SNS 141: Saturday Night Special – Interview with Willette White CEO of Next Step with Passion and Purpose!

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Welcome to tonight's Saturday night, special episode, 141.

[00:00:05] Willette White: I'm Willette White, I challenge you to invest in yourself and bus, invest in others. Develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your call. Having the ability to overcome the challenges that you're coming your way is key.

[00:00:25] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:34] I think the adjustment to college life is not easy as it looks there's more than what meets the eye. And it's a matter of, I understand that parents and student athletes don't know what they don't know. And what they don't know can hurt them. So when we talk about this transition period of once they prior to going away from home,

[00:00:58] Scott Maderer: welcome, and thank you for [00:01:00] joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts.

[00:01:03] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true. And the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:24] In tonight, Saturday night special. I talked to Willette white. I asked add about her work with student athletes and their transition to college. I asked her to share how there are a few key topics that all students really need to successfully transition to college. And I also asked her about the lessons she herself learned in transitioning herself from a full-time athletic coach to running next.

[00:01:49] Now, one area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of productivity. Getting not just more things done, [00:02:00] but actually getting the right things done can be really. I've got a course called productivity for your passion. That's designed to help you do this and then to hold you accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity, not just to be getting more done, but actually getting the right things done.

[00:02:23] What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and tailor the productivity system to your personnel. Because the truth is a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type.

[00:02:41] But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work, but there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone. And we help you do that in productivity for your passion. Check it out over@inspiredstewardship.com slash law. That [00:03:00] white is the CEO of next step with passion and purpose.

[00:03:04] After 36 years is an NCAA power, five basketball coach and director of administration and operations will that retired in 2019. She still felt the call to serve student athletes and their families and started next step a few years later, as the answer to that call, next step is meant to help student athletes deal with making a successful transition without falling into the pitfalls that come from being a student athlete in college.

[00:03:33] Let developed a program to help athletes deal with the six critical topics so that they are prepared to successfully navigate and implement strategies to overcome those challenges. Welcome to the show. Thanks,

[00:03:46] Willette White: Scott. I'm really excited to be here.

[00:03:48] Scott Maderer: So we'll add, as we talked about in the intro, you've had a long history of working with student athletes in different capacities.

[00:03:56] And how has that history, that experience [00:04:00] with working with student athletes led you to creating next step and seeing the need for what you're doing now with this transitional.

[00:04:09] Willette White: Yeah. First of all, I became a life coach and I think it was January of 2019, and I was trying to decide, oh, I, I apologize.

[00:04:20] January, 2020, I tried, it was trying to decide what direction I was going to go. And I swore off dealing with student athletes. Cause I had been dealing with them for 36 years. I really wanted a different population. But it came full circles. That is what I'm passionate about. That's where my experiences, that's where I'm an expert.

[00:04:41] That's where after 36 years I've seen a lot of things that have taken place. So again, it came full circles. And I also realized that there's programming out there, Scott, that can help a student athlete get prepared like their skill level, or prepared academically with [00:05:00] the eligibility center or sat or whatever have you.

[00:05:03] But there wasn't a program app out there, the focus so late on the transition piece. And that was really important to me. And I've seen things on. In my 36 years that are still happening today. And it became a really big sense of responsibility to figure out how I could aid student athletes who invoicing these avoiding these pitfalls and challenges.

[00:05:32] I think there's just a number of critical areas out there. And some that have become more intense today. And so it was really important for me to again be a part of the process of helping student athletes and their parents be prepared for that transition period. Student athletes are leaving home, and now all of the decisions. That they made under their parents' roof now [00:06:00] become their own. There's no checks and balances anymore. They're social challenges, pressures, expectations of performing all of those things. And I wanted to prepare them. I wanted them to have an idea of what they were going to expect.

[00:06:15] Scott Maderer: So when you say transitional coaching or that transition piece, you use that several times spell out for folks. What do you mean when you talk about the student athlete transition? I

[00:06:26] Willette White: think the adjustment to college life is not easy as it looks. There's more than what meets the eye.

