Presley: Hey
Lance: everyone. And welcome back to the hockey journey podcast. Episode number six, presented to you by online hockey training.com. I'm your host coach Lance Pitlick. I'm pretty excited about today's show is you're going to hear about the hockey career of a very successful young. Check this out when a couple of gold medals with team USA, a high school state championship with a Minnetonka skippers, a little shout out to the skippers was a captain or senior year where she also was awarded miss hockey, which has given to the best female hockey player in the state of Minnesota.
Lance: If that wasn't enough, she also went on to win a national championship with the University of Wisconsin, where she put up 97 points over a four year career. Every. Please help me in welcoming one of the most determined and hardest working individual Eisenhower Pressley. Narby welcome to the show Presley.
Presley: Thank you. Thanks for having me. That was quite the intro. I appreciate
Lance: it. No, you you made a girl and that should be celebrated. So before we get, let you talk and I want that to be what happens mostly in this episode is I want to give people a background of why you're getting. The first spot of me interviewing a guest because when I first started doing in-person private lessons it was a few years before I ever got a female player.
Lance: And I think you were here and you were still at that age where, you were hungry to learn and you wanted to see how good you could be. And that's why you got the number one spot. That's why I want to share your story. And I'm looking forward to learning something about you because, once you went to college, there was a bit of a disconnect for a while.
Lance: And, we came back together a few times, but now it's over and I want to hear about it. So we, where I'd like to start is first by telling you now I actually train more girls than I do. So I'm hoping that a lot of these young ladies are going to be listening to this episode and they're going to get inspired to chase what you have already achieved.
Lance: So let's start with a deep dive into kinda your youth career. When did you get the hockey bug? How old were you when you got introduced to it? What were your first memories?
Presley: I was young. I was probably six or seven years old. Like a lot of Minnesota guys and gals. I grew up skating on the pond in my hometown, which was St Michael at the time.
Presley: And I just love to skate. I think my parents tell the story that, they got me. I think like plastic ma might've been like figure skates, but like Velcro skates. And they brought a chair out there for me to hang on to. And all I wanted to do is skate and skate without the chair was like, I don't need this mom and dad, like where did we go?
Presley: I had a ton of energy when I was little. So hockey was a good way to where to spend my time. But I think I really got invested when I was probably. Maybe I think I was playing on a 10 new girls team and I just remember coming over from hockey and like telling my dad, like we did skating at the beginning.
Presley: And I wanted to be the first person that finished every time. And I was like always first in line and just so excited to compete. I think I just love to go fast. I like love to score goals and I was super, super competitive even when I was that young. All of the above apply to hockey pretty well.
Presley: And because those soft skills that I had as a young kid worked great. What were they doing outside of team practices in games to get better? When I was young, I played soccer and hockey. And ran a little bit. But when I really started to get invested, like 12, 14, even in high school I was pretty much doing anything I could, that was extra.
Presley: I remember one time my dad said to me know, you think you want to be the best forward on your team or in the state or in the country? Everybody goes to practice. Everybody goes to the hour, long ice time. Everybody does the drills. Everybody shows. If you want to be good and you want to be better, you need to do something outside of that hour, that all of your teammates are doing all of the girls that he dyno doing in the neighboring schools.
Presley: Like you need to do something extra. And for me, that wasn't really hard work. You've seen me, in the basement they're doing online hockey training. I love talking more than anything. So for me, it was really fun. I was still handling the garage shooting pups. In seventh or eighth grade high school, I was running down to the park to run sprints up the hill.
Presley: Any little thing I can, I was like really invested in getting stronger. I've always been a really small kid, so that was a big part of my game and growing that and every avenue, I think a lot of coaches now. Try and get that 1% better every day. And I think that was my mentality and I had so much fun doing it.
Presley: So it wasn't really hard work to me. And
Lance: I am, I'm just a privilege to be able to still, to this day, get in front of similar minded people. There were younger, a younger version of you and it's really cool. And it's the same messaging. You played the pond hockey, you I'm sure you did some roller hockey or street hockey, stuff like that.
Lance: How about technical skating instructors breakfast clubs, stuff like that. Who was your army of people helping you on on that side of the.
Presley: Yeah. I honestly can't remember going to any skating clinics, mostly because that anybody's, that's watching me play. That's probably the strongest part of what my game was.
