The 3 G's to Success with Olympian Gold Medalist Leah O'Brien-Amico

Success doesn’t come easy. It takes a certain amount of courage, talent, passion and hardwork to achieve what you want in life. Joining with Kat and Lee Hughes in this episode is a softball legend Leah O'Brien-Amico - a 3-Time Olympic Gold Medalist,  a 2-time World Champion, a 2-time Pan American Games Champion, 3-time NCAA Champion, and was named NCAA woman of the year. She's an author, a Keynote speaker and an ESPN analyst for college softball. Here Leah talks about her journey to the Olympic Gold and shares that her passion, drive and self-motivation has helped her achieve a successful career in softball and in personal life. Listen as she shares her sports experiences and translates that into invaluable life lessons including the 3 G’s - goal, gameplan and giving  on living a wildly wealthy life. Being big in helping and serving others, she leaves a wonderful thought to ponder saying, “When you start to serve in line with what your heart is telling you, that's when life change happens”.

Transcript

Goals, Gameplan & Giving: 

The 3G’s to Success with Leah O’Brien-Amico

Today, we are having Leah O'Brien-Amico. She is a two-time world champion, a two-time Pan American Games champion, three-time NCAA champion, three-time Olympic gold medalist champion and was named NCAA woman of the year. She's currently a speaker and a motivational coach. She's an author, a mother, wife, and also an ESPN analyst for college softball. Just so excited. Leah, how are you today? 

I am doing great. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be with you all. 

Thanks for being with us. Leah, can you just kind of tell us a little bit overview of your journey to where you're at right now? 

I grew up playing both softball and soccer. I fell in love with both sports. I was just competitive. I was kind of a tomboy. I just loved the action and the hard work. When I was like 14 years old, my team won a big tournament. I remember thinking then “Okay, I want to be a collegiate athlete someday. I want to get a college scholarship.” That was like everything and I thought, “Okay, that's the means to the end” and so I just thought, “Okay, that was my goal.” I get to college, I end up playing and I'm thinking, “Okay, this is amazing. I'm getting my education paid for playing softball that I love.” And they had said at the end of my freshman year, they said in three years softball is going to be in the Olympics for the first time ever. Well, there I was 18 years old and that was my goal. I'm very big, I’m like “When you want a goal and you want to go after it", like believing it 100% and so that began my journey. I obviously continued playing on the Arizona softball team. We won a couple national championships. I had really good big tournaments at the Women's College World Series, I got a chance to play on that first ever Olympic softball team. There were about 70 women all different ages at that tryout, and I was one of fifteen names to that. That team has a 21 year old so I went on to compete in two more Olympics and got married in between the ‘96 and the 2000 Olympics, had a little boy in 2001 and then played when he was three years old on my last Olympic team. So I just loved telling women especially, “You can do it all like I was able to have my son and be a mom.” I was the first mom on Team USA. The cool part about that is once you see it done sometimes and you show the way others can follow, three other women on the next Olympic team for softball ended up being moms and competing in the Olympics. And so and so then I ended up having a couple more little boys. I did a little bit of high school coaching. I did softball clinics around the country, I still to this day  do that. I do a little bit of commentating with ESPN, they had contacted me, I speak all over the country and just many different avenues. And so really just a lot of different opportunities have come up from that foundation, you know, ultimately obviously being an Olympian, but more than that, just knowing that when you pour your heart and soul into something and you do it the right way and the way you treat other people, you know, usually that's going to give you connections and open a lot of other doors. 

That's awesome. I love the kickoff, was that from a state championship in high school?

Yes, I was 14 years old, a freshman in high school. And I'm telling you that literally set my path. 

What was it about that championship that released like resonated in your heart that just made everything possible and clear. 

I think for me, I had played in these tournaments locally in Southern California, I was on a really good team. I was a pitcher. So I had a big role in that. But I think for us going to a national tournament, and to me my eyes were kind of open like this is bigger than just my little area. And so we were playing, athletes from New York and Texas, and I loved how they had their accents or their big old bows you know, from Texas saying y'all and to me it was almost like, “Okay, this is bigger. This is bigger than just my little area.” And that I believe, just kind of having that bigger mindset, that growth mindset like “Wow, there might be more out there.” That was literally I think the difference maker to say, “Okay, now I have a bigger goal because I've experienced this.” 

