Life After Sport: How Athletes Can Rebuild Identity, Mental Health and Resilience with Emily Huston

What happens when the role that has defined your identity disappears overnight—and how do you rebuild when the structure, community, and purpose are gone?

“Retirement for an athlete isn’t stepping down—it often feels like falling off a cliff.” - Emily Huston

Former pro volleyball player and HomeTeam founder Emily Huston joins me to discuss athlete identity loss, retirement, and mental health. Discover how community, connection, and support can help athletes—and anyone facing transition—rebuild resilience and well-being.

Key Takeaway Insights and Tools

• Identity loss after sport is real and messy – Retirement or injury strips away structure, community, and purpose, often leading to grief and depression. (12:19)
• Community is the missing piece – What athletes need most isn’t just skills or structure but connection, belonging, and being understood. (43:07, 50:15)
• Mental health drives performance – Caring for mental health directly impacts athletic and life outcomes; neglecting it is a systemic failure. (33:00)
• The NIL era brings new pressures – Young athletes face sudden money, fame, and branding responsibilities without the life skills to manage them. (25:52)
• Check-ins save lives – A simple, genuine “How are you?” can break isolation, open conversation, and even prevent suicide. (48:51)

Bio

Emily Huston is the Founder & CEO of HomeTeam, the first platform centralizing athlete mental health and support services. A former USA pipeline and professional volleyball player in Europe, Emily turned her struggles with injury, depression, and identity loss into a mission to ensure no athlete faces those challenges alone. With a graduate degree in Counseling Psychology and extensive leadership experience, she combines grit, empathy, and vision in shaping the future of athlete care.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilymhuston/

Home Team: https://www.hometeamgo.com/

You can join Home Team here:  HomeTeam Community

If this conversation resonated with you, share this episode with someone who may be facing a transition—and don’t forget to follow It’s an Inside Job so you never miss future conversations on resilience, leadership, and well-being.

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Chapters

• 0:08 Introduction to Identity and Transition
• 2:25 Meet Emily Houston
• 18:26 [Ad] Recoverycast: Mental Health & Addiction Recovery Stories
• 19:04 (Cont.) Meet Emily Houston
• 23:01 Mental Health Crisis in Athletes
• 29:46 The Journey of Athletes
• 31:33 Supporting Young Athletes
• 50:51 The Power of Community

