Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Before we dive in today's episode, I want to take a moment to share something that's been on my heart, something I've been working on behind the scenes for a while now. I'm officially writing a book. This book is called let's Be A Practical Guide to Leading Through Change. And it's deeply personal to me. It's built from real experiences. The uncertainty, the challenges, the moments where I didn't have the answers but had to lead. This isn't just a leadership book filled with theory. It's about navigating uncertainty when there's no clear direction, building internal clarity when everything around us feels unclear, having courageous conversations even when they're uncomfortable, and leading with value, especially when it's the hardest to do so. I'm also going into topics that don't get talked about enough, like what it feels like to be challenged, overlooked, and even bullied as an adult in a workplace. And how those moments shape the kind of leader you become. This book is for anyone who's ever thought, how do I lead when I don't feel ready? How do I show up when I don't have all the answers?
[00:01:03] Speaker B: And how do I stay true to
[00:01:04] Speaker A: myself in environments that challenge me? If this is you, this book is for you. I'll be sharing more about the journey behind the scenes moments and opportunities for you to be part of it as we go. So stay tuned because this is more than just a book. It's a movement around how we lead through change together. Alright, let's get to today's episode.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Good day, wonderful people, and welcome to another edition of let's Be Diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who have supported me through this journey. Those who have left us will always be in our hearts and will never be forgotten. Today our topic is the balancing performance with wellness. The hidden side of achieving excellence. My guest today is one inspiring human. Her name is Jocelyn Peterman. Jocelyn, thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:02:05] Speaker D: Thank you. Thanks for asking me to be on the show.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: It's a pleasure. What's been energizing you these days, Jocelyn? Give us the tea, give us the deets, give us it all. What's going on?
[00:02:13] Speaker D: Well, I. We just got home from a bit of a holiday on the east coast and it was two weeks of just kind of taking some. Some time to reset and just be present with my family and spend some time near the ocean and it was really nice, really relaxing.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Vacations are always relaxing but sometimes you need a vacation from the vacations.
Sometimes we need that as well.
[00:02:37] Speaker D: Yeah, we got home last night and we're jet lagged a little. Jet lagged for sure.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Well, I'm glad you had a good time. Glad that you got some time to relax and spend some time with some loved ones. I think that's super important, especially for our mental health. I think that's very important for sure. So glad you glad you got to do that. Before we begin, I always have a fun, thought provoking question that I ask all my guests to get things going. Are you ready for yours today?
[00:03:03] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Okay, so your question today is if you could go back and have a conversation with 15 year old Jocelyn, what is one lesson that you would want her to understand about success, pressure and enjoying the process?
[00:03:18] Speaker D: That is a good question.
I don't know. I think maybe 15 year old Jocelyn had it a bit more figured out.
I think I really did, you know, back then really enjoy competing and enjoy kind of everything that we were given within the sport. And I think as you get older and the stakes get higher and the stages get a little bigger, you forget that. So on the one hand I think it'd be more flipping the question and having 15 year old me remind myself of that because I do think I had a lot of fun on the ice back then, maybe more so even than now. So, but I don't know and I think also just like don't limit your dreams. I think the world out there, the, the opportunities that, that are possible when you, when you do commit are maybe even bigger than, than 15 year old me could have, could have pictured for sure.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: And you're, you're probably right. 15 year old Jocelyn probably had it all set. This is what I want to do. This is where I want to get to, this is worse at work, what success looks like to me and as you get older, you're absolutely right. Your, your, Your for sure 15 year old Jocelyn is going to be different to 25 year old Jocelyn. And, and as we keep going so I totally get that. So thanks so much for having fun with me to get us started here. Who are you and what drives you to do the work that you do?