Right. When you said that you poured your heart into it, you would just focus and all those things, was that more like innately just in you? Or what was your upbringing like that kind of allowed you to be that kind of child or young high school because not all of us are always that focused. What was your upbringing like? The values that maybe your parents have instilled in you to be able to have that mindset.

I feel like it's a combination. I feel like we all obviously have our own unique personalities, more self-driven. I feel like I'm very self motivated. It's funny, I have three boys, they're 13,14 and 18. And my 14 year old is the one that I can see is most likely in that internal drive. I feel like some people just have a little bit more but I played with athletes on the Olympic level who had a little bit of all of it. So I love that it's, you know, opportunities that are there for everybody on how hard you want to work.

My parents, what I am so thankful for and what I want to bring to other people that I share with and talk to, is that they saw a talent and a gift that I had and a drive, a passion for it to work hard. So at a young age, when I was eight years old, they started getting me into personal lessons, mentoring, you know how important that is. And when that happened, because I loved it and they gave me that opportunity,  I just took to that. So I'll never forget standing on the gold medal podium in my first Olympics, I'm 21 years old and I get this metal place around my neck and I immediately turned to where my mom, dad, sister and brother and my baby nephew who is one year old sitting with tears in my eyes and waving and thinking if it wasn't for what they poured into me as a young girl. That kind of just set the standard. I love the hard work. I loved having these mentors who helped me grow to see “ Oh my goodness, this leads to more success.” And I just fed off of that, like I saw the results of it. And that is what kept feeding me and kept feeding me.

Through your training and all the different teams that you've been on, you've experienced different types of coaching. What have been some of the better coaching techniques that you've seen and how can some apply that to their own lives? 

Yes, I feel like great leaders, I've had multiple of that have been successful, but I feel like you can be successful and do it the right way and a better way is what I personally feel like. One thing my coach, he ended up being my college coach as well and coach me in one Olympic games. He is like a father figure. No matter how I did, his expectations were through the roof, and his demands and preparation. But that guy loved us. He cared about us and I believe when people know that you care about them and you believe, their expectation of themselves will naturally rise. That was huge. He also individualizes things. He was not a one way take-it-or-leave-it kind of mentality. He was like, “Okay, you have these strengths. I'm going to speak into those strengths. You know what, we'll figure out those other weaknesses.” And then he'd go to the other player, “Okay, well, these are your strengths.” So he recognized and he saw and he focused on those types of things. I believe we can all do that as leaders and find those people around us and the better they get, the better we all get. And that was another huge character I feel like he brought to the table. 





I love that. I think what I'm hearing is that, when you have really high expectations, sometimes it could get so hard. We could get so hard on ourselves. But when you know that person who's got high expectations, when you know that they're coming from a place of love, it becomes a different story. It becomes more of a partnership and realizing that you know that this person actually cares and I know that even though the expectations are super high, and it may be so difficult to sometimes meet those expectations, I know that they love me and they have my best interests. So I'm going to work hard. I love that because that's kind of like what you're saying as a leader, it's really important to be firm but also be firm with love, so that's really awesome. I want to just kind of touch on how was your journey through this. As you know our show is not just about wealth in the financial standpoint, we obviously know that wealth encompasses a lot of different areas in our life. But when it comes to just the financial sense, how's your journey with money and knowing that you're focused, you're driven and all these things, how does that relate to your journey with money? 

Yes, well definitely. Once I finished competing, and I was 29 years old, and I ended up having two more little boys, my youngest is 13. Probably for 13 years, my main focus was to raise my boys like I was like,”Okay, I want to live a life that's going to give me that priority.” For all this other time my priority was competing for Team USA, being an Olympian and doing that and do that. The neatest thing about that is like, “Okay, I'm willing to decide what I want to sacrifice and how much time I'm willing to sacrifice. So for me, I was willing to take on certain things, as long as it for me personally fit into what my main priority was. I've been a homeschool mom for 13 years, now I’m just won't only have my last one at home, but literally through the years I've homeschooled for 13 years. And so it's allowed me flexibility to go out and speak on weekends to do some certain clinics, I take teams of soft players. So, with that being said, the income that I have,  my husband works for Under Armour and he's worked for a lot of years. And, you know, that's our foundational things, and then I'm able to go out and make as much as I desire with how much I've wanted to push. So wealth wise we have been beyond blessed. We've been able to say, you know what, we're not out there necessarily seeking the money. But when we're doing what we love and having these opportunities, that money takes care of itself. Like I said, if I really want to go have some different life that I probably would have tried to find, and I've had people come after and offer me some different roles and positions, but it's not lined up with what my priority was. So wealth wise, we've had everything we've wanted, we've been able to just be wise with our money as well and do everything we've desired to do. 

