Hi guys, thanks for tuning in this episode of Nick Eagle Times. On this episode we have an awesome guest, we have Lauren Vermillion. Lauren has a background as a competitive figure skater, physical therapist, business professional, entrepreneur, and business coach. Welcome Lauren and thanks for joining my podcast. Awesome. Thanks for having me in. I appreciate it. My plaza, and you are sincerely welcome. How's it all going over there?
Doing pretty well. It is uh March 1st and I am over here in Wisconsin in the US, so that means in my book that it is uh time for spring and we have indeed made it through through the cold winter months. Uh we're opposite of you, so that's good.
Alright, yeah. Yeah, and you're heading into summer too, so that's exciting. It is. How is um since the pandemic's hit over in the States and especially where you are, how has that affected your life and yeah, what's been happening? How have you worked around it and adapted? Yeah, it's kind of crazy to think that it has been a about a year almost.
I remember I actually uh went had a job interview on Friday, March 13th. Always in Omen when it's uh Friday the 13th, and that was for position, and that was the last I went to their office. That was the last time they were in office, and since then, uh a lot of changes. Been working from home now for gosh, um about eight months, and definitely drive my vehicle less.
I've embraced biking more and just trying to stay positive and do really what's in my control to uh still move forward in life and and enjoy the time that we have.
Awesome. Uh so the lesson is, let's just jump straight into it. Who is Lauren vanilian?
Yeah, so I am, like you mentioned, a previous uh competitive figure skater. Then I became a physical therapist and decided that I was really interested in the business route, a little bit of entrepreneurship. Um, also really passionate about traveling, hiking, photography, health in general, um, and love spending time with family and friends and developing relationships and really um always leveling up in life.
Amazing. All right, let's let's go back. Tell me about your life growing up, what it was like for you, and yeah, generally speaking, how has your life been?
Sure. So I have been in Wisconsin the majority of my life, and that made it logical, really, to be a figure skater. So was raised um primarily by my mother and my grandmother, so very close with both of them, um, but grew up really pretty middle class.
So I learned the value of hard work, uh doing chores, earning money very early in life, and um was did have opportunities to play sports and be active, which I really appreciate, and I did gravitate towards figure seating, so that was a big portion of of my life um growing up and uh was raised in a really supportive but not over pushy environment um and that those ethics of hard work and sticking to it and maybe being a little bit stubborn uh really stuck with me from childhood.
Amazing. Um tell me about the competitive figure skating, how that all transplied and where you went and how it all yeah, how it all happened for you.
Yeah, so I grew up really just competing pretty locally at first. Like I said, we I didn't come from a family that had a ton of resources to allow me to travel all over the country to necessarily take from the best coaches that were available, but um did the best with what I with what I could, and I would consider myself a little bit of a late boomer. Um, you know, you watched uh the competitions today, and there are all these really tiny 13-year-old girls and and boys doing amazing elements.
That was not me. I probably reached my prime um in my twenties, which is very late actually for the sport, but um for some reason I really gravitated towards it. I think it was the ability that I could kind of have more control over how I trained and how I performed and where what direction I went versus a lot of team sports. Um that being said, figure skating is very much of a team sport.
There are so many people that go that help you achieve your goals behind the scenes, you know, family, of course, uh coaches, choreographers, trainers, things like that. Um and then really enjoy my time growing up and had the opportunity to compete uh when I was attending university and and did that as well.
Amazing. Um have you what where did it take you? So did you go nationally? Did you go internationally with it? Um yeah, talk to me about that. Yeah, so I competed in a couple international competitions, um, but ended up passing through the U.S.
figure skating levels. Um so the people that you see at the Olympics and the World Championships, they passed the gold level, and I did pass that. Um competed at a pretty high level and didn't actually do that until I was in college or at university and beyond. Um I did have the opportunity though to compete uh for the University of Wisconsin, and we went to the Collegiate National Championships uh twice.
So the team was formed my second year of college, my sophomore year, and then we qualified my junior year, my senior year, um, and I took second in one of my events um at that level. That was really my my goal, was just to see if I could get on the podium, any place would be great.
