The Secret to Fast Career Growth in Sports | Lisa Caprara DSH #679

She's screaming at.

Right.

And then boom, I got hit going 45 miles per hour.

It was high.

Wow.

Cops were right there because they were going to pull them over anyway.

And then I went airborne.

Holy.

Fell to the ground.

I didn't know what hit me.

I didn't know what hit me.

So I got right back up, walked to my mom, and I said, That was fun.

I want to do it again.

And then passed out again immediately.

All right, guys, we got Lisa here from Tampa, right?

Yeah.

well, I'm from New Jersey, but I live in Tampa now.

Yeah, you mentioned you got family in Bridgewater where I grew up.

Yeah.

That is crazy.

Small world.

I've never heard that, by the way.

No?

No.

Because Bridgewater is kind of like a random town in Jersey.

Yeah, it's close to like a lot of Raritan.

It's over there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you did some work with the Yankees, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

In-game stadium hosts.

That's awesome.

For spring training in Tampa, Florida.

How did all that happen?

So basically in college, you know, I wanted to get an internship, like junior year, like that.

And I've always grew up loving the New York Yankees.

And when I found out the spring training was in Tampa, Florida, I was like, wow, this is perfect.

I have to get involved.

So I got an internship there.

And then it all started right from that.

I started growing.

I started getting new opportunities.

Worked in the broadcast booth, directing, doing audio, camera, every position.

I did show control, operating all the advertisements on the board for spring training, and met a lot of great people.

Brilliant.

I didn't know they did their training in Tampa.

I guess because it's warmer out there.

Yeah, yeah.

It's hot.

It gets really hot yeah new york's freezing so that makes sense we got the best pizza though in new york oh yeah there's no debate some people say connecticut but i don't know i don't know i've never tried it so i can't speak from experience but new york's got to be tough yeah the water it's all because of the water yep they have machines in vegas that create new york water for pizza out here oh really yeah

i have to try it out yeah prince street pizza that's probably my favorite spot out here Okay, shout out to Prince Street.

How do you think you were able to climb the ranks so quickly with the Yankees?

Because you just leveled up so quick, right?

Yeah, it's all about you know networking and talking to as many people as possible and I feel like my energy and my motivation to want to grow at you know like a fast pace helped me get to where I'm at today east coast mentality yeah northeast northeast specifically yeah we got that work ethic yeah that chip on our shoulder because when I moved out here it people aren't the same People are just slow.

They don't care.

And they're in La La Land sometimes.

Yeah.

It took me a while to get used to it.

I mean, I don't know.

It's not my vibe.

Like, I can literally talk to someone and know what they're going to answer.

Like, I'm talking to myself, basically.

Yeah, you know, it's hard to get satisfied and to settle.

So I'm always wondering, like, what's next?

Yeah, absolutely.

Are you at every Yankees game now?

Not every Yankees game, but I do work for the Yes Network, covering the social media for the Yes Network, the Yes app, everything streaming, Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, like that.

And I do all the social media.

I don't work every single game, but a lot of them I do.

Nice.

Who do you think the best Yankee player of all time is?

Oh, wow.

The best of all time.

That's a hard question.

It is.

You're going to get some hate no matter what you say.

There are so many incredible Yankee players out there.

I personally have to say, I've never seen him myself or met him personally, but Thurman Munson is probably the closest connection that I would have because I was a part of an off-Broadway play called The Bat Boy with my really good friend, family friend, Ray Nagrone, who works for the New York Yankees, who is very close with George Steinbrenner.

And he taught me everything about that time period, you know, Reggie Jackson, all those guys, Kathy Johnny, all those guys.

And I had to play the role of Diana Munson.

So, yeah, that was very challenging because I had to cry live in front of veterans suffering with PTSD.

That's tough.

So to have, to put myself in that character, in her shoes, losing your husband

in a crash.

a helicopter crash that was i couldn't imagine like getting that phone call right so i had to to break down and actually feel her emotions.

And yeah, that's tough.

I don't think I could cry on demand like that, especially in front of an audience.

Props to you for doing that.

Thank you.

Yeah, it wasn't easy.

I had to think of something really sad.

I had to imagine, like, I kind of put myself in the mindset of like, imagine I got the phone call, my father passed away or something like that to make myself cry.

Wow.

Yeah.

So are you wanting to get into acting full-time eventually?

Yes.

I love acting.

It's amazing.

Any genres you gravitate towards?

Honestly, anything.

You know, I could put myself in any character and be successful.

That's impressive.

To wear a lot of hats, you got to be skilled.

Yeah.

Because some people kind of fit one acting persona their whole career.