Wow. With that said, What would be your definition of wealth? 

For me, it's having the most important things in your life and keeping that because I could have a whole bunch of money and be a horrible mom. And I could literally just leave my kids and go after all my own dreams and not care about theirs. I believe personally,  true wealth means that everybody involved feels the riches of life. I feel like it's literally my kids, I'm able to see them.I have one that has dreams of being an NFL player right now - my 14 year old.  So we're trying to pour into him and say “Go after that” just like my parents did when I was 14. Wealth is being full in every aspect financially, family, friends, church, you know, serving and really having that balance with it all. 

That's amazing. I love that because I think that what you're really saying is you know what your values are, what are really important to you and you are also very aware that it's not just about you. I love that definition of like that everyone gets to experience that richness and it's just not you wanting to kind of like have your own way and being fulfilled in your own self but actually sharing that fulfillment with your entire family. When it comes to kind of just like with your family, like you being you know, homeschool mom for the last 13 years. So you're not new to this thing that's happening right now.

No, but it's funny because literally I've like almost done the opposite. I've like checked out like, Oh, no, I'm rebelling, because I'm not choosing this.

That was so funny, so hilarious. So with that, how did you guys able to earn as much or as little as you want, whenever you want, because your priority was to be a homeschool mom and then your husband was the one who supported. How did you guys tackle financial like budgeting and how did you two work that out with your communication with just what you prioritize and all those things?

Yeah. And so there's been different stages, I think back to when I was having my little one and so I couldn't travel as much,  we would do different things depending on the kind of where we're at. So there was a period of time where I would just do personal individualized lessons and so we're like, “Okay, so if we want to make this much money we need to do this.” These many days, for me personally, we kind of look mine, we knew my husband's kind of salary and so we would go from there. I'm very fortunate, like we just handle money in a positive way. I know it can be destructive for a lot of people and really caused a lot of issues in marriages and in homes. We learned early on, we made some not wise decisions and some car situations. We lease a car next thing we know we're owing money at the end and we don't even have a car to our name and so we learned some different situations that I pretty early from going through the hard things you know, of like, “Okay, we want to be wiser in that sense.” And so my husband and I have just been able to be on a good page communication wise.The money that I'm able to go out and make, in a sense becomes our extra money and so we've allowed depending on what's happening with that, that'll afforded us these other opportunities to maybe go on some of these trips, maybe go do some different camps with the boys now with them getting into their own, different talents that they have. And so we've talked about it. There've been times when we had to be a little more of a strict budget and kind of itemize things. And then there's been other times where it's more, we're just going to be aware. And we have a little bit of extra. And then a big part of it always as well has always been for us to faithfully give, for us tithing to the church, different ministries, as well on Cuba recently, just helping some people, they're finding different needs and really pouring out and I feel like when you start to do that, you start to really understand the power of money and how much of a difference it can make, even in the lives of others. 





That's awesome. So basically, like you're saying, you guys were very flexible with your budgeting. Because sometimes it's like, “Oh, we have a little bit more extra, we don't need to be as tight, we can just be a little bit more aware. And sometimes when we really need to be tight, let's really look into it a lot more in depth.” That’s awesome. Just the flexibility and also just to point out that you basically had the stable income that you knew you could kind of count on and then whatever comes in you figured out what to do with it. So that's awesome. Just the whole flexibility with that. When it comes to giving, as you said you guys tithe and give to your local church and all that. What other areas in your life do you love kind of pouring into and giving into other than just the financial giving into the church? 

