Five Time Olympic Medallist Tessa Virtue

Tessa virtue is here on the podcast and we're so excited we've never met in person but we've been fans from afar uh she skated uh into the hearts of people around the world when she became the youngest ice dance champion in Olympic history at the 2010 games alongside her on Ice partner Scott moir the winner of three Olympic gold medals five Olympic medals in total she is the most decorated female figure skater in Olympic history I remember when I learned what decorated meant I was like I don't understand why they're calling them deor and it's because they actually have the metal so it's like I thought we'd started before I didn't know we were restarting I love it think we'll do both we'll do both okay yeah um but I want to tell everybody all the amazing things about her until so we start getting into the details she works closely with Fitz spirit and organization whose mission is to raise public awareness around the declining participation in sport amongst pre-teen and teen girls you have no idea this is such a Hot Topic right now in our world like it is happening in my life right now and I just I can't wait to share this podcast with every mother or parent of teens and pre-teen girls um and you were the face of women's training at Adidas Canada and a longtime member of Special Olympics Canada Champion networks you were inducted into the Canada uh Walk of Fame in 2018 named The Order of Canada in 2020 and received the Canadian order of sport award making your induction her induction into Canada Sports Hall of Fame 2023 you could just die now that's enough I don't need to do anything more thank you that's so kind um okay we want to know about because also a lot of the people we're talking to are moms and we all we have seven of them we want to know your not seven moms we have seven children that though um love to know a little bit of the history around how old were you when you started skating I started skating when I was six uh my grade one class was going on a field trip and in anticipation of that I wanted to be able to skate so my grandma took me to some lessons and it was one of many activities I was I'm the youngest of four kids and I I I mean this I was the least athletic one and but it was really important for my parents both education and Sport um were main priorities and it was two boys two girls and so my Mom especially wanted to make sure that my sister and I were not just dragged to the hockey ring or the baseball diamond and watching my brother's play so she really took initiative to uh expose us to all different kinds of sports so skating was one of them but my grandma took me to my first lesson and she said to Scott's Aunt um who was my coach my very first coach she said this is just the activity that Tessa does for fun no competitions no testing we're not taking this seriously this is just a little Hobby and um and then I met Scott not long after and started skating with him when I was seven you guys were seven I was seven he was nine you guys are so cute that is shocking that you were seven and he was nine because I'm even thinking of a seven-year-old like you must have been so mature I you were the fourth so you probably were very well Advanced but even like the boy girl Dynamic when they're younger of you know like wait you're you're touching a boy or you're talking to a boy or you're like you skate with a boy like that would be oh I never thought I would have died to have to be in close contact with a boy yeah I mean I wouldn't have called us mature by any stretch of the imagination but we didn't talk for the first probably year we didn't say a word to each other we just held hands and skated around the boards and um just did our little compulsory dances so I think it was probably comedic relief for everyone around us it's not like we showed this great potential but but I mean he was a riot he was so funny he was he had he has always had just such a big personality and and even then it really showed and you know while we didn't speak for about a year it it didn't take us long to figure out that we both liked competing and we both liked dancing so I don't know when we started to take it seriously probably you know a year or two in we started winning a couple competitions and then we thought oh this is nice what is seriously too like when you say take it seriously because uh when you look at um something I don't know if you know but when you have kids now it's sort of like they enter a sport and it turns competitive very quickly there's not really a stream there is a stream but it's sort of like your status now is what your your stream is and you kind of made a choice right away and before you know it you're in this massive competitive world where they're like in on the in the dance studio on the rink like you know four or five times a week very young when did did that was that was like a slow burn for you guys or was it like okay let's let's let's put go all in at this at 8 years old you're like how many times are you skating uh you know what probably two or three times a week I'm not sure but I want to say when I was around nine then we started our parents started driving us to Waterloo I was in London Ontario so about an hour and a half an hour and 15 um to work with different coaches and so when they started doing that three or four times a week before school and before they all went to their jobs it's funny I asked my mom recently I said like why did you do that that was insane how did you do that um so then probably when I was 10 11 they would drop us off on Fridays we would skate Friday night Saturday morning and then they'd come and pick us up on Sunday Where Did You Sleep um with coaches or aillet family uh or I had actually one of my best friends still um I started kind of spending the Summers with her when I was nine and um