likechanging the relationship the thought pattern of like
the outcome being more rooted and groundedin the process as opposed to the outcome.
I can think of times where Iwas just like thinking about, like
(21:51):
I want to hit this time.I want to make this place. If
I make this place, then I'llget this bonus. If I do this,
then I'll get never never because Iwasn't focused on what it was that
I needed to do. I wasn'tpresent in the moment. Also, I
do with that want to say itis important for you to know what your
(22:12):
own language is, what your ownmotivating factors are. I am a purpose
driven person. Every single year Ihad to check in with what is my
purpose? Why am I doing this? What inspires me to do this?
When it was time for me toretire, it was so easy to do
that because I had a purpose.I knew what I wanted to do,
(22:33):
including my son, Like I knowwhat it takes to be successful on the
track and as a mom, asa single mom enrolled in grad school,
like it just was impossible. Right. But also, I'm now passionate about
something else. I have a purposein something else. But if you don't
understand those things, then how doyou even speak to yourself and motivate yourself
(22:56):
in those ways? If you don'teven understand those things about yourself. So
I think it's it's truly a personaljourney of finding where you are rooted in
the present moment and the motivation thatyou personally need, the inspiration that you
personally need to have the right mindsetto be successful. Wow, how did
(23:18):
this happen? This girl? Iremember when we talked to her as a
recruit. It's so sweet thing.Although she was kind of quiet and I
can never figure out why she wasquiet. Well, golly, I wish
I would have said what are youthinking? More often? Because well,
I think as I grew and Iattribute some of this to my experience as
(23:38):
an athlete. I am truly anintrovert, but I now describe myself as
an extroverted introvert again understanding my experiencesand that I can be an inspiration.
I have like worked myself up tolike telling my story and you know,
being a bit more open also beingin some space. This is where I've
(24:00):
walked out and I'm like, man, like that was Michael Jordan and I
didn't go up and shake my handor shake his hand or you know the
CEO that like just I was justbrushing elbows with him, and I was
too afraid to speak to him.Like you know, you kind of grow
up and you're like, girl,open your mouth, clothes moos, don't
get fit. But I am trulyan introvert, Like I don't mind spending
(24:22):
the weekend at home in my owncompany. But also I know that I
have a story to tell. Sospeaking of your story, you have a
son, Liam who's four four.Yeah, so he's been recently diagnosed with
autism and you've been going through that. How are you balancing that diagnosis?
And I think this is an importantthing for us to talk to you about
(24:45):
because there are so many people beingdiagnosed and I don't want to say so
many because it's with the autism,and for you to have a voice in
that it's really important. Yeah.I you know, again, I don't
I think anything happens the way that, like by mistake, because the odds
(25:06):
that my son would be diagnosed autistic. And I get my masters in mental
health, so you know, Idon't. I don't specialize in autism obviously,
all the things that we've been talkingabout, but I have, you
know a little bit of training whereI've been able to sort of meet him.
Right. The beauty of all ofit though, is that, like
(25:29):
he has this diagnosis, but Isee that I still have this bright,
brilliant, super smart, super talentedyoung boy, right, and my focus
is, you know, get himall the help, all the resources that
I can get him, but alsothose strengths that he has, like I'm
going to continue to strengthen those andcontinue to He loves musical instruments. I
(25:51):
pray to God. He doesn't runtrack, although he's already faster than me,
so athletic bug did not skip him. Dad is also an athlete.
Dad played football, so I meanhe is athletic. He's smart as a
whip, and I just you know, I've I've released myself with that word
balance. That's I think that's aperfectionism thing. But again, yeah,
(26:19):
we'll keep going, but we're gonnago back to that hash tag. Sorry,
but I you know, truly,I'm just day by day, you
know, reading different articles again,you know, tapping into all the resources
that are available to us, andjust doing the best that I can to
(26:41):
support him. But I mean,again, the boy is reading, he's
talking a lot more, he candress himself from head to toe, feed
him like all the things. Soyou know, every they call it a
spectrum for a reason. Everyone ison the spectrum at different point. They
need it, they have different needsall the things. So it's about me
(27:03):
personally figuring out what is Liam needand how can I best support him.
And it's good that that you havethat mindset, because you know, you
didn't like to be labeled as justan athlete, and you don't want people
to label him as just a boywith autism. You want to see them
to see all these different things thathe's about, just like you as an
athlete, you weren't just a fourhundred meter runner. I mean you were
(27:26):
a diva, but you were alot more than that. So I was
an honors college, I had friends. I wanted to be a chiropractor.
Yes, yes, absolutely. Wellgo back and talk a little bit about
the balance, because I think itseems like that's the mantra that's pushed,
like the balance what would be worklife or whatever? So are you saying
that's not when you said you releasedit. Talk a little bit more about
(27:48):
that. I believe we can haveit all. I just don't believe we
can have it all at one time. You know, when I moved back
to Columbia to get my master's degree, I don't think I ever imagined like
(28:11):
being a single mom living in acity all by myself, essentially with a
special needs child, right while alsotrying to go after my dreams you know,
in terms of like, you know, now I'm opening this, this
next chapter of my life, andI was like struggling with this, and
(28:33):
still to this day kind of strugglingwith like I'm kind of sort of shedding
a bit of my identity as theathlete, right, Like I'm always going
to be the athlete, but likemy body's changing. Yeah that's a whole
nother podcast. Yes, athletically andafter breastfeeding for two years, but you
(28:55):
know, my my career is changing. My my friendships have changed, my
my how I relate to myself,how I relate to others has changed.