And that was actually probably one of the defining moments of my definitely my skating career, but my my collegiate career as well, and even now thinking back to that time, a large portion of my life, um, or a defining moment of of my life as well, because it wasn't just about necessarily my win, but it was about bringing a team of of other uh we just had females on the team, so of other ladies along with me and helping us um train and helping everybody compete at their best and then really
performing well as a team there.
Well, that's amazing. Congratulations. It sounds like, you know, you've you've done so well in it. And yeah, I have nothing but respect for you. Um how are the people though, like so in that kind of I guess, where you were doing it and how you were doing it, what was the industry or like how was it like? Was it being in a competitive arena with other people? Yeah, it is a definitely very competitive sport.
And uh here in the the US, uh in the Midwest, which is between the East and the West, um, we are considered uh we have this title that's called Midwest Nice, where we are typically not as cutthroat as uh the people from the East Coast or the West Coast. No disrespect to them. I actually uh appreciate the directness and the bluntness that they can bring, but um that was not necessarily my environment. So it is definitely a very cutthroat environment and um can be really, really intense.
I mean, um my I have some really great coaches, and one thing that I learned that a good coach does is that they're willing and to push you and be direct and be blunt, and sometimes you cry during training, sometimes you cry after you compete.
Um that's okay, but it's learning through that experience and you know that satisfaction of um having someone on your side or on your team that's gonna see your weaknesses and point them out that wants the best out of you and to help you achieve your goals so they're not gonna let you back down. Excellent. Let's go to another area. Have you done much traveling? Right, internationally or domestically as well?
Uh I have. I've been uh quite a few places here in the US. I think that's my goal for uh this coming year, although I would like to get out of the country if that is uh a reasonable thing that we can do uh this year. Um, you know, I after I finished my undergraduate degree, or during that time even skating, I I didn't have the means to really do a lot of traveling. So then when I finished uh my doctorate, I had a very large sum of student loans.
That's uh one thing that we're good at uh accumulating here in the United States. If you go and you get your doctorate, um, especially a clinical doctorate like mine was, you tend to have a pretty big uh sum of student loans that you have to pay back.
So had to work on those a little bit, and then finally, the last handful of years I've been able to go a few places uh more internationally at the time and research through that. Amazing. Uh tell me about your professional career post, obviously the figure skating, um, how that's all transpired, and yeah, being a physical therapist. Yeah, talk to me about that. Yeah, so I had always been interested in science and in healthcare, and I knew I didn't want to be a physician.
Um I was really strong academically, but I would but I really worked for it. So I was the one that was up to late studying, my weekends were full of homework, and I knew the odds of me getting into medical school school were very slim. I also loved athletics, and there isn't a ton of money in figure scanning, um, unless really you win the Olympics, and that's still uh not not the best.
So I realized, kind of merged the two, thought physical therapy would be a great plan, and uh went and pursued my doctorate. I took a year off uh between my undergrad and graduate uh work, and that was a really great year.
It allowed me to um learn a lot about real life being an adult and gaining some good experience there before I but uh see that cool. Um morning splicey daily question.
Um honestly it kind of depends on a lot of things. So in my physical therapy world, you know, I would see people that had really had big challenges in life, whether they had a physical deformity, suffered a stroke, uh, lost a limb, and they were able to persevere through that and try and get back to as normal life as they could. Um so that's really inspiring to me, and it puts in my challenges and my struggles into perspective, which I really appreciate. Um I'm really close with my grandmother.
She's uh 98, and seeing everything and appreciating everything that she's been through is an inspiration to me as well. Amazing. Uh, what's the best memories of your life that you can recall? And what's probably the best experience you've learned today as well? The best memories I've had.
Um gosh, I I think a lot of times it's those simple things. Um being able to be with friends and family and have a have a drink on the patio, um, just enjoy time together that you know so many people are missing. And I think if you know 2020 and the coronavirus and everything has taught us one thing, taught us many things, but one thing is I think to appreciate the ability to just like be together.