[00:04:33] Speaker D: Well, right now I am full time, full time curling. I, I compete on the women's, women's circuit. The past kind of four years I was with team Caitlyn Laws and now I've just recently joined team Carrie Anderson. So we compete kind of full time on the Curling tour across Canada and that, that makes our life pretty busy. We're on the road usually two weeks kind of of every month from September to April competing in Grand Slam events. And if you're not familiar to, to curling, our, our Scotty's Tournament of Hearts is our big Canadian championship every February. And, and I've competed in the last two Olympic Winter Games and the last, last Olympics in Cortina, I competed with my husband in mixed doubles. So we also play mixed doubles curling, which is kind of a fun different discipline where there's just two people on the ice. So I have been full on committed to chasing these curling goals for a while now. And yeah, it consumes a lot of our time. Like I said, from September to April we're pretty busy with that. But then even in, in the off season, we're in the gym every day and working hard to, to kind of be as, as strong and as fit as we can. When we start competing, the commitment is
[00:05:43] Speaker B: there for always something that we can improve on. We never want to say that we have reached our summit or we've reached our goal. We have to keep going and going and going and in the pursuit of happiness, for sure. So, Jocelyn, people often see the medals, the championships and the moments of success, but they don't always see the work behind them. What are some of the hidden challenges of sustaining high performance and how do those compare to, to the pressures leaders face in a workplace?
[00:06:14] Speaker D: I think, yeah, there's, there's so many. I think in the more recent years, kind of balancing becoming a mom and, and still kind of chasing these goals, I think I've had more understanding that life doesn't stop when you've got a big event or in comparison to leaders in the workplace, like a deadline or a major presentation. Sometimes life outside of work or outside of sport doesn't necessarily follow that timeline. And just with that kind of understanding that people might be coming into major events or big competitions at different levels, some people might be peaking, some people might have sick kids at home and are coming in stressed and overwhelmed and just kind of really working on being present and when it's time to switch to competition time or work time, put a lot of effort into being there and being present and being where your feet are and compartmentalizing and then once that task complete, being able to kind of let your thoughts wandered at all the other things on the to do list.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: And communication is a huge factor too. I'm sure that it's a factor in everything that you're doing on Your end. And it's a factor in our work lives as well.
[00:07:25] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. I think when you have kind of teammates or team environments where you're comfortable to talk about that stuff, I think that's kind of some of the more most powerful team environments I've been in.
Because if, yeah, if you're kind of in that scenario where life outside is a little chaotic and you're maybe not able to vocalize that or you're pretending, in my experience, that doesn't necessarily result in the best performances. But if you've got leaders who you feel comfortable kind of being vulnerable with or sharing where you're at, and teammates that can kind of pick up your slack or support you in ways that you need when you're not at 100%, then those are some of the most kind of powerful teams I've been a part of and where results really happen.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: So whether you're leading a team or competing as an elite athlete, there is a constant pressure to deliver results. How have you learned to balance the pursuit of excellence with protecting your physical, mental and emotional well being?
[00:08:24] Speaker D: I mean, it's always work in progress and it's always something that we're working on. And I think for me, that pursuit of excellence and always kind of challenging myself and looking at the next goal, that part comes easy. My brain's always kind of what can I do next? How am I going to push myself? And so for me, the challenge is calming that down or balancing that a little bit. I don't even necessarily take the time to celebrate that and just it's just kind of on to the next thing. So I work a lot on gratitude, being very grateful for the opportunities I have had, that helps me just kind of stay a little bit more present and in kind of what I've got going on right now and what I'm working towards and maybe bringing me back a little bit from looking ahead to that next goal. And with that, also working on being present, meditating, doing some mindfulness stuff, we do that kind of every night and just working on being present. And I think the other part is kind of calming that inner critic. I think my, with that pursuit of excellence comes, you know, an inner critic that, that can get pretty loud in terms of the results, never kind of being good enough. So calming that down with positive affirmations. So the kind of daily journaling things I'm grateful for and trying and trying to say kind things, reminding myself of some positive things when, when the mind can get kind of caught in that pursuit of Excellence in, in sometimes maybe a negative way.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: I was smiling when you're talking about calming down because I've worked with a lot of people who are always like, their mind is always going and they're always thinking and like you said, they're, you're on to the next thing and they just have trouble to concentrate or to relax or like you said, or change their mindset or focus on what successful at. It's hard for them because they, they're just always like, I, I want to figure out the next best thing or the next greatest thing. But you need that time. You talked about mindset. You do need that time to relax
[00:10:26] Speaker A: and, and fix your mindset for sure.
