Speaker 1: M h. How many things are different since we met,
Speaker 1: since before the pandemic, how my life has changed, and
Speaker 1: how a lot of people's life and how things that
Speaker 1: you didn't realize were so important really the important things, right,
Speaker 1: It's not just your career, and it's not just you know,
Speaker 1: how you show up at work. It's just it's really
Speaker 1: the words that come out of your mouth and how
Speaker 1: you live your life. Hi, Bobby, Hi on Julie. How
Speaker 1: are you? I'm good? How are you? I'm good? Things good.
Speaker 1: I'm psyched about our guests today because they're new friends.
Speaker 1: I didn't really know them. They are powerful, powerhouse women.
Speaker 1: They are soccer stars, their World World Saw Crew stars.
Speaker 1: They're married, they now are New Jersey residents. They have
Speaker 1: a beautiful child. And I'm excited to talk to Ali
Speaker 1: Krieger and ash Lyn Harris. Yeah, I'm super excited to
Speaker 1: talk to them women in sports. They're amazing. I have
Speaker 1: a lot of questions. So here goes our conversation with
Speaker 1: the girls. Hi, It's so nice to meet you. What
Speaker 1: a thorough Hi. So, how are you guys doing? Freezing? Freezing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: welcome to New York. So you're enjoying Florida? I bet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's well, it's actually freezing here too,
Speaker 1: for Florida. Really it's freezing. Yeah, I think it's you know,
Speaker 1: fifty we went to training this morning. It was what
Speaker 1: I was uncomfortable. You have Well you guys are from Florida. Yes, right,
Speaker 1: so do you guys have one of those buttons where
Speaker 1: you could press to get the heat going? Honestly, I wish,
Speaker 1: I wish. It's not that easy. So, I mean it's
Speaker 1: interesting because you guys, you live together, you career together,
Speaker 1: you know your parents together, you do everything together. Does
Speaker 1: one person take certain things or how does it work? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think it's a really good like balance and team effort.
Speaker 1: I feel like Ali does her things and I'm very
Speaker 1: take care of the house, take care of the cleaning,
Speaker 1: take care of the cooking. Wow. Yeah, and what does
Speaker 1: that leave me? I'm not dogs organizational stuff with like
Speaker 1: banking bills, mail, making sure I'm staying on track. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I think we naturally have our own you know,
Speaker 1: things that we do that that makes us complete. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I mean like any couple. I mean yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: any couple. So that as normal as as you get right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you guys are pretty much newly with right two
Speaker 1: years nineteen yeah, two years according to your Instagram where
Speaker 1: I congratulations, thank you, thank you, and the baby the
Speaker 1: baby is already wont like yesterday? Right Saturday, today's her
Speaker 1: adoption announcement day. Saturday was her birthday. Yeah, congratulations, that's
Speaker 1: so fun, thank thank you. Oh my god, what a beauty.
Speaker 1: She had the best time. She literally had the best time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good thing. We didn't go overboard with all the decor.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, right, not at all. It looks like a
Speaker 1: really low key celebration. Oh my goodness, it was just us.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. The whole house is still up and
Speaker 1: the outfit, the whole thing, I mean it was it
Speaker 1: was too good. Oh but but now, so who's that?
Speaker 1: Because I know, Ash, you're the close style one of you.
Speaker 1: Are you more like house decorator or how does that work?
Speaker 1: I'm particular? Yeah I do that. I do the decor,
Speaker 1: the birthday decre and Ash. Yeah, she has great input
Speaker 1: and you know, design in the house and other specific things.
Speaker 1: Playing mutual. But I feel like sometimes Ali really need
Speaker 1: like she really needs her input, so she'll just go
Speaker 1: ahead and buy things without asking, like, hey, where do
Speaker 1: you think this goes, so I'm like in the base
Speaker 1: or feel like it doesn't go. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: our dynamics. Well, I think it's funny every couple. I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, Angelie, but I can't really buy
Speaker 1: a fork without Stevenson. Oh yeah, I like this fork.
Speaker 1: Like he's very opinionated, so you kind of have to
Speaker 1: learn what works right. It's like, what do you think
Speaker 1: about this for Oh, I don't know, what do you think?
Speaker 1: I don't know what do you think? Up to you?
