The HR Life Podcast

TonyB (00:14.998)
Welcome to the HR Life Podcast, a podcast about the work-life experience of those of us in human resources and business leadership. Your hosts are fantastic Tony Benjamin, owner and founder of the Grange Strategic HR Consulting, and Steven Big Deal Smith, who is so important that Disney invites him to open the park when he's in California. Hey Steve!

Wolverine (00:41.885)
Are you This is very true?

TonyB (00:45.212)
see, I knew it. I knew it. Steve just shows up, shows his pretty little face and they open they're like, Will you open the park for us?

Wolverine (00:49.539)
I just show up. You know you know, when you have three little girls who are screaming just uncontrollably and excited when a character walks out, but even more so when one of the ticket takers walks out into the a area, that's when you know that's the family that you want to bring on to open the park. 'Cause you know, every every day, this it literally happens every day.

Or at least it did back then. I don't know. I haven't been since COVID. So maybe they've changed it. I don't know. But every day when you go to the park, if you're there for the opening, they always pick a family that's in one of the front rows there to come in and they say, you know, five or they do the countdown and welcome to Disney and all that stuff. So they do this countdown and they always invite a family to come be a part of that. And it's kind of cool because what they do is they they they put you in front of the Disney thing. They take pictures of you. So you get pictures with the whole Disneyland. And this is at Disneyland, California, by the way.

But you get a picture with nobody else in the park yet. And and so they take your picture and so you got family photos. They'll do it on your phone, they'll do it on their thing, they can they'll send it to you for free. You know, all the things. Yeah. So so it's kind of a cool it's cool. It's pretty cool. I th at least I thought it was back then. And when my girls, we took them to the park for the first time. So our rule in our house is we don't take our kids to the park until they're at least eight years old. Because they won't remember it otherwise. And I don't want kids screaming and yelling and, you know, dragging. I d you know, I

TonyB (02:13.161)
Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rebekah (02:15.756)
What?

Whoa.

Wolverine (02:18.417)
I've seen I've seen way too many Disney parks where literally the mother is i has the kid by the arm and the kid's feet are dragging on the ground and scraping part of their shoe onto the concrete because they're trying to get bald them. You know, by two o'clock they're all tired and worn out anyway. So yeah. So anyway, when we went with all the girls, we got to open the park and that was a lot of fun. 'Cause it was our first time ever being there. It was a big deal. I will say the only disappointment my daughters had was when we when we walked in.

And saw the castle, they're like, Dad, it's so small.

TonyB (02:54.754)
Wow, expectations. You know, when you live in a giant mansion like you do, you know, everything else. Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, there there there you go. Well, everybody joining us today is the incredible Rebecca Bradford.

Wolverine (02:56.763)
I know. It's like larger than life on TV, you know, so anyway.

Wolverine (03:09.139)
Well

Rebekah (03:10.239)
Yeah, thank you. Happy to be here.

TonyB (03:13.752)
We're thrilled to have you. Now watch out, Rebecca. That crowd can get a little wild. They're they're known to jump that velvet rope and and mob people, so be careful. Being an Olympian, I'm sure you can outrun all of 'cause they're just a bunch of couch potatoes. But there you go. Look, they're super excited to have you here. So welcome to the podcast.

Wolverine (03:26.705)
That's right.

Rebekah (03:34.977)
Thank you.

TonyB (03:37.218)
We're we're thrilled to have you here. So this is this is our second episode we've done with Olympics as part of the theme. That's right. Well, Dan really wasn't an Olympian. He was he was Olympian adjacent, as the kids say. Yeah. Yeah, business side of stuff. But there you go. And if you haven't listened to that episode, wow, are you missing out? So there you go. Rebecca's here with us and I don't I don't know how to say this other than Rebecca's cool.

Wolverine (03:43.643)
An Olympian. That is very true.

Wolverine (03:51.687)
that's right. That's right.

TonyB (04:07.264)
So there there's been there's been a couple of times on the podcast where I've said to Steve, the best hire I ever made was and then I refer to an Olympian, You're it. Rebecca's it. The coolest person.

Rebekah (04:18.98)
thank you. So I've been referenced to previous podcasts. I like it.

Wolverine (04:19.997)
This is true, said

Yeah, this is true. He has done that multiple times. Yeah.

TonyB (04:23.702)
That's right. That's right.

Yeah, that's that's really cool. So Rebecca, tell us what you did in the Olympics. We'll start there really quick.

Rebekah (04:34.485)
Yeah, so I competed in Vancouver, which is 2010, and I did long track speed skating. What that is is if everyone's familiar with track and field, that's on a 400-meter oval. I did that on ice with blades that were 17 inches long, and to have your distance be the same for your pairs, you switch lanes on the back stretch so that way you have everyone skates the same distance. You have a stagered stagered start.

Wolverine (04:34.771)
Yeah.

Rebekah (05:02.623)
Switching lanes in the back stretch, fast as time wins.

TonyB (05:07.352)
There you go. And of course, okay, I've w I've this is something to ask. The the blades are really sharp, right? In in speed skating they're sharp and so they're extra thin, right?

Wolverine (05:08.777)
Holy cow.

Rebekah (05:18.591)
Yeah, so the we wa I hand sharpened my skates. So we we have a something called a jig and you put them in there, you make sure that the radius is consistent, you know, all the time. You have a bend around your blades to help you go around the the turns at the oval. it's similar to I'd say a chef who takes care of their blades. We take care of our blades as well.

TonyB (05:24.087)
Really?

TonyB (05:44.6)
Well see this, if anyone's gonna break into Rebecca's house and try to get her, she'll pull out one of her knives and she knows what she's doing sharpening him. She can defend herself.

Wolverine (05:49.161)
That's right. That's right.

Rebekah (05:50.007)
There's a reason why there's medics on the on the ice rink because there's been times when teammates have been cut and you have a medic that runs out there and in real time and help give the care that they need. So it's yeah, it's you can it could be a dangerous thing, but helps you skate fast and if you keep nice and sharp, then it's actually the safest way to skate.

Wolverine (06:05.753)
TonyB (06:18.55)
Yeah, so like I didn't know they were slightly curved. That's crazy.

Rebekah (06:22.603)
Yeah, just just a slight one because we turn left, but then you still gotta go straight on the straightaways. there's two disciplines in skating. There's a short track and long track, which so I did long or long track, but short track you have more of a bend because you have to go around a hockey rink turn and do they those athletes do pivots where they have their hands on the ice. They actually have custom fingertips.

Wolverine (06:39.963)
Yeah, much smaller.

Rebekah (06:48.597)
Like fingertips on their gloves to help glide around the the ice.

TonyB (06:49.846)
Yeah, yeah.

TonyB (06:53.954)
That's pretty cool. They I've seen reach down and and touch the ice as they go around. I guess kinda like a motorcyclist does, right? With those special knee pads or whatever they got when they race those. But that's yeah, cool stuff. Cool stuff. There you go.

Rebekah (07:03.669)
Yeah.

Wolverine (07:06.163)
You know, there's a business analogy here, right? You gotta stay sharp at all times so that when you have to make those curves and and pivots and all that stuff that you can do it effectively.

TonyB (07:11.352)
There you go.

Rebekah (07:17.9)
Yeah.

Wolverine (07:18.003)
And it's safer, like you said, it's safer all the things, so anyway. I'm all about analogies.

TonyB (07:21.942)
Wow. There you go. There you go. Well see? You gotta keep your edge. See? There. There's there you go. I like it. I like it a lot. So, well, this is this is really cool. Like I said, Rebecca, you're awesome. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background? And and as you go, I I might stop you because I'm fascinated by all this stuff and and and what little you've told me of your background in the past, I think is incredible. So talk to us about that.

Rebekah (07:23.671)
You gotta keep your edge. Stay sharp.

Wolverine (07:29.021)
Ha ha.

TonyB (07:50.996)
How did how did you get into that? Tell us about your background, your and your story.

Rebekah (07:56.373)
Yeah, so I got the Olympic bug when I was five years old. I'm a date myself here that I watched the games in 1988 and I saw Bonnie Blair, Dan Jansen, and a few others win medals at the Olympics and I was so inspired. And I remember telling my parents that that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to the Olympics. Actually wanted to go to the Olympics to figure skate and speed skate, so I did both for a while.

and my mom was just like, hey, it's in our family. I grew up on the lakes of Minnesota. It's fun, family fun out in the winters. So let's just strap on some skates and go skate on the lake. I and I happen to be in Roseville, Minnesota, where we got our own rink, which is still outdoors, but one of the best development teams in the world, in my opinion, where you know you have

Wolverine (08:28.775)
Mm.

Rebekah (08:49.839)
Olympians who are retired and they're giving back and they're coaches themselves. So it's a unique like perspective of being a development athlete and be able to rub shoulders with Olympians every single day and have them give back to sport that way. I made my yeah.

Wolverine (08:54.509)
that's cool.

TonyB (09:06.976)
So so here's a here's a question for you. Do they do they charge for those things? Like you gotta pay those guys as coaches too, I guess?

Rebekah (09:14.799)
well we're like I was part of clubs. So they were paid by by the club and then we would pay dues into the club so it it was funded that way.

TonyB (09:19.096)
They were paid by the club.

TonyB (09:23.628)
Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, no, I always ask that because like my daughter, she wanted to act for a long time, right? And so we would get her vocal coaches to sing. And we'll just say the better the vocal coach, the more there's there's one that we had that I could name two or three of her client her big name clients and you would recognize all of them and she'd go on tour with them off and on and all that sort of stuff. And she was a hundred and fifty dollars for a half an hour.

Wolverine (09:23.955)
Gotcha.

Rebekah (09:37.718)
Yeah.

Wolverine (09:38.663)
More expensive it gets.

TonyB (09:49.745)
And so it was it was so that's why I was asking.

Rebekah (09:52.107)
Yeah.

Wolverine (09:52.284)
Wow.

