... like, what would you tell yourself?

I don't know.

I think, like, I feel like I'm really good at telling myself to, like, I don't know, I pride myself on having, like, good, positive self-talk and, like, you know, being someone who is even-keeled, like you said, and, like, not letting the little things, like, stress me out too much.

But, um, honestly, like, I wouldn't re- I don't really regret that much, because I think, like, I needed, I think I needed to have that moment where I was like, "Wait, what am I doing?" Because I really hadn't been pr- training at a level that I normally, like, expect of myself.

Like, I would say definitely the past two years have been the most I've ever struggled with swimming, like, just with motivation, like, showing up, doing it, feeling proud of it.

I feel like I was just kinda, like, going through the motions, and it was so obvious.

Like, I got in the pool, was swimming not well, and I was like, I mean, yeah, people say, like, the definition of insanity is, like, doing the same thing and expecting different results or whatever.

So, like, when you, when you think about now, like, what mentally is the biggest shift, like, focus-wise, or, like, what changed?

What is, like, your mindset going into being an athlete in your day-to-day routine and things you say to yourself and just getting through the highs and lows?

Yeah.

I think, like, the positive self-talk aspect of being an athlete, like, I do pride myself on that because I think it's taken me years to, like, develop this habit.

I remember, um, in high school, I had to start seeing a sports psychologist/confidence coach because I would literally be, like, in the middle of a race and tell myself that I didn't care, which, like, was so not true, but I was just kind of, um, you know, like, pushing any failure in the moment.

Um, so, like, I remember to kind of, you know, try and counteract that, I, every single day, like, in practice, if I was having a bad practice or if I was, you know, feeling unmotivated or just tired or anything, I literally would lie, like, I would lie to myself.

I would be like, "I can do this.

I want to, I wanna be here.

Um, what has that been like for you to be a part of, and what do you hope young girls see when they're watching you?

Yep.

Um, yeah.

I don't know.

That is such a good question.

I feel like, I don't wanna say, like, they're the same as everyone, but I do feel like you have to have, like, this emotional aspect, especially being with, like, college swimming.

Like, you need to know how to interact with others, how to interact with a coach, like, a mentor.

Um, and if, like, you wanna be fully invested in the team's success, then you have to be invested in everyone else's success around you.

Yeah

So when you kind of think about, you know, building a high-performance team, what does that kind of actually mean for you in practice beyond it being a bit of a buzzword maybe, and how does kind of Keepit go about trying to foster those, you know, those high-performing teams?

Yeah.

It's a, it's a good question, and I've, I've led teams for probably the last seven or eight years.

Um, and I've had a lot of different teams, s- sometimes really consistent people that have, have been with me on the journey and worked different companies.

Um, but generally speaking, you, you have different types of people and, you know, people move on to other things.

They get promotions.

Um, they, they decide something's different for them, and that's, that's absolutely fine.

Yeah.

Go ahead, Becca.

Yeah.

Well, I'll jump in here for a moment, if I may, and say that Ethan's story, sadly, is all too common on this platform.

Roblox provides this incredibly powerful tool to pedophiles, and it does that by allowing sex offenders to come onto the site and pretend to be kids they can as in ethan's case this man turns out to be um a known sex offender um pretended to be a little kid on roblox and he identified ethan he approached him he built up a friendship with him and then manipulated that trust the trust that roblox allowed him to develop with ethan to begin to sexually exploit him, to coerce him into sending pictures, explicit pictures, engaging in explicit communications.

And he then sort of threatened Ethan for years, really, I'm gonna tell your parents, I'm gonna put this on the internet if you don't keep doing it.

It was horrific.

So Alex, how do you and the families you represent respond to that statement?

Words are all well and good, Pamela.