Speaker 1: And then I could pick my fork and I feel
Speaker 1: like after twenty some years of marriage up and I
Speaker 1: like I still haven't quite figured out what. He'll have
Speaker 1: a very strong opinion on im, Like I know the
Speaker 1: obvious things like a big change, but the little things
Speaker 1: like I'll just get it and put it in the
Speaker 1: house and then he'll walk by it from months be
Speaker 1: like is that you? And like six months like that base,
Speaker 1: you know you won't notice, But then there'll be something
Speaker 1: very specific that he'll hone in on it. It'll really
Speaker 1: it'll be like why did we buy that cup? Change
Speaker 1: that you know? It's like it's so not a big
Speaker 1: deal that Ladle isn't going to change anything in this kitchen,
Speaker 1: but he'll like really fixate on it. So you just
Speaker 1: never know. And how about it work? Like what happens
Speaker 1: on the field, you guys like, Oh, she yells at
Speaker 1: me all the time, I actually play a position that's well,
Speaker 1: she could see the whole field and everyone, but I
Speaker 1: play right in front of her, so if I make
Speaker 1: a mistake, she needs to then try and save them
Speaker 1: of going into the goal. So yeah, I get yeall
Speaker 1: that quite often, But you didn't you praise us when
Speaker 1: we do something good. So honestly, we have a very
Speaker 1: professional work life, like it's business. I am very competitive.
Speaker 1: Everything I do is about competing. Um, it's like a
Speaker 1: part of who I am. So I am. I'm very intense.
Speaker 1: We don't we We've learned after several years we take
Speaker 1: nothing home, nothing personal, and we always have the drive
Speaker 1: home to discuss whatever happened happened at work and then
Speaker 1: once we get home, Yeah, done. That's amazing though, what
Speaker 1: a great philoso because we I feel like we've talked
Speaker 1: to a few people who work with their spouses or
Speaker 1: significant others and we haven't really dug into the weeds
Speaker 1: of how that works. And I can't imagine working with
Speaker 1: my spouse, like I love them to death, but there's
Speaker 1: no we would absolutely kill there's no way, Like even
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. Oh yeah, I mean just during the
Speaker 1: like even he's a doctor and he you know, so
Speaker 1: he was in the hospital. So we I worked at home,
Speaker 1: he was in the hospital, and it worked fine. But
Speaker 1: I think even if we had been in the same
Speaker 1: physical space, having to navigate around each other and working,
Speaker 1: I think it would have been really challenging because our
Speaker 1: work styles are so different. Even our tone on the
Speaker 1: phone is super different. But it's interesting because you guys
Speaker 1: met at work, right, Yeah, we didn't. Didn't meet on
Speaker 1: the field. We did, And I think that's why we've
Speaker 1: been able to work together this long and have a
Speaker 1: relationship because we built that friendship and that foundation first,
Speaker 1: and then on top of that, you know, the emotional
Speaker 1: relationship I guess turned more physical at that time. But
Speaker 1: I think we had a really good friendship and foundation
Speaker 1: for about a year before we actually tried dating um,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what set us up for success.
Speaker 1: And then how long did you guys quote unquote date
Speaker 1: before you got engaged? And who asked who? Probably in
Speaker 1: ten years. Um, I asked, everyone's looking at me. I
Speaker 1: was Ali to marry me? Yes, m hm, the one
Speaker 1: who did that, lucky me. She said, yes. But now
Speaker 1: nobody knew that you were dating until Is it true
Speaker 1: that nobody? I mean people obviously close to you probably knew,
Speaker 1: but like the world didn't know. Your fans didn't know
Speaker 1: officially you were dating until you got engaged. Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So Ali and I were really nervous to lose sponsorship
Speaker 1: and to make it an uncomfortable environment for the people
Speaker 1: around us. So we were very clear with the team
Speaker 1: comes first and our personal lives UM came second. And
Speaker 1: you can only keep that up for so long. I
Speaker 1: feel like at some point we felt like we couldn't
Speaker 1: be our authentic so so we just spoke about it
Speaker 1: and we're like, you know what, at this point, I'm
Speaker 1: willing to risk it all, lose it all, to just
Speaker 1: be me, and if people have an issue with that, um,
Speaker 1: that's their loss. I also felt like for us, we
Speaker 1: weren't able to give our club everything, our family and
Speaker 1: friends everything, UM, just the people who were supporting us
Speaker 1: through our whole entire relationship, and just our lives. We
Speaker 1: weren't able to be all ourselves and give everything we had.
Speaker 1: So once we you know, told the world, hey, this
Speaker 1: is who we are, and then we're living this authentic
Speaker 1: life and we're getting engaged and we're you know, going
Speaker 1: to have a family in the future and all the things.
