It's an Inside Job

From Pro Athlete to Purpose: Abiola Wabara on Reinvention and Resilience

• Jason Birkevold Liem • Season 8 • Episode 31

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“Basketball was something that I did, not who I was.” — Abiola Wabara

When your main identity suddenly ends—whether it’s on the court or in the corner office—how do you rediscover purpose and rebuild a sense of self that feels whole again?

Former professional basketball player Abiola Wabara  shares how she rebuilt her identity after retirement and injury. This episode explores life transitions, identity reinvention, and emotional resilience, offering practical strategies for anyone redefining who they are beyond their career.

Key Takeaway Insights & Tools

  • [00:10:46] The Identity Gap: When a structured identity collapses—like an athlete’s retirement—the real challenge is answering “Who am I without my title?” Recognize that your career is something you do, not who you are.
  • [00:12:34] Create a Creative Anchor: Abiola rediscovered her sense of self through painting. A creative outlet outside of your profession can become a “fulfillment-proof” identity anchor that keeps you grounded during transition.
  • [00:24:31] The Humility Reset: Taking “in-between” jobs like driving Uber or working as an interpreter taught Abiola humility, adaptability, and empathy—skills that later shaped her leadership and entrepreneurship.
  • [00:21:00] Stay Connected When Sidelined: During injury recovery, she remained valuable to her team by becoming a vocal supporter and advisor. This reframing—from sidelined to supportive—kept her connected and purposeful.
  • [00:31:37] Build a Support Ecosystem: Abiola’s platform Global Life and its companion Global Pass help athletes transition through career resources, mental health support, and community—lessons that apply to anyone facing reinvention.
  • [00:43:56] Reinvention Through Learning: Find mentors who stretch your thinking, stay humble, and ensure you’re never the smartest one in the room. Growth happens in rooms that challenge you.
  • [00:47:41] The Mental Health Check: Seeking therapy isn’t weakness—it’s maintenance. Abiola treats monthly therapy sessions as “sanity checks” to stay grounded and self-aware.

Bio

Abiola Wabara is a former professional basketball player turned entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of GloBall Life, a tech-driven ecosystem designed to help athletes successfully transition to life beyond the game.

A Baylor University National Champion and Italian National Team member, Abiola played professionally across Europe for over a decade before earning her Master’s in International Business Management from the University of East London. After retiring from basketball, she joined Accenture, where she honed her expertise in digital strategy, product innovation, and human-centered design.

Today, she’s leveraging those experiences to build GloBall PASS (Planning after sport success) —an AI-powered platform that equips athletes with the tools, community, and confidence to plan what’s next.

