Ep.127 - Cailyn Henderson - Mental Toughness is #GFG

[00:00:00] Welcome to Mental Toughness with Dr. Rob Bell.

[00:00:13] Each week, Dr. Rob sits down with athletes, executives, and expert coaches to talk about

[00:00:18] mental toughness and their hinge moment.

[00:00:21] Here's your host, the number 20 for 20% off your order. Live Momentous, optimize, perform, recover.

[00:01:42] Our guest today on the Mental Toughness Podcast is a professional golfer.

[00:01:45] She has done announcing'm a quirky person. I'm kind of weird sometimes. So when that comes out in the video, like I love it, but it's mainly to help other people. Like whether that's golf tips, you know, the worship Wednesdays, things like that. I just, I like helping. Yeah.

[00:03:00] And so I think,

[00:03:01] cause I told you this when we were filming,

[00:03:03] like the part about your persona, your brand,

[00:04:05] I mean, you started when you're three years old, you had the pink outfit, you're waiting in the driveway, your dad finally then takes you.

[00:04:07] When did you really fall in love with the game?

[00:04:11] I mean, it was really from the start with me because I remember at three years old,

[00:04:16] my dad would go, we would never go to the driving range.

[00:04:19] He would just take me to the putting green.

[00:04:21] We'd putt for like a Snickers bar or something.

[00:04:23] He always made it fun for kids, just getting into the sport. So I have a lot of fond memories there. One of my favorite tournaments was the Wagami tournament. And it was any person of any age could play.

[00:05:42] And there was one actually held at my home course

[00:05:44] at Bridgewater and I already a badass, but it's all way too complicated, then visit our website, Dr.RobBell.com, and schedule a call with us to help capture your very own hinge moment.

[00:07:03] So as you're going through amateur golf ranks, you're that whole story? No. Oh, that's always open. You tell it. Yeah. Okay, I'll tell it. So I, like I said, only was focusing on Purdue because all of my golf buddies that they were playing there. So I ended up committing there. And that was my, give me a sec. I think that was my end

[00:08:21] of my sophomore year. And then I was committed there for about

[00:09:22] They said, you better go visit another school. So I said, okay, fine.

[00:09:24] And so I called them up and I called Stacy and I'm like,

[00:09:27] hey, do you guys still have that spot?

[00:09:29] And once again, two weeks before signing,

[00:09:32] they said, can we just gave it away?

[00:09:34] Like yesterday, I'm so sorry.

[00:09:36] I was like, I had no idea what to do.

[00:09:40] So at the time, Brenton Nicoson was my coach,

[00:09:43] my swing coach and he coached at UND.

[00:09:45] And he always offered me that full ride,

[00:09:47] always, always, it was wonderful. I went in as a freshman. I started playing immediately and that's something that was actually really awesome about playing D2. We were a great D2 school for golf. I mean, we could compete against any D1 team, but it was nice just having that playing time because sometimes in other schools, you don't get the playing time. So I was out there every single week traveling with the team. So that

[00:11:03] was really awesome to experience at such a young it was awesome. The girls on the team made it worth it because a lot of times you get so much drama and I just cannot stand girl drama. It's the worst. And my I made a lot of good friends on the golf team. So that part was great, but the pressure aspect of college, it's a different thing.

[00:12:25] Um, I mean, it was part of that then, you know, because with golf,

[00:12:26] it's a singular sport. It's just you.

[00:13:24] And golf is not the sport where you try harder. It's going to work.

[00:13:26] It goes real bad.

[00:13:28] It goes real bad.

[00:13:29] Absolutely the opposite.

[00:13:30] So then talk to us about hinge moment that really

[00:13:33] then happened in your life at that time.

[00:13:36] Yeah.

[00:13:36] So like I said, throughout college,

[00:13:38] it was a great experience.

[00:13:40] Nothing bad happens.

[00:13:41] But I just got to the point of I couldn't even

[00:13:45] explain the feeling I was feeling.

[00:13:47] I just felt the just grew exponentially. And then my golf game, I started noticing my golf game was getting better because I wasn't putting so much pressure on myself.

[00:15:01] And we can kind of go into it a little bit more later

[00:15:03] if you want, but then when I officially declared turning pro,

[00:16:01] I don't want to work for someone. I just don't like what I'm doing right now.

[00:16:04] And so that's when for the girls started as well.

[00:16:07] Because I'm like, I don't want to work for someone.

[00:16:09] I want to be a positive impact for people.

[00:16:12] And I want to get girls into this sport.

[00:16:14] And so my business partner Margaret went to night.

[00:16:17] We were like, let's start a golf company.

[00:16:20] And we were like, let's just do it.

[00:16:21] So that whole year when I left,

[00:16:24] we were like starting our business

[00:16:26] and getting all the box thinking. And so this company was that for me. And we developed for the girls and it's a brand for young girls and women. We just on our Instagram, we post a lot of, you know, beginner golf tips and things like that just so people can ease into the sport because when you first look at golf and if

[00:17:43] you go to a golf club or country club, you get intimidated.

[00:17:46] And that's what I've talked had a lot to work on. But I've always just had this inner light that I just, I've always had in me and I've always

[00:19:01] kind of expressed that to people. Now I will say, like, we just sound like hyenas. I mean, our lives are just wild. And I remember some people would comment about my life in high school. And they're like, oh, it's so loud. I'm like, shoot, should I quiet down? And my mom said, never, never conform to people, Kaitlyn. That's your laugh. Don't try and, you know, change it.

[00:20:21] So I'm like, okay, we've got a hyena laugh.

[00:21:23] is yes to have an entire clothing line and where people feel like very confident and comfortable in.