Speaker 1: We were then able to give everyone everything and more
Speaker 1: into our work, and more into ourselves as individuals, and
Speaker 1: then more into us as a couple. So I think
Speaker 1: it was um for the better and at the timing,
Speaker 1: and I thought was really beneficial for us. And I
Speaker 1: do feel like it's delusional to think and this is
Speaker 1: what our culture and society has made us, has made
Speaker 1: us feel over the years that like we weren't worthy
Speaker 1: of that, that we couldn't like share this together and
Speaker 1: work together. So we were hiding and then we were
Speaker 1: preaching to live this life and be open and be you,
Speaker 1: when in fact it was really difficult for us because
Speaker 1: our sport paid our bills. But was this something that
Speaker 1: you were advised to do to not tell or you
Speaker 1: guys just were worried, just worried. We were worried what
Speaker 1: the federation would think at the time, and if we
Speaker 1: would get fired from our job, that we were a
Speaker 1: couple playing on the same team, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: win a World Cup, in Olympic gold medal. It's it's just,
Speaker 1: I don't know. We were a bit nervous. We didn't
Speaker 1: want people to think that we were bringing our relationship
Speaker 1: into the school, odd into the team and not really
Speaker 1: focusing on how as individuals um and elite athletes we
Speaker 1: could help the team be successful. But little did we
Speaker 1: realize at the time, we weren't our full authentic selves
Speaker 1: and we weren't really you know, as individuals bringing our
Speaker 1: best anyway, until we actually came out and said, like,
Speaker 1: this is who we are and we're going to be
Speaker 1: even better for the squad because of it. And I
Speaker 1: feel I feel like it gave a platform like this
Speaker 1: is normal, Like people fall in love at work all
Speaker 1: the time, and it's not this thing where you have
Speaker 1: to choose and like it just happens. You actually have
Speaker 1: to be open about it. I mean, that's you, you know,
Speaker 1: so you know. Unfortunately it took a long time, but
Speaker 1: this was before the pandemic, right yeah. And also you
Speaker 1: were peers in that situation too, So I think like
Speaker 1: a big distinguishing factor would be that you're coming in
Speaker 1: as equals, as teammate and that sort of things. So
Speaker 1: and the response was so overwhelming, like the opposite direction
Speaker 1: what we assumed. Yeah, and then we're like, why did
Speaker 1: this take so long? What were we doing? Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: So this podcast is called The Important Thing, So it's
Speaker 1: really about how things, how the pandemic has changed you
Speaker 1: or how you have changed. So could you talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about that, like what has changed for you
Speaker 1: guys personally during the pandemic or because apart from the baby, Yeah,
Speaker 1: becoming parents, becoming moms has definitely changed. I think, UM,
Speaker 1: taking care of ourselves, UM, because I know everyone has
Speaker 1: struggled through COVID and the pandemic and UM kind of
Speaker 1: sitting with yourself and sitting with your own thoughts and
Speaker 1: still trying to be your best as an individual, to
Speaker 1: give more for you to your work, UM, for us
Speaker 1: to our team and continue to get better every day.
Speaker 1: And how to do that with being restricted with UM,
Speaker 1: you know, not being able to work out with a team.
Speaker 1: Now we're having to work out individually. How to stay
Speaker 1: fit when you can't really go to a gym, you
Speaker 1: have to just use your sidewalk or street or home
Speaker 1: gym or home bike or I don't know. You just
Speaker 1: have to start finding ways of how to still bring
Speaker 1: your best and be your best every day in order
Speaker 1: to help our team be successful. UM. So it was
Speaker 1: really difficult for us to kind of keep a routine,
Speaker 1: keep our mentality at a high level so that we could,
Speaker 1: you know, get back. Once we could get back after COVID,
Speaker 1: we could then still perform our best, UM and help
Speaker 1: the team win. So how to I guess individually, keep
Speaker 1: uh physically, emotionally and mentally fit in order to perform
Speaker 1: at the top level when we were going back to
Speaker 1: work um and for us was just going back to
Speaker 1: play football. So it was tough to find kind of
Speaker 1: and navigate through those schedules to really continue being top athletes.
Speaker 1: But then, what did you do because most of us
Speaker 1: struggle with that that we're not professional athletes, Like, what
Speaker 1: do you guys do? I mean, and what did you
Speaker 1: do to kind of keep yourself fit? And and and
Speaker 1: take me to take us through a day to day
Speaker 1: what you guys do because you are incredibly fit. We
Speaker 1: partnered with Rogue incredible They sent an entire gym to
Speaker 1: our house, so we were very very fortunate and lucky
Speaker 1: to have that. UM, thank you. And we we had
Speaker 1: a routine and we had a schedule every day when
Speaker 1: we woke up, Um, you know, either she was doing
Speaker 1: weights and I was on the peloton, and then we
Speaker 1: would flip and we just keep it. We just held
Speaker 1: each other accountable. That's what we're actually really good at
Speaker 1: in our relationship. UM. We we we knew that the easy
Speaker 1: thing to do would sit around and watch Netflix, whatever
Speaker 1: the case. But we had to grind and we had
Speaker 1: to do our workouts, and we had to stay on schedule,
Speaker 1: and we had to have a purpose and we would
Speaker 1: feel like we're checking boxes to get through the day. UM.