Website:  https://www.globalllife.com/

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

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/globall_life/

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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. I'm your host, Jason Lim. Now, imagine investing over a decade in a single, highly structured identity, only to have it disappear in a single moment due to injury? The practices, the camaraderie, the whole routine is gone, leaving a profound sense of who am I now? So here's a question to consider. When your primary identity ends, whether it's on the court or in the corner office, how do you successfully find and step into a new fulfilling purpose in that vacuum between chapters? That's the exact challenge mastered by our guest, Abiola Wabara. She is the founder and CEO of Global Life. Now, Abiela Sojourn began as an Italian-raised NCAA national champion who spent years playing professional basketball across Europe. During her final season in the UK, she strategically secured her master's degree sponsorship from her team. But when four surgeries on her right knee forced her into retirement, and well, she traded the basketball court for an intense identity crisis. So in this episode, you're going to walk away with a number of strategies and a number of insights. But among those is a universal strategy for translating your performance identity skills, like discipline, teamwork, resilience, into a compelling narrative for any professional field. Also, the critical need to find a creative separate outlet that provides a fulfillment-proof sense of self, independent of your job title, your professional role. We're also going to be covering why embracing humility and seeking out in-between experiences can be the most powerful way to reconnect with community and to redefine your personal value. And stick with me to the very end, because Abiola is going to share the single most powerful realization she had. The idea that basketball was something I did, not who I was. And how this perspective shifts allows you to view any major transition, not as a loss, but as a massive opportunity. We all flux between chapters. And when one ends and the other one begins, well, it's in that transition that, well, many of us get stuck. Many of us can't find traction. And so now let's slip into the stream and meet Abiola Wabara. Abiola, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Could we kick off by you introducing who you are and what you do? Sure. My name is Abiola Wabara. I am the founder of Global Life and by day I am a product manager, digital consultant, and I am a retired professional basketball player. Thank you for that. This is, as you know, in our pre-interview, this is part of the series looking into the world of athletics, the mindset, the emotional well-being, and that transition from athlete to, I guess, civilian per se. And I'd like to explore your story because it really hit home to me, your story and how it has influenced you and where you find yourself in the present day. Could you rewind back and just inform our listeners, well, just tell your story to where what is what you did and what sort of has transpired since then? Yeah, no, absolutely. And yeah, that's definitely a topic that is near and dear to me as well. So definitely happy to share about it. So I'm actually originally from Italy. I was born and raised there. So I left after graduating high school to come to the U.S. for the dream of playing in college basketball. So I came, I did that. I was lucky enough that I ended up having a wonderful experience winning a national championship, which is way more than what I was expecting out of the deal. And through that experience, I realized that I will be playing a little longer so that once I graduated, I decided to continue playing and play professionally. And I started off by playing my first year. My first three years, I played in Israel. Then I moved around, went to Hungary, Spain, back to Italy for a few years, and I was also a member of the Italian national team. And then I finished my career by playing in the UK. And that was a strategic move on my part, meaning that at the time, the British League wasn't as strong as it is today. And... You know, it was a little bit different than what the leagues I was used to playing into, but I knew that some teams had relationship with universities. So I actually emailed the coach of the team that I end up playing for and asked him if, you know, it would be willing to pay for my master's if I play for him in lieu of paying me a salary that I knew that the budget wasn't there for and it wouldn't be what I'm used to. And he did that so I was able to use you know basketball in my advantage to at least give me some type of leverage for what was coming next because I knew that was going to be my last year playing and so I got my master's in international business management and once I was done that's when that's when reality hit that okay I don't play basketball anymore but I really don't know what to do with his masters don't know what to do next um don't know how my basketball skills translate um because if i were to put together a resume all he would say would be played here played here played here and i didn't know how to translate those skills um so as a plan b, i decided to uh enroll or at least um take the lsat and see if i can get into law school. And I actually got accepted and I wasn't prepared for that either because it was just me, testing the waters just to see like okay let's see if this is something I could do and I was not expecting to get accepted and I did but I deferred for a year because I wanted to give myself at least a chance to get a job without going into student debt so that was the beginning of that transition phase that I realized I was not prepared for and so you played 10 years pro ball and then, or maybe a little longer. And then you shifted because you just retired, not because of injury, but out of choice and, It was a choice driven by injury. So my knees were at the point where I couldn't longer play at the level that I expected of myself. My play was very, very driven by my athleticism. And I was I was able to be as athletic and as active as I used to be because of injuries. My right knee, I had four surgeries. And yeah, so at that point, it was really letting me know that, look, you're in your 30s now. and we're not functioning as well as we used to. So I had to start making some strategic moves to plan to get out of my term and not to be like a career-ending injury. But it was driven by injury, you know, knocking at the door at that point. And it sounds like you had the whole structure as an athlete. You have a whole infrastructure that's built around your career and a sense of community. And that's what I've learned from previous interviews. I mean, when you decided to retire, how did the first few weeks of retirement feel to you? I mean, when did you realize the structure is gone? Maybe you can walk us through your kind of mindset there and that sort of transition. