Professional hockey goaltender CJ Jackson has built a career defined by resilience, authenticity, and an unwavering commitment to showing up—regardless of the circumstances.

In this episode of Mindset Stories, CJ shares her incredible journey from growing up in rural Nova Scotia and competing in male-dominated sports, to becoming a record-setting NCAA goaltender, an Isobel Cup Champion, and a professional in the PWHL.

But this conversation goes far beyond hockey.

CJ opens up about what it's like to spend years waiting for opportunities, embracing difficult roles, handling disappointment, overcoming fear, and staying connected to who you are when the world only sees your results. She shares the mindset that has allowed her to continue thriving through setbacks, criticism, uncertainty, and the pressure of elite sport.

Together, we dive into topics including:
• Controlling the controllables
• Why your character matters more than external validation
• The difference between chasing success and attracting it
• Finding purpose when you're not getting playing time
• Building self-awareness and investing in yourself
• Dealing with fear, pressure, and self-doubt
• The power of community, authenticity, and staying true to your values
• Why joy and competitiveness can, and should, coexist

This is an episode for athletes, coaches, parents, and anyone navigating adversity while pursuing something meaningful.

Whether you're fighting for your opportunity or learning how to trust the process, CJ's story is a powerful reminder that success isn't just about where you end up, it's about who you become along the way.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow Mindset Stories, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone who could use this message.

Former NHL forward Eric Tangradi has built a career defined by accountability, profound self-reflection, and the grit required to overcome the hidden mental battles of elite sports.

In this episode of Mindset Stories, Eric shares his incredible journey from growing up in the inner city of Philadelphia and starting out at a local figure skating rink, to becoming a 42nd overall NHL draft pick, a Calder Cup Champion, and a professional who played 150 NHL games across multiple historic organizations.

But this conversation goes far beyond hockey.

Eric opens up about the harsh contrast between "Instagram versus reality" in elite athletics, detailing the intense anxiety, mental fog, and isolation that came with early NHL pressure and social media scrutiny. He shares the pivotal moment his wife challenged him to look in the mirror, leading him to reject a victim mindset, partner with a sports psychologist, and completely rewrite his mental playbook to find joy in the game again.

Together, we dive into topics including:

• Why you cannot allow yourself to get "stuck in the suck"

• The dangerous impact of social media on an athlete's mental health

• Shifting from a victim mentality to radical self-accountability

• Replacing results-oriented pressure with process-driven goals

• The isolation of professional sports and the importance of a true inner circle

• How to reclaim your authentic identity when you lose your way

• Navigating career regret and finding deeper purpose through family

• Quieting the outside noise to focus entirely on controlling the controllables

This is an episode for athletes, coaches, parents, and anyone navigating adversity while pursuing something meaningful.

Whether you're fighting through a period of professional rejection or learning how to measure your worth by your daily process rather than your external results, Eric's story is a powerful reminder that success isn't just about where you end up, it's about who you become along the way.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow Mindset Stories, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone who could use this message.

From the day you’re born to the day you die, the only person inside your head every second is you. So wouldn’t it be better to have that voice be your own personal coach that actually helps, instead of one that tears you down?

In this episode of Mindset Stories, Sara and Luc dive deeper into two important themes from their last conversation that consistently show up in their work: self-doubt (feeling inadequate or “not good enough”) and the fear of disappointing others. Rather than just handing you tools, they walk through real stories from their work with clients (shared anonymously, with all identifying details changed). A tool tends to be more useful when you can see how it actually works in practice. 

In this conversation:

• Why self-doubt is so hard to beat, and how to “collect the evidence” the fact check it

• The baseball player stuck striking out, and the self-talk shift that turned it around

• “Don’t let your brain talk sh*t to you” - catching and challenging negative thoughts

• Using mistakes as feedback instead of proof you don't belong

• The spotlight effect: why everyone’s too busy in their own head to be judging you

• The athlete who hated their sport but couldn’t quit for fear of disappointing their parents

• The reframe that changes everything: playing with your coach, not for them

• Why you’re going to disappoint someone no matter what, and how to give people permission to feel it

• The one person actually worth being afraid of disappointing: yourself

A reminder for parents too: a kid still playing isn’t the same as a kid still loving to play, so check in with them.

Why did we start Mindset Stories?

