Mindy Thomas

Career Chat – Mindy Thomas Interviews Mike McCarthy

Join Mindy Thomas, host of Career Chat as she talks with her guest, Mike McCarthy, former two-time Olympian, Hall of Fame and World Cyclist about his recent layoff from his position.

Mindy Thomas :
Hi everybody. I’m Mindy Thomas and this is Career Chat, which airs every Monday at 1130 and Tuesday at 8:00 PM. If you need a little pep in your step today and a little bit of inspiration, you want to stay tuned to the show today. We have a very special guest. I’m very honored and privileged to bring in Mike McCarthy from Southern California. Good morning Mike. How are you?

Mike McCarthy:
I’m great.

Mindy Thomas :
We know your beaches are open and people are going crazy down there in Southern California?

Mike McCarthy:
Yeah. And meanwhile you know, many of us are still fighting for spaces in our own homes, but but yeah, that people are definitely out and about a little bit more this last few days.

Mindy Thomas :
Well, I’m really happy to introduce my audience to you today. You are you’ve had a fabulous career and let me begin with, you are a two time Olympian champ. You had a world, also a world championship, 17 national titles. You were inducted into the United States cycling world, a hall of fame, if you will. And I’ve been impressed with, you know, your Olympic awards, bronze and gold medals and as well as how you reinvented yourself time and time again, and you find yourself in a new chapter today that’s along with 24 million Americans that are unemployed and as a result of your company reorganizing, your position was eliminated. Before we go there, Mike, I’d like you to talk about your career as a competitive athlete. You live the dream. It was an incredible run during those years. You retired at the age of 30 as a world cyclist. Bring us back. I know you’re a New York guy originally from Brooklyn. Tell us a little bit about you.

Mike McCarthy:
Well, it’s, it’s funny because when you mentioned those things, I sort of do a double take, like, wow, is that me and my lifetime? And I tend to be someone who thinks that, that you know, the fun is in front of me and not behind me, but it was an amazing run and I was super fortunate particularly growing up in New York city to find my passion, which, you know, was a bit of an with cycling a bit of an anomaly in New York city but right place at the right time as everyone knows, the city is so amazing, crossroads of culture. And so folks from Europe, central South America brought cycling culture with them. There was an amazing community there. And I tagged on to that and sort of Parley that into a really nice 17 year run. And it’s like when you mentioned I, I retired at 30. That was that was not a hard choice at that point. AF after the run I’d had but amazing memories and, and despite both my parents protests you know, I think I really did pursue my passion and live the dream, so fantastic experience. But you know, as, as I mentioned earlier, more to come,

Mindy Thomas :
What’s it take to become a world champion and make it to the Olympics. There are so many people that haven’t made it, that have worked their whole lives. What is it that

Mike McCarthy:
It’s just some of the parts I, you know, you can say it’s talent. You can say it’s the work. You can say it’s the dedication, but it’s all those things and it’s frankly a lot of luck as well. And a lot of stick to it. A miss if you, if you quit, you have no chance. So for me it was just getting back in day after day and, and some of the days are sunny and some aren’t as sunny. You know, cherishing the great results and the great experiences. And, and, you know, moving past the ones that didn’t live up to your expectations. I think for me you know, I, I was pretty ambitious when I was, I still am, but I, in terms of my cycling goals, I was ambitious to a point where you know, early in my career I was mocked for, you know, for, for being forward with my goals. And I said, when I was 15 years old and I wanted to be world champion,

Mindy Thomas :
Oh my goodness.

Mike McCarthy:
And everybody looked at me and said, well, you know, this fat kid from New York says he wants to be a world champion. That’s really funny. And nine years later I realized that dream. So it was a good run, filled with tons and tons of great lessons that I’ve continued to hold, hold with me and they’re my principles of how I live every single day.

Mindy Thomas :
Your ability to visualize and move forward. Did you, as we hear Olympic athletes visualize winning over and over and over again, is that every day,

Mike McCarthy:
Single day? Yeah, it was, it was it was visualizing the goal and, and, you know, applying work to that visualization. And for me it was, it was oftentimes my digitalization was, was, was not winning. And the fear of not winning propelled me to, to push myself harder. I like to say that, that I wasn’t necessarily the hardest worker, but I tried to work smarter than other people and I, I am the consummate opportunist. If you leave me the smallest opening through the hole and, and that’s, that’s how I, that’s how I, I built my career.

Mindy Thomas :
You don’t come from a family of athletes,

Mike McCarthy:
Right? You know, my, my parents my, my mom’s an academic and, and, and my, you know, my dad worked on wall street and they both played sports when they were kids. Neither of them really understood cycling, nor did they approve of my pursuit of athletic excellence. They would’ve both preferred Sydney to go to school and take a kind of, you know, the standard path through life. And there’s risk in that, right? In hindsight, I’m really glad I did it the way I did it, but at the same time, if it had gone wrong, it could have gone really wrong. So

Mike McCarthy:
Again, that’s where the luck comes into play.

