Forever a Golden Bear

In this episode of Forever a Golden Bear, Erin Cafaro, Cal’s most decorated oarswoman in history, and now a clinical psychology doctoral student at the prestigious Wright Institute shares with us her remarkable journey from joining Cal’s crew without any rowing experience, to becoming a two-time olympic gold medalist, to her introspective transition into her post-sports career. In an unvarnished narrative that examines her mindset at the time, Erin discusses the unsettling experience of standing on the Olympic podium (twice) without feeling existential satisfaction from medaling, the tradeoffs that come from a hyper-focused mindset, and the importance of mindfulness and balance in her evolving approach to high performance and happiness.

Erin can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Justin Forsett, a former Cal football player, NFL Pro Bowler, and the CEO and Co-Founder of Hustle Clean shares with us his journey from professional athlete to successful entrepreneur. We discuss how Justin (and his co-founder and Cal football teammate, Wale Forrester,) grew Hustle Clean from an idea, to a 1st generation product--through user testing, bootstrapping and a series of fundraising stages--to an emerging mainstream brand in the personal hygiene market. Justin shares how the motivation he gains from being told he can’t do something, “the ability to get knocked down seven times and get up eight”, along with his company’s pillars of being real, brave, and relentless, have pushed him to overcome his adversities and accomplish his goals.

Justin can be reached at [email protected], can be followed on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @jforsett, and his company’s website can be found at https://www.hustleclean.com.

Our guest for this episode is Joey Zwillinger, a former Cal Men’s Soccer player and the co-founder and co-CEO of the ubiquitous shoe company: Allbirds. In this episode, Joey shares with us the contrasts of the roles he’s experienced in his career, which include: management consultant, large company Vice President, startup entrepreneur, and chief executive. We also discuss the importance of contributing to society and, more broadly, sustainability; the relevance of MBA’s to aspiring entrepreneurs; the value of intentionality; how the empathy that Joey practiced as a Cal soccer player improved collaboration, morale and products at Allbirds, and how raw competitiveness has helped him build one of the world’s most well known shoe brands.