You better get a whole lot out of that half hour, that's for sure. So so Roseville and Minnesota. So so I've been to Muss Minnesota several times because I I used to have a lot of clients there. And one year I went, I I was speaking at a conference and everything was frozen. And this is the first time I had ever seen ho literally houses on the lake. Because they were out there fishing apparently. And there was some fishing competition. So I assume you guys would skate around the fishermen. How would that work?

TonyB (09:57.474)
Yeah.

Rebekah (10:13.377)
Yeah.

Rebekah (10:20.501)
Yeah, that's a huge that was a huge that was huge deal. There's where we would do our ice skating, like you we we'd have a warming house. This is before we had the ice rink built in Roseville, Minnesota. We have a warming house and then you just kinda walk out to the ice and skate to where you had a Zamboni or parents volunteer to shovel out a rink.

Wolverine (10:31.656)
Mm-hmm.

Rebekah (10:42.933)
And then you would go skate from there. But the folks that do the ice fishing, like I mean everywhere you go to be safe on the ice, you want to make sure there's enough depth there to, you know, to handle all that. But I wouldn't want to skate around someone who's ice fishing because they're putting holes in the ice. I'd want to stay far away from that.

Wolverine (10:42.982)
Wow.

Wolverine (11:01.843)
Gotcha.

TonyB (11:03.008)
fallin' in. It's the middle of winter. Yeah, no, okay. That's r okay, so

Rebekah (11:04.704)
Yeah.

Wolverine (11:07.561)
Have you ever fallen in the water? Has that ever happened? Has it ever cracked or whatever?

Rebekah (11:12.076)
when it when the ice when when I did lake skating when the ice started to warm up for the season you would get cracks and that's kinda when the season was done.

Wolverine (11:21.735)
Yeah. Too dangerous at that point.

TonyB (11:23.084)
You're like, that's enough. Yeah, yeah. And and I'm sure you've heard about the ice fishermen here in Utah and that sort of stuff. They have all sorts of rules about what you can do and what you can't and when to stop

Rebekah (11:24.181)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Rebekah (11:35.051)
Yeah.

TonyB (11:36.258)
And the crazy people are the ones that jump over the edge when it's thought. Yeah.

Wolverine (11:37.661)
Well I imagine this year they didn't go at all because there was nothing there was just nothing this year. So that's cool though.

TonyB (11:43.82)
Nah. Okay, so so okay, so you're learning there. tell when did you now I know at some point you're relocated to Utah. Like what was the trigger for that?

Rebekah (11:55.695)
so when I was thirteen I qualified to skate for the Olympic trials. So that was before they had age restrictions. So I made the time standard like right on the hundredth. And around that time my mom's like, You gotta make a choice, figure skating or speed skating. And like, Well, I'm going to some places with speed skating because I'm

5'11 at 13 years old and they can't hold the rotations figure skating. So that really yeah. So I think that kind of made my decision there. And then when I found out about the 2002 Olympics and the national team out here in Salt Lake City, I, you know, packed up everything I own. Like pretty much the day after I graduated high school and moved out here to to Salt Lake.

TonyB (12:25.57)
Wow.

Wolverine (12:27.362)
Gymnastics, right? You have to be a certain height, otherwise it doesn't work anymore, yeah.

Wolverine (12:50.109)
Were were you in the two thousand two Olympics? I was not.

Rebekah (12:52.521)
I was not. I was on a junior junior world championship. So when they had I was in a freshman in college. So the dorm rooms were the Olympic village.

And then we had a world junior world championship. So the US speed skating, the our national governing body sent us over to Europe and I was there for the duration of the Olympics, but doing competitions there. So I was watching the Olympics on Eurosport, trying to pick out, you know, English, cheering on my teammates.

TonyB (13:08.507)
right, right.

Wolverine (13:18.481)
Wow.

TonyB (13:26.37)
Ha ha.

Wolverine (13:28.679)
Wow.

TonyB (13:29.484)
Wow. That that's kind of a wild story. So you you moved to Utah, the Olympics are here and you're overseas. That's that's kinda cool. Did did the did your whole family move with you?

Rebekah (13:38.494)
Yeah.

my brother moved out with me. So I have two brothers. I have one that's overseas actually, and then the one here in Utah, he moved out and did also speed skate. but he he fell in love and went on that journey and has a beautiful family. But he's also he also did Zamboni at the Utah Olympic Oval. In my opinion, I feel like he made the fastest ice on earth.

TonyB (13:54.134)
I didn't know that.

TonyB (14:08.941)
yeah?

Rebekah (14:09.041)
but unfortunately he's no longer in that role, but he did such a great job.

Wolverine (14:09.063)
Wow.

Wolverine (14:14.291)
That's cool.

TonyB (14:14.668)
Yeah, yeah, no the the the oval here in Salt Lake has that that's the fastest ice on earth earth, right? That's what they called it.

Rebekah (14:21.601)
There's so many components to it because you have the high elevation, you have the dry air. sometimes when you do a weather system you can get some good air pressure that makes the ice even faster. But also every rink has their own recipe for ice that is unique and they're like there's competition between Calgary, the Calgary oval and the Salt Lake oval, who's gonna have the fastest ice.

TonyB (14:46.378)
Wow. See, okay, I just learned something else. That's pretty cool. Like I I've always thought that first of all, just the word Zamboni is cool, but you got you gotta the guy who drives the Zamboni that's that's well, that's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I like it. But but I didn't know that they they they all had their own slightly different formula for making the ice. That's cool. I didn't know that.

Rebekah (14:48.918)
Ha ha

Wolverine (14:56.041)
'Cause it's Italian.

Rebekah (14:59.733)
Ha ha ha.

Rebekah (15:09.153)
Yeah, everyone's trying to make their their ice as fast as possible and then all you know, you think that because it's indoor you have the same factors, but really like the location really influences that too.

Wolverine (15:17.203)
Yeah.

TonyB (15:20.972)
Yeah, well I can see elevation. I didn't know like dry air would make better ice too. I know it makes better snow, but

Wolverine (15:21.513)
Crazy.

Wolverine (15:26.567)
Yeah, I w I wouldn't even think about that.

Rebekah (15:26.945)
Temperature too. So like a sprinter like me, we'd always want to have the ice a little bit warmer and then you know if you're long distance you're gonna wanna have the ice a little bit colder.

TonyB (15:37.15)
why is that?

Rebekah (15:39.195)
it's just the way how like the the the way how you can create pressure underneath yourself and the speed that you can carry. But even like, let's say when at the Olympics win hockey and is it hockey and speed skating?

Wolverine (15:45.201)
Yeah.

TonyB (15:48.076)
Wow. Okay.

Rebekah (15:59.879)
shoot. Now I'm misspeaking, but when they're sharing a Olympic site with the ice and then one one sport likes to have it cold hard ice, I think I maybe it's figure skating because they need to have a little bit warmer ice. It's hard to adjust back and forth and they alternate those every other day.

TonyB (16:05.091)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (16:18.429)
Holy cow. Is there a safety reason there for that too? Because I feel like I don't know, I feel like there would be a safety factor there too. I just thinking about it. But if the ice breaks away, yeah.

TonyB (16:18.472)
wow. So d I well, never mind. I could go on about this forever.

Rebekah (16:28.543)
'cause the ice breaks away and you want to be able to grip grip into it and I would assume with figure skating you need to have a little bit warmer warmer ice 'cause you're doing spins on it and need to move around there.

Wolverine (16:37.969)
Yeah, and jumping. Yep.

TonyB (16:40.556)
Yeah, and then I think on on figure skating they've got because they're they have a flat edge on their skate, it creates a slight water as it runs across it or something like that, right? The pressure or something. I don't know. Anyways, there you go. No, Tony's speculating. Yeah, yeah, I just that's how it just goes. So no, okay, so so talk to me okay, so you moved to Utah and and you're doing the the junior nationals overseas when the Olympics come. Tell me about that journey though. That's pretty cool.

Wolverine (16:55.357)
Tony's just making stuff up. It's all right.

Rebekah (16:57.564)
Ha ha ha.

Rebekah (17:09.845)
Yeah, you know, when I was doing that chunk of time from let's say 2002 to 2010, I probably didn't have the best mindset as an athlete during that time because I just assumed that if I showed up to the you know, showed up to my workout, did what was told, you know, I was gonna have success. And

It wasn't until leading up to the two years before I the team I made where I really got attention and really thought about what I had to get done out of that day, looking at the workout, remembering what I spoke with my coach and seeing how I can apply that into practice, where I really saw you know, started having success in the way how I wanted to in my sport.

And so there's like a huge difference. Like I know everyone's like saying showing up is half the battle and it is, but I think when you when we adjust our mindset of what we want to get out of that day, then that's like where we can start really working towards our goals.

TonyB (17:57.985)
wow.

Wolverine (18:13.181)
What what caused that mind shift for you? I mean, was it the was it things the coach was doing? Was it just mentally or I don't know, maybe you matured or something? Like what what led to that?

TonyB (18:13.44)
Right.

Rebekah (18:23.563)
I think yeah, I think there was a maturing in it and then realizing that there was a gap from what I would where I currently was and where I wanted to be to make the Olympic team. And then really my coach I he's probably told me this several times, but he goes, Hey, look, this is what you need to do to get quota on the World Cup team to get quota for the US to ki to you know, have enough spots for everyone to compete.

These are the times you need to do. And so having that kind of like a come to Jesus moment and going, I really gotta take ownership of this myself, that then I was able to really apply, apply that into, you know, into my practice.

Wolverine (18:55.635)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (19:06.567)
No, that's a good point. 'Cause your coach can only coach you so far. It it there comes a point where you really have to put in your own dedication to get to where you need to be, so

Rebekah (19:14.677)
And I had a lot of natural talent too when I was in sport, you know, like making the Olympic trials so young and you know, I just skated and it was fun. I didn't really think much out of it. And then when you start getting at a higher level and the competition level raises, then you really gotta hone in your focus and go, Hey, hey, my just I mean, it is fun, but what what is my end goal here? And, you know, my

Wolverine (19:17.065)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (19:39.101)
Yeah.

