by: AP 1122 So Many Options, So Little Time. What Do I Focus On?
Pat Flynn:
What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to episode 1,122 of AskPat 2.0. Today you're about to listen to an interview between myself and an entrepreneur just like you, that's what we do here. Today's a little special because we also are interviewing an Olympian, a former Olympian Natasha Watley, who had gone to the Olympics and is just a star in the world of softball.
Pat:
She's on today, she reached out to ... I'm sorry. I don't know, there's just something about speaking to somebody who you know mentally is at such a high level. It's like, "No, wait, that's what I'm supposed to offer others. Let me help you with your mental game."
Pat:
This person Natasha, who I researched after and just impresses me so much, plus our interview just impressed me about her because she wants to do so much to help so many people, so many young ladies out there in all different kinds of ways. We're a little bit worried because she could definitely make it easy on herself to spread herself thin, and we don't want to do that.
Pat:
We want to be very diligent, we want to be very conscious. We want to be very purposeful with where we put our time, with where we put our energy, and who we can help and how. You're actually going to hear me today with Natasha, I offered her a couple exercises, thought experiments to help us navigate some of these different options that we might have.
Pat:
Make sure you sit back, listen in. She is still a coach for softball in Japan, she has online courses to help more young ladies, plus she has a nonprofit and she wants to do other things to help speak and inspire others too. Just an incredible woman, and I'm excited to introduce her to you today. If you don't know who she is already, Natashawatley.com, here she is.
Pat:
Natasha, welcome to AskPat 2.0, thanks so much for being here today.
Natasha Watley:
Thanks so much for having me, excited for this. Thank you.
Pat:
I'm excited too. If you could help us understand a little bit more about you and what you do, that'd be great.
Natasha:
Yes. I am a two time Olympian in the sport of softball. I recently retired, I shouldn't say recently, well four years ago. I have now tried to figure out a way to still impact young ladies and families in the sport, knowing that I don't want to coach on the ground and do all those things.
Natasha:
I've created an online course, in a specific small niche inside of softball, which is a certain skill and I teach that online. I do several other things. I do currently coach in Japan, a team that I played for. Trying to transition away from that. I have a nonprofit. I just do a million things and just trying to figure out the best way to impact people, but also do the things that I love and create time and space for myself.
Pat:
Wow, awesome. First of all, that's super cool. I feel really honored to have an Olympian on the show, that's kind of amazing. Where can people see your brand? What's the website in case people are interested?
Natasha:
It's Natasha Watley, that's my website. I'm all over social, Instagram and Facebook NatashaWatley29.
Pat:
Cool. What's this skill? I'm curious that you teach that, it's like your superpower.
Natasha:
My superpower, it's called slap hitting. If you've ever watched softball and watched a young lady run through the box, it's called slap hitting. It's a technique, it's not something that you would see in baseball. It's definitely a softball thing. The dimensions are shorter, so it's pretty much putting pressure on defenses and that's what I teach. That's my superpower.
Pat:
I love it. I love it, and I love that you've sort of niched down into that. Okay, so you have a lot of things going on. Tell me a little bit about what's on your mind, what's the struggle, and how can I help you?
Natasha:
It's kind of twofold, I guess I wanted your help with the online part. I think what would be more beneficial to me is the overall thing. I feel like I'm spreading myself super thin, just trying to do all the things. I definitely want to stay in the game; impacting young girls is a passion, but I really want to not limit myself just to the softball world.
Natasha:
I've done it, I did a TED Talk recently, and that sparked a moment where I would like to speak to broader audiences. It's just hard because I don't want to lose my touches with softball but also if I transitioned or pivot, how do you do that simultaneously? Can you do both? Can you still have a presence in your small niche and try to have a broader audience? Am I doing too much?
Pat:
Great, thank you for setting that up. First of all, I think it's very awesome that you want to make this impact and use what you've already created to help other girls. I think that's just tremendous and I can completely understand because I have similar goals related to education and kids, I have all this business stuff going on. How can I even begin to start thinking about or even getting the time to do that?
Pat:
What I was going to do first, but you've already done it, because there's a lot of people who feel very similarly, but they just don't know if that's what they really want. They have an idea of that's what they want. You've already had this TED Talk, you've gotten a little bit of a taste, and you're like, "This is exciting to me."
Pat:
You mentioned something really interesting, which was like you just don't want to lose touch with softball. I think we need to define what that means for you exactly, or how much softball do you need for you to feel like you are still in touch? If we don't define what that is, you'll never know, and it's just kind of always going to be there in the back of your mind.
