Kaela Mazzotta is the co-founder and co-host of CORE. This week, for the first time, she’s in the guest seat!

Kaela has always been curious—about people, why we are the way we are, and what makes a life feel meaningful. That curiosity has shaped nearly every chapter of her life, from studying psychology and spending a year working with people experiencing homelessness in Oakland, to questioning her own relationship with achievement, movement, spirituality, and what it actually means to feel well.

For a long time, Kaela looked outward for many of those answers—through accomplishment, expectations, and what she thought she should be doing. Over time, she began to realize that the answers she was searching for weren’t necessarily out there. The real work was learning to understand herself, trust her own voice, and build a life that felt aligned with it.

That journey is a big part of what eventually led her to create CORE: a space to stay curious, learn from other people, and explore what it really means to live well.

In this conversation, Maggie turns the questions on Kaela.

Our biggest takeaways:

• Achievement and fulfillment are not the same thing. In college, Kaela began to realize that achievement and fulfillment aren’t the same thing. You can be succeeding in one area of your life while neglecting others and still feel like something is missing. For her, fulfillment comes from balance between the mental, physical, and spiritual—and when she doesn’t feel like herself, she asks: Where am I out of balance?

• Sometimes having less shows you what matters most. After college, Kaela moved to Oakland for a year of service working with people experiencing homelessness, living on a $100 monthly stipend. It became one of the most fulfilling years of her life. Riding her bike to watch the sunset, journaling in the park, and simply being present with people taught her how little she actually needed to feel full. It was a reminder she has carried with her ever since: some of the simplest things are often the things that sustain us most.

• Movement should add to your life, not take away from it. Kaela’s relationship with movement has shifted from focusing on performance and always doing more to asking a much simpler question: Does this make me feel good? That shift taught her to see movement less as something to achieve at and more as a way to feel grounded, strong, and connected to herself.

• Learning to trust yourself changes everything. One of Kaela’s biggest lessons has been learning to look inward—to understand herself, trust her own voice, and let that guide the way she lives. It’s also at the heart of CORE: we can learn from others, but ultimately, living well means discovering what feels true for ourselves.

One of our favorites:

“Build the relationship with yourself. Start to trust the voice that’s within you. And then choose to follow that voice rather than all the external noise from the world around you.”

This came at the end of the conversation, when Maggie asked what Kaela would say to someone succeeding on a path that doesn’t actually feel like theirs.

In many ways, the whole conversation was building toward that answer.

What stood out:

“The lack of self-love is what creates the ego.”

Kaela shared this while talking about the misconception that self-love is arrogance. Her belief is almost the opposite: the more grounded we become in who we are, the less we need to look outside ourselves for validation or proof of our worth.

And the more we learn to love ourselves, the more space we have to show up for other people with love.

For Kaela, that’s ultimately the goal:

Help me be a vessel of love and peace.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

Let us know what you think of our CORE Convos! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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💡🧠 Quote

“People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you’re lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.”

— Carrie Ann Moss

🥑 Recipes

Salmon Salad: For lunch lately, I’ve been making a simple salmon salad with Tonnino Wild Alaska Silver Salmon Fillets. I mash up the salmon with diced red onion, cucumber (or pickles), celery, and capers, then mix in a spoonful of yogurt and a little salt and pepper.

It’s the perfect thing to make at the beginning of the week and have on hand for an easy lunch. I’ll put it on avocado toast, scoop it up with crackers or celery sticks, or honestly just eat it straight from the bowl. Plus, salmon is packed with high-quality protein, omega-3s, vitamin D, B12, and selenium, making it a simple, nutrient-dense addition to your week.

Peach & Apple Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies: These are so easy to make and perfect to have on hand for breakfast on the go. Plus, peaches and apples are so good right now!

Preheat your oven to 350°F and mix everything together in a bowl:

• 3 overripe bananas, mashed

• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (I added a little squirt of stevia extract too)

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• 1½ cups quick-cooking oats

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon salt (I use Himalayan salt)

• 1 Honeycrisp apple, finely diced

• 1 peach, finely diced

Once everything is mixed together, scoop one spoonful of the batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350°F for about 15 minutes.

That’s it! Make a batch at the beginning of the week and you have an easy breakfast or snack ready to grab when you’re heading out the door.

🧘 Workouts

Monday: Full Body Pilates
Tuesday: Upper Body Strength
Wednesday: HIIT
Thursday: Strength + Lowerbody
Friday: Spicy Sculpt
Weekend: Yoga Stretch + Meditation

📰 CORE Convos

A Beginner’s Mind Filled With Ambition: Building Sourmilk with Kiki Couchman

Kiki Couchman, co-founder of Sourmilk & former Stanford graduate

What started as a conversation about building a yogurt company became a much bigger conversation about ambition, uncertainty, wellness, and figuring things out as you go. Kiki talks about the power of becoming a beginner again, getting comfortable being uncomfortable, and why success isn’t just about what you build—it’s about creating a life that actually feels like your own.

One of our favorite reminders from the conversation: you don’t need to have everything figured out to keep moving forward.

Watch the full episode here.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

The Power of Routine:

“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.”
— Mike Murdock

There’s something so special about summertime because life, and your routine as you know it, gets shaken up a little. Maybe school is out and you’re officially in summer mode, you’ve started a summer job, or you’re fully in the working world but still feel that shift in energy. There are more happy hours, Summer Fridays, weekends at the beach, and a little more spontaneity.

Maybe you order groceries instead of doing your usual Sunday grocery run, there’s a little less meal prepping happening, or your normal routine just looks different. And for some reason, it feels okay because it’s summer. I actually think there’s something really refreshing about that switch-up and the reminder that we don’t always have to be so rigid with our routines.

But as summer starts to wind down, I can feel myself craving mine again.

Because what we do every day adds up. I may not notice the impact of those little shifts during the first few weeks of summer, but by the end, I start to miss the things that make me feel grounded and in rhythm. Waking up and working out around the same time each morning. My daily walks. Meal prepping and eating foods that make me feel good. Early nights. Slower weekends at home. My Sunday morning walk to our local breakfast spot.

There’s something about having those routines in place that makes everything else feel a little easier. I don’t have to decide when I’m going to squeeze in a workout or a walk because it’s already part of my day. I eat better, sleep better, feel more refreshed, and have more space in my head for everything else.

Summer is such a good reminder that it’s okay to loosen our routines. But maybe the end of summer is an equally good reminder of why we create them in the first place.

As fall approaches, what routines do you want to come back to, or create for yourself?

This week on CORE, we sat down with Kiki Couchman — co-founder of Sourmilk and former private equity investor — about leaving a successful career to build something of her own with her best friend and co-founder, Elan Halpern.

Sourmilk is a probiotic Greek yogurt brand that’s now in 150 stores across the Tri-State area, with a Midwest and Whole Foods launch just around the corner.

But the conversation became less about building a yogurt company and more about what it looks like to navigate ambition, uncertainty, bad workouts, what genuinely being healthy means, and the things you hope you never have to sacrifice while building something ambitious.

A conversation about entrepreneurship, wellness, and figuring things out as you go.

Our biggest takeaways:

• It’s okay to be unsure. You don’t need to have everything figured out to keep moving forward.