Rebekah (19:40.757)
I was doing it 'cause I wanted to make the Olympic team, so what do I need to adjust?

Wolverine (19:45.075)
Yeah.

TonyB (19:46.861)
That's that's really cool. When when I was in high school, same sort of thing. I in debate, I was really good. I was really good. There was about there were about five pairs of people that we debated against that could beat me on a regular basis. But no one else in the state. We we we were always there, we were always competing. Sometimes you won, sometimes you lost. But it was pretty straightforward because a natural talent level. It wasn't until I went to nationals after my senior year and we got killed. Like we just got crushed.

every round we lost and it wasn't even close. And then I went away on on scholarship to college and I walked in the room at college and all the people in the state of Utah that I could not beat were in that room. And I was like, humbling and that to your p just like that, you're like, I guess I better take this a little more serious now. That the natural talent I've reached the level where it will take me. And past that, forget about it. That I gotta do more.

Wolverine (20:31.281)
Oops.

Wolverine (20:46.151)
I did the same thing in preschool when I had to improve my handwriting. Unbelievable. That's my only comparison.

TonyB (20:49.304)
Fair enough, Steve. Thank you. I slap across the face that's

Rebekah (20:53.943)
I'm a I'm impressed you could write in preschool, wow.

Wolverine (21:00.275)
Ha ha ha.

TonyB (21:00.344)
That's that's pretty good. So you once said to me, and this has always stuck with me, because what it what it takes to be the best at something, and you and you said this to me, and I maybe you don't even remember saying this, but it really stuck in my head, and that is you said the life of an Olympian is a very selfish life. It's very inward focused and it's all about you and your performance and what you do. Do you remember telling me that? Maybe you could talk to that a little bit.

Rebekah (21:29.609)
Yeah, so another way to think about it too is like no distractions. But the being selfish, that really is one of the th ways how Bonnie Blair goes back and she continues to do is she always runs

I feel like there's feedback.

TonyB (21:50.934)
Yeah, I w we can hear it a little bit. It's okay. I can I can eliminate most of it in the in production when I go to do this and don't you?

Wolverine (22:00.788)
I don't hear any feedback so I'm not sure what's going on, but nope.

TonyB (22:06.282)
Okay. Steve, turn down your gain just a tiny bit. It's okay. We'll we'll get it figured out. Okay, go ahead.

Wolverine (22:15.891)
That help at all?

Rebekah (22:18.903)
So another way ha another way to look at that is no distractions. But really the the selfish talk is something that Bonnie Blair, it's one of her ways that she gives back to aspiring athletes. And she actually shares a letter that she wrote to her family about her how she was at the Olympics. And she didn't engage with her family at the Olympics until she was done competing. And so that was a piece of advice that she shared with, you know, with

TonyB (22:18.968)
We'll see.

Wolverine (22:43.881)
Mm.

Rebekah (22:47.881)
with me as one of those young athletes who are gearing up to the Olympics on how to handle that. And so really what that is, it's like, am I gonna go out on a Friday night with friends when I know I have time trials or a a practice race Saturday morning? You know, it goes back to our attention and that goal setting we have. I gotta be selfish with that time and not have distractions so I can have that good sleep, good nutrition, good hydration so I can hit that

practice race like I would if I was at the Olympics. And so that's that's kinda where that phrase and that mentality comes from.

Wolverine (23:27.645)
I don't know if I would call that selfish. It sounds more to me like discipline. But that's just me.

Rebekah (23:32.779)
Y yes, but when you have family and they're so excited to be, let's say, at Olympic trials supporting you or at the Olympics and they want to hang out with you leading up to it or they wanna talk to you or give you text messages, you know, to be able to set that tone and expectation, let's say how Bonnie Blair did it leading up to for more context with Bonnie Blair, she would have

Wolverine (23:37.245)
Yeah.

Wolverine (23:46.985)
Yeah.

Rebekah (23:58.643)
a hundred of her family members come to her Olympic Games and cheer her on. It it's a huge it's really quite phenomenal. And then so she would write that letter to her her family to set that expectation leading up to the competition.

Wolverine (24:02.654)
Wow.

TonyB (24:03.496)
wow.

Wolverine (24:16.135)
What so what was typically in the letter? Was it just a hey family, love you but I can't do anything with you? Yeah. Don't bug me right now.

TonyB (24:16.46)
Well that

Rebekah (24:20.383)
Yes. I'm I'm focusing on my races. I can't remember everything, but it's probably like I have a race this day, that day, this day, and then, you know, let's go have fun after.

Wolverine (24:31.015)
Yeah. That you know, that that's great though to set that expectation. I mean, again, in the workplace, I'm gonna relate everything to workplace. Think about how often as managers we don't set the expectations and then the distractions cause and wreak havoc, right? Or or or don't allow you to hit a goal that you that you s put forth. So I I think that's that's actually really important. So I love that.

TonyB (24:32.92)
Wow.

Rebekah (24:53.239)
Well then something I'm like even learning like in my workspace too is I have a tendency and it's a good thing to be very deliberate deliberate when I speak, but so much so that I might not communicate leading up to, you know, hey Steve, I'm actually working on XYZ. You can expect, you know, communication from me by this day and this is the end goal. Normally I just

Wolverine (25:03.753)
Mm-hmm.

Rebekah (25:19.039)
work and then I communicate the end goal and so I've been learning and it it goes back to that communication plan that Bonnie Bar Blair like set out like this is this is the attention of it. You know, if you think about project management, a lot of folks they go through and do their project charter. It's the same thing. You're setting expectations and you're walking through that plan and you know keeping your stakeholders engaged through it all.

Wolverine (25:25.928)
Yeah.

Wolverine (25:44.125)
No, that's great. That's a great connection. Yeah.

TonyB (25:44.737)
Wow. See Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's pr I've i fr from that phrase, 'cause I've thought about that a lot, and it was so you know, being the football fan I am, so y to me you hear this difference when you hear a team that is on a roll and they're really succeeding.

And they will tell you we're focused, we're dedicated, this means everything to us, we're we're all over this, right? They're they're they'll talk to you about how dedicated and how focused they are. And then and then it's really for the same team, if they lose a game, then you'll hear something like you'll hear when they interview the players or whatever, they'll say something to the effect of,

You know, there for a while that the the pressure to to win was just so high. It was crazy. And I'm you know, i it maybe it got a little out of proportion. I gotta keep in mind this is only a game. This is you know, this is this isn't everything. I gotta, you know, I I family or friends or whatever it happens to be your spouses. And not that those things aren't important. It just seems to I I've always thought about that phrase you said and that mindset, that focus to be the very, very best.

And it doesn't always make you the best person, but it makes you the best at what you do.

'Cause that that ultra focus, maybe when you it slightly cracks or whatever, then it's okay to let it go.

Rebekah (27:06.027)
Yeah.

Wolverine (27:06.409)
But but again, I think this is where the discipline comes into play there. Because if you're intentionally letting your family know or whoever know that here's what's going on, here's where we're at, here's the expectation, I I don't think you're really I just don't I don't feel like you're going to disappoint or I d I don't know, like teams, yeah, whatever, but but the individual who's working hard, I mean it's a it's a whole different ballgame and you just let your family know, hey, look, I'm gonna

I need to focus on this. Let me focus on this. Afterwards we will have all the fun in the world that you want to have. But we gotta get this done first. And so I I don't know, I just I think there's value there in that sense.

Rebekah (27:44.759)
Yeah, I think there's a lot of character building too that a l a lot of athletes and they're transitioning out of sport seem to mess when you're like focused on the win and that's the goal. That's that's what we're paid for, what what we're focused on doing. But what you're saying, Steve, like all that background, all that stuff that you're working in, that still applies the

the person I was as as an athlete is I'm still that person in my professional setting and to be able to step back and go, what were those aspects that made me good as an athlete, that they still apply in my professional setting. And just because I don't put the blades on and skate fast anymore doesn't mean that that person stopped existing. And so I think that that

Wolverine (28:18.505)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (28:31.869)
Yeah.

Rebekah (28:35.605)
That character development continues and some of the teammates I've been associated with or still watch and cheer on, like they're some of the best human beings I've ever like rubbed shoulders with. Like we've gone to battle with each other. and not saying that like you're like I'm best friends with all my teammates either. I don't think you can be best friends with everyone that you work with, but how can you work well together for a goal? Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (29:02.929)
Yeah, create a synergy to to get you there. Yeah.

TonyB (29:08.248)
Okay, okay. Well I'm corrected now. So No No but see th that's that's what happens. You g you say these things to me and I respect you so much with this stuff. So okay, so talk to us about this and I and I wanna talk about your Olympic story in total and especially and we talked a little bit about this when we prepped for for being on today and recording, but talk to me about that race, about kicking your skate and and let's talk about the rest of your Olympic experience then.

Rebekah (29:10.529)
Ha ha ha ha.

Wolverine (29:10.887)
Ha ha.

TonyB (29:35.256)
'Cause I find and you talking about this the first time I met you in that interview is why we decided like I I was like, That's the person we want to hire. So so talk to me ab about that, your the rest of your experience.

Rebekah (29:50.263)
Well, I think every way back up to when I made the Olympic team, that was in twenty ten. that Olympic trials, everyone was able to pre-qualify for the race, except I missed pre-qualifying by I think that was two hundredth as well. so then I had to come back and win the race, which means that there was one spot, one quota spot available for the race I was competing at, and I fell across the line coming in second.

Wolverine (30:09.449)
Okay.

Rebekah (30:20.297)
And so I did an all-out effort. And I was horrified because I ripped my skin suit and it was just like I had people come in and cover me up, thankfully. And I thought my career was over at that time. I thought I was done. And so while I was being consoled, I was crying. I saw my three-year-old nephew in the stands at the time, and I was offered to do a reskate. And

Wolverine (30:23.153)
Mm.