Presley: I was just obsessed with going fast sometimes too fast. And my own folks from my feet are going a little bit quicker than my brain. But in terms of off the ice, I did a lot of impact talkie. In the Minnetonka program there with Johnson. I worked with on my shooting and then I worked with you on all my stick skills.
Presley: And I think that's funny, you say, we've been around a lot of like-minded people. I think when I started training with you, just step, step one was, this is how we're going to hold your stick. Shortly after that, the way that you would demonstrate a drill with such energy and such jump just in the basement, on a shooter tutor, like it's not live, it's just you and me.
Presley: There's no reason to be really like jumping around and having that extra effort. And I think that's something that I had as a part of my game, but really elevated it, working with you because I was just that extra jump, that extra posture, that extra excitement to make a good play, to make a good move, to score that extra goal.
Presley: And just all those little things in every aspect of the game, I think is just something you try and grab onto a little tidbit of what Lance teaches you or what Pete said teaches you, or what your, youth or high school coach teaches. You find something you like that they told you and you make a hybrid of all of your skills and you know what
Lance: you've been taught.
Lance: You're going to have all kinds of coaches along the way that are going to give you advice or instruction. How to improve your shooting. If a kid can score goals right now, shooting a different way than I teach or Scott Bewkes, stead teachers. I know both of us will say, keep doing that, but learn what we have now, but keep doing that.
Lance: At what age did you really feel that you were separating yourself from others?
Presley: I think I played, as maybe a first year or younger kid on teams when I was growing up. So right around probably 12, when I was playing a little bit more aligned, I had just, I was playing with the boys and playing with the girls and the boys were a little bit more competitive for me, where I was growing.
Presley: And I think, from the transition to boys, to girls hockey, when I was with my own age, I was like this is my own age. And, I'm scoring multiple goals game or whatever it was that was like, okay I, I want to kick to be with the best of the best, which is where started manifesting the whole can you want opportunity and career?
Presley: And probably right around 12 was
Lance: probably.
Presley: It sounds so young, but
Lance: you know what you look at. If you wait till you're 16 to start trying to implement this stuff, I'm sorry. You're fighting. Your dad did well and feeding
Presley: your passion, I've looking back and, just hearing outsider, looking in on like my youth career, I probably was a little bit ahead of the game.
Presley: I probably ate and really understood it at 12. But like I said, I was just always playing hockey and practice doesn't make perfect, but sure helps. I think
Lance: that, if most days you wake up. Hockey's floating around in your brain, it pops in and out. That's a common thing. So when at some point as you were growing up, did you pair up with a, another girl that was similar minded where you guys pushed each other with your training?
Lance: Because if you're going to get into lifting weights and stuff like that later on, and you need some more. A teammate to help you when the days maybe you're not as
Presley: motivated. I can't really put my finger on a specific person, mostly because I grew up in St. Michael Albertville and then transferred to Minnetonka for high school so that, almost puberty time of my life, where I was going through a lot of change.
Presley: I transferred school, they transferred hockey teams. And then of course in Minnesota, I was playing on a summer team with girls from all over. So training. Was, in Minnetonka were a lot of my teammates in the off season. We're not missing, traveling from all over the state. I can't, I trained with Sophia shaver, a tine.
Presley: She was at Wayzata, played with me at Wisconsin, Bruce bull, the at the university of Wisconsin. Now she's for me, Dyna Thinking of growing up with the Winkles who I know grace is still working with. Yan is killing it at the university of Minnesota right now. So there's definitely people I can pick out that I've spent a lot of time with, but I didn't have a buddy, so I was a, on my own agenda.
Presley: Yeah. But you
Lance: guys, you seem to kinda are meeting in different spots and it's always the same group of people. And so that's good. Cause you, you need that to keep pushing forward. You don't have that sustained motivation and you're stronger as a group let's transition now.
Lance: You didn't correct you to not win a state tournament at the youth level, correct? Correct. Okay. Good. She's human. So let's transition to high school. You want to stay a tournament there? What year were you in school? In a school? That you're, I
Presley: was a freshman. When we won down at the Xcel energy center, I was young.