And I wanted to do it allat once, Like I still wanted to
have my social life. I stillwanted to, you know, be open
to the possibilities everywhere that I've movedso many times throughout my life. Every
(29:17):
time I've moved is because of myjob, because of an opportunity. Right
when I started to learn that likeLiam may be on the autism spectrum,
you know, I was like,Okay, this is now a time that
we're going to figure out what Liamneeds, get him situated. And no,
it doesn't mean that, you know, I'm dropping out of school,
(29:38):
you know, I did graduate,but you know, I don't have as
much social time. I just starteddating, right, Like, right now,
the priority is Liam, right,But to think that I could do
all things and do it by myselfand lence them, I had to like
(30:02):
that, it just it wasn't fairto me because then if on this day
I was a little bit frustrated andI ended up yelling or talking to Liam
in a way that I did notlike talking to him, right, Like,
I have to a give myself thespace to be able to go to
him and say, hey, Mommy, wasn't very nice. I'm sorry,
Right, that's not how I wantto show up to you as mommy.
(30:25):
But also know that like some daysI'm going to be a great mom and
some days I might be a poopymom. Right, some days I was
a great student, and then sometimesthere were times that I turned in papers
that I was like, that couldhave been a better paper. But man,
I was up all night with limb. It just is what it is.
That's what I had to turn in, right, Like, I had
to like release myself of like sometimeslife just life's and I'll show up in
(30:51):
every role that I do as bestI can that day. But every day
is not going to be one hundredpercent because I'm wearing twelve different right now,
and some days I'm confused with whichhad I have on. But I'm
doing the best that I can.So even though you know, you didn't
win every race, and I don'twant to say failure or loss, it's
(31:14):
like you're saying it's okay not tobe perfect. I don't know what the
right word is. Maybe you havea better word than that, because it
sounds like you've thought a lot aboutthis. But I think using the word
failure again, like what is ourrelationship with those words? Like just it
is what it is? And Ithink again, knowing the language that I
speak, knowing that I am arealist, I can be very literal at
(31:37):
times, but also in being literal, giving myself space to like, Okay,
yeah, so I failed at thattoday, but I did that a
couple of years ago. I cando it again. It's just today I
didn't do it the way that Iwould have liked to. But you know,
yeah yeah. Ray Tanner talked aboutthat when he was a baseball coach
at South Carolina won two national titles. We're hoping to get him on the
(31:59):
podcast He talked about how he wouldstay up at night a lot more after
wins than losses, because losses he'slike, oh, we just I need
to do this or this so andso. But wins he's like, I
have no idea how we're going todo this again, Like how can we
do this again? So it's thesame, you know, it's kind of
the same thing. So I thinkit's we don't have enough time. Yeah,
(32:22):
well, clearly you need to bea guest again, like we're having
another conversation. Clearly check in.I hope that at South Carolina that you
that if you're not already speaking tostudent athletes when they come in, that
they create something to allow you todo that. I just keep thinking to
(32:43):
myself, if there was just thisforty five minute session of what we're talking
about in college that you had tolisten to or in high school. I
don't need calculus and I certainly didn'tneed you know, geometry. This.
Yes, I think it's like homecprobably gone away. Does anyone even know
what home ech is? You knowwhat I mean? This is a life
skill, and it's I think you'resuch a value and what you're doing and
(33:07):
what you bring and you're honesty.Sorry, I'm just like, yeah,
yeah, I mean I think we'reall up in our feelings about her honesty,
right, Erica, like Eric isbought ready to cry too. Like
the honesty that you're speaking about reallyis so refreshing because so many times people
are afraid to say, you know, I wasn't very good or I you
(33:30):
know, it's okay, you know, you can give yourself a break.
Like I like the fact that yousay release off a balance. I really
like that. That's a definite takeawayfor me today just in my daily life,
and I'll try to pass that on. But again, I'm just thinking
about all these student athletes that youknow, I don't work with them on
a daily basis, I know Michelledid, but just just watching them and
(33:51):
doing what they're doing and thinking abouthow all that impacts them. I mean,
I think you are going to makea lot of difference for a lot.
That is definitely talking about passion andpurpose. Being passionate and purpose driven.
That is at the paramount. Sothank you. Awesome. Well,
it has been even better than Ithought it was going to be having you
(34:14):
on, Natasha. Sure, I'mserious, like, way better. I've
always loved you. Carrie will beso maybe we'll finally get her on the
podcast now. Oh, but she'sa tough one, you know, it's
a tough one to get on acall. It will be good, though,
Yeah, I think she'll be.Yeah, she'd be really interesting.
