WHOOP Podcast - Best of 2024: The Can’t Miss Moments of the Year

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

On this week’s episode, we are wrapping up 2024 by revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year. This year, we spoke to some of the world's top athletes, entertainers, and experts across a variety of topics. Listen to the Best of 2024 WHOOP Podcast moments with Pro Footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo on the importance of talent and work ethic (2:06), Performance Chef, Dan Churchill on elevating performance with nutrition (4:51), Gut Health Doctor, Dr. Megan Rossi on the super 6 of the gut microbiome (9:45), Multi-Platinum Recording Artist, Mike Posner on changing your mindset and life outlook (11:53), Rock climbing Legend, Alex Honnold on visualizing risk and consequence (18:36), Psychologist and Author, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett on the brain-body connection (21:57), 3x World Champion, Patrick Mahomes on preparation and planning (23:53), NWSL Team Co-Owner, Brittany Mahomes on training after having a baby (25:52), CEO of Parent Data and Best-Selling Author, Emily Oster on the need for parenting research (27:15), Couples therapist, Julie Mennano on the characteristics of a healthy relationship (31:02), and Global Football Star, Virgil van Dijk on navigating a leadership role (33:32). Resources:Cristiano Ronaldo - Episode 272Dan Churchill - Episode 269Dr. Megan Rossi - Episode 283Mike Posner - Episode 273Alex Honnold - Episode 264Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett - Episode 262Patrick Mahomes - Episode 287Brittany Mahomes - Episode 286Emily Oster - Episode 297Julie Mennano - Episode 278Virgil van Dijk - Episode 295Follow WHOOPwww.whoop.comSupport the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

What's up, folks? Welcome back to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of Woop. We're on a mission to unlock human performance. About to be a new year. That means a new you, and you should get on Woop. Check out Woop.com. Sign up for a free 30-day trial and get the full Woop experience.

This is a very special episode, because So we're doing a full wrap on the year. We got our best of episode. Before we get going, I want to thank really an amazing crew of folks that make this podcast possible. The podcast team, including Kristen Holmes, Emily Capitolupo, Jeremy Powers, and Chris Chapman for bringing a lot of these valuable conversations to you. And then throughout the year, we talked to football legends, NFL champions, musicians, relationship experts, Olympians. I mean, the list really goes on, a bunch of scientists. All right, we're diving into our best of, and you're going to hear from Global Football Sensation, Cristiano Ronaldo, performance chef, Dan Churchill, gut health expert, Dr. Megan Rossi, musician Mike Posner, mountain climber, Alex Honnold, psychology professor and author, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, three-time NFL champion, Patrick Mahomes, his wife and mother to his kids.

NWSL team owner, Brittany Mahomes, parenting expert and economics professor Emily Oster, marriage therapist Julie Minano, and the world's most reliable centerback and captain. That's right, Virgil Van Dyke. A reminder, if you have a question was answered on the podcast, email us, podcast at www.com. Call us 508-443-4952. All right, let's start things off with one of the best to ever do it, Cristiano Ronaldo. though. We'll take a look at how Cristiano developed his work ethic to coincide with his otherworldly talent. Here's Christiana. Now, we talked when we first met about this difference between

making it because of talent and making it because of work ethic. And you said to me you felt like an enormous percentage of your success has come from work ethic. And that there's sort of an unfair perception maybe of you of just being hyper talented. And that's why we're, you, and that's all the success comes from? To be honest, I think both have to work in the same time, because talent without work is nothing, and work without talent is nothing too. So I think the both mix up. And of course I have two.

I'm not to say that I have more one than the other one, because if you see my whole career for the last 20 years my level was high and this is as you can know it's really tough not only in in a football but in

any area if you are top for 20 years is unbelievable and I do that and I continue to do that for me it's a big achievement and my biggest motivation is to carry on to still enjoy to make people happy, to make my family happy.

So for me, I have both, talent and work headache. Do you think you got a lot of that work ethic from your father? Him pushing you when you were younger? Maybe both, my mom too. Mom and dad, my brothers too. I think it's this childhood to make you feel what you are or make you be what you are.

