EP89: NO BAD DAYS with Mikayla Moore, Minor League Athletic Trainer, Milwaukee Brewers

About the Guest:

Mikayla Moore is a dedicated and experienced athletic trainer with a rich background in sports medicine. She holds a bachelor's degree in Exercise and Sports Science and a master's degree in Athletic Training. Her career has spanned high school, collegiate levels, and now, professional sports with the Milwaukee Brewers organization. A passionate advocate for athletes' health and well-being, Mikayla's journey reflects resilience and adaptability, as she navigated unexpected job changes and pursued her long-time dream of working in professional baseball.

Episode Summary:

Welcome to Episode 89 of Becoming Undone titled "No Bad Days," where host Toby Brooks talks with Mikayla Moore, an athletic trainer with the Milwaukee Brewers. This episode dives into Mikayla's professional journey, dealing with an unexpected job loss, and finding her dream job against all odds. Hailing from Texas, Mikayla transitioned from aspiring lawyer to athletic trainer, finding her true calling in sports medicine. Her story is a testament to resilience, determination, and the importance of chasing one's dreams, no matter the setbacks.

Mikayla recounts how she was blindsided by a sudden job termination at Oklahoma City University, where she had grown comfortable and fulfilled over five years. Transforming adversity into an opportunity, she landed a role with the Brewers minor league team in the Dominican Republic. The narrative emphasizes her quick adaptation, from processing the shock to securing a new position within 29 days. This episode offers insights into how crises can sometimes be blessings in disguise, encouraging listeners to persist and stay open to new paths.

Key Takeaways:

• Resilience in Adversity: Mikayla’s journey from unexpected job loss to landing a dream role highlights the power of resilience and adaptation.
• Pursuing Dreams: Despite initial setbacks, Mikayla's determination to work in professional baseball eventually paid off, underscoring the importance of chasing one's aspirations.
• Support Systems: The episode emphasizes the crucial role of personal and professional networks in navigating difficult times.
• Growth Through Challenges: Mikayla's experience in the Dominican Republic showcases that challenging environments often lead to immense personal and professional growth.
• Career Transition: The shift from collegiate to professional sports was significant for Mikayla, providing new opportunities and experiences in her athletic training career.

Explore the detail and depth behind Mikayla Moore's inspiring journey by listening to the full episode. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from Becoming Undone as host Toby Brooks continues to bring to light the resilience and determination of high achievers.

Transcript

0:00:00 - (Mikayla Moore): I was completely blindsided. Actually, they called the meeting the night before, and I didn't have to be there until 10:00. And so I was in my workout gear. I had my pre workout in my shaker, like, waiting for this meeting to start, not thinking anything about it. And I'd been there almost five years at this point. My coworker had been there seven years at this point. Neither one of us had any idea.

0:00:22 - (Mikayla Moore): I'm like, I'm fixing to have this meeting, and then I'm gonna go work out. No idea whatsoever. And I just remember sitting there and them saying, hey, we're gonna take the sports medicine department in a new direction. And I'm going, what do you mean? And they're like, this is gonna be effective immediately. I need your keys. But, like, what do you mean? And so, I mean, I left that meeting just completely devastated.

0:00:45 - (Mikayla Moore): And I'm sitting there thinking the same thing. I'm like, yeah, this is not cool. What the heck do I do now? I never saw it coming. So I really let myself just, like, wallow in self pity for three days. And then I was like, okay, it's time to start thinking about this stuff. That's truly what my identity was, is I'm a young, independent woman. I can do anything. And then it was like, okay, but not anything.

0:01:10 - (Mikayla Moore): My name is Mikayla Moore, and I am undone.

0:01:22 - (Toby Brooks): Hey, friend. I'm glad you're here. Welcome to yet another episode of Becoming Undone, the podcast for those who dare bravely, risk mightily, and grow relentlessly. I'm Toby Brooks, a speaker, an author, and a professor. I've spent much of the last two decades working as an athletic trainer and strength coach in the professional, collegiate, and high school sports settings. And over the years, I've grown more and more fascinated with what sets high achievers apart and how failures that can suck in the moment end up being exactly the push we needed to propel us along our path to success.

0:01:53 - (Toby Brooks): Each week on becoming undone, I invite new guests to examine how high achievers can transform from falling apart to falling into place. I'd like to emphasize that this show is entirely separate from my role as a professor, but it's my attempt to apply what I've learned and what I'm learning and to share with others about the mindsets of high achievers. You know, it's a big week in my world. We, or I guess I should say, I, am finishing packing up the house for our move next month.

0:02:17 - (Toby Brooks): The wife's in Peru on a mission trip, while the daughter's finishing up week three of her three week language learning intensive in Germany, and the son started his first job this week. Our life 360 doesn't know what to do with the four of us spread across three continents at the moment. On top of that, I have exactly one week, one module, one test left on my new degree, something I hadn't even considered until I interviewed guest Ram Hadass in episode 38.

0:02:44 - (Toby Brooks): Now, exactly 50 episodes later, I'm graduating. So I'd consider the chance to crank out a new episode a treat, and maybe even a bit of procrastination, if I get real honest. I read a quote this week that really stuck with me. Enjoy writing badly. If you're a recovering perfectionist like I am, you know the pain associated with doing something poorly. It's anything but enjoyable. But also, while I was mowing this week, Spotify decided to drop one of my old episodes into my mix, and let's just say it was not so hot.