But you've been fantastic and I reallyappreciate your time. Coach Fry, Coach
(34:37):
Brown, I know, Coach dCoach Mike, coach Dan, you know
who, Andrew. I'm not sureif he was there when you were there,
they'd all be proud of you.I'm the current staff better be proud
to have you around because you areYou're You're game Cock diva. So thank
you under meet her diva. Absolutely, it's been awesome, so great to
(35:00):
meet you. And like I said, this won't be our last conversation.
You're coming back. You're coming back. Wow, Michelle, I really enjoyed
talking to Natasha on this episode.I mean it's just incredible what she is
doing. I mean not only whatshe did as a student athlete, but
what she's doing going forward. Imean amazing. Yes, she's really she
(35:23):
brought some tears to my eyes.I agreed, agreed, I was,
I was right there with you,and I think especially just some of the
things you know, she addressed andmade you really think think long and hard,
just about life and things and pathsthat you take and how you approach
things and some good takeaways going forward, and whoever comes across her path in
(35:51):
that space is really going to benefit. I truly believe that totally. I've
always used the word balance, andI know from listening to her in this
conversation she hates the word balance,and so I'm like, oh, maybe
I'm going to have to take asecond look at balance. So I agree,
And we've talked about it on ourpodcast too, like oh, talking
(36:12):
about work life balance. So wemay need to go back to that intro
and just see how do we retoolthat, how do we take what we
learned from her and kind of applyit to what we're doing. But I
really enjoyed sharing her story, andI hope any of you that are listening
share this podcast share it with someoneyou know, just to get a first
listen to Natasha and kind of whoshe is, and I really think you'll
(36:35):
be better for it. Yeah,I think she gave us some good tips,
so I appreciate that. So commenton this one like share, like
Erica said, share it with friends. I think it's a podcast. You
don't have to like sports or popculture to listen to that episode. I
think if you're interested in mental healthand being, you know, hearing more
(36:55):
from someone like Natasha, it's agreat episode. So absolutely so hey to
pump us up so much, butwe're gonna pump her up because we're going
to pump her up. I thinkshe's really really good. Athletic department could
have a Natasha, someone who canconnect with people, share those experiences,
and you know, address the thingsthat we have going on with mental health
(37:20):
and what people experience, especially asas student athletes. It's just a different
experience. And again not to dismissanyone that's not a student athlete. She
does. I think everything applies,but definitely a lot of takeaways, So
enjoy and share. Please Shift
Hey, Erica came in the showWelcome to the spin Chicks. Well,
we've got a special episode today whichis Part two. We're calling it Natasha
Hastings two point oh because we knewthat we wanted to cover this chapter of
Natasha's life where in her she hasgone back to school. She's very focused
on a particular path that she's taking, and we really wanted to talk about
(00:31):
that in this in this episode.Yeah, I think it was great to
hear about her athletic feats and Ithink something she's very proud of. Natasha
one point zero, but two pointzero she is a mental health counselor,
and I'd like to say she's achange maker, and it's going to be
really interesting to listen to her talkabout why she got into mental health counseling,
(00:52):
why it's important to her, whatshe imparts on people. I really
think this is going to be afascinating conversation. Absolutely, And that's one
thing she said when she retired,that the passion and everything that she brought
to her track career on the track, she is now bringing to this part
of her life, and that isfocusing on mental health with student athletes,
(01:15):
also with black women, and alot of her experiences directly translate to this.
So we are really looking forward tosharing this episode on its own,
you know, completely focusing on that. All right, let's do it,
Natasha. When you officially retired fromtrack in twenty twenty two, you said
that you were much more than someonewho just runs fast, that all the
(01:38):
drive and passion you had for trackwas ready to be put into something else.
So you recently graduated with a master'sdegree in clinical mental health. What
led you from the track to workingin this field? E loaded question?
Now, the straightforward answer is Ibecame a single mom six months postpartum,
(02:06):
so my son was six months old. I immediately got into therapy. I
the middle of my career. Twentytwelve, I started working with a sports
psychologist and I actually worked with asports psychologist here at USC as well.
Well, actually he was a psychiatrist, but anyway, I would say it
(02:27):
was that moment of like me gettinginto therapy after having my son, where
there was one day I was sittingin therapy and we were on the lockdown
again. I'm six months postpartum trainingfor the Olympics, not sure like where
my life is going because I wassupposed to get married, but that ended
(02:50):
up not happening. I also havea non profit in Natasha Hastings Foundation where
we worked with young girls, andI just had this moment where I was
sitting there too myself, like youalready kind of do this work with young
girls. Maybe this is what youneed to do professionally after track. So
it was literally an epiphany moment sittingin therapy, probably breastfeeding my son at
(03:15):
the time and talking to my therapist. So it wasn't something that was a
career goal. Wasn't something because youhad a degree in exercise science you weren't
thinking about, you know, thisis the direction. It was. It
was a like real life aha momentin the I thought that I wanted to
be a chiropractor. When I cameto USC, I chose exercise science because
(03:38):
I wanted to be a chiropractor.I don't think that I imagined my professional
career running as long as it did. So that being said, there was
a point twenty twelve that I revisited, like let me start applying for chiro
school. But yeah, like itwas really a moment. I think the
(04:00):
other piece that I'm probably the biggestpiece that I'm leaving out is when I
searched for my therapist at the time, the Google search was black female therapists
in Austin, Texas, And whenI saw how scarce the options were,
that was another thing for me whereit was like, you know, the
space needs to be filled with blackwomen. So yeah, it was definitely
(04:25):
an experience that kind of pushed meinto this career and how we're going to
talk about a lot of different things. But since you mentioned black, how
important is it for you, especiallymen who black men who don't like to
get therapy. And I mean,we're going to get deep here, we
want to try to keep it funand light. But since you mentioned that,
how important is it for them tosee a black female or a black
(04:48):
male. Yeah, I you know, as a dating, single mom,
that's so important to me too.Like one of the first questions like do
you believe in therapy? But Ido truly think that the representation does matter.
