Becoming UnDone®

Mike Pinto III is a man of many talents, and a series of careers as diverse as they are cool, he’s been everything from a high producing real estate agent, a highly sought-after motivational speaker, a championship-winning minor league baseball manager, and now a professional musician. Through it all, he’s shown how being more prepared than the competition can pave the way to opportunity, how being your best means connecting with people, and how some seasons, no matter how hard we try, have to come to an end. But in the process of seeing one door close, others inevitably open. Join me as Coach Pinto tells me about his life on the diamond, in the dugout, and now behind the drums in Episode 31: PLAY. 

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Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Toby Brooks is a speaker, author, professor, and forever student who hosts the podcast Becoming Undone. On the third episode of the podcast each week, Toby reflects on purpose, life, and growth. He recently realized that he had not been able to stick to his goal of three episodes a week since the start of the show, and that he had taken a week off for spring break. Toby admits to being off track for his vision of 150 episodes in the first year, but is determined to get back on track and continue exploring the topics of purpose, life, and growth.

The speaker talked about all the long overdue stuff they got done around the house such as setting up the new studio space, getting the daily driver car squared away, and cleaning the shop. Despite all this, they did not manage to get any shows done and thus, they missed their audience. The speaker then discussed their lack of patience and how they are terrible with names, sports, and are insecure. To further illustrate their lack of patience, they discussed how they won't even wait in lines and if they have to go to the doctor, they resent the fact that they have to wait and the mere existence of a room dedicated to waiting.

This conversation discusses the difference between health care for athletes and for the general public. The athlete is often given priority and seen much faster than the average person, such as having an MRI done that same night or surgery done in the early morning hours. The speaker is frustrated with their lack of success in applying for jobs and speaking engagements in the past three years, despite their qualifications and drive to get better. They have applied for jobs at the Olympic Training Center nine times, with no response. They urge the center to improve its culture.

The speaker is feeling frustrated because they are not getting the results they want and feel like they are stuck in a waiting room. In order to move forward, they decide to take a step back and reflect on the positives of their situation. They use the basketball analogy of bricks and buckets to describe their highs and lows of the week. The speaker's bucket for the week was getting accepted to present at the 2023 Digital Teaching Symposium, and two other colleagues from their department also got accepted to present their work. The speaker is excited for the new paths of leadership and scholarship that are opening up for them.

TIMESTAMPS 

0:00:00   Reflecting on Purpose, Life, and Growth: Becoming Undone with Toby Brooks - Episode 3

0:01:41   Reflection on Long Overdue Tasks and Patience

0:02:55   Reflection on Impatience and Professional Pursuits in Athletics

0:06:06   Bricks and Buckets: Reflecting on the Highs and Lows of the Week

0:08:27   Word to the Third: Health Care Teaching and Education

HIGHLIGHTS 

It's amazing to me just how antiquated health care teaching and education can be across our country. I'm thankful and grateful to work with great people who take their roles as educators seriously and are constantly honing their craft.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my career as an AT educator these past two decades, but it is exciting for me to see new paths of leadership and scholarship start to show up in my world.

Each week on Becoming Undone I reflect back on the highs and lows of my week in Bricks and Buckets. Bricks are attempts that miss the mark, while buckets sail through the net clean and true.

As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me, I'm a health care professional too, but working in athletics has just fed the flames of my impatience. We once had a football student athlete who needed to see a neurologist so that he could get a form signed from the NCAA that would let him play with a tinted eye shield in his helmet.

Back in

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Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Competing at the highest levels requires a rare combination of ambition, ability, drive, and opportunity. For highly decorated pitcher Katie Burkhart Gooch, she can recall authoring and signing mission and vision statements for herself before she’d even become a teenager. Ambition: check. 

Early successes on the softball field led to a steady stream of newer and greater opportunities as an athlete. Grand visions of Olympic victory might have seemed far-fetched at such a young age, but Katie believed that she had both the resolve and the talent to make them a reality. Ability and drive: check and check.