For about 10 years or so, I have gone out to a local park about 30 minutes from my house and we have fed the homeless and I've been taking my boys and since they were two years old to this park. A lot of people thought we were crazy. But I promise you, you go out there and you see life from a different perspective and it opens your eyes and we become friends with some of these people who live on the streets. The respect level there, I mean between us has been amazing. And so I just know that it would be something that it wasn't just the food we were bringing to give them that they will look forward to was also the fellowship and the conversations.

I mentor girls who are softball players that are younger. I spend time trying to pour out to, I take teams overseas like I said in the summer of these high school girls and I only get about eight days. Some of these girls have become like family and so I really try to pour into them. I mentored through my church, women of all different ages have gone through different stages of life - some losing a husband to cancer, different circumstances, homeschooling moms who are just like “How am I even going to do this?” And so being able to pour into them and just share life lessons that I've learned. Those are the main areas that I'm able to spend kind of that extra time but I do try to, in different seasons, try to say “Okay, I want to use my time wisely.

How do you balance that? Because just homeschooling alone can eat up an entire day. Like within it you have three three boys so I can imagine just, like the fun going all the time? What are some intentional things that you do because if you're constantly giving out you need to have a moment where you get poured into. What do you do that's intentional to make sure that you're getting fulfilled also? 

Because faith is everything to me, time in the Bible, making sure I'm doing that. I notice that when I get so busy I push that to the side,  that's a big thing that I start to feel just so empty and and I need to kind of pour back in, that's important. Dates with my husband. We can get so busy that we can literally just push that to the side and I also find that “Oh gosh, in our home I mean, this is the foundation” and yet because they're there, they're just there in the house. And so that is huge. I would kind of feel when I started traveling a lot and would get kind of a really, really busy month like I could literally start to feel like just that pressure coming on me. And so I would need to take a step back and be like, “No, we're setting the date we had to put it in the calendar.” It's easy when things are a little bit slower but I had to be intentional with that. Time with my girlfriends, I will tell you, I mean that is huge for me like I make sure to get that like once or twice a week if I can and that fills me back up because they're my encouragers - that support system. I think we all have to have that. I have a mentor who when things kind of get really crazy, she's the first one I call and it's like she's wisdom and she's reminding me and she's just a voice that I trust. And so I feel like those are kind of my intentional things. Knowing where to turn and the people I need to turn to my faith. And then like I said, my husband and even with my kids, because he'll give it to me straight. Like, “Yeah, we're out of balance right now.” And I usually can feel at first anyways, but we're kind of on that same page. Let's regroup and get back to our sensation.





That brings one thing I wanted to ask about earlier. When you guys have an obstacle in your marriage and in your life? For our listeners, a lot of times you can think of trying to move a boulder uphill but you're both on opposite sides of that boulder, and you're just pushing it back and forth and it's that frustration that really builds. How do you and your husband work on getting on the same side of that boulder to really like moving uphill?

Yes, there's been times for sure we're pushing opposite ways. I think for us, it's usually having that communication and sometimes it doesn't always end well up to that first discussion. But usually, after a day or two when we both have been able to kind of take in what the other was saying, it’s usually, “Okay. All right, we both heard it in a very heat of the moment at first” and sometimes I find myself not necessarily wanting to have that discussion because I know that it could get hard for a moment. But every single time without fail, thankfully, it is usually again, that's kind of it needed to happen and then now the sudden we're back on the same page again, and so for us, it is having that big talk. Now we don't have that all the time but it's those moments that I could literally in my head, I don't think of my everyday conversations with him, but I can usually remember those big moments and conversations. 

Looking back to just when you were saying earlier -  how you take your boys out to go bring some food to the homeless and just seeing that, that's really important to kind of open their eyes as well. What has been kind of the impactful things that you've seen in the lives of your children as they're growing up? How has that impacted them? How did they kind of take it? And how are they, applying that to their lives as well? 