Mindy Thomas :
Well, what’s interesting and what struck me about your background was you had reinvented yourself several times over and after you retired from your career as a professional athlete, you then moved into wall street. I didn’t know your dad was on wall street, so you took your love of finance and went 16 years on wall street. Can you tell us a little bit about that career?

Mike McCarthy:
Yeah. So when I decided that I wanted to be, to be done with bike racing, I had a year left on my contract, but I sat down and I made a list of of what I saw as opportunities. And some of those opportunities are cultivated through my years in cycling. Others are just things that I thought would be kind of cool ways to spend, you know, the next chapter of my life. As it turns out, I had a close relationship with Tom wiser, who at the time was, was the, the chairman of Montgomery securities. And Tom had always told me that when I was finished bike racing might be a great great addition to his trading desk. And so I called them on it a year before I was ready to retire and, and flew to San Francisco from New York, did interviews and found a nice home for myself there.

Mike McCarthy:
It was a massive segue, but it also put me into what I like to call the most dynamic, repetitive environment or environment that you can find. It’s, it can be really exciting, but it’s essentially the same job day in and day out. And it took me 16 years to then, you know, reinvent myself again, make another transition. But what I found during that 16 years is that I liked to build things. I don’t necessarily love the steady state work if it’s the same day in and day out. So everything’s a learning experience, but that was a great one. Something that, again, I, I don’t regret doing it at all, but the following chapter certainly suited me. I think to a T

Mindy Thomas :
That was an interesting blend of you’re cycling the third career that you have a blend of cycling and finance. It converged. And you began working for a startup in Southern California called [inaudible] Z. W I F T. Tell us what they do and how do it

Mike McCarthy:
Yeah, completely pragmatic decision at, you know, four years old to leave a perfectly good career at 45 years old. So we were proving to be a career on wall street, you know, making a nice wage with two kids and a dog and yeah, I’m going to go work for a startup.

Mike McCarthy:
Again, did not get family approval or parental approval on that one. But I, when I saw the product I was, I was close with the CEO, Eric men. We brought up by grace and together and Eric had, had shut down transitioned how to a FinTech startup that he built and was starting his, his, his next company, which was with, and he came out to pitch knee for for friends and family round. And I said, well, you know, if, if, if, if you want my money, you go speak to my ex wife, but if you want me, I’m ready to make this transition. And, and so he, he sorta thought about it and he said, you know, you’d actually be great in our team. You have credibility within the cycling industry. You know, how to roll your sleeves up, your goal oriented. I think you can help help us move our project forward. And so within the period of a couple of months, I left wall street and started at, at you know, a company with 10 employees. And, and it was just from end to end, an amazing experience.

Mindy Thomas :
That’s a virtual online app that’s geared towards runners and cyclist. It’s a video game, right?

Mike McCarthy:
It is. It, it’s, it’s what Peloton is to the fitness. The fitness crowd it is with, as to the competitive, busiest cyclist and runner. And you know, we, we call it a game. It’s, it’s really a training and racing platform an opportunity for people to interact together. Basically bringing the best of outdoor running and cycling indoors. Which you know right now is, is, is massively helpful to, to the millions of people that are stuck inside their homes.

Mindy Thomas :
The toolkit that you took with you from wall street and from your professional athletic career, what did that look like? What was in it?

Mike McCarthy:
You know, at the end of the day, I think for me it was, it was just, you know, the ability to make good, quick, intuitive decisions and validate them obviously through, you know, through data, through, you know, just kind of test testing scenarios. But it was, it was really, I think the one core competency that, that allowed me to do that job well was my ability to communicate with people and speak anyone’s language. Not literally, but figuratively speaking. It was, you know, my role in business development development and Swift was more of, of an evangelist. It was my job to go out and, and, you know, authenticate the products with the endemic, the endemic brands. And then also to take it outside of cycling and running and show it to people to, to, to build a business case for us. And it ended up being massively successful.

Mindy Thomas :
Mike, you must have one heck of a Rolodex from your early days across industries, across every kind of industry. I can imagine that’s, that helped you in that role in business development. Did it? Not

Mike McCarthy:
Without a doubt, but interestingly enough, I mean, I, I was a bike racer before the internet. So you know, many of those contexts I’ve had to reconnect with. And, and you know, the digital age with the digital age, but you know, on LinkedIn or wherever. But I’ve never had to apply for a job and I’ve never really had to have a resume. So the process I’m going through now is completely new territory and I’m having to go out and, and not rebuild bridges, but, but find people that I’ve, I would previously connect to that I may not have spoken to in quite some time.