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty depressing, if I'm being honest. And then aside from the structure, because obviously as an athlete, especially as a pro athlete, you have a schedule. You know, you have practice at this time. You know, you might have lunch at this time, you might have team lunch or team dinner because, you know, sometimes they try to have some bonding experiences. But you have a day that's pretty set around your working schedule, which is your practices and your games. But also from a being a functional adult perspective perspective. Everything is done for you. Right. If I have a secret, I will call my manager. Hey, I don't feel well. Can you please send the doctor to the house? Or, you know, when I play on a different team, they give me a car. I'm assuming that comes with insurance because I never had to go and ship for insurance, shop for insurance. Right. Or pay for it. Everything comes given to you. So I found myself being an adult that was not functioning in an adult manner because I never had to. And so that was one thing that was, that was a wake up call, um. Because there were certain things that I realized that, wait, why don't I know this? Oh, because I never had to do it myself. Or, you know, also being alone all of a sudden, right? And this might sound really, really weird. But when you have a locker room of friends and things like that, even just something silly as taking a shower while having a conversation with someone else. Now you're taking a shower at home and it's always you. And it's not about the shower per se, but it was just that was a camaraderie. That was another situation where it's like the locker room is bonding with your teammates, being silly, talking about anything. And now you find yourself being alone with every single thing that you do versus before you always had. At least, you know, basketball is a team sport. So you always had a teammate or two because sometimes your teammates are not your friends. They're just your colleagues. But most of the times you make friendships that are long, like lifelong and they become sisterhood. And it becomes lonely when the first when you first get out of that structure because now it's really just you so this mental shift from intense structured team lifestyle to being alone and building your own schedule i mean that must have been huge i've never experienced something like that maybe when i was you know a younger adult and i moved from home to university for first time there's a big shift there but i don't think that's anything compared to what you're talking about, So what would you say the biggest mindset hurdle was that you faced? Was it the loneliness, the, I don't want to say isolation, just being by yourself or was it something else? I think it was more so, for me, it was more so something else because I was lucky enough to where some of my best friends were also basketball players. And, you know, I went to college with them. So they were here in Houston. So we were able to get together. Like, I would literally just go sit on their couch in the middle of the day because we didn't have jobs, you know. So at least we were commiserating together. But I think the biggest shift for me was really trying to figure out who I was because I was so used to saying, hey, who are you? Oh, I'm a basketball player. but now who are you at Biola that used to play basketball like I was trying to figure out what else I could tie my identity to and I think the biggest shift was realizing that basketball was something that I did not who I was but it felt like who I was for the longest because that's all I had put my you know put all of my you know effort and passion and and just sweat and tears into up until that point and so that i think that was the biggest shift for me trying to figure out who i was without basketball again there's a common denominator here talking to the other athletes it's the same thing they have this it wasn't the only identity but it was the dominant. Identity that was housed in their head and in your case abio the elite pro ball player basketball and such i mean maybe we've covered a little this already but how did you navigate this inevitable identity crisis is that I guess that comes with losing that dominant defining title yeah so I think one thing that helped me is I'm a very ambitious and curious person so while playing I will find other things to. To explore so i i always like painting that's something i was done since i was a kid, and um and that was something that i could do regardless to what team what country i was in so i remember my second year playing in israel i went to find a art studio that was offered by a local artist to learn how to paint with oil because up until that point i only painted in acrylics, so art was something that i was able to use as a mind shift because for example when i play basketball I'm very I was a very very aggressive basketball player like defensive player right but personality wise I'm very soft-spoken I'm very chill I'm not an aggressive person and painting was something that would help me decompress and kind of come back to who I am as a you know as a human being as an athlete. And over time, I started realizing that a lot of people liked my artwork. And at first, I always thought, no, you like it just because you're a basketball fan. I'm not really that good and things like that. But they actually, a lot of the fans encouraged me to start showing my artwork. So when I played in Italy, I actually had my first solo show. So now I'm the artist, basketball player and artist, because now every country I go and play to, somehow they knew that. And so that was something that helped me see that I had more to offer as far as who I was. By adding another talent that I wasn't really sharing with anyone before until, you know, I got that boost of confidence for folks, from people around me. Because when we look at art, you know, you know, art is very individual, of course, how we see something. Everyone can see the exact same thing. I like sketching. I do a lot of sketching. And sometimes what I sketch doesn't really look like what it is in reality. But it's my interpretation on that, just using a light hand, right? Pen and ink. But would you say the art was a vehicle for you to kind of heal, to expand the flexibility of how you defined yourself or your self-worth? Oh, 100 percent. Yes, I would definitely say so, because I was able to create a space that was just mine, like my interpretation, my creation, my timing. Um that was a time where i like so i'm i'm pretty introvert i like to call myself a functional introvert like i can be around people but i'm functioning introvert yeah but i need to you know step away and recharge and the art the painting that was my recharge that was my plugging in the battery for alveola and just get back to to be whole again so i would say that art was definitely a good a good escape for me to start feeling something other than I'm no longer art I'm no longer a basketball player or I'm no longer this or the other art can be an escape it can be a form of healing a form of therapy because, We can process emotions and thoughts through paintbrush or through pen or through sculpting and such. I think it's a very healthy endeavor. But you, Biola, you've been painting since you said you were a little girl. But at some point, was it in Israel when you went from acrylics to, I think you said, oil painting, that you started embracing more of the artist's identity? I guess what I'm asking is a two-part question. for the artist and you was always there, but you didn't really identify with that part. It was just a hobby. But then somewhere along the line, it became a more dominant part of your identity. Yeah, I would say I don't think it was Israel per se. That was still more a hobby and me like learning how to use