#FeedTheSoul is a quaterly event for experts in the field of athletes' wellness, life skills, transition and support outside of sports. These conversations serve to support the on-going learning and best practices of experts in this field.
2020 FEED THE SOUL VIRTUAL SUMMIT
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Click on the image to watch the recordings of our 2020 Feed The Soul Virtual Summit. This event took place on August 27 and 28, 2020 and including discussions and best practices on: Session 1 - Athlete Wellness Session 2 - Career Support & Development Session 3 - Impact of Retirement Part 1 Session 4 - Impact of Retirement Part 2 Session 5 - Panel of former Athletes |
PREVIOUS EVENTS
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#FeedTheSoul - June 30, 2020 - Key Takeaways
Our four panelists insisted on the importance of approaching job searching with a positive attitude and taking an active role in this endeavor rather than waiting to find the perfect job or fitting into an existing job description.
Mindset and preparation are key to finding a job:
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Life planning: You also need to consider what your life project is and initiate a personal reflection on your professional goals. It starts with you and taking an active role in your professional career:
Job Searching process and career path:
- What are your interests? Your skills?
- What lifestyle do you want?
- What are your work values?
Job Searching process and career path:
- You also need to consider that you won't find the perfect job right out of college. Designing your professional career is a process and requires time and patience.
- You may also need to find a job to sustain yourself while you navigate this search process. You shouldn't wait for the perfect job and should consider other ways to get closer to your "Dream job": work experiences, internships, certification, building additional skills, networking with employees from that company, etc.
- Consider how to differentiate yourself from other candidates especially in the current economic market. Perhaps consider volunteering or internships or building your brand through podcasting, blogging, interviewing people, etc.
- You also want to build your personal "Board of Directors" with mentors or role models (individuals you are aspiring to be who can help you and give you recommendations on how to get there).
- As athlete, you can also outline the type of skills you have developed that transferred well to the professional world but also are beneficial to working in a remote environment:
- Organizational skills/ time management / managing various projects and timelines at once/ prioritizing
- Visualizing and strategizing various outcomes and scenarios
- Being productive in unstructured and unconventional environments, knowing how to tune distractions out, how to be a self-starter and motivate yourself.
- Being coachable which increase your ROI on hiring.
- Certain industries are thriving: Tech, insurance, medical, virtual learning and working. Others are looking at candidates in preparation for the rebound. They have furloughed lots of people and will need to rehire. You want to be speaking with hiring managers and stay visible and in touch with them.
- Virtual working is here to stay and is an opportunity to athletes and other workers: you can consider jobs throughout the whole country and overseas, working at different hours and for athletes, this is an opportunity to start working part time while still competing.
Taj Dashaun
Transition Career Coach Thrive After Sport podcast |
Margaux Lohry
Assistant Director, Transition to Business Tuck Business School |
Deanna Ferrante
Chief Operating Officer The Athlete network |
Dominic Militello
Transition Career Coach CareerCoachingFor Athletes.com |
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#FeedTheSoul - May 28, 2020 - Key Takeaways
What are the biggest challenges athletes have faced in the last three months?
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What advice can you share to address these challenges?
How have you or your school addressed these challenges?
What should be the focus of athlete development right now and moving forward?
What challenges do you foresee in the upcoming months or next season?
Is this situation going to bring radical changes to the athlete support and development field?
- Control the controllables, focus on things where they can see results
- Sharing feelings with peers, talking about frustration and other emotions
- It is important for the coaches to take care of themselves as well since they are the ones directly in contact with the athletes and serving as the athletes’ role models
- Alex Auerbach outlines the necessity to have clear communication and transparency on the situation especially on how it could affect future play time, positions, scholarships…
- Note that technology and virtual connectivity isn’t an issue for this generation of athletes
How have you or your school addressed these challenges?
- Connecting virtually through individual and group meetings and social media
- Meeting and educating the coaches and staff
- Michael Sagas outlined for the athletes to learn from this experience as it will feel very similar to the Life After Sports transition that is coming.
What should be the focus of athlete development right now and moving forward?
- Resilience and coping skills
- Taking the time to process and share emotions
- Identity building outside of sports and developing the “whole” person, exploration, career development and planning, education and development of life skills
What challenges do you foresee in the upcoming months or next season?
- Still in crisis, situation not resolved yet so continuing to manage ambiguity and confusion
- Fear of getting the virus but not being able to speak up about it because there is pressure from the industry to go back to sports
- For those who share their fears, possibility to be isolated from the rest of the team, not being able to interact as usual with others
- Smaller teams, less travel, impact on team dynamics, different competitive experience, pressure to perform well
- Potential loss of opportunity to compete
- Higher risk of injuries when returning to training and competition
Is this situation going to bring radical changes to the athlete support and development field?
- Still hard to tell, we are still in the crisis, need to wait a few months to see how things evolve
- The situation definitely shed light on how unprepared the whole industry was but also on the importance of mental health practitioners and support for athletes
- Also highlighted the necessity for more and on-going education and innovation in the field of athlete development to the athletes as well as the coaches and support staff
- Hopefully this raise awareness for the need to support athletes in full spectrum of development and not just physical skill development.
Alex Auerbach, Ph.D. MBA
Director of Clinical and Sport Psychology, University of Arizona |
Lauren Loberg, Ph.D.
Sport Psychology Consultant, Pyramid Performance Consulting |
Erika Fay, LFMT
Family Therapist and Success Coach, Maximum Achievement Coaching |
Michael Sagas, ED. D.
Professor & Interim Chair, Sport Management, University of Florida |