Eventually, she found herself at Arizona State where, as a senior, she helped lead the Sun Devils to a 66-5 record and a National Championship in 2008. Awarded College World Series MVP honors, Katie was soon drafted first overall in the National Pro Fastpitch league where she remained dominant, posting 13 wins and a sparkling 1.87 ERA in route to NFP Player of the Year honors as a rookie. Opportunity: check.

After wrapping up a successful professional career in the US and abroad, she moved on, dabbling in coaching and other pursuits. It was a fairytale story of athletic success.

Except it wasn’t, exactly.

There had been signs along the way. Behind a steel exterior and a crafted persona as a dominant and hungry competitor, Katie wrestled with doubts and with feelings of being an imposter. Tragically, as a freshman in college, she found herself picking up the pieces following a date rape, wondering if she would even continue to play. Struggles with alcohol had crept in over the years, and by 2017, she found herself at what she would describe as her rock bottom.

From the pain and anguish, a new Katie emerged. Surrounded by those she loves and with new creative pursuits that allow her to express a different side than the dominant former pro athlete, she’s found herself in the unlikely but satisfying space between thrash and Zen; Limp Bizkit and meditation; diamonds drawn in chalk and those set in gold.

And she’s not done yet.

Join me for the inspiring story of Katie Burkhart Gooch in Episode 29: DIAMONDS  

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Whether in business, sports, the arts, or almost anywhere in between, the ability to assemble and grow a high- functioning team can be the difference between success and failure. And in some elite teams like the US military’s Special Ops, such can literally be the difference between life and death. Growing up in a pre-internet age with Cold War rhetoric and a steady stream of staples of my youth like GI Joe, the lure and appeal of groups like the Army Rangers and the Navy SEALs made them stuff of legend. They were real-life superheroes surrounded by mystique and trained unlike any others. At the same time, if you were like me and my friends, you didn’t know much about them like how to get in, how they trained, or what they did once they were admitted into their elite ranks.

And you couldn’t just Google it at the time, either.

Early in life, Rich Diviney wanted to fly. The appeal of being a pilot and serving his country was tremendous, and he found himself growing up in Connecticut with a dream to take to the skies. At the same time, Rich was also influenced by James Bond films and the U.S. Special Operations Forces, so the idea to pursue a career as a Navy SEAL took root, eventually leading him to Purdue University where he joined the Navy ROTC program.  Upon graduation, Rich was able to complete BUD/S training and serve for over 20 years as a Navy SEAL Officer. During his career he held several leadership positions, to include the officer in charge of training for a specialized SEAL Command - where he focused on defining and refining the ways in which the cadre could successfully identify the candidates who would be best suited to serve in the Navy’s most elite and storied unit. As a result, the Attributes emerged, ultimately leading Rich to write and publish his highly informative and pragmatic book that can help leaders identify the aspects of specific team members that can help improve the way units train and operate.

Listen in as Rich explains his journey from young aspiring pilot to Navy SEAL, from Navy SEAL to military team and leadership expert, and eventually to author, speaker, and influencer in Episode 28:  PRECISION AGGRESSION 

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This past week, we had family in town and Taye started his baseball season for junior year, so I chose to take a break from the show for a minute and enjoy this season. Guilt-free. 

And as I reflected back on my last two guests Bridgette Borzillo of CaZo Dance and Bill Benjamin of the Last 8% Academy, I realized that that was the right decision. In both interviews, the thing that resonated with me the most was the idea of being present and being brave in the face of big transitions in life.

For Bridgette, it was stepping into entrepreneurship and founding her own dance company after a career as a college athlete and then as a dancer in other companies. For Bill, it was a similar decision to move from the safety of a good-paying job in the computer software industry to the possibilities of making a bigger impact in the world with the transformational teaching of lifelong friend JP Paliew-Frye. In both cases, the “safe” solution would have been to push forward in a career path that was predictable. But for both, the call and the potential of a deeper purpose became too much to ignore.

So they pivoted. And they went all in in a new direction. Fully present.