In this special pre-launch episode, Sara and Luc sit down for an honest conversation about the purpose behind the podcast and the lessons they've learned through years of working with athletes. Together, they explore the human side of performance, the power of feeling seen and heard, and the common struggles that connect us all: self-doubt, fear of disappointing others, and the desire to simply be understood.

Through stories and reflections from their work, they discuss why athletes are humans first, how vulnerability creates connection, and why sometimes the greatest gift we can offer someone isn't advice or solutions, it's our presence and our willingness to listen.

This episode is a reminder that behind every performance is a person, and behind every story is an opportunity to connect.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why Mindset Stories was created
• The human side of sport and performance
• Feeling seen, heard, and understood
• Self-doubt and the fear of letting others down
• The importance of connection and vulnerability
• Why listening matters more than fixing

• How athletes and clients have shaped us as people

Whether you're an athlete, coach, parent, or someone navigating life's challenges, this conversation is an invitation to remember that we're often more connected than we are different.

Because behind every performance, there's a person, and every person has a story.

In this episode of Mindset Stories, we sit down with Billy Larkins, strength and conditioning coach, business owner of 5 gyms across Pennsylvania, father of 5, husband, and the man Sara has openly called both her villain and her hero.
Billy takes us through his unconventional path. Quitting accounting after thirty seconds, mentoring under a 40-year-old bodybuilder in Portland, building a small gym in Kenosha that produced NFL stars like Trey Waynes and Melvin Gordon, working with the Chicago Blackhawks and Milwaukee Brewers, moving across the country to Maine to chase a national championship with Sara, then landing with the Pittsburgh Penguins before stepping down to build the life he actually wanted.
But the real story is what happened when Billy walked into Sara's coaching office and refused to accept the version of herself she was selling. He shares his side of the years he spent holding up the mirror, why he never quit even when Sara wanted nothing to do with what he was saying, and the philosophy that's guided his entire career: don't quit when it gets hard, do the work that actually matters, and stop confusing being nice with being good.
We dig into the lessons that came out of that relationship for both of them, the importance of letting people set their own pace, and Billy's hard truth that "true success doesn't exist" because success is innate to the individual.
This one is for the coaches, the parents, the mentors, and anyone who's ever been the hard voice in someone else's life and wondered if it was worth it. And it's for anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of that voice and finally understood why.

In this pre-launch episode of Mindset Stories, the tables turn, co-host Sara shares her own story.
Sara grew up playing hockey with the boys at a time when girls' hockey barely existed, built a career as an NCAA Division I coach for 18 years, and from the outside, things looked good. But for more than three decades, she'd never truly looked at herself honestly.
Then a strength coach she calls "the villain of her story" started holding up a mirror, pointing out, again and again, the things she didn't want to see. What followed was a year-long unraveling: denial, then shame, and finally the slow, hard work of self-reflection, ownership, and becoming the person she actually wanted to be.
This is an honest conversation about why looking at yourself is so terrifying, how a "villain" can turn out to be a hero, and what it really takes to close the gap between who you are and who you want to be.

At 21, Luc went through a traumatic, life changing experience. What came next shaped the man he is today. This is his story.
Welcome to Mindset Stories, The Human Side of Performance. In our first pre-launch episode, we sit down with co-founder Luciano Somerville (Luc) as he shares his story for the first time.
Luc grew up in small towns across Vancouver Island chasing the dream of playing professional hockey. He moved through minor hockey, junior, and university hockey at the University of Victoria. But behind the scenes, life was throwing things at him that nobody saw. The politics and broken promises of junior hockey. The seizure that cost him a BCHL opportunity. And eventually, a moment that changed everything and led him to the work he does now as a mental performance coach.
In this conversation, Luc opens up about the years he spent isolating, the victim mindset he carried for too long, and the slow path back to himself. He talks about the people who helped him, the things that did not, and how all of it shaped his "why" for showing up for others today.
Why we started with our own stories: We did not want to ask guests to be vulnerable on this podcast without being willing to do it ourselves first. These two pre-launch episodes are how we set the stage before Mindset Stories officially launches July 20, 2026.
Sara's Story drops May 22nd.
Content note: This episode includes discussion of traumatic experiences, mental health struggles, and suicidal ideation. Please listen at your own pace. If you are in crisis or need support, please reach out to a mental health professional, a trusted person in your life, or a crisis support line near you. You are not alone.
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