[00:06:33] And it's a matter of, I understand that parents and student athletes don't know what they don't know. And what they don't know can hurt them. So we talk about this transition period of once they, prior to going away from home, preparing for all of those challenges and time demands. And all of those things are going to be facing on a college campus.

[00:06:57] We deal with tools and strategies [00:07:00] to help them once they are on their college campus. But that transition can be quite overwhelming. You're talking about a student athlete who has never been away from home possibly. And now this is all on her own. You talking about the time demands that increase the, having to answer to many more people than just her high school coach or her parents.

[00:07:24] And now there's so many other people in the picture and it can be quite overwhelming what her day looks like and having the time to study and to take care of herself with a sleep routine and making sure she's eating healthy and all of those things.

[00:07:40] Scott Maderer: I know you, you've mentioned in next step, you've focused on six separate critical areas that you found are really key to success in that transition.

[00:07:51] Can you spell out for us? What are those six areas and what is it about them that you think gets missed or makes it important that, that [00:08:00] athletes mat master those six areas.

[00:08:02] Willette White: Yeah. For the student athlete, the really critical topics from the research and from obviously being witnessed to it for 36 years is time management.

[00:08:13] We really deep dive into their identity and their new beginning. I really want student athletes to understand they're more than just their score. So when that transition period comes when they graduate from college, that's not this major shock of getting out into the real world and trying to figure out who they are.

[00:08:31] We deep dive into learning from failure learning to advocate for yourself. We talk a lot about responsibility and accountability, managing the fear. There's going to be fear. Really face that head-on. So it's critical because I've watched those areas have an impact. If you do not manage your time while you are completely overwhelmed and managing your [00:09:00] time in high school is going to be completely different than managing your time in college.

[00:09:05] Your identity and your new beginnings that deals also with the social pressures and the social media pressures and the mental health aspect, learning from failure and understanding it's not the end of the world, so to speak. When something doesn't go your way and how this is a critical component to your growth responsibility and accountability.

[00:09:27] I was in operations. Director of administration operations for six years. And I know the young women who are responsible and accountable, and I know the young women that don't have those tools. And then managing the fear. Like I said, every one there's going to be fear. It's going to be the fear of going away from home finding your place, fitting into this new family, so to speak and this new social structure.

[00:09:53] Through my research. These are the areas that I thought was most important. [00:10:00]

[00:10:00] Scott Maderer: So you've also been making a transition yourself in that you were, you had the identity of a coach. You did that for decades. Then I know you worked in a hospital management for a while, and now you're transitioning into this role with next step.

[00:10:15] What is the biggest challenges you've had for yourself as you transition into this?

[00:10:20] Willette White: I think there's so many similarities, but yet there's so many differences. And throughout my 36 years, I had an opportunity to take some time off on two different occasions. And I found that was probably the. A really special time in my life to recharge and spend time with my father was in a nursing home at the time he had dementia.

[00:10:44] I was able to get there every week. So I was able to really do other things. I volunteered at Susan G Komen breast cancer organization, because breast cancer is such our family. I was able to do things that I hadn't [00:11:00] been able to do during my whole time in coaching. I was able to travel. I was able to go visit friends.

[00:11:06] I was able to spend holidays with them, all of those things. So the role is in some ways starting your own business and you probably know this can be somewhat lonely. It's a matter of the grind and doing things that are needed to do to become relevant in people's eyes. And And to get your business off the ground.

[00:11:26] But there are those pieces that are so similar, that's the confidence and the re-evaluating and redefining and always searching for new ways, which is what a coach does. But the piece I miss the most is obviously. I don't get to build relationships with college student athletes and the people I work with every day.

[00:11:48] But I get to build relationships with the people who have me on my, on their podcast or parents of high school student athletes or high school student athletes. So it's very different, but yet, so [00:12:00] similar in so many ways. And the result, the end result is that is families. Seeing the value in what I provide so I can help them to face what they don't know.

