What questions are tugging at you right now, and how might exploring the answers to those questions help unlock your potential?
For this 30th installment of our popular Ask Me Anything series, Dr. Michael Gervais is joined by co-host Victoria Garrick Browne, a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, former Division I volleyball player at USC, mental health advocate, creator, and speaker. Victoria turned her own private struggle with performance anxiety and depression into a gift for millions, and she founded The Hidden Opponent, a nonprofit that brings mental health education and support to student-athletes on campuses around the country. She's the ideal person to sit alongside Mike for this AMA and help answer these questions with care.
The questions our community submitted are honest and vulnerable, and they keep circling the same root: identity. What happens when who you are gets fused to what you do? Mike and Victoria explore why the culture around us so easily hands young people a performance-based identity, what it looks like to move toward a purpose-based one instead, and why the way a parent talks about their child at the dinner table quietly shapes how that child sees themselves.
This is a practical and useful conversation for anyone who competes, coaches, parents, or is simply trying to figure out who they are.
In this conversation, we explore:
- How to help young people build an identity rooted in who they are, not only in how they perform
- Why the way you talk about your child, even at Thanksgiving, is shaping their identity
- How to tell the difference between healthy competitiveness and unhealthy pressure
- The warning signs of burnout in a young athlete, and why competing too early can backfire
- How to share a mental health story in recruiting without it becoming a liability
- Whether real confidence can exist without external validation
- The difference between formal instruction and guided discovery in coaching and parenting
- A simple, honest way to work with imposter syndrome
If your sense of who you are has ever felt a little too tied to what you do, this one is well-worth your time.
Links & Resources
To learn more about Victoria, please visit: https://victoriagarrickbrowne.com/
To learn more about The Hidden Opponent, the non-profit Victoria started, please visit: https://www.thehiddenopponent.org/
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Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais 