• Become a beginner again. After years in a job where she felt like she was operating on autopilot, Kiki described starting Sourmilk as the best feeling — 99% of her brain is firing because she’s learning something new. There’s something freeing about approaching things with a beginner’s mindset — being curious, asking questions, and looking at things with a more childlike sense of creativity. Immerse yourself, study what works, and put your own spin on it.

• Bad workouts happen. Performance isn’t about being “on” every day. It’s about how you respond when you’re not.

• Entrepreneurship can be exposure therapy. Getting comfortable being uncomfortable — and deliberately putting yourself in situations that challenge you — can change you.

• Success is building a life intentionally. One of the biggest markers of success isn’t what you’ve accomplished, but whether you’ve built a life that actually feels like your own.

• Wellness doesn’t have to be optimization. Eating well, moving, cooking, seeing friends, and going out can all be part of being healthy.

One of our favorites:

Kiki talked about the person she was growing up: huge glasses, straight-A student, goody two-shoes, and a big people pleaser.

One of her friends jokes that she’s “the dorkiest cool person she knows.”

We loved this because it was such a simple way into a bigger conversation about how much you change — and how much of yourself you carry with you.

What stood out the most:

Kiki talked about how much she’s changed over the past few years and how she wants to keep going.

“How am I choosing to sculpt myself?”

She said she still doesn’t fully know what her superpowers are. But she has a better idea than she did a year ago.

And when it comes to success:

We asked Kiki what she hopes she never has to sacrifice to get where she wants to go.

The answer came back to the same idea that ran through the whole conversation: becoming a better version of yourself without losing the parts of your life that matter.

For Kiki, that means continuing to learn, continuing to change, and still having a life outside of whatever she’s building.

“Honestly, just a better version of myself.”

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

Let us know what you think of our CORE Convos! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Leave a comment

If you haven’t shared with a friend, these conversations uncover some pretty incredible stories behind what shapes people’s journeys.

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💡🧠 Quote

Modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe on making your vision a reality:

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant — there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”

🥑 Recipes

Tomato + Olive Oil Salad - If you want to try one of this week’s food pairings from our weekly tid-bit (see below), try this recipe!

Homemade Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles - I loveee a nice fluffy waffle. One of my favorites is from Life Alive, so this week I remade them for Sunday breakfast. I liked these because they’re homemade and made with healthy, nourishing ingredients like oatmeal, bananas, and blueberries. You can also adjust the sweetness by adding your own maple syrup or cacao nibs as toppings.

🧘 Workouts

Monday: Tabata + Strength
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Power Pilates
Thursday: Booty
Friday: Yoga Sculpt
Weekend: Stretch + Meditation

📰 CORE Convos

David Ford — UNC golfer, two-time ACC Player of the Year, former No. 1 amateur in the world, and now on the PGA Tour — joined us on CORE this week.

David might be one of the most competitive people we’ve spoken to, but what stood out to us was how little his identity seems to depend on whether he wins or loses (despite how painful a loss or bad putt may be in the moment).

The best golf he’s played has almost never come from the weeks when he worked the hardest on the range. He’s spent years rebuilding his game around less — fewer balls, more trust, more play.

And this idea extends way beyond golf.

He doesn’t work to find his identity in golf, his performance, or what other people think of him.

He works from identity.

There is always another ranking, another goal, another thing to chase.

You can care deeply about your performance without making your performance your identity.

We think that’s one of the most sustainable ways to compete.

David put it simply: “My life won’t look that different whether I make a putt or miss a putt.”

Watch the full episode here.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

New concept: Food pairing

Certain foods actually work better together.

We talk a lot about nutrition and the nutritional value we get from the food we put into our bodies.

But something I recently read about is how we eat those foods together.

The idea behind food pairing, sometimes called food synergy, is that certain foods can work together to help your body absorb or use certain nutrients more effectively.

I’m not a nutritional scientist (and don’t want to be—I have enough other things to think about), but this is something simple enough that I can wrap my head around.

And honestly, I think it’s fun to play around with ideas like this, because it doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be fun.

What we eat affects how we feel, how we think, how we move, and ultimately how we perform. Think about professional athletes. Nutrition is a huge part of how they fuel their bodies, recover, and perform at a high level for years.

I want to be able to think well and move well for a long time.

That’s why I’m interested in nutrition beyond simply “eating healthy.”

Plus, if I’m going to eat something anyway, why not make it fuel my mind and body a little better?

You don’t necessarily need to completely change what you eat. Sometimes you can just think a little differently about what you’re putting together.

The idea is simple: make the meal you’re already eating more useful to your body. Without overthinking it.

I’m going to start simple this week. If you want to try food pairing with me, try one of these this week and send us a picture!

• 🍓 Oatmeal + pumpkin, chia, or flax seeds: If you’re already eating oatmeal for breakfast, lunch, or an after-dinner snack, add a handful of seeds for some extra protein, healthy fats, fiber, and minerals. The fat can help your body absorb certain nutrients.

• 🥬 Green smoothie: Add citrus, berries, or kiwi with the spinach in your next green smoothie. The vitamin C helps your body absorb more of the plant-based iron in leafy greens. And iron matters when you care about energy and performance.

• 🍅 Tomatoes + olive oil: This one is especially easy—and happens to taste really good. Tomatoes contain lycopene, and pairing them with a little fat like olive oil can help your body absorb more of it. Lycopene is an antioxidant that helps protect your cells from oxidative stress. Your body deals with oxidative stress every day, and exercise is one thing that can increase it. So tomato + olive oil + salt might be doing more than just tasting really good.

The takeaway: Small changes are fun and can fuel you even better.

We may not be professional athletes, but I think most of us want the same thing in some form: to feel good, think clearly, move well, and have the energy to do the things we care about.

And to keep doing those things for a really long time.

-M.

David Ford might be one of the most competitive people we’ve spoken to.

A two-time ACC Player of the Year at UNC. The school’s all-time wins leader. The No. 1-ranked amateur golfer in the world. A PGA Tour professional before his 24th birthday.

And yet, he has reached a point where a 10-foot putt can change his score, his paycheck, and his ranking — without changing his life.

What happens when someone who has spent his entire life pursuing achievement realizes achievement can’t be the thing that determines whether he’s okay?

You don’t have to care about golf to care about this conversation.

David turned pro in May 2025 after earning his PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University standings and made his debut at the Charles Schwab Challenge. He’s now four months into an injury, having been off the Tour since April and waiting to return.

This conversation is about golf, but it’s really about something bigger: practicing less, playing free, and learning to build an identity that can survive the score.

Our biggest takeaways:

• Hit less. Play more. David spent years working backward to the same conclusion: the best golf he’s played has almost never come from the weeks when he worked the hardest on the range. His coach Chris Moore said it for years — “see ball, hit ball” and “stop thinking and just start swinging.” So David eventually did the opposite of what he thought he had to do for so long: he hit fewer balls, played more, and trusted time. The lesson isn’t that effort doesn’t matter. It’s that more effort isn’t always better effort. Sometimes, overextending yourself is exactly what gets in the way.

• The 20-minute trophy. David spent his entire senior year chasing No. 1 in the PGA Tour University rankings. He got there. He did the math. He got confirmation. And for 20 minutes, it was everything he thought it would be. He was elated. Then his agent called with the schedule: Charles Schwab Challenge, Jacksonville for the card presentation, the Nicholas Award, a flight to Canada the next day. And he remembers thinking: this is not real. I just had one of the best moments of my life, reached everything I had been training for, and now it’s the next thing. He brought up Tom Brady here — after winning everything, a reporter asked what was next. Brady’s answer: “I just wish I knew.” No achievement delivers quite what you think it will. The 20 minutes are real. But they end. And eventually, you need something underneath the next achievement that doesn’t disappear when you reach it.