Yeah, then you limit your success.

You never want to say no to opportunity.

And it's cool because you get to figure out your full potential.

Like when you try different things and you put yourself in different shoes, you learn about the character.

And that's what helps you, you know, perform well.

Who are some actors, actresses that you really look up to?

You think they're the best in their game?

Chas Palmateri.

I'm really old school.

I love the movie Bronx Hale.

And my cousin Vinnie, Joe Pesci, Marissa Tome killed it in that film.

She was awesome.

Yeah, there's so many movies.

I gravitate towards the older movies

and the newer ones.

Me too.

I feel like it's lost its touch almost.

I feel like it's too, I don't know if there's too much money involved or something, but...

It just loses the message almost.

Yeah, it's almost like, you know, the old school is like real.

It's not filtered.

It's more relatable, yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

Um, I used to love horror movies, but I get too many nightmares from them now, so yeah, scary movies aren't really my thing.

Yeah, I take a step back from those.

I like the Vow 2 with Shannon Tam, the romance movies.

That was based off a true story, too.

It was really good, yeah.

Yeah, Tatum in his prime, yeah, he was good, man.

21 Jump Street.

Oh, yeah, I've seen that one's good.

I've seen that like 10 times.

Um, so you had a near-death experience?

Yes, what happened?

April 20th, 2006.

420.

Yeah, 420.

Were you high?

No, but the driver was.

Oh, shit.

The driver that hit me was high.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

I got hit by a black Mustang going 45 miles per hour.

And it really changed my life in that moment because I felt like I got everything taken from me when I blacked out.

That experience really opened up my eyes.

You know, when I got hit.

So basically my sister, Gina, she had soccer practice.

And, you know, me and my mom, my sister, we went to go to Burnett BBQ in Union, New Jersey.

And as we were exiting, you know, the restaurant, we parked across the street.

So, you know, little me, I was about what, nine, something like that.

I'm in the middle of the street.

My mother screams, stop, you know, as loud as she can.

And I'm wondering, like, what, what is she yelling at?

What is she yelling at?

If you heard your mother scream, stop, you know, you would want to turn around and be like, what is she screaming at?

Right.

And then, boom, I got hit going 45 miles per hour.

Kid was high.

Wow.

Cops were right there because they were going to pull him over anyway.

And then I went airborne.

Holy.

Fell to the ground, hit my head, shit my tooth.

I didn't know what hit me.

I didn't know what hit me.

So I got right back up, walked to my mom, and I said, that was fun.

I want to do it again.

And then passed out again immediately.

My sister ran to the neighbor's house, kicked the door open, stole the phone, called the police.

I had everyone and the brother coming around me looking down, like, oh my God, is she okay?

Is she okay?

Screaming in my face.

I had no clue what happened.

I had to be told that I got hit by a car.

Wow.

It just happened so fast.

Happens so fast.

You know, when you're in the street and you see a car coming at you, you would probably think to yourself, like, oh, maybe I'll just jump up or maybe I'll just try to like, you know, avoid it.

That thought doesn't come to your head at all.

You don't even think car.

Like, you don't know what happens.

Right.

Yeah.

Because you don't even have time to process it because you didn't even see the car, right?

No.

It was behind you.

Never saw the car.

It came out.

It was like a road straight and then it came like on a circle and then he just was speeding.

He was getting pulled over as he hit me.

And you were nine years old?

yeah it was about like nine yeah april 2006 something like that yeah that is crazy so you had a massive concussion did you have brain damage no i was lucky it was a miracle oh nothing no so basically when i blacked out right i went to some place i don't know where i went i have no clue where i went but i wasn't dreaming and i didn't exist

didn't exist that's terrifying That is terrifying.

You know, all these people talk about these problems they have in the world or, you know, dealing with this and that.

And when you want to talk about problems, imagine taking your whole life gets taken from you in one second.

You're never going to see your mother again.

You're never going to see your sister, your brother, your cousins, your uncles, your aunts.

You're never, that, you're never going to see them again.

When I woke up, the only thing I thought about was, where are they?

Where is my family?

Because that, I was terrified.

I thought I was never going to see them again.

Nothing else mattered.

Wow.

Money, dinner that night, nothing mattered in the world.

I just wanted to see them one more time because I was so nervous that if I was never going to see them again.

No, that's deep.

Yeah.

At that age, to have that experience is crazy.

There's actually a book on near-death experiences and people describe something similar where they feel like they go to a place and then they come back.

It really shaped me, you know, to be mentally tough and really strong.

Yeah,

so you and I grew up in a space where social media kind of became prominent, right?

