Raised by Sports

You don't have to have it all figured out. ⚡

This week I sat down with Emily McCarthy, co-founder of GORUCK, former Georgetown runner, former CIA officer, mom of 3, and cross country coach.

Emily walked onto a top D1 running program without knowing how storied it was. She came in dead last in her first college race and kept showing up anyway.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why she wanted to quit running in middle school, and how a relay team brought the joy back
• Sitting next to a national champion on her first day and realizing she'd "bit off more than she should chew"
• Deferring six-figure student loans to serve in Ecuador, and why she tells young athletes to bet on themselves
• How running clubs, yoga classes, and a car full of sports gear helped her build relationships in West Africa
• Why you can still have fun doing hard things

Her advice for her college self: give yourself permission to not have it all figured out, and just do the next right thing.

Follow Emily on Instagram
Learn more about GORUCK.

The game ends. The lessons don't. ⚡

This week I sat down with Margarita Neymark, former D1 rugby player at Rutgers, post-grad athlete, triathlete, girls rugby coach, and currently Senior Director of Media Partnerships at Firefly. Margarita found rugby late (her senior year of high school!) and it completely rewired how she saw herself and what she believed she was capable of.

We got into it all: the audacity it takes to belong before you're invited, what "I'm with you" means on and off the pitch, the career setback that turned out to be the best thing that never happened to her, and why success looks a lot quieter now than it used to.

In this episode:

⚡ Why Margarita never saw herself as an athlete until rugby showed her that there's a position for every body⚡ The audacity framework: acting before you feel ready, taking the seat before you're handed the invite⚡ "I'm with you": the two words from the rugby pitch that still define how she leads and collaborates⚡ The NYC sales manager role she didn't get, why she's grateful she didn't, and the cross-country journey that followed⚡ From chasing PRs and promotions to Ikigai and how she defines success now⚡ Playing against rugby Hall of Famer Phaedra Knight and what it taught her about setting your own scoreboard⚡ Her one piece of advice for young athletes stepping into their careers: know yourself first

Your action item this week:

Grab a pen or open your notes app. Write down one lesson sports taught you. Then finish this sentence:

Because of that lesson, I approached my life or career differently by...

Keep it somewhere visible this week. Those lessons don't stop when the game ends ...Margarita's living proof!!

Connect with Margarita:LinkedIn

If this episode hit home, screenshot it, share it, and tag me @meredithhuds — I read every single one. 🖤

In this episode, Meredith sits down with Abiola Wabara — former professional basketball player, Italian national team athlete, Baylor Bear, Accenture consultant, artist, and founder of GloBall Life — a platform built to help athletes find meaningful careers and opportunities after their playing days are over. Meredith and Abiola met at the Leadership Academy for Women's Sports at UC Berkeley, and from the moment they connected, Meredith knew she had to bring her on the show.

In This Episode:

How Abiola found basketball at 13, completely by accident. Growing up in Italy where sports happen through clubs, not school teams, Abiola was simply walking her friend to a fencing sign-up when a basketball manager spotted her from the next office over. She went from zero experience to practicing alongside Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson within a few years. You do not have to start perfectly. You just have to start.

How she walked into Baylor and asked to play. She literally showed up, told the coach she wanted to be on the team, and made it happen. The original shoot your shot story.

The competitive hack that got her promoted three times in three and a half years. She created a private game with herself: make manager in five years, compete against peers who did not even know they were competing. The scoreboard was in her head but the results were very real.

The failure she almost let stop her. Abiola had the idea for GloBall Life for nearly a decade before it became what it is today. She almost walked away entirely. What pulled her back was vulnerability — opening her business up to outside criticism and being willing to hear what she could not see on her own.

The financial win she is most proud of. Maxing out her 401k for three years in a row, plus a cash-only envelope system that changed how she thought about spending entirely.

The best piece of advice she ever received. Stay true to who you are. People remember how you make them feel far more than anything you said.

Follow Abiola:

LinkedIn

Instagram

GloBall Life

What happens when a Penn State swimmer tears both rotator cuffs her freshman year and turns that setback into her superpower?

Ann Ragan Kearns is a former DI swimmer at Penn State who went on to build not one but two companies; a successful PR firm and Medallist Skin, a clean skincare brand designed specifically for female athletes. After 12 years in the beauty industry and years of watching female athletes scrub their faces with products never designed for their skin, she finally did something about it.

In this episode we talk about:

• Why "just keep showing up" is the most underrated lesson sports teaches us
• How tearing both rotator cuffs her freshman year taught her more about teamwork than any season she competed in
• The idea that lived in her head since 2009 and what finally made her act on it
• Why not knowing how to do something is never a good enough reason not to start
• Her top piece of advice for any athlete turned entrepreneur: start scared

Ann's message is simple yet SO powerful: if there's an idea in your head that won't go away...listen to it!

Find Ann Ragan:Website: medalistskin.comInstagram: @medalistskinPersonal: @annraganmcglone

What happens when a college soccer captain takes the discipline, humility, and resilience she built on the field and builds a business empire with it?

Sara Uy played soccer at Fairfield University where she captained her team senior year. After graduating she went into sales, built Selling Sarah from the ground up, and amassed over 300,000 followers while closing millions in revenue and training some of the biggest corporate brands in the country. Oh, and she's a Forbes 30 Under 30. No big deal.

In this episode Sara and Meredith talk about:

• The single lesson sports taught her that her mom still reminds her of every day
• How rejection in sales mirrors rejection on the field and why athletes handle it better
• The career moment she felt like she truly failed and what it taught her
• Why the best teams aren't always the most talented ones
• The advice she gives herself every day that changed everything

Sara's message is simple and powerful: stay humble, remember where you came from, and just be yourself.

Follow Sara:Instagram & TikTok: @SellingSarahLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraplowman/Website: sellingsarah.com

Raised by Sports is hosted by Meredith Hudson, founder of SLB and former D1 field hockey player at Yale. New episodes dropping weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen. ⚡

Think about the most important lesson you've ever learned about resilience...we'd be willing to bet it didn't come from a boardroom or a classroom. It came from a field, a court, a pool or a gym.

In this debut episode, host Meredith Hudson (former D1 field hockey player at Yale, 20-year ad sales veteran at Google, Snapchat and Roku, and founder and CEO of SLB) introduces you to exactly what Raised by Sports is and why she created it.

Meredith noticed something about the women she admired most, the CEOs, the entrepreneurs, the sales leaders. Almost all of them played sports growing up. Almost all of them credit a huge part of their success to the lessons that sports taught them.

Each episode, Meredith sits down with an accomplished woman to trace it all the way back to the field, the whistles, the losses, the coaches and the moments that made them who they are today.

This podcast is for the woman who still thinks in terms of wins and losses. Who still hates losing more than she loves winning. Who believes that how you show up on the hardest days is everything.

The game ends. The lessons don't.

This episode ends with a challenge for you — grab a pen and get ready.