staying with her family nearby and then wow you you were really good you were good like we're thinking about our nine-year-olds they're such babies they won't even go to a sleepover like oh God they need to grow up yeah you know what's really interesting I think about that because when I was nine um I I spent a summer at the National Ballet and part of that training is for the first two weeks you're not allowed any contact with your family so no letters no phone calls and it's such a test right everything is just to see whether you you have it in you um and then they're throwing different things at you like sew the ribbons on your point shoes I had never I I mean I still don't know how to sew but it's like you have to kind of figure it out and um it was so competitive and I think that was like a way of weeding it out weeding the you know the the talent out but so maybe that experience when I was that young sort of set a precedent for a little bit of Independence and um I ended up moving away when I was 13 Scott was 15 and we we went to school and and lived with billets in in waterl so I guess it was just it just sort of snowballed when you when you said in the beginning that you wanted to get lessons before you were going on the class skating trip I'm like that is a definite personality because you wanted to know what you were doing before you got there which I think a lot of kids wouldn't think about so you had already thought I want to know what I'm doing so you it's probably you were probably very um suited for did you did you know in grade one that a lot of people already knew how to skate you know I'm not sure right I I don't know that I would have had that context but that's that's the one of the reasons I like I want the kids to ski so that when they have a ski day that they're not those ones on the hill with the pizza and the jeans see that's me now at 34 so that's good skill skating or skiing there's not much in between you can't do both you do one or the other true go ahead no you're the one asking questions you we this is just conversation so don't ever think that we are like on a script there's nothing we just are like here to chat I hope there was nothing off limits because now I have so many more questions I I do want to get into like the tween I want to get into that organization and I mean tween and Teen um girls and sports and like I feel I we did a we have a group called The Common parrot for twins and teens and I was we did a newsletter on the reason most people get out of sport in the teen and tween world is because it becomes no fun anymore and it becomes so high risk with no payoff so they're having to compete and get yelled at but there's nowhere they can go because there's no there's no like there's not the opportunity to keep going so like why am I going to come here it's not fun I'm not I'm not enjoying myself and I'm getting yelled at and I can't get my schoolwork done like what's the point of this that's so interes and what are some of the like like you know not numbers but like stats around that because I'm thinking if you're if you don't have a pre-teen yet or or you have a teen and you're going through it and you don't want your girls to have to quit what is happening now with girl pre-teens and team and sports I think there are a few things I mean actually I'm thinking about your comment it's so interesting in that for for girls in sport there are fewer Avenues to go down so you're right in that you choose you're choosing most often much earlier than boys would ever need to um because most sports for girls demand almost prepubescent bodies right like it's it's odd how we want the girls to stay so young and small and and Tiny But you're you're forced down a path so early and then there aren't the different Avenues of house league or fun or you know options to to just do something for the sake of it or to join a team so um that optionality might be part of it I I think the research shows um that a lot of it comes down to um being self-conscious and a sense of body image when you start comparing yourself and I think think social media hasn't helped um there's a vulnerability that comes with you know putting on your equipment or leotard or something as your body is changing and um a real lack of support around what that phase might look like and how that might feel and probably and I hope this is changing probably just a lack of visibility as far as what could this be for me how what are what could I um do as a career or what you know what are the options for me out there as far as women's sport Beyond 15 um but you're living and breathing it and and you mentioned that you've you're experiencing this right now what else are you noticing uh well my eight-year-old did did say to me she kind of because she's now part she has seen the PW like she's seen the women's hockey because I I put it on like on purpose in the house because if we're going to put on every male sport we're going to put on whenever there's a woman sport on and she said to my husband like is where's the where's the girls football and he was like there isn't one and then it's like you know whenever now there's a sport where's the girl where's like the girls golf like the LGB and and even in Canada even to get like the the WNBA we don't even we can't even get a lot of it like on our channels we don't get it like so it's it's interesting to hear from an eight-year-olds perspective who sees females in sport on my son's triaa hockey team there's two female like two girls on there who are um playing with them so she is seing it but then when she sees it Beyond there's nothing there so she's like she's piecing it together without me Society is showing her um that what she thought was everyone should be is like she like why and I'm like it's like the Barbie movie oh my gosh like this is what happens but for um for