Speaker 1: We heavily invested in breathing exercises. UM, so that was
Speaker 1: a big priority. UM. Walking family walks became a really
Speaker 1: big party our routine. We would do it every morning
Speaker 1: and every sunset. Um. We started to cook a lot
Speaker 1: more and that's like a lot of bonding time came
Speaker 1: around the kitchen and just you cooked a lot more
Speaker 1: than it was. It was fun, but I gotta be honest,
Speaker 1: I enjoyed just unplugging. My entire life, at least to
Speaker 1: this point, has been dedicated to my profession ship and
Speaker 1: being an athlete is a twenty four hour job. What
Speaker 1: you eat, how you how you sleep, your recovery, how
Speaker 1: hard your training, all eyes on you all the time.
Speaker 1: And I finally could just be home and breathe, not
Speaker 1: in an airport airport, not in a hotel, not in
Speaker 1: another country. I just could chill and be with my wife,
Speaker 1: be with my family. And it was very small at
Speaker 1: the time, but I'm really enjoyed it. It gave me
Speaker 1: a time to reflect on the most important things in life,
Speaker 1: and for so long, my partnership and my family had
Speaker 1: had always come second. And I think when we could
Speaker 1: sit and have all these incredible conversations about like reconnecting
Speaker 1: and creating this life without a soccer ball, what is
Speaker 1: it going to look like? And I think that's where
Speaker 1: Ali and I were like, it's kind of I'm kind
Speaker 1: of ready for the next step. And that's when we
Speaker 1: decided to adopt. So actually, the pandemic has that was
Speaker 1: a pandemic decision that may yep, yeah, and the pandemic
Speaker 1: we were like, we heard, you know, same sex couples,
Speaker 1: it could take years. It happened in like three weeks,
Speaker 1: so we were like, we were like, we had the
Speaker 1: Olympics coming up, what are we gonna do? And they
Speaker 1: We're like, this is this is the path, this is
Speaker 1: it and we haven't looked back, and it's been the happiest.
Speaker 1: It's been the happiest time of both of our lives.
Speaker 1: So I really do think COVID came in and just restructured,
Speaker 1: restructured everything. What's most important life, you know, And it's
Speaker 1: so easy to get caught up in it, like you know,
Speaker 1: the money you or the fame or the things. It's
Speaker 1: just it's like it's not fulfilling all the time. And
Speaker 1: we finally could sit down and be like, there's more
Speaker 1: to life than just this game. There's more to who
Speaker 1: we are as people than just a soccer ball. Well,
Speaker 1: you sound so emotionally like centered and healthy, and I
Speaker 1: know it wasn't always the case. And I know that
Speaker 1: you have spent a lot of you know, time on
Speaker 1: on is it both you guys or just to Ashland.
Speaker 1: I think we just yeah, um yeah, I definitely go
Speaker 1: to therapy and focus on my mental health and also
Speaker 1: we both um do breathing exercises just so like you know,
Speaker 1: come lower our anxiety and and stress levels. Because we're
Speaker 1: so competitive in this game. Is is like a constant
Speaker 1: stressor and there's so many different um layers to it
Speaker 1: that you have to really handle and kind of breathe
Speaker 1: through and stay calm. And so I think we tried
Speaker 1: to use specific tools to help lower that stress and
Speaker 1: stay calm and UM kind of what's the saying that
Speaker 1: we always used to say, just um, thrive under pressure.
Speaker 1: So you have to have this calmness about you, especially
Speaker 1: at our age and being veterans in this game, we've
Speaker 1: had so much experience, and so now we just have
Speaker 1: to kind of keep that in a in a specific
Speaker 1: calmness that we then have to implement in our daily life. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think we both do that through therapy, through
Speaker 1: sports psychologists, talking within our team, making sure everyone's okay. UM.
Speaker 1: So that's definitely been consistent within our routine since day one.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about the breathing exercises that you mentioned,
Speaker 1: because I would love to know more. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not in the roitely like, I'm definitely not, you know,
Speaker 1: a performance athlete by any structure the imagination, but the
Speaker 1: stress of the pandemic, they sort of ongoing stress was
Speaker 1: just of life. But definitely sort of pandemic agitation as
Speaker 1: it were, um is you know, causing me to have
Speaker 1: feelings of anxiety and things that I've never experienced before
Speaker 1: and trying to take that down and not just something
Speaker 1: that I would love to know what you guys do.
