Lauren Johnson used to serve as the Mental Conditioning Coordinator for the New York Yankees, now she has her own consulting practice. Bulldozing obstacles in the industry and her personal life, Johnson sits down to tell her journey of eventually reaching success, the trials of getting here, and her mission to help people improve their lives through the choices they make.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:
Brett Gilliland  00:01
Welcome to The Circuit of Success. I’m your host, Brett Gilliland, and today I’ve got Lauren Johnson with me, Lauren, how you doing? 
Lauren Johnson  00:08
I’m great. I’m great. Thanks for having me today. 
Brett Gilliland  00:10
Absolutely, you are a mental performance coach and a speaker, you own your own consulting company now, and done some work with professional athletes, specifically, even the Yankees and a lot of business leaders and fortune 500 CEOs. And so a lot of stuff we’re going to talk about today. So I’m really, really excited about diving into it, but you’re up in Northern California, I just came from old Tahoe. So that’s a beautiful part of the country.
Lauren Johnson  00:32
One of my favorites. 
Brett Gilliland  00:34
Amazing. Does it get old being out there and the beauty of these mountains and these trees?
Lauren Johnson  00:38
Never, absolutely never. Now, I’m still a little bit of it takes a drive for me to get to Tahoe, but man, I try and get up there as much as possible. 
Brett Gilliland  00:48
It’s beautiful. It’s amazing out there. Well, if you can Lauren, why don’t you give us a little lay of the land? What’s kind of made you the woman you are today? Some of that background and kind of set us off on the right foot on who Lauren Johnson is?
Lauren Johnson  00:59
Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of a heavy question. Let’s see, what we’ll start with the easy stuff. I grew up an athlete and an athlete household my whole life, fell in love with soccer at a really young age. It was like it was a mixture of both fun and really challenging for me. So I completely fell in love with it. And the second I started doing it I was like, “this is what I want to do.” So originally, I wanted to be a professional soccer player. That was my goal. You know, back in first grade, when they asked you who you want to like what you want to become.
Brett Gilliland  01:32
Yes. 
Lauren Johnson  01:33
And while school was fine, and I was decent at it, it was really like sports that always, I was always drawn to sports in some way. And so as I went into, you know, my college years, not only do I play at the collegiate level, but I knew that past college, I wanted to work in some sort of sports. And so originally, I actually wanted to be a physical therapist, because I’m like, “Okay, this is, I can get the closest to working with athletes. You know, besides being a coach, and this is really exciting to me.” Well, then my senior year of college, I found sports psychology, actually, after I became injured as an athlete, and completely fell in love with it. Because the one thing I didn’t love about physical therapy is, I was a kid, I love the connection with my clients. But I’m not very good at the medical side, like and it didn’t excite me, like, not my thing. Like, I felt like it was a requirement to have this other piece of it. So when I learned oh, there is an actual job that is all about your connection with the client and helping them to overcome these mental obstacles they are facing holy cow! That’s for me. So I actually my senior year I decided to, I finished off my degree in kinesiology, minored in psychology, and then went full force ahead for Master’s in performance psychology. And it’s, you know, kind of led me down the path I’m on now.
Brett Gilliland  03:03
Yeah, that’s great. That’s great. So how did you, how have you built your quote unquote, resume, if you will, right? Because I mean, Yankees one of the most, well, the winningest organization in major league baseball history. I know you spent some time with them. It’s like how does that happen? Like, so talk to our listeners, and not necessarily “Yes, it’s the Yankees.” But how do we go do something that may be bigger than what we think we could do? And then believe it and go get it done?