TonyB (30:30.296)
Ha ha ha.

Wolverine (30:31.367)
Ha ha Whoa.

Rebekah (30:47.711)
I was like, well, I'm gonna show my nephew how to stand up after you fall. So it's not like you get to plan when your reskate is. Your reskate is the you get to skate before the men go for their qualifying event, which is twenty nine minutes from the time you fell, 'cause you were the last pair, 'cause you were, you know, the way you have the fastest skaters go at the end. So then I, you know

TonyB (31:07.992)
Right, right.

Rebekah (31:13.665)
Had to like brush off, caught try to calm down my nervous system, do this race, get a new skin suit. You know, we talked about the skates. I had someone checking my skates and the ice is still wet from being Zamboni. All the conditions were less and ideal. And I'm putting my skates on. And my head coach, he he went off and skated. He he supported me. He said he was proud of me. He went to the back stretch, what he n normally does.

And then the assistant coach like patted my leg and he said, You got this back. And I'm like, I didn't argue with him, but I didn't agree with him either. Yeah. was just like, well, okay, you know, I have the I have a hole in my heart. I guess I'll go step in the line in front of all my friends and family. And but the gun goes off and my coaches aren't giving me lap time. So that was their their they they told me they were just gonna cheer me on for the race. I didn't know how fast I was going.

Wolverine (31:49.161)
Yeah, like in the back of your mind you're thinking

Rebekah (32:10.583)
and when I came around the the the finish line, not only did I skate a personal best and became US Sprint champion, but I also earned my spawn Olympic team from that. And so I couldn't hear anything because at that point, you know, when you when you're kinda like getting the competition ready again, no one's really paying attention. You've been in those competitions, like when they're about ready to start and

Wolverine (32:22.45)
Wow.

TonyB (32:23.778)
That's cool.

Rebekah (32:36.051)
I bunch of folks started to take like take attention to like my lap times and what was going on and they started crowding and it was a hundred meters and it was like three people deep, like people were crawling over people, cheering me on. And it was just like one of my favorite memories of how like how I made the Olympic team. And carrying that through, I think, living in that and knowing that, you know, you can still do great things unless in ideal conditions. And when you have like

Wolverine (33:03.311)
Mm-hmm. And even after a nasty fall. Embarrassing at yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, all the things, like all the emotions, right?

Rebekah (33:06.369)
Yeah, and when you have like no expectations of things, my goodness, it was so embarrassing. yeah, it's just was just a beautiful like that moment, like we've all have had those defining moments in our life, and then to go, that what has that has like what has helped me out with other, you know, struggles that I've had. And so I'm glad that I was able to experience that. And then

Because I was able to stand up and did that reskate and made the Olympic tea. One, I was able to compete. But then two, I was asked to do a celebrity date auction. And that's how I met my husband. So he was a follower on my fan page. And he placed the winning bid for this date. And so like lucky for him, it was love at first sight. but yeah, I I always Yeah.

TonyB (33:46.181)
Yeah.

Wolverine (33:48.489)
That's awesome.

Wolverine (33:58.609)
Wow.

TonyB (33:58.71)
As opposed to stalker at first bid, that's awesome.

Wolverine (34:02.164)
It reminds me of that John John Michael Montgomery song. Sold to the lady in the second row. She's an eight John Michael. that's hilarious. That's so fitting.

Rebekah (34:06.863)
Yeah, yeah, so that was actually our wedding song. Yeah. I have, for our tenth ann anniversary I ordered you can order a s a song wave with a QR code. So if you scan it, it'll like play the song. But it's like the artwork is actually like the the sound waves like for the whole entire song. So it's kinda fun.

TonyB (34:10.552)
That's cool. That's cool.

Wolverine (34:23.165)
Yeah, yeah.

TonyB (34:27.725)
cool.

Wolverine (34:32.103)
Yeah, that's cool. And you got the blonde hair blue eyes to boot, so like you you just fit right in with that song. So funny. Tony doesn't know that song. He hates country, so he'll never he has no clue what we're talking about. But let me tell you, John Michael Montgomery wrote that song for Rebecca and her husband. I'm just saying.

TonyB (34:34.306)
That's cool.

Rebekah (34:37.619)
Yeah. Yeah.

TonyB (34:45.408)
I'm morally opposed to country music.

Rebekah (34:51.521)
He did.

TonyB (34:54.666)
Okay. Okay. So keep telling us how did those Olympics go and then tell us what's next.

Rebekah (34:59.413)
Yeah, so that I you know, they say that Olympics never you're not Olympics

Rebekah (35:08.661)
You're they always what was it? I can't remember what they said. Something about Olympics will prepare you for another Olympics, right? So I had the bug to go do another Olympic team. I when I placed 29th at the Olympics. Actually 28th. I looked back on the results. I went up like one. So I like for years I thought I was 29th, but I was 28th. I just think I like misread the results.

Wolverine (35:16.681)
Mm-hmm.

TonyB (35:27.994)
yeah.

Wolverine (35:28.625)
Nice. Somebody got kicked out or something?

gotcha.

Rebekah (35:38.447)
so I had the bug to go back again, you know, and during 2010 to 2014 I fell in love and married my husband. I went back and finished my bachelor degree while I was still training and skating some of the fastest times I ever did in my life. So life was good. and then around the time we got married, I started developing signs and symptoms of blood clots, which I didn't realize that that's what I was experiencing, but

Wolverine (36:02.378)
Rebekah (36:06.153)
And that was from hormonal birth control. And so three months into our marriage, I almost died. So my husband came home from work one day. I'm curled up in the fetal pit position. And this is after being misdiagnosed from the healthcare profession for about six months. And I'm like curled up with a wedding photo and go, if only I could be nicer to my husband. And he's like, That's it, we're going to the ER. I was like,

TonyB (36:31.0)
Something's wrong.

Rebekah (36:34.753)
They will never find anything wrong with me and I like skipped all the it was a busy night, I skipped all the waiting, like they took some vital signs and escorted me back and the ER doctor is like you have blood clots and I was like I don't know what that is. I don't have it. We're gonna stick you with a lobonox shot, which is a blood thinner medication, and that's what saved my life. So I was diagnosed for those who know what a bilateral pulmonary

Wolverine (36:57.117)
Mm-hmm.

Rebekah (37:03.829)
embolism is I was diagnosed with a bilateral pulmonary embolism with a partial infarct, so that means part of my lung died. And then I had some blood clots burst and bleed around my rib cage because I collided with a friend trying to when you have blood clots, you're you have short bre shortness of breath. So I thought my cardio, I needed to work on my cardio, so I was doing ultimate frisbee with blood clots. And I have a friend that collided with me in my rib cage and

that's where I started like seeking other help. Like it's it's a whole story of how I arrived at the ER, but those clots of bled around my rib cage, it took years, maybe maybe five to six years before I could take a deep breath without pain. So that all happened in 2010, right in the middle of that Olympic year of trying to make the 2014 Olympics.

TonyB (37:53.337)
jeez.

Rebekah (38:01.565)
And I still wanted to make the Olympic team. So I had a newlywed husband. I had to convince that I'm going to go on the ice with blood-thinning medic medication. And I feel confident in my skating ability. And I feel confident in my teammates' skating ability. And I'm going to train for this Olympic team. And I'm at the start line for, you know, the 2010 Olympics with world record holders, world champions.

And I missed the team by one tenth of a second. And I lived for many years. If I thought about if I just kicked my foot over that line, that would have been my second Olympic team. But I think that we have to give ourselves grace that we we make the right choices in the moment. And for some reason I thought that was the right choice in the moment. But for those athletes out there that are listening, run through the line.

Wolverine (38:46.745)
Make the right choices in the moment.

TonyB (38:59.446)
Yeah, no, that's and and I remember this is this is when 'cause I remember having y you came into the interview when I first met you and you were a little haggard. You'd been running and and got to us and direct from work where you were working before or whatever. And and I I remember we were talking about ownership of of our actions and you you told that story and about not kicking your skate.

Rebekah (39:28.022)
Yeah.

TonyB (39:28.332)
And and you you talked about personal ownership of it and that's when I went that's the person that we want. Because no matter what she does here at work, she's not gonna blame somebody else. And I thought th that was just perfect.

so many people and me included in that all at different times in our life, we all try to look for excuses or whatever to get out of something a mistake we've made, right? Well, I made that choice, but I did it because or or this or that. And and I just your your answer was refreshing. And that was when I was like, ding, there's the that's the person we want. So that's why I remember that story.

Rebekah (40:05.769)
Well thank you. I will tell you I'll tell you why I was Hagared, because I was a barista. I was probably the worst barista ever. So I probably had milk spilled all over me and I was trying to look professional and

Wolverine (40:14.664)
Ha.

Wolverine (40:22.685)
Did you wear skates while you were Barista? Because I feel like that may have helped a little.

TonyB (40:25.643)
Ha ha.

Rebekah (40:26.359)
I it should have. Maybe I should have.

TonyB (40:31.768)
I don't know. That's well, it's you made it you made a good impression in the interview, I can tell you that. I n you're a little out of breath and you're like, I just barely made it on time or something like that and and they were like, All right, come on and sit down. That's it's that's right. That's right.

Rebekah (40:42.547)
Yeah.

Wolverine (40:43.593)
She was skating to get there.

TonyB (40:49.94)
Okay, so I want to ask you this question. Well, let's do this. holy crap, I've made it 40 minutes and we haven't done a read. That's that shows you how sucked into this I was. Let's do our first read here. We'll have to do them pretty close together then today. Looking for a team building experience your employees will actually talk about? Dino Outfitters in Vernal, Utah offers guided trips on the epic new Ashley Gorge Via Ferrata. Help your team build trust, confidence, and real connection.