Pat:
It might not be until you're unhappy that you figure it out. I want to figure this out ahead of time. When you say that you want to have softball still in your life, what does that mean exactly?
Natasha:
Gosh, that's the hardest question. I think for me, having a young lady say, "Natasha helped me achieve my goals," I think that extent of it. What that looks like, I don't know.
Natasha:
For me softball has pretty much given me my whole entire life, so I feel indebted to it. It's hard to even say what that would look like—I don't even know how to articulate that. What would that look like? I can't define it.
Pat:
That's okay, sorry to put you on the spot there. Hopefully that just kind of helps define where we need to start thinking at least. If you don't define that, then how do we know what to do? How do we know what's too much, what's too little? I'm not expecting we come up with a specific definition of 20 hours a week in, or this many girls saying this thing to me, it's not even that. It's impact, also plus what would make you happy.
Pat:
The way that I love to think about this is to think about the future. To come up with different scenarios, "what-if" scenarios, and actually play them out in our heads to go, "Well, what if I spent half my time coaching softball online and half my time speaking around the world and doing these other things to help impact girls outside of softball." Just going, "What would a day look like? What would my work look like? How would that be?"
Pat:
Once you start to play out these scenarios, you can go, "Okay, well there's that, that's what that might look like. Let's try another scenario, what if I never did anything to impact people outside of the softball space? How would I feel in a year from now?" You're all in on softball, do you still have that itch? Do you still feel unfulfilled? If so, then you're like, "Okay, that's not the way to go."
Pat:
It must be somewhere in between. You can start to sort of hone in; what then happens is that at least gives you a place to start to try things. It's when we try things without any sort of guidance, or barriers, or constraints that we just are all over the place.
Pat:
It's also impossible to go, "Okay, I have the plan now, let's do it." It's not going to get to that point either. Maybe we can just walk through one of those right now and it might just take some internal thinking of, "Well, okay, what if I made this decision, what would that look like?"
Pat:
Let's say it was split 50-50, our first scenario. You were helping girls with softball online, but you were also doing a talk every other month somewhere around the world. How is life at that point? What is life like for you? Is it fulfilled? Is it still something missing? Tell me a little bit.
Natasha:
I think that that's huge, even 50-50 seems fair. That would make me happy, at least I know that I'm speaking to a broader audience because that's what I feel like I have in me to be able to relate and touch people outside of softball. That feels awesome, and then also knowing that still I'm impacting girls through the sport and helping grow the sport because ultimately, that's my passion. That feels good, that feels great.
Natasha:
It's just kind of, I think where I get caught up, it's like, obviously you said that we wouldn't figure that out today, but defining what that 50-50 was. In theory, yes, that feels really good.
Pat:
That's great, that's a starting point. We can go a little bit deeper. Let's say some of your time, half of it if you will, and it's never going to be exact obviously, and it'll change. Let's say you spent more time than you are now with impacting lives of young girls outside of softball. You have this TED Talk as sort of a baseline foundational thing. If you had a magic wand and you were impacting girls in the way you wanted to and it was very, very impactful, what would that be for you? Is that traveling to talk on stages and how often? Or is it, "Oh my gosh, I'm traveling every month and I don't want to do that." We can start to kind of hone in on that now.
Natasha:
Right, and that's the thing. I just spent the last 30 years traveling around the world playing softball. On the big scale it's like, "Yes, I want this big thing to speak to broader audiences." When I say broader audiences, it's not just girls, I'm thinking women. That feels good, but when you say the whole travel part, then that's where I start to like, "Okay, do I really want that time," you know we all talk about time, time is important. I just spent the last 30 years playing softball.
Pat:
Yeah, and traveling.
Natasha:
And traveling.
Pat:
You deserve some time for yourself as well, don't forget about that too.
Natasha:
Right, right.
Pat:
When it comes to the travel thing, I think again, now we're focused on the outside of softball, impactful stuff. Within that, now we're playing some more thought experiments. We can start to go, "I don't want to travel." You can start to create those rules and that's okay. You need that, because if you did and felt forced to travel all the time, it wouldn't fulfill you. Likely you would wake up and not want to do it anymore.
Pat:
That's great that we're discovering this now. What we could do is then, "Okay, if I'm unable to or I'm defining that I don't want to more than once or twice a year go and speak somewhere and travel, how might I still have that impact?" We can start to focus on that. How might you still, or what are some ideas that you might have to continue to be there for them?