The difficult of things that you pass through in your life make you be stronger mentally to challenge a hard life. And of course, the environment too helps. I don't know if you know, but I move with 11 years old from Madeira to Lisbon, which is, it's hard, to be honest. It probably was the most difficult part in terms of professional of my career. So it was hard to left my family in Madeira to follow my dream in Lisbon without your family with 11 years old.

I can see now my kids, Cristiano, my older son. I don't know if I will be capable to let him go to, I don't know, it will be tough. An amazing time with Cristiano when I was with him out in Saudi Arabia, and he is as focused and intense as any athlete you'll ever meet in your life. You can get the full conversation. That is episode 272. Next up, we got another man who focuses on high performance. Marathoner and chef Dan Churchill shared his insight on nutritional tips.

What would be your sort of top three meals for performance? Oh, I did. Well, I mean, for me, knowing that how well I perform on certain foods, again, taking into account the bio-individuality aspect, I know for me, it's a certain amount of pasta. Now, not a people can take on pasta and perform like I, but I know. And you're low percent body fat. I am. Yeah. What's your percent body fat? It's gotten as low as six. It's probably around. So that's really low. So in general, people who have lower percent body fat also benefit more.

from eating carbs like pasta exactly so that's why like the term of bioindividuality has to be understood and you know people go i can't do carbs very well cool then like that's where you need to mix it up and understand like it's also a lot to do with understanding your gut health but going back to what you said the three things i would have are probably there's a shrimp linguine in there i would also like my power bowl every morning that i have which is oatmeal uh peanut butter natural yogurt, fresh berries, chia, hemp seeds. That sounds good, yeah. Dude, it's honey.

It's every morning. Alex has had it probably three times a week on a regular basis since he started filming with me. Alex is just filming in the corner right now. But he comes over every day that we're filming. I'm like, you hungry, bro? He's like, I could do a powerball. I feel like he's probably eating a lot in your kitchen.

He has that of it. He has, yeah, yes. Now, will you also do any supplements, vitamins, that sort of thing? I do protein just to just around my workouts if I need it outside of that man yeah classic way and also vegan if I'm doing two so I never doubled down on weigh twice if I'm going through a really hectic training cycle I know I need to up my protein intake I'll make sure I do one of each so I don't just do constant way the whole time okay so that's another thing is like keeping that variety is important too for me I don't want to get too much toxicity going on but also I love I love

my body having the ability to digest everything and everything so outside of that man i'll take some fish oil but i really don't need much else after after having ag one i i do have electrolytes so if you would call them supplements around my particular my long distance runs and that load like big found sodium intake i would say that if you're in the athletic space you definitely need to consider how much sodium you're probably not having enough of for the average individual who probably eats a lot of packaged foods, sodium intake is probably something you don't need to look at. There was a recent newspaper article in the New York Times that looked at like sodium and what's in certain foods we may not know versus like cheeses, you know, cured meats,

just packaged goods. You'd be just shocked to see what's in them. But I would say that the average athlete doesn't realize how much sodium they lose per hour. Have you found that being a chef at all has worked? I mean, it obviously hasn't, but like has been, as a. counteracted your, you know, strive for peak performance. And like, because I'm just thinking about the number of dishes you must have to try and, you know, like extra calories here and there and desserts and things. Yeah, sure. It's like hard for me to, it's hard to process both the 6% body

fat and like the world-class chef. Yeah, it's like, don't trust a skinny chef is the, yeah, is a term, right? Yeah, he's a thing. I was like, I don't know, I trust this guy, clear not tasting his food yeah dude like i i because i move so much and i've met a lot i've really got a really cool group of chefs who are quite active now because you see the the stage of life where people are really starting to value their life cycle and that they're like as a chef it's it's like you know typically shift work it's terrible hours but they really care about their health now so they're putting their health first which is awesome and people like myself helping lead the way and showing how you can do that.