Transcript

0:04

This is It's an Inside Job, and I'm your host, Jason Lim. This is the show where we explore the stories, strategies, and science behind growing resilience, nurturing well-being, and leading with intent. Because when it comes down to it, it's all an inside job. Welcome back to it's an inside job this week we're going to explore what happens to our identity when all the infrastructure all the scaffolding that make up that identity is torn away it's blown away so have you ever yourself stepped out of a role that defines you It could be in a job, it could be in a title you held, part of a team, part of a community. And you suddenly felt the ground shift under your feet. Well, for many of us, we have this natural question like, okay, who am I now? And it's something many of us wrestle with, especially when we're transitioning between different chapters of our lives. But for athletes, well, this drive can feel especially steep. My guest today is Emily Houston. she is the founder of Home Team. She's a former elite athlete who's turned her own struggles with retirement and depression into a mission, creating a platform that brings together mental health, life skills, and career resources for athletes trying to figure out what is their life beyond the sport. So in our conversation today, Emily opens up about the emotional toll of leaving the game and why life after sports can feel a lot like starting from zero. You'll hear practical ways to manage identity shifts. Why small check-ins with others matters more than we think and how we can support athletes and ourselves through big transitions because we all go through them. And if you can, stick with me until the end of the episode because Emily shares one powerful truth about what athletes really need once the cheering stops. A truth that applies to anyone facing change or uncertainty. So without further ado, let's slip into the stream and meet Emily in Houston. Emily, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Jason. Happy to be here. Could we kick off by you introducing who you are and what you do? My name is Emily. My background is as an athlete. And I'm the founder of Home Team. And what we're doing is we're centralizing athlete care and community. And so we just launched our community. It's live now. And one of our product or one of the goals that we have in our product map is to build a platform that centralizes athlete-centered care. So in November, one of the things that we're looking at releasing is a service-based marketplace. And the service-based marketplace is a platform that centralizes athlete-centered care. And I want to be very specific about that this platform is for all different types of athlete care. It's not just mental health services, but it's also life skills or opportunities to advise or career counseling. And what this platform does is it brings the providers together in one location and it allows the athletes to have one place to go to for vetted care. Well, it sounds like a much needed service because many of us, you know, see athletes at all sorts of different levels, but we sometimes don't really recognize because we're not in that world, per se, the pressure and the identity and the expectations that come along with it. And that, you know, we had a pre-interview or a pre-episode talk where we're talking about how to build more resilience, how to build community, how to address some of the mental strains and stressors that athletes face. I was wondering maybe you could speak a little to your history and what brought you to this space. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yes, my experience as an athlete and my experience in retirement is 100% of what brought me to the space and creating a home team. So my story began many years ago. I started playing sports at a very young age. And eventually, I found volleyball. And I like to say that volleyball was my first love. And I think that that is true for many athletes is that they find their sport and they find something that really speaks to them and it makes them click. And at that point, there's no looking back. You are just all in as an athlete. And and so that's that's really like what ends up happening to an elite athlete is they just are completely absorbed by their sport. And so my story is that I became, I was an elite player in high school. I was on the junior national team within the USA. I was a big recruit in the United States. And I ended up playing at Baylor. And then I remained in the USA pipeline. And then after my four years of eligibility, I was burnt out and I decided to retire. About three years later, I became really depressed and I was desperately looking for a way to get out of my depression. There were very little resources at the time and I was just... Really wanting to thrive, but I wasn't able to in my depression. And so my depressive thinking was, well, the only thing you're good at is volleyball. So why don't you go back to volleyball if that's the only thing you're good at? And maybe that's how you can get out of your depression. And so that is what I ended up doing. I think, though, that if there had been a home team at the time, that perhaps I would have made a different choice. With home team, we really emphasize the athlete's transition in retirement and also the experience of an athlete becoming injured. Because I also experienced depression during an injury that I had in college. And one of the things that we see is that there's very much a lack of understanding of the athlete's experience when they become retired or injured. And so, yeah, so fast, I'll just fast forward. You know, I went to Europe, I played volleyball, and then I ended up retiring again. And those were, again, another set