Find your flow with Forever Athlete founder Cory Camp
Cory Camp swam in college at the University of Delaware. He owns a brand called Forever Athlete which we will be talking about. He wrote a book, does public speaking, has a podcast, and makes content on social media. In this podcast we’ll be talking about all of those things along with the struggles he’s faced with finding a career path and a healthy lifestyle.
Below I have written most of what we talked about but you can listen to the full podcast on Anchor / Spotify or on Apple Podcasts.
Q: You graduated with your degree in Exercise Science. Do you feel like you would have done a different degree if you weren’t a student-athlete?
A: Honestly, I don’t think so because it’s always been an interest of mine. Swimming was always my number one dream path.
Number two was always to go to physical therapy school.
The easiest way to do that and what made the most sense was to major in exercise science or some places call it kinesiology.
Regardless, if I was a student-athlete or not, I still would have majored in that.
Would I have gotten into grad school if I wasn’t a student-athlete? The answer to that one might have been a different story.
Q: What was your experience with finding a job after college?
A: It was tough. I was very lost.
Dream number two was to become a physical therapist which means you have to go to physical therapy school.
I really bet on the fact that since I was a swimmer and I did pretty well at it that I would get into the grad schools that I applied for.
Applying for undergrad was different. I only applied to Delaware.
I went through the recruiting process, signed the NLI, only applied there, got in and went there. That was really easy for me.
I unknowingly and naively thought grad school would be the same for me.
I had swimming carry me to get into a good undergrad program.
While I was at Delaware, their physical therapy school became number one in the nation.
I thought that I would get in since I was a standout athlete at this school.
I had letters of recommendations from professors trying to help me out.
Turns out the 2.9 GPA was a deal breaker.
What’s next, then?
In March I was swimming my last meet ever.
That did not end the way I would have liked it to end but it is what it is and that’s what happened.
I got denied from all these grad schools that I applied to.
Next thing you know I’m graduating in a month and I need to figure it out.
I’ve always been the guy that has it figured out.
Right now I don’t have an answer. People are asking me “what’s next?” and I don’t know.
It caused me a ton of stress.
I went with the first thing that fell in my lap which was a job doing mortgage refinancing.
It was close to home but I didn’t move in with my parents. I moved to Baltimore with a few teammates.
It was what it needed to be at that point in time.
I wouldn’t have traded that experience but I learned very quickly that it’s not what I wanted to do. It wasn’t my passion.
That was the early stages of figuring out what career post-swim looks like.
I was very lost and I wanted a quick fix. I wanted fast money because I thought that’s what success was.
Q: What is Forever Athlete? How did you start it?
A: Holistic resources for current and former athletes to get more proactive with their mental health.
Basically, centering the athlete experience around community, content and coaching.
I started it based on my own experience of feeling lost and struggles of borderline depression which turned to addictions of drowning out my problems with alcohol.
I saw that there was a huge need to be addressed here.
While we’re in athletics at whatever level, we do have access to a lot of really fantastic resources but we really don’t take advantage of them.
When it’s all over is when we need it the most and all those resources disappear.
You lose access to them.
You might have that super nice strength coach that still writes your programming. You might have the dietitian that will help you with learning how to eat now that you’re not burning five thousand calories a day.
I saw this gap and this need.
During the pandemic when the world was shut down, I was an assistant fitness director. I managed a team of about 50 employees.
I was busy with that but I finally had some free time on my hands. With that, I had so many conversations with so many other athletes and I just thought there has to be something that gets to get created in this.
It started with content and the podcast. The more people that saw this really resonated with it.
Okay, what are the resources that these athletes actually need?
I identified that it was in the holistic sense.
Some people struggle with how to eat, how to exercise, what does movement look like post-sport. Some people are struggling with the mental and emotional.
The first love of their life, their sport, is no longer a part of their lives.
How do they grieve that breakup process?
It’s a very holistic approach.
I’ve realized very quickly that I’m not an expert at everything.
I’ve brought in a lot of experts and leaders in their field and creating it in a way that is accessible at scale for as many athletes as possible.
I saw another opportunity in the life coaching space in particular.
I saw how beneficial life coaching is for me, personally. I saw that when you’re a 22 year old, recently graduated and retired athlete, you don’t have ten thousand dollars for a life coach.
On average that is what life coaching costs.
While there is value to it, I thought this is what these athletes need the most.
Making the help and the resources the most accessible for the people who need it most.
I don’t think anyone should be priced out of their overall wellbeing and core fundamentals of living a quality life just because of their age, financial, or whatever situation that may be.
I got a mental performance coaching certification.
I ended up getting a neuroscience certification as well.
That is how I started to unpack and understand flow.
I was fascinated with this idea that we can recreate that in all seasons of our life and it’s not dependent on our sport.
More info: forever-athlete.com
Q: What is your book?
A: Also titled Forever Athlete: connect to your true identity daily.
You can buy it here.
It is the compilation of 18 different athletes sharing what it meant for them to find their true self.
Ways that have worked for them, tips, tricks, insights, and stories.
That was a byproduct of hosting the podcast after about a year and a half.
I thought, what if I took the best podcasts and sat down with them and let them tell their story fully in their own words.
I gave them each their own chapter and they spoke to their experience.
It reads very differently in each chapter, like a bunch of different short stories. You’ll see a bit of yourself in each chapter.
