Heather Mitts Feeley
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
The biggest thing is being able to share my story with others. And so I came up with what's called the gold medal mindset. And I do go to a lot of business leaders and I share what helped me on the field to succeed. What is that gold medal mindset? What is that athlete mindset that then translate into the business world? Because it's really not, it's not any different.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And that's something that we all need to continue to try to focus on is who those five people are because they have a big influence on our lives every single day.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
How do I say it? My, my dad always used to say I'm, I'm the reason that he had gray hair and, And, and very little of it later. Um, I was a handful and in high school, I really was, um, I was not hanging out with a great group of kids. Um, you know, my parents divorced and I think that was very hard and I just was trying to kind of navigate that whole thing.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And, um, I wasn't handling it correctly. And I wasn't motivated. You know, I was cruising on my natural ability, but I wasn't surrounding myself with positive people. And it wasn't until one of my best friends in high school ended up dying in a car crash because he's under the influence that I realized that that could have been me, that I could have been in the car, you know, and
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
So that really kind of was like my aha moment. I think losing someone that's really close to you at such a young age is, it's a wake up call. Perspective, right? We can choose the right choices or the wrong choices. And it's up to us every single day. It's positive or negative. And luckily, you know, by going away to the University of Florida, I went away from those friends.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And I look back on it and I realized that soccer saved me. You know, it gave me something to focus on that I was really darn good at and that I really hadn't been, you know, putting in my all in it. And so it gave me an opportunity to kind of refocus.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And here I am.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I kind of went through two of them. Giving yourself permission to imagine a positive outcome to dream. Learning what you can control. Surrounding yourself with those positive people that we talked about. I think finding a great coach or a mentor or taking a class to kind of get you ahead and be...
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
surrounded by those people that have been through it, that want to help you succeed and maybe see something special in you that you might not even see in yourself. Figure out what makes you unique and hone that skill so you become known for it. I think a lot of times we're into comparing ourselves when instead we should be focusing on us and how we can be the best version of ourself.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Demand more of yourself because who else is going to do it? And don't ever stop until you're successful.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Oh, that's so sweet of you. Um, You know, I think UNC is like where it all began. Right. Anson Dorrance, Cindy Parlow. So many greats that went there. It's a great place to to fall in love with soccer. That's for sure.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Yeah, I love those. Those are great.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, not getting, like, teary-eyed. It's like the greatest gift. I think about it all the time, how lucky I am. From the minute I had my first son, I just feel like my life completely changed. I was opened up to this different perspective on just everything when someone depends on you.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
and you have this opportunity to lead, we're talking about leading, you know, I think there's, there's no greater gift. And so you learn a lot about yourself. Um, you know, I've changed a lot, a lot, um, through becoming a mom. Um, what I thought I was going to be like as a mom is not who I am as a mom.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, I think I'm, I'm more tender now than I've, I've ever been, you know, I was always like a, that fight mentality, the hustle, all those things. And, you know, it has definitely just softened me up and trying to figure out the different personalities. I have three kids, so I have an 11 year old boy. I have a nine year old daughter and I have a six year old son.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Um, and just trying to figure out the best ways to connect with each one of them personally and and with their personalities and just to be extremely present.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
But I also take lessons from both of my parents, the things that I loved about them and I try to incorporate into who I am and then say the things that maybe I didn't think resonated as well and just try to make sure that I'm doing a better job of guiding my kids.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I definitely, I definitely did it. You know, that's the funny part is, you know, I see a lot of them in me. And so they probably do get away with a little bit more because I'm like, you know, I turned out the way I did. Like it's all a part of the journey. So we're just kind of there to help them along, you know, and I want them to become their own person.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I want them to be completely confident in who they are, to love them no matter what. So it's a lot of fun.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Because we get one chance. you know, we get one chance on, on this earth to, to make an impact and there's, there's no other way to do it than just to, to do your best and to try to live the most positive life that you can in the time that we have on this planet. Um, you know, my dad and I had an amazing relationship and, He unfortunately passed up Alzheimer's almost three years ago.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And so kind of watching his decline, he was the most amazing man, super smart, cardiovascular surgeon, worked his whole entire life for his family, but never really got to do the things at the end that he always wanted to do. So I think I realized from him that our choices that we make every single day make a difference.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Um, and you know, to take advantage of the time we have, you know, take the trip, do the things that you've been saying you wanted to do, but you, you just never had the time to do it and make time for it. So, um, just making the most of, of every minute, every day.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Yeah. I mean, we've just still got a long way to go. Um, it's night and day what I experienced when I was playing and I love to see the growth, but it's just, it's still not where it needs to be. And, you know, I, I, what I love the most is that there's so many women that are so passionate about this. So many of my former teammates, so many just friends. So it's, it's at the forefront and,
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
you know, it's a major topic and we're all invested. And so I know it's only a matter of time, but we still have more work to be done.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, there was a couple of schools that I was looking at. Florida was probably the one that was a little further away. Becky Burley was just starting the program. And she just...