All while hanging out on the side of a cliff. Reach out to build a custom experience at Utah Viaferrata.com. And shout out to Amber and thanks for sponsoring us, Amber. We appreciate it. And this ro so that Rebecca can know, yeah, if if you want to come join us on September eleventh, we're gonna do the Utah Via Ferrata. You're welcome to come join us. anyways, it's gonna be really cool. So Yeah. Okay, okay, so

Wolverine (41:29.577)
Yeah.

September eleventh. Yeah.

Rebekah (41:43.755)
Sounds like fun.

Wolverine (41:44.083)
Yeah.

TonyB (41:48.471)
I w before we like jump I wanna I wanna jump onto a couple other things, but I wanna ask you this. What do most people get wrong about Olympians? Like people like me who think we're all cool and we listen to what you say and all that and we think we learn. But tell me what is the one thing that people get most wrong about Olympians?

Rebekah (42:05.525)
Yeah, you know, I love that question, 'cause I get to share something that I got wrong for the longest time that I like to change my answer just this last week. So there was a another Olympian that was sharing this and so I have I'm showing you guys my Olympian tattoo, Olympic tattoo on my arm. And a lot of folks ask, Hey, d well, you went to the Olympics, did you win a medal? And I would say no or

TonyB (42:17.124)
really?

TonyB (42:24.704)
On her bicep no less. That's

Rebekah (42:33.801)
No, I didn't, or sometimes I'll say my hardware is in my knees if I'm just being a little snarky. and I think that I am gonna adjust my answer and say I did win because I achieved my childhood dream and I got to travel the world, I got to meet my husband, I learned wonderful lessons as an athlete that I can apply moving forward. You know, I have a beautiful daughter that wants to skate herself, so I think that in that aspect that, you know.

I can say that I I won in that manner.

Wolverine (43:06.525)
Yeah, I'd say so.

TonyB (43:07.65)
That's really cool. That's really, really cool. It's I I've always thought that the difference 'cause I can look back on a few things in my life and say for this moment I was the best or I was nearly the best or I was I was really, really good. But I think there's a fine line between twenty eighth place and first place. Like it's when you get to the level you are competing at, it's tiny. And I always just think like

One of my greatest accomplishments I think is that trip I mentioned when I went to debate nationals in high school after my senior year. We got killed. Like we just got killed. But it's one of my proudest moments. Just qualifying, just to be there. That was my whole goal throughout my high school career in debate, was to make it to nationals. And I made it. and later on in college I did really cool stuff but in that. But to me, that's one of my greatest accomplishments throughout my life is I made it there.

And that and no one can take that away from me. Like no one 'cause we beat one of those teams in Utah that was unbeatable to get there. And and part of that's because they didn't take us too seriously until it was too late. But but but I will take it and it was my goal in doing that. That's really cool, Rebecca. I I I think that's cool.

Wolverine (44:21.769)
Ha ha.

Rebekah (44:31.073)
Thank you.

Wolverine (44:32.681)
Yeah, it's cool.

TonyB (44:33.08)
I think it's really good. Okay. now I wanna get your impression, 'cause now you do you do you work in business and I and we're gonna talk about that in just a second. Before we get into that sort of stuff though, I wanna ask you from your perspective, what is the state of HR? Like we asked this of all of our guests here, what do you think about HR? What do you think it is right now? What is its what is its state of being or state of the art in right now?

Rebekah (44:58.011)
geez. I don't know. I feel like HR is always scary. You know? You know, I got called into HR a bit ago and I I realize that there's the the athlete in me when I say you people, you guys or ladies or sometimes it doesn't resonate the same culturally and

TonyB (45:03.308)
Fair enough, yeah. So do I, truthfully.

Wolverine (45:03.421)
Ha ha.

Rebekah (45:22.473)
you know, coming from an athletic world, it's just okay, so maybe in this context I'm gonna call Steve, you know, instead of saying, hey gentlemen, I'll be like, hey Steve, hey Tony, and that's that's what's appropriate in that moment. But yeah, I I remember going, why am I getting called into HR? And it was over some probably a athletic phrase I used and you know it got resolved obviously, but I was like, I just

Wish I could have had this conversation with this team member and we could have worked it out and I would have learned so much out of them knowing that that, you know, they wanted to be referred by their first name.

TonyB (46:06.552)
Yeah. Well that no, that's a that is a a fantastic example. I I Steve, I think that fits right in with what we've been hearing lately, right? And even Johnny C's speech that he gave. I I think what you're describing there is exactly right. you know, when when you and I worked together, I would walk down the halls and I just had this habit, you because you know, like everyone had their own office, right? And they had this glass door and it was a big circle.

Rebekah (46:07.2)
Ha ha

Wolverine (46:18.439)
Yeah, no, I I agree. Yep.

Wolverine (46:23.955)
Mm-hmm.

TonyB (46:36.106)
And so as I'd walk around to talk to people, I'd glance at people's offices as I walked by. And and people would come to me like, What are you looking for? Like, why did you look in my office? Why are you spying on me, Tony? And I'm like, spying on you? What are you talking about? You looked at my office as you walk by. Were you were you looking to see who I was meeting with? Like, what's going on? And I was like, just calm down, everybody. Just calm down. nothing. I'm just glance around to see who's around. That's you know, that's it.

And then for like the next two weeks I was scared to look at anyone's door, even you know, let alone who was in their office, but

Rebekah (47:10.337)
I think that that's a hard barrier for HR professionals to work through because you know you have folks like me going, Why am I being called? And some of the HR folks I've been and involved with, like that's their heart. They're like you're connecting people, you're working the culture that's your passion. And you know, there's always like I'm getting called into the principal office, why?

Wolverine (47:18.546)
Yeah.

Wolverine (47:36.445)
Ha ha ha.

TonyB (47:38.018)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Rebekah (47:38.385)
Why are you looking at my desk, Tony? Stop! Tony was you know, he's just that was my complaint, so I'm kidding.

TonyB (47:49.344)
No, hey, that wasn't your complaint. I don't remember who said I know well, I t I take the back. I know who said it to me, but they wouldn't tell me who said it to them, so but no and that's go ahead.

Wolverine (48:01.0)
I you know, I think you bring up a good point though. If we're gonna have these conversations with HR, HR should I I in fact I was reading an article about this on LinkedIn. Some sometimes HR is so ominous when they have you come in that it are it creates the anxiety, it creates the the angst and just all the stuff. And if HR were just simply say, Hey, we're just we just need you to come in because we're gonna talk about such and such, it it just it relieves so much tension and so much anxiety revolving around, this is what the meeting is about.

Even if they provide an agenda or something, I just I think it's so much better. So Right? Yeah.

Rebekah (48:35.969)
Better than a quick sink.

TonyB (48:41.62)
Or or for that matter, why do they have to make a meeting out of it at all? Why can't they just come chat with you in your office or give you a call and say, Hey, guess what? This happened, blah blah blah. And and be done, right? And then it's so casual. Not not to criticize anyone, but i I I think I think that's a very typical HR thing. And lots of people say exactly what you said, and that is that they they feel like they're at the principal's office or they're in trouble or something like that. So yeah.

Wolverine (48:46.578)
Right.

TonyB (49:10.986)
Okay, well thank that was helpful. That that

Rebekah (49:13.003)
But I will say I will say and and also in context that I'm not scared of HR all the time. That was just one conversation. And when I needed HR to help me out with things like professionally, you know, there's one girl I can think of right now at work. She's just so incredible and she goes about for me and I just really appreciate her too. So there's like two sides of it, right?

Wolverine (49:20.221)
Yeah. One

TonyB (49:21.698)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (49:41.021)
Yeah. Yep.

TonyB (49:42.157)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, and I didn't I didn't think anything you were saying is critical. I think it I think met your perspective is fantastic. That's why we ask. Because we talked to a lot of people in many, many different roles and we all it helps us can put together after what this is probably episode what, sixty five, sixty six as it will come out, something like that. And in every one of those episodes we've had a response and it helps me in my mind build this broader and broader picture.

Wolverine (49:50.152)
Yeah.

Wolverine (50:02.506)
S yeah, something like that. Yeah.

TonyB (50:12.504)
And and so you just saying that the way you did it it it not only fits in with that thought process we've been having, but it broadens my my view of it as well.

Wolverine (50:22.345)
Well, and I I think it's eye opening for those of us who are in the profession, right? Like I said, the this would be considered an employee, right? And so we should take those thoughts into consideration when it comes to the meetings and you know, things of that nature. So yeah.

TonyB (50:30.956)
Yeah, yeah. Yep. Or you can buy a Darth Vader mask and just breathe really heavily. Or you know, you fall into the roll. Crap. Whoever Steve does that to, I apologize now.

Wolverine (50:39.283)
Ooh, that would be fun.

Wolverine (50:44.497)
I have a stormtrooper mask. I could do that. Makes me sound like you know sound makes me sound like I'm on like a a a walkie talkie or whatever.

TonyB (50:49.144)
Yeah. That's exactly right. I can see Steve doing that. So yeah. okay, let me do the next ad read here and then and then I want to talk about what you're doing now and and kind of how all this how the Olympics have had an effect on your life. Running a business is hard. HR shouldn't be. Megastar HR is here to save you from bad HR. With expert support and everything from hiring to handbooks, compliance to culture.

Need payroll help or recruiting power? We do that too. Fractionally inflexibly, no overhead, just results. Visit megastar HR.com and let's grow your business together. And and I just the shout out to Becca. Thank you again for your sponsorship. We love it. And hope to catch up with you again soon. See you soon. I just want to say that is the most calm Steve has ever been.

There was no faces, no flashlights under the chin, nothing.

Wolverine (51:48.541)
I've I've been learning to be very good now. So usually I I I mimic him and I say it at the same time 'cause I have it memorized.

TonyB (51:53.621)
Steve likes

TonyB (51:59.949)
So yeah, so so Steve's Steve has started now to do the anyways, it just makes me crack up, poor Becca. I sometimes I read her ad laughing, but there you go. Y you were. You were. Okay, z so I wanna ask you like how is this how so right now you you're a marketing professional, right? You're if I got that right, director or VP of marketing?