[00:12:13] Scott Maderer: Of course my brand is inspired stewardship and I run everything I do through that lens of stewardship. So the question that I like to ask every guest is what does stewardship mean to you and what is its impact been on your life? Because I've discovered over the years, everybody has a little different definition of it right I think being a steward has. Had an incredible impact because it's a responsibility, right? It's, I've watched in this industry, I've watched many selfless people, give their life and dedicate their time to the wellbeing and growth of female student athletes. And I've also had people who. Can be somewhat [00:13:00] in, on the other side of the spectrum when it's all about wins and losses.

[00:13:04] Willette White: So is it really about the student athlete? If you're thinking only about wins and losses, so I think this profession. I think I've served in a capacity that I understand that it's the student athlete and it's about their experience. I understand that my job as director of operations was to make every coach on the staff and other people's job, easier to make sure everything ran us smoothly.

[00:13:32] So I love the inclusivativity of. Being in athletics, because I think it's serving just a multitude of different people and learning about their background and their history and their family dynamics. And some of the athletes that I coached a long ago, Scott, or some of my best friends today.

[00:13:53] So the relationship piece and the cultivating that of that is so important. So stewardship to me is [00:14:00] about serving and serving with your heart and making sure. You're at, you don't have any expectations of getting anything in return.

[00:14:09] Scott Maderer: One of the questions that I like to ask everybody. And everyone always jokingly tells me, this is the easy question is because apparently it's not, if I could invent a machine and I could grab you out of the seat where you are today, and I could travel into the far future, maybe a hundred to 150 years and magically, you were able to look back on your life and see the impact that you've left and the ripples you've left behind.

[00:14:35] What impact do you hope you've left behind on the world?

[00:14:38] Willette White: That's a really good question. I hope the impact that I've had on the young women that I've coached. And my former players and my friends and my family is knowing that I cared deeply about them as people and not just as student athletes or not just as athletes, but I cared about their family dynamics and their [00:15:00] life and the.

[00:15:00] Experiences they had growing up and what their joys and pains are. So I really believe that I understood what it meant to serve the student athlete and was committed to my relationships and constant cultivating of those relationships. So I think looking back that's what I would want is for people to know that I cared about them as individuals and as people not just as apple.

[00:15:25] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next for roulette, as you continue on your journey and continue working with next step and putting that out there in the world.

[00:15:33] Willette White: I think I continue to serve this calling because as I told you, I, I. Decided to go a completely different direction of coaching student athletes.

[00:15:43] And I believe that the store was open and through lots of conversations with people I respect and people who had been in had their own business that. I circled back to what I was good at and what my expertise was. So I think [00:16:00] to continue to fulfill this calling, no matter how challenging it can be.

[00:16:06] Cause I think everybody who starts their own business know that you. Have success overnight. And I have to define success very differently than maybe I did as a administrator or a coach. So the definition has changed. It's the little wins daily, it's the being able to talk to people like you and being able to have conversations and knowing deep down inside, knowing that what this, what I offer is so valuable.

[00:16:36] Parents have to try to put themselves in a place of being a parent of a freshman college athlete and not wait till that day that their daughter steps on campus. Student athletes have to put themselves in the shoes of a freshmen student athlete on campus. Because if you wait till the day you step on campus, 90 days into it, your head is going to be spinning and you [00:17:00] are going to be calling home and having feelings and anxiety around.

[00:17:05] How difficult this trans issue is.

[00:17:07] Scott Maderer: You can follow Willette white on Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter as at next step, or find her over on Facebook and LinkedIn as well, let a white, or you can find out more about her services. And if you have a student athlete, a female student athlete, who's cutting close to making that transition. Find out more about that over at next.

[00:17:30] Transitional coaching.com. What, is there anything else that you'd like to share with the.

[00:17:36] Willette White: Yeah, I'd say to parents, if you fit into the category, parents and student athletes, if you fit into the category of wanting a successful transition and you find yourself in a situation where you have concerns about your daughter's mental health at the next level or the time management piece, if she fits into this program, academically, [00:18:00] all of those things, then.

[00:18:01] Reach out to me. We'll be happy to have a conversation and listen to what your concerns are and set up a game plan if that's what's important to you. But again, you said by my Instagram account, my Twitter account, our next step WW, and then you gave my website and my email address is next step ww@gmail.com.

[00:18:26] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:18:55] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how [00:19:00] to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out. Until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.