my I have a daughter who is just turned 15 and she's a dancer and um there is she wants to be able to uh dance a lot her dancing means so much to her and she wants to be able but she also wants to work to compete but she's also uh a teenage girl with a lot of school on her plate a lot of Social and it's like it doesn't it doesn't feel like there's a lot of room like cat was saying before where it's not super competitive and committed or kind of just like for fun but you don't get to compete and as I'm watching this happen and I know that by the time you get to you know grade 11 and 12 there's less girls doing any sport and um I don't feel like there's enough space uh enough op for them to be able to do it all and therefore they just they quit and then that's the worst because even just like the team the exercise the everything and you know when you were saying the thing about the bodies is the the the girls in like um skating and swim and dance it's so amazing when they continue to do it as their body CH changes because they're so used to not having their clothes on I've never like I was never as comfortable in my body as I am as as my daughter is and I'm thinking like hair period like all all these girls are just out there walking like they're naked I'm like if you could make if you could these girls can make it long enough to be able to do this and get to do it till the end of high school at least like what can we do to make this this easier to do right and not to mention a sense of purpose and validation and sort of that cycle of trying new things learning new technique or new skills and then feeling really accomplished for having um persevered like there are just so many nuanced elements of the incorporation of sport for young women and you're if we could just keep them in it um a sense of community right sense of community how they how they may feel like in a different area because we know being like I think every parent listening is you have girls who who definitely get into drama and when you have another place to land your mental health stays um you know if you have different groups and different Outlets to go and feel connected when maybe one Community is is having a harder time you can go and feel like oh I I fit in somewhere and I'm not totally alone because teenage Hood the mental health is really bad right now and we we do need to make sure that we're keeping them in a community where they do feel like they belong and they have something that's more than just maybe the house and school that might be tumultuous and I think that we we're missing that link for these These Girls where they're expected to compete either at a super high level and be amazing and go nowhere with it unfortunately or drop out you know you're so right and I think one of um they they used to say in in the research that the one of the protective factors um is a sense of meaning which is definitely important um but actually the most important thing right now and I maybe this is a sign of the times is um a sense of mattering and so belonging to that group and feeling like I matter to my teammate I matter to my colleague whatever that may be um especially in that formative you know period of time just feeling as you say you can kind of EB in flow through different groups if you're not getting what you need from your school friends and you can go to dance or hockey or things like that and um feeling like that you're adding value and you're feeling valued how did you um how did your parents support you did you ever feel like I'm done like I don't want to do was whatever was it ever too much for you and what was your push through Factor like what made you keep being like no I want was it all sunshine and Roses 100% of the time or was it like I'm done no most of the time I wanted to quit really oh yeah yeah it yeah most of the time I didn't I didn't love it um I think and every year even in the early days once we committed to the season together the rule was sort of that we needed to see it through yes and so every end of season meeting where our coaches would sit around and Scott's parents and my parents and and the two of us my parents were flored when I would say oh yeah I want to keep going because I think they would think okay this is it this is it and it was probably because it was coming off the high of you know the last competition when get to stay in a hotel and there's a pool and you get the track fuit or whatever it is like those were the things that were keeping me in it totally I love it and and then you know as things got really hard in the teenage years and probably in the middle of our you know first two Olympic Cycles it was this sense of I always thought that my life would begin when my sport career ended like I it was I always knew it was going to be sort of like oh then I get to do all this other stuff that I want to do but right now in in those moments I felt I had this like deep-seated purpose and responsibility to Scott to accomplish everything we could and and optimize our potential so it was fairly pragmatic which was good because Scott was so feeling based um that I think that balance was really helpful it was I wanted to win and the Olympics meant a lot to me you know as soon as I got a taste of games yeah I wanted to know in that um because I know you got cut off but uh did Scott ever want to quit yes oh thought you gonna say no did you both want to quit at the same time I think mostly that's what worked in our favors probably it was at different times I'm sure he you know we were we weren't exactly vocal about those those moments with one another because I I never wanted him to feel like I wasn't in it with him and probably vice versa but I'm sure you know I know he had tough times and he often says even into the that lead up to 2018 was a real grind for him emotionally and mentally so you