Presley: And
Lance: after that,
Presley: Yeah I showed it to mid Tonka and they had won the two years prior. So that was, all the girls in my team, their third state championship in a row. So I'm like, oh, this is what's supposed to happen. Yeah, it got a little bit tougher. I think I got shut down in the section final twice and then the state championship my senior year.
Presley: So yeah it's tough to make it there and credit to all the teams. It's not an easy path. It's competitive out there and in Minnesota. Yeah. So
Lance: I know you talked about playing youth hockey in a different spot where you played high school hockey, but for years going to battle with a group of girls, I'm sure that you got pretty doggone close and winning the state tournament.
Lance: What was that experience like to you and the community? Because. I never won a state tournament ever. So I don't know what that
Presley: feels like. It was awesome. It's really cool to be down at the Xcel energy center when we were playing there. And. Minnetonka is not a small school. So having like most of the lower bowl full of people wearing white and blue is pretty cool assigns.
Presley: And it's really feels like a entire community thing. There's parents in high school, kids and youth girls coming to see ya. And it's just a really good experience just for the entire community. And I think my. Sophomore now my freshman year when I won I think five of the seven seniors all went D one.
Presley: So I was looking up to what was the best and the best at the time. And those girls motivated me a time that, three went to Penn state, one with Duluth. And that was my dream at the time. So I was extremely motivated to be like that. They are really good teammates, which made me being a freshman, a smoother process, not being intimidated and feel uncomfortable in my own books.
Lance: Pass down a lot to you on, how to be a professional and how to conduct yourself and how to have successful teams because everyone's gotta be pulling on the same chain. Besides being captain where you captain your junior year too, or just your senior.
Presley: We have
Lance: something in common. I don't have many accolades, but that's one of them.
Lance: Congratulations on that. But as your captain two years and your senior year you won a very prestigious award Ms. Hockey, which has given to the top high school player. A lot of big names on that that final list and. You came on top. How special of a moment was that for
Presley: you?
Presley: Yeah, it was really special. I, since I had been teeny tiny, I just always wanted to be the best and I that's typically not something that happens in hockey at all. Cause it's a team sport and it was not really something I ever thought that I would have a title for. I just loved the team game. And I loved my teammates.
Presley: Really, it was just great to be there with them and with actually my strength coach at the time, came and came to the banquet and my parents grandparents now high school coaches off season coaches. And it was honestly a really good time to look back. I think I thanked you when I was talking.
Presley: After you received the award, it just a good time to step back and be like, wow, like, how did I get here? Yeah, I know number five or whatever, but it took a lot more than just me to get to that point. So if anything, for me, it was like a really good time to reflect on. Not only my personal hard work, but a lot of gratitude that was due to the people that, that helped me get there, especially my teammates, coaches, folks like you and my parents.
Presley: But yeah, it was awesome. It's awesome that USA hockey does that and it's a great event. Every single time they have the best speakers. And it's just great to get all the, the best women's players in one room per day.
Lance: Did I lie people? Is this person unbelievable? Huh? So in addition to that along the way, you also had some pretty cool experiences with the USA program.
Lance: Let's spend a little time on
Presley: that.
Lance: Know, tell us, cause I had a couple boys that once a couple of times, through that process of USA hockey, where you start at your kind of local level and then you work to a regional and then. A number of people get asked to go to national camp.
Lance: And then from the national camp, they usually have a team that's going to go play in the world championships for some tournaments. So tell me about a couple experiences that I think you won gold medals at.
Presley: Did the whole shebang, like you just mentioned, you certain your region or certain your district and region, and that, I think it's like a series of eight cuts that I did, if I think starting at 15, you do it, I'm an ideate.
Presley: So I did it with 90 age group and was lucky enough to get asked to play at national development camp. And then on the lake Placid, I think three summers in a row for the August festival which on the woman's side ends up being a tryout to play in the world championships that are usually in January.
Presley: And that was on the youth under 18 team. I won gold in Ontario, my UAT year and won gold in Buffalo, New York, my U 17 year. Both in overtime in those are my, my UAT year was the first time that I had ever been on the ice for a legitimately huge goal. I was on the ice during overtime and I was at the bottom of the dog pile.