So with that in mind, I find it really important to know how active I am. So when I do have to go through my like, particularly my tasting menus, I'm constantly tasting food, I'm less concerned about, you know, the amount of eating. And also the food that I'm tasting is my food,

which is typically pretty good for you, you know. And if I look at my woup, it says my calories that I need to burn every day. That shows my calories that are burned every day. I need to eat regardless. You just got a crazy eye guy. Yeah. Yeah.

I love spending time with Dan. He came to the office the day after the Boston Marathon. You can hear more from that conversation on episode 269. All right. More healthy eating. We're going to go to the gut health doctor herself, Megan Rossi. Dr. Rossi joined Kristen Holmes to break down her super six foods for the gut microbiome. So if you're just narrowing down and having, you know, some superfoods and not eating across

what I call the super six, you're actually going to only nourish a minority of your microbiome, which means you're going to have a minority of skills within you because they, you know, can do tens of thousands of things in a functional level. But if you're not feeding them well, they're not going to be able to perform, you know, like most of us, right? So if you think you, I mentioned the super six. So there's six different. plant-based food groups. A lot of people know them, but actually it's worth thinking about, hey, have I had something from the super six today? Because most people don't, right? So it's your legumes, the things like your chickpeas, butterbeams, etc. Your veg, your fruit, your whole grains,

your nuts and seeds, and your herbs and your spices. Now, each different category actually contains different types of not just your micronutrients, but actually different types of fibre. We talk about fibre like it's one thing, but there's close to 100 different types of fibre, let alone these other things called phytochemicals. And like just take your boring old apple, right? It contains over 300 plant chemicals, including things like insidil, which we know is helpful for PCOS. It's got even some melatonin and some dopamine, the feel good hormone. And that's just like your boring old apple. So if you extrapolate that out to all your other plants, you start to get the, I guess, the appreciation that each plant's got its unique kind of profile. So instead of every

morning having your blueberries, switch it up with your three berry. mix instead of just picking your pumpkin seeds get your four seed mix so it's actually things that super easy to switch in not taking an extra time or cost but actually it's going to fertilize more different microbes which will give you more kind of skills and more functionality that was episode 283 a fascinating conversation between Kristen and dr rossi the variety of a diet is super important critical to a healthier and longer life that's episode 283 All right, we got a man who has truly reinvented himself. He went from being an out-of-control musician as he would describe himself to really one of the leading wellness and health experts now.

Here's the great Mike Posner to talk about how he had a transformation in his identity. When did you go from Mike Posner, you know, party guy, you know, amazing musician. billions of streams on Spotify to it's not about that it's about you know owning my own identity is a two-pronged journey there was a part of my journey pulling me towards what i call the glow or grace or gosh there's something more going on here and and the second part was there was something pushing me away from pain and i think both of those forces come from life with the capital l but I'll hit the first one first, which was, it felt like life was leaving me these breadcrumbs. I would have run-ins with people that would create almost an altered state of consciousness in me.

And one of them was Big Sean. I met him again. I'll say I met him again. I met him, as I told you earlier in Detroit. We were 18, but I saw him again when you were about 23. So you had just been signed, you're now a year or two into it? I'm now, I'm now, like, famous. Okay.

And he is also, so it's kind of strange, you know, it took a while. Actually, I got, my career blew up first, and then his exploded afterwards. And I went to see him in the studio in L.A., and Will, he was, like, glowing. and the external part of his life was going really well like he yeah he was his career was exploding but there was this feeling from being around him and I'm sure you felt some version of this in your life everyone has where you're around someone and just being around it makes you feel good sure and it was a very powerful like it's more powerful than anything I'd felt before where I went home and I'm like I'm still almost buzzing just from being around this guy and I went back to the studio the next day and I'm like dude what are you like what are you doing like what's going on here I was like you have some kind of secret I don't know about and he kind of did and he gave me a couple books to read I remember reading a line in one of the books and it said when you change the way you look at things the things you look at change

and I look back at that now it's kind of like a basic basic thing like of course like you know you can change your frame of something but but it was it was really new to me then reality isn't just the way I see it you know it's being colored by my frame of it

and I can if I change that frame if I change my thoughts you know then I can then change my beliefs because a belief is just a thought repeated over time And if I change my beliefs, then, of course, I would take different actions. If I take different actions over time, then I'm going to have different habits. If I have different habits, I'm going to have a different life.