Wolverine (52:09.267)
I was so good that time and you totally pointed it out. I mean geeze.

Rebekah (52:25.953)
Yeah, I'm in I'm in product marketing. So what I do is I work a lot with you know really smart people with technical knowledge and then I distill the information to something that you and I can understand.

TonyB (52:29.27)
Okay, product marketing.

Wolverine (52:30.077)
Okay.

TonyB (52:40.952)
Well, they're they're they say it that way, right, right. so okay, and and my you also do project management stuff as well, right?

Wolverine (52:42.311)
Okay. There you go.

Rebekah (52:55.015)
I am classically trained in project management and I use that knowledge to manage my own projects. But yes, I I have I have the master's degrees and credentials and I think that that was just one of those things that if I didn't stand up to do my rescate

TonyB (53:03.404)
Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. I

Rebekah (53:18.251)
You know, I had a scholarship for two master's degrees. So that like saying like those moments in our life that are defining like to be able to have that opportunity, I just COVID was really good to me in that way where I just doubled down on my education and knocked out as much as I could for, you know, that chunk of time that was available to me.

Wolverine (53:22.113)
wow.

TonyB (53:40.802)
That's really cool. So th those scholarships came because of the Olympic trials and being on the Olympic team?

Rebekah (53:46.507)
Yeah. Yep.

Wolverine (53:47.613)
Hm. It's cool. Yeah.

TonyB (53:47.811)
That's really cool. That that's r that's really cool. I I think it's and and not that those scholarships related to this, but I think one of the coolest things Utah's done since two thousand two is stay connected to the Olympic movement and really fostered its growth here. And I know there are businesses like Lowe's and other big box companies and other stuff that give Olympians jobs so that they can stay in the area and all that sort of stuff.

Wolverine (54:05.309)
Yeah.

TonyB (54:15.222)
That's a that's a cool story. You're right, it did open that. So talk to me net, you talked about you have you have a beautiful daughter and I've seen pictures of her online. she seems like I d I d how do you she has spunk? She's she's a little fireball, it seems to me, but

Rebekah (54:32.863)
Yeah, so we adopted our daughter at when she was two days old. So she's three and a half years old now. We're a transracial adoptive family, which means that you have two parents of one race and you have a child of another race. So there's that aspect of where she's she's started noticing mommy's skin colors different and hair and eyes were different around two years old. So we talk openly about that and

Wolverine (54:38.675)
Cool.

Rebekah (55:01.363)
What that looks like is I read books about her hair, I try to connect with folks that look like her.

one because I I really truly want to, but then also it's important for her to be able to have that connection to her culture. but honestly, it's like our personality and our humor is the same. And it's just fascinating because it's like she's not my biological daughter, but she is like I would die for her at the same time because she is like my child.

Wolverine (55:11.955)
Yeah.

TonyB (55:23.04)
That's cool.

TonyB (55:32.184)
Yeah.

Wolverine (55:32.2)
Yeah.

Rebekah (55:33.141)
But yeah, she's just full of life. And then we're actually moving into she stepped into a big sister role eight days ago. Yes. Thank you. Yes. So we have her half-brother in our house, and he's eight months old, and it's just

TonyB (55:44.396)
Well, congratulations. I I knew that was coming up but I didn't know what had just happened. Congratulations, that's cool.

Wolverine (55:44.922)
Wow.

Wolverine (55:49.371)
Wow.

Rebekah (55:58.635)
Gonna be so fun to have siblings growing up together and like have they have the same facial expressions and we just feel very blessed through all that. Yeah. Yeah, thank you.

Wolverine (56:08.531)
That is cool. Yeah.

TonyB (56:08.672)
That's really cool. That's again congratulations. That's really neat. That's really neat. So it and and you talked a little bit about this, but talk to me about how being an Olympian gives you this unique this unique focus or or what does it do for you in the business world? That's I guess we're

Rebekah (56:28.489)
Yeah, I think there's a you r it I I can go about this two ways. The I have a the ability to filter. So you know, when you're making going for the Olympics you have

a a quad, so it's four years. Four years leading up to Olympics and it's kinda all broken down about how you want to do it and you have the big picture. And then you have your daily work that you have to do. And your daily work never falls by plan A. It always you're always on the twentieth plan throughout the day. But I feel like I know how to filter and know what's portin now. So that's the wind. So

what's important now that's that acrimon and to be able to really just filter down through and scale appropriately to still point myself towards that goal. Cause it's not like you I was ever without injury or I was never without illness or without, you know, setbacks or we we talked about a little bit about sponsorships, but what what if you lose a sponsorship and you lose some of your funding? How do you get around through that? I might have to work extra hours somewhere or, you know

How do I still carry myself through that and still stay positive? So I think that having that ability as an athlete has really helped me out professionally, especially in an agile setting, in a software setting, when we're doing product launches, you know, the GA date like shifts, or you might need to change messaging, you know, throughout the whole website. What do you do? And so to be able to filter that down and know that.

Wolverine (57:54.531)
Yeah, that's a great point.

Rebekah (58:07.445)
You're still going for the end goal, but that day might look differently than what you'd potentially like planned for.

TonyB (58:16.182)
Interesting. Yeah. No, the ability to filter. Okay, that's gonna be my new phrase for a bit. I'm gonna let you on that. Sorry, I it's I don't know. Rebecca says cool stuff and it just drips out of her mouth whenever she's talking. So I'm learning, I'm trying to learn, right? So that no, that's that's really cool. I wanted to ask you one last thing. you're in marketing and I know that you do a you're you're active on social media. talk to me a little bit about

Wolverine (58:21.737)
Ha ha.

Rebekah (58:22.292)
Ha ha ha ha.

Rebekah (58:28.971)
Hehehehe

Wolverine (58:29.681)
Yeah, there you go.

TonyB (58:45.912)
personal branding and why do you do you do you th maybe you don't even think it's important, but why why is it important or maybe not important in in a modern world? Like what what what does that do for you? Like what does that presence online do? Is it important?

Rebekah (59:03.189)
Yeah, I think it's I think it's incredibly important and I'm able to connect with so many folks outside of, you know, just my the company that I I work for. I'm able to branch out and get different perspectives. I also get to practice my messaging too. So I get to play around with a little bit more and see where certain posts I might do on LinkedIn will take me.

more than I might be able to do in a company setting because we have brand guidelines and you know you have to make sure you're adhering to a certain voice. at least with LinkedIn, it's it's how do you showcase your knowledge but without being academic and educational about it, but also weaving in a personal story and having high engagement. That's kind of

where I've been playing and practicing with with my content that I've been putting out there lately.

TonyB (01:00:02.785)
Yeah, I you're doing a good job. Obviously I see it and and I I like what that's interesting. It's a it's a it's a good way to learn and develop your skills in a way that's not just directly product related.

Wolverine (01:00:04.967)
Yeah, that's great actually. Yeah.

Rebekah (01:00:19.263)
Yeah, so a lot of times I don't say, hey, this is what product marketers do and you know, how do you become a better product marketer? It's how can you be a better human being or I probably won't word it that way, but I I feel like I'm showing how I can create a message without saying that that's what I'm doing.

TonyB (01:00:42.74)
That's really cool. Yes. I you know, Alisa Garden kinda I I learned from her about about personal branding. And the longer I get in my career, the more important I think that is. And especially with AI coming and and everything like that, I just think

I I'm I'm starting to believe in and you probably see this too, you see all over the place people posting I applied for fifty jobs and I haven't got any interviews and like really am I that bad or what's going on? And there there's a myriad of reasons for that, right? From ghost jobs to to too many applicants for jobs and ATSs and all that sort of stuff.

But the the more I watch that, the more I think about where AI is going and all that, the more I tend to think I think Ryan Kohler said this and we've had a couple of other people that have said this, that in the future you'll get your job by networking and really knowing people. And it won't just be that way for small companies or medium sized businesses. It will be that way for Fortune five hundred companies and and that sort of stuff. And I think just for me, I think personal branding online is that.

Right.

Rebekah (01:01:55.671)
Think for those folks who are struggling and doing all the application and I'm sure they're having fatigue with all the advice. But if you were, if someone were to come to me and say, Rebecca, do you have advice for me? I would say, write down your top 10 most proud projects you've worked on for your whole life. Write them down. And then see how that weaves together. And that's your story. And that's what you post about.

TonyB (01:02:04.749)
Yeah.

Rebekah (01:02:23.605)
And that's what you also put your on your about me on LinkedIn. But you don't just write about that on about me. You gotta think about who you're writing to. And you're writing to recruiters. So you put that all through Cloud. You put your projects in there, you put you weave that through, you you put the person in there, because we all know the tells of AI. And then you say, write this or a recruiter, read it, and respond to me.

I think that those folks would have they'd be drawing recruiters in like honey instead of like trying to get out and do all those applications.

TonyB (01:02:59.188)
Well there you go. I that's no, that's that's that's fantastic. Matter matter of fact, do you have me rethinking my my opening paragraph there or my about me page 'cause it's pretty dry at the moment, so

Wolverine (01:03:00.777)
Ha ha.

Rebekah (01:03:04.683)
Rebekah (01:03:12.981)
Yeah, think think about you wanna th think about your target audience when you're writing. I've had folks that I reached out to and I said, Hey, why why did you wanna connect me? Why did you wanna talk to me? They're like, I went through your post and you look like a human being. I knew I was talking to Rebecca. And it was just so refreshing that I was like, wow, you wanted to talk to to me. Like you liked who I was and you saw my personality come through those posts.

Wolverine (01:03:17.193)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (01:03:29.822)
Ha ha ha.

TonyB (01:03:41.804)
No, and and Steve and I have been saying this for what, six, eight months now. We've been talking about the new coin of the realm is authenticity, being authentic. Not not pol polished maybe, but but not fake. And and and you just touch on that. That's that that's exactly right.