Presley: And I literally, I can't even remember anything else cause I'm a little girl. So I was so happy on file. I'll never forget, like not being able to get up and find. But those are incredible opportunities that USA hockey puts on. And some of my best friends to this day were on those teams. Then of course, you go on to college and you're lining up against them, which is always really fun to be competitive with people, and being a part of that program made me want to be better because obviously your spot's kind of always on the line there and, they're cutting your real time, face to face rather than the ham off of. Really reading the list of names in a room and, you're hoping you're on that list and hopefully you put enough work to represent your country, which is a pretty special opportunity, but those programs are great and, prepped me, I think for college a lot more than I probably would have expected.
Lance: Awesome. Congratulations. That's that's again just keep stacking them up. You got an extra bedroom for all your stuff. So let's transition now to your when you leave high school, it's awesome because you just get to hit the restart button, you get to reinvent yourself.
Lance: And you, your first year, when the national champ was it, did you went on your first.
Lance: Okay. So you had, did you have any heartbreaks along before that?
Presley: Yeah, we were at the national championship twice, my, my freshman year. And then we were in the frozen four on the semi's last, my sophomore year. And then made it onto the national championship in my junior year. So 2019. And then heartbreaker COVID ended my career in another commonality,
Lance: another commonality.
Lance: I went to the final four, three out of the four years. I was in college too. So don't think you're that special? No, that is crazy that you can do that. Let's talk about that. National championship year was that you're different than every other.
Presley: Yeah, I would say it was, same thing as my high school, freshman year, I was playing, I was sponsoring, I think my freshman year we were ranked number one.
Presley: All, I don't know how many weeks the season was, but every single week after week we were ranked number one. So just seemed like something that was expected that we would be there and that we would win. And it turns out it gets tough when it get down to the wire there. We're really talented team, but I think the difference between the first few times being in the frozen four and then winning my junior year was just the chemistry on the team.
Presley: Being at a team like Wisconsin, and I feel like, the top tier one teams might run into this a lot in women's hockey is that, there's a lot of competitive people on one team that, we're the cream of the crop in high school. And now, you're not when you get to college and you're playing on the best team in the country.
Presley: So I think the most important thing, my junior year. Everybody was on board. Happy. No matter if there were, with their bug would to the bench or if they're on the ice bowl game, I think just committing to owning your role and being happy for other people. I think just the team chemistry was something that set us apart, especially for a team that, Doesn't go through a lot of diversity in terms of, winning games.
Presley: We went in the national championship, 28 and one or something. When you get in those tough games and you're not used to being in an uncomfortable spot where you might be down by a goal or Ty. No up by one. It takes everybody on board to, to push it over the line.
Presley: And I just think that's something that was really special at that team last year. And we just had a bunch of girls that love to work hard. We spent every single summer in Madison and there's no complaints. It's the best thing ever waking up at 6:00 AM and running up the stadium steps and we just all love to be there.
Presley: And that was a great experience.
Lance: That's interesting what you said. Because when, if you're going to a school like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Duluth a few of the Eastern schools, whether you're talking about women's hockey and. Everyone was the best player on their youth team growing up. And then you all come together and not everyone can be on the first line.
Lance: Not everyone can play power play, not everyone can kill penalties. And I think for those teams, that's the biggest struggle. You're always going to be really good, but can the internal conflict, that goes on with wanting to play more, wanting more opportunities. Can that be subsided for the greater good of the team?
Presley: Yeah, I, a hundred percent agree. I think that was something that I had worked through, being at Wisconsin and there'd be times where we had heart rate monitors and the coach could see, the Ayers, they looked at the heart rate monitor, I'm in the red and I'm dying, but I don't want to get off the ice and then leave you out.
Presley: And they're like, we can see your typing or times where it's, I haven't been out in 10 minutes. This sucks. And I want to be out there so bad, but it's just choosing joy and just kicking butt. The next time you hop over the boards and some games I'm dead tired. And some days I was, didn't have to wash my hair.
Presley: It's just dependable. And that's definitely something I had to adjust to. And I think a lot of good players have to be adjusting. When I was a senior, obviously I see it in a different light when the freshmen are coming in and, they're the best of the best on team USA or team Canada or wherever they came from.
Presley: And that's, it's a big part of hockey and it's a big part of real life. I'm starting to figure out I'm working in corporate America and no kind of back down to the rookie position. And I, I think I take a lot that I learned from hockey to my day-to-day right now to. So it's all good learning things.
