Choosing to continue after college

Cara Stawicki (@carastawicki) is a World Champion rower with nearly 20 years of competitive experience, including multiple World Rowing Championships and national team selections. Drawing on her firsthand understanding of high-level athletic performance, she now supports high-striving athletes and professionals in reaching their full potential through executive and mental performance coaching. She is an ICF ACC-certified coach who has completed advanced PCC-level training and holds a Master's degree in Health and Human Performance. Her approach blends evidence-based coaching methods with deep athletic insight. Cara helps clients overcome challenges like self-doubt, improve focus, and sustain motivation by tailoring mindset and mental skills development to individual goals, supporting confident performance in both high-pressure moments and everyday life.

In our discussion today, we discuss here career and her persistence to keep rowing at the highest level, ake her first national team at age 34, and eventually win gold at the 2019 World Championships. We also discuss her mental performance model and how athletes can be more resilient, confident, and follow that little tug in your heart no matter what to achieve your dreams.

Connect with Cara:

BOOK A SPEAKER: Interested in having John or one of our speaking team come to your school, club or coaching event? We are booking November and December 2025 and Winter/Spring 2026 events, please email us to set up an introductory call John@ChangingTheGameProject.com

PUT IN YOUR BULK BOOK ORDERS FOR OUR BESTSELLING BOOKS, AND JOIN 2025 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS FROM SYRACUSE MENS LAX, UNC AND NAVY WOMENS LAX, AND MCLAREN F1! These are just the most recent championship teams using THE CHAMPION TEAMMATE book with their athletes and support teams. Many of these coaches are also getting THE CHAMPION SPORTS PARENT so their team parents can be part of a successful culture. Schools and clubs are using EVERY MOMENT MATTERS for staff development and book clubs. Are you? We have been fulfilling numerous bulk orders for some of the top high school and collegiate sports programs in the country, will your team be next?

Click here to visit John's author page on Amazon

Click here to visit Jerry's author page on Amazon

Please email John@ChangingTheGameProject.com if you want discounted pricing on 10 or more books on any of our books. Thanks everyone.

This week's podcast is brought to you by our friends at Sprocket Sports. Sprocket Sports is a new software platform for youth sports clubs. Yeah, there are a lot of these systems out there, but Sprocket provides the full enchilada. They give you all the cool front-end stuff to make your club look good– like websites and marketing tools – AND all the back-end transactions and services to run your business better so you can focus on what really matters – your players and your teams.

Sprocket is built for those clubs looking to thrive, not just survive, in the competitive world of youth sports clubs. So if you've been looking for a true business partner – not just another app – check them out today at https://sprocketsports.me/CTG.

BECOME A PREMIUM MEMBER OF CHANGING THE GAME PROJECT TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST

If you or your club/school is looking for all of our best content, from online courses to blog posts to interviews organized for coaches, parents and athletes, then become a premium member of Changing the Game Project today. For over a decade we have been creating materials to help change the game. and it has become a bit overwhelming to find old podcasts, blog posts and more. Now, we have organized it all for you, with areas for coaches, parents and even athletes to find materials to help compete better, and put some more play back in playing ball. Clubs please email John@ChangingTheGameProject.com for pricing.

Become a Podcast Champion! This weeks podcast is also sponsored by our Patreon Podcast Champions. Help Support the Podcast and get FREE access to our Premium Membership, with well over $1000 of courses and materials. If you love the podcast, we would love for you to become a Podcast Champion, (https://www.patreon.com/wayofchampions) for as little as a cup of coffee per month (OK, its a Venti Mocha), to help us up the ante and provide even better interviews, better sound, and an overall enhanced experience. Plus, as a $10 per month Podcast Super-Champion, you will be granted a Premium Changing the Game Project Membership, where you will have access to every course, interview and blog post we have created organized by topic from coaches to parents to athletes.

Thank you for all your support these past eight years, and a special big thank you to all of you who become part of our inner circle, our patrons, who will enable us to take our podcast to the next level. https://www.patreon.com/wayofchampions