of unique circumstances where I retired because I was trying to protect my mental health, actually. I was playing for a coach that was very abusive, and I decided that it just wasn't worth it. So I stopped playing, and I knew that that would end my career, and I came back to the United States. Eventually, I went to grad school, and I studied counseling psychology. And the circumstances at the time were that I ended up not pursuing my license and I ended up. Working in private single-family offices for over a decade. So I got a lot of business experience and operational experience in those environments and at a world-class level. And so, you know, I don't regret the decision that I made because, of course, that's a part of my story, right? But after those 10 years, I decided that I wanted to make a different choice for myself. I was experiencing a lot of sexual harassment, gender bias in those environments, among other things. And so I said, you know what, again, from a mental health perspective, this just is not worth it. And I decided that I wanted to do something else. At the time, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. But I came across a former teammate of mine. She and I hadn't spoken in a long time. And she wrote a book called Always an Athlete. And her book describes the trajectory of an athlete from the time that they're young to the top of their career. And she goes through all the developmental milestones of an athlete and really provides a very high level of insight to what an athlete experiences. And she equated that experience to climbing up a mountain. And when she got to the phase of an athlete's career, when it comes to retirement, she equated it to falling off a cliff. And I couldn't have agreed more with her because that was my experience. And I, that is when I realized that, wow, it's been 20 years almost since I've retired from Baylor. And there are still next to zero resources out there for athletes in retirement. And I had realized a while ago that my depression, well, what I realized is at the time I thought it was a problem that was my own and that I needed to find a way to get through it and muscle through it and be tough, you know, because that's what we're taught. And then it became really clear that I was not alone, that I had a number of other athletes and friends and peers that were experiencing something similar. And... With her book, for me, it just was like glaring me in the face saying like, this is wrong and something needs to change. And truly, this is a systemic failure on all athletes. So that is what Home Team is looking to change. And that's the mission that we're on. I definitely want to dive more into Home Team and its services a little later in the conversation. But if we could rewind, you know, many of us may not, you know, we see athletes and we watch athletes and we might have a favorite sport, but we may not always fully comprehend or understand the mindset of an athlete. You alluded to or directly talked to how athletes often build their identity around their particular sports. I was wondering if we could just rewind a little and to talk about sort of the, what happens psychologically when that identity is suddenly disrupted. As you said, it could be retirement, it could be injury, or it could be some other sort of transition. Could you kind of walk us through what an athlete may experience or goes through? Sure, of course. I will say that each athlete's experience in retirement and the breakdown of their identity is unique to that person. It's a hyper personal experience. So I don't want to speak in generalities, but I'm happy to expand on the number of areas that athletes, you know, where they're affected. And these areas do affect nearly every athlete. How that manifests is what looks different for each athlete. So one, as an athlete, you have a direction nearly your entire life. And in some ways, you are on a path where you're always winning. And that's not to say that you don't lose in your sport. Of course, there are experiences of losing a game. But you're always tied into a vision. You're always tied into something that's greater than yourself. And you're also a part of a community. You are part of a team. You are a part of a system, right, that is much, much larger than oneself. And we're seeing that especially today, actually. That is becoming... A massive component to an athlete's experience with NIL. And we can go into that and I can explain more. NIL stands for name image likeness. And so, especially with today's athlete, there's this investment in your identity, your persona, your brand, because that's what NIL is. And so that's today's athlete, but it's also all of, you know, these dyno athletes that I'm talking about when I call myself older, because our experience was very different from a social media and NIL standpoint. We were just getting Facebook at the time. So things have really changed, you know, from a technology standpoint and how that affects the athlete's experience. So anyway, so there's that component. Um, then there is the, um, there's the, all the training aspects, um, your body is being used to achieve something. You're fueling yourself constantly for a goal. Uh, and then one day, literally one day from the next that ends. And an athlete will always be an athlete, but they are no longer a competing athlete. And so part of this change is grief. There's a grief process that happens. And if anybody has experienced grief, and many of us have, then we know that the grief process is extremely messy. It's non-linear and it's difficult. It's confusing. There's sadness. There's loss. And for many athletes, there's a loss of what could have been or the things that they wanted to achieve but were unable