know luckily I guess that's the beauty of a partnership that we could really rely on each other when when we needed to and it you know that was something that we focused on and really worked on because I can't imagine if you were were alone like because there are Solo figure skaters who do would never have ever lasted oh my gosh that totally different we have not made it to the Olympics but we always see a lot of like women start um businesses and they find it really hard to continue and they're like you know um how did you guys do like so much if it is because we have this partnership so because both of us didn't want to quit at the same time it's really that's why I asked the question I'm like if you both want to not quit at the same time you can probably work through it and that goes so far beyond just being friends I mean you said you're best friends but that I mean your working relationship you've really had to cultivate you know this this code of sort of principles and behaviors and things that are acceptable and how you support each other that that's such such a beautiful thing and it's cool to to see two women thriving in that way and it is it is it is unique yeah and it was probably unique for you two too going all the way from you when you were seven years old all the way up the one of the thing so many things your talent your practice your commitment all of that but one of the things that made you guys exceptional was that that special thing that that that not everybody you can't recreate that that's a magic that is so special that that's why other people don't make it because they don't have thata do you like what what would you would have been Young when the media wanted to put you guys in a relationship that you did not decide was a relationship like it was not what they said it was and like how do you navigate that as a female at a young age and they're like sexualizing what you're like you're kind of like I am like working my ass off I have done this for so like what they do to women is crazy and I just how did you handle that at your age with and like carry on when everyone is scrutinizing you for something that you're not even talking about yeah I think you know there were elements of that that appeared gradually as I grew up in the sport so I mean the very nature of the power and balances with coaching you know how do you navigate that what are the boundaries you put up how do you communicate effectively how do you um know what feels right and what maybe feels uncomfortable um I needed to be pretty aware of that from a young age especially moving away from home yeah you you use the term sexualized and I think about a lot of the programs we did when I was really young and the costumes you know we were doing a blues which is Sultry and sexy or something that you know I wouldn't have had my period yet like it would have just been you know and you must feel that in dance too sometimes like how you go even the make and I'm like I don't I they like do this makeup like I'm actually not doing that makeup they look like little scrippers sometimes yeah it's weird and and you look like a little adult out there and and you're really young and so then the relationship question I mean part of that part of that came down to the fact that we couldn't explain it either I mean we weren't in a romantic relationship but it that partnership meant so much to us that we didn't have the vocabulary to artic at the Deep level of care that we shared for one another and sounds nice when you're standing next to someone in an interview and someone says and are you in a relationship or why not I mean the last thing one of us wanted to do to the other was say oh hell no like that's not my you that's my typ for him to say oh no that's you know we're not going there like that would have been so rude and so I think we were delicately trying to you know figure out how we tell these love stories on the ice and how we come together as best friends most of the time and um you know really highlight and cherish and hold tightly onto this partnership and also be really honest and candid and I think for a lot of that we just quite simply didn't have the context or the perspective of the wherewithal to actually understand how special that Bond was and I and I I'm going assume that so many people that were questioning it or want it to be something else because in their life they've never experienced a relationship like that so they just can't possibly understand how it could just be what it was yeah you want to categorize stuff right you want to put it into some box that makes sense in your schemas um and I don't you know we never blamed people that that also meant that we were doing our job and that was you know very kind aren't you glad social media wasn't what it was today when you were doing this and growing it aren't you so glad so glad I I think that would have been horrific and I feel for young girls now I mean you're seeing that um I'm sure with your daughters but cannot fathom what that would be like I think it's more even that everything your world what used to be like a a dance school is now a 100,000 dance schools because you compare not only just to the person beside you but now you have sorry she um oh my God she is you have a baby too this is yes here she's this is Bo she she's into the she loves yep she loves to snuggle she's trying to just get a little hug in and she just needs where are you right now Tessa are you homeor yeah I'm in Toronto where's your puppy um I've been traveling a bunch so she's with my mom and my mom just recently adopted her brother so it's kind of nice when they can be together I'm dying though right now this is so it's outrage it's outrageous she is a like she's a therapy dog without the like without she needs it not me it got like wrong and so she just never got like she never