0:03:18 - (Toby Brooks): I can say in the past year and a half that I've gotten better. I've figured some stuff out, but it also reminded me that growth is a process, and what I create today I'll probably view as awful a year from now. The point is to let the product be the product, but really lean in and enjoy the process, because that's where we all get better. Free's Texas native Michaela Moore early dreams of becoming a sports journalist didn't materialize in college, but that allowed her to pursue other career options in sports, where she eventually landed on athletic training.

0:03:59 - (Toby Brooks): After completing a bachelor's in exercise in sports science and a master's in athletic training. She briefly considered working in pro baseball, but the right opportunity never seemed to come along. She then spent the next two years in a high school setting before moving to the collegiate level, where she was satisfied but not exactly fulfilled. However, all that changed when an unexpected job loss rocked her world.

0:04:23 - (Toby Brooks): But within three weeks, she had not only steadied herself, but landed a job in pro sports with the Milwaukee brewers organization, where she's stayed ever since. Hear Mikayla tell her story in episode 89, no Bad Days. Joining me this week is a former student, now a dear friend, who is joining us all the way from the Dominican Republic. So welcome. Michaela Moore thank you. We had planned to do this one a few months back, and you got called up to, I believe, go to Milwaukee as part of the big club, as you call it.

0:05:01 - (Toby Brooks): We'll get into that, but our focus today is to look at your story and how it's taken some unexpected turns, you might not have scripted it, the way it unfolded, but I'm super proud of you and what you've accomplished in such a short, relatively short career.

0:05:19 - (Mikayla Moore): Yeah, it doesn't feel super short at this point. It's been nine, almost ten years, and every day I look back, I'm like, oh, my gosh, no, I just graduated.

0:05:28 - (Toby Brooks): Right?

0:05:29 - (Mikayla Moore): I haven't been practicing for ten years.

0:05:31 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. I always start off with a little bit of an easy question. What did you want to be growing up and why?

0:05:39 - (Mikayla Moore): When I was little, little, I wanted to be a lawyer, because I can talk to a brick wall and convince it to my side. But as I got a little bit older, I got into, like, sports broadcasting, and that's actually originally what I went to Texas Tech for, was to do sports broadcasting, and they ended up dropping the sports broadcasting major, and it was just journalism. And I was like, oh, I've got a lot of opinions, and I'm not very good at keeping them to myself.

0:06:05 - (Mikayla Moore): Went. Changed my major and got into exercise, sports science, not really knowing what I wanted to do with it, just knowing that I loved sports, and they have a little intro class, and it's. Here's what you can do with this degree. And I was like, oh, I took sports medicine in high school. That was cool. I guess I'll do that, that and, you know, like, strength conditioning, that kind of side of things, but I'm definitely glad I picked what I did.

0:06:28 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. So you grew up in East Texas and found your way to lubbock. So I guess talk me through maybe those high school years. What was your driving motivator, and what led you to go all the way to Texas Tech?

0:06:44 - (Mikayla Moore): So I have an older brother and watched him play sports growing up, so I also played sports, but I went to a really small high school. So, like, I was in the marching band, and I was president of the honor society, and I was in one act play, but I was also on the cheer team, the volleyball team, the basketball team. You name it, I did it. I played golf on Mondays. I ran the cross country meet on Tuesday.

0:07:06 - (Mikayla Moore): I was keeping the book at the baseball games on Thursdays, small town stuff like that. But cheerleading is really what I, like, loved. And so I actually ended up at Texas Tech to cheer.

0:07:16 - (Toby Brooks): It seems like I do recall that. So you go to Texas tech with this goal of initially law and then sports journalism, and that falls through at that point of your career. What did success look like for you? And had you really been able to get real specific with it, or was it still just this nebulous thing you were chasing after.

0:07:39 - (Mikayla Moore): I feel like at that point in time success to me was getting good grades, learning as much as I could about a lot of different stuff. A lot of the electives I took were random, like history of rock and roll and just really wanting to absorb a lot of stuff. But I also had this like future goal in mind that I wanted to work baseball. And so I started studying Spanish more and ended up with a minor in Spanish.

0:08:02 - (Mikayla Moore): And that doesn't mean that I speak Spanish or that I spoke Spanish at that point in time, but I feel like at that point success for me was just showing up every day as the best version of myself, trying to learn, trying to decide, you know, what truly are my goals in moving forward with my life and how do I get there.

0:08:21 - (Toby Brooks): So you make a bit of a pivot, is still involved in sport, but maybe not in the direction that you initially thought. What was it about sports medicine that really clicked for you?

0:08:31 - (Mikayla Moore): I've always been really good at science. I think the human body's incredible and amazing. And when I was taking that intro to exercise sports science class, they were like, oh, if you're, if you like science, this is a good track for you. If you're more of like a social person, maybe it's exercise psychology. If you're deep diving into the science, maybe it's exercise physiology. And obviously I didn't declare athletic training because that wasn't an option in undergrad at Tech, but I started looking into the athletic training student program at Tech and started talking with people in that. And one of my professors was one of the athletic trainers on staff for volleyball.

0:09:07 - (Mikayla Moore): So I talked to her a little bit and I was like, I really do enjoy the science part of it. Maybe not the like molecular, cellular side of it, but. So when I joined the student program, it really just solidified. Yeah, this is it. I get to be creative in different ways. I do get to learn every day something new and it presents challenges and that's something that I've always looked for in terms of not being so monotonous day to day. You know, I didn't want a nine to five, I didn't want a I'm going to sit in a cubicle and stare at a computer screen type job. So it really just clicked for me that having a good background in science and wanting to be around sports, that athletic training was going to be a good fit for me.