to achieve. And so there's this psychological component of, I'll never be able to go back and actualize my potential or for whatever reason, whether that's injury or you didn't get the playing time that you thought or there were politics involved. There are a number of different elements that come into play. I will also point out, and I think this is something that is really overlooked, is, again, the relationship to training and food. So when you stop competing, you then have to suddenly learn how to exercise. And there is a huge difference between training and exercise. When you're training, again, you're pushing your body to its limits so that you can achieve some sort of goal. And when you retire, that goal no longer exists. So what are you exercising for? That's the question. Why am I pushing myself so hard? There's all of these things, this internal dialogue that happens. And then let's talk about the shifting body, right? Once an athlete retires, they start working, typically. And what does that mean? In a Western world, that typically means that we're sitting at a desk. And an athlete is used to being out in the world, they're moving. They're talking to people, and then suddenly they are just sitting at a desk for seven to nine hours a day. It's impossible to exercise it's impossible to have the same sort of dynamic experience in your life when you're just sitting at a desk so then your body starts to change and I would say that this is something that sticks with many athletes especially female athletes throughout the rest of their lives. Um, maybe once they're, you know, 20 or 30 years down the road, they, they're a little bit more sure of themselves, but women are constantly being told what they should look like. And, um, and they're also just used to their body looking a certain way. And so when that changes, uh, it's, it's like an insult to injury. Um, then of course our relationship to food changes. Um, we are no longer fueling our bodies for fuel. We're now just eating. And, um, so there's a transition with that, um, going to work again, that's a transition. I mean, there's just so many things, um, in an instant, you lose your community. Literally overnight. So the psychological shift, because my identity as an athlete is locked around the community, the sport team. There's a dedication to, there's structure around it. There's organized. It's not training to just stay healthy. It's training to perform at an elite level to achieve a remarkable goal that most human beings will never achieve in that particular discipline or domain, but through injury or through retirement or through some transition, that can come as an abrupt stop. And all that kind of falls away, all that scaffolding, all that support, all that infrastructure kind of just falls apart. And what I hear is that the athlete in many cases is left alone where he or she is shifting from, I am an athlete to, i was an athlete even though it's still part of their makeup it's that transition as you said it's um it's a period of mourning and as you said mourning is always messy it doesn't follow sort of a it doesn't it's not dictated by certain phases yeah there's no prescription yeah there's there's no prescription there's no roadmap there's no strategy yes um. And that can leave people feeling depressed. That can feel anxiety. It can show up in many different ways, the mental strains on that, especially when that identity, it dissipates. It absolutely does. Yeah. I mean, yes. So there's a clinical level of response that some athletes have. So you're touching on it. You touched on anxiety and depression. Some other ways that this loss or this mourning process can manifest is one of control. So you touched on the structure and the scaffolding, and that's one of the things that we see the athletes also struggling with, is they don't even know how to make a schedule for themselves. Because that's being done by someone else, by the coach or by the trainer. Yes. Yes. I mean, their whole life has been structured. And so suddenly they are, you know, thrust into the real world, if you will, and they don't know how to create a schedule. I remember one thing when you're talking about this, Emily, it comes back to sometimes when I think about soldiers coming back to the real world. I remember my grandfather came back from World War II and the horrors that he had to commit and also the horrors he had seen and such just because of war. And when he he was British and when he came back to London it he I remember when I was a small boy it took him a long long time to fit back into this world right because there was structure there's everything around it but once that was all gone there was no transition now I think a little better with veterans per se but that's I know I'm not comparing athletes to soldiers I'm not saying, but there's a certain structure, a certain world around that. And when you get tossed back into the real world, yeah, you can, it's sometimes you can't find traction. Yeah. Some, some athletes don't, they don't find the traction and some, just like some veterans don't, um, same thing for high performers, um, or people in the, um, you know, various branches of the military, of course, but also police officers, we see the same thing. They're in these highly structured, high-performing environments, and then they come back to the real world, and they're at a complete loss. So you're spot on to draw that parallel. You've been talking about sort of the alarming trends in athletes' mental health, anything from, I guess it could be suicide rates to other challenges. From your perspective, what's driving these struggles? That's a system-level, cultural-level question. And, um, but to, to, to, to start, I want to