The focus about it is putting up this mirror for the reader. What can they get to know and learn about themselves from hearing other peoples perspectives?
Q: What do you talk about at your public speaking events?
A: It varies by the organization. It be a corporate event or an athletic department.
It is usually centered around finding your flow.
Finding your space where you feel confident.
Like you can trust yourself.
How can we get there with more consistency.
My talk is centered around helping people uncover their true strengths, what we we mean by those, how to unlock them, and how they can get them to show up in their day to day life.
It’s a mix of my story, neuroscience, and tangible, actionable exercises as well.
I think that’s the biggest thing that separates me from other speakers.
Motivation only lasts for maybe a day or two. If I can give you some actionable steps that you are motivated to go take, now we have created some life long change.
That is way more impactful than just sharing how I overcame something.
There’s merit in those stories for sure but I’ve always wanted to share my experience in a lens that encourages others create a new experience for themselves.
That’s truly what impact means to me and that’s what I lead with whether that means me coming on a podcast or speaking in front of audiences.
Q: What was one of your favorite moments while competing?
A: My favorite moment from an actual competition has to be the standout race of my career sophomore year of college.
I ended up qualifying first for finals at conference. I remember going out for this race.
I remember the best advice my dad gave me was “swim your own race”.
At the end of the day you can only control what you’re doing. You can’t control what the other people you’re swimming against are doing.
You can go a best time and still lose. You kind of have to be okay with that because it’s beyond your control.
When you qualify first, obviously some pressure gets put on you. You start to think that since you qualified first you’re favored to win.
I went the fastest in the morning, I can do it at night. I don’t know what happened to me but I was so slow off the start.
In my head, I’m thinking I’m a distance swimmer, this isn’t a full on distance event.
I’m going to trust my preparation, myself, and be confident in my race plan and strategy which wasn’t to go out super fast like a lot of the people around me.
Around half way through the race I was seeded first and I found myself in about seventh place.
I thought, that’s going to be very embarrassing if I’m seeded first and I don’t even end up on the podium. I’ve got to make some changes.
I started picking off people one by one. With about a hundred to go, I found myself in about fifth place.
I’m making some ground but the race is about 80% over.
I’ve got to dig deep, I don’t care how much this hurts, how much this sucks, I’ve got to finish. I ended up out-splitting the field by about 2.5 or 3 seconds that last hundred, which is unheard of. No one usually does that.
I was able to go neck and neck with the first place leader that last turn.
We kind of looked at each other under water and I shook my head no, there’s no way he’s beating me.
I was able to rock out ahead and ended up winning by a little over half a second.
From the place that I was in to that margin of victory in swimming was very unheard of.
It was kind of funny watching back because I wasn’t even within frame for the majority of the race and I was able to come back and win.
That’s the standout one for me. That’s kind of the highlight reel that I play in my head even now when I’m feeling down and out and not really confident in my ability.
I kind of take a second to tap back into that feeling of what I was feeling at each stage of that race.
It reminds me that I can be that guy. I can get it done. It might take a little bit longer but I’m doing my race and it’s going to work out.
Q: What aspect of the transition out of sports was the hardest for you? What advice can you give to athletes on what you learned from that?
A: I think the hardest for me was the identity piece.
That’s why I’m so passionate about the identity piece.
I didn’t resonate with former athlete because for me when I heard that term, what I heard was: “hey, it’s really cute that you did this thing for a majority of your life but it’s time to move on to the real world now. It’s time to pack up those medals, pack up those accolades, put them in a box, throw them in your parents basement, it’s just going to collect dust, it’s time to move on”.
I was like, but there’s so many lessons and nuggets there, like, how? What do you mean, just pack it up?
I really struggled with the identity. I really struggled when I looked in the mirror and saw someone that I didn’t recognize.
When I stopped swimming, I was about 150 or 155 pounds. For me the identity was that I didn’t want to recognize the swimmer anymore.
I wanted to reinvent myself. I threw myself into heavy drinking, binge eating on the weekends, and lifting really heavy.
I thought as long as I lifted heavy I was good.
I put on about 45-50 pounds in about 7-8 months. I really didn’t recognize who I saw in the mirror.
I didn’t feel how I was so used to feeling. I didn’t feel confident. I felt lost. I felt even more so at odds with who I was.
I was like, okay, I need to change how I even just view myself. That was one of the trickiest parts for me.
That’s always my advice for people as they start that transition. Sit with “who are you?” But through the lens of curiosity.
You don’t need to find that answer. It’s going to shift, it’s going to change. And that’s okay but never lose sight of that curiosity.
Sit and play with that just like you played on the playground and found the things you enjoyed and didn’t enjoy as a kid.
You can do the same thing as an adult, it just looks a little bit different.
Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to find something right away.
Who is in the mirror? What am I doing for that person today? How can I make them proud?
I think that’s a great way to get clear on your identity, who you are, what it is that you want.
And again, that can change. It sounds like very large questions. They don’t have to have finite answers every time.
Q: Do you have anything else to add?
A: if you find yourself in this situation, take things one day at a time. Ask yourself each day, what are you curious about today? How can that show up in your life? The more that you can look at life through this curiosity lens, the more you can start to experience that flow and that helps your focus.
If you have any more questions for Cory, please leave comments below or contact me. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call or text the Suicide Hotline. It’s toll free and available 24/7 at 988 or 800-273-8255.
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