In high school, I think Instagram came out for us.

Yeah.

And now you're kind of seeing the mental toll it's taking on people and all the cyberbullying and things.

I feel like it started off with great intentions, and I feel like it's taking a turn.

Do you agree with that?

Absolutely.

Social media is an illusion of your best life that you're living.

Nobody's going to sit there and post every day about how hurt they are from relationships.

They lost their job.

Someone in their family or friend died.

No one's going to talk about that.

They're going to show you the perfect lifestyle that they imagine themselves to have.

100%.

Yeah.

And that's what people don't realize because they find themselves comparing a lot because of social media to people's Instagram.

And that's not the guy's life or the girl's life.

Yeah, it's all fake.

And then people actually start to believe it.

That's what's crazy.

It mentally ruins people, especially young kids.

They feel like they're not good enough to compete at a high level because of this post that has 20k likes, which is, you know, sometimes people just even buy their likes realistically.

You know, some people aren't, they don't naturally organically grow their social media.

But, you know?

Yeah.

You shouldn't, yeah.

I don't like when people compare followers or likes.

I don't think that's how you should compare value or whatever.

There'll be people, like, probably in high school too, with kids nowadays, they'll be like, oh, I got, I got all these followers.

You know, I got this and that.

But it's, sometimes it comes down to who follows you.

Yeah, you see that with the TikTokers.

Maybe you have 100 bots following you.

Yeah.

Or maybe you got three guys who will conquer the world that follow you, those three are more valuable.

It's a dangerous game to have that influence on your ego, having followers.

Yeah, a lot of kids fall for that.

Yeah, so it's about who follows you, what you value, and how you want to grow.

That's how you should surround your circle with.

Yep.

Quality over quantity, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, I love that mindset.

So the mental trauma from that incident, did that affect you for years, Arthur?

It might even still affect you now, right?

You know, I look at it as a good thing.

I'm so lucky to be alive.

And I am inspired to teach young people, people of all ages, to be tough, to be mentally tough, because what you're worrying about, what you're hurting about, it's only temporary.

It's only a certain part of your life, this problem, whatever you're going through in your life, everybody's got a story.

Every single person has a story.

You're the author of your own story.

I always like to say that.

And basically, yeah, you know, I just want to inspire people to be the best versions of themselves and just to not worry about that short, rough patch you're going through because it's going to get better and it's going to even motivate you to be better.

You know, whatever bad happens in your life, it could turn into something good.

You know, like when you're doing archery, you know, you're pulling the arrow back, right?

Bam, boom, boom, you're going back, going back, boom.

And it launches into something great.

That's how you got to look at those problems in life.

Great mindset.

I wish I had it when I was in high school, getting bullied and stuff.

Yeah, you know, it's, it's, it happens a lot, boy.

You know, you got to put your foot down.

Yeah.

Stick up for yourself.

Yeah, I had victim mentality growing up.

Did you have that too?

You know, I never, I came up like an Italian household.

You know, father's always hard on me.

And I love that.

I love, you know, having a hard core family structure.

I had a really good support system.

So I was raised like that, you know, to be mentally tough and to not take shit from anybody.

That's important.

Family, yeah.

So the guest before you just said 90% of all violent crimes are committed by a single parent household, a child of that environment.

Yeah.

Which is crazy.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah.

So family is super important.

It's something people are kind of getting away from getting married and family divorce rates at 60%.

Yeah.

So that the fact that you had that, I think, helped you a ton.

Yeah, sometimes too, like for those people going through divorce, it's better to be alone than in the wrong relationship.

So you got to work on yourself, you know, work on healing yourself,

the traumas that you deal with.

It's very important because then that will open the doors for how you become successful.

You write your own future.

You can either be stuck in this mindset of, you know, this happened to me.

Feel sorry about yourself.

But guess what?

Time still goes on.

Yep.

So you can't control time.

There's not a remote controller that you could purchase that you could pause pause life or do this and that.

You decide your decision.

Right.

Yeah.

Other than that Adam Sandler movie.

Click, I think.

Oh, Click, yeah.

Yeah.

That's a classic.

Except for that.

Yeah.

Shout out to Adam Sandler, man.

That's my favorite actor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he still looks the same.

It's crazy.

I know.

It's insane.

His genetics are nuts.

I still watch all his new Netflix movies now.

And he's still the same dude.

That's respect.

You're going to have to ask him, you know, his routine.

I mean, he needs every day.

He's taking some stem cells or something.

Are you big on health and wellness, mindset, stuff like that?

Health is wealth.

Health is wealth.

If you don't have that, you have nothing.

Absolutely.