I can tell you here at theuniversity, we're making the effort in
terms of like our intake forms oflike who do you want to see,
(05:11):
because sometimes there is a fear oflike just saying I'd prefer to talk to
someone black, I'd prefer to talkto someone that looks like me. Apart
from being a gamecock and this justbeing home. I wanted to come back
to a PWI and work for myblack student athletes that I have the lived
(05:32):
experience of being one of on acampus that is predominantly white, right,
But also I'm a black student athletein the South, also an athlete where
we're viewed as superheroes, but weactually have very human issues that affect us
on and off the field. ButI think, you know, having that
(05:54):
visibility and having that awareness that Ishow up to practices, I show up
up to games and make it veryclear like I may have a relationship with
your coach, but what we talkabout is confidential. Having that safe space
for people that look like me,I think is invaluable. So how important
(06:16):
is it is mental health counseling incollegiate athletics because I think this is something
that we're hearing more and more about. And you I think I had the
sense. I think we had thesense when we were talking to in our
last episode that when you were astudent athlete, like it just came across
a lot different than what I thought. And when you talked about just the
business, the routine and everything,and it wasn't just all about winning and
(06:41):
all this. You know how howyou felt. So can you just speak
to a little bit about that justworking with student athletes? Now, Yeah,
the the interesting thing is I'm workingwith student athletes in a way that
I have the training, but Ialso have the lived experience, and a
lot of my lived experience is lookingback on my experience and saying, huh,
(07:05):
I probably wasn't the healthiest of things, right, So, like even
kind of reconciling like Okay, youwant to be number one in the world
or you want to be number onein the country. There's a huge sense
of isolation that comes along with thatthat unless you are aware of it,
(07:26):
which most of us are not,there's a huge sense of isolation that can
be not can be is detrimental ifnot managed, if not acknowledged. And
so it's tricky because it's a thingthat I don't profess to have the answer
to. It's something that I amfiguring out in terms of, you know,
(07:48):
wanting to help athletes not not onlybe their best selves on the court
or the field or the track,but they're best selves in person. You
know. Well, even my experienceof going to a sports psychologist, coming
to our psychiatrist here at South Carolina, was for performance, but very quickly
(08:11):
I realized, oh, there's alsoa mental health issue here too. A
lot of times the performance issue andI say performance, that's speaking in clinical
terms. So performance is like specificallylike an athlete coming in and saying,
I am suffering with performance anxiety.I get out there and I'm so nervous
(08:31):
that I just cannot perform the waythat I know that I can perform based
on how I practice, my talentlevel, all the things. But for
whatever reason, I go out thereand I'm the head case. That's performance,
right, And you think that it'sstrictly just something out there, but
you know, as you dig andyou get a little deeper, you start
(08:52):
to see, no, this actuallyshows up in your personal life. This
is a mental health a mental wellnessissue. So the two are tied very
closely together. Although it can beseparate, they do link very closely.
So how how do you help Howcan you help student athletes kind of understand
(09:16):
that hey, something's going on thatI might need to Like, how do
people really know when they need counseling, or when it's something that they need
to maybe look really further into talkingabout it or dealing with it. Yeah,
I think there's a level of youknowing that you need help. Right
again, is it something that youcan recognize and if you can't recognize it,
(09:41):
hopefully you have people around you thatcan push you and there are people
that you trust. I'm very candidabout you know. In twenty twelve,
when I got with my sports psychologists, it wasn't because I asked for help.
In the end, I ended upasking for help, but it was
at the prodding of my mom saying, hey, I see something that you
know. You just don't look likeyou believe in yourself. Here's this phone
(10:05):
number. If you want to useit, it's up to you. But
I'm telling you what I see inyou, right, So you know,
sometimes it's your own level of awareness, whether you're Simone Biles who goes to
the Olympics and says I'm dealing withsome stuff. I can go out there
and kill myself. I'm not doingthis right, or you have someone around
(10:26):
you that you trust that says,hey, I see something going on here.
I think the hardest thing, though, is again, being an athlete,
we are viewed as superheroes, andI think you know, throughout my
career that was one of the thingsthat I did try to be intentional about,
Like I didn't want to just tellthe stories that were like the hero
(10:46):
stories, Like I also wanted totell the stories of like I didn't really
feel like doing this workout today.I didn't really perform the way that I
wanted to perform today. And I'mnot here to make an excuse about not
performing the way that I wanted to, but it just didn't happen today.