Natasha:
Great question. I think about, and obviously writing a book would be awesome, just be able to have touches with people. I've always dreamt of having my Oprah moment and having a show or something like that. Maybe if it were something online, where it was being able to create content that was built around that. I just don't know what that would look like, but those are things that come to mind first.
Pat:
That's great. Again, we don't have to know what they look like yet. It's just, "This is what I want it to do and this is kind of the way I want to do it versus what most people do." You were already starting to think about it, it's like, "What would that show be like? What's the name of the show going to be?"
Natasha:
Right.
Pat:
Right? That stuff comes later. We're creating bigger, more general sort of constraints right now. This is fantastic. Are you feeling okay with kind of where I'm taking this?
Natasha:
Yeah, no, this is great. Questions that I just haven't been able to ask myself, so this is awesome.
Pat:
A book, that sounds amazing. A show of some sorts. Tell me more about this show. I watch or listen to this show, what am I hearing?
Natasha:
I love people who have reached excellence in some form. Being able to highlight that, I think it's always great for people to hear how people were able to reach success because people were able to do it in so many different ways.
Natasha:
I think from having an athletic background, I think it's much different to hear how a business person has succeeded, how just people have succeeded in their different niches. I think that to me is interesting and being able to highlight that. I'm a woman of color, so I think that would be a great angle just to either hear other success stories of other women of color.
Pat:
For sure.
Natasha:
I'm all over the place.
Pat:
That's great. Okay, let's keep role playing here. I see that you've had this show now for two years and it's getting an audience. It's only become successful because you've been consistent with it, and it's every week it comes out. Again, we don't even know the form of it right now. Two years from now you know every week a new show has to come out. Does that excite you? Does it scare you? Is that overwhelming?
Natasha:
That sounds fun, to me that sounds exciting and fun.
Pat:
Good. Okay, that's great. We validated that. Now let's talk more about this show. How are you imagining these guests coming on and people watching and getting value? Now we can start to get a little bit into the details now, is this a podcast that you're hosting? Do you imagine yourself on video?
Natasha:
I like the video. I like being in front of a person, if that were able to happen. We're not getting to there, but I'm like, that just probably might not be realistic all the time. I would like to actually visually see a person, and being in studio would be awesome. That would be huge.
Pat:
That'd be really cool, that's like pro level too, right? I know you play at the pro level and whatever you put your mind into, obviously you're going to do a great job with it.
Pat:
Okay, a studio, that's exciting. Studios exist, you could rent them out and there's people that you could get to help you with that sort of stuff. You can even have seasons, you can batch them, you can record three or four shows in one day. That way you're not like every week kind of having to go in there, it allows for a little bit more room. You can schedule your guests to come fly to you, or maybe you go to events and bring a camera person with you to capture them where they're at. There's a lot of things you can do there. It sounds like this is getting you excited.
Natasha:
Yes, I love it. I can live out my Oprah dreams.
Pat:
Everybody can be that person because everybody attracts their own tribe. Everybody's different, everybody has their own superpowers, and everybody has their own personality that some people would prefer you over Oprah for example. It's only when you put yourself out there that can you attract that.
Pat:
To me, it sounds like this is some sort of brand that comes out of this with your name on it, whether it's your personal brand or some sort of movement for example that is led by you. That's kind of where I see this going because you had mentioned a book, which it's a very impactful thing that can get shared and spread a word, a message. The show, which now you being the leader, can connect people and inspire. I don't think we have to even consider what else because new opportunities will come as a result of all that.
Natasha:
Right. Does it get confusing if I'm still having touches teaching young girls how to slap hit. Do you know what I mean? That's where I'm like, are you able to do all these things and still have these touches? I don't know.
Pat:
Sure. Again, we haven't played on the other side of it yet. It sounds like you have an online course and you are still able to and capable of helping and serving that community. Where it might get interesting is if I start to ask you questions like, "If somebody finds your show and then discovers that you have courses helping girls learn softball skills, what's the story you're telling yourself about that person who discovers that?"
Natasha:
She's not necessarily speaking to me because she's just a young girl, she may not be my person.
Pat:
Possibly, that's one way to look at it. My job is to take these stories that we tell ourself and flip them for people. I can also imagine somebody going, "Oh my gosh, Natasha is this incredible leader. I didn't even know she has this community of girls who follow her for her softball stuff. That's so cool."
Pat:
That's what people would say, "Oh Natasha, her show, she also has this thing where she helps people with softball because she was an Olympian softball player. She's still involved in that community, and she just cares so much about them."