Taye’s head football coach and Athletic Director Chris Softley has several great coachisms, but a personal favorite of mine has become his encouragement to his players to “be where your feet are.” It took me a second the first time I heard it to really “get” what he meant by it, but it is more important today than it has ever been in my lifetime. See, in today’s world, it is easier than ever to be distracted by our technology or our thoughts. 

I’ve spent more time than I care to admit being physically present at important events but mentally somewhere else. Whether a wandering mind or a device that—ironically—connects me to the outside world while making me absent from the one I’m actually in, if my mind isn’t focused on the moment where my feet are, I miss out.

Sometimes being where our feet are requires real discipline. As Bill talked about in his episode, our emotional regulation through the limbic system serves as a reward system that can be hard to shake. Dopamine release is a motivator no different than many other forms of addiction. If you don’t believe me, see what it would feel like to consider how it would feel if you accidentally left your phone at home for a day. 

Being where our feet are allows us to respect the past, but to savor the present. Understanding that distractions can pull our focus and realizing that goals and dreams—as helpful and motivating as they may be—can rob us of the joy of the moment, we need to pay attention both when and where we are. 

For so many of my guests, the real tendency for the high achiever is to plow forward after both successes and failures alike and be on to the next challenge is on one hand admirable. And on the other hand a missed opportunity. We never know when or even IF we will get a chance to come this way again.

So my takeaway this week is to pay attention. Respect the past. Aim for the future. But relish the present and be all-in for the season in which we find ourselves. 

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Bill Benjamin grew up in Canada and initially found his success in the software industry after earning degrees in mathematics and computer science. On the surface, such would seem an odd combo of experience and training for someone who now serves as a highly sought-after speaker and coach who is a recognized expert in leadership training and developing emotional intelligence. However, when you consider the fact that his work today is all based on evidence about how humans communicate and lead most effectively, it all makes sense. Pull out your notebooks for this one, friends, because Bill has quote after quote that can inspire and direct as he talks about his story, the Last 8% academy, and how learning to control your emotions and thoughts can be the critical key to all your successes in Episode 26: THE LAST 8%

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you’ve ever spent any time at all in the incredibly competitive world of travel sports, you know that it’s not difficult to become so singular in purpose that every spare moment, every spare dollar, and every spare opportunity (and then some!) can be consumed with a pursuit of being seen, hopefully capturing the attention of a recruiter or college coach. And sometimes, parents, coaches, and even the athletes themselves can feel the pressure to become great in this one aspect of life at the expense of all others. That can leave anyone—especially those with an artistic spirit—feeling unfulfilled and unnecessarily painted into a performance corner.

For Bridgette (Caron) Borzillo, her love of sport actually came second in life behind a passion for dance.  Choreographing for the first time at the age of six, she finally took her first formal dance class freshman year at Fallbrook High School in San Diego, California. Meanwhile, the talented athlete/artist also competed as a three-sport athlete in soccer, softball, and field hockey while also serving as a cheerleader, a member of the Dance Team, and a host of other activities. 

Ultimately, sport won out—at least for a while. The talented outfielder made her way to San Diego State and later Arizona State as a D1 softball player. But her love for dance continued to grow. Following graduation, she went all-in in dance, performing as a member of a number of different production companies. Ultimately, she took the plunge to form a company of her own, founding CaZo Dance in 2014. 

Working tirelessly to create and share her art and her lifelong love of dance, she—like so many—felt the effects of the global pandemic with full force when the world seemed to close for business, especially the performing arts. 

Hear Bridgette share her store of art and sport peacefully coexisting in her world, facing down the fear of entrepreneurship, and overcoming the Lost Season of the Pandemic in Episode 25: DANCE.

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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This past week, I was on the road, travelling to North Carolina for work and trying furiously to claw my way back to some semblance of not-behind at work. Losing battle, I know. My most recent two guests both had inspiring stories, with Krickitt Carpenter overcoming a near fatal accident, a marriage she didn’t remember, and story that’s been chronicled in books, movies, and television the world over. Meanwhile, Rob Simms overcame the loss of his dad to cancer at an early age to go on to play four years of baseball at Division II Truman State University. After graduating and searching for his identity elsewhere in sports media and communication, he found a new career as a development and fundraising expert. 