Like I made the conscious effort oflike showing the human side of who I
am in terms instead of like justthat part that just goes after that one
(11:11):
percent, right, that level ofexpectation that it's hard for some to even
imagine. But yeah, I think, you know, having that awareness,
which I think we're getting to aplace now where you know, younger athletes
are more willing to ring that alarm, but also having the people around you
(11:31):
that you trust that can can bringyour ear in the sense that like,
hey, I think we should trysomething different here. And You've talked in
the past about having some imposter syndrome, which a lot of athletes do a
lot of regular people do. Imean I still has a business owner.
Yeah, So how do you dealwith imposter syndrome? And I know this
(11:52):
isn't like doctor Laura here, butjust saying like, how do you when
you talk to athletes? Can youidentify that? How do you talk them
through that? Yeah? I meanI'm still talking myself through it and a
lot especially like going from being anathlete my whole life to now a whole
(12:13):
new career right where I do questionmyself like am I good enough to do
this? Am I reaching these athletes? You know? Am I doing?
Am I using these modalities correctly?But a thing that I worked with myself
throughout my career is a question thatI asked myself, is this real?
Or is this something that I havemade up? Right? And like really
(12:37):
making that distinction between like how muchof this thought is based in fact and
how much of it is based upin fear, assumptions just ridiculousness. Is
this real? Is it not?The more that I can anchor myself to
what is real, the better I'mable to be present and pushed through but
(13:00):
also giving myself grace. Right,And you hear that so often, but
I mean again, being a partof a one percent, going after a
one percent, there is a levelof perfectionism that is just impossible, right,
And so giving myself the grace that, you know what, sometimes it's
not going to be perfect. Mosttimes, actually it's not going to be
(13:22):
perfect. So not being afraid totake risks changing my relationship with failure that
like, a failure isn't necessarily afailure, but a failure is an opportunity
to learn to get better. Also, all of the wins that I've had
from in my career, a lotof them came from having failures because I
can tell you I learned a lotmore from my failures than I've ever learned
(13:43):
from any one of my wins.So, you know, changing your perception
of those things and changing your relationshipwith you know, having to be perfect
and getting it right every single time, but giving yourself grace to just be
human at the end of the day. Wow, I'm motivated, aren't you?
Well? You know this, I'mjust all these thoughts are running through
my head and I immediately think ofwhen you talk about student athletes, they're
(14:09):
just the elite level, but allthe levels and then if you're dealing with
these things just you yourself, thenmaybe you yourself, your family, your
team. But now in some casesthis fan base social media, these people
who are watching and I know yousaid, you know we were talking about
Twitter kind of started when you werecompeting professionally. But let's talk about how
(14:33):
that layer thrown in there just ignite, right, I know, I know,
not enough, but like more,what's like, what are you telling
these kids? Yeah? How dothey just how do they navigate all this?
So let me start off by sayingI have a love hate relationship with
(14:56):
social media because it can be sucha power tool. It is such a
powerful tool, but if you don'tknow how to use it, and if
you don't know how to quiet thenoise, you're in trouble. Right.
Boundaries is a hot word, butit's the truth starting from you know,
if you're a person that you knowthat certain things are going to, you
(15:22):
know, disregulate you or throw youoff your game, you need to be
setting times that you're this is thetime that I don't look at my social
media. Social media now has thingson it where you can put certain words
into like the block machine. Soif someone comes and tries to say something
crazy to you, the comment doesn'teven show up for you. Right,
(15:43):
There's so many different things to protectyourself from people, right, and I'm
going to say people, people inbots, right, but you know there's
all the things right where there's peoplethat Now you can say whatever you want
to say because you're behind a keyboard, right, But that doesn't change what
(16:04):
that feels like when you read thosewords, you know. Like I remember
going to a parade after twenty sixteenin New York and it was this woman.
I knew her from high school.She was a coach, and she
came up to me and she waslike, oh my god, you're so
much smaller in person, or youlook so much smaller in person. And
I looked at her. Now,if you've read articles about me, as
(16:26):
I know you guys have, bodyimage was a thing that I struggled with
because I was bigger than my competitors, right. I was always like watching
what I was eating, watching mysize, comparing myself to my competitors,
all the things. And in myhead, I couldn't say this to her
because now this is another thing.Right, as a public figure, I'm
held to a different standard. Butwhat I really wanted to say was mm
(16:48):
hm, And I bet you wereone of them people in my dms in
my comments saying, you know,if you would just lose a few pounds,
da da da da da, youknow, but I can't. But
also, what if I was oneof those people that and not even what
if I was, It did affectme, you know, I did have
to start like filtering what I wouldlook at or when I would look at
(17:12):
my social media. Right, ButI also understood I had had and have
the relationship that I have with someof the brands that I have because of
my social media presence, connecting withmy fans in a way that I would
not have been able to connect withmy fans without social media. If you
(17:34):
can't afford a Michelle Young, whobetter to tell your story than yourself?