got trained but she's from a therapy line of dogs and she needs to constantly touch my children or somebody there's no it doesn't often really matter who it is really she's not Discerning that's my mom's dog he's a little therapy dog and Zoe our dog is not affectionate whatsoever so it's really nice when he's around oh Tessa what um uh you obviously growing up in such a competitive sport you're you had your parents you had Scott's parents but you saw other parents too is there anything that you could like tell a parent who has has a kid that's in potenti well competitive Sports about some very basic right ways parents can behave very support and then some very wrong ways that you saw in the end like did not like it it was really bad for the athlete or the child yeah I feel oh my gosh I'm having all these flashbacks too being in Michigan and there was a um a large sort of population of skaters there that were homeschooled from Young ages for the sake of skating so they lived at the rink um not often skaters that ended up going anywhere but just with really intense intense intense parents and where on one hand I would have my mom you know having these very candid conversations about if you ever feel uncomfortable in a lesson if if you know someone is you know showing demonstrating a move and it doesn't feel right when they're touching you like you know just let's talk about that and really open the door for those conversations so I was conscious and aware of it there were these mothers who would say you know pull down your shirt a little bit and off you go try and get some more attention to their 14-year-old daughters and I just remember feeling sick about that even even then and so I think first things first we need to protect our kids from um you know like really understanding what a safe sport environment means not that that's incumbent upon the child to navigate but it certainly helps when that's what's in your control um you know what I think Scott and I were both very lucky and I'm so impressed by his parents because his mom is a skating coach and so they both gave us so much space and autonomy from the time I was really young it sort of was this Unwritten rule in my household that we wouldn't talk about skating unless I brought it up so it was you know that that that's that's that's an interesting thing right there yeah that's an interesting thing for every parent of kid with unless your kid is less verbal and needs like sometimes they'll say something and you're like let's talk about it right so your mom knew you but that that is that is interesting and you know just I'm Gonna Let You continue but also for the other kids in the room that we not only focusing on that one kid sport because they're they're being the most competitive or the most successful yes yeah and I think it was important you know to talk about my schooling or my hobby or my friends like it wasn't just that I was tested the skater and so that gave me a sense of responsibility and ownership of skating that felt like you know my my mom was not watching practices like she wasn't you know maybe in the early early days but then she wasn't coming to the rink when I was a teenager and sitting in the stands and um she she really just reserved that unconditional support for you know I'm here when you need me and she always gave me the out like she always said you don't have to do this even as I was flying to the Olympics she was like you know you don't have to do this you don't which was so lovely she was perfect when you say your mom wasn't there sitting watching your practice there were parents sitting watch okay yeah especially in the states I don't know quite what it is here but I mean at that point we were old enough you know um yeah yeah we where yeah we we didn't need that need them there I think and also when we were at competitions I've been reflecting on this a lot lately they made sure that they had their own experience at the competition I'm thinking about the Olympics for example when there's just so much pressure and they weren't you know we we kind of had these rules of um I had one you know contact person in the family and that was my mom and she wouldn't reach out until I reached out to her and you know I didn't have to worry about tickets I didn't have to worry about oh are they having fun like do they need do I where are they sitting in the stands like I just just knew that was dealt with and I got to focus on my job and it sounds so simple but we need that advice we need that advice when we have a show and that everyone's calling us and texting I'm like I am trying to get ready and entertain 1,00 people can you please figure it out like I am not your host yeah exactly um so I think there was just this real separation of skating didn't Define me it wasn't you know my identity and that there also wasn't this pressure of like reflected Glory you know like you know I need you to skate so that I can walk around with my chest puffed out around the ring like it just wasn't that way at all for either sets of parents and I'm so thankful for that that's great it's really it's really you really had a good experience because I would think that a lot of competitive athletes don't look back and and see that about their parents because so many of the parents they're kind of living VI you know a little bit vicariously and when their kid wins they feel like they win yes yeah for sure yeah and wow your mom was really Advanced did she have any experience with sport to like know how to do this so well she had four kids she was too busy yeah maybe maybe and I mean she was a she worked her whole life she was this independent strong woman and um okay I think maybe just really in tune with probably what what I needed wow do do okay I you've been like I love talking to you it's like you're it's so it's so insightful to hear from another