And that was sort of the gateway drug on the pulling towards something beautiful. And conversely, I was coming towards the end of myself in a lot of ways. where I was maxing out the things I thought were going to make me feel really secure and good in myself, which were fame, which were money, which was popularity, which was hooking up with strangers. Yeah. And none of them really worked. Yeah.

You know, and everyone tells you that. But, like, I thought people would tell me, like, my dad would tell me, money doesn't buy happy. And I would look at them and nod my head, but in my head I was really thinking deep down, yeah, but you didn't make as much money as I'm going to make. Watch what I'm about to do. Yeah, right. And I just really had to learn that myself and bang my head against that wall and experience a lot of pain and a lot of loneliness.

Because when you think, you know, this fame or this record deal is going to bring me peace you can always look forward to that and there's a hope you know that it's not here now but it will be but then when you get it and it doesn't work that hope is gone and and then often the coping mechanism is well that if it's bigger next time or more more more you move the goal post I see this happened to entrepreneurs a lot of course it happens to you know I I think it's a human thing, not just artist thing. And so I found myself with nothing to look forward to in my life. The juice of wanting to do these things was gone.

And when the future is empty, the present is unbearable. And so the confluence of life leaving me these breadcrumbs and also running into sort of a brick wall created, the birth of a spiritual journey where I was I was then going okay if it's not that then what and so I started to to look and I search and ask questions and I feel blessed I found some some answers you know that I've made a difference for me and that's what my life is about now is just sharing what I found because I've had a unique journey where I had it all at a young age but I always also realized I had nothing and walked away from everything and found everything.

Posner is one of a kind. We covered a lot of really deep and personal topics. I highly encourage you to check out that episode, 273. All right, from a guy that climbed Manifference to a guy that climbs every day without fear and hesitation. That's right. You guessed it. Free Solo legend Alex Honnold.

Here we talk about risk and consequence and the mental side of climbing free solo. I think that you really sit with this question of risk and consequence if I understand it. Like when you did El Cap, for example, you actually visualized a lot of things that could go wrong. You visualized the consequence being death. Like you, you went there, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's super important because if you haven't gone there, then you run the risk of being up in the position and suddenly thinking about it for the first time. Like, there are a lot of places on El Cap where, I mean, okay, this is all like, what do we're called trigger warning? This is all like sort of graphic.

But so most of El Cap is less than vertical. I mean, even though it looks like this insane vertical wall and parts of it are 90 degrees or greater. But at least a third to two thirds of it is less than 90 degrees, like less than strictly vertical, meaning that if you fall off of it, you're basically going to bounce down the wall. When people fall off mountains like that, it's horrendous. You know, because I mean, the human body is basically like a bag of fluids, like a water balloon. And when it bounces off rocks, at really high speeds and really big distances, it basically like pops like a balloon. And so it's all terrible things. And so thinking about falling off El Cap, you know, depending on where you're falling, you're bouncing off a ton of horrendous stuff on the way down.

Like it's not some clean like, oh, I fell off and I died. It's like I fell and I had seven seconds of like screaming as I bounced my way down this slab like, you know, until eventually you hit something hard enough. And it sends you out like a kicker, you know, kind of like a ramp. And then you go shooting out into the forest crashing through the trees and you basically pop like a balloon. And it's like this horrendous like your bones come out of the bed. Like it's all, it's all really like it's horrible. But the thing is if you've never thought about that at all, you don't want to be up in that position and suddenly have the realization for the first time where you're like, man, if I slipped here, I think I would bounce off that ledge down below there. And then I would just slide down that horrible thing and then bounce off that other thing.