[00:10:29] Speaker D: Yeah. It's always a work in progress and just something that I think kind of always has to be part of daily habits or else knowing yourself, whether it's similar to me and that kind of always looking for the next thing or, or on the opposite end, but just kind of knowing yourself and what you need and how to balance that out so you can be in a, in a. Mentally in a place that, that allows you to perform for sure.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: So you talked about setbacks. Great athletes and great leaders both face setbacks, uncertainty, and moments when things don't go according to plan. Can you share a time when a challenge changed your perspective on resilience and what it taught you about leading through adversity?
[00:11:09] Speaker D: Yeah, there's. There's so many, I think, like, I feel like I've been competing for a long time and there's. Yeah, there's honestly so many examples I could think of obviously having kind of recently returned home from the Olympics in Cortina, where we had goals of being on that podium and, and we weren't. Is obviously kind of the one that, that comes top of mind right now just because it's so fresh. And my husband and I met playing mixed doubles and we had been preparing to compete in the olympics for over 10 years. We, we met and competed in our first event together in 2016 in mixed doubles. So a lot of, I guess you could say, build up towards that Olympic Games of time and effort put into how we communicate on the ice, how we operate, how we technically throw a rock, all of that with the goal of, of being on the top of the podium in Cortina and, and that didn't happen. We finished one spot out of, out of the playoffs and we had some challenges there. We started three zero and, and we were feeling really comfortable with the ice and really confident. And then there was kind of a major shift in. In our playing conditions for a few days there. And, and we didn't adapt. We.
We really tried to open the communication and tried to figure out some solutions to adapt to the new conditions that we had, but they were conditions that we hadn't really prepared for at all. And unfortunately, we lost and we lost one too many games to kind of leave us that one spot out of the playoffs. And that was disappointing. That kind of, you know, heartbreak, when you've put that much time and effort into achieving a goal is. Is a lot, and it can be all consuming. But I was there at the Olympics with my family and my son, and my husband had to kind of park the results of our event and start competing in his men's event 48 hours after we were done. So I think there, you know, I worked really hard at not being consumed by the disappointment and being present. And, you know, I was there with my family.
I had to kind of switch into being supporter role and not be consumed by that disappointment. And, you know, I'm proud of myself for kind of that week after that and being able to do that. I was, you know, just trying to take advantage of being a part of Team Canada. And I went and supported the Team Canada athletes in the other sports that were there in Cortina with us. And we went and watched my husband at every game and just tried to be there for him and be his biggest fan. And, you know, to be able to see him win a Olympic gold after that, there's highs and lows. It's disappointment being in that same building where my heart was just broken a week prior, and watching him win gold, it's disappointing. And I think at the end of that week, I could have kind of decided to step away from curling. And it's an emotional time, but I really had to reflect on, did I give that everything I had? Did I prepare the way I could? Was I proud of kind of how I competed under pressure and. And did I want to continue in the sport? And I think that kind of resilience is important, I guess, to not walk away just because the results didn't come. I kind of had that time to reflect that I still love competing just because that one week didn't go the way, the way I planned. I love being a part of a team. I love challenging myself. I love being in the gym and trying to get that 1% better. And I realized I wasn't ready to be done yet. And looking forward to planning ahead for the next Olympics and the next Olympic quadrennial So there's so many opportunities in your career where you could take something as a sign to walk away or to let it. That kind of disappointment define you, but that resilience or that choice not to. It's a choice that you have to make and to kind of rewrite the. The narrative and write your own story.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: I love when you're talking here, as I was smiling away here, because what you demonstrated, there is grace and grit. So you gave yourself a little bit of grace for what had happened, the outcomes. And I'm sure you looked back and there was probably, I would bet, some things that you would say, even though it didn't go the way you wanted to. There were things that you were proud of, and there was things that you look back and said, well, yes, we did this well, we did this well, we did that well.
So that's something. These are things that I can be. Be proud of.
[00:15:41] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I find the Olympics funny because it makes it a little harder. I think from. From the outside perspective, it's like, well, if you were on the podium, it was successful, and if you weren't, it wasn't. And. And I do think in. In life and in the workplace and in sport, it's a lot more complicated than that. And it's not as simple as top of the podium or bust. I think there, there are a lot of smaller wins and a lot of things with a lot of milestones kind of behind the scenes that are maybe a lot more significant personally than. Than simply were you on the podium or not?