Speaker 1: So I'll start I was, and I'll be honest, Um,
Speaker 1: during the pandemic and going through an adoption process is
Speaker 1: very stressful and you really just are on this journey
Speaker 1: of uncertainty. You know, you just don't know if it's
Speaker 1: going to happen or And I was having a lot
Speaker 1: of panic attacks, and um, a lot of it came
Speaker 1: at night when I was trying to sleep. So I
Speaker 1: spoke to our sports site and strength and conditioning coach
Speaker 1: and they had added in my routine. Um, after every workout,
Speaker 1: I would do this breathing exercise and she would put
Speaker 1: it on and I would sit there and she would help,
Speaker 1: she would kind of guide me through it because I
Speaker 1: don't really know what I'm doing, and there was different
Speaker 1: different positions, and you you know, you it's a practice,
Speaker 1: you know, you're you don't have to be perfect. You
Speaker 1: just keep working at it. And I would just sometimes
Speaker 1: even just sit sit there and close my eyes and
Speaker 1: just feel everything melt out of my body. And it
Speaker 1: was a moment and an act of being present but
Speaker 1: also letting go all the other things I can't control,
Speaker 1: and I just really stuck with it. We both did,
Speaker 1: and it was something we continued in our routine, even
Speaker 1: if it was only for ten minutes, like before training
Speaker 1: or after training, usually after to kind of just wind down, um,
Speaker 1: go through the recovery, and we would stretch, and then
Speaker 1: we would do our breathing exercises and it just like
Speaker 1: even for ten minutes, even taking ten deep breaths really helps.
Speaker 1: So um, we would just listen to uh you know.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like a app. Yeah, um that a lot
Speaker 1: of surfers I think would use as well, so, but
Speaker 1: we would switch it up a lot. It wasn't always
Speaker 1: the same. We would try multiple apps and breathing exercises
Speaker 1: to see which one fit. But um, yeah, it's been
Speaker 1: great and it automatically makes you feel better, lighter, and
Speaker 1: then we would just go on with the rest of
Speaker 1: our day and feel really relieved after a tough training.
Speaker 1: Ten minutes sounds like a long time to me. It's
Speaker 1: something that I have not incorporated and it's something that
Speaker 1: I'm like, I gotta do it, but you know, can
Speaker 1: I start with one minute? Absolutely start with thirty seconds? Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: al right, not now, just kidding, but honestly, I really
Speaker 1: do feel that's gonna be dead silent for thirty seconds,
Speaker 1: everybody I know. I do feel though, that if you
Speaker 1: don't take control of your own like health and mental health,
Speaker 1: no one else will be able to do it for you.
Speaker 1: So I I do feel there are so many benefits
Speaker 1: of self care, even if it's thirty seconds of breathing.
Speaker 1: That's probably something that we've learned most during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Does that put yourself first, make yourself a priority, um
Speaker 1: there in your recovery process as well after training, and
Speaker 1: we have felt ten times better on my list. I'll
Speaker 1: send you an app Yeah, yeah, okay. Well, they say
Speaker 1: that if you can't find twenty minutes to meditate. I
Speaker 1: meditate every morning for if you can't find twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: it means you need two hours. It's like that's sort
Speaker 1: of the cliche of meditation in the meditation world. That's
Speaker 1: what you know. And because it's like that, but if
Speaker 1: you're that busy that you can't find that time. You
Speaker 1: need a lot more time to meditate. Well, I'm not
Speaker 1: that busy. My mind is that busy, you know, my
Speaker 1: mind is really busy. Yeah, but that that's the point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like if you can't feel, if you're like I
Speaker 1: cannot find time to do this. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the idea of not letting perfect and in the way
Speaker 1: of good and just like doing it whatever it looks
Speaker 1: like that day is is a really great lesson. And
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit about your foundation that
Speaker 1: helps people with emotional and mental issues, because I think
Speaker 1: it's amazing. Yeah, A big believer in supporting mental health
Speaker 1: and addiction and depression and you know, suicide, all the
Speaker 1: things that are so prevalent, prevalent in our society and
Speaker 1: culture that people are so uncomfortable to talk about. And
Speaker 1: it's okay to not be okay. We all experience it.
Speaker 1: It's like a very normal part of life. And I
Speaker 1: feel like it's been very taboo and don't talk about it.
Speaker 1: That's not something we should we should talk about. So
Speaker 1: I'm very active in um that community, and I'm very
Speaker 1: open and honest with how I feel all the time.