Pat:
People again are going to gravitate toward you for you. If they go, "Oh softball, that's not my thing," then they're not your people. That's a huge part of your life. Just like how Back to the Future is a huge part of my life. People know that, and they talk about that, and they remember that. Whenever they see Back to the Future on TV, they're like, "Oh yeah, Pat Flynn, that's his favorite movie."
Pat:
I can imagine people watching your show, getting involved with you and building a relationship with you online, and getting inspired by you, maybe even trying softball for the first time as a result of that, or seeing softball on ESPN and going, "Oh yeah, Natasha, that reminds me of her."
Natasha:
Never even thought of it like that.
Pat:
Don't feel like they have to be separate either.
Natasha:
Right, right. That's where I just get so tripped up in my head. What we just talked about seems so big and huge and it's like, and I hate to say it like this and the only way to just articulate it, but softball obviously is my easy touch. It's my low hanging fruit, so to speak in terms of using my knowledge and putting that back out there in the world.
Natasha:
The TV show and all those things are such a left turn. It seems so big and it just seems like-
Pat:
It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be complicated.
Natasha:
Right.
Pat:
I would just advise that whatever you choose to spend your time on in that realm, if it were simple, what would it look like? Just make it that. It's going to be difficult, I promise you, because you are an Olympian, you are a pro level, everything is pro, everything is calculated. When you step into the personal branding space and you start to create shows and create content, you can't calculate the results as well as you could with sports.
Pat:
I know in sports you never really know what happens sometimes, but it's even less so when you're putting yourself out there, and building a brand, and attracting people who just may or may not find you. You have to be okay with being less perfect on that side of things.
Natasha:
Yeah, I love it. It would make me happy, it would be definitely a challenge. That's one of the things I said when I retired is, I want to be challenged in different ways. I feel like that would make me happy. That would be being able to reach a broader audience.
Pat:
That's amazing. I think it also, again, it's to me they're almost, they're not like 100 percent directly related, but they kind of are. I remember I used to do drum corps, which is super nerdy marching bands without woodwinds. It was just like a cult thing. When you're 21, that's your age out year. When you turn 21, you can't be in it anymore.
Pat:
it's just like you lose those feelings of what it was like to be in a team, in a group and perform, and win, and lose together, and all that sort of stuff. We had nothing to do at, there was no way for us to get inspiration from anybody to stay connected or keep going. This almost provides a stage two for people, and I think that's so beautiful.
Natasha:
Right. No, that's super helpful. Yeah, It's just good to hear that because obviously I'm thinking you can't do both. They probably would be conflicting, trying to speak to kids and then trying to speak to a broader audience in general, so that's huge.
Pat:
Cool Natasha. We kind of went deep there for a little bit, sometimes we're going to do that. I just want to encourage you, and support you, and wish you all the best. For right now, where can people go to learn more from you?
Natasha:
Yeah, you can go to Natasha Watley or you can go to my Instagram, Twitter, or both at NatashaWatley29.
Pat:
You're amazing Natasha, keep up the great work. Thank you so much for being so open and vulnerable here. I just want to wish you all the best.
Natasha:
Thank you so much for your help and your time. Thank you Pat.
Pat:
Thank you. All right, I hope you enjoyed that coaching call with myself and Natasha Watley from Natasha Watley. That's W-A-T-L-E-Y.com. Natasha, you're amazing. Thank you so much for listening to the show, for submitting an application. Just really, really stoked to chat with you.
Pat:
I want to apologize earlier, I got a little too excited for having an Olympian on the show. Honestly, every single person who's come on the show has been incredible in all different kinds of ways. I'm just very thankful for the opportunity to chat with everybody, and I hope I get a chance to chat with you too.
Pat:
If you actually submit an application just like Natasha did at AskPat.com, you might get selected and we can have a chat today on the show too. I promise you I'm here to help, and I'm just excited for the opportunity to continue to do this.
Pat:
I do this for free because I love it. We're also doing some fun website reviews on my YouTube channel. Just look me up Pat Flynn, I just want to give back. It's my life, I've just feel like so many great things have happened and I want to pay it forward. I hope that y'all can understand why I do what I do.
Pat:
If you wanted to do me one quick favor, just hit up AskPat on Apple podcasts and leave a quick review, and let me know what you think of the show. An honest review would be appreciated. Of course, hit subscribe if you haven't already. Then finally, I just want to ask you to have an amazing day because you're incredible. I love you so much. Thank you for listening, I appreciate you. As always, #TeamFlynnforthewin. Peace.