address, uh, your mentioning of suicide rates and what we've seen within the NCAA is the, now the second leading cause of death is death by suicide among NCAA athletes specifically. Could you just, uh, just clarify NCAA for some of our, uh, international listeners with that? Sure. Yeah, that's National Collegiate Athletics Association. I would also point out that, you know, when we talk about what are the contributing factors to this, there are some things that we know. We know that in the world, there's a crisis of isolation and loneliness. We could hypothesize that social media contributes to that. It has an effect that is actually polarizing. It was meant to bring us together, and in some ways it does. But in fact, it actually leaves people feeling more lonely, more self-critical. They're judging themselves. They're comparing themselves. And these comparative mindsets are extremely harmful. So I would say that that's a contributing factor. Now, when we talk about NIL, that really just creates... Okay, let me back up and say what NIL is. So NIL does stand for name, image, and likeness. And it's an outcome and a progression of... Dialogue that's been happening for many years. Even when I was an athlete, there was this sentiment that the athletes were being taken advantage of. And because the athletes are essentially making money for the universities with their own blood, sweat, and tears, quite literally. And the athletics industry is a massive billion-dollar industry. They're making tons of money, especially at the university level. So it became pretty clear at one point where, wow, like there were these questions of, are the athletes being taken advantage of? And the answer is yes, the athletes are being taken advantage of. And so over a period of time, we've gotten to where we are today. And NIL was designed to create more equity and more balance in the system. But what it's actually doing is it's destabilized the athletic ecosystem and it is professionalizing sports at a level that is not professional. So the NCAA level of sport within the United States is not a professional league. Yeah, it's college level. It's not professional. It's college level. So let's be really clear. Let's name this. We're talking about athletes that are 18 to 22 years old. Okay. So I just want to set the background for that. 18 to 22 years old, brains are still developing, right? So there's a risk factor there from a mental health perspective and a resilience perspective, right? These people are still learning who they are, how they move in the world and what their values are. And they're learning tools, right, to navigate life. Now, this is what's really shocking, is these athletes are making, some of them, millions of dollars. I've heard of some wild stories. 18-year-olds are being paid a salary of $600,000 to go play football for one year. It's not just the money, But it's how is the money being made? The money is being made through brands. And when we talk about an 18-year-old representing a Nike or an Adidas or any of these global brands, that is an enormous amount of pressure. What kind of psychological toll does that take on such a young mind, you know, getting those kind of dollars? I mean, one, it's like, I think it's, I would not expect an 18-year-old to be able to negotiate that type of landscape because that's what ends up happening. You know, I'll talk about the psychological piece, like in terms of the impact on them, but part of it is also just getting to that point. So, you know, when we're in the working world, we negotiate, hopefully, our salaries. And when you are being touted as a high-level athlete and offered millions of dollars. Suddenly you're thinking about legacy. Suddenly you're thinking about things as an 18 to 22-year-old that most are never, ever thinking of. And then what does that come with? That comes with pressure to perform. It comes with visibility. It comes with fame. These are all things that most of us do not experience in our lives. And these athletes are put on a pedestal. They are revered. They are misunderstood. Many believe that they are godlike, that they are perfect, and that they only see the athlete when they're playing, really. So what we don't see is when they break up with their partner or they have a finals test, you know, these remember, these are students. So or they have interpersonal issues with their families. They are human, just like all of us, and they are carrying their lives together. Their full lives along with being with this responsibility of being a high-level elite athlete. What stands out so far in our conversation with Emily is just how unprepared most athletes are for life after sport. She shared openly about her struggles with retirement and depression and why she created Home Team as a place to bring athlete care and mental health care under one roof. We've talked about identity loss, grief, and physical changes that come with leaving such a structured world, and how athletes often find themselves starting from scratch in ways their peers don't. Emily also drew attention to the alarming rise in suicide rates among NCAA athletes, the pressures of isolation in social media, and how the new NIL landscape well how it's added another layer of instability for young players many of whom are suddenly navigating money fame and high expectations without the life skills to support them and as Emily said many of these top athletes are between 18 and 24 years of age our brains are not fully developed until around 25 years of age and many of these young athletes also have a full study load on their plate. And that's not including all the challenges they may have in their private lives like many of us do. So what I'm taking away from the first half of