• Working from identity, not for it. The thing that allows David to play with freedom isn’t a better mental trick. It’s knowing that the person he is doesn’t depend on the result. His faith didn’t just help with the mental game — it changed what the mental game was actually for. Not to perform better so that he could feel secure in who he is, but to work from a place where his identity is already settled. He put it simply: “I get to work from a place of freedom rather than working for it.”

• “My life won’t look that different.” Even when David lines up for a 10-foot putt to move from 10th to 3rd — a difference worth real money and real points — he knows his life still basically looks the same the next day. He wakes up. He reads the Bible. He practices. He competes at whatever level he’s competing at. Freshman year, a bad round meant a bad day. Senior year, it didn’t. It took four years of college to actually believe that distinction. And he’s still working on it. But that belief is what allows him to stand over a putt that matters without letting the putt consume him.

One of our favorites:

David embraces creativity in one of the most technical games there is.

He has intentionally freed up his time so he can be more intentional with the time he does put in.

He described the American Express Championship in January: he started 10 back, birdied three of the first four holes, and got to 7-under through 12. He said he wasn’t hitting anything he had specifically practiced. He was just being creative.

A little knockdown 7-iron from 160 yards on 17 — a shot he had never hit on a range — and he just trusted it in the moment.

Hit the green. Made birdie.

He said the creative shots on the first two holes gave him enough confidence to keep trusting himself for 18.

That’s what playing free actually looks like: not the absence of pressure, but practicing so intentionally that when it matters, you can get out of your own way.

What stood out the most:

What changed from his freshman to senior year? Winning was no longer everything.

Kaela asked David when he played his best golf and what was going on beyond the game. He said some of his best tournaments have come right after something hard in his personal life — a difficult relationship situation, conflict outside of golf, something that made life feel heavy.

Because when he gets on the course, it becomes an escape.

He loves playing golf.

And when life is at its worst somewhere else, he said he’s sometimes able to really enjoy the course — just for what it is.

That’s not a sports psychology framework.

It’s just a guy who loves golf.

And sometimes the complicated parts of life make it easier to remember that.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

Let us know what you think of our CORE Convos! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Leave a comment

If you haven’t shared with a friend, these conversations uncover some pretty incredible stories behind what shapes people’s journeys.

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Thanks for reading CORE! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

💡🧠 Quote

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,

you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,

you reconcile all beings in the world.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

🥑 Recipes

Erin’s Peach & Avocado Green Salad - my dad grew up in Hamburg, New Jersey, truly the middle of nowhere, and my nana still lives there today. There are a few things I can always count on whenever we visit: the local stromboli place, the pigs in a blanket my nana has waiting for us when we arrive, and some of the best fresh produce.

Lucky for me, my mom just went down to visit and came home with the most amazing corn, tomatoes, and peaches. There’s something about those peaches that is just so much better than anything I can find at the grocery store.

So, naturally, I’m putting them to good use in this Peach & Avocado Green Salad. It’s fresh, simple, and the perfect excuse to enjoy all of the amazing summer produce while we still can.

-K.

Mediterranean Lentil Salad - I never used to cook with lentils, for no other reason than I just wasn’t used to using them. But over the past year or so, I’ve been trying to incorporate them more because they’re packed with plant-based protein and fiber, along with iron, folate, potassium, and magnesium, making them great for everything from gut and heart health to keeping you full and satisfied.

And honestly, whether it’s lentil soup or a lentil salad, I’ve realized they’re the perfect nutritious base to build on and take on so many different flavors. This Mediterranean Lentil Salad looks so fresh, flavorful, and easy, and definitely one I’m excited to try.

-K.

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: Pilates
Tuesday: Upper Body & HIIT
Wednesday: Barre
Thursday: Leg Day
Friday: Yoga Sculpt
Weekend: Stretch

📰 Recent Posts

You might be making your life harder than it needs to be

Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s good for you. I recently came across the terms difficult-easy and difficult-difficult. One keeps you doing what you already know. The other forces you to change. What’s your difficult-difficult?

Read this week’s CORE.

-M.

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

FORTA

If you missed our podcast conversation with Sarah Guller, co-founder of FORTA, you should definitely give it a listen. Sarah and her co-founder, WNBA star Lexie Hull, are building something pretty cool in the performance beauty space.

FORTA, short for “For the Active”, is creating makeup designed to actually hold up through sweat, movement, and long days. The idea came in part from Lexie wanting products that could survive practices and WNBA games, and they launched with their Lock & Go Setting Spray, which they spent more than two years developing and testing with professional athletes. They just launched their second product, a lip stain.

They’re still early, but we think FORTA is going to be a really fun business to follow as Sarah and Lexie build out the brand and this new category of performance beauty. Listen to our conversation with Sarah here, and go try their stuff!

There’s “difficult-easy” and “difficult-difficult.”

I recently came across these terms.

Difficult-easy = hard things that are familiar
Difficult-difficult = hard things that require us to change how we operate.

Difficult-easy is the stuff we do that’s stressful, challenging and/or irritating, but familiar.

It’s the daily grind. Things we already know feel hard.

For example:

• Being busy.

• Starting a stricter diet.

• Putting ourselves through a workout to the point of injury.

• Rushing, feeling frazzled and over-booking ourselves.

• Working too hard.

If we want to feel like we’re living a meaningful life where we’re challenging ourselves, we often gravitate toward this difficult-easy.

If it feels difficult and stressful, we assume it’s signaling challenge, and we assume we must be growing.

This is often a trap for ambitious people who want to get better. We assume the push, the grind and the feelings we are familiar with always signal meaningful challenge.

It takes a lot of effort, and maybe even a lot of suffering, so it must be good for us, right?

Then, there’s difficult-difficult.

This is what you want to find.

This is also uncomfortable, but it’s uncomfortable in a way that promotes productive growth.

After all, the goal is to become the best version of you—not the busiest, most challenged person our fast world can quickly reinforce.

The interesting thing about difficult-difficult is that it doesn’t always look like what we typically think of as “difficult.”

It’s difficult because it forces us to question how we’ve always done things.

It can be:

• Slowing down and being mindful.

• Focusing and following a plan consistently over the long term.

• Carefully prioritizing and doing only what really matters.

• Letting go.

• Being vulnerable.

• Trying something new.

• Taking a leap into the unknown when there’s no clear path ahead.

And I think this distinction is important because not all discomfort is good.

Not all discomfort means we’re challenging ourselves in a productive way or stepping outside the right comfort zone.

Some things are hard, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’re moving us forward.

Choose the difficult-difficult.

You might wonder: What’s your difficult-difficult?

For someone who is used to “doing it all,” doing less might be their difficult-difficult.

For someone who is always planning, taking a leap without knowing exactly what comes next might be it.

For someone who is used to pushing through, slowing down might actually be harder than working harder.

Which sounds counterintuitive.

I think it starts with asking yourself:

1. What am I afraid of? What do I typically avoid?

2. What feels deeply uncomfortable but could potentially be life-changing?

3. What goes against how I normally approach problems?

Maybe the hardest thing isn’t always the thing that requires the most effort.