Both undoubtedly have lived through their share of ups and downs. What I recognized is that they both have been able to remain positive despite incredible setbacks by relying on their faith and the connection it provides to other like-minded folks. But it didn’t just “happen” this way for them. 

For both, success and happiness have been a consistent and sometimes difficult active choice.

Hear me discuss the LINE OF CHOICE in this Word to the Third Wins-Day and the BRICKS and BUCKETS (entropy and baseball, respectively)!

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Growing up in a family of rabid fans for their hometown St. Louis Cardinals, Rob Simms recognized his love for baseball early in life. However, after Rob’s father passed away suddenly due to cancer when Rob was just 6 years old, baseball soon become more than just something to watch. It became something to live and something to be. Rob discovered peace and solace in the hours spent practicing and playing. Eventually, his efforts led to success in high school that opened the door to an athletic scholarship to Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.

After four years of hard work both on the diamond and in the classroom, Rob endured the painful crossroads of the nearly simultaneous end of an athletic and academic career that had for so long been his identity. A career in sports media followed, eventually leading to a position as a sports information director at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Over time, he began to realize that his goals as a husband and dad were increasingly at odds with the demands of his job, and he left to pursue a career in non-profit fundraising, ultimately finding success in helping clients raise more than $100 million in capital while still getting to serve as a broadcaster as the voice of the Creighton Bluejays Women’s Basketball team for the past 21 years.

Hear Rob tell his story of overcoming the painful loss of his dad early in life to eventually find his passion on the baseball diamond, jobs in professional sports and a Division I athletics department, and eventually a highly successful career as a non-profit fundraiser in Episode 23: GETTIN’ HECTIC   

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"From Elite Gymnast to Near-Death Accident: Krickitt Carpenter's Amazing Story of Resilience"

SUMMARY 

Krickitt Carpenter was an Arizona native and college gymnast whose dreams of a scholarship came true when she competed and earned her way to the Cal State Fullerton team. A knee injury cut her career short, but she managed to graduate with a degree in exercise physiology. An unexpected encounter led to a relationship and eventually a wedding, but a car accident that nearly took her life left her with a brain injury that erased all memories of her courtship, wedding, and husband. After a long recovery, Krickitt and her husband tried dating again and eventually remarried. Their story of unwavering commitment and refusal to turn their backs on their vows became a best-selling book and a hit movie. However, their marriage eventually ended.

Krickitt was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and grew up in the gym her mother owned, Mary Pappas. She was naturally talented in gymnastics, competing at a high level, and her goal was to get a gymnastics scholarship for college. Krickitt overcame adversity and fought to overcome the emotional pain she was going through. She is now a successful motivational speaker and advocate for those who have gone through similar ordeals.

This conversation is about the guest's journey from being a collegiate gymnast to transitioning out of sport and into the corporate world. The guest had gone to Cal State Fullerton on a gymnastics scholarship and had a great career, but blew her knee out her senior year. She transitioned into being involved in a great church in Southern California and shifted her focus from being in the gym all the time to being able to serve others. After graduating, she was connected with a sportswear company called Jammin Sportswear and was successful in sales. While working there, she met her husband, whom she married a year later in September 1993. They moved to a small town in New Mexico, where she worked as an exercise physiologist. On the day before Thanksgiving, they were driving to Phoenix to visit her parents when her husband got sick.

The speaker was in a serious car accident just outside of Gallup, NM where he was t-boned by a one-ton Chevy truck. He was taken to a hospital and flatlined twice on the way, but miraculously recovered due to people praying around the world. When doctors asked her questions to assess her memories, she remembered her mom, dad, and unexpectedly, her husband, Todd, who was an old boyfriend. The speaker made a miraculous recovery and was able to tell her story.

Reach out to Becoming UnDone! Text Toby here!

Support the show

Becoming UnDone® is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyBrooksPhD. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.