Right, So it's it's a verypowerful tool and it can work for you
in your advantage, but there it'salso very toxic and if you're not careful,
it can completely throw you off yourgame. And I mean we see
(17:56):
it every day with suicide rates goingup about self harm in the work that
I do, Like it's just youknow, if you're not careful, you
can get sucked in really easily.I like your idea of I mean it
sounds simple, but setting boundaries andsetting words, and I think that's really
really really good advice. How muchof sports performance is mental? Like Alan
(18:22):
Johnson I think said it was ninetypercent when you get to the big to
the show. How about for you? I'd probably go even as far as
saying ninety five, because I mean, Michelle, you know me. You've
you've been to my workouts. UsLike, a good workout for me is
one where it ended in me vomiting, right, and where's my hailor?
(18:48):
But I like, I am nota trainer, I do not know where
you're in hailer? Is a betterone is if I vomited and then got
up and still finish the workout right, like I pushed myself to insane levels,
right, and then I would getto the track meet and it was
like, girl, what was allof that that you did all week?
And you can't show up here?And it was because I didn't believe in
(19:11):
myself. It was because I didn'tbelieve that I belonged there. It was
because I had every negative thought underthe sun that you could think of,
as if I didn't just puke mybrains out and push myself probably harder than
anyone else out there. So Itruly, I mean, I don't think
my career turned around the way thatit did, and I don't believe that
(19:32):
it would have turned around the waythat it did if I did not enlist
the help of a sports psychologist.Really really really appreciate your honesty. I
mean, more people need to hearthat, because that's a really important thing
for people to hear. So Ireally appreciate you just saying yeah, yeah,
(19:52):
that was me. Well, andit seems like, you know,
we see these sports just you know, just this past weekend is everything that's
going on. You see these amazingthings happen, and then you just hear
some of the interviews and then justlike you know, no one believed but
I believed in me and that's whatgot us here, and things like that.
(20:15):
It's like, okay, you wantthat to be the truth, you
know, you want to think thateveryone's okay, that's competing at the high
level or competing at any level,because you know, sports is as much
as it's compelling and everything, justall the things around it that maybe give
it a darker side. So Ithink just talking about this, I think
is helpful. But the fact thatnow you have made this, you know,
(20:40):
your work is also pretty inspiring.But can you talk a little bit
about mindset? And I know you'vementioned kind of how it affected you personally,
but how can just even your everydayperson how can mindset empower you.
Yeah, it's interesting because I Ispoke to myself very negatively and even now,
(21:06):
like I still sometimes have to checkmyself, like would you say that
to someone? So don't say thatto yourself. But there really is truth
to you know, how we speakto ourselves and the way that it shows
up and manifests itself in our lives, you know. And there's you know,
the difference between telling yourself the truth, right, but also having a
(21:29):
bit of optimism in there that like, this is going to work out.
This is an opportunity again, likechanging the relationship the thought pattern of like
the outcome being more rooted and groundedin the process as opposed to the outcome.
I can think of times where Iwas just like thinking about, like
(21:51):
I want to hit this time.I want to make this place. If
I make this place, then I'llget this bonus. If I do this,
then I'll get never never because Iwasn't focused on what it was that
I needed to do. I wasn'tpresent in the moment. Also, I
do with that want to say itis important for you to know what your
(22:12):
own language is, what your ownmotivating factors are. I am a purpose
driven person. Every single year Ihad to check in with what is my
purpose? Why am I doing this? What inspires me to do this?
When it was time for me toretire, it was so easy to do
that because I had a purpose.I knew what I wanted to do,
(22:33):
including my son, Like I knowwhat it takes to be successful on the
track and as a mom, asa single mom enrolled in grad school,
like it just was impossible. Right. But also, I'm now passionate about
something else. I have a purposein something else. But if you don't
understand those things, then how doyou even speak to yourself and motivate yourself
(22:56):
in those ways? If you don'teven understand those things about yourself. So
I think it's it's truly a personaljourney of finding where you are rooted in
the present moment and the motivation thatyou personally need, the inspiration that you
personally need to have the right mindsetto be successful. Wow, how did
(23:18):
this happen? This girl? Iremember when we talked to her as a
recruit. It's so sweet thing.Although she was kind of quiet and I
can never figure out why she wasquiet. Well, golly, I wish
I would have said what are youthinking? More often? Because well,
I think as I grew and Iattribute some of this to my experience as
(23:38):
an athlete. I am truly anintrovert, but I now describe myself as
an extroverted introvert again understanding my experiencesand that I can be an inspiration.
I have like worked myself up tolike telling my story and you know,
being a bit more open also beingin some space. This is where I've
(24:00):
walked out and I'm like, man, like that was Michael Jordan and I
didn't go up and shake my handor shake his hand or you know the
CEO that like just I was justbrushing elbows with him, and I was
too afraid to speak to him.Like you know, you kind of grow
up and you're like, girl,open your mouth, clothes moos, don't
get fit. But I am trulyan introvert, Like I don't mind spending
(24:22):
the weekend at home in my owncompany. But also I know that I
have a story to tell. Sospeaking of your story, you have a
son, Liam who's four four.Yeah, so he's been recently diagnosed with
autism and you've been going through that. How are you balancing that diagnosis?