oil and falling in love with it. I think the first time I felt like an artist was when I was playing in Spain, because when they did the beginning of the year, I always do, you know, different teams do an article to introduce the new team and things like that and so when they did the article introducing me they they took pictures of some of the paintings that i had made while i was in spain so they introduced me as the uh basketball player artist and i was like oh i like that so i'm actually an artist now and that was kind of how that yeah solidified for me just seeing pictures of my artwork on the newspaper. In spain that's incredible that's incredible so do you still have art shows and such every occasionally i do yeah not as much as i used to um because i've been immersing myself into trying to build a global life but i did uh a show last two weeks ago um because october 1st was nigerian independence day so they have a nigerian festival because houston is the biggest population of nigerians outside of nigeria so they had a festival and there were you know different vendors and i was invited to be one of the vendors for art so i had a few pieces there for that, great well congrats for that if we could just rewind back to your pro days when as you said you've received some injuries and such and you were i guess out for a period of time, did those injuries how did that those injuries affect you when you couldn't play ball. That's a good question. So the majority of the long term not playing injury happened in college. And that was actually really tough because that was my first time living in the U.S., like living home. And the culture shock was incredible. But not being able to play made it even more so isolating because now I really don't want to be here. Now I don't like it. Like I'm not playing. I'm not having fun with basketball. It's this weird country. Um i don't understand some of the slang because you know i grew up speaking british english so i didn't know half of what anyone was saying and so the injury made it made it harder to bond with my teammates initially because i was on the sideline i wasn't traveling with the team, but you know that didn't last very long obviously like obviously i stayed there for four years right So I end up like that. But I think that was the the first time that I felt a little bit isolated, even though I was in a team. Every other injury that came after that, I already knew majority of my team or was, you know, I was I think I was in Italy most of the time. So, you know, I didn't have as much of a. Gap or I didn't feel isolated but also the the recovery time was a lot shorter so I knew I was going to go back and play I knew I was going to join the team soon enough so I think the yeah missing out my freshman year I didn't play my freshman year because of injury that was that was the isolating I was an isolated experience did it kind of again this may be a stretch of a question I'll be all about but do you feel it affected your sense of self-worth or who you were when you were laid up you know recuperating oh yeah um because one thing that i was afraid of was i wonder if i'm gonna keep my scholarship now that i'm hurt like i'm like am i gonna get kicked off the team because i'm hurt i can't play so i didn't necessarily know how the. Program that the system worked process was yeah how it worked so i didn't know that you know that's on i mean technically when you get a scholarship the coach got inside that and actually didn't want you back they can this they can receive the scholarship at any time but obviously there's also a human aspect behind it but technically they could but i didn't know how that worked so i was very nervous because i had torn my acl in italy before going over back to a plane and so when i emailed the coach i was like oh my god i hurt myself i'm so sorry i don't know that's fine just worry about the paperwork to come to school then he's gonna heal we have you know we're gonna do rehab and things like that and then when i did come to school i had to have another surgery in the same knee so I missed the first year and yeah I was afraid I was going to be left behind I wouldn't be as athletic as I was before the surgery that I wouldn't be able to help my team I wouldn't be able to play I wouldn't become a starter like those are all things that I'm thinking about that I felt like I didn't sacrifice to come here to sit on the bench I didn't sacrifice to come here and not play so that first year was a little tough and definitely had thoughts about quitting a few times. Sure. So, I mean, there may be some listeners here, some of our young athletes who are part of the team right now. Are just starting and maybe they're not injured or maybe they are injured. I mean, what were some of the skills or the mental tips that you use to try to stay on top of the uncertainty, to stay on top of the doubt or the lowering of self-worth when you were dealing with so many questions? Yeah. I think one thing that I will say is finding other ways to be useful to your team, right that become the biggest cheerleader become the loudest one on the bench um i don't know give tips on to a teammate like you now you're looking at the game from the outside looking in so maybe start thinking like a coach i don't i'm not a coach i have zero coaching desires but at that point like i don't know if my teammate is taking a shot under the bathroom like hey i think that shot would have been better if you kept the ball up instead of bringing it down and then up or things like that, I think that shows, A, that you are there for the right reasons, right? Like you are a teammate. You're not selfishly just thinking about, oh, I can't play, so I don't care about what's going on here. You still find a way to make yourself a good teammate, find yourself coachable by your coaches because you're still doing rehab. You're still working out and you need to make sure that you do that in a way that will get you back on the court. So I think those will be the two things. Just be coachable and be a good teammate. Be present, even if it feels heavy that you can do the things that you would like to do. Still be, you know, a shoulder for your teammates that are going through it. And I guess instead of just you are, in a sense, sitting on the sideline at the same time, what I understand is that you're pulling yourself into the community. You're being proactive to be part of the community, even though you can't be on, you know, bouncing the ball on the court. You can still be part of their supporting. Is that what I understand? A hundred percent. Yes. Yeah. OK. OK. Yes. Because, I mean, you're still part of the team, right? You're just not on the floor, but you are on the sideline so you can cheer your hands work so you can clap your hands. You can yell, you can do everything that makes you part of the team. And, you know, encouraging your teammates is a big aspect. Because honestly, there are 12 people on the bench. Three or four of them probably never play, even if they have never been injured. And they're still, you know, they're still teammates. They still work out hard. They still do the same thing. So when you're injured, you pretty much become a bench fixture. So how do you make yourself a good teammate? So that's what I think. When you were in there, did you ever, was it just more, did you ever feel any depression or anxiety or anything during these years? Or was that something that really never sat