perspective because it is really unique how everyone does this um competitive sport differently and how they experienced it and what their family did to support them did you um like in terms of looking back did you have a ton of fun growing up like did you did you do you think you did did fun or do you ever think H like was it was was life fun like so much fun that's what I always worry about with the competitive side like what a great question yeah what a great question and I mean to paint my experience you know growing up in sport as as all Rosie because it certainly wasn't um it was a lot of sacrifice and I think I was making I convinced myself I was making conscious choices but they were serious sacrifices no parties no proms no movies no you know Saturday night like Hangouts at the mall no which meant that I missed out on a lot of that kind of social side of things and it suited me because I was this little adult as I was like eight I was like budgeting for my groceries and you know figuring things out and my best friends were 30 at the time like it was really weird but right um it it suited my personality as a perfectionist as a people pleaser as a competitive human um but I do think I sacrificed a lot of fun in those like I think I sacrificed a lot of childlike you know experiences um and you can make the argument that I got to travel and I got to you know be on Team Canada and you know do all these things but it was very isolating and really lonely and in a sport that is individual I mean was Scott but by and large individual um very competitive so my friend group was not in skating it couldn't be um and when I thought it was then I got burned really badly several times so the bully and I think it just brings out the worst of people the worst of young girls when and the worst of parents because often they're fearing the worst to parents yeah you hear parent you know when a kid's talking that's the parent often it's not often the kid it's the direct result of an adult talking about the other kids which is horrific to me but yes we hear it even in hockey right like when they begin to talk about other like do you never talk about other kids in front of your kids like it's just a rule you do not do yeah even if you have an opinion on it yeah leave it alone you know good point I'm dying at your dog right now sorry she is you need a cuddle come on over she should be happy literally sound asleep in a baby's position like she's got her like it is really she is no she's newly groomed so she smells good and she's really are literally closed like sound as not normal S as um Tessa so uh once you retire from hockey not hockey um now you get to watch hockey all the time your fiance um uh what by the way you're a way better skater than him because my husband was a hockey player and he tells me um if you want to learn how to skate really well go to a figure skater because they are the best universally skaters in every hockey player should be taking fig SK I just watched a Tik Tok of um someone asking your fiance I'm sure you've seen it maybe it's an interview that I WR but if it's on Tik Tok it's new to me of saying who would who would win in skating like but now he's like now that she's retired I don't know if I could catch that's true that's true he's definitely faster faster oh okay um uh so now that you're retired not hockey player thank god um skater what what what did you like what does one do once they're a retired athlete it's a good question I know but you tell us well yeah I think you know and um that retirement from amateur sport is I think a life transition in any capacity that is so drastic is hard and and everyone can relate to that on some level leaving amateur sport is particularly hard for most athletes because so often you've had to give up um education in order to pursue your sport you so you're a little bit behind your peers as far as you know if you're looking to start a career um there's very little funding very little opportunity to um sort of commercialize any success you might have had and and for all of those reasons I feel so lucky to have been a figure skater because you know skating in Canada is pretty popular our faces are seen at the Olympics we're not you know hidden underneath helmets and like that um it's a storyline that people gravitate to I think we also competed in in time when the Olympics and sport was highlighted differently things are just we're in a very weird space right now uh with Sport and politics and how that all the interplay of that um so I say that because it was still incredibly hard and I got to lead the sport on my own terms having accomplished what I wanted to I had opportunities with sponsors and and performing in shows and you know I'm sure Bob SLS or speed skaters could you know just wish that they could do a a tour of them performing and and earn a living right so lucky that we got to do that so Scott and I produced two tours across Canada when we retired which was just one of the most challenging things we've ever done but it was fun to sort of be on the other side of that and being control creatively and artistically of of how a show could come to life and and then we retired in the fall of 2019 um which felt really kind of organic and natural and good for us we we wanted to sort of leave the sport on a high and and not bitter and and still feeling sort proud of our material and then um I knew that I would launch into school I just knew that I would do uh the MBA well I thought about law school but the MBA sort of made sense right on the heels of retirement it was a short-term goal it was something that I could tackle um I think I wanted to prove something to myself academically and also just get some credibility I signed on with deoe as an executive adviser in 2020 and um so to to do that sort of school and work process concurrently was