We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cara Stawicki. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cara below.

Hi Cara, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

In 2019, racing for Team USA, my pair partner and I won gold in the Lightweight Women’s Pair at the World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria. The win was the pinnacle of my rowing career to date. The podium moment—an experience that enabled me to realize a childhood dream of hearing the national anthem play in the stands, teammate by my side and American flag in my hand. 

The win was an accomplishment on its own. The meaning, however, is rooted in what lay behind it. After a whiplash injury resulted in me failing to secure a spot in the boat I had been working for all year, I found myself moving to a new city, rowing with a new partner and vying in an unfamiliar boat class simply to sustain a chance at making the US National Team. I belive that this type of resilience and grit is habitual for any top athlete who displays longevity. What is unique and what now directly informs Be Brave High Performance is how my partner and I came together to prepare and ultimately perform. 

Within roughly three months, she and I developed a sense of trust in both each other and in our boat that was nothing less than complete. We exercised a focus and daily commitment to our stated vision in a way that was noticeably greater compared to my past partnerships and racing campaigns. For me personally, our training environment and working relationship with our coach enabled a sense of autonomy that I had not been allowed to access under previous leadership structures. The result was a deepening of my understanding of how autonomy, motivation, self-management and self-trust impact performance and interrelate.

From a practical standpoint, the win in 2019, plus all my competitive years combined, inform the framework at Be Brave. This includes goal-setting, performance-related self-assessment, race day and regatta preparation and skill development centered on mindset. At a higher level, the experience reaffirms the Be Brave philosophy that athletes thrive when they feel supported, empowered, challenged, curious and free. 

Coaching is rooted in the core belief that people are naturally creative resourceful and whole. This is a principle set out by the Co-Active Training Institute. There is a focus on the whole person and not just a singular aspect or element. Be Brave embodies this belief and holistic approach. Performance, in athletics or otherwise, does not happen in isolation and is limited when we as individuals feel confined, afraid or alone. Be Brave seeks to help its athletes tap into their innate curiosity and wisdom, freeing them to experience fun, joy and perform. 

For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry, what type of services you provide and what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients to know about you and your brand?

Be Brave High Performance offers coaching services to athletes looking to optimize performance and access and showcase their best. Its mission is to facilitate peak performance and well-being in athletes through mindset training and personal development in the context of sport. Its vision: To inspire and deepen a culture that enables athletes to access their inner wisdom, connect with their gifts and go after their goals with freedom, clarity, confidence and self-trust.

Be Brave’s origins and current framework are linked to my personal competitive career, which started in 2001 as a walk-on athlete for Lehigh University’s Club Crew Team. I feel in love with the sport and its associated camaraderie as an undergraduate student, and decided to pursue my aspirations to race for the US National Team in its wake. About 10 years into my post-collegiate career, I started to notice the next generation of pre-elite athletes on the water and felt a strong calling to serve. I can pinpoint the moment, actually, that led to what is now Be Brave.

It was 2015 in the fall. I was rowing my single on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, PA, and passed a small group of scullers who had pulled off to the side to practice drills with their coach—the same coach who taught me how to scull years prior. As I rowed by, I saw myself in them and felt the impulse, wanting to somehow lift them up, offer encouragement and let them know that, “Yes, I was once sitting there too.”

I was still training and racing fulltime, so time and resources were limited. As a result, I founded a blog called Be Brave and started writing, sharing my experiences as an athlete—really, as a young woman chasing a dream—as a way to give back to the community at large.

With the blog as an early anchor, I welcomed the idea that at some point I would establish a business and further develop the brand. Today, my experiences with world class racing (all the highs and lows that go with it), my passion for connection and story, and my fundamental belief in the principles of true coaching, inform the platform at Be Brave.

What is most relevant to you, the reader? As a coach, know that I am here to serve you. As a performance coach, know that I am dedicated to helping you access your best. Lastly, as an athlete who started at the bottom and has stood at the top, know I can relate to the struggle, understand the desire, and live the principles set forth by Be Brave.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was that hard work equals success. For a long time, I thought that this was simple math. Today, I see the idea as a privileged and innocent ideal. The backstory relates to my early years in rowing. I tore my hamstring tendons after graduating college and went through three consecutive injury-rehab cycles in the process of getting an accurate diagnosis, treatment and healing. I was in my mid-twenties and the US National Team existed in my mind as this faraway, faint, almost fantasy-like idea.

All I wanted was to race for Team USA and earn the right to compete in red, white and blue. Yet, instead of training and racing, striving toward my mountain top, I found myself in and out of doctors’ offices, learning the ins and outs of health insurance, and working for what felt like around-the-clock with physical therapists, massage therapists and other practitioners of healing. I missed three full years of competition, and, at some point, broke down. My young mind, backed by the purest intentions, did not understand. I was doing everything “right” in terms of following doctors’ orders and adhering to all the rehab protocols. But the one thing I wanted most—to row—kept eluding me.

Similar to how an ah-ha moment on the water inspired Be Brave, this lesson too hit me hard. Today, it enables me to show up in the world in a much more liberating way. To clarify, I continue to view hard work and focus as prerequisites for success in most fields. However, I no longer believe that they are part of a simple equation that guarantees a linear path to success.

With this as background, the big takeaway that continues to inform me today is an understanding of and appreciation for the power of the universe—how multiple variables, some that are in your control and some that are not—influence the path and pursuit of a vision or goal. This type of mindset provides room for imagination and possibility. It also helps create a sense separation from outcomes and results. Separation, distinguishing you the athlete, the writer, the musician, the parent, the entrepreneur, etc. from you the human, is critical, particularly during development and for highly-driven, performance-oriented personalities.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Absolutely. My competitive career was rooted in pure love and desire. My drive was intrinsic and powered by a love for being part of a team and the striving to create something greater than the sum of its parts. That is team boat racing at its best. If I could go back and change something, it would be belief in myself—my ability to recognize and adhere to my inner wisdom and stand in my sense of self-trust. I spent a lot of my early years in rowing looking for direction and validation, mostly from my coaches. In many ways, I kept myself small. So, would I choose the same profession? Yes. Would I do certain things differently? Also, yes.

High-performance coaching, on one hand, has been a natural progression. On the other, it is a newfound passion that I would choose again and again. Not only is there endless opportunity to learn in this space—coaching skills and psychology such as appreciative inquiry, motivational interviewing and the transtheoretical model of change. There is also endless opportunity to give. I have long desired to connect with and coach young athletes, supporting them in a way that I both needed and missed. More and more I am recognizing a vast gap in the master’s space too. The community of competitive adults, from what I have observed, is wildly underserved. I am eager to work with this contingent of competitors and provide performance coaching to, yes, a vast age range, and yes, all with overlapping desires and needs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carastawicki.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carastawicki/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carastawicki/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cara-stawicki-6059196/

Image Credits
Matt Godfrey, Lisa Worthy