with you? It was just more sort of the mood you've been articulating or describing? Yeah, definitely not depression. Maybe a little bit of anxiety more so, like I said, as far as, oh man, am I going to be able to get back to my full athletic abilities? Will I play? Will I be a starter? will I still have an impact on this team? So that was more of a, yeah, on the personal side, more of an anxiety there, but... Depression, I think that came once I retired. That was something I experienced after everything was said and done. Okay. So I'd like to, again, back to the future, forward a little to the point of your retirement. In our pre-interview, you talked about how starting over requires immense humility. I was wondering if you could elaborate and speak to that. Yes. Yes. So definitely that was one big lesson, right? Because at that point, after playing for 10 plus years, I was never like a superstar on any team, but I was always a player that, you know, I had my individual accolades, won a lot. I've started on every team I ever played on. So I was a teammate, a player that coaches respected and that was needed. And now, you know, and I was good at what I did. Right. And now all of a sudden I'm finding my place, myself in a place where I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm definitely not good at it. And so I had to humble myself. Right. My first year after retirement and after getting my master's, I was literally just driving Uber. I was a personal trainer at Equinox, 24 hour fitness. I was selling artwork at any art market I could find. So I really had to take a step back and realize I was doing jobs that were not necessarily on my list of what I will be doing after basketball for sake of, you know, bills don't stop just because I'm not playing anymore. I still have bills. But so I had to humble myself to be able to do these jobs, especially like Uber, for example. That was a big struggle for me because I hate driving and I hate small talk. And that's literally all it is. And it was it was really tough that there were some days I was like, please come on this car. Don't talk to me. Like it was not. Yeah. And I think that's the first time I experienced a little bit of anxiety. Yeah. And there was another job that I took. I was an interpreter, over-the-phone interpretation from Italian to English for medical banking, things like that, and absolutely hated that job because I was a robot. I was just repeating what someone was saying in one language to the other, and it didn't require a lot of mental abilities, which is something I pride myself into. And that was another humbling experience because I applied for this job. I have a master. I've been a champion all my life, and my coworkers don't even have a high school diploma. Right? And not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but in my mind, I'm like, dang, I didn't need to do all of that for this job, right? So I had to humble myself in the sense of remove myself from the situation, just think about what the goal of this is. And for me, the goal was having these jobs that were not committal to give me a chance to find a job that I wanted to actually be in, which did happen while driving over. So what did you learn about yourself from, you know, selling art at, you know, small art fairs, driving Uber, being a translator, working as a personal trainer? I mean, all of these, all these jobs, they provided some level of income. So, as you said, so I could pay my bills. But what did you learn about yourself, you know, moving laterally from these sort of side hustles? So one thing I did learn is I... I relate to people well. Even though I'm not a people person, I relate to people well. I am able to meet you where you're at. And I think basketball has a big part of that, right? Because especially from playing internationally, you know, I'm able to relate with you from a cultural perspective. If you are from a different country, I'm able to relate with you from an age perspective because, I don't know, I feel like as athletes, I feel like we are younger, a lot longer in our minds. So I think what I find out It was my relationship to people At every different levels of Where they are in life, where they are Economically, where they have educationally I don't find myself Feeling that I'm bigger or Smaller than any one person. And I think that was the biggest Lesson for me because up until that time I was Being around peers, right Yes And I really had to find out what Other folks, what being around other folks felt like or what type of conversation i could have with someone else and so these experiences while some of them more painful than others like small talking uber definitely taught me that and it was it was fun um because one cool example while driving uber this man came in the car and he couldn't speak english and his name sounded italian but it could being you know spanish or portuguese or whatever so i was like okay try speak your language to me and see what happens so it was brazilian so he spoke portuguese and i found out i understood it because i speak spanish i speak italian i did not speak portuguese but i understood what he said so i was like okay we can we can communicate yeah that's really short it was a famous artist in brazil so we exchanged information we actually met for coffee at the museum in houston and he was never something that I would see myself do while playing basketball because I never had to be in a position so that to me was okay look at me being you know open and meeting people and just yeah be more relatable so I think that was a big lesson for me. Now, before we dive into the second half of my conversation with Abiola, I want to anchor the three most crucial, practical takeaways she shared with us for anyone facing a major life pivot. The first is this, cultivate an identity anchor. In the case of Abiola, she just didn't pick up a hobby. She developed her painting to deliberately reconnect with her true personality and away from her on-court identity. The insight here is to find a creative outlet that is completely separate from your career, providing a more fulfillment-proof sense of self. Second point is the humility reset. She took jobs like driving for Uber or working as a translator. This required significant humility but became invaluable. It forced her to engage and relate to people without the shield of her professional athletic title. The lesson? Embrace the in-between jobs because they can build community skills that matter more than any title. And third, strategic contribution during downtime. Abiela's approach to injuries was to avoid isolation by becoming the biggest cheerleader and offering strategic advice from the bench. This taught her how to stay valuable and connected to the team even when she couldn't perform. A skill critical for anyone transitioning in a professional environment. Now, these three elements, the anchor, the humility reset, and the strategic contribution, well, they are the foundations for navigating the toughest parts of identity loss. Now, let's slip back into the stream for the second part of my conversation with Abiola Guabara. I'd like to segue in in in our conversation now towards your current initiative global life as global life but global life could you tell us a little more about it and what brought you to the point where thinking yeah this is what i want to start creating yeah absolutely um so global life started off as a idea when I first retired funny