Speaker 1: And what's the name of it, the nonprofit that I
Speaker 1: am very tied to is to Write Love on Our Arms. UM.
Speaker 1: It's based in Melbourne, Florida, where I grew up and
Speaker 1: one of my best guy friends, Jamie Tarkowski, started it.
Speaker 1: It has saved so many people in so many ways,
Speaker 1: and it's really important to support mental health because, as
Speaker 1: you both know, during this COVID time and it has
Speaker 1: been very very difficult, difficult for a lot of people people. So,
Speaker 1: um yeah, I think mental health is is something we
Speaker 1: need to invest more, especially health care. Um. Even on
Speaker 1: our soccer teams. It's a priority now being able to
Speaker 1: speak to someone and being taking mental health leaves is
Speaker 1: a new thing in our cb A. UM. So it's
Speaker 1: it's getting there. That's amazing. It's so important and it's
Speaker 1: getting there, and it's it's something we have to keep
Speaker 1: talking about and everyone experienced it. It's incredible how many
Speaker 1: elite female athletes in particular are really talking about this
Speaker 1: so much just of late, right, we've got you both,
Speaker 1: Nami Asaka um Simone Biles. I mean, so many people
Speaker 1: at the top of their game really prioritizing their own
Speaker 1: mental health, and I think it's game changing for young
Speaker 1: people across the world to be to see people that
Speaker 1: they look up to admitting that they've had their own
Speaker 1: struggles is incredibly powerful. I mean it's not something I
Speaker 1: grew up with for sure. And um, I remember the
Speaker 1: first time a friend suggested to go to therapy. I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm fine, Like, it's just culturally, we don't
Speaker 1: do that. We don't talk to you know, I'm an immigrant.
Speaker 1: We just muscled through it, like we don't do that.
Speaker 1: And and it's if I had had folks like you
Speaker 1: to look up to when I was younger, I think
Speaker 1: it would have been a very different versation. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think social media has been a big driving factor
Speaker 1: behind it. And I'll be the first to admit I
Speaker 1: can go on Twitter or Instagram and see five comments
Speaker 1: about you're doing great to stay active in the community.
Speaker 1: We love what you do for like this moment, there
Speaker 1: could be too bad comments booths stuck in my head.
Speaker 1: This is what someone thinks. Someone thinks this, and me like,
Speaker 1: I work so hard, you know, for the community and
Speaker 1: this and that, and like I'm like, what am I doing?
Speaker 1: But it's so difficult. Yeah. I put on my profile
Speaker 1: that I delete negative comments, and I do as soon
Speaker 1: as I see when I just it makes me feel
Speaker 1: powerful m hm, So you won't see a lot of
Speaker 1: people trashing me. The mute button and block functions very
Speaker 1: effective for me. It's just everyone and they're always like
Speaker 1: profile lists people like, it's never the people with real
Speaker 1: profiles that are saying this, it's all the bobs and stuff.
Speaker 1: And once I realized that, I was like, Oh, these
Speaker 1: are not people that whose opinions I need to care about,
Speaker 1: Like unless you were at the Burnet Browns from school
Speaker 1: of thought, unless you were in the arena, I'm not
Speaker 1: interested in your opinion. It's hard. It's easier to do,
Speaker 1: but I mean I really try. And and since you
Speaker 1: guys are these world class athletes, can you talk to
Speaker 1: us girls who want to feel better be in better shape?
Speaker 1: Like what things could normal people do that you do?
Speaker 1: I mean eating and vitamin's Like, what do you guys
Speaker 1: have any finding? Honestly all, my biggest priority and feeling
Speaker 1: good from like the inside out is sleep. Like I
Speaker 1: just think people don't value it enough, and as we
Speaker 1: get older, we know, like we just don't sleep that
Speaker 1: much and we don't make time for it. So that's
Speaker 1: my big thing for me. I think stretching um right
Speaker 1: when you wake up in the morning and before you
Speaker 1: go to bed. Ashton is actually really good at this UM.
Speaker 1: But any time you go running, any time you ride
Speaker 1: a bike, make sure you stretched before and after UM.
Speaker 1: And I think that has what has kept me at
Speaker 1: the top of my game for so long, and especially
Speaker 1: as I get older, I feel like stretching now, I
Speaker 1: really value that, especially before and after training and just
Speaker 1: kind of getting your body ready for that exercise. And
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize how effective that is and
Speaker 1: how positive and healthy that is for your body. I
Speaker 1: also think we always, like women in in general, are
Speaker 1: always searching for this ideal, like look, I need to
Speaker 1: look this bit and this grit, and it's just I
Speaker 1: think beauty is so much about inside and all of
Speaker 1: us athletes, all of us, you know, everyday people are
Speaker 1: shaped completely completely differently, like Serena Williams is shaped so
Speaker 1: different than anyone in the female game, and she's the
Speaker 1: most success successful. So I just think just owning your
Speaker 1: body type, but living a healthy, healthy lifestyle is totally key.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be stick skinny, you don't have
Speaker 1: some perfect abs. If you were really like healthy in
Speaker 1: the decisions you make and you're happy preach, let's go.