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Oh gosh.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Handles ice cream.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Yeah, it's the best though. So when you come in town, I'll treat you to it.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I'm usually pretty boring. I do raspberry with chocolate sprinkles on a cone.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Prime meatballs. Ooh. Easy. Everybody likes it. That's the hardest thing when your mom is like getting one meal that everybody's going to like. That's a crowd pleaser. So that's my go-to.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Balls and handles ice cream. Next time you're in town.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Meatballs first.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Cindy Parlow. I'm not just saying that because she went to UNC. Literally the toughest player. I would say even more so than Abby Wambach. So obviously I had to go against Abby a lot throughout my playing career being at University of Florida together. I think I kind of learned the ways against Abby, but Cindy, ooh, there was no one, nobody else I would rather not defend than Cindy.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
She was- She was physical. She was physical.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
This is a hard one.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I've had so many. I mean, I'd have to go back to college. Those girls are still my best friends to this day. So what we built at the University of Florida, what we achieved by winning the national championship, still one of my best friends. I would say Sarah Yowie.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
showed me a lot of interest and I decided to go down there on my recruiting trip and really had no intentions of going there, but, uh, I was blown away kind of by the, the balance, the academics and the athletics of the school, um, and their passion for what they wanted to create. I knew it was something new. So that was kind of exciting for me too.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
As someone who lived vivaciously, who was authentic, passionate, loving, and made an impact on this planet.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Well, if you go to Players for Good, they have all of us listed, including you, Nick. So we're all there. And that's the best place. On social media, which I'm, you know, not that busy these days on it since I'm so busy with my kids.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
places that i'm active are on instagram h mitts 2 and on facebook heather mitts fan page there you go heather i know how busy you are but like i told you when we first started this means the world to me um
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I've given up there. All right.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
A true honor. Thank you so much.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I really enjoyed our time today.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You're an advocate. Thank you for your time, for having me on, for everything that you do. You're an amazing man.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You're part of something that's building up from the ground. So when I went my freshman year, we were only in our second season and never would have expected for it to turn out the way that it did.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Probably the first time I went out in the backyard with my brother. He was 18 months younger than me. And he was actually way better at soccer than I was from a young age. I was actually traveling overseas and doing, it's called Corber soccer. So he was going over and doing these little demonstrations. He was really technical with the ball, great with the footwork.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And so we would go out in the backyard and just have these one V one battles, you know, that would end up me most of the time, just trying to get the ball away from him. but they would, we would, you know, always end up in a fight. One of us heading home into the house.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Um, and I said, I basically owe my brother for the fact that not only my love of the game, but also, you know, my toughness, I was in the backyard. I was trying to get the ball away from him. Hence why I kind of probably gravitated towards a defensive position. Um, I was always small, but I was, I was always tenacious. And so, um, That's where it all began, was in the backyard.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Hard-nosed defender. That was it. That was it.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Yeah, I mean, I look back on my career, I had a million injuries. I was only 5'4", like 120 pounds soaking wet. So I was tiny and I was playing defense against... much bigger and stronger girls. And I was a dog, you know, I was throwing my body everywhere. So, um, you know, but I, I learned a lot about myself through those injuries. Uh, my ACL injury was probably the biggest one.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Um, you know, it, it happened at a not great time. It was right before my, what would have been my first ever women's world cup where I was starting. I was so excited to wear my ACL. I ended up going online. mistakenly and reading some of the comments when the announcement came out that I would not be playing. And some people were like, you know, she shouldn't have been starting anyway.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Uh, she'll never make it back. Uh, you know, when she's competing against these much younger, much talented players. And there's this quote, it's telling me I can't then watch you work twice. It's hard to prove you wrong. And I just kind of, that was it. You know, I just kept grinding and grinding and grinding and,
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Really, that gave me an opportunity during that break to focus more on the things that I wasn't as good at to become more well-rounded. Even though it was a little bit further into my career and they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. It's not true. I started to focus on the things that needed improvement in my game.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And then kind of when I had an opportunity to play again, it was like, this is it. And I knew how much the sport meant to me. So I was just, I was trying to survive and get a spot.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And I would not only end up getting a spot, but playing every single minute of 2000 and eight Olympics, which ended up being one of my favorite memories, just because when I stood up there on the podium, it was like, wow, you did it. You did it. You never gave up. And this is what it's all about.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, it's still surreal. I actually had an event this past weekend where I was throwing out a first pitch at both of my little son's first league, or what is it? It's called, it's like minor league baseball, or like, I'm totally messing this up. Can you cut none of this?