enough it was completely different initially like the idea was something that no longer exists now but over time it shifted because during my transition to life after sports I realized that I didn't know what I didn't know but also I didn't know where to go and find those answers to the things I didn't know right I mean yes I could google a lot of things but they were not tailored to me as an athlete I was like if I'm looking for a job. Me, person that played basketball for 10 years versus person that had different jobs that lead up to the job they're looking for is a very different experience, right? So me competing with general population, we're getting a job, they will have the right information on their resume to obviously be ahead of me. And so I was trying to figure out, OK, this can't possibly be just me. So I started doing interviews like similar to what we're doing now, like a little short podcast, talking to other athletes and asking them about their experience. And pretty much it was a broken record. We all had the same experience over and over and over. And that was the that was the validation for me that we needed to build something that was specific for athletes to help us transition to life after sports by giving the right resources and access to those resources in a very simple way. Like I wanted to create a platform that provided 360 degree support to the athlete so that you don't have to go and search like high and low for how do I build my resume when it's only sports or what type of jobs actually will hire me knowing I don't have this much experience and things like that. So that was the catalyst of me wanting to build global life. Because it's needed that we just, yeah, I feel like there are more avenues now that are tailored to helping athletes. And I feel because sports is becoming a lot more popular. But, you know, this concept is being in the making for the past eight years, really. But it's past two years is where I implemented a technology aspect to make it what I'm hoping it will become moving forward. Yeah, because I see a lot of sort of similarities to people who've been in a particular job that could be 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 years. All of a sudden, for whatever reason, they've moved on, they've transitioned, and they haven't had to apply for a job. And it's all of these questions. Okay, well, how do I build a CV? How do I build a resume? Where do I go? Where do I start looking for jobs? Because I haven't had to do for two decades. In those ecosystems, yes, there are a lot of services that can supplement and help people to answer those questions. But as athletes, as you said, everything was done for me. When I was sick, I'd call the coach. They sent a doctor. They'd give me a car, and I had expected there would be insurance. I didn't have to think about all that. And why would you? It's all about training and performance and recovery. And then bang, it's poof, it all disappears and you're standing there by yourself. And again, I've never experienced anything to that level. So the resources sound very important. So this could be building resumes. It could be, where do I go for this? What other sort of key resources or sources of information does your global life provide? Provide yeah so the way we created it we wanted to make sure it was a intersection of human centered and technology right because everything is going towards technology now but i feel like humans are still needed for certain things so we have a list of vetted service providers that the athletes can reach out to on the platform and it's literally like a marketplace that will see the provider based on what they need so we have financial education mental health. Career coaches, resume building, interview coaching and entrepreneurship because not everyone wants a job. Some people might want to start their own business and they need to know how, right? So that's like the people that can reach out to. Then on the other end, we're building relationships with companies that are actively looking to hire athletes. So what we're trying to do is build this relationship. They will post jobs on our platform knowing that the audience is 100% athletes. So the athletes can apply to jobs, knowing that they're not competing with general population, but they're competing with other athletes, but they know that the company in itself is aware that they have a diverse background and they might not have all the same experience, but they come with specific skill set like leadership and resilience that they are looking for. So those are the main two pillars. And then on the third side, we are trying to partner with universities for college athletes to help them that transition. Because even if you don't go pro, those four to six years that you play college in sports, that's a job. While regular students go and do internships during the summertime, you're a trainer. You know, when most athletes go home during winter break, literally campus is all athletes in the winter break because everyone else goes home and whatever you are training. So being able to build a relationship with universities to support the athletes after the transition to be a more of like an alumni support system. Right. Because you want to have, you know, your athletes should be successful when they're done. And not just because they were good on the field, but okay, thank you for your service and goodbye. I don't think that's the best model. But thank you for your service and this is how we will continue supporting you. That's what we're trying to put together with them. I think that's a brilliant resource. It's a brilliant idea where it's a one-stop shop where you can help as fundamental as building a resume to searching what do I need to build a business as an entrepreneur? How do I financially educate myself? and it becomes a central hub where people can network and connect. And I love the idea of the universities or corporations or organizations that are specifically in the market for athletes to bring them on board. And it's a one-stop shop. That's the only way I can call it. I think it's a great central location. So that's global life. But then you've also talked about global paths. Yeah. So Global Pass is planning after sports success. So specifically the platform where all of these things are happening. So Global Life is the overall company, right, with the different resources and, you know, blogs and things like that. But Global Pass is the ecosystem. So that's the technology piece. There is the ecosystem where the athletes can create a profile. They will have a roadmap and this roadmap will show you what steps to take based on what your goals are. So if your goal is, I want to do better with my money and I want to get a job, now we'll know, okay, financial education and career coaching are your two main priorities. So we'll give you a suggestion based on that. We'll recommend the service provider you should talk to for career coaching, talk to Emily. She's one of our service providers and she can help you with these initial steps. You have a job interview, you want to practice. This is who you should talk to to have a mock interview and things like that. So the Global Pass is the platform within Global Life. And right now it's only a web application, but our goal is to create a phone app so that you can, you know, work on, do things on the go, like get notification. If a new job pops up, you can see it right away and things