Some days I wonder, does it even make any sense? You know, you really do. But that's because I'm with them. And a lot of times our kids for us or mom or that safe place act, however they want to act, right. But I think I see it more when they're with other people. I see it when I see them around others, willing to step up and help. I see it to where they're not afraid to go up and talk to somebody that's a stranger like that. And because they've kind of been exposed, especially in  terms with the homeless. That's not something that's taboo to them or they look down on the people that they see on the corner. Instead, there's an empathy. I could just remember them being younger and some of the prayers at night they would pray for the people that we were serving because again from their little eyes and their young perspective, they're seeing this and so I feel like they do have hearts to give. I've taken them many times to orphanages in Mexico and just literally seen them jump in and play with the kids, there you could tell that it helped them to have that mentality “Wow, we are blessed with so much here like.” Like it gives me that other perspective “I want to help those in need” and so they would just say, “You know, Mom, we can't wait to go back to that orphanage and go play”, kind of made little friends there. So I feel like for them just seeing others is what I think is important because think about it we all are looking at ourselves and kids are growing up with the selfie world and so it is hard not to internalize and just look at yourself, but I feel like I've exposed them to that. They're still going to have their teenage years right where that's just the normal, but I feel like it definitely has impacted them. 

And this world that we're going up in right now, especially with a younger generation, a lot of it is so about ourselves. I love that you're exposing your children to what's out there because when we actually do that, and when we get our eyes off of ourselves, and we start looking at the other people, and the needs of other people, the funny thing is like, the more we give, the more actually we become more joyful. Like it's not what we get in return but we actually become a lot more joyful by just being mindful about other people's needs. And we find that a lot too, just in our lives. So thank you for sharing that because I think that's a key thing for our listeners to grab a hold on that wealth. Like wealth will come but it can come in a very tiring and taxing and just crazy way or it can come just a lot more organically and sometimes it can come just by actually like being mindful about other people. Thanks for sharing that. If you were to give our listeners three tips on living a wildly wealthy life, actionable tips. What would that be?

I would say three G’s. First is to set your “goals”.  What are the goals that you want to go after? You got to see it right, you got to know. If you're just kind of “Oh, I hope” well guess what, that's not getting you anywhere. So you have goals. Number two is a “game plan”. So you set your goals and write them down, just write them down. See, if you believe them. I tell everybody the ABC - check, attitude, belief and commitment. Like when you get a goal and you have that ABC like, “How is my attitude? I got to be positive. Do I believe it?” If you don't believe it, forget it, who cares what goal you set right? Even if everybody believes you can't, you have to believe in yourself and then see the commitment right? Because if you're not committed so that's it. "I want to lose weight but guess what I don't want to change something.” And commitment usually involves sacrifice. So then, the other G is the game plan and that's where that whole preparation. For me, winning gold medals even to this day, it's all about that gameplan. “How am I going to get there? I set that goal now, how do I get there? Who is going to be in  my support system? Who's going to be those leaders and mentors? Who am I going to look to to learn from.” We all got to do that and then who's going to be beside me or behind me, pushing me, encouraging me. The last thing is to “give”. I really believe like you just said Kat like when we give there is a joy in that. I can think of days that I was like, “I'm so exhausted”, we're going to go out and you know, serve the homeless and I believe it was the very thing I needed. I walked away, just pumped up after a day of just being exhausted. But I walked away like “Oh my goodness, like I want to go now. I can change the world.” And so giving of ourselves and making it not about us, because that is a lot of times when we just focus. So when we give to others, serve, help, call somebody up and encourage them. It literally reinvigorates us.





I love that. The three G's and ABC. So straight, direct to the point. I love it. The last G, the “giving” is so important. I think of how many times like when you're in a moment. You're out in the world just kind of walking around and whatnot, grocery store, whatever your could be in, like this irritated, or just like rush, you’re “Oh my God”, but as soon as you step into that attitude of serving and start giving your time, your energy, your strength, whatever it is, all that stuff just falls right off. And it's the most amazing thing and I love that one.  So we have moments, you know, discussion time and I'll like to go take a walk. But then, same thing, like I'll find somebody and I'll be like, “What do you need” or like be able to share, get somebody a cup of coffee or something like that. And then it's okay. It’s the giving that's such good, I like the three Gs and the ABC. 

Before we move on to our quick ten, just want to touch quickly. What was your biggest challenge like if you could pinpoint one huge challenge in your journey to going to Olympics and all that stuff? What was your biggest challenge? And then when you got there, what was your biggest takeaway? Like when you were standing there and you said that earlier that you look over to your side and you saw your parents and you're like, “If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't be here.” But another takeaway I guess is like where I would kind of get into. 