And I think this is an importantthing for us to talk to you about
(24:45):
because there are so many people beingdiagnosed and I don't want to say so
many because it's with the autism,and for you to have a voice in
that it's really important. Yeah.I you know, again, I don't
I think anything happens the way that, like by mistake, because the odds
(25:06):
that my son would be diagnosed autistic. And I get my masters in mental
health, so you know, Idon't. I don't specialize in autism obviously,
all the things that we've been talkingabout, but I have, you
know a little bit of training whereI've been able to sort of meet him.
Right. The beauty of all ofit though, is that, like
(25:29):
he has this diagnosis, but Isee that I still have this bright,
brilliant, super smart, super talentedyoung boy, right, and my focus
is, you know, get himall the help, all the resources that
I can get him, but alsothose strengths that he has, like I'm
going to continue to strengthen those andcontinue to He loves musical instruments. I
(25:51):
pray to God. He doesn't runtrack, although he's already faster than me,
so athletic bug did not skip him. Dad is also an athlete.
Dad played football, so I meanhe is athletic. He's smart as a
whip, and I just you know, I've I've released myself with that word
balance. That's I think that's aperfectionism thing. But again, yeah,
(26:19):
we'll keep going, but we're gonnago back to that hash tag. Sorry,
but I you know, truly,I'm just day by day, you
know, reading different articles again,you know, tapping into all the resources
that are available to us, andjust doing the best that I can to
(26:41):
support him. But I mean,again, the boy is reading, he's
talking a lot more, he candress himself from head to toe, feed
him like all the things. Soyou know, every they call it a
spectrum for a reason. Everyone ison the spectrum at different point. They
need it, they have different needsall the things. So it's about me
(27:03):
personally figuring out what is Liam needand how can I best support him.
And it's good that that you havethat mindset, because you know, you
didn't like to be labeled as justan athlete, and you don't want people
to label him as just a boywith autism. You want to see them
to see all these different things thathe's about, just like you as an
athlete, you weren't just a fourhundred meter runner. I mean you were
(27:26):
a diva, but you were alot more than that. So I was
an honors college, I had friends. I wanted to be a chiropractor.
Yes, yes, absolutely. Wellgo back and talk a little bit about
the balance, because I think itseems like that's the mantra that's pushed,
like the balance what would be worklife or whatever? So are you saying
that's not when you said you releasedit. Talk a little bit more about
(27:48):
that. I believe we can haveit all. I just don't believe we
can have it all at one time. You know, when I moved back
to Columbia to get my master's degree, I don't think I ever imagined like
(28:11):
being a single mom living in acity all by myself, essentially with a
special needs child, right while alsotrying to go after my dreams you know,
in terms of like, you know, now I'm opening this, this
next chapter of my life, andI was like struggling with this, and
(28:33):
still to this day kind of strugglingwith like I'm kind of sort of shedding
a bit of my identity as theathlete, right, Like I'm always going
to be the athlete, but likemy body's changing. Yeah that's a whole
nother podcast. Yes, athletically andafter breastfeeding for two years, but you
(28:55):
know, my my career is changing. My my friendships have changed, my
my how I relate to myself,how I relate to others has changed.
And I wanted to do it allat once, Like I still wanted to
have my social life. I stillwanted to, you know, be open
to the possibilities everywhere that I've movedso many times throughout my life. Every
(29:17):
time I've moved is because of myjob, because of an opportunity. Right
when I started to learn that likeLiam may be on the autism spectrum,
you know, I was like,Okay, this is now a time that
we're going to figure out what Liamneeds, get him situated. And no,
it doesn't mean that, you know, I'm dropping out of school,
(29:38):
you know, I did graduate,but you know, I don't have as
much social time. I just starteddating, right, Like, right now,
the priority is Liam, right,But to think that I could do
all things and do it by myselfand lence them, I had to like
(30:02):
that, it just it wasn't fairto me because then if on this day
I was a little bit frustrated andI ended up yelling or talking to Liam
in a way that I did notlike talking to him, right, Like,
I have to a give myself thespace to be able to go to
him and say, hey, Mommy, wasn't very nice. I'm sorry,
Right, that's not how I wantto show up to you as mommy.
(30:25):
But also know that like some daysI'm going to be a great mom and
some days I might be a poopymom. Right, some days I was
a great student, and then sometimesthere were times that I turned in papers
that I was like, that couldhave been a better paper. But man,
I was up all night with limb. It just is what it is.