I would be, you know, like you don't want to think about that for the first time when you're in the position. you want to have already thought about it and sort of set it aside be like okay i know that the consequences are truly terrible and i'm choosing to do this despite those because i think i can mitigate the risk well enough so fascinating i mean that's sorry that's all kind of a horrible aside but but that's the thing is people like oh he fell off the cliff and he died but you're like it's not that clean it's not that simple it's like it's actually horrible to fall off a clip like that i i'm glad you went there because you just illustrated how deeply you had visualized, like, what the consequence was. Like, you know, I think there's this, like, in a way, like misperception of your greatness,

which is like, well, he doesn't feel fear. He's not a, like, he's sort of oblivious to how risky this is, you know, and risky being, you know, sort of a pop culture definition of risky versus yours. but what makes it so fascinating is you're so deeply aware of it and you still take it on. And I think that's just super badass. Hard to believe visualizing falling off a cliff actually could calm you down, but that is what makes Honnold the best in the world of what he does. You can catch my full interview with Alex on episode 264.

Since Alex is a master of controlling his emotions, it seems appropriate for our next conversation to be about the psychology of emotion. Kristen Holmes sits down with author and psychology professor, Dr. Lisa Feldman-Barritt, to talk about the connection between the brain and emotion. Your brain is running a model of your body. That's how it can predict. It's using past experiences to try to make a prediction about what's going to happen next. And because of the way our brains are wired, our brains don't make, you know,

our brains don't make themselves aware of these conditions. So you can feel perfectly full of energy, subjectively, have the subjective experience of energy, but yet you could be at risk for overtraining, for example. Or just on Friday, actually, I was on the treadmill, you know, it was too cold for me to go outside. So I'm just going to get my miles in on my treadmill. And I really I felt exhausted. But I was thinking to myself, no, this is a subjective experience. You have enough energy to do this. Like, you've been sitting on your ass all day.

You have enough energy to do this. Ignore your affect. Like, just keep going. And, you know, I did it and it was fine. But I think that the thing is that, yeah, I know how the brain works more or less, my best guess. But I still have feelings. And those feelings still can give me wrong information.

So actually having metrics can be super. helpful. Yeah. And actually might even over time, who knows, like actually help your brain calibrate better. That's a fantastic breakdown on the psychology of the brain and emotion in that episode with Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett. That is episode 262. Here's our next guest who also can control their emotions, although in this case, in the biggest moments of football, we have the great Patrick Mahomes. Let's talk a little bit about your preparation for the super because, again, it seems like you nailed that. If I look at your sleep efficiency, your sleep performance score, like, both close to 90%,

your recovery, you know, straight in the green, I imagine for a lot of people, especially for someone maybe playing their first Super Bowl, like there's anxiety that night before, right? And so you actually got your body to be peaking on game day. Is that just experience? What is that? It's for sure experience is the main part about it. I mean, I remember going into the week of the Super Bowl in general.

And just knowing the schedule, knowing what you had to do every single day that was extra than your normal football routine, football week, it prepared my body and it prepared my mind. And so that, as well as just being in that position before, it wasn't like I was super anxious or nervous. I mean, obviously, there's going to be some nerves there. But more than that, I was focused on just going out there and being myself. And we had a great plan for the entire week. We had a great plan for the entire season, and I was peeking at the perfect time. Did you find, like, right before going to bed the night of the Super Bowl, like you were thinking about anything different than any other previous game?

No, I mean, especially this one. I don't know why this one, that all of them, I felt the most comfortable. Just throughout the entire thing, the entire week. It could have been, because we were playing in the Raider Stadium. I'd been at that hotel several times in my career. I'd been in that room before. Like, it was a lot of common things, and I was just very calm about how I was taking care of my body. We got workouts in like we usually do.

We got practices in. Obviously, there's uptick and media and stuff I had to do, but I'd done it before, so I expected it. And it just took a lot of the nerves away, and I feel like that's why, to me, I played my best Super Bowl I'd played so far. Patrick is a true winner. He's the drive to better himself in every aspect of his life. Get more from that chat about the three-time NFL champion. That was episode 287. Got to record with Patrick in Kansas City, and I also got to sit down with our next guest, his wife, Brittany.