Maybe sometimes, the hardest thing is doing something completely different from what you’ve always done.

-M.

💡🧠 Quote

“I would like to think that all of my successes in life are really just the fruit of my failures.”

- Yvie Oddly

🥑 Recipes

Corn, Avocado, and Quinoa Salad with Marinated Tomatoes - growing up, every Fourth of July week on the Cape, all of my cousins would come in from New Jersey and Colorado. The house was jam-packed, messy, loud, and full of energy and love, it was the best.

We’d always have a lobster bake on the Fourth, which meant lots of corn on the cob and plenty of leftovers. I’ve loved cooking since I was little, and one summer my aunt taught me how to turn that leftover corn into a salad. Now, whenever I make one, it brings me right back to those summers with my cousins.

That’s one of the things I love most about cooking. Sometimes it’s not even about the food, it’s the nostalgia, the memories, and the people you share it with.

What recipe brings back some of your favorite memories?

Shrimp & Zucchini Pasta Salad - shrimp and zucchini are two of my favorite things to cook with. They’re versatile, go with just about anything, and take on whatever flavors you pair them with.

I sometimes think pasta salad is a bit of a contradiction because when most of the salad is pasta, you’re not getting all of the nutrients you would from a traditional salad. This one is a little different. It’s loaded with shrimp, zucchini, peas, kale, chives, and plenty of fresh summer flavors, so you’re getting lots of protein, fiber, and veggies, with a little couscous to pull it all together.

And if you prefer, swap the couscous for quinoa for an extra boost of protein. There’s always room to get creative in the kitchen, even when you’re following a recipe. Light, fresh, and protein-packed, this is a great one to try before summer is over!

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: Full Body Strength
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Pilates
Thursday: Lean Legs
Friday: Pilates Barre
Weekend: Yoga/ Pilates

🎧 CORE Convos

This Week on The CORE Podcast: Neal Begovich

“Disappointment is an incredibly fleeting feeling. It can feel really intense in the moment, but it doesn’t actually endure.”

Neal Begovich has built an impressive career on and off the court, from playing Division I basketball at Stanford and Duke, to earning his MBA at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, working in the Golden State Warriors front office, and now moving into sports investing.

In this week’s episode, we talk about playing the long game, focusing on what you can control, and why you should never quit. Neal shares the “98%” mindset that shaped his time at Duke, why playing hard is a skill, and a perspective on success that has stuck with us: most people won’t be remembered for what they accomplished, but they will be remembered for how they made people feel.

One of our favorite reminders from the conversation:

“If you just stack and compound great days of approaching things the right way—over time, you can go really, really far.”

A great conversation on patience, perspective, and continuing to show up.

Watch the full episode here.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

A Little Fun “Woo Woo”: The 8/8 Lion’s Gate Portal

I know I don’t always share my “woo woo” side on here, but I’ve always loved learning about astrology and using it as another way to shift my perspective and be a little more intentional.

The Lion’s Gate Portal is said to take place each year from July 28 through August 12, with August 8 (8/8) considered its energetic peak. In astrology, this period is associated with transformation, reflection, setting intentions, and thinking about what you want to call into your life. Whether or not you believe in the astrology behind it, I like using it as a reminder to slow down and get intentional about what I’m working toward.

Whether you’re “woo woo,” open to this kind of thing, or think I’m completely crazy, I still love you all! No matter where you fall, I love the idea of using this time as a reminder to check in with yourself. Pick up your journal, write out your intentions, meditate, create a vision board, set a few goals, or simply take five quiet minutes to visualize the life you’re working toward.

Sometimes we don’t need a big reason to reconnect with what we want, we just need the reminder. Maybe this is yours.

Read more about the Lion’s Gate Portal HERE.

-K.

Neal Begovich played Division I basketball at both Stanford and Duke, earned his MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, and went on to work in the Golden State Warriors front office before moving into sports investing. He was the oldest player on a Duke roster that included Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and several future NBA players — which naturally earned him the nickname “Uncle” from his younger teammates.

Neal also shared one of the most meaningful stories we’ve heard on the podcast. He grew up the youngest of three brothers, and the last night he spent with his dad was at a Stanford basketball game. That night, he and his middle brother made it their goal to play there one day — and they made that dream come true.

A conversation about the long game, continuous improvement, and what it means to never quit.

Our biggest takeaways:

• The 98%. Duke Basketball’s mental skills coach, Russ Rausch, shared a stat with the team that completely changed how they approached the season: even the NBA’s leading scorer only scores about 2% of the time during a game. The other 98%: your effort, your communication, your energy, how hard you play. Neal said the team built their entire second season around this idea. Everyone on that roster had been the best player growing up. Now, they had to stop chasing outcomes and focus on what they could actually control. The shots falling are the result. The 98% is the work. Neal still lives by this today.

• Playing hard is a skill. Once you reach the highest levels, everyone is talented. The separator isn’t usually talent anymore. It’s discipline. Consistency. Mentality. And as Neal put it, playing hard is a skill. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

• Playing the long game. When Neal transferred from Stanford, he had opportunities where he could have played a much bigger role. Instead, he chose Duke. He knew he wasn’t going to take Cooper Flagg’s minutes (he laughed about that). But he also knew he’d earn a Fuqua MBA, practice every day alongside future NBA players, and be part of a program he’d admired his whole life. Most people would’ve optimized for playing time, but he optimized for who he’d become. He said when he looked at the next 20 years instead of the next season, the decision wasn’t even close.

• Everyone’s advice is biased. Neal used the phrase “interpretive location” (clearly, he’s smarter than us) — the idea that everyone gives advice from the lens of the life they built, the choices they made, and the things they prioritized. So advice is inherently filtered. That doesn’t make the advice wrong—it just means it’s filtered. The most useful thing you can do with someone else’s experience isn’t copy their path — it’s understand the principle behind it.

One of our favorites:

He loves his job and loves learning, but we asked him about the days that inevitably come when you wonder what you’re doing or feel completely in over your head, and he responded, calmly:

"If you just stack and compound great days of approaching things the right way — over time, you can go really, really far."

It’s something he learned through sports. He’s carried it with him since he was young, used it throughout college, and still comes back to it today.

The process is what you can control. Show up every day, do the work, and let the results take care of themselves.

What stood out the most:

Kaela asked Neal if he intentionally sets aside time to reflect on what he actually wants.

His answer? Honestly, probably not enough.

He thinks about those questions often, but admitted he could be more deliberate about creating space to reflect.

The biggest way he does this is by studying people he admires. He listens to podcasts, reads, and asks questions like: When do you go to bed? What does your morning look like? How do you spend your time?

He said it’s the most direct way he knows to understand what actually matters to someone.

Because how you spend your time reveals what you value.

And what he hopes people remember:

We ended by asking Neal what he hopes people remember about him.

His answer was simple: almost nobody gets remembered at scale.

He shared the example that even the 20th richest person in the world is probably looking at the 19th person ahead of them. There is always another milestone, another achievement, another person to compare yourself to.

The thing that actually endures is how you made people feel.

He hopes people remember that he was close with his family. That he treated the people around him well. That his relationships lasted.

And then he said:

Don’t quit.

His dad’s motto. His middle brother still says it. It’s become the philosophy their family lives by.