I'd say my biggest challenge, even though again, I think I had a strong mental game, I would say it would be worrying about what other people thought about me or, my dad was treating hard and he was pretty negative at times. And I remember I could wear that very easily. It was very hard to wear the compliments. It was very hard to receive the compliments. In fact, I would a lot of times and I didn't realize this until I was a little bit older, but I would tend to very much push those off and be like, “No, I'm not worthy of that compliment.” And so I feel like that was a big lesson for you just like “No receive. It's okay to realize we all have things to work on but you can decide to sit there and beat yourself up and no one on the outside world might even know it. I can wear a smile all the time. And I generally am pretty happy. But I've also, you know, had some mindset stuff that it's like, “This battle is raging on the inside.” And so that's what I would say was probably the hardest. And when I could fight that and get to that positive mentality and stay there and not allow the negative or insecurities to kind of beat me up, then I felt like okay, I could go forward and that's where I was able to experience more success. And so I feel like I kind of came out on the winning side, but I feel like that's a huge area that a lot of people struggle with. And then just a takeaway, “We can do so much more than we ever expected”. And I love sharing my story because I obviously had talent, but I feel like I had more passion than I ever had talent. I was a good player, but it was the work ethic. It was the passion. It was the coachability. It was all those intangibles that I feel like are there for everybody because not everybody can have the physical strength. If you're the best in the world strength wise, well, then a lot of people no matter how hard they try, they'll never reach that. I played with girls that are faster. I could never be as fast as them. I could never be as strong and hit a home run like they could. But I have three Olympic gold medals. And there's only four women in the world in softball who have three Olympic gold medals, and I'm one of them, but I just did the other things well, and then I was that team player, I played multiple roles. So that takeaway is what whatever you bring to the table, if your passion is behind that. You can reach heights that maybe nobody would ever expect and you might shock yourself. But if you go for it, that's the one thing I will say that I did do is I went for it. And then I looked at what happened because of it. 





That’s amazing. Can you show us your gold medals?

Right here in 1996, Atlanta, Georgia. In 2000, Sydney, Australia, and in 2004 where it all began, Athens, Greece. 

Wow, I’m getting goosebumps. So amazing. I just really love what you share with your challenge because it's really like that sometimes where it's authenticity. We could wear a smile outside. But if the stuff that are going on in our brain is not in line with what we're putting out on the outside, it's kind of like really pretending that we're happy when we're really not because it’s like there's so much going on in our brain. And that is so huge, what you just shared about not being able to receive the compliments, and I think a lot of us struggle with that. I come from an entertainment background, and I know us entertainers or people are such perfectionist and it doesn't matter how good you are. When people compliment you, it's like “No, I could do better. I could do better than that.” So I totally get it. And I'm just so grateful that you share that, coming from someone who has accomplished so much but then still knowing that in the back of our minds something there is happening that may not be in alignment with what we see in front. But recognizing that and then doing the work that you need to do to be able to take that out and put yourself in alignment with what really is happening on the outside, which is so much joy and just amazing. So thank you for being with us.

Couple of quick questions. For the listeners, they may find that they have passion. But passion kind of wanes and fades over time. And then the other word that really sunk into me that you said was coachability because people like once you get to that level or get to a level, you suddenly think that “Oh, I'm on top of the mountain. I'm the king of the world. Queen of the world.” Could you talk on how you refueled your passion or capture passion like on fire and moving? And then also what things did you have to do to remain coachable.