Best tip for bouncing back after pregnancy. Pelvic floor therapy and really focus on your breathing techniques for sure, or you will get injured. So that's interesting. Talk a little bit more about that. What is that exactly? Yeah, so I recently injured my back because I've obviously worked out my whole life, so I've had kids and then I'm like, oh, I'll just keep working out how I've always worked out. I'm fine. Well, I hurt my back. And so I, you know, went to therapy. to a chiropractor went and got x-rays. And so in the end, you know, a lot of people talk about pelvic floor therapy and really strengthening your pelvic floor after you've had kids and how important that is.

And so I obviously started to do more of that because I was injured and that's kind of what my therapy was. And so I think people out there need to know that it is very important to work on your breathing and your core techniques while you're working out versus just, you know, lifting heavy waist and going through the motions. Like it really starts with the inside, especially after you've had kids. So really great tip from Brittany there. And we're super excited for her and Patrick to welcome their third child. My full conversation with Brittany is episode 286. Here's another parenting expert and someone who is truly innovating with data, none other than Emily Oster. Emily Capulupo and

Emily Oster sit down together to go deep on parenting. One of the things you talk about, a lot in your books is just how shocked you were that somebody hadn't done this research first. Yes. Like this almost, of course, somebody's done it kind of attitude. What do you think happened there? It's a great question. And one that I did ask myself a lot at the time and continue to. I mean, I think one thing is, you know, when I wrote expecting better, when I started writing it, it was 2010. And I think some of this kind of used data for your life wasn't quite as hot as it is now. And so I think I was sort of on the beginning edge of some of the idea that we could use data to make evidence-based life decisions. But I also think most of the people who

would think about writing about pregnancy are obstetricians. And that is a group that has a tremendous amount of information and knowledge about babies. But there isn't often a lot of data training in obstetrics or in medicine in general. It was a sort of unusual thing to think, hey, I can take this training that's really about data and causality and bring it to this other space where the data is very similar, even if the topics are somewhat different. It seems like one of the things that I frustratingly ran into over and over again in my own pregnancy is just how confidently physicians talk about things that they don't know anything about and how there are weird gaps in training.

Like you hear about this with nutrition, apparently, doctor. get something like four hours of nutrition education in the average US medical school. And then pregnancy is another huge one. And I got told things like, you know, not to let your heart rate go above 140 beats per minute when you're exercising, which we actually know from our own loop data is totally nonsense. That doesn't make any sense at all. Agreed. I'm curious, like, was there one nonsense moment where you were just like, all right, I'm writing a book? I can tell you the thing that really frustrated me the most, which was all of the discussion of prenatal testing, because it in some ways was quite well understood because it's something that involves medical procedures

taking them, testing them, sequencing genomes, and so on. But the guidance was totally not data driven. It was like, if you're over 35, you do this, if you're under 35, you do that. And for someone who understands data in any deep way, you will know that, like, there's no biological process. That's like different the day you turn 35. It's just the way people work. So I was trying to push into like, well, why? Like what other factors you want to consider? And they were just like, well, you're over 35. Then you're old. Like, I get it. I'm old. But like, say more. And so I think that was for me a very frustrating experience where I felt that very clearly there was a right decision for me, not necessarily the right decision for everyone else. And I wasn't really able

to grapple with the decision in the way that I wanted. I think there were all kinds of things. like the 140 beats a minute, which when I eventually encounter them, you just ask a question, well, how do you know that? You know, how do you know? Often the answer was, well, we're just trying to be safe. That's another piece of it sort of interesting to unpack, like this idea of just caution above all else in both pregnancy and parenting. Of course, we all want to be very cautious.

But at the same time, there's literally no evidence for something and you yourself would benefit from doing it. It's not always obvious which direction caution goes. The work Emily Oster is doing with her company parent data is really changing the way we look at parenting. And for more from that conversation, tune back into episode 297. Many people develop their attachment style thanks to their childhood and their parents. Our next guest, Julie Manano, is an acclaimed relationship expert and couples therapist.