A simple reminder that the things worth building — careers, relationships, dreams — usually take a lot longer than we expect.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

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💡🧠 Quote

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

🥑 Recipes

Healthy Chicken Salad: I’ve always thought chicken salad is the perfect summer lunch. Whether you’re packing it for a day at the beach, enjoying it in a wrap, serving it with crackers, or eating it straight from the bowl with a spoon, it’s an easy, satisfying meal, especially when you can use leftover grilled chicken from the night before.

I’ve never been a big fan of mayonnaise, so I like making chicken salad with healthier alternatives like Greek yogurt, avocado, or hummus. There are so many simple ways to give this classic recipe a fresh, nutritious twist.

Give this healthier chicken salad a try this week!

Greek Yogurt Pancakes: There’s just something nostalgic about pancakes on a Saturday morning. They’re a breakfast classic, and with a few simple swaps they can easily be made into a more nourishing start to the day. These Greek yogurt pancakes are light, fluffy, packed with protein, and a great healthier twist on a weekend favorite. Give them a try this weekend!

-K.

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: HIIT
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Pilates Strength
Thursday: Leg Day
Friday: Sculpt
Weekend: Full Body Reset

🎧 CORE Convos

Is This What I Want, or Just What I Should Do?

Ali Keel, Radiologist · Harvard Athlete · Mother of Three

After college, Ali Keel didn’t go straight to medical school.

She got her EMT certification. She worked in a research lab for two years. She studied for MCATs at night. She kept running competitively with a club team, even when she was up late and training until ten, because she wasn’t ready to let that part of herself go yet.

She’s a breast radiologist now, Harvard-trained, in practice for decades. And she said she still didn’t know if it was the right way — only that she chose it, and it worked, and you never really get to know in advance.

What I keep thinking about is the part when she said: “when you’re capable and you’re very driven, you can get locked in and lose sight of a lot of things.” The path that makes sense on paper can become its own kind of trap. Not because it’s the wrong path, but because you stopped asking if it’s your path.

She said if she’d known it would all work out, she would have just relaxed a lot more. Not “I would have chosen differently.” Just — relaxed.

I think about that a lot. The permission to not know, and to go anyway.

CORE Takeaway: You don't need certainty to move forward — just the willingness to choose, and find out.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

Do you get 10,000 steps per day?

Someone asked me once if I purposely tried to get 10,000 steps per day. I didn’t have an Apple Watch, didn’t have a WHOOP, didn’t check my health app on my iPhone — and this was before I had an Oura ring.

I genuinely just loved walking. My body must have known that whenever I felt a little stressed, going for a walk would solve it — pure pattern recognition.

When I got that question, I thought it was so interesting. I wasn’t tracking, nor did I have to.

Sometimes these measurements aren’t supposed to be some crazy number to hit — it’s genuinely just what our body needs and craves. Once you start, it’s almost like candy (can’t believe I’m using the same analogy my mom used on me growing up when she’d hand me fruit, or even carrots). But truly, the feeling your brain releases when you move is worth chasing on its own, numbers aside.

If you’re not sure where to start, take a short, 10-minute walk after every meal. That timing helps metabolism, and by the end of the day it adds up to 30 minutes of walking.

And to make it even better, try habit stacking — put on a walking meditation during your walk and support both your physical and mental well-being at the same time.

Let us know if you like these and we can share more.

-M.

Ali Keel is a breast radiologist, Harvard graduate, former college track athlete, and mother of three. She grew up in Massachusetts, ran competitively through college and for years after, and took a winding road to medicine — EMT certification, a research lab, MCATs studied at night — before spending a decade in medical school, residency, and fellowship.

She lost her mom tragically when she was 30 where she was then forced to understand what truly matters.

A conversation about the question: is this what I want, or is this what I should do?

Our biggest takeaways:

• Capability can be its own trap. When you’re used to performing at a high level, people want you to do a lot of things. And most of the time, you do them — because you can. Ali talked about this through medical school: the sacrifices and the constant questioning of whether she was on the right path. Not because she was failing or hated what she was doing, but because she was capable of many things, and capability doesn’t tell you which one is actually yours. She said if she’d known it would all work out, she would have just relaxed a lot more. But she also said: when you’re that driven, you get locked in and lose sight of almost everything else. The question she kept asking was — is this what I want, or is this what I should do?

• “I will never be mad at you for the grade you got.” Ali is raising three kids in Massachusetts — the exact environment where the pressure to perform starts early and doesn’t stop. She made a decision to be different, and to remember to share her failures with her children. She said it directly: these kids need to know they matter. Not for what they achieve. For who they are.

• Learning to say no. This was the belief she had to unlearn — and she said it like she still has to remind herself. When you’re used to doing well, you want to please. You volunteer. You say yes because no one else will. At some point she had to learn: just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to be the one doing it. That took a while, but it’s an extremely valuable reminder.

One of our favorites:

She said this about raising kids in the achievement spiral — but it was just as true about herself at 22, in medical school, and as a mother: "When you're caught in this world and you're spiraling in terms of anxiety — you need to know that life goes on." She lived it first. Now she's trying to make sure her kids understand it, too.

What stood out the most:

“I actually graduated and I had no idea what I wanted to do. And I was pretty lost.”

Harvard graduate. Former athlete. Future doctor. And she graduated with no plan. She got her EMT certification, took a job in a research lab, kept training with a club running team because she couldn’t let that part go yet. She wasn’t lost because she wasn’t motivated — she felt lost because capability doesn’t automatically tell you what you actually want.

And when it comes to success for her children:

We asked Ali what she hopes her children learn when they leave home:

“If you can find something that gives you a sense of fulfillment in terms of what you’re doing day to day, I think that you really are winning. And I would hope they can find that — and also just maintain connections with family and friends.”

In summary, success without connection is never enough.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

Let us know what you think of our CORE Convos! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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If you haven’t shared with a friend, these conversations uncover some pretty incredible stories behind what shapes people’s journeys.

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💡🧠 Quote

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

— Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

🥑 Recipes

Mediterranean Hummus Dip Platter - My sisters-in-laws have been making this Mediterranean dip ever since I started dating my husband, and it’s been one of my favorite appetizers from day one. I finally started making it myself, and it’s quickly become one of my go-to dishes whenever we’re entertaining. It’s easy to put together, comes together in one dish, and is always the first thing to disappear at any event. If you’re looking for a simple, crowd-pleasing appetizer to bring to your next gathering, this is it!

Teriyaki Chicken Spring Roll Bowl - Spring rolls are one of my favorite foods, but if you’ve ever tried making them at home, you know they can be a little tricky. Between rolling everything into delicate rice paper and trying to eat them without everything falling apart, it’s definitely a skill I’m still working on! That’s why I’m excited to try this deconstructed version. It has all the fresh, delicious flavors of a spring roll, but it’s much easier to throw together, and the leftovers make the perfect lunch or dinner the next day.

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: Pilates
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: HIIT & Strength
Thursday: Abs and Booty
Friday: Vinyasa
Weekend: Mobility

🎧 CORE Convos

What Championship Culture Is Really Built On

Rich Gotham, Boston Celtics President

Rich Gotham, President of the Boston Celtics, joined us on CORE this week. He shared his thinking on championship culture, why character outlasts talent, and what success looks like when your title isn’t the most important thing about you.

The moment that stood out the most: people from his hometown tell him they’re proud of him, and his response is always the same — you don’t know me well enough to say that. You know what I do. Not who I am. After 23 years in one of the most visible roles in Boston sports, Rich has intentionally stayed behind the scenes. He’s watched what happens when people let a title become their identity, and he never wanted that for himself.