Speaker 1: The last thing I'll say is that we get a
Speaker 1: physical every year. And I know a lot of the
Speaker 1: older generations, UM, I don't necessarily love going to the
Speaker 1: doctor mother in law. We tell my mom and my
Speaker 1: mother in law all the time. UM, So I know
Speaker 1: it's not at the top of the list, but I
Speaker 1: really value getting a physical every year and making sure
Speaker 1: that you check your blood and all the things to
Speaker 1: make sure that you know you're taking care of yourself
Speaker 1: and your healthy. See. I'm the person that if you said,
Speaker 1: I've got this guy and he checks her L T
Speaker 1: d S and your A B d S, and I'd
Speaker 1: be like, all right, I don't even know what they are,
Speaker 1: but I want to know if there's got to be
Speaker 1: something that someone could like. You know, That's what I
Speaker 1: always like. You guys, eat what you want to take supplements. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we do. We take vitamins and we also did um
Speaker 1: a food allergy test, which I think would be very
Speaker 1: valuable for you, but for you both, just because sometimes
Speaker 1: you're eating things that like I'm not supposed to have
Speaker 1: any coffee. Of course, I'm not going to listen to that.
Speaker 1: Maybe I shouldn't, but I learned that. But there are
Speaker 1: certain foods that I think there were three foods or
Speaker 1: something that we cabbage worn and coffee for me. But
Speaker 1: if you can then stay away from those types of foods,
Speaker 1: you might feel a lot healthier and you might feel
Speaker 1: better waking up every day. So there might be a
Speaker 1: food that you eat every day that you might have
Speaker 1: an allergy towards. Or yeah, I think it's really key.
Speaker 1: And which which test do you guys do, because there's
Speaker 1: so many. It was actually it was it was about
Speaker 1: it was within our club. We can find that out.
Speaker 1: I'll have to look at it, but it is. It
Speaker 1: is important because for me, I kept getting these allergic
Speaker 1: react like reactions when I would have um wine and
Speaker 1: I was like Jesus, all these bumps on my back
Speaker 1: and I'm scratching it. And then I did my allergy
Speaker 1: tests and I'm allergic to grapes and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: love red wine, no wonder, I feel like crap And
Speaker 1: it said, well, good more for me. Yeah, so now
Speaker 1: it always goes to alley. So now what do you
Speaker 1: drink or do you not drink wine? But I only
Speaker 1: drinking I'm very just I mean, you're definitely you. Your
Speaker 1: girls are definitely are kind of girls that's the best.
Speaker 1: And you're like, well, I still drink red wine, just
Speaker 1: a smaller cup it was are doing. I'm living. I'm
Speaker 1: living my best life over here. I'm just not going
Speaker 1: to drink it three days before a game and then
Speaker 1: just talk to me a little bit about the you know,
Speaker 1: the companies that you've been lucky enough to be part of.
Speaker 1: Both you guys, you have a bunch of sponsorships, Like,
Speaker 1: you know what what really moves you besides the paycheck? Like,
Speaker 1: you know what do you get excited about? Well, I
Speaker 1: think we're at a point now that it's way more
Speaker 1: than money, like sustainability, Like are you heavily involved in
Speaker 1: the right like activism and social things out there? Are
Speaker 1: you preaching the right things that support all and you know,
Speaker 1: include all communities. Are you a part of the problem?
Speaker 1: Are you part of the solution? So? I think we're
Speaker 1: at that point in our career that we're very selective.
Speaker 1: We want to keep pushing the envelope. We want to
Speaker 1: leave this world a better place for our child hopefully children. UM.
Speaker 1: And we care about the environment environment, UM, we care
Speaker 1: about the LGBTQ community, UM, black lives matter. We care
Speaker 1: about animals and plants and all the things in between.
Speaker 1: So yes, we are very lucky to partner with some incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible brands. But I'll tell you what we do a
Speaker 1: deep dive. It's not h oh, just look at the figures,
Speaker 1: but we need to really take a deep dive of
Speaker 1: what they stand for, what they're investing their money in,
Speaker 1: what causes are they a part of UM? Are they
Speaker 1: donating you know too, this that and whatever? UM. Those
Speaker 1: are important things that we have to check off the
Speaker 1: box before we even have a first conversation. That's really great.