this episode is this, behind the achievements and the highlight reels, athletes face very real human challenges. And without the right sources and community, well, those challenges can easily spiral, spiral downwards. So now let's hop back into the second half of my conversation with Emily Houston. Thank you. With these rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide amongst some sector of the young athletes, 18 to 22 per se, what do you feel is missing from the system that should be there to try to help support this? Well, one, I will say, you know, as much as I'm talking about NIL and explaining the landscape, This is a brand new world. And the people that are in the athlete environments that are designed to support the athletes, they're professionals and they experience similar things that we experience. The providers that are in the athlete ecosystem, because this is a shifting landscape, when I'm talking to them, they are literally saying that this is the Wild West. And so from one day to the next, things are different. And I don't think that that is an exaggeration because I've heard this very consistently. So you can imagine when you're trying to do your job and you're trying to help athletes and you're trying to perform within your role, that those are really difficult circumstances to work in because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So there's that element. With NIL, one of the things that we see is a sense of growing conflict of interest. Money has always been prevalent and money always speaks. And there are people out there that are very money focused. And then we have these athletes who are humans and they need support and they... They need resources. And so oftentimes there's an emphasis on their performance, but not their mental health. And we see a disconnect between those two things. If you talk to people who understand the value of mental health, they will tell you that their mental health is directly related to their performance. So in fact, that is actually a good thing. It's not something that needs to compete. One does not take away from the other. So, but, you know, just to be frank with you, I think one of the biggest gaps that we're seeing is mental health care, a greater understanding of what it means to be an NIL athlete and provide support around those, you know, those unique pressures. And then, of course, you're going to hear me say that there needs to be more resources for retiring athletes. It's interesting because then I'd like to segue towards a home team because early in the conversation, you talked about how resilience is rooted in community and athletes themselves, when they are in that phase of their life, they have community, they have structure, they have organizations, but when they retire, it can be, there's a sense of isolation that comes with it that you felt, that you've articulated in the sense of depression. And someone recommended you bounce back into the volleyball to try to alleviate that depression, but it kind of sat there with you. And so part of what I understand home team does is to create a sense of community with ex-athletes. And so with that in mind, what does home team do differently than other services that are out there for ex-athletes? I mean, honestly, Jason, we're not doing much that's different aside from taking... A concept that's fairly simple, you know, simple meaning community and bringing people together. That is, that's not a new concept. Um, but we are providing a space for retired athletes to come together in with one another. And for whatever reason that hasn't existed yet. And honestly, it just blows my mind. Like I, I cannot believe that I am the founder of home team and that we're doing this because why hasn't somebody else? People are basically just gritting their teeth. They're just trying to get through this and they're just trying to survive with what they have. But it is surprising to me that this is the first time that we're just creating community for retired athletes. Can you maybe go into a little more detail and elaborate what home team does to create community? How do you do it? How does it show up? Who's involved? Yeah. So our community is online. We have two different types of groups. We have the athlete community where we do welcome current athletes because every athlete is going to retire. And then of course we have the emphasis on retired and injured athletes. So those are the three types of athletes that are within the athlete community in our online platform. The other part of our community members are what's, they're members of the CoLab and the CoLab is short for the collaborative. These are multidisciplinary providers that are coming together to, one, to decrease isolation for themselves. Working in this field can be a very isolating experience. And so this is the first time where we're bringing a group of athlete-centered providers into one location, which I will also say is shocking to me that this has not existed. Again, it's a fairly simple concept. But when we talk about systemic failures, that's one of the systemic failures that I see, is that the providers are not talking to one another. So you can have coaches, you can have athletic administrators. You can have NIL advisors, clinicians, doctors, athletic trainers, and they're all working with the athletes, but they're working with the athletes within their own way. So this is the first group that I know of where all of these providers are coming together under one roof to collaborate and decrease their own isolation in the spirit of helping athletes. Within the community, the co-lab is able to meet, of course, and they have their own programming. But the co-lab members, these multidisciplinary