0:09:46 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. Did you feel like that transition was something that you grieved losing out on sports journalism. Were you running toward sports medicine so much that it didn't really impact you?

0:09:59 - (Mikayla Moore): So I'm going to age myself a little bit here, if I didn't already. But when I was 16, I don't know if you remember, ESPN did this little short thing that they did on one of their sports centers, and you. They basically picked random people off the street and were like, okay, we're going to give you this piece of, like, footage, and then you're going to give us a play by play review of it. And there was a prize and stuff at the end, and I was 16 years old and got picked.

0:10:22 - (Mikayla Moore): My mom had to sign all these waivers and stuff and actually won't. And so you're supposed to get an internship with ESPN if you win this. And I was 16 at the time, so they're like, okay, here's who you contact when you turn 18. Whatever. And I remember sitting down in because the guy that taught all the journalism classes at tech, he wanted to have one on one meetings with all the journalism majors.

0:10:45 - (Mikayla Moore): And so I remember sitting down with him and he was like, so what's your goal? What do you want to do? And I was like, I want to do sports journalism. And he looked me dead in the eyeballs and goes, you're not pretty enough for tv, and your accent's too thick. And I was like, oh, okay. I don't know how much I value your opinion, but thanks, brother. So in the course of taking his class, I was like, man, I really just don't want to work with this guy anymore. Like, it wasn't so much of a loss as it was that I was like, I hate that guy did that to me.

0:11:15 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah.

0:11:15 - (Mikayla Moore): But again, I have no regrets leaving that behind and choosing those.

0:11:20 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. Sadly, sports medicine not that far behind in many respects, but your generation really marked the big sea change for women in athletic training. I know when I first got to tech, there were no opportunities for NFL internships for any of our female students, and that's changed dramatically. We had three students do NFL internships a couple of summers ago, and obviously, you're on the front of the waves of seeing these big changes, so kudos to you and whatever we want to say to that guy. But sometimes our ship gets steered in a new direction by unsavory characters. Sometimes it's great people, but I'm sorry you had to go through that.

0:11:59 - (Toby Brooks): So you decide on athletic training, and here in Texas, you can work as a licensed at. But the guidance that most people give and get is go on and do your national certification. So you were looking at accredited master's programs. Talk me through that season of your life and what that transition was like for you.

0:12:19 - (Mikayla Moore): Honestly, already being at Texas Tech, it was a no brainer for me. I'm like, no, I really like Lubbock. I like the scene here. I already know people, and it definitely wasn't something where I was like, oh, no, I'm just gonna stay in Texas. I'm just gonna be lat. Because to be completely honest, I didn't know that much about it. And so I was like, an entry level program. A master's program is going to help me understand what this job really is.

0:12:42 - (Mikayla Moore): And being a student is one thing, but being able to deep dive and it just being very specific to our job, the master's program was just everything I needed to become a professional. But if you remember, that was 2014, and there weren't a lot of master's programs out there. I think there were maybe like 17 or something at the time. I know Arkansas was just getting started then, Texas a and M was just getting started then, and now there's so many more. But I still think that the opportunity that Lubbock gives its masters of athletic training students is so much greater because you have d one, you have Nai, you have Juco. You have all these opportunities with high schools, small high schools, big high schools, rural high schools.

0:13:28 - (Mikayla Moore): You have the physician extender positions that are across Lubbock. The only thing that Lubbock doesn't have is a professional something, to my knowledge, at least. But. And so I just felt like I'm going to figure out which niche I want to get into if I have the opportunity to try all of them. And that was something that really sold me with the tech program versus other programs.

0:13:47 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. You mentioned you came to tech to cheer, and there are people that will argue with you, and I used to be one of them, but it's certainly athletic and a sport. But finalizing that aspect of your career happened before I met you. So I don't know when that happened. But what was the cessation of your cheer career like for you, and how did you navigate that psychologically?

0:14:12 - (Mikayla Moore): Honestly? It was time. And my body knew it was time. I knew it was time. So backing up a little bit, I'd always done all girl teams, and I'm not the smallest human being, so I was always a base. And when I went to tech, they only had a co ed team. So in the last, like, senior year of my high school, I spent so much time trying to learn how to be a co ed cheerleader, and it had drained me so much that I didn't even enjoy the year that I was at tech cheering.

0:14:40 - (Mikayla Moore): And so I was like, my knees hurt, my ankles hurt, my back hurts. Like, I'm just. I'm done. And actually, when I stopped cheering, I grew another inch and my foot got a half size bigger. So I think my body was like, yeah, girl, you're done. And so psychologically, I missed it, but I consumed myself. I taught other cheerleaders. I was still around it. I was still involved in the sport. I just wasn't putting my body through the same amount of intense damage.

0:15:10 - (Mikayla Moore): Basically.

0:15:11 - (Toby Brooks): What would you say your identity was at that season of your life as you were getting ready to cross the street and go to the HSC?

0:15:18 - (Mikayla Moore): Honestly, I don't know. It. It's almost like a fever dream, because I did undergrad in three years. I never stopped going to school. I went during summers, I did Christmas semesters. I did everything so quickly. And then I started the master's program before I even turned 21. I graduated on, like, May 15 or something. And we started the master's program on May 21, so it wasn't even a thought process. It was just like, okay, here we go. Next thing.

0:15:49 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. And that tracks for you. You're definitely an achievement oriented gal. And don't worry about what's behind. Just focus on what's ahead and knock that out. And that serves you well. You graduate, you start off at Holesville, and you'd mentioned baseball was an interest. I'm curious, though. A lot of our students come to the program and they want to work professional sports. Like, that's their thing.