Lauren Johnson  03:27
Oh, that’s a great question. Yeah, if you would have told me out of grad school that in a couple of years time, you’re gonna work for the Yankees, I would have thought you were crazy, not because they didn’t think I could do it. But because up until then, I didn’t believe it was possible. And I had a lot of people in grad school and otherwise, and I know a lot of grad students have this, have had a similar experience where they’re told, like, sports jobs are the hardest to get, like don’t even you know, they kind of like steer you away from it. And I, part of me believed that part of me was like, “Oh, screw that, like, I can get it.” So I graduated from my master’s program and I had two job offers. And one, I ended up taking one and turning down the other, but the only thing about the one that I ended up taking was that it required like six months before I was going to be placed in an actual role or position. And it was very common for this role, I was–– that I had gotten, and so six months goes by and I don’t hear anything. And at this time, mind you, I’m preparing for this so I’ve moved out of my apartment I think I was living with my grandma at the time like and like it was living with which who, by the way is like one of my best friends, one of the most incredible times of my life, which we can go back to that later, but she’s amazing. However, I’m like living with my grandma. I am I have a master’s degree and I, I’m like, just kind of like in limbo waiting to see where I’m going to be moving to. All my stuff’s in storage. And I remember I was I was visiting my boyfriend at the time, but now husband, and we were driving up to Tahoe, believe it or not. And that’s when I get this call. And it was in response to an email I had sent in the email was, “hey, just checking in six months has gone by I haven’t heard anything. Like, when should I be expecting my job placement?” And I got a response that said, “We’re sorry, the job is no longer available.” All the way up to Tahoe to have like, a fun weekend with my boyfriend, you know, soon to be husband. And I was like, in tears. 
Brett Gilliland  05:47
Yeah, just got kicked right in the teeth.
Lauren Johnson  05:50
Just devastated. Yeah, my whole, like, all my plans were just uprooted. And now we’re supposed to go celebrate. Like, I just cried, wanted to like crawl in a hole. And I just remember how upset like, devastated, I wasn’t thinking, I can’t even go back to the other job. Because it’s six months has passed, they’ve already refilled, they’ve already filled the position. So I’m kind of screwed. So I after, you know, having my own little pity party, and you know, being upset, I was like, “What am I gonna do about this?” So I ended up calling, you know, a lot of people that we actually talked about before this calling a lot of people that I knew in the field. And people that, you know, were mentors to me, or were already working in pro sports. And I, you know, call them for advice, and was there any jobs available, and there was just nothing. And even when there were things, I kept hearing the same thing, when you just need experience, and which is a very frustrating thing to hear out of grad school. So I’m now like, my deadlines for my for my student loans are approaching. So I’m like, well, I need to make money. I can’t like sit around waiting for like these jobs to happen, or to get experience before I can start applying. So I end up getting a job at Starbucks. And it was really humbling. But I will never forget, my mom used to tell me. She said, “You are never too good for any position.” 
Brett Gilliland  07:16
Great advice. 
Lauren Johnson  07:18
You are never too good to work in a position, you think you are never better than any other position out there. She said there are times where you have to roll up your sleeves and do the difficult thing. And yeah, part of my ego was like, “I don’t deserve to work at Starbucks.” 
Brett Gilliland  07:33
Yeah. 
Lauren Johnson  07:35
I, you know, and Starbucks was exactly what I needed. So I’m working there humbled by the whole thing. And one day this guy drives up in the drive thru. And we’re chatting, like, we’re chatting it up. And he goes, “so are you in school?” And it was a common question. Most people were. But I said, “no, actually, I just graduated.” And he’s like, “great. What did you get your degree in?” And I like was so proud to tell him I was like, “Oh, I got in performance psychology.” And this guy just starts laughing in my face. Like, fun belly laughing and I’m like, “Oh, this is great.” Yeah, I’m like, do I have something on my face, like, what’s, what’s so funny? So finally, you know, I have no problem with confrontation. So finally, I just asked him, I was like, “What’s so funny?” He goes, “oh, you got one of those degrees, you’ll never use.” 
Brett Gilliland  08:27
Oh. 
Lauren Johnson  08:30
And it was like a gut punch. Here, I am already feeling like, I am not in the position I should be and now somebody’s telling me like, there’s a chance you’ll never leave here. Because you’re not going to do anything with that. And I was so pissed, like, I walked away, somebody else had to hand him his drink. But it got worse as the day went on, because I started ruminating on this. And have you ever had that where somebody says–– 
Brett Gilliland  08:55
Yeah. That’s what happens. A lot of times, the hardest feedback is, and the feedback, even if a spouse right gives you feedback, you may be mad, but you’re mad because it’s true. Oh, yeah. 
Lauren Johnson  08:55
It sticks with you. And you just keep replaying it like a broken record. And every time you replay it, you experience all the emotions all over again. So that’s happening.

Ver todos los episodios