The most impressive thing Rich said had nothing to do with the Celtics. We asked him what success means to him today. He didn’t pause:

“Family’s happiness.”

That’s success at the highest level.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

Kaela Here: Why I Believe Understanding Your Body Matters

There have been moments in my life when I knew something felt off.

I was dealing with bloating, brain fog, reflux, and other symptoms that made me feel unlike myself. Every time I went to the doctor, my scans and labs came back normal. I was grateful nothing serious was found—but I still didn’t have answers for why I didn’t feel like myself.

I think many of us have experienced something similar: knowing our bodies are communicating with us, even when there isn’t always a clear explanation.

That doesn’t mean every symptom is a sign something is wrong. But I do think our bodies are constantly giving us information, and learning how to listen is one of the most powerful tools we have for our long-term health.

That’s what drew me to Function Health. After being gifted a membership, I was excited to better understand my own health through deeper lab testing and tracking changes over time.

For me, it’s not about chasing perfect numbers or becoming obsessed with data. It’s about awareness. It’s about having more information, asking better questions, and becoming a better advocate for my own health.

At CORE, we believe the foundation of health, performance and long-term happiness starts with understanding yourself. The more aware we are of our bodies, the better we can care for them. And the happier we will be.

-K.

Rich Gotham has been President of the Boston Celtics for 23 years. Long before that, he was a kid in Milford delivering newspapers, working because his family needed the income, and learning the value of hard work out of necessity.

He never planned on a career in professional sports. A phone call on a February afternoon changed that. But what struck us most wasn’t how he got to the Celtics—it was how intentionally he’s made sure the job never became who he is.

A conversation about the quiet habits that build a reputation, why character outlasts talent, and what success looks like when your title isn’t the most important thing about you.

Our biggest takeaways:

• Character compounds. One of the simplest things Rich said may have been the most profound: "Every opportunity you get is based on someone else saying something good about you." Your next opportunity isn't usually created by a résumé. It's created by the people who've watched how you show up—how you treat others, whether you keep your word, whether you're dependable when no one's paying attention. Reputation isn't built in big moments. It's built in ordinary ones.

• The bill always comes due. Growing up without a safety net taught Rich to keep moving. He admitted he pushed himself forward "probably to the detriment of really processing things." For years, that mindset served him. But that doesn’t last forever. The emotions, conversations, and experiences we avoid don't disappear. They simply wait until we're ready—or forced—to face them.

• Culture isn't about winning. When Kaela asked Rich what kind of culture he wants people to feel when they walk into the Celtics organization, he said: "I want people to give a s***." And then he explained the why. Not because winning is the point — you can't control that. But because the Celtics are in the business of creating joy. A Make-A-Wish child sitting courtside. A million and a half people celebrating through the streets of Boston. Those are the moments he keeps coming back to. And he said if people can feel even a tiny bit of that when they walk in to start their work day — that's enough.

One of our favorites:

“The only people I’ve seen here who really haven’t had success are people who are pretty selfish.”

After two decades around championship teams, Rich has noticed one pattern that never changes.

The people who last aren't always the most talented.

They're the ones with competitive character—the willingness to be coached, embrace their role, continue improving, and care more about the team than themselves.

The answer is the same — on the basketball side, on the business side, in the draft room, at the end of the roster where people are fighting to stay in the league.

What stood out the most:

The moment that stayed with us is when Rich talked about people from his hometown who tell him they're proud of him — and his response is: you don't know me well enough to say that. You know what I do. Not who I am. After 23 years in one of the most visible roles in Boston sports, Rich has intentionally stayed behind the scenes. He's watched what happens when people let a title become their identity—and he never wanted that for himself.

And when it comes to success:

We asked Rich what success means to him today:

“Family’s happiness.”

He said it immediately.

Not a championship. Not a title. The kind of people the people you love are becoming.

For someone who's spent his career around one of the most successful organizations in sports, it was a reminder that the most meaningful scoreboard often has nothing to do with work.

That's success—even at the highest level.

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

Let us know what you think of our CORE Convos! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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If you haven’t shared with a friend, these conversations uncover some pretty incredible stories behind what shapes people’s journeys.

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💡🧠 Quote

Psychologist and author Adam Grant shares a question for sparking better conversation:

“When you meet someone new, don’t ask: What do you do? It limits what people share about themselves to a job description.

Instead, try: What do you love to do? It ignites curiosity and invites people to express their distinctive interests.”

🥑 Recipes

Lemon Herb Snap Pea Salad - Thinly sliced snap peas tossed with fresh mint, parsley, feta, and roasted pistachios in a bright lemon-Dijon-honey dressing. No-cook, ready in 30 minutes, and it keeps in the fridge for up to four days — great next to grilled chicken or shrimp.

Baked Chilean Sea Bass with Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes - Tender sea bass baked under basil pesto with cherry tomatoes and charred lemon. About 20 minutes start to finish — a weeknight dinner that feels like a restaurant one.

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: Full Body Sculpt
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Full Body Cardio
Thursday: Lower Body
Friday: Pilates Barre
Weekend: Yoga Flow

🎧 CORE Convos

We just sat down with Rich Gotham, president of the Boston Celtics — a conversation about what it takes to run one of the most storied franchises in sports without losing yourself in it. This convo will be out next week.

Until then, explore the full archive on Substack, YouTube or Spotify.

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

Why we don’t drink plain water anymore.

Every bottle of water we drink nowadays has electrolytes.

It was for taste at first. But after learning more — true hydration is more than just water. Your body needs the right balance of minerals to truly thrive.

Minerals like sodium, potassium, and magnesium help your body maintain fluid balance, support muscle function, regulate nerve signals, and keep your energy levels steady. Replenishing them helps you feel your best and prevents things like muscle cramps, fatigue, and that "depleted" feeling after sweating.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Thorne: Performance + quality-focused: Performance + quality-focused. Best for those looking for a more targeted, science-focused formula with high-quality ingredients — great for athletes, endurance training, or anyone who wants a simple, clean electrolyte option. Maggie uses these before, during, after a workout.

• Ultima: Daily hydration. A great everyday option for general hydration, light workouts, or anyone looking for a lower-sugar electrolyte with a variety of flavors and a lighter mineral profile. We use these in every bottle of water.

• LMNT: Sweating heavily. Best for people who sweat a lot, exercise intensely, spend time in the heat, or follow a lower-carb lifestyle and need a higher sodium boost. (It’s one of the higher-sodium electrolyte options.) One heads-up: these are very high in sodium — when Maggie was sweating through lacrosse practices at Duke, our trainer Jen would put just half a packet in a water bottle, and that was plenty.

  -K.

“Major cheat code for life: Become difficult to rush.

The world will pressure you to rush into everything. Rushed decisions. Rushed conversations. Rushed relationships. Rushed timelines.

There’s immense power in rejecting that trend. Slow down. Create space to think clearly.”

- Sahil Bloom

I’ve come to learn this.

I’ve noticed a good and bad quality about me: I’m impatient. I want things to happen quickly. It’s a strength because it motivates me to take action. It’s a weakness when it leads to rushed decisions that stray away from my core.

I've realized time and time again that rushing often pulls me away from the long-term direction I actually want to go.