0:16:15 - (Toby Brooks): And then they'll do some assignments at high schools and realize, hey, this is. I like this better than I thought I would. Did you actively seek out that first high school job, or were you just looking for a job at that stage?

0:16:31 - (Mikayla Moore): I was looking for a job at that stage, but I'm big on history and stuff, and that's actually where my mom went to high school, in elementary school and junior high and all that. And so it was kind of like a full circle moment for us there. I'd been interviewing for a physician extender position, a couple of other things, but I'd applied for professional positions and wasn't getting calls for interviews.

0:16:54 - (Mikayla Moore): And the one interview that I did go on, or I should say had a call for, they were like, this position is for the Dominican Republic, and we don't have access for women to go to the bathroom or have their own space, so it's not really going to work out. I'm like, why didn't you even interview me then? So again, we're having a full circle moment here. But I wanted to go back home. I wanted to be around my family a little bit. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go do this for two years and I'll see what else is out there. And that's exactly what I did. I lived with my mom, which was great because I saved a bunch of money and we just had a lot of time to spend together. And after being in Lubbock for five years, I think we needed that as a family, be around when my nephew was born and she just have a little more family time.

0:17:38 - (Toby Brooks): That's great. And so for someone with the background in cheer, Oklahoma City University is a pretty good place to be. Their dance programs, their arts programs are tremendous. So talk me through that transition from high school to your first college job.

0:17:54 - (Mikayla Moore): Yeah. So I remember vividly I was in the kitchen when the head athletic trainer at the time, Greg Kirscheeter, called me and he was like, hey, Mikayla, sorry to cold call you. This is Greg. I'm actually driving a bus back that broke down in Lafayette, Louisiana, and was driving past Longview and remembered that you had applied for this position. So here's your interview, which I thought was super funny and just so down to earth and genuine.

0:18:20 - (Mikayla Moore): So Greg won me over from the get go, but looking at OCU and just their incredible sports programs as a whole, they don't get a ton of respect on campus because of the dance school and the arts and the music and all of that. But they're at, I don't even know now, 80 national championships, something like that. I won five while I was there. And it really was interesting setup where they didn't have football.

0:18:44 - (Mikayla Moore): And I was so done working football after being at the high school for two years, but I got to work different stuff, soccer and rowing and women's wrestling. And it was a big plus for me as well that they had a really good baseball team and a really good softball team. But my mom and I went up there one weekend, and we're looking at apartments and just trying to decide once I had accepted the job, you know, what I'm going to do. And she's like, well, you should really just buy a house.

0:19:11 - (Mikayla Moore): Okay, so not only am I moving 6 hours away, I'm buying my own house. I'm having to. It was just a spec house. Like I had to put in a fence and change all the light fixtures and just stuff that I'd never done before. So, again, it was almost like a fever dream of, okay, we're gonna get this done, and this is gonna be my life now. So it was just me and my dog, and I had one friend who was actually one of my brother's friends that lived up there in Oklahoma City, and that was it. That was the only person I knew when I showed up.

0:19:42 - (Mikayla Moore): I think my second weekend there. My coworker randall, is one of my very best friends now. He was an Oklahoma state grad, and Texas Tech and Oklahoma state were playing in Stillwater, and so we went to the game together, and I was like, I don't think this is a good jumping off point for our work relationship. And tech absolutely whooped them, and I was like, I'm the only person there in red. Like, just absolutely being obnoxious, of course.

0:20:09 - (Mikayla Moore): And he still liked me after that, so that turned out well.

0:20:12 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. I remember following you from a distance on social media and seeing your home improvement projects. It's always. It's like a dad moment for me to see former students. You got a mortgage now, and you're doing all these things at this point in your life. You've got your second now grown up job, and you've got a mortgage and a home. Graduated early. All these things. What had your relationship been with?

0:20:38 - (Toby Brooks): Disappointment or setback or failure or adversity? How would you describe it after you're won at OCU?

0:20:46 - (Mikayla Moore): I think, honestly, at that point, I hadn't really had a lot of adversity to deal with, honestly. And that sounds cliche or whatever you want to call it. The worst thing that happened to me was I made a 46 on my first anatomy exam. Like, that was terrible. I cried all weekend about that, and that sounds so superficial, but at the time, I really hadn't had a whole lot of trouble setting these goals, achieving these goals, doing the next thing and being in Oklahoma was hard. Being away from my family, not having anyone to really hang out with or if I wanted to just go grab dinner or drinks or something, like, I didn't have that kind of backbone that I had back home.

0:21:28 - (Mikayla Moore): But I think in that time, I grew a lot as a person and as an individual and learned how much I could really do by myself and learned a lot more about myself and how I handle situations at that point.

0:21:42 - (Toby Brooks): So you're at hoe CU and just idling alone, and out of nowhere, the road gets pulled out from under you. What did the future look like for you before this all happened? What were your plans?

0:21:56 - (Mikayla Moore): It's funny, because I went into OCU going, okay, two years. Two years, I'm gonna do something else. Two years, I'm gonna do something else. And in the same way that it pained me to leave household and leave the kids that I had helped along the way and that hadn't graduated yet and their families that I'd grown close with, it almost felt the same way when I was at OCU. I'm like, oh, I can't leave now.