Wolverine (01:03:45.329)
Yeah, for a while now.

Wolverine (01:03:58.804)
Yeah, you know, there's this old saying, you know, fake it till you make it. But the reality is when you fake it, eventually you get caught. If that's all you ever do, right? to me it's much more than faking it till you make it. It's it's make it and then what you don't know, find out. And and that's how you get through. That's how you grow. That's how you increase you know, all the things. So

Rebekah (01:04:21.439)
I think it's so refreshing when when you have a conversation with someone and they say I don't know the answer to that to that or the instead of doing a non-response, say, I'm gonna say no to this because of this reason and it gives such it's refreshing. It's

Wolverine (01:04:29.117)
Yeah. Yep.

Wolverine (01:04:37.502)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (01:04:41.491)
Well it it shows that you listened, that you heard them out, right? And that you actually thought about it and connected what you knew to be your truth in that sense. And so you expressed your opinion about it. There's nothing wrong with that. You know? So

Rebekah (01:04:53.909)
Yeah.

TonyB (01:04:58.221)
There you go. Okay. No, no, it just got me thinking now. Now I'm thinking. So watch out the smoke.

Wolverine (01:05:03.057)
When when you when you twist Tony's tongue, you know you you said it right. So there you go.

Rebekah (01:05:03.073)
Tony's giving you a working.

TonyB (01:05:06.041)
Ha

Rebekah (01:05:07.061)
Yeah. I'm gonna go on Tony's LinkedIn and see how he adjusted his about me by the end of the week.

Wolverine (01:05:11.881)
That's right. That's right.

TonyB (01:05:14.519)
You should 'cause that's it, that's what's gonna happen. This is the sort of thing that I'll I'll wake up in the middle of the night and this will be in my head and I'll be like, I better go do that or else we won't sleep again. That's how that will work. okay. We want to get in now to our HRN life segment. Everyone's gonna love this.

Wolverine (01:05:33.748)
Segments.

TonyB (01:05:53.726)
there we go. Steve's air guitar all the way. All the way.

Wolverine (01:05:54.931)
That's right. You know you know it's good.

TonyB (01:05:59.354)
Okay, so in our in our HRN life segment today, we are going to review that by the way, this has been promised for like twenty episodes now. So it's finally it's good Steve's finally kind of living up to the hype here all of a sudden. So go, Steve, give us your review of He Man and Masters of the Universe.

Wolverine (01:06:09.499)
I know, right?

Wolverine (01:06:14.633)
That's right.

Wolverine (01:06:18.629)
He Man, Masters of the Universe. Yeah, so you know, first and foremost, I want to correct something that younger people are saying on TikTok and all that and Reddit and all that. They are saying that the original Adam in in He Man w had an office job and worked in HR and all that stuff. That is not true. In the eighties cartoon, that is not true.

TonyB (01:06:29.689)
Blow away.

Wolverine (01:06:39.625)
He he did not work in an office. He was not an HR. So that was definitely a flair that they added in in this new movie, just so you know. So I I just want to correct that. Having grown up in the eighties and yeah, and He Man was one of my favorite characters as a kid, mainly because my friend had every single character. He had all the toys and we would have Masters of the Universe in one of his bedrooms and we would literally live out all of the episodes in our in the bedroom. But

TonyB (01:06:50.497)
mean personnel back in the personnel days?

TonyB (01:06:59.456)
figure.

Wolverine (01:07:07.037)
That's all that's another story for another day. So Adam well, first of all, for those of you who don't know or don't understand, Adam is his name, or care for that matter, Prince Adam. He b his his entire world is destroyed and he's cast to the earth in order to basically hide from Skeletor and and the evils that are happening. And on earth he he lands there's a little boy, but he grows up.

TonyB (01:07:07.523)
That's so cute. That is so cute.

TonyB (01:07:18.157)
Or care.

Wolverine (01:07:36.894)
And it just so happens his job is inhuman resources. It's role is to meet with people, to talk with people, dun dun. And you know, the interesting thing about this, so there were there's some good and there's bad. Obviously, it it it has a lot of elements of the office for HR. him getting in trouble. Now, granted, he was in trouble because he keeps doing searches online for a sword, which makes some of his co workers uncomfortable.

TonyB (01:07:43.417)
Ta

Wolverine (01:08:05.993)
So I get that, right? Whatever.

TonyB (01:08:08.025)
This is what Rebecca was talking to us about earlier. So he gets in trouble.

Wolverine (01:08:10.375)
Yeah. But on top of that, he's also telling everybody that he's from this other planet and that he needs to find his sword. Right. So that doesn't help either. So so yeah, a little weird. what what fascinated me about this is that once he finds out who he really or not finds out who he really is, he knows who he really is, but once he has the opportunity to become who he who he needs to be.

TonyB (01:08:15.353)
No, that's a little weird.

Wolverine (01:08:36.387)
And and before he uses the sword like he needs to, and obviously calls on the powers of attorney and all the things, he gets to this point where his team is dysfunctional. Like man at arms is drunk and going through his issues, his daughter hates him. Like there's just all these things going on. There's this dynamic happening on the team. And so Adam basically chooses to go to his HR.

directive and say, okay, well if we're gonna deal with this like like we would, this is how we're gonna deal with it in in this setting, in a workplace, because we have to bring ever all of us together. Like it was almost this cheesy eighties cartoon way to bring everybody together to then, you know, get through the work, right? Which

TonyB (01:09:19.321)
I I just love it. I just love it 'cause the atmosphere there is is HR brings everybody together. They're so nice.

Wolverine (01:09:26.309)
Right? Yeah. It it just if I I'll be honest, it felt kind of awkward when I watched it because I was like, wait a minute. Because because so so what he does is he tries to tell people, Hey, we're gonna try this team building exercise, guys, and we're gonna bring us all together and we're gonna have conflict revol resolution with our enemies and we're gonna talk to Skeletor and he's gonna change. And so he has this conversation with Skeletor and Skeletor's like, I don't wanna do this and he's like and then so finally a Prince Adam says, Okay, well, the time for talk is over.

It's and then boom. And then you have the fight scene, everything happens. Yeah, that's real. So you know, that that part was kind of interesting to me because when we're having difficult conversations and we have these conflict resolutions with people, sometimes the time for talk is over. There's nothing else you can do. Nothing's gonna change, nothing's gonna get fixed. And so it's probably time to part ways. Now I'm not saying pull out a sword and throw your shirt off and call upon the powers of gray skull to destroy all your enemies type thing.

TonyB (01:09:58.125)
That's when it gets real. Okay.

TonyB (01:10:24.057)
I don't know, that seems reasonable.

Wolverine (01:10:26.557)
But I it seems reasonable, right? But but but but the the the concept here is that after everything you've done to be fair and and make the attempt to correct or whatever, sometimes it's just it's time to part ways. That's just how it is. So anyway, it was it was kind of a it was an interesting play on, you know, HR platitudes and like I said, it had the office feel, but then it had this chivalric side to it because you've got, you know

TonyB (01:10:29.676)
Ha.

Wolverine (01:10:55.695)
Adam kind of realizing that wait a minute, I can actually help conflict resolute here, but then it doesn't work and he has to be be who he is and actually, you know, call upon the powers of grade school. I don't know. It it was just it was it was one of those things where it painted HR kind of in a bad light. The the lady who's the HR person bringing him in and talking about the sword. There were just some innuendos there that were not positive either that she should have been written up personally. But hey, there you go.

TonyB (01:11:25.817)
There you go. There you go. Rebecca, would you like to react to that in any way?

Wolverine (01:11:25.832)
Anyway.

Wolverine (01:11:29.929)
Ha ha.

Rebekah (01:11:31.831)
I just say you always gotta believe the best attempts of people. I don't know.

Wolverine (01:11:36.283)
Right?

TonyB (01:11:38.039)
You know, he had the he he yeah, he was trusting in Skeletor's better nature, I guess.

Wolverine (01:11:42.536)
I just feel like there are better ways to make this charming young man be less hokey. Right? And and less but the reality is they kept with the cartoon. The cartoon was just as hokey. Like it was it it that's that part they actually aligned it really well. And I was hoping they didn't, but they did. So there you go. What do you do?

Rebekah (01:11:42.583)
Yeah.

TonyB (01:12:03.182)
So Rebecca, what was the big what was the big toy thing when you were little?

Rebekah (01:12:08.559)
you know, I was just so focused on skating all those all those years.

Wolverine (01:12:13.065)
No ch No childhood.

TonyB (01:12:18.285)
There there there you go. Okay, that said like a true Olympian right there. All all the way down from the mountain saying it that see there you go.

Wolverine (01:12:22.291)
That's right. That's exactly right.

Rebekah (01:12:22.56)
Ha ha ha.

That's all I wanted to do escape fast.

TonyB (01:12:30.211)
That's see they're

Wolverine (01:12:30.609)
I w I will say my favorite cartoon of all time when I was younger was Thundercats. That was by far my my absolute favorite was Thundercats. So if that ever comes out, I am so there. I loved He Man, don't get me wrong, because we had all the toys and I we made up so many stories in that bedroom with all those toys and Skeletor Always Lost and you know, all the things, but man, Thundercats Thundercats was my jam back then. I don't and I don't even remember a whole lot about the cartoon.

TonyB (01:12:39.073)
Yeah.

TonyB (01:12:59.853)
That's hilarious. There you go. Well, everybody, in case you were wondering, there's your review of Masters of the Universe. And I wonder what episode it was that we first mentioned this, because when the previews came out, we s we chatted about this too. Yeah, yeah. So you're probably somewhere around episode forty or thirty. Yeah. The trailer. Yeah. There you go.

Wolverine (01:13:00.841)
Mm.

Wolverine (01:13:11.047)
it was like what January, February? It was a while ago, I feel like. I feel like it was a while ago. 'Cause they they showed the HR conundrum during the you know, the trailers and all that, so but yeah, the time for talk is over. So there you go. The conflict resolution stuff just didn't work.