like that. So it's definitely a work in progress. The global, would that suggest it's open to all athletes or is it more athletes from the states? It's open to all athletes. We are starting in the States just because we're located here. So we have some advisors from different places. So one of our advisors is between Texas and Mexico. And so he's been letting us know that you know there's a lot of opportunities in argentina for example so hopefully south america will be our next immediate next pipeline but the the idea is to be global right and that was part of the play on you know global yeah i really liked it that's why i had to emphasize the ball part we want to be we want to be able to help athletes everywhere because it's the same it doesn't matter where you're from or you know what level is the same experience. Once you are an athlete and that's all you're focusing on, the experience is very similar across the board. So your work bridges purpose, identity, and impact. And so from the perspective, if I was a young athlete or an athlete coming out of my back into civilian life, what would you say, Abiola, is the single most important lesson you'd want an athlete who's planning their next move, what do you think is the most important for them to internalize right now? I think it's two things. One, you're not alone in this because it feels like a very lonely process and you start to feel like you're not smart enough or like you just don't know anything and you're just worthless. No, it's not a you problem. It's just a, we are not set up for success afterwards. So one, I would say you are not alone in this. So do not think that you are the problem because you're not. And then the second thing I would say is, Start thinking about what else keeps you up at night, what else gets you excited outside of your sports while you're playing. Because I feel like it will help the transition afterwards. And I think nowadays, especially with social media and stuff like that, a lot of athletes already start to brand themselves. So they have an idea of, oh, I want to be in fashion. I want to be in this and that. So those things can help propel the transition forward once you are done, because it's something that you're already passionate about. Because it's really hard to find a next career that's going to make you feel as high as you do during your sport. Yeah. But maybe if you can start thinking about it while you're playing, what else I'm excited about? Oh, I'm excited about playing with dogs. Oh, maybe I want to start a rescue or maybe I want to work at a training center for dogs. Things like that. I think that would help. I think reinvention is going to be a word that more and more of us are going to have to adopt and understand what that means. Because as technology, machine learning, AI, everything comes online in the next decade. Two years, five years, 10 years span, a lot of people will find themselves being forced to transition or wanting to transition. And it is about reinventing. And so what you're addressing, you may be at the forefront per se, specifically focused on athletes per se, or retired athletes. But I think this is going to be something that many of us are going to have to be thinking about in the coming years, if not the coming months, as fast as machine learning is moving into our world, into our ecosystem. Yeah, no, absolutely. I find myself now having to try and carve time to learn more about product management with AI and things like that, right? Because it's part of my day-to-day job. And so I agree with what you're saying, that reinvention is going to be a big thing for a lot of people. So if we just hovered on that for a second, reinvention because maybe there is a better word but that's what i'm pulling up right now so it's staying humble it's also being cognizant to other passions other things that kind of light your fire what else do you think from your own experience abhiola that has helped you shift to a more constructive mindset in order to reinvent yourself as you have. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think one big thing is finding people that you trust, finding mentors and making sure that you're not the smartest one in the room. Right. Because if you are, you are in the wrong room, run, because there's no way you should be the smartest one in the room. So for me, reinventing myself was also trying to find people that were where I wanted to be and ask them, how did you get there? And just start learning and just kind of get pulled like breadcrumbs from different different directions to carve my path literally like great on the hands so just get okay a piece of bread from you thank you and just start making like my little path towards my my direction um but yeah that would that would be my biggest thing is you can learn something from anyone even like even a kid can teach you something right my thing is make sure you pick up on what they're putting down right like be open to learn be able to be open to learn from anyone and make sure that if you are in a room that at that point you feel like you know i'll learn everything in this room i'm the smartest one okay no go find another room that would be my my that my yeah my suggestion on how to reinvent yourself and how i did it for myself thank you for that this may be a little bit of a curveball question and i don't know if it's something you can answer usually we have to be in a buoyant mindset. We need to be at some sort of level mindset where we can start thinking about new opportunities and possibilities. But when our identity is being kind of erased per se, as we make a transition and we're in the middle of chapter or we're in the in between of chapters of our life, you know, we can be, as you've articulated today, you can be plagued by uncertainty and loneliness. Is your platform, Global Life, a place where an athlete can go to help them work out some of these wet balls of string to try to tease things apart to find direction, Yeah. So that's why I wanted to make sure that we had a mental health pillar. Right. Because I feel it's really important. Like my transition, I think, was the first time I went to a mental health provider to just talk through things because life was getting a little dark. And so that was the first time I felt the need. Actually, it was probably one of the first time I actually believed in what depression was because you hear about it. But OK, you're sad because you cannot understand what someone is saying. Right. But once you leave it, once you experience it, oh, now I get it, it's beyond sadness. There's something that you cannot explain and it's hard to put yourself out of it. So that was my first time going to therapy. So I wanted to make sure that having service providers that were licensed therapists are included on our platform because it's important to be able to get that support. And additionally to that while it's not implemented yet but we are looking to build a um like a community right some sort of um um what's the word i'm looking for here some sort of um board. Where athletes can fight themselves they can create your group you can find you know if you want to meet other basketball players you want to meet other baseball players or you want to meet athletes in your state or your city you can start building those communities uh we don't have that yet because we wanted to focus on your core issues as an individual but we do realize that having that community aspect is also