0:22:17 - (Mikayla Moore): Like, so and so needs me. And, no, we're going to win the softball national championship next year, and we're just so close. And part of what kept me at OCU as long as I was there was my relationship with our baseball coach, Denny Krabaugh. He was just the most wonderful human being and welcome with open arms. Him and Keith Lydell were just amazing. Never questioned. Oh, she's a girl. Do we really trust her? Should we go to Randall? Just absolutely loving, wonderful human beings.

0:22:48 - (Mikayla Moore): And at the end of my two years, going into my third, Denny had gotten sick and had cancer, and I was like, I can't leave. There's no way I'm going to. And he ended up passing the summer before my last year at OCU. And so I'd actually been thinking, maybe this is my year. We did a lot of turnover. We got a new athletic director. They had changed us from being university employees to hospital employees, and I didn't love that.

0:23:15 - (Mikayla Moore): And so I was already thinking, I'm gonna. I'm gonna start looking. But I didn't expect to do that at 07:00 a.m. on March 1.

0:23:25 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, and that's certainly the surprise. Changing jobs is not unheard of, and frankly, it's commonplace a lot of times, and especially if you've got big aspirations of working professional or power five d one. People move just like coaches. You're constantly working the network, and. But that usually happens during the summer or at the very least, in between semesters. Yours happen in the middle of the spring. Just as baseball's gearing up.

0:23:54 - (Toby Brooks): Basketball is probably winding down, if not done. I mean, the timing of this is a question, and I have to wonder, how prepared were you for that conversation, and where did you go mentally after you had that first meeting?

0:24:09 - (Mikayla Moore): Oh, no, I was completely blindsided, actually. They called the meeting, I think, the night before, and I didn't have to be there until 10:00 and so I was in my workout gear. I had my pre workout in my shaker, like, waiting for this meeting to start, not thinking anything about it. And I'd been there almost five years at this point. My coworker had been there seven years at this point. Like, neither one of us had any idea.

0:24:34 - (Mikayla Moore): I'm like, I'm fixing to have this meeting, and then I'm gonna go work out. And I brought this big bag of snacks. I put them in my fridge in the office, like, no idea whatsoever. And I just remember sitting there and them saying, hey, we're gonna take the sports medicine department in a new direction. And I'm going, what do you mean? And they're like, this is going to be effective immediately. I need your keys.

0:24:58 - (Mikayla Moore): But, like, one of my kids texted me. He's bringing me a coffee. Like, my snacks are in the fridge. What do you mean? And so, I mean, I left that meeting just completely devastated, completely shocked and unaware.

0:25:17 - (Toby Brooks): This is a pivotal moment, not just in Michaela's career, but in her life. She had moved to Oklahoma City with two years of experience, for sure. But after grad school, she'd returned to home of sorts, working in the very same school district where her mom had gone as a kid. But Oklahoma, that was different. She had bought a house. She had made it her home. She'd connected with coaches and fellow staff members, and over time, her expected two year stint at OCU was on year five, in her words, she had gotten complacent.

0:25:50 - (Toby Brooks): But all that changed with an unexpected meeting in the middle of the spring semester and those dreams of working pro sports that she had long since tucked away in the back of her mind behind the comfort of that current job. They were going to need to be.

0:26:02 - (Mikayla Moore): Unpacked in a hurry, like walking down the hallway to get my stuff. And they're like, no, you're going to have to set up a time to come get the rest of your stuff. Just take what you can with you. Today. I'm like, I'm really being escorted off of campus right now. I have to leave. I've got people texting me, like, hey, what time can I come in for rehab today? Are you working the game tonight? Blah, blah, whatever.

0:26:25 - (Mikayla Moore): And I'm just like, what? And I remember sitting in my car next to Randall, my coworker, and we're just looking at each other through the windows, rolled up. We're just looking at each other like, what just happened? And so we ended up going to his house and just sitting there and just bawling our eyes out. We're getting phone calls from coaches, from players, from former athletes, from other athletic trainers in the area that know us. They're like, I mean, it was like wildfire.

0:26:56 - (Mikayla Moore): We had been 2 hours, and one of the athletic trainers from UCO is calling me like, mikayla, what happened? Like, how do you even know about this at this point? Point they had taken down our pictures off the website, and that website hadn't changed in the five years that I was there, but my picture was gone within, I don't know, 6 hours of the day. And athletes like, where are you at? I'm coming to see you.

0:27:15 - (Mikayla Moore): Like, this is not cool. And I'm sitting there thinking the same thing. I'm like, yeah, this is not cool. What the heck do I do now? I never saw it coming.

0:27:24 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, there's the immediacy of it where obviously you're smart. That's a wound that comes out of nowhere, and you're heard, maybe a little embarrassed or whatever. But then there's also a practical side of this. You've got a mortgage. You've got, I don't know if you had student loans at this time, but the bills don't stop just because your paychecks do. So this early portion, after you're sorting through the aftermath of it, what were you thinking at that point?

0:27:55 - (Mikayla Moore): My mom is going to kill me. That's what I was thinking, which is ridiculous, because my mom is the most supportive human being on the planet, and I call her immediately as I'm leaving campus, and she's like, mikhail, it, don't worry about it right now. Like, we'll figure it out. Don't worry about it. I have a savings account, I can help you if you need help. Just take it down a notch. Understand, this is not the time or place to be worried about your mortgage payment in 20 days.

0:28:22 - (Mikayla Moore): And so I really let myself just like wallow in self pity for three days, and then I was like, okay, it's time to start thinking about this stuff. Like, really, how am I going to start paying my bills? Can I withdraw my retirement? What do I need to do to continue to be the independent person that I've been all this time? And it was so hard for me to ask my mom. I'm like, hey, if I need help, will you help me?