Presley: And I had a blast, it was constant, so awesome. So let's,
Lance: let's just quickly touch on the school side of it, managing a pretty intense hockey schedule. And then I'll also. The rigors of trying to get a college degree and, for years.
Presley: Yeah. It's definitely all about balance.
Presley: There's a lot of times at school where I definitely would have rather been at the rank and then in class I think we've talked about this before, but I was just a rink rat, human being. I just liked to be there, whether it was on ice and locker room or stick handling in the hallway or, snacking on something.
Presley: I just loved to be there and we loved to be around the girls and love to, be hanging out at the rink. So finding some time away from the rape to really hunker down and focus is really important then. I think they do a great job that Wisconsin at the very least to make sure that you're balanced there.
Presley: And I think after my freshman year, I, I applied to the business school and that was really something that I wanted to focus on outside of hockey. Started to realize that there's more to life than just hockey. And that school is important too. And I did well in high school, but really started to like hone in on, what my future could look like at that time.
Presley: And yeah, I just think the balance and the prioritization of your time was super big
Lance: to me. So one of the things that a hockey player goes through is that we're going to have games. Things that are just really easy and you get pucks in the right spot and the shot works and your score and you make plays.
Lance: And then there's times where. It's not very easy. Mistakes are made. Games are lost because of plays that we make. You are not immune to it. You better not be. What was your self-talk when something like that, you have to deal with that.
Presley: Yeah, I think I, it's funny that you say, after a bad game, I think I self-taught myself after every bad shift or every good shift.
Presley: Anyone that's ever played with me probably knows that. Shut up when I'm on the ice or on the bench. But I just kinda love to, to digest what just happened and what did you next time? And a big thing for me in high school and college is going back and watching my games and really trying to reevaluate and, pick my head up sometimes when my head was enough to, get the fuck to someone else or block a shot or do something a little bit extra that, maybe I didn't see real time.
Presley: But, there's, I think there's a lot of strength in understanding your strengths and weaknesses. And I think I was pretty well aware of, where my strengths were and where my weaknesses were. And I think when a weakness exposed, I was very self-aware of that. And if anything, mid game, I would like love to communicate with my line mates.
Presley: Hey what'd you see there? What what are you thinking next time? Could I have done this? Could you have done that kind of thing is something kind of mid game and then post game? I think just decompressing is a big thing for me, especially in college, you're playing two games series, you can't let Friday impact your Saturday.
Presley: Decompressing watching some video not being too hard on yourself. I was pretty tough on myself. If I had a couple of minuses in the game or, got my butt set down on the bench, but it's taken an internal look first and, trying to stay humble through
Lance: the process.
Lance: No, that's so true. And, you just get a, you just get more control, the older you get and the more experiences the games you play and all that I, our rule with my kids was we could have a five to 10 minute pity party and then we're moving on.
Presley: Yeah. I think, even from like training, with you, you will do, 10, 10 reps of something or 10 sets of something and I'll do seven of them.
Presley: And I'll do you know if the eighth, one bad and I look at you and be like, that one was bad, it was bad. Do it again, like it's pretty easy to, especially when you're training and doing something over and over again, and working on that repetition, you start to pick up like up. I wasn't focused there.
Presley: Oh my, I slid my hands. But I rather be in something as simple as a stick skill. I can tell like sometimes when I was trying too hard at hockey, I was bending over too far. Or if I was really like gripping my stick too tight, my hands would be too far away. And it's just picking up on those little nuances that you learned from people like you to really be like, okay, back to the basics, hold your stick.
Presley: Take a deep breath. Bend your knees, keep your head up. Just those little things to go back to when you think, you're the worst player on the planet,
Lance: And to me, the big thing that I try to help players with is to determine what the heck the result is you're trying to achieve.
Lance: And if you don't get it on a rep, what happened self-corrected and I've gotten a lot better. Since the last time that I saw you, I don't even know. Oh, you tolerated me for our first couple lessons. I did, I even know how to dribble back then.
Presley: I remember my first couple of lessons I'm writing and you had me as the lefty stick and man, did I not like that?
Presley: I did not be in bad, but then we flipped over to the righty stick and I'm like, oh, I'm so good. Now this is great. But no, you, I was, happy to be there every single time. I had so much fun with you. No, we were playing a Sasser pass game or, we've seen how many pucks out of 10 I can put in the upper right corner.