going to be important so that's it's on our it's not it's on our pipeline of things we want to add but it's not it hasn't been our main focus for now but that that would be yeah that's definitely what we want to make sure that we include as far as the services in you know the athlete as a whole like body mind and soul because all those things come with you whatever your phase of your life are. If we could just make a little shift here, I'd like to come back to yourself. How important it is, would you recommend to people to seek out, you know, mental professionals when they're kind of stuck with rumination or overthinking or negative thinking or just completely lost in the fog of uncertainty? It's very, very important. And I'm one of the stubborn ones. Like it really took some, I kind of scared myself. And I was like, you know what, let me just go talk to somebody because I don't know, this mood, I don't like it, it's scary. And it definitely was helpful. I feel like finding the right person is like dating. Not every mental health provider would be the right fit for you. Find out keep going until you find the person that feels feels like a safe space feels that you can you can express yourself in full someone that can understand your your journey right because not everyone has the same background you know um i have a therapist right now that i talk to her once a month and i'm not going through anything major at the moment but it's it's like a sanity check right like someone that i can go to you know bounce some ideas against just making sure that i'm keeping myself level-headed you know i'm i tend to overwhelm myself because i want to do everything under the sun so i have my job i have global life i have my art i have my dog it's like my child and she always asks me so what do you do for yourself and i think about it's like wait what do you mean it's like i go to the gym like no what do you do for you so she helps me kind of I take a step back and think about, OK, I do need to. Chill for a second and do something for Abiola and not just for global life or for my job or for my dog or for the art business like just for me and that's that's been helpful because I can I can run myself to the ground very easily um so all this to say that I think it is very important to find someone that you can talk to and you can feel comfortable doing so cheers thank for that uh last last question before we're coming to close to the top of the hour I'm very respectful of your time, Abiola. What is the key takeaway about life after sport that you want our listeners in our audience today to walk away with? Yeah, I think the biggest second way is that athletes are almost seen as shiny objects, right? While they're at their prime, they're the coolest thing, the best things in sliced bread. And once they're done, the shining just poof, disappears. Everyone forgets you exist right so imagine being that person right like all of a sudden your brightness is gone and and that takes a toll on you it's it's a hard place to be in and it's not talked about enough and you know the only time you hear about it is when it's the highlight on the news of you know athletes that became homeless or an athlete that you know had a mental crisis and they did something absolutely insane that is not out of the blue that's something that led up to that, but they did not have the support to be able to navigate life after sports. So I think, you know, if you have athlete in your life, the understanding of the stage is, you know, if they're lash out, it's not you, it's literally the internal battle with themselves, but also help, you know, younger athletes, um. Kids when they first start into sports, not to not become immersed into that sport in a way that takes away their identity, like find other things that. Will make you feel whole when everything is said and done because once the sports is done, it's hard. So that would be a thing that I would say that it's a pandemic, I guess I could call it, right? Because every single athlete goes through it, but we can get help and the help is there. That's a great way of describing it. And if one of our listeners want to reach out to you, Abiola, or to Global Life, what would be the best way they could reach you? Oh, yeah. You can find me on LinkedIn under Abiola Wabara. That would be the easiest. Or our Instagram is at global underscore life. And then globallife.com is our website. And then, yeah, and my email is on all of those platforms. So that would be the way we can find us. I'll make sure all those links are in the show notes. Abiola, I just want to say big kudos for your efforts out there to create community and resources for people who definitely need it. Thank you. And I appreciate it. And thank you so much for having me today. This was a great conversation. Thanks, Abiola. piano plays softly. If you've ever felt lost after a major career or life shift, I hope Abiola's story gives you the permission you need to be messy, to explore, and to redefine success on your own terms. We talked about everything from the challenges of her four knee surgeries to the crucial need for mental health support, which she calls monthly sanity checks. Now, the single most powerful shift in perspective Abiola shared, Well, the one that turned her transition from a struggle into more of a triumph is this. You must learn to embrace your ability to connect with others and view yourself as part of a larger community rather than continually comparing yourself to your former peers or your former self. Why does this matter? Because when you're comparing yourself, you're looking backward and judging your new path against an old fixed measure. But when you actively work to reconnect and connect and contribute the way she did driving Uber or working as an interpreter, you tap into the humility. Diverse experience and support that opens up entirely new doors she realized that basketball was something that i did not who i was and the lesson is you don't need to be the brightest shiny object anymore you need to be the most connected and contributing human per se a huge thank you to you abeola for sharing your time your vulnerability and the incredible work you're doing with global life and global past. Any one of us can get connected and fixated with a particular identity, a job, a title, whatever. And that becomes rigid and brittle. And if we cling too tight with it, if we don't increase the context of our identity, and that can leave us vulnerable in the worst sense. The idea of reinvention, of restarting, of increasing who we are, not linking our self-worth just to one identity. That's the essence of mental and emotional resilience. So I hope Abiola's story has really struck something, resonated, chimed with you, especially if you are in transition, that you find yourself in between chapters of your life. Because we all do, and that's completely normal. And sometimes it does take time, effort, investment to reconnect with ourselves and to find a new way forward. Folks, if this episode resonated with you, please hit that subscribe button so you don't miss our next conversation. And if you know someone navigating a pivot, a new job, a new city, a new phase of life, share this episode with them. It might be exactly what they need to hear. And until next time, keep well, keep strong, and we'll speak soon.

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Jason Birkevold Liem

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