0:28:50 - (Mikayla Moore): Which is, again, crazy, because she's the most supportive human being on the planet and would do anything for me that I asked, but I didn't want to have to ask because I hadn't had to ask in so long. And that was, that's truly what my identity was, is I'm a young, independent woman. I can do anything. And then it was like, okay, but not anything.

0:29:14 - (Toby Brooks): Goosebumps. As you said that, you're absolutely right, and I saw that in you as a student, and not pride in a bad way, but just, I mean, you can't help but emerge from the athletic setting as a young female without feeling like you have to do it better than others. And to not ask for help is a show of strength, and it's a show of control, and you had always done that, and then all of a sudden, you don't have that control.

0:29:43 - (Toby Brooks): It's taken from you, in a sense. And this timing, that makes zero sense. And to this day, I think we can agree that it still doesn't make sense. Like, no one's in emergent danger or something like that, on the surface, looks horrible for you. But if you want to work pro baseball, it's actually perfect. Like, you would not have been as viable a candidate for a job in August as you were in March. So when does baseball start to enter the equation?

0:30:16 - (Mikayla Moore): That had always been my goal. Right? Everyone wants to work professional, just like you said. I grew up, literally, my mom says, in the dirt at the baseball field. I've always loved baseball. It's an art form for me. Watch it. I watch my college, I watch Texas tech, I watch professional. Like, I've always loved baseball, and I grew a love for softball, too, working at OCU, don't get me wrong, but I'm like, if not now, when?

0:30:43 - (Mikayla Moore): And so I remember you reached out to me, like, hey, have you talked to Phil? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Go talk to Phil. And so I called Phil, and I'm like, hey, buddy, this is what's going on? He was like, actually, I know that they're looking for someone right now, and they want to fill the position. Like, right now, you should apply for the brewers position. And I'm like, okay, what about the brewers business? He's like, it's in the doctor.

0:31:04 - (Mikayla Moore): And I just. I'm having, like, flashbacks of when Phil was down here in the doctor and him sending me videos of these spiders that were, like, this big in his dorm room. And I'm like, oh, beggars can't be choosers at this point.

0:31:19 - (Toby Brooks): So, to recap, Michaela and a colleague who have a combined twelve years of experience serving their institution are both unceremoniously shown the door and literally escorted out of the building on March 1, 2023, after three days of what she describes as wallowing in the whys, the what ifs and the what nows. She steadies herself, and like she always had, she starts working the problem now. Youll recall that even though she had tried to get a foot in the door with pro baseball in the Dominican Republic years earlier, those doors were closed to women at the time.

0:31:52 - (Toby Brooks): However, by 2023, all that has changed. The Dominican Republic, or doctor, as the cool kids in pro baseball like to call it, is currently home to training academies for 28 of the MLB's 30 franchises. And despite some interesting wildlife like ginormous spiders, it has all the beauty and charm of a beach line tropical island, along with sprawling baseball complexes full of players who are top prospects, as well as coaches and staff members like athletic trainers and strength coaches who are working their way up the baseball ladder, too.

0:32:25 - (Toby Brooks): And while Michaela, five years earlier, wasn't able to find an opportunity, Mikayla five years later, found herself without a job at the perfect time. And who knows if she would have finished out the year at Oklahoma City as she had planned. Maybe none of this happens, but in March, she's got the inside track on a job, thanks to classmate minor league baseball at and featured guests of episode 60, Phil Millan and that door that was locked.

0:32:54 - (Toby Brooks): Michaela sees her chance to bust through it.

0:32:57 - (Mikayla Moore): And so I applied and got the interview, and I was like, four interviews deep by March 11. Remember, I was fired on March 1. And they're like, no, we want you to have this position. We want to bring you up to spring training, and then you'll leave the day after Easter. And I'm like, okay. So I sat down and I wrote down the pros and the cons in my mind, right? I'm like, one doctor, big spiders. I don't speak very good Spanish, if any Spanish at all. I've definitely overestimated my spanish at that point.

0:33:31 - (Mikayla Moore): Leaving my dog, all the things I have to sell my house. I have to move all my stuff back to Texas. I have to do all of these things. So what are my pros? It's professional baseball. I've always wanted to work professional baseball, and I had this opportunity to do so. They have a brand new million plus dollar complex down there. There's other women that already work in the organization. It's a really good salary.

0:33:59 - (Mikayla Moore): And if not now, when I talked to my mom and she actually said that my grandpa lived here for a little bit when he was younger. He helped build one of the power plants on the island and how much he loved being in the doctor. And I remember him telling me, those stories, but she remembers it better than I do. And he was like, he loved being in the Dominican Republic. This is a full circle moment for him as well, for you to go down there and do what he did, live there for two years, and I'm like, okay, let's do it. I put my house on the market. It sold in, like, 16 hours.

0:34:34 - (Mikayla Moore): I packed everything up by myself. I moved back down to Texas on April 6, unloaded everything into a storage building, had Easter lunch with my family on April. I think it was 9th or 10th. I don't remember what day. And the next day, at 07:00 a.m. i left DFW and came to the Dominican Republic.

0:34:54 - (Toby Brooks): Wow, what a whirlwind, right?

0:34:57 - (Mikayla Moore): 29 days start to finish, from interview to being on the island working, and I went for a week for spring training in Arizona.

0:35:05 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. What were the emotions like through this process?