Presley: I just loved it. And when you're 12, you don't think of it as going to a workout. And you just think that it's time. So I had a
Lance: blast. I have the best job. If I could do a first lesson where I meet them for the first time, every single day, I wouldn't have to go on vacation anywhere because I'm in paradise down in that space.
Lance: No one knows more than me. And that's fine,
Presley: but that's
Lance: right. That's right. But no it's an earned feeling. Just like a, everything that you accomplished in your life was an Ernst. I want to just go back real quick when one of those bad games or something happened, because there's a, one of two people, when that happens, that's going to get a call when something good or bad.
Lance: And that's your mom. Tell me what they mean to you? Oh yeah.
Presley: Everything. They're the best. I, the it's so funny. I'm like, working in corporate America now and I'm still like, I wonder if my dad like wakes up and like wonders the line they're, I'm an only child. They, when I was being recruited, they send every school that sends you a questionnaire.
Presley: You're going to see Introduce me to you. They introduced me to all my teammates over the years. My mom and dad were coaching. My mom was opening the door and my mom's taking a puck to the thing standing on the bench before I heard she was just so in the door. And my dad has done a lot for her.
Presley: The youth girls hockey, Kimmy community. He's even until this day, he doesn't have a horse in the race anymore. I'm not even playing. And he's evaluating tryouts at these youth hockey clinics and putting on tournament did a lot for the girls my age, especially I think, every single person on my AAA team once you won and I give a lot of credit to him.
Presley: But yeah, he, they were getting the calls when things are going good. And mostly when things are going bad. They've done a ton for me and yeah, I couldn't think of them. You
Lance: know, when when I get a kid over for that for first lesson, I go through my diagnostics with hand positioning movement and where they drill down on the blade.
Lance: You can tell that with you. Whoever was involved with where you were at that moment in time, did a pretty solid job. I was just building on what was already there and that's pretty easy when you have a work ethic like
Presley: you. Yeah. I think something that my dad, especially. W like I give him a lot of credit.
Presley: I think that acute part of hockey is being coachable. And I think that's, something I still try and work on today at work. And being coachable is huge. There's a lot of times that I was in college and I wanted to give some lip to someone standing on the bench behind me, but it's just.
Presley: We're working hard and being a good teammate is what he always preached to me. And I think that is a really simple statement, but it goes a really long way. And he was like, you listen to this Lance guy and we'll see if we come back and what happens. And, I took home hockey homework from you back before.
Presley: Online hockey training was online and, he printed them out for me and put them up on the wall. And he said, okay, coach Lance said, these are the drills you're doing this week. Let's, he'll go sit in the garage and drop pucks for me. So I don't have to drag him out of the pile.
Presley: He'd do anything. I remember we had the sweet hands in the kitchen when I was like 12. My mom come home. PetSmart or, but my dad's sitting there like how fast I can go. But just doing those fun things brought me along way and I give a lot of credit to both my parents who
Lance: had this pick a time, I don't know when, but when you decided you were going to chase something and you were going to commit, let's say four or five, six months to a year, And how did you build your schedule, your process?
Lance: What was your kind of your deal back then and still today? Probably. I'm sure it hasn't changed
Presley: much. Yeah. You and I are similar where we don't sit down often. And I think the biggest time I really honed in on my game at the very least was probably right before college. I I was seeing you a ton.
Presley: And working on my six skills at home by myself, I was running, I was doing Hills. I was really focusing on what I was eating. I was like 18 and I asked for a pull-up bar for my birthday. Like I was just, I was all in on everything that I was doing. And I think that's something that's similar to me today, but it's get up and get a sweaty.
Presley: And do your best at whatever you're doing is, was pretty much how I operated, but, my process was really take care of myself off the ice and kind of. Work hard spend the hours. Whether even now it's away from work on the weekends or, in the off hours when no one's online, doing that, doing the work behind the scenes and then just having a blast when I was playing and just be in a rink rat that was like a really long winded answer for a process.
Presley: But I think it's just, you're enough. I think it's just doing all the little things. We're very similar in the way it's get up and, get a sweat in, do the things you need to get done today and make sure eating well, make sure you're resting well. And I think that was just something that was just, I just wanted to be good, so bad that I focused on at 18 and 16 and really tried to be my strongest best person right before hopping into Wisconsin.