Speaker 1: And we also want to fight for, you know, issues
Speaker 1: that we believe in, and that we have to find,
Speaker 1: you know, within those sponsorships and those companies, is UM
Speaker 1: that we partner with that we share that same view
Speaker 1: and that they also value similar things as we do.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really important. That we never want
Speaker 1: to just be defined by being footballers. We want to
Speaker 1: stay active in our community. We want to yeah, like
Speaker 1: I said, fight for issues that we believe in. And
Speaker 1: I think that's what separates us from other footballers is that, UM,
Speaker 1: some people are just happy to impact the game physically
Speaker 1: on the field, but we want to do it all.
Speaker 1: We want to impact the game on the field. We
Speaker 1: want to leave the game better than where than when
Speaker 1: we found it. But also we want to use our
Speaker 1: platforms to fight for you know, social issues and stay
Speaker 1: active in our community, UM, and continue to use our
Speaker 1: voice for good. And so we have to make sure
Speaker 1: that people who we work with and we partner with
Speaker 1: kind of have those same values. And I'll just follow
Speaker 1: that up with the last comment. When we it's a
Speaker 1: bobby just like you said, it's a partnership. So we
Speaker 1: were invested in these people, in these brands. We want
Speaker 1: to help and push and put it in the right direction.
Speaker 1: It's not just it's an exchange for us. Feels icky,
Speaker 1: you know, Oh, here's money just posted on your social
Speaker 1: We we are we don't do that. It has to
Speaker 1: be a true partnership where you know, we're having these conversations,
Speaker 1: we're creating things together. Um, how can we merge the
Speaker 1: gap between beauty and sport and athlete and everyday women
Speaker 1: or whatever the case cases. UM, it has to be
Speaker 1: a long term partnership where it doesn't just feel like, um,
Speaker 1: I'm using you and you're using me and then we'll
Speaker 1: move on to the next person. We don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: You're like moving away from like that's the sort of
Speaker 1: transactional nature. But to these endorsements, it's great. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so transactional. Great word exactly. And then I have a
Speaker 1: very serious question. Have you watched Ted Lasso? No, you
Speaker 1: have has a scene. Okay, this interview is over. You
Speaker 1: need to well, all right, yeah, you need to stop
Speaker 1: everything you're doing and go. We're gonna start just dropping
Speaker 1: the baby off the bobby and we're going to get
Speaker 1: catch up on all the shows. Yes please, Okay, perfect.
Speaker 1: So we have one closing question that we ask all
Speaker 1: of our guests, and that's if you could tell someone
Speaker 1: who's listening, And I think I know the answer, but
Speaker 1: if you could tell someone who's listening, what is the
Speaker 1: one thing that could change their life for the better
Speaker 1: by just doing this one thing? What could it be?
Speaker 1: And you guys could give separate one so you don't
Speaker 1: have to like, you know, okay, you go. She's very
Speaker 1: good at these things. So it's hard to follow up.
Speaker 1: I have to, but I'll just say one because I
Speaker 1: always say the other one. I was thinking UM, but
Speaker 1: I think don't be afraid to take a risk, because
Speaker 1: taking that risk in my life led me to my
Speaker 1: dream job. And I believe I was put in a
Speaker 1: very uncomfortable situation that made me grow not only as
Speaker 1: a person, but as a player, and I performed that
Speaker 1: much better. Um, and it got me to this position
Speaker 1: that I'm at now. And so I feel like, if
Speaker 1: there's a risk that you could take and it might
Speaker 1: be a little scary and you might have an irrational,
Speaker 1: you know, fear, take it because it could possibly lead
Speaker 1: you to bigger and better things. I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. UM, I will say this, UM, I hope
Speaker 1: people are inspired by my truth. UM. I spent so
Speaker 1: many wasted years trying to be someone I'm not and
Speaker 1: I can't get those years back. UM. So I would
Speaker 1: tell someone out there who's listening, it's never too late
Speaker 1: to live your truth. And UM, I hope people feel
Speaker 1: the courage and the freedom who they want to be
Speaker 1: inside and not fearful of how others may react. So
Speaker 1: that's what I would say. Now, you're gonna that was
Speaker 1: really beautiful. Love you guys, Love you guys. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: love you guys. Thanks so much for having us on.
Speaker 1: What a pleasure to meet you both. Oh no, thanks
Speaker 1: for being on and I'm just I know our audience
Speaker 1: is gonna love you so great. We appreciate that you
Speaker 1: do you staying to eat DL