0:35:11 - (Mikayla Moore): Everything. It was everything all at once. Because I was still grieving my loss of OCU. I was still grieving those relationships that I had created, and at the same time, trying to help my friend, who also lost his job, and just being scared out of my mind. What if this doesn't work out? Or what if I absolutely hate it? Or what could all possibly go wrong while also being just, like, incredibly excited that I have this opportunity that God has granted me my dream job, genuinely.

0:35:46 - (Mikayla Moore): And even though it's not in the timing that I had originally planned, it's still here. And it's just an absolute blessing that all of the bad things that occurred when they occurred.

0:36:02 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, for sure. I'm a big fan of the movie inside out, and I know the sequel's coming out very soon, but there's a really poignant scene in there where Riley had. She lost the hockey game, and she's sitting alone, and she's just gripped with this sadness. And I get the. Dad and me, I get emotional just thinking about it. But in the dialogue, they say the sadness is the signal to the people who love us to rally to our aid.

0:36:28 - (Toby Brooks): And I have to think that in that moment, you had a network of family, whether blood or not, who wrapped their arms around you, that you wouldn't have had the benefit of knowing they were there. Phil, reaching out for you like that, your athletes, student athletes, who you were serving and rendering care to a week earlier, are texting you to check up on you. What would that process like to be on the receiving end of the care instead of the giving end?

0:36:57 - (Mikayla Moore): It was absolutely incredible, because athletic training is, most of the time, a thankless job, your day in, day out, taking care of other people. And yeah, you get the oh, thank you so much. As they're walking out the door ready to go play, but you never really get the recognition for all the hard work that you do and all the hours. And I remember one time we were hosting the softball World Series opening round and the baseball World Series opening round at OCU and I worked like 92 hours in five days.

0:37:27 - (Mikayla Moore): Something absolutely ridiculous like that. And I remember sitting down at the end of the week being like one of my baseball parents brought me a cookie from crumble. That was really nice. And so to be on the receiving end of all the love that I had poured into them in my time, there was just, it was alumni, it was current students, it was just coaches. All the people that I felt were significant in my life, but I didn't know if I was significant in theirs.

0:37:53 - (Mikayla Moore): That was truly an eye opening experience for me, to receive that love as much as I had poured into them.

0:38:00 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, certainly it has to be a great way to start off a new chapter, to know that as painful as that was and that you wouldn't have chosen it, broken roads can lead to beautiful destinations, and in your case, literally beautiful destinations. I've seen the photos. So tell us a little bit about what your day to day looks like right now.

0:38:19 - (Mikayla Moore): So right now we just started the DSL season, the Dominican Summer league season, and this is rookie ball, but it's international rookie ball. Everyone, as an international player starts here. Mostly everyone. There's a few outliers, but like, we have a german guy. We had two german guys at one point down here, but we have Venezuelans and Panamanians and Dominicans and Nicaraguans and all these different ethnicities, just all here together in this little pot.

0:38:48 - (Mikayla Moore): But. So I get up about 04:00 in the morning. I live about 40 minutes from our complex. The area I live in is really nice. It's not very touristy, but it does have tourist views. So I feel really safe here. Drive about 40 minutes into work, get everything set up for the day. We've got three fields and we start about 730, sometimes a little bit earlier than that, with just a meeting with our strength staff giving a rundown of oh so and so was feeling sore yesterday.

0:39:15 - (Mikayla Moore): Or here's my rehab plan for this guy. He's coming back from a hamstring, whatever, coordinating that information with them as well as the coaches. And then once we get started, it's go, go, go, hitting, fielding, everything until our game start at eleven and we do that Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We have Wednesdays off. We don't play on Wednesdays unless we have a rain out in which then we do play on Wednesdays. So I have a Wednesday game this week, but have the games, which are incredibly long because this is rookie ball.

0:39:50 - (Mikayla Moore): There's no pitch clock. There's a lot of changing out of pitchers. It's just like four and a half hours I think is the longest game I've worked. And I sit there and I go, okay, I see why the MLB put in the, in the pitch clock. I get it 100%. But I leave the complex usually 330 or so, come home and nap and try to do something for me at the end of the day. But it's just like working anywhere with 17 to 20 year old, but so I'm mom, so I'm getting text messages and hey, I don't feel good and what should I do?

0:40:31 - (Mikayla Moore): So it, it really never ends. But I think the greatest thing that I've learned about being here is, and especially for Dominicans, there's no such thing as a bad day. Like, there is no such thing as a bad day. I woke up this morning happy to be alive. And that's put, I wish I was joking because there's times that I wake up, I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't want to go to work today. I'm so tired. I didn't sleep good last night. Whatever. I watched a scary movie and didn't sleep well.

0:41:02 - (Mikayla Moore): And I get to work and they're all just absolutely so excited to start the day. And I'm like, guys, it is 05:30 a.m. i haven't even had coffee yet. It's a great day. It's a great day, huh? Okay. But that's the athletic trainer. Like, we have to be therapist, mom, best friend, athletic trainer, actually, doctor, psychologist, whatever. We gotta wear all the hats because we are their only lifeline. Really.

0:41:32 - (Mikayla Moore): It's a pro and it's a con of this profession.

0:41:35 - (Toby Brooks): Sure. Certainly you are in a great place and with a great organization. What are your dreams like today?

0:41:42 - (Mikayla Moore): I try to be a realist. Right. I don't like to look too far into the future because I feel like you can hope and you can hope, but if you're not moving towards that goal, it's just weighing you down. So in all seriousness, the ultimate goal is major leagues. Absolutely. It's major leagues. That's the dream. It's been the dream. But as for right now, my goal is to make it back to a domestic affiliate, get to have my own team, preferably with the brewers. But, you know, life happens, and there's not always a place for you to move up. So I definitely understand that. But I think the experience of being here and now being bilingual can only help me progress as far as I want to go.