really effective and then I just kept going with school I did another program in positive psychology and um I thought that I which was so interesting I did a course because I was a social worker decid to a side course one of like the universities that you can do you know you just pay for like the course like you don't get accredited but I was like it's so good it's great it's such a good perspective yeah I feel like it it sort of in meshed my lived experience and all of the work that I had done with experts and sports ik and mental performance and things like that with this academic grounding of data and research um which now in my work with deoe um as I think about high performers and I I you know work with Executives and and companies in Canada to to help kind of unlock and optimize their potential um it's it's been really nice to have that academic background and I and I loved it it was this constant dopamine hit of oh no I don't think I can do this oh yes I did it yes it's kind of like skating and um and then this so it's this constant cycle of um you know that anxiety and stress and then actually executing and so that felt familiar um so yeah it's been it's been quite busy but purposefully so and I think kind of nice to to try new things and um learn new skills so you're full-time at deoe yes have full-time job and when you say you've been traveling a lot is that for deoe um yeah I I feel like I have a few different hats that I wear um some with like with brand partners that I've been so fortunate to you know work with amazing Partners um I'm doing a lot more speaking and keynote stuff which is really fun also um and performative in a way um there's like this little entrepreneurial hat that is hopefully more is happening under under that kind of bucket and then and then the Delight work so it all sort of seamlessly integrates um but it's um it's a lot of juggling as well which I know you both know well yeah makes it fun not boring I have one last question for you and then we're going to let you go because you have been so generous with your time and I can't believe how much you have going on do you or don't you keep your um skating outfits from when you were younger to now because I have a million dance outfits that I cannot keep in my house because it I just I'm like thank God God God do you have them all or no and they're so freaking expensive anyway they're so expensive there's not really an aftermarket for them is there no no no I'm not mad about it I'm very mad about it yeah that's hard um I've kept a lot of I've kept a lot of them um at my mom's house but they're all kind of like hung up on on Rex and um it it really is a time capsule of sorts to go through and look at them and and everyone carries such memories and meaning and um you know takes me right back to what I might have been feeling good or bad in in those moments fine I'll get a bigger house and I'll just put her dance costumes from each her 10 dances a year and throw them like you know it's so she she she sees like I love this one I love this one like I know you love them all I know give it give it to your I like to give special things to my mom to hold on to so that they don't like get thrown out because I'll just throw them out I'm gonna start keeping them I like this are your um do your siblings oh wait do they live in Toronto do do your family know you my sister lives in Toronto and then both my brothers um who each have a daughter live in London Ontario so not far is it boy did it go boy boy girl girl yes I she got two of each I I just want to let you know you made me feel really good because when my son had a hockey tournament in Buffalo uh I took the girls we went to like a festar hotel I found one while they all stayed at the hockey hotel and we went to the game and the girls and I then went over for dinner and you had your own experience yeah we had own experience I love that I felt a bit bad but I'm like I'm not going we're not gonna go hang out with a bunch of like no we're gonna go those hotels are gross we're gonna go to Target and live it up oh my gosh that's everyone's like everyone's like cat's going to Buffalo there's no there's no nice hotels in Buffalo I'm like she found one girl did the girls and I had a great time I was like can we go again and I'm like for sure um thank you so much for your time we can talk to you forever we have so many questions but it's also so nice um as a parent who have kids in sports um hearing that it can be a lovely experience and I mean you just have so much Insight I feel like listening to anyone listening to you speak um would just be so Al also it sounds like you smile when you talk so you sound really nice and calm and lovely as well you're just everything good and if if we can if we can support um what you're doing with the work of uh for teens and twin girls please let us know we'd be more than happy to do whatever we can to get that word out and support in any way possible thank you and likewise you have so many incredible projects on the go and um I just I love watching and I love supporting now we need to make this happen in person yeah and you'll have to take us in your cool car because we have the Buick Aven which is really a great car and we can fit a lot of people in it but I want to see like the this the small one that you can drive just with yourself it sounds lovely I'll I'll enjoy that for for a while and if we go shopping we'll take when we go to Target we'll go we'll take exactly I love it that's a great idea all right thanks so much perfect thank you bye bye bye

Channel: Cat & Nat

Views: 8,673

Keywords: Social Common, Parenting Advice, Parenting Tips, Tips for Moms, Mommy Blog, Mom Vlog, Parenting Blog, How to Parent, Parenting How To, cat and nat, cat & nat

Id: O_kGza6BiTM

Length: 41min 7sec (2467 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024