Presley: And I'm glad I did because it was tough, but Yeah,
Lance: that's good. I think that, we talk about work life balance. If you're trying to accomplish things, there's periods of time where you don't have that, where, your focus is on what you're trying to achieve. It takes daily time.
Lance: You got to think about it all the time, put time into it. You're competitive. You gotta be chasing something. You're not playing hockey now. How are you? What's driving you, what are you doing, to fill that void, that competitiveness.
Presley: Yeah. Legitimately competitive opportunities.
Presley: I've been running a Tonya. I ran two half marathons in the last couple months and been trying to place in the top 10 or whatever it may be. And I think every hockey player knows that a hockey legs are not running like. And I can attest to that, but I just was training super hard. Cause I knew that there was a date or someone was going to time how fast they ran for 13.1 miles.
Presley: And I loved every second of it. I got that and I'm like, Hey, let's do this again. That was so fun. Just cause I'm competitive and I'm, running against strangers for charity half the time, I just love to be competitive. And then on the work side, I actually work on a team now.
Presley: I'm the only female and I'm just like, so ready to just kick by. I've just want to be going at 110%, no matter what I do. And I think that was a big decision in my life to, I had always been 110% on hockey. And I think I remember when I was getting interviewed, I was for work. I was like, I learned a lot of soft skills at hockey, how to work on a team and how to communicate and how to have a work ethic and how to be organized on, I think that's going to translate into my work life.
Presley: And I kinda just said that as something that sounded good and then they're in an interview and now I live it every day and I'm like, wow. I said that and I do. It's true, but it's so true. I think I T I used some sort of personality trait or soft skill that I learned in hockey every single day, whether it's in a friendship or relationship, interacting with my parents and interacting with my work team.
Presley: In a way, my boss is my coach and they're there to teach me to do my best at what I'm doing every day. And it's kinda to the moon mentality. I'm going to go full speed up whatever I'm doing. So this is what I'm doing now and I'm going full speed. I'm happy. Working and working out on the side and staying in shape and to not a little things that keep us sharp and healthy.
Presley: So we, I always talked about this. I have so many
Lance: boyfriends. You haven't found one that can keep up yet. I can tell you that you're always looking behind you where come on guys.
Presley: Yeah, I don't sit down much. I'm going to go all the time and at the office, 12 hours a day and coming home and working out and going to bed so
Lance: good for you. That's that's how you carve yourself out. You've got to establish yourself and get that done. One more hockey question, and then I got the final question that I'm going to ask to every person I interviewed, but.
Lance: Any hockey regrets. Is there something that, you were trying to achieve that you didn't get it? And I, I'll tell everyone this story. I think it was going into your senior year, it Wisconsin, and I hadn't seen you much. And you kinda got emotional at the end of the lesson. You teared up a little bit and I'm like, what the heck's going on.
Lance: And you were just, you were mad because you couldn't keep on playing like the boys that there wasn't, the same opportunity. I don't know if it was going into your senior year, but it was one year you just got mad and I felt for you, cause I, that's a tough thing. The difference from boys to girls, but you certainly there is a great hockey as a vehicle for women to get ahead of.
Lance: Being able to get a scholarship and all the experiences and people that you meet.
Presley: Yeah. A hundred percent then. I was fortunate enough to be drafted after my senior year to the NWHL, which is for those that don't know the national women's hockey league. And there's a bunch of leagues out there now.
Presley: And believe it or not really valued. My education was excited to, I studied real estate and was excited to hop into commercial real estate in Chicago. I wouldn't, Kobe come my senior year short that's, out of my control, I wouldn't say. And I can, it's funny you say that I can think back to specific plays where I'm like, I would love to have that one back.
Presley: And at the same time, I don't really think those are regrets. Just because you learn from them. I saw you put this question. I'm like, I don't think I can regret anything. I always am looking back. I'm like, oh, if I just, spent that extra hour or whatever, I spent the extra 15 minutes, but I spent the extra hour in the extra 15 minutes, quite a bit in my career.
Presley: And no, not playing anymore. Someone said this to me the other day. They were like, I'm like, I'm a regular personnel to play more, like I quit and someone was like, you think. You were strong enough to let go and to acknowledge all the skills that you've learned.