0:42:26 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, if you think about it, it's just remarkable. And I always say there's no such thing as coincidence. It's providence. And seeing things unfold in a way that you just can't help but see God's hand at work. And at this stage, for you, it's easy to see the all's well that ends well of it. What did you learn from this rough road that staying, winning all the time wouldn't have taught you?

0:43:02 - (Mikayla Moore): I think that the biggest lesson that I learned is that I had gotten complacent. And that's not something I ever wanted to describe myself as. As a complacent person. Because, again, this was my dream, this was my goal, and I had kind of given up on it because I had become complacent. I was happy where I was, happy enough where I was, I should say happy enough that I wasn't doing anything to make myself better. I wasn't going after the things that I wanted to from the get go.

0:43:35 - (Mikayla Moore): And really, the snakes in the grass pushed me, shoved me into a position where I can. I do learn something new every day. I can see how I'm growing as a professional, how I'm growing as a person, how I'm growing as a leader every day. Whereas if I had stayed at OCU, I don't think that I. Well, I know for a fact I wouldn't be bilingual. I know that I wouldn't have as many new ideas and all the different continuing education that the brewers have done for me.

0:44:07 - (Mikayla Moore): I wouldn't be the leader that I've become since being here, and I wouldn't get to wake up every morning and go, today's a good day.

0:44:20 - (Toby Brooks): And I'll also add to that, if. If you don't go through what you go through, then an opportunity isn't created for Kristen, a recent grad of our program, who was a student athlete of yours. You create an opportunity for her. So the ripples that change can make sometimes are just remarkable. I'm so proud of you and so happy to see you fulfilled and actualized. It's inspiring for me to see how you've navigated this transition.

0:44:49 - (Toby Brooks): And it's foolish to say that all's well. It ends well because no one would choose to go through hard things. But you're proof positive that that meeting on the first was a far cry from your first day on a job on the 29th. And a lot can change. You're to be applauded for that. We're almost done here. I always ask this one, if we were to watch a montage of your life, what song would play in the background and why?

0:45:14 - (Mikayla Moore): Oh, that's hard. I'm gonna go with till you can't by Cody Johnson.

0:45:21 - (Toby Brooks): Till you can't, if you got a chance. Okay. That's a little country for me to even have anything to comment, I'm guessing. But the East Texas gal, I'll allow it.

0:45:44 - (Mikayla Moore): And it's just about keep chasing your dreams. Keep. Keep going, keep being yourself until you can't. And waking up like. Like, some days, you're like, I really don't want to go help my grandpa build this car, but there will be a day that you can't. Yeah. And so that's really speaking to me in my life right now. Like I've said, I think, two or three times now. If not now, when?

0:46:08 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, that's sage advice. So the very last question, and you've answered this one, but maybe make it even a little bit more personal. What for Mikayla is left undone?

0:46:23 - (Mikayla Moore): I think more so personally, my personal life is still undone. I have put that on hold to be here to do this job. I really miss my dog. As far as professionally. I think what I've left undone is I still need to continue following these players that I've connected with, these relationships that I've created. I think that's something special about being here, is that I get to see the very beginning, and some of these guys are going to fizzle out, and this is it for them.

0:46:56 - (Mikayla Moore): But there's some of these guys that are going to make it all the way to the major leagues, and I hope to be there with them. But if I'm not, it's still undone for me until they get there.

0:47:04 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, it's exciting, powerful. Michaela, I know you've got a lot going on, and I certainly thank you for dropping by and sharing your story, but you're invited back anytime. But thanks again for dropping in.

0:47:17 - (Mikayla Moore): Yeah, absolutely. My name is Mikayla Moore, and I am undone.

0:47:29 - (Toby Brooks): I'm thankful to Mikayla for dropping in, and I hope you enjoyed our conversation. For more info on today's episode, be sure to check it out on the web. Simply go to undonepodcast.com ep 89 to see the notes, links and images related to today's guest Mikayla Moore. I know there are great stories out there to be told and I'm always on the lookout. So if you or someone you know has a story that we can all be inspired by for real, tell me about it.

0:47:55 - (Toby Brooks): Surf on over to undonepodcast.com, click the contact tab in the top menu and drop me a note. I had two pieces of news this week about former guests that I wanted to pass along. First, congratulations are in order for my guest from episode 60, who we even talked about in this episode. Now, Detroit Tigers organization athletic trainer Phil Millan. Phil and his wife recently welcomed their first child, Omari, into the world just a few days ago.

0:48:20 - (Toby Brooks): So shout out to the Millan family. Get some rest. On the other side of the coin, I also recently received word that former guest Tim kite from episode 46 passed away after a tough fight with Canter. Tim was an incredible inspiration to countless people. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He's already missed. Coming up on the show I'm working on a new multi part series on former UNLV running rebel Charlotte Hornet and New York Nick Larry Johnson.

0:48:50 - (Toby Brooks): I'm also working on a new project to discuss the life lessons and legacy of former Arizona football head coach Dick Tomey. This and more. Coming up on Becoming Undone Becoming Undone is a nitro hype creative production written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. Tell a friend about the show. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at Becoming undonepod and follow me Obij Brooks on X Instagram and TikTok.

0:49:16 - (Toby Brooks): Check out my Linktree at Linktr ee Tobyjbrooks listen, subscribe and leave me a review at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Till next time. Keep getting better.