And I think it's important to share that for people our age, too, because I was neglecting it like in my 20s, teenage years, but I'm starting to feel some pain now.

And I'm only 27.

Yeah, it's really important to focus on your body.

You know, you know your body better than anyone else.

Someone could, like in the gym, someone could show you how to do something a certain way, but if it doesn't work for you, then it's not going to help you.

Right.

And you were a pro soccer player, right?

So health was super important for you.

Yeah, you know, it's important to stretch, stay hydrated, um take care of your body listen to your body you know if you have like a cramp here you got to roll it out you got to be on top of it yeah sure what position were you forward and midfield you were scoring yeah yeah i was very aggressive like

you were causing fights yeah yeah i've got many yellow cards in my career man any red cards no actually which is crazy anyone that knows me would say like they're surprised

So you can control that kind of emotional, because I feel like when you get a red card, it's an emotional reaction almost.

Yeah, you you never want to drop down to that level.

You got to, you know, be the better person on the field, never entertain, especially when you're doing good, when you're scoring, when you're playing good, people get mad.

Absolutely.

Not even on the soccer field in general in life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Especially in soccer, though, because you're scoring in front of their face, so they feel like you're better than them.

Yeah, when you're successful and you're doing good in life, you get more eyes on you.

Yeah.

Bigger camera on you.

Everybody's watching.

So people are going to critique and they like to talk because they're born with their own lives.

Yeah, but I don't value their opinions.

If you're like that, then you're smart.

Yeah.

But it's easy to.

It's definitely easy to fall victim to comments and people's opinions, but then you look at their profile and it's like some random dude.

Yeah, people who struggle with that, my best advice is it's a waste of time, right?

So you got to prioritize what's important to you, what's not.

Your time is very valuable.

You know, what you focus your energy on and what you're reading, what you're scrolling through on social media, is that going to help you?

That's what everybody in the world should ask themselves what i'm looking at right now do i value this is this gonna help me if not it's a waste of time and you're better off doing something else yeah a lot of mindless scrolling these days yeah yeah look at people's screen time i think if i had to guess the average scroll time for people in our our age groups got to be above six hours a day yeah i mean they even track it too on the phone i think you can like see yeah you can see screen time it's nuts that's insane some people do 10 hours a day Don't your eyes hurt?

For real.

Take the blue light off on your phone if that's the case.

Yeah.

No, for real.

Those blue light light blockers help me sleep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I use those at night, actually.

That's good.

There's a setting on your phone, too, for it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

What are you working on these days?

So basically, I launched my own company called Mission Mindset, and I motivate people to, and guide them to be successful.

So whatever you want to do in life, you can call me and I could help you succeed in life.

I love that.

So mindset coaching.

Yeah.

Mindset coaching.

It's a big struggle right now.

Life guidance coach, whatever you want to call it.

Yeah.

A lot of mental health problems right now it's at an all-time high yeah especially too for like for athletes specifically because i coached at img academy i don't know if you ever heard no i have that's the top high school in the country right yeah very great academy coach i met kids from all over the world it's amazing because if i don't even speak their language it's cool because they still all share something in common like everybody you don't have to speak the same language to love soccer or football or baseball or swimming or whatever it is you know oh so some of them don't even speak english some kids yeah some kids don't speak english Wow.

Because they're from all over the country.

So they're recruiting the best of the best.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Because they're always good.

I think football, right?

Yeah.

IMG.

Yeah.

I always see them on YouTube.

It's a good environment.

It's a really healthy environment.

Everyone wants to get better every single day, you know, in the classroom, on the field, whether they want to play professionally, on the national team, or whatever.

You get like a bunch of pro teams coming.

We just saw, oh my gosh, we saw NYC, Red Bull.

They were all training for a preseason there.

And it's a good environment to surround yourself with.

Do you see these kids under a lot of pressure?

Like, do they feel like there's an intense amount of pressure on them because they want to make a living out of sports?

Yeah, that's what being an athlete's all about, is pressure.

If you can't handle pressure, you're not going to be a good athlete.

Because an athlete goes through a lot of under pressure.

You're going to be, for instance, on the soccer field, you know, someone's pressuring you, going up against you.

You're going to have to like really

make smart decisions

and, you know,

put your heart and soul into the sport you got to play with heart right and that's something that's not talked about because you could have two athletes same skill level but one just folds under pressure right and then the other one thrives under pressure and you see that in basketball with people that take buzzer beaters and that's what separates a great athlete from just a normal one yeah i like to tell people um great athletes apply personality to their performance

i love that so when you're doing when you're working under pressure Think till your personality.

Yeah.