[00:21:27] But I think the main thing is just getting more women

[00:21:30] and girls into the game.

[00:21:33] And we just want to, like I said,

[00:21:34] be the light, be positive for other people

[00:21:36] and make it less intimidating

[00:21:38] because golf can be a very stingy sport.

[00:21:41] And so we just wanna make it fun.

[00:21:43] So it sounds so simple, but we want to make golf fun.

[00:21:47] That's what it is.

[00:21:48] Yeah. Where in terms of like you're announcing what's your sweet spot when it comes to is it the interviews, is it getting them over there? Like, you know, we kind of spoke about it, but where's your sweet spot when it comes to actually

[00:23:00] like, you know, doing the announcing piece? What's your favorite part?

[00:23:03] Yeah. So it's funny. I just talked called myself an influencer before. Just a weird name for me. I could use a different term. Is there a different title? Yeah. But if there's an influencer, that is you.

[00:24:22] You know what? I guess my job, I I think it had like over a million views or something. And I was at my home course at Bridgewater and it used to be a tree farm. So there were like these rows of trees, like complete straight rows of trees. And I took a foreiron and I hit a stinger through the trees, like completely straight.

[00:25:43] That one took off crazy.

[00:25:44] It's just like the most don't care whatever happens. That's going to be the content that I still always do. Talk to us about just your inspiration for that.

[00:27:02] Where do those ideas come from and sharing that transparency?

[00:27:06] Yeah. So once again, I will go back into the stuff that people don't like talking about. But yeah, it's very, very important to me and I love it. And how has it's just one of those things that it's very people have their ideas of when it comes to faith and to try and change people's ideas about that

[00:28:20] gets really difficult.

[00:28:22] So it's like, even if you say Christian, you think of, okay, remember, they said, Kaelin, I've been watching worship Wednesdays. I finally got back in church. My life is turned around. I'm like, little old me is making a difference. Like that's just crazy to me that a video could do that to someone. But the amount of positive things that people have said, and they even have said, thank you for sharing these

[00:29:40] because people don't talk about this anymore.

[00:29:42] We're getting so far away from just being good.

[00:29:45] And so I've gotten a couple of the favorite parts of plane? Favorite parts of plane. This sounds so cheesy, but one of my favorite parts is going out there actually by myself and just being out in like the open air in nature. It sounds so cheesy of me, but that's my favorite part because it can be so relaxing.

[00:31:02] My favorite times is when I'm going out there

[00:31:04] in the evening time at like 6 p.m.

[00:31:07] I'm just playing nine any music. I'll just go out there and like have a, sometimes I'll just have a conversation with him in my head and like we'll kind of go back and forth. And I can just, you know, sometimes you don't always hear him like a thought pop in your head, but you can feel like sometimes I'll just get like goosebumps or chills on the course or I just feel very calm.

[00:32:21] Like my heart's not racing or anything.

[00:32:22] I just feel very at peace on the golf course.

[00:32:24] I feel like that's, um, when, when you really get into the game at a high, high level, it's proof that God exists just because of you can't beat that game. My game is unbeatable. And there are so many times, I mean, just think about it, like

[00:33:42] when it even comes to making a three people. And if there's gonna be, you play a round of golf with somebody,

[00:35:01] you find out exactly who that person is.

[00:35:04] Well, oh, you know what?

[00:35:05] That actually is a great point

[00:35:06] because that's my other in itself actually, because all these people, they see you play good golf, because you do when you're relaxed and things like that. But then you'll go into this tournament, and that's when the pressure comes in.

[00:36:22] And so I was walking into Cuescoam, like, I'm going to qualify, I'm going to do, I'm going

[00:36:27] to come to the top 10. I'm a very positive person. So that was weird for me. And my parents, they just sold a very bad side of me, like very down on myself. I didn't want to do anything. And I had to snap out of it. So I prayed about it. I talked to my mom about it. And because my mom, Mama Hendo, she's the best. And so I'll get you out of your mood. So talk to her about it, pray about it.

[00:37:41] And it really popped in my head.

[00:37:45] Golf does not define who I am.

[00:37:47] God defines who I am. from when you just normally play around. Like was there tension? Was there just more thinking? What was it? So I would be on the T and I would always think of where I don't want to go. So I would be on the T and I'm like, okay, I don't want to go here. So my body would really tighten up. And then I would like normally the trouble was left. So I'm like, I don't want to go left. So I

[00:39:02] would hit the biggest slice ever. I mean, big slice. And there's just things like that where your body,

[00:40:04] conversation. But what question should I be asking that I haven't asked?

[00:40:07] Trying to think so we kind of went through like my pivotal

[00:40:09] moments and things like that. Maybe like how social media has

[00:40:15] actually helped me with my mental game. Yeah, I would say

[00:40:18] social media, it has helped me big time with my mental game

[00:40:22] because the social media side fun, you know, you make it fun,

[00:40:27] you're out there having fun with people and you meet a lot of that I can do. And that has also been really helpful for me because with golf, I partner with Callaway and Adidas. Those are like my big two brands. And so like I'll go like brand golf tournaments and things like that. And they are so much fun. So it's taken all of the pressure off of me. So that's been wonderful. Yeah.

[00:41:40] And it's not anything that I would have thought of.

[00:41:44] That's fantastic.

[00:41:45] You're sharing that.

[00:41:46] Yeah. so important for you. They're going to be there for you. That's really important to me, especially my mom. I just love that woman. She's amazing. So she's been a big rock for me. And then golf comes third. That's really what it is for me. And in that order else for life goes chaotic. I remember Don S. Seig when we were playing together, he shared that with me. It was always

[00:43:02] GFG. Now he didn't use that acronym, but he would say, you know, golf. I mean, God, family golf.