TonyB (01:13:31.541)
See now, Rebecca, I have to be really cautious here to tease Steve too much because he can throw Lord of the Rings references back in my face and and Predator Badlands. he can throw that in my face too. dude. Okay, we gotta hang out for a like a day and just watch Predator movies. Steve. I don't know, what do you do with these culturally uneducated people like Steve? So

Wolverine (01:13:40.742)
Absolutely.

Wolverine (01:13:45.437)
I haven't seen that yet. Eventually I guess.

Wolverine (01:13:51.209)
Day. Nice.

Wolverine (01:13:59.06)
Well, Rebecca, thank you for not watching cartoons when you're a little girl, because that at least tells me that T V is not always that important.

TonyB (01:14:09.163)
Yeah. So Rebecca, tell us tell us about is there anything you want to promote or you want to talk to us about? What's up next for you? Like tell us the big stuff.

Wolverine (01:14:12.817)
Yeah, next steps. Yeah.

Rebekah (01:14:18.849)
Yeah, you know, we talked about my blood clots, so I think it's important that for folks listening to this to educate yourself on the signs and symptoms of blood clots. I always like to share that the the person that you could save could be yourself, honestly, or a family member, you know, my Yeah. That's a great question. So it's like

Wolverine (01:14:36.615)
What are the most common symptoms? Like t and and is it different for males and females? I'm I'm always curious about that.

Rebekah (01:14:43.855)
yeah, I I would have to look that up, but I know swelling in your calf. So if you have s it's like red swelling in both calves or in your thighs. I remember calling that the the my summer of the shorts because I couldn't wear leggings on my legs because it would just hurt so bad. and then when the clots start traveling up into your lungs you have shortness of breath, you have rapid heart rate.

You might not you like you might have brain fog. The the best place to look for for that education is the National Blood Clot Alliance. and they they they have infographics on it to really show that education. If you think that you have a blood clot, I would go to your doctor immediately or into urgent care and they can do a simple test. Because if you catch it early into your calf, it's like a lot easier to recover from once it goes into your

into your lungs or into your brain.

Wolverine (01:15:45.895)
Lot.

TonyB (01:15:46.359)
Yep, yep. There are usually bigger consequences for that. For sure. Yeah. Okay.

Rebekah (01:15:49.697)
Yeah.

Wolverine (01:15:50.545)
That's scary. Scary to think about.

Rebekah (01:15:53.021)
And you know what, if you've experienced that and you're recovering, there's life after blood clots because I was able to go back and, you know, skate and make World Cup teams and live a really good life. Yeah.

Wolverine (01:16:06.013)
Yeah, see, that's so fascinating. Yeah. And it just goes to show you that you can be an Olympian and and probably some of the greatest health of your life and still have those health challenges. So

Rebekah (01:16:19.125)
I think that when I do advocacy work for blood clots, I'd say that a lot too, is that when you're looking at a healthy individual appears a healthy, but you gotta listen to their voice too, because if somebody doesn't match up with what they're saying, that's probably when you'd start doing more diagnostics.

Wolverine (01:16:35.113)
Mm-hmm.

Wolverine (01:16:41.769)
Gotcha.

TonyB (01:16:45.017)
So yeah, no, 'cause a lot of us tend to downplay any symptoms or anything bad that's going on in our lives. So yeah.

Wolverine (01:16:50.705)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Rebekah (01:16:53.099)
Well and then yeah, don't don't go to Reddit and don't go to Facebook for advice or inspiration. Like there's folks who are battling like so many different types of health diagnoses and they're they figured out a way how to manage it and, you know, persevere from it and

Wolverine (01:16:56.201)
Ha.

Wolverine (01:17:14.225)
I thought Reddit was a place for doctors. Wait a minute.

Rebekah (01:17:16.599)
Ha ha ha.

TonyB (01:17:16.729)
Yeah. Yeah, right, right. Yeah, that's Doctor.

Rebekah (01:17:20.231)
But there's a difference between getting like being stuck and then we talked about the the daily mindset that you have. Like how how can how can you adjust how you think to maybe, you know, go for a walk out to the mailbox and have that be your win for the day and celebrate that. Cause I've been there and that was my exercise for the day and I had to be okay with it.

Wolverine (01:17:37.406)
Yeah.

Yeah. That's wild. But but I get it. I get it.

TonyB (01:17:49.102)
That that's powerful coming from you. That's really powerful coming from you. 'Cause you know, your neighbor who's a couch potato like me and sits around and doesn't do anything and saying that one day your you know your your accomplishment is making it out to the mailbox and back, right? that's not very powerful. But from you, a world class athlete, that that happened to you, that that's that's powerful stuff.

Wolverine (01:17:50.929)
Mm. It it really is. Yeah.

TonyB (01:18:16.161)
And only you inside know when that's really the case, right? Only you know that.

Rebekah (01:18:20.341)
Right. Yeah, 'cause then maybe you go to the mailbox two times in a day and then that's your new win. And I've been there too.

Wolverine (01:18:27.177)
Why would you go twice though? You only pick up mail once, right?

TonyB (01:18:27.191)
Right. Right, right, right.

Rebekah (01:18:34.273)
I know, but you know, if you need a target to go somewhere.

Wolverine (01:18:37.449)
Good point. Good point. My no I I say that because when my grandmother started like losing her mind, she used to go to the mailbox two or three times a day.

TonyB (01:18:37.943)
That's right. That's right. No, that's what

Rebekah (01:18:48.2)
Wolverine (01:18:51.655)
I love my grandmother.

TonyB (01:18:51.863)
See, and I was thinking of that movie that came out when I was a kid called The Gods Must Be Crazy. And it showed a lady coming out of her house and she had her hair and curlers and everything in a bathrobe and she gets in her car. She drives about 75 yards down the road to her mailbox, gets the mail in her car and drives back and pulls into the garage. So yeah, well, you know, maybe that was her win for the day. if if you haven't seen, just for everybody who hasn't seen The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Wolverine (01:18:57.274)
well.

Wolverine (01:19:09.587)
Wow. You remember some of the most random things.

TonyB (01:19:20.693)
It's about it's it's a story about a a tribe in Africa that has no connection with the modern world and a and a pilot in an airplane throws a Coke bottle out the window as he flies over their area. And so the Coke bottle lands and they're like, What is this for? And so one of

Wolverine (01:19:38.941)
Gifts from the gods.

TonyB (01:19:40.3)
Yeah, one of 'em's gonna go so like somebody hits somebody else in the head with it and so he's like, This is useless. I'm gonna go give it back to the gods and that's the gods must be crazy. It's a it's a wonderful show, it's hilarious, it's really fun. It was really cool. So Yeah, well maybe. Maybe. And and you know, the insensitivity of the early eighties and late seventies, right? So you know just prepare for that. So yeah. So

Wolverine (01:19:52.777)
Sounds like a tone of humor.

Wolverine (01:20:02.051)
there you go. That that now I get it. Now I get it.

TonyB (01:20:06.592)
Rebecca, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been incredible. I've I've really enjoyed this. Yes. Yeah. and and I'll still go back, out of all the people I've hired in my entire life in HR, you're the best hire. There we go. Said it straight out.

Rebekah (01:20:11.543)
Thanks for having me.

Wolverine (01:20:15.495)
Or some good nuggets.

Wolverine (01:20:28.125)
Yes. And he has said that multiple times, so this is not the first time.

Rebekah (01:20:33.867)
Well, thank you.

Wolverine (01:20:35.101)
So way to go, Rebecca. You've really left an impression, which apparently with Tony is not that hard, but there you go. So

TonyB (01:20:35.565)
That's

Rebekah (01:20:36.799)
Yeah.

TonyB (01:20:38.264)
Yeah.

Wait, wait, wait a minute. I'm not that proud.

Rebekah (01:20:44.565)
I'm right up there with a girl with crawlers driving to the mailbox, so

TonyB (01:20:47.929)
Wait, Oda. Yeah, great. Okay. that's that's right. That's right. That's awesome. Okay. anyways, okay. But thank you again for being with us. This is this has been really good. I hope everybody has and really enjoyed it. I think you've given us given us a unique insight into what it takes to be elite at something.

Wolverine (01:20:48.329)
We totally just took the wind out of Rebecca. Good job.

TonyB (01:21:15.415)
And not only that, but how those lessons apply back to us, right? And and and what life looks like after that. And yeah. And with kids and everything else. So it's that's pretty cool. tip of the hat to you again for all you've accomplished. I think it's again admirable. So all right. We'll do we'll do our our charity read now. Pucks for autism proves that when communities rally, families win.

Wolverine (01:21:20.069)
And in the workplace and just in our lives in general. So Yeah.

Rebekah (01:21:32.289)
Thank you.

TonyB (01:21:42.851)
Their hockey tournaments raise local funds that support autism programming, inclusion, and connection for kids and adults everywhere. Join the team that plays with purpose. Visit pucksforautism.com. That's pucksforautism.com and get involved today. And a shout out to Claire and her amazing work that she's doing with Pucks for Autism. And once again, we want to lay on the the guilt to Utah Mammoth.

Wolverine (01:22:03.336)
Yeah.

TonyB (01:22:10.637)
We know you're started this process, but come on, Utah Mammoth, we want it here. We want it here. That's right. That's right. Rebecca's awesome. She's just staying quiet, that whole pressure point. And we're trying to lay out. She's like, I'm not part of that. Not part of that. So okay. Well, I guess that that that will take care of us all today, and I guess we'll we will go out the same way we came in.

Wolverine (01:22:13.103)
Right. We want to hear Pucks for autism here in Utah, so there we go.

Wolverine (01:22:24.978)
Ha ha ha.

TonyB (01:22:39.809)
Thank you for listening to today's podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a five-star review. That's a five-star review on your favorite podcast app. Comments or questions for us? Email the podcast at the HRlife Podcast at gmail.com. And we'll talk again soon.