That's what I had to turn in, right, Like, I had
to like release myself of like sometimeslife just life's and I'll show up in
(30:51):
every role that I do as bestI can that day. But every day
is not going to be one hundredpercent because I'm wearing twelve different right now,
and some days I'm confused with whichhad I have on. But I'm
doing the best that I can.So even though you know, you didn't
win every race, and I don'twant to say failure or loss, it's
(31:14):
like you're saying it's okay not tobe perfect. I don't know what the
right word is. Maybe you havea better word than that, because it
sounds like you've thought a lot aboutthis. But I think using the word
failure again, like what is ourrelationship with those words? Like just it
is what it is? And Ithink again, knowing the language that I
speak, knowing that I am arealist, I can be very literal at
(31:37):
times, but also in being literal, giving myself space to like, Okay,
yeah, so I failed at thattoday, but I did that a
couple of years ago. I cando it again. It's just today I
didn't do it the way that Iwould have liked to. But you know,
yeah yeah. Ray Tanner talked aboutthat when he was a baseball coach
at South Carolina won two national titles. We're hoping to get him on the
(31:59):
podcast He talked about how he wouldstay up at night a lot more after
wins than losses, because losses he'slike, oh, we just I need
to do this or this so andso. But wins he's like, I
have no idea how we're going todo this again, Like how can we
do this again? So it's thesame, you know, it's kind of
the same thing. So I thinkit's we don't have enough time. Yeah,
(32:22):
well, clearly you need to bea guest again, like we're having
another conversation. Clearly check in.I hope that at South Carolina that you
that if you're not already speaking tostudent athletes when they come in, that
they create something to allow you todo that. I just keep thinking to
(32:43):
myself, if there was just thisforty five minute session of what we're talking
about in college that you had tolisten to or in high school. I
don't need calculus and I certainly didn'tneed you know, geometry. This.
Yes, I think it's like homecprobably gone away. Does anyone even know
what home ech is? You knowwhat I mean? This is a life
skill, and it's I think you'resuch a value and what you're doing and
(33:07):
what you bring and you're honesty.Sorry, I'm just like, yeah,
yeah, I mean I think we'reall up in our feelings about her honesty,
right, Erica, like Eric isbought ready to cry too. Like
the honesty that you're speaking about reallyis so refreshing because so many times people
are afraid to say, you know, I wasn't very good or I you
(33:30):
know, it's okay, you know, you can give yourself a break.
Like I like the fact that yousay release off a balance. I really
like that. That's a definite takeawayfor me today just in my daily life,
and I'll try to pass that on. But again, I'm just thinking
about all these student athletes that youknow, I don't work with them on
a daily basis, I know Michelledid, but just just watching them and
(33:51):
doing what they're doing and thinking abouthow all that impacts them. I mean,
I think you are going to makea lot of difference for a lot.
That is definitely talking about passion andpurpose. Being passionate and purpose driven.
That is at the paramount. Sothank you. Awesome. Well,
it has been even better than Ithought it was going to be having you
(34:14):
on, Natasha. Sure, I'mserious, like, way better. I've
always loved you. Carrie will beso maybe we'll finally get her on the
podcast now. Oh, but she'sa tough one, you know, it's
a tough one to get on acall. It will be good, though,
Yeah, I think she'll be.Yeah, she'd be really interesting.
But you've been fantastic and I reallyappreciate your time. Coach Fry, Coach
(34:37):
Brown, I know, Coach dCoach Mike, coach Dan, you know
who, Andrew. I'm not sureif he was there when you were there,
they'd all be proud of you.I'm the current staff better be proud
to have you around because you areYou're You're game Cock diva. So thank
you under meet her diva. Absolutely, it's been awesome, so great to
(35:00):
meet you. And like I said, this won't be our last conversation.
You're coming back. You're coming back. Wow, Michelle, I really enjoyed
talking to Natasha on this episode.I mean it's just incredible what she is
doing. I mean not only whatshe did as a student athlete, but
what she's doing going forward. Imean amazing. Yes, she's really she
(35:23):
brought some tears to my eyes.I agreed, agreed, I was,
I was right there with you,and I think especially just some of the
things you know, she addressed andmade you really think think long and hard,
just about life and things and pathsthat you take and how you approach
things and some good takeaways going forward, and whoever comes across her path in
(35:51):
that space is really going to benefit. I truly believe that totally. I've
always used the word balance, andI know from listening to her in this
conversation she hates the word balance,and so I'm like, oh, maybe
I'm going to have to take asecond look at balance. So I agree,
And we've talked about it on ourpodcast too, like oh, talking
(36:12):
about work life balance. So wemay need to go back to that intro
and just see how do we retoolthat, how do we take what we
learned from her and kind of applyit to what we're doing. But I
really enjoyed sharing her story, andI hope any of you that are listening
share this podcast share it with someoneyou know, just to get a first
listen to Natasha and kind of whoshe is, and I really think you'll
(36:35):
be better for it. Yeah,I think she gave us some good tips,
so I appreciate that. So commenton this one like share, like
Erica said, share it with friends. I think it's a podcast. You
don't have to like sports or popculture to listen to that episode. I
think if you're interested in mental healthand being, you know, hearing more
(36:55):
from someone like Natasha, it's agreat episode. So absolutely so hey to
pump us up so much, butwe're gonna pump her up because we're going
to pump her up. I thinkshe's really really good. Athletic department could
have a Natasha, someone who canconnect with people, share those experiences,
and you know, address the thingsthat we have going on with mental health
(37:20):
and what people experience, especially asas student athletes. It's just a different
experience. And again not to dismissanyone that's not a student athlete. She
does. I think everything applies,but definitely a lot of takeaways, So
enjoy and share. Please Shift
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