Mindy Thomas :
Well, you have a get out of jail free card right now because everyone is calling people from years ago. It’s just amazing. I heard from a friend from 40 years ago and another friend from 25 years ago, people are picking up the phone right now. You know, we’re all in it together and I think that we’re sensing that, that connection you know, we, we need to connect with that said, the ability to find people. It’s pretty easy, isn’t it?

Mike McCarthy:
Absolutely. and if there’s a silver lining to the whole pandemic you know, among other things, it’s, it’s the amount of communication that’s happening, right? And it’s conversations. It’s not email, it’s not texts. It’s actually picking up the phone. And you know, spending these occasionally massive amounts of time with people that you would never, ever have that opportunity to do. In, in normal circumstances. So look, I, you know, I guess misery loves company, but it’s, it’s hard to feel bad about being laid off in this environment when there are so many other folks. We’re in the same boat with you. So it really, I guess in a way it doesn’t feel out of the ordinary at all to me.

Mindy Thomas :
I think when you see it coming, ah, that’s a different place. I think that’s a different place for people. When you’re sort of blindsided, that’s another place where you land.

Mike McCarthy:
Yeah. I mean, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed. You know, to, to, to have the position eliminated and to not be able to rehome myself within the company. You know, at the end of the day, I love the product. I love the people that I work with. I’ll consider them family for life regardless of whether I’m at the company or not. But you move on, right? It’s, I’m not going to sit there and cry about it and think, Oh, you know, the only place I want to work is back at the company where I, where I left. It’s, there’s a big world out there. And, and amazingly enough, I’m a couple of weeks in and I’ve had some unbelievably great calls with folks. You know, that, that may or may not need help, but it just, there’s a feeling out there that there’s, there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity if you know where to look.

Mindy Thomas :
Sure, sure. And your role there was as vice president of the running product division,

Mike McCarthy:
But that was my final role. I, I started basically in the partnerships VP of partnerships and then moved on to a business development role, building that function at the company. And then and then worked my way into, into the, the head of the running product. But startups evolve. They go from, from built to survive to build, to succeed. They go from generalist, a generalist environment who’s specialists environments and, and you know, at a certain point the, the roll your sleeves up generalists are marginalized and, and don’t really add as much as they did in the beginning.

Mindy Thomas :
Mike, hold that thought. We’ve got to take a short break. We’ll be right back for sure.

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[Inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

Mindy Thomas :
Hi everybody. We’re back with Mike McCarthy who is a two time Olympian, a world champion, a hall of Famer in the cycling world, was 17 national championships. He’s powerhouse and he’s had an incredible career. We’ve talked about his career as an Olympian on wall street and now he is among the 24, 27 million Americans who’s facing a new chapter. We talked also during break about going dark, going down the rabbit hole and how that’s not an option for him. Mike, let us walk through like what you do to keep yourself above board here because as you know, people can go down that rabbit hole, get into the head trash and not move from their chair all day because they’re worried just worried to death about their future. How do you look at it?

Mike McCarthy:
Well, the new chapters are amazing, right? Like it’s an opportunity for reinvention to do something you’ve always wanted to do to change the scenery a little bit to keep things fresh. But their whole are better when they’re self-inflicted. I think for the, you know, as you mentioned, millions of us who, who’ve been displaced from, from our jobs. It, it’s definitely, you know, it’s, it’s a little bit of a SmackDown and it didn’t lead me to go dark. I think for me it’s, it’s, it’s continuing to push things forward. It’s having conversations with as many folks as I can. I, I have a couple of folks that, that I can just air things out with. If I start getting really down. But you also, the flip side of that is you also have to be careful because, you know, I’ve, I’ve been on so many calls in the last couple of weeks where I think, wow, that sounds like an amazing opportunity and then I have to take a step back and think, well, was it really amazing or was it just something that, you know, fit the bill right now that ordinarily I would consider like, okay, that, that turned into amazing because of the current situation.

Mike McCarthy:
So I think, I think being able to take a step back, you know, taking a breath once in a while not feeling like there’s, there’s a massive amount of pressure. It is a luxury but also something that’s, that’s, that’s really good to develop. If you can

Mindy Thomas :
Do you work out every day, I would imagine you do. Are you a cyclist or runner? Do you do both? What, what are you looking at like an early morning, cause you’re in Southern California. I think it’s getting really hot out there right now.

Mike McCarthy:
It is. I try to stay active. You know, working in such close proximity to a refrigerator is not a good thing for me. And so I tend to feel better when I move a little bit or I, I get the endorphins going. So I’m fortunate I have a great home fitness set up. I also have pretty good access to outdoor recreation here, so I throw on a mask and go for a rider, bike rider, a runner you know, just take the dogs around the block or something. But I tend to think that’s a great place to clear my head. And something that I try to make part of my fabric every day.