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Little League. Why can I not remember? Little League. And I had my medals on and it was just like, I don't take them out very often. I don't even think about it that often because I'm a mom now. Like that's, that's my main focus. That's what I'm, I'm, you know, completely set and focused on is just being a a very present mom.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And so it's not till it's events like that where I actually take my medals out, but I'm like, this is pretty cool. You know, you get to share them with the kids and you get to show them this one's, this one's from Athens. This one's from Beijing. This one's from London. They all get bigger and bigger as they go.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And, you know, you're reminded of that journey because it does seem like an entire lifetime ago. And sometimes it doesn't even seem like it existed because it was so long ago.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Yeah, I mean, you're right. It's a lot on both. And I think the one thing that I am so grateful for is... that I always had the mental side of it. That is what helped me to, um, achieve my goals. Um, clearly as you know, my, my body was probably like, please stop. Um, and eventually I knew when it was time, uh, was in 2012 and 2011 was like a really hard year for me. Um,
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Would have been my first world cup to start and play. I had an injury earlier in the year. I barely made the roster. And so after the world cup, they, they actually cut down the roster from 21 to 18. And so I knew that my chances of, of making that roster were pretty slim. And so I actually thought about retiring.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Um, I had told a couple people, um, that I was going to retire cause I just didn't, I didn't think I was going to make it. And I was at the time afraid of failure. And my husband also, we had this agreement, like you plan one world cup and then we're going to start a family. And so I knew that's what he wanted. I was getting older and he knew I wasn't ready.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And so he said, all right, give it a go. And so from that moment on, I just, I did everything. I made that team. Luckily we won gold. And so then when I stood up there on that podium one last time, I was just like, we did it. This is everything that I ever dreamed of. And now I can walk away on my own terms. I can start a family. I can do whatever's next. And yeah,
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I know how fortunate I am because I know a lot of athletes don't get to do that. But I'm so thankful for the opportunity to have been given by those coaches to even be on that roster, for my teammates to help me win that gold. You know, it's a dream come true.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
A lot of it had to do with my age.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, it's, it's tough. I think even tougher being a female, because for me, I, I knew I had a lot of teammates that could do the juggle, but I, I knew I didn't want to. And, um, I just knew how tough it would be. So, you know, I, I knew when the time was for me to come to an end. And I think, you know, it helped that my body just wasn't cooperating at the end.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, I was just doing everything just to kind of manage to even get on the field half the time. So all the stars were aligning and I knew when it was time to walk away.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, I think the biggest thing is being able to share my story. with others. And, and so I came up with what's called the gold medal mindset. And I do go to a lot of business leaders and I share what helped me on the field to succeed. What is that gold medal mindset? What is that athlete mindset that then can then translate into the business world?
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
I love it. Thanks, Mick. I'm great. Thanks for having me on. I'm so excited to be here.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
Cause it's really not, it's not any different.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
You know, you're doing the same thing and it does come down to but I think it comes down to giving yourself permission to imagine a positive outcome, you know, to, to dream and even figuring out what that dream is.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
A lot of times we think we dream as kids, but we have to continue to dream as adults and to set our goals high, make them scary and unattainable what they seem like, because then you're going to be surprised. I did that. when I was playing soccer and I achieved all my dreams and then I had to set new ones because we all need to continue to dream throughout our lifetime.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And learning what you can control because in this crazy world that we all live in, in the business world, there's things that are completely out of our control all the time. So instead of focusing on those things, figure out what can I control? And then you're surrounding yourself with positive people They say we are the sum of the five people that we spend the most time with.
Mick Unplugged
Heather Mitts Feeley: Embracing the Gold Medal Mindset for Success in Life and Leadership
And that blows my mind. Cause at one point in my life, my five weren't great, but now they are amazing. And I feel like once I went to college, I found those athletes around me that were just driven and successful and positive and caring. And so I learned that that was helping me to become a better, not only athlete, but a better person.