providers, are also speakers within the athlete side of the community. And so this is an opportunity for the providers to bring value to the athletes within the community and share their resources, share their expertise, and provide a number of different opportunities for the athletes to have access to more tools and support and areas of specialization. We also have just engagement opportunities within the platform so the athletes can speak with another, they can direct message each other. Some things that we don't have right now but are on our roadmap are to have affinity groups. We think that it's important to have a space that is unique to the female athlete experience and also the male athlete experience. That's an area for me especially that I'm very interested in is making sure that male athletes are able to have a safe space to explore their mental health because that simply doesn't often exist in the world for men to come together and to be able to have a safe, trusted, confidential space to be themselves. I think what you're doing is truly something that is required because there may be parents listening to this where they see their kids are just very gifted and adept at their particular sport. And they can see their child, whether it's a young one or a teenager or a young adult, what have you, moving in that direction. You know, what are some of the sort of outcomes or the positive outcomes you see by bringing these athletes together in community? Well, one of the benefits is just that. It was remarkable in our surveys and the results that we had. The question was, like, what was the one of the biggest takeaways that you experienced? And every single athlete, every single one in their own way alluded to the community. And the opportunity just to connect with other people. So I truly believe, even though that we are focusing on athletes in this instance, that this, this is something that all of us are yearning for. They, we want connection. We want to be able to feel like we belong. We want to be understood and. When you become, when you are taken away from your team and you were taken away out of that athlete's ecosystem, you no longer feel belonging. You, you feel alone. You are, you know, you're experiencing all the things you're experiencing. And then to have this opportunity to come together with people that understand. And at the core, everybody has a shared experience of loss in some way or the other. So with their sport. And so there's already a shared understanding of what we've gone through and what we're going through right now. I think that's also very important. You know, my background working in clinical psychology and trauma many years ago was just that logically they know other people have gone through the same thing but emotionally they think no this is just happening to me everyone else seems to have their life together but it's when they sit down and they share stories and they swap experiences that it's no I'm not abnormal this is a completely normal response to having everything taken away just because of injury or retirement, what have you. And just in that itself, that, okay, other people going through the same situation where emotions and logic align. And there's not this mismatch or this disconnect. It's like, no, I'm actually connecting because other people are suffering. And it's through that sometimes, for me, it's a form of group therapy. And I think group therapy is one of the healthiest things. Not if it's co-complaining or co-rumination, but people talk about their stories, they articulate their thoughts and their emotions and their worries and their anxieties and their depressions. Hear the tangible words, get some feedback that, you know what, we hear you, we see you, we understand you and what you're feeling is validated and it's A-OK. Yes. How do we create community? How can we help each other out of this? And again, as you said, It could be the police or it could have been soldiers. It could be any number of other domains or disciplines that can learn the lessons that a home team brings to this space, specifically for athletes injured or current athletes or retired. Yeah. I mean, what we're calling this is a movement because we really want to bring people together. And to your point, community is healing. And if your listeners had seen me as you were speaking, I was nodding my head vigorously because I'm in it. I'm really in agreement with you, Jason. You know, this is, again, like I said, this is a fairly simple concept, but all you really need to do is just bring people together and naturally they are going to figure it out. Of course, we are guiding them in this instance, right? We, all of the people in the collab are former athletes. That's one of the things that makes us unique because they have an understanding of what the athletes have, are going through. And so there's a way that we can offer that resonance and we can offer that attunement and just that level of understanding of, yes, we get you, and you are not alone. It's extremely healing to know that other people are going through this and that you're not crazy. No, no, that this is completely normal to feel this. It's completely normal, yeah. One of the things, you know, you brought up the military again, and I just remembered what I was going to say, is that the thing that's not normal is that these transition resources don't exist. There is, again, it's a systemic failure on the people in our communities, you know, on the athletes and on the military veterans and on the police officers, because these people are going into the real world, quote unquote, and they are, you know, they are going into the working world. They are going into their communities. They are having families and