The pressure to move fast rarely comes from inside you—it’s almost always external. We live in a world that’s constantly picking up pace, and with things like AI, it’s becoming even easier to rush our thinking and our decisions.

It’s a reminder that good, meaningful things take time. The best things in life—relationships, family, building a community—rarely come from rushing. They come from being thoughtful, staying patient, and continuing to put in the work.

Slow down and create space for your mind to think freely (and sleep).

-M.

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💡🧠 Quote

“Learn to love the interruptions. Find the fun in the delay, the humor in the challenge, the pleasure in the daily commute.

A great deal of life is spent dealing with interruptions and waiting for the conditions to turn. We think, “If I can just get past this, then things will open up.” But the interruption is not standing between you and your life. It is your life.

Yes, I prefer hassle free days too. But you’ll rarely find a situation that is all bad. There are little pockets of joy folded into the annoyances we face. There is always fun to be had, if you go looking for it.

This is one of the arts of living. It’s the art of enjoying the imperfect days. It’s the art of making all the moments count.”

- James Clear

🥑 Recipes

Chopped Thai-Inspired Chicken Salad - Shredded chicken, cabbage, carrots, and peanuts tossed in a homemade peanut dressing with lime, soy, and chili. Big, punchy flavors and comes together fast — good for a make-ahead lunch.

Peach Salad - Fresh peaches for summer! Sliced peaches, cucumber, shallot, and mint with a lime-honey dressing. No-cook, ready in 15 minutes, best eaten the same day you make it.

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: Pilates Sculpt

Tuesday: Upper Body

Wednesday: HIIT & Strength

Thursday: Abs and Booty

Friday: Yoga Sculpt

Weekend: Hips and Core Vinyasa

🎧 CORE Convos

Taylor Nielsen played soccer at Harvard, founded Athlete’s Game Plan, and now runs sports analytics at Nike Golf. She joined us on this week’s episode of CORE.

I keep coming back to something she said near the middle of our conversation.

She was talking about the pressure at Harvard — the late nights in the library, balancing sport and school. And she said she didn’t feel pressure in it, because everyone around her was doing the same thing. When it’s universal, it doesn’t register as a burden. It just feels like life.

And then I said something I hadn’t really put into words before: “The pressure I was holding myself to — I didn’t even notice it until I took myself out of the environment.”

We move through bubbles — our hometown, our team, our first job — and each one quietly rewrites what we think is normal. And because everyone around you is living in the same environment, it never feels like pressure. It just feels like what you’re supposed to be doing.

That’s not unique to Harvard or to being an athlete. It’s true of any environment that sets the standard for what feels normal — a job, a relationship, a city. Sometimes stepping outside of it, even briefly, is the only way to see it clearly.

What environment are you in right now that might be rewriting what you think is too much?

— M.

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

Do You Really Need to Take a Multi-Vitamin?

No, well not if you eat a perfectly balanced diet - but who really does? I like to eat healthy, and while it’d be great to consistently eat a perfectly balanced diet, it’s impossible. Well, maybe not impossible—I just don’t want to make it my job.

Plus, I tend to know what I like, and sometimes I don’t want to change it up. That’s where a multivitamin can come in handy.

I like to think of a multivitamin as nutritional insurance. It supplements—not replaces—a healthy diet and helps fill in potential gaps.

If I had a personal chef preparing balanced meals every day, I probably wouldn’t need one. But for being on-the-go, traveling, and not always having time to prep my own meals, it’s a simple habit that makes healthy living easier.

I take Thorne’s Basic Nutrients 2/Day every morning.

If you want to learn more, feel free to read this article from Thorne.

-M.

This week on CORE, we sat down with Taylor Nielsen — Harvard soccer captain, founder of Athlete’s Game Plan, and sports analytics lead at Nike Golf — about what happens to identity when the sport ends. Or almost ends.

Taylor left Harvard ready to be done with soccer. Not done in the quiet, grateful way athletes describe it in retrospect — done in the way where you genuinely consider throwing your cleats away.

That experience became the foundation for Athletes Game Plan — a platform built for every athlete who’s ever needed to hear from someone who’d already lived their questions.

A conversation about identity beyond sport, the pressure we don’t notice until we leave it, and how the hardest years create the most useful people.

Our biggest takeaways:

• Hearing someone’s story in their own words puts color to a path you thought you already understood. Kaela said this — and it’s the whole argument for mentorship. It doesn’t tell you what to expect. It just makes you less shocked when things don’t go the way you planned.

• The hard years don’t disappear — they become the point. Taylor’s toughest years at Harvard is exactly why Athlete’s Game Plan exists.

• Data tells part of the story. Lived experience writes the rest. Taylor left pure data science after a year at Nike to become a storyteller — because the numbers don’t explain everything, and she’s the one who has to fill in the rest.

One of our favorites:

“There is going to be ups and downs in school — more than truthfully in soccer, in academics, and honestly, socially. There’s always gonna be a time where something dips. And if I just told my freshman year self that — there’s gonna be a dip, and you have to figure out how to get through it while also being a good teammate and friend — I think that would have given me some more perspective. Because it seemed like everything was gonna be flying colors through school.”

What stood out the most:

There was a moment where Taylor said she didn’t feel the pressure at Harvard because everyone around her was doing the same thing — staying in the library until 1am, balancing sport and school. When something is universal, it stops registering as a burden. It just feels like life.

And then Maggie said: the pressure I was holding myself to, I didn’t even notice it until I took myself out of the environment.

That exchange stuck with us. You move through bubbles — your hometown, your team, your first job — and each one quietly rewrites what you think is expected of you. The self-reflection almost always has to happen from outside, not inside.

And when it comes to success in sports:

“I left college and I almost threw my cleats away. I was like, I’m done with soccer. That’s it. I was so ready to be out of it. And I think when I got back into it at Nike — starting to just play soccer because I loved it, not because it was a job anymore and not because it was something I was supposed to do at school — I think that’s when I realized: soccer should be something that actually brings me joy and that I want to be doing, versus something I’m putting so much time and pressure on. I wish in college I would have separated those two things and just tried to have fun with it. Because I was definitely pretty angry senior year—which is not how you should play a sport at all. And that’s not why kids should get into sports.”

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

Let us know what you think of our CORE Convos! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Leave a comment

If you haven’t shared with a friend, these conversations uncover some pretty incredible stories behind what shapes people’s journeys.

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Thanks for reading CORE! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

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💡🧠 Quote

“The present moment is full of joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

🥑 Recipes

Watermelon Salad with Feta - There is nothing better than a cold, juicy watermelon on a hot summer day.

The first time I tried watermelon salad with feta was during a summer internship at America’s Test Kitchen. One of the best perks was the take-home fridge, where chefs left recipes they had tested throughout the day. One afternoon, all that was left was a container of watermelon salad. I loved watermelon but wasn’t convinced the feta, arugula, and dressing belonged together.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Sitting outside in the summer heat, I took one bite and was hooked. The sweet watermelon, salty feta, peppery arugula, and bright dressing were the perfect combination. I still think about that salad years later.

With the Fourth of July and summer in full swing, this is one of my favorite recipes to make. It’s simple, refreshing, hydrating, and the perfect dish to bring to any summer gathering.

Margarita Shrimp Skewers - Shrimp is always my go-to protein in the summer, especially paired with a fresh salad. These Margarita Shrimp Skewers would be the perfect addition to any Fourth of July menu, whether you serve them as an appetizer, alongside the watermelon salad, or as part of your main spread with your favorite summer sides.