[00:16:15] Speaker A: For sure.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: So. Justin, success is rarely achieved alone. Coaches, teammates, mentors, and support systems all play an important role. How has your team influenced your performance? And what can leaders learn about building environments where people can thrive without burning out?
[00:16:32] Speaker D: Yeah, I always have really kind of embraced the team aspect of sport, and I think it is often, maybe undervalued. I think in all the great teams I've been on are ones where we've achieved some really big things. It's because that team aspect was so powerful in terms of, I think, being able to communicate and share vulnerably kind of what you need and who you are, what you're willing to provide and what you can provide to the team. Without that kind of vulnerability or open communication within a team, I think those, those team environments can be really challenging when it's just four individuals, or like you said, even with our coaches and physiotherapists, that team grows. And if you're not able to communicate whether it's because you're not comfortable being vulnerable, then. Then it can be really challenging. So I think, yeah, the most important thing is, yeah, creating that environment and where you are able to. To share your needs and what you can provide. And then even with. With coaches being very clear on what you need, and sometimes that does take a lot of reflection of, as opposed to just maybe blindly accepting whatever information they're willing to give. I think that's kind of where I've grown in the last few years, is more understanding how I work and being able to communicate, you know, under pressure. This is my tendency, and this is what I need from.
From my teammates or this is what I need from my support staff. And often they're grateful for that guidance. They're also looking for how to support. And sometimes people in those team environments try to do too much because they don't know. So when you can kind of look inward and be clear on what you need and then also be able to put it out there, that you're willing to accept some guidance on how you can be the best teammate possible, I think those are kind of the most special team environments I've been a part of.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: So I want to circle back on something that you said there at the beginning, where you embraced the team aspect and how powerful that was. One word that I keep hearing in the boardroom and now it's being said in sports is connectivity. And I just think that that word is so powerful because you talked about communication. So sports and in the boardroom, there needs to be connectivity, so it needs to be great communication in order to be successful.
[00:18:55] Speaker D: Yeah, I think. I think in sports and sometimes in the workplace, people often think that if you just have the top perform and everyone just puts their head down and does the best they can, that that's gonna have results. And we see that so often, especially in sports, that you know that that doesn't always work out when you've just got the top players all on one team, but they're not. They're not able to communicate together. It doesn't necessarily result in wins very often.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: So, before we wrap up here, Jocelyn, what is one takeaway they'd like our listeners to remember from this episode?
[00:19:29] Speaker D: I think it is. There are so many similarities between sport and in the workplace. And like we've been saying, just how important that the team environment is in. In both of those scenarios is. Is, I think, often underrated. And when you can talk about that stuff and when you can really be aware of. Of your own kind of needs can and communicate them clearly. It can, it can really have such incredible impact on results. And yeah, there's just so many similarities between sport and the workplace and I think that's why we often see so many high level at.
I see a lot of success in, in the workplace afterwards because they understand that and they understand the importance of of that team environment. So I think as leaders in the workplace when in moments of adversity, I think more often than than we do we can think about increasing communication or how can, how can this team work better together? How can we create more vulnerability within this team so that, so that you can have more success? I think yeah, it's so, it's so interesting and just something I love about it about our sport and even, even in all the other sports I've competed on. When you're on on bigger teams it becomes sometimes easier, sometimes more challenging to to just work on those that communication and team dynamics within, you know, whether it's forming small teams within, within the bigger team.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: My call to action today would be to like share and follow this episode. Jocelyn, I wanted to take the time to thank you for coming on and having this conversation with us today. What I admire about you is your resilience, your humility, your ability to drive and your tremendous optimism. It was such a pleasure to have this conversation with you today. Thank you so much for spending the time with us today and having this conversation.
[00:21:16] Speaker D: No problem. Thank you for asking me.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Very welcome. On behalf of myself and my guest Jocelyn, I would like to thank you all for listening today. And until next time, be safe. And remember everyone that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything.
[00:21:31] Speaker C: You have been listening to. Let's be Diverse with Andrew Stout to stay up to date with future content. Hit Subscribe.