they are struggling. And. We can resolve this by very simply acknowledging that this is an issue and meeting the issue through basic human connection. And that in and of itself provides an insular experience of resilience. I mean, just when you're with other people, you have resilience in the group. So looking ahead, you know, what's your hope for the next generation of athletes or for anyone who's struggling with identity or mental health or emotional well-being or just resilience? Yeah. I mean, all of those things, I hope, you know, improve throughout the world. My hope, and I think that we are seeing this come true. My hope is that the people today continue down the path of exploring their own mental health and that they understand that they are connected. We're all interconnected. And, you know, a failure that I may experience or that somebody else has experienced is a group-wide failure. Is it sort of systemic? Well, it is for the athletes. Yes, it is a systemic problem because every athlete retires and every athlete who goes into retirement does not have support or has not had support. So, you know, with home team and this movement that we're creating, we want to change that, of course. But to go back to my hope is that the people of today continue to de-stigmatize mental health. And therefore, there's an increase to resources because they now have help-seeking behaviors. And if the people of today are doing that, then they're modeling for our younger athletes. And our younger athletes we see are actually really leading in this space because they are expecting mental health conversation. They're expecting to have support and resources. So in some way, because they're growing up in a culture that is less stigmatized, they're kind of pushing the envelope in some way. But what's going to happen is that these younger athletes will become tomorrow's coaches. They will become tomorrow's leaders. They will become tomorrow's adults in the world. And they then will carry that impact to the younger people that they are engaging with. So my hope is that we continue to de-stigmatize things so that the younger people can have an even greater impact that we're having today. Well, thanks for that, Emily. We're coming close to the top of the hour. If listeners were to walk away with just one message from you today, what would you want them to remember? I would want them to remember that they're not alone. and also I want them to know that when they are reaching out to other people because they're concerned or they see something that's off in there and somebody with somebody in their lives that it's very like talking about mental health and talking about suicide can feel like, a really big and scary topic, but the research shows. And, um, the reality is that it doesn't have to be a big and scary thing that all you have to do is just ask the person, how are they? Or, hey, I noticed something is off, you know, and just check in, just check in with the people in your lives and see how they're doing. And you may not know it at the time, but it will make a difference and you could save somebody's life. So, you know, that that's the singular message is one, well, maybe not singular, double message. You're not alone and just check in on the people that you care about and that are around you. Well, Emily, thank you very much for an eye-opening conversation today. I really appreciate your sharing your time, experience, and knowledge with us today. Yeah, of course. It's an honor to be here. Thank you for letting us share our story. And we really hope that this opens the eyes in terms of seeing how athletes are a human, just like the rest of us. And, um, for any athletes out there, for any parents out there, for any people in the athlete centered, uh, ecosystem, you're welcome to join out or to reach out anytime. I'll be sure to leave all your contact information in the show notes so people can reach out to you, Emily. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks again. Here's the insight i promised at the start of the episode what athletes need most when they retire isn't just structure or skills it's community a sense of community it's a place to feel understood to belong and to share the unspoken weight of transition that sense of connection is what makes the difference between isolation and healing. And it's something all of us can apply. Whether we're leaving a job, shifting roles, shifting positions, or simply just trying to find our footing again. And for any parents listening, this conversation is just as relevant to you. If you have a child competing in sports, remember that injuries, burnout, or sudden changes, well, it can pull them out of the game far earlier than expected. Episodes like this one can serve as a reminder to keep an eye, not just on their performance, but on their identity, their mental health, and their need for support when the structure of sport disappears. And that's why Emily's work with Home Team matters so much. She's building more than a resource hub. She's creating a space where athletes can be seen as people first. Emily, a big thank you for your openness, your honesty, and for putting words to experiences many keep in silence. For you listening, think about one person in your life who might be going through a transition such as this. Reach out. Remind them that they're not alone. And if this conversation resonates, share it with someone who might benefit. And don't forget to follow the podcast so you don't miss future episodes. Because these are the kinds of conversations, well, they're the kind of conversations that help us grow stronger from the inside out. And with that, I'll see you next time. And until then, keep well, keep strong, and we'll speak soon.