I played a sport that kept you pretty humble especially when it comes to offense and hitting. You could be amazing one day and the next day, you just are horrible. And so you know, the outcome, you’re always having a different opponent. For me, the passion I feel like is just constantly remembering why you're doing what you're doing. So when I became an Olympian, it became a little bit more of a challenge. When I would struggle when I was in college, it was like, “I'm still a good athlete. I saw my friends around here.” But then, in a sense, it became my job. So I loved what I was doing. But then if I wasn't messing up failing, it just was magnified. And it's like, this is literally what I'm, in a sense getting paid to do. And now you're struggling and so again you’re kind of go back to that, but it would be like “No”. That's what's always gotten me even to this point in the first place was to go back to the foundation. “Why am I doing it? What do I need to do?” And as long as I didn't allow the problem and the struggle to become bigger than the focus of my foundation, like get back to the drawing board, get back in the batting cage, that is crucial. So I think going back to those fundamental issues that we got to constantly do that. And then just remaining coachable, I just feel like and then this is maybe again, where I'm fortunate to have that like who I am like. I want to grow. I want to be encouraged. But I also want to be told the truth of how I can be better, because Kat you were saying, I retired at 29 years old with three gold medals, but I still could have been better in my mind and in some ways, that's a good thing. That's a good thing to have and my Olympic coach, he to this day he'll go speak somewhere and then he’ll listen to all the other speakers because he's constantly willing to say and he has gold medal all these national championships one of the best in the entire world, but he still wants to hear. He still wants to learn. And that to me, we should not stop learning until the day we die. We might have an area where we're one of the best, you know, it's awful but I still listen to some way other people teach it. So I'm like, “Oh, maybe there's a better way to even share that or I can implement that to my style that I already know what brought me success.” And to me, that's I feel like I want to always remain coachable. 





That's just humility. I just love that. You're humble enough to know that even though you have reached the heights, even though you've accomplished a lot, that there's still so much more to learn, and there's a different way of looking at things and you may have missed that. So that was really awesome. Thank you. That's so great. Are we ready for quick 10 rapid fire questions into it? Let's do it. So Leah, these are questions that we ask all our guests. Some of them are random questions, and some are related to podcasting. So we want you to say the first thing that comes to your mind.

If you could choose one book to live by what would it be? 

The Bible.

Your personal hero, living, deceased, someone you know or maybe don't know? 

I'd say my mom. Living. My mom and I just always looked up to her. 

That's amazing. The one thing you intentionally have to do every single day?

 I have to pray and then I would say get time with my family. 

One hobby that brings you the most joy? 

Now that I'm older I have so many other things. So obviously softball, I'm gonna say because that was such a huge part of my life. Anything like active wise, I love hiking. I love going to the beach. Going to the mountains, anything active. 

Most rewarding thing you've done for someone in need?

At the orphanage, going and taking them things that to us  are simple -  clothing, hats, some basketball and just seeing their faces light up. 

First movie quote that comes to mind?

Oh gosh. “You can't handle the truth”.

Last big purchase you made for yourself? 

Probably an airline ticket.

Food you cannot live without?

Mexican food. 

Nice. That's him. He loves Mexican food. All right. What is your spirit animal?

I've never thought about this one. An eagle.

Eagle, i love that. Finish this sentence, “If I'm stuck on an island by myself…?”

 I'd have to have my phone, my Bible and my bathing suit.

So you knew that you are going to go get stuck.

I'm going to make the most out of this, right? It’s an island.

Leah, thank you so much for joining us today. Where can our listeners find out more about you? And if you were to suggest or recommend to our listeners how they can serve or get into something, where would you recommend them to? 

So my website is leah20.com. I'm on social media, on Twitter and Instagram it's leah20usa and I'm on Facebook as well. And if they were going to give I feel like personally finding what kind of lines up with your heart because one of the things that I found when I was going out and feeding the homeless, like it, it was something that I just absolutely loved and was drawn to. But I found that, you know, I kind of want my friends to all come and join me. And maybe they'd come out one time, but it wasn't necessarily their same thing. But then somebody was going, and they were helping at the school and somebody else was going, and they were,dealing with women who had been abused. And someone else got really passionate about helping in the sex trafficking area. So, what I would say is kind of “What are those passions?” And I think it can change over time. You can go through seasons, but kind of just think about what are the things that really hit your heart personally, because we can serve to serve and I still think good comes out of it. But when you start to serve in line with what your heart is telling you, that's when life change happens. 

That's beautiful. I really like that. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure. It's been awesome. 

Thank you both. So much.

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About





LEAH O’BRIEN-AMICO is a softball legend - a 3-Time Olympic Gold Medalist,  a 2-time World Champion, a 2-time Pan American Games Champion, 3-time NCAA Champion, and was named NCAA woman of the year. She's an author, a Keynote speaker and an ESPN analyst for college softball. She is very passionate, never stops learning, always eager to share her expertise and selfless in helping others.”