Have fun.

You're there to have fun too.

You love the game.

That's why you're there.

Yeah.

No one's sitting there with a gun to your head.

You got to play this game.

You got to do this now.

You're there because you're either good at it.

You love it.

You're passionate about it.

It's a passion.

It all starts with a passion.

Yep.

One of my regrets is I didn't, so I didn't have a father figure growing up.

I folded under pressure and I was really good at sports.

I ran a mile in 440, half mile in 159.

That's awesome.

But just pressure, man.

And like, I folded and I didn't have that guidance.

But I was a really good athlete.

But if I had a coach like you, honestly, it would have helped.

Oh, thank you.

For real.

Like, people don't talk about the mental side of sports.

Yeah.

They just focus on like training and getting better physically, but there's a whole nother side to it.

Yeah, definitely.

People operate differently too, like under pressure.

But you just have to remind yourself why you even started in the first place.

Or, you know, a lot of people have a chip on their shoulder.

They work for something or something like triggers them.

And that's what I would bring out in my performance too.

Like when I'm on the soccer field, I would just, I have so much energy.

It's insane.

I would never think twice to be like, oh, I'm tired or this and that because I was so engaged in what I was doing.

I was so engaged.

I wanted to win.

I wanted to be the best, the fastest person on the team.

I was always number one in fitness in a lot of my fitness tests.

And I like to set the bar high.

You know, I like to be an inspiration to people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A lot of times I think, like, you know, if you don't even like me, I still inspire you to go another direction.

Yeah, I love that.

How long were you a pro for?

Because you're still really young.

Yeah, so I played in Tampa Bay for like a year and then

basically coached IMG Academy with all the younger kids after that.

So So, you liked coaching more than playing?

That's tough.

I like them both.

There's nothing like putting your cleats on, your shit guards on, and wearing a jersey.

You know, being great, being a part of something that's greater than yourself is unbelievable.

Absolutely.

And it's an honor.

What do you do outside of coaching?

Outside of coaching, I'm a big foodie.

Same.

Italian?

Yes, I'm all Italian.

Love Italian.

Sicilian.

Okay.

I'm more thin crust, but I could vibe with it.

Love food.

Love going to restaurants, trying new things.

I love traveling.

And yeah,

just living life.

Traveling is important.

You learn a lot traveling.

Yeah, you really do.

Going to different places, being open-minded, and learning about people who are from the area is actually really interesting.

Yeah.

That's one of the benefits of sports, getting to travel, actually.

Yeah.

Experiencing cultures and learning about the world because you get.

locked in your own town for 20 years without traveling sometimes.

Well, the more you travel, the more opportunities get given to you.

You know, You open up a lot of doors when you travel.

Sure.

Were you part of NIL launched a few years ago?

Did you get NIL money or was that kind of before?

The NISL, yeah.

Oh, you did?

Yeah.

Okay.

Because that launched when you were kind of starting college?

It was like a whole discussion, but it was finalized afterwards.

Yeah.

Now the money's insane.

Yeah.

I mean, there's woman basketball college players making millions.

I just saw one sign a deal with Nike for $28 million.

Yeah.

I think Caitlin Clark.

Yeah, it's crazy.

It's awesome, honestly.

It's cool to see because before college athletes were broke, they weren't getting paid.

Yeah, it's been a whole problem.

NCAA kept every single dollar.

I mean, think about when you were playing college, they kept everything.

Yeah, everything.

Crazy.

Crazy rules, too.

You know, I went to three universities.

I played soccer at the University of Hartford, Connecticut, Palm Beach, Atlantic, University of West Palm Beach, and the University of Tampa.

So, you know, NCAA, there were all these rules where if you transfer, you have to sit out a year or two years.

Yeah, I peeled it in conference for Palm Beach, Atlantic, and the University of Tampa.

Wow.

So that was another thing I had to go through at Palm Beach.

I had to make sure I could play right away after when I went to Tampa.

I wonder why they'd want to make you sit a year for transferring.

That sounds weird.

It's weird.

I think it's because it was the same conference.

Oh, so you

didn't discourage me.

You know, I still knew what I wanted, and I went and got the job done.

A lot of kids nowadays will sit there and say to themselves, oh, that's hard.

That takes time.

Yeah.

Then you don't care that much.

Man, I love your mindset.

Infectious.

I love it.

Lisa, where can people find you and learn more about your coaching and everything?

So my Instagram is Lisa Caps.

Lisa underscore CAPS C-A-P-S.

And you could DM me if you're interested in a motivational mindset call for mission mindset.

Cool.

We'll link it below.

Thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you tomorrow.