Um also I've had some amazing you you you asked about trips and traveling, I've had some amazing trips um to Iceland and and Thailand, and just getting to immerse myself in a completely different culture is um is great and something that I definitely wouldn't take for in it.
And what was the last other question you asked me? Uh what would be the what's the best advice you want any of Yeah.
Don't give up, pursue through the challenges and always seek to improve because when you do that, you'll learn about yourself, uh, which was definitely the case in my career skating career. You fall down a lot, um, you get up, you learn something, you make a change.
You know, even in my professional career, uh I made a pivot, I learned about myself, and so I learned what I what I strengthen for, and I need a pivot, and uh it's just a process of continuing to grow and become the best version of myself that I can be. So that's why I would recommend it to others as well. Phenomenal. Alright, tell me about your passions and hobbies on the side. Sure.
Um so I I still do a little bit of figure skating, um, which has been great, you know, especially this year being winter in Wisconsin. The lakes freeze over, the ponds freeze over, that was been a good outlet to get outside. Um definitely do it a little bit differently, and I appreciate other aspects of the sport. Um I love photography, um, getting out and being able to see something from a different perspective and putting a little bit of an artistic spin on it.
I was never great growing up drawing, painting, anything like that. I really didn't have that ability, but now being able to take a camera and capture uh a moment in time is really fun for me. Um I love reading. Um, audiobooks I've gotten into recently as well, podcasts are awesome, just learning from people that challenge the way that you think and can provide a different perspective.
Um I've also kind of dove into the entrepreneurial space and learning how to do some investments and and really create um some other types of of income and cash flow. Um got some some goals down the road to hopefully start some charity and contribute to a couple of those nonprofit markets and things like that.
Mind blown. If you were if we could go back in time, well you could go back in time, should I say, and you're eighteen again, and you could change anything and do stuff differently, what would you do and what would you change? If I was eighteen and could do things differently. Okay.
Um I would say two things. One, be more humble, because I think I would have gotten along, gotten farther in life if I was more humble. Um, especially in my skating career, I could have made a lot of changes if I would have just uh listened to people a little bit better. Not that I didn't, but I think when you're a teenager you think you have a lot of things in life figured out, and you definitely don't.
Um I also studied psychology, and I would have added probably either a foreign language to that degree or um an economics degree.
I think what's really opened my eyes last year is just how the how the way the world works and money flows from different countries is just really fascinating to me, and I think by me understanding that better, I could I would ideally like to share with with the world uh and with other people and and help people kind of take control of their own financial destinies or financial challenges um that they have that can cause a lot of people stress, trouble, and um just make life a little better when
those things are in check.
Excellent. What does the future look like for you?
So I am really enjoying my career uh right now as a business analyst. I'm considering moving into the product space. Uh so that's a move I'm looking to make. Um really dive more into maybe some real estate and some other investments down the road. Um that's a that's a big passion of mine. Having a challenge and and um, like I said, starting a charity, and I hope to eventually be able to self-fund that. I know um some of my mentors have done that, and that's also really inspiring to me.
And pass my third uh gold US figure skating test. I senior solo freedance is what that's called.
So I'm hoping to wrap that up um this year and and definitely get back in traveling to here pretty soon. That's amazing. Um without getting too political, in your uh personal opinion, where do you see the United States headed going into the future as well? Yeah, good question.
Um I feel like it could be tumultuous a little bit. It's really hard to say. Um I you know, I do love my country. I don't necessarily think it's that superior to other countries, um, but I think that one thing that I've taken for granted growing up in the United States is having a lot of freedom. And I think with the coronavirus, we've in certain instances had that taken away for right or for wrong. And I I don't necessarily think that uh there's black a black and white answer to that.
I think it's a lot of shades of gray, uh, which makes it really challenging.
Um but I'm but I'm hoping that we can continue talking about human rights and uh really actively those around that's a great answer, and yeah, thanks for giving us your opinion. Uh Lauren, thanks for joining my podcast. I do appreciate it. I wish you all the success we're having you're doing working on, I think you're doing amazing stuff. I think you're doing what you've already achieved. Yeah, I believe you're just gonna smash it in the future.