They’re light, fresh, and exactly the kind of recipe that feels made for grilling season.

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: Sculpt

Tuesday: Upper Body

Wednesday: Pilates

Thursday: Lower Body Strength

Friday: Yoga Sculpt

Weekend: Yoga Flow

🎧 CORE Convos

Taking a week off from CORE Convos for some family time - will share a new conversation soon.

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

80:20 Rule

“The 80/20 rule—adapted from the Pareto Principle—is a philosophy of balance over perfection. It suggests spending roughly 80% of your time focused on healthy, intentional habits, while leaving the other 20% for flexibility, indulgence, rest, and the moments that make life enjoyable.”

We talk a lot about the 80%, but this is your reminder that the 20% matters just as much, especially around the Fourth of July.

Go to the beach. Have the margarita. Eat the strawberry shortcake. Stay up late for s’mores. Spend the day in the sun, and if you get a little sunburned, don’t stress. Relax. Laugh. Be present.

The reason we stay consistent 80% of the time is so we can fully embrace the other 20% without guilt. That’s where balance lives. It’s where we reconnect with the people we love, make memories, celebrate, and remember that joy, pleasure, rest, and community are just as essential to a healthy life as clean eating, workouts, and routines.

This weekend, surrender to the 20%. Be present enough to enjoy it, knowing that balance, not perfection, is what creates a life worth living.

Happy Fourth! 🇺🇸

💡🧠 Quote

“The mistake is thinking life needs a meaning outside itself […] Life isn’t a problem to solve or a mission to complete; it’s an experience unfolding in real time.”

― Arthur C. Brooks

🥑 Recipes

One Pot Veggie Pesto Chicken and Rice - I’m always sold when I hear “one pot,” and when pesto is in the title, it’s an even bigger win. This is a delicious, easy meal that’s perfect for making at the beginning of the week, with plenty of leftovers to enjoy for lunch or dinner later on.

Asian Chicken Salad - you can’t go wrong with a salad that is fresh, crunchy, and packed with flavor. With shredded chicken, crisp veggies, fresh herbs, toasted almonds, and a simple sesame ginger dressing, it’s an easy lunch or dinner that you can store in the fridge throughout the week.

🧘 Workouts

Another weekly workout schedule is here!

Monday: 30 Min Strength

Tuesday: Upper Body and Abs

Wednesday: Pilates Sculpt

Thursday: Lower Body Strength

Friday: Yoga Sculpt

Weekend: Fascia Release

🎧 CORE Convos

Catch up on the latest CORE conversations:

Beauty in Motion: Building FORTA

Sarah Guller, co-founder of FORTA, joined us on this week’s episode of CORE to talk about building a performance beauty brand alongside her Stanford roommate and WNBA star Lexie Hull. I keep coming back to something Sarah said near the middle of our conversation this week.

She was describing the moment she knew she had to leave private equity — not because she hated it, not because she was failing, but because she kept coming home more excited to work on FORTA than she was to walk into the office.

And she said: “The idea of being on my deathbed, having worked the corporate rat race my whole life, and thinking — wow, I never did something I was actually passionate about. That really scared me. I could live with trying and failing. I don’t think I could live with the big what-if.”

I’ve heard versions of this before. But there was something different about the way she said it — not dramatic, not rehearsed. Just honest. Like she’d actually sat with it long enough to know it was true.

There’s a version of ambition that’s really just fear wearing a disguise. You stay in the thing that looks impressive on paper because the alternative — trying something real and having it not work — feels too exposed. The stable path becomes its own kind of risk. Just a slower one. The risk of never finding out what you were actually capable of.

She was working 9-to-9, wishing she was home working on something she believed in. That’s not a quiet signal.

The what-if question is different from “what if I fail?” Most of us have made some kind of peace with the idea of trying something and having it not work out. What we haven’t made peace with is never trying at all — carrying a version of our life that we imagined but never reached for.

Sarah asked herself which fear she could live with. That’s the question.

What are you putting off that, ten years from now, you wouldn’t want to have never started?

-M.

📰 Weekly Tid-Bit

Hard Conversations

Why are the conversations that matter most often the hardest to have?

Maybe because the waiting is part of the work. The time spent thinking, processing, and sitting with your emotions helps transform a reaction into something more honest and intentional. It gives your thoughts room to settle and your truth room to emerge.

Growth rarely happens in the easy conversations. It happens in the ones that make us nervous, the ones we replay in our heads before finally speaking. So take your time. Reflect. Be patient. And when you finally speak, the words won't come from a place of reaction, they'll come from a place of clarity.

This week on CORE, we sat down with Sarah Guller — co-founder of FORTA and former private equity investor — about leaving a prestigious career to build something she actually believed in, alongside her Stanford roommate and WNBA star Lexie Hull.

FORTA is a performance beauty brand built for active women — long wear, sweat-proof, tested on professional athletes. But the conversation became less about the product and more about what it takes to bet on yourself before anyone else does.

From two years of formula testing to a pitch in Paris that didn’t win, Sarah shares what it actually looks like to build something from scratch — with your best friend, on limited resources, and with a devil still on your shoulder.

A conversation about entrepreneurship, creative rediscovery, and choosing the life you’d actually want to look back on.

Our biggest takeaways:

• The what-if is scarier than failure. Leaving stability is hard — but the fear of never knowing is harder. That clarity is what makes the leap possible.

• Patience is a competitive advantage. Two years, thirty formulas, one rule: if it doesn’t survive a WNBA game, they’re not launching. Refusing to rush is how you build something that lasts.

• Beauty and performance were never supposed to be separate. The beauty industry built itself around a still moment. FORTA is building for everything in between.

• Building with your best friend is a superpower — and a responsibility. The trust is the advantage. So are the hard conversations.

• Creativity doesn’t die. It gets buried. Corporate life has a way of making you forget who you were before it. Building FORTA reminded Sarah she never stopped being creative.

One of our favorites:

Sarah has a framework for thinking about market opportunity that she carried over from private equity.

“Gatorade started as a drink for high performance athletes — now it’s in everyone’s fridge. Lululemon started as activewear — now I wear my leggings to Safeway. These things that start as performance focused trickle down to mainstream. We haven’t seen that happen in makeup yet. That’s the whole point of FORTA.”

What stood out the most:

Sarah’s dad grew up in an impoverished village in India — no electricity, no birth certificate. Her first cousins on his side mostly didn’t finish school. She talked about this not as a backstory detail, but as the reason she can’t sit still.

“I could have been born into that same life. I’m only one family tree leg away. Because of that privilege, I absolutely cannot sit still.”

That urgency isn’t hustle culture. It’s something quieter and more specific — a person who knows exactly what they were given, and takes it seriously.

And when it comes to success:

Sarah described a shift that happened slowly, somewhere between the prestige of private equity and the chaos of building something from scratch.

Success isn’t the title or the paycheck. It’s waking up excited.

Sarah put it plainly:

“I wake up and I’m excited to hit the desk. I’m excited to hop on a plane to go to our next event. Just having that excitement — to me, that’s been so fulfilling.”

Listen on Spotify 🎙️YouTube 🔗

Let us know what you think of our CORE Convos! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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If you haven’t shared with a friend, these conversations uncover some pretty incredible stories behind what shapes people’s journeys.

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