Presley: And that was like, nice okay. I didn't quit. I just, I figured it out. And I learned so much and had such a great time, playing at Wisconsin was of the best that you can get in. Was happy with that. Obviously, would've liked to play in the frozen for my senior year, but if COVID cutting my hockey career, two game shirts were still going to happen to me.
Presley: I'm a pretty fortunate girl. I can't think of too many hockey regrets just because it's all a part of the journey. Anything I wish I would have taken a step back and been like, wow, this is awesome. Like being able to just hop out on the rink when you're stressed out.
Presley: Like at, with Wisconsin, the rinks open any time have you seen outside of practice hours at Minnetonka? The rinks connected to the school, you can walk across the street and just hop off the, I hop on the ice at lunchtime or whatever it was. I don't know if that's still allowed now, but it wasn't.
Presley: I was there. But just, using it as it, as stress relief, I didn't really realize, how much it, let me go. I wish I could go back and be like, wow, this is unreal, but I loved it. So no regrets.
Lance: That's awesome. Good for you. Last question that I'm going to ask. I'm going to ask every person that's on this show.
Lance: If you could only use three words to describe who you are today, what you represent and is true to your heart, what would those three words be?
Presley: Speak? I think the first one would be ethic. I think that kind of goes a lot of ways. I think, work ethic is super important. Something I valued and growing up with playing hockey and something, my parents taught me to value.
Presley: Nope gets you quite a ways, in, in the railroad now I'm starting to figure out too. And that kind of goes along with your values and, doing things the right way and treating other people how you wanted to be treated. The second one I would say is joy. I think I have fun with a lot of things that I do.
Presley: I found so much joy in hockey and a lot of times there's times where you can pick to let. No, take a damper on your day or whatever it may be, but you can pick. To choose joy in any opportunity. And I just think that's a really important thing that I like to carry with me and just be happy and be happy to be around other people and especially around people that are making me better.
Presley: And then I think the last one would probably be passion. It goes along with a competitive note that we were talking about, but whatever I'm doing and I want to go full speed, we've talked off air about, what I'm doing now and you know what I did in the past and hockey and just trying to.
Presley: Put every single ounce of mean to whatever you are and whatever I am. I'm trying to be a good one. And I think that's, those are probably the three
Lance: words. Awesome ethic, joy, passion. I told you people, she was a crazy curl, a cool person. So let's recap. She's got the hockey bug really early. It's all that she wanted to be.
Lance: Got some advice. I think it was from your dad that if you want to be better than most, that you have to do a lot more than all of those individuals you'll be competed against. You learned how to budget weekly time for hockey. Self-improvement. Had a team of people that helped you along the way as you heard, mom and dad being her foundation and how she made the most out of her opportunities.
Lance: What I love about everything that we've heard here so far. Is that everything that she learned on how to get really good at hockey that has now transitioned into her after hockey life and starting to try to learn how to kick butt in the business world. I thank you so much Presley for being the first guest on the hockey podcast, hockey journey podcast.
Lance: It was so fun to catch up with you and hear your story, review it. I knew parts of it, but I didn't know all of it. I appreciate your really being here and congratulations on amazing and on an amazing flipping career.
Presley: Thanks. And thanks so much for having me. I know we talked again all fair about me.
Presley: Kind of be in the female online hockey training, Guinea pig. So I'm happy to, be the podcast Guinea pig too. And I appreciate you a ton and, give you an online hockey training, a ton of credit to, not only getting me to. Minnetonka and Wisconsin, and even where I am today. So I give you a ton of kudos and so much fun talking to you, and I'm sure we'll talk out there for another two hours.
Presley: So we get,
Lance: I'm hoping that there's going to be such a huge response to have you back on as a guest. And they're going to tell us what we need to talk about what it's like to be, in a foreign country for the first time plan, international competition, whatever that is, but. It was a great interview.
Lance: It was my first interview. You carried the show Presley, so thank you. That's all we have for you here for episode number three, the Presley Norby hockey journey, podcast story. Thanks so much for stopping by make sure you subscribe. So you don't miss any future episodes. We have, I hope to see you back here soon and like always do me a favor.
Lance: It makes someone close to your smile today. All the best. My friends.