Here's that conversation. It looks like really two things. One is really having a good, solid emotional bond, being able to be open and vulnerable with each other, being able to have positive experiences together, whether that's, you know, physically, sexually, physically affectionate, verbal, intellectual, you know, people have all different ways that they like to feel connected to other people. And then on the second piece would be being able to navigate a life together. I mean, just all the logistics of running a life together, finances, home, parenting. you know, all of these just decisions that couples have to make, you know, are they able to make decisions in a way that, for the most part, over the big picture mutually fulfilling for each of them and in a way that doesn't erode their emotional connection? And as we

strengthen the emotional connection, it does make it easier for partners to collaborate and communicate with each other. And the smoother their collaborations and communications go, the closer they feel. Now, you asked an important question, like, how do you know when it's an incompatibility issue? And the only way to answer that question is to first clean up the communication. You know, it could be that when we get a couple to a place where they're really communicating in a healthy way, they say, hey, you know, yeah, we're really great at talking about it. But the truth is, is that, you know, I want a family and you don't, or we just really see finances so differently or there's just too many areas where things don't line up and it is

probably better to go forward with other, you know, future relationships where maybe there isn't so much stress on the table because of the differences between the two of us. But again, most of the time, what I find is if people have already come together, they have enough compatibility there, you know, that if we can clean up the communication, it does tend to work out, but not always. I mean, there are, you know, I want to say probably, I would say 80% of the couples I work with end up staying together, maybe more than that. If you want to learn more about attachment style and how you can better show up for your partners or loved ones, go check out the full conversation with Julie Manano in episode 278. Our final guest is often the last line of defense for one of the

most popular clubs in football. This is the captain Virgil Van Dyke, who joined me in Manchester to discuss his role as a leader and how his attitude can command a team on the pitch. You've assumed really a leadership position for a lot of the teams that you play on, you know, Captain of Netherlands, Captain of Liverpool. What does that role mean to you? It means a lot. It means a lot. Obviously, that responsibility, I think, you know, is something I really enjoy. You know, it's for me personally to be the captain.

of Liverpool Football Club, the captain of Holland, you know, is something that every young football in my opinion would love to be at. And I really embrace it even the difficult moments because there are plenty of difficult moments where you have to be the one that, you know, getting your team up or helping players personally or, you know, do things outside of the game that you have to sort as a captain and these things are also something that I really embrace and you know it's it's not always easy but that responsibility is really a good feeling the most important thing i think

in my opinion is when i go out on the pitches i want to do everything in my power to win the game and i feel like with the way i present myself towards obviously the opponent but obviously definitely towards my own team is very important so obviously when i'm hectic and stressing and running around and looking all chaotic, I think it doesn't help the team whatsoever in order to be successful. And if you have everything under control and show that as well, I think it will benefit the team and also put a little bit of, you know, I won't say fear in the opponent, but it will obviously discourage it maybe the opponent as well.

So that's definitely something I've worked on and tried to take into every game. and don't make it like you are too overconfident, but you know, you have to make sure that you are the boss and do it by example in the way you do it. Hard to do much better than a great conversation with Virgil Van Dyke. That is episode 295. All right, that's a wrap, folks.

Thanks again to all of our incredible guests from this year. Thank you to you are listeners. We've now surpassed 300 episodes. I can't tell you. how amazing that is. I remember in the very beginning, this is like 2018, saying, all right, we'll do 10 of these and see how it goes. And here we are over 300 episodes. And look, at the end of the day, it's because of you. You all are listening. As long as you listen, we'll keep making the podcast. And I just want you to know, I appreciate you.

If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, please leave a rating or review. You can check us on social at Woop at Will Ahmed at Kristen underscore Homes 2126. If you have a question must answer on the podcast. Email us, podcast at whoop.com. Call us 508-443-4-9-5-2. You can get a free whoop at woup.com. It's right a free trial, full whoop experience. New members can use the code will, W-I-L, get a $60 credit on Woop accessories. And that's a wrap. Wishing you an amazing, happy new year. January 1st, lookout is the lowest recovery score of the year. But good news, January 2nd is the highest. So make sure you're on the right side of that equation. We'll see you in 2025. Have a safe and happy new year and stay healthy and stay in

the green.