Mindy Thomas :
What about visualization? Like you used it back in the day, I mean, when you’re 15 years old, you said, I’m going to be a world champion. I, I also assume that you said that I’m going to go to the Olympics. Did you say for sure. Oh, okay.

Mike McCarthy:
And you know, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting in sport because you know, you, you can say those things and there’s a point in your athletic career where you start to, you know, understand whether or not those things are in reach or not. With, you know, with, with, with rehoming yourself into workplace and, you know, finding a new job, right? It’s can be it can be a little bit different. I could put a goal on the wall and say, I, you know, I want to get a job that, that checks these 10 boxes. But you might have to be willing to sacrifice half of those at this point in time or things may just take longer than you’d want them to. So it’s a process. And I think fortunately from, from my background in athletics I I’m very process driven and understand that the need to be true to that and, and that things don’t always happen in a linear fashion. So for me, I’ll take the good days with the bad and hopefully the good days outweigh the bad days or outnumber them. So

Mindy Thomas :
That’s terrific. That’s a great attitude. And you know, I’m wondering if you, you, if you write your goals down. We know that adults that write goals down, I actually, you know, their thoughts or journal they crystallize their thoughts and from that insight comes have you been journaling? Do you write down you know, two week goals, six months goals? Are you looking at that kind of exercise to help you along at this time?

Mike McCarthy:
I, well, yes and no. So I’m fairly disciplined in my Workday, but I’m also I also, I used to respect the ebb and flow of, of, you know, my, my own moods, right? If, if I’m in a good mood, I know I can, I can step on the gas a little bit instead of, you know, I can do an extra hour or two at the end of the day or I can start earlier when I jumped out of bed and I’m excited. I’ll take advantage of those things. But if I feel like I’m sitting there banging my head against the wall and I’m not making progress, I’m not afraid to get up and walk away from it.

Mindy Thomas :
Ah.

Mike McCarthy:
In terms of, of, you know, the writing one thing I did do is make a list of companies that I admired, not necessarily companies that I th I specifically want to work for it, but I admire them for their products, for their ethos to their, for their brand presence, for their mission, et cetera. And, and that’s really helped me align in my own my own job search. Again, not in necessarily wanting to work for those specific companies, but about really channeling those principles into my, my next role. So mission is something that’s particularly important to me. You know, coming from is whipped. We had an amazing mission to make more people more active, more often. I love that it’s good for people, it’s healthy. You know, and it’s something that, that, that I can really relate to. So, you know, when I, I, I mean, I think, you know, a company like Tesla is amazing. I think I didn’t, you know, Nike is an iconic brand. I think Apple makes amazing products. Again, places that I, I would, I would, I’d like to work at, but if not those companies, then companies that share some of the same values and, and you know, kind of work in the same ways.

Mindy Thomas :
That’s really interesting. Mike, I, I’m curious about whether when I go back to the Olympic training and the professional career, did you ever think you would lose, I mean, right now, are you taking that kind of training again? Are you applying it to your everyday? Like, I’m going to land, I’m going to find a great company that has a mission, I can get behind. Are you saying those things to yourself?

Mike McCarthy:
I I wouldn’t say them to anyone else. I, you know, I think, I think that comes from self-confidence. It doesn’t necessarily need to be shared. But the nice thing is that with, with, with social media and, you know, with my, my network, I’m hearing them from other people. And that gives me a lot of confidence and that’s the only place I need to hear those things from my community.

Mindy Thomas :
Very, that’s great. Mike, we have to close in just a minute. Do you have anything that you could convey to our audience today? Because you’re in the same boat as a lot of people, millions of Americans you have any parting words for them?

Mike McCarthy:
When I when I left whiffed my, my initial reaction was to, to, to just go full gas into a job search and, and then I realized after, after not making much progress in the first few days that I needed to take a step back and make sure that I had all the pieces in place to make that journey possible. I hired an amazing resume writer, Mindy Thomas. No shame, no shame. It, it, it saved that year. And, and and really, you know, when I, I, I sort of outsource the things that I wasn’t particularly good at which allowed me to focus on the things I was good at. And then I took it step by step. And, and now I’m in a place where I’m confident if somebody says, shoot your resume over that I have something to send to them.

Mike McCarthy:
I understand my strengths. I you know, painfully self aware of my weaknesses. And I’m in a much, much better place to do the search. So I would say if there was one piece of advice you know, don’t, don’t push on the string, just give it a second. Right. And, and, and make sure that you’re in a good place to do it. People see right through you if you’re not in a good place. And that is not a position of strength and in this environment you have to put yourself in a position of strength.

Mindy Thomas :
Well, Mike, thank you. That is great advice. I love it. Thank you so much for being available to talk with us today to our viewing audience, especially to our, our healthcare professionals are first responders are essential workers. Thank you for your service and sacrifice to everyone else. Have a happy and safe week. With your loved ones. We’ll see you here next week.

Mike McCarthy:
Excellent.