Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacie Roman
Hi Stacie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have always been passionate about the sport of gymnastics. I was a gymnast and a coach in high school and college. After I graduated, I stayed connected to the sport through blogging. Then, in 2016, I had the amazing opportunity to go to the Olympics as media.
I thought it was going to be the most exciting experience of my life. I expected to see gymnasts living their dreams—soaking in the moment they had worked for their entire lives.
Instead, I walked into a pressure cooker.
These were the best gymnasts in the world. The most talented. The most prepared. And yet, so many of them weren’t thriving—emotionally, they were barely holding it together.
One of the chaplains I was with said something that hit me like a ton of bricks:
“Being at the Olympics is like doing one wedding and nine funerals every day.”
And he was right.
Instead of fulfillment, I saw exhaustion. Instead of confidence, I saw gymnasts crushed under the weight of expectations. Instead of joy, I saw fear—fear of failing, fear of not being enough, fear of everything they had worked for slipping away.
And in that moment, I realized: This isn’t just an elite gymnastics problem.
This is happening at every level.
In addition, a lot started to come out about sexual and emotional abuse in the gymnastics world.
I wanted so badly to help these gymnasts.
But at the time, I had no idea how.
Then it happened to me.
For years, I had been chasing perfection—believing that if I just worked harder, pushed through, and did more, I’d finally feel like I was enough. Instead, I hit complete burnout.
Not just I need a break burnout—three months on the couch, unable to function burnout.
That’s when I realized… It was never about working harder. It was about healing emotional and mentally and training my mind to operated differently.
That’s when I found The Life Coach School. And at first, I wasn’t thinking about helping gymnasts—I was just trying to heal myself.
But as I learned these tools, everything changed. And I couldn’t stop thinking:
💡 What if I had learned this as a gymnast?
💡 What if every gymnast had these tools before they reached the breaking point?
That’s why I knew I had to bring the mental and emotional training tools I was learning to the gymnastics world.
I ended up connecting with some others who had the same passion, and eventually I started Gymnastics Mindset Academy with my business partner Ali.
It turns out that the coaching tools and coaching gymnasts is just the tip of the iceberg. It is the marketing and sales that you really have to learn to have a successful business! We have worked with a business coaching program called Business by Design and have learned and grown a ton as small business owners.
We now run a completely virtual mental performance coaching business for gymnasts of all levels.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest struggles have been figuring out all the technology needed for a smooth system that is easy for parents and gymnasts to use to purchase and access our courses and coaching and learning the digital marketing skills to sell a coaching service online. I thought Meta Ads would be the death of me!
One time we decided that our ads were doing great and so we went big on a launch. There was a silly glitch we couldn’t figure out and it cost a ton!
We originally started with four business partners (CRAZY) and the process of getting down to just the two of us was painful, difficult and expensive. But we learned a ton about the legalities surrounding business along the way.
And my business partner unexpectedly had complications and gave birth 3 months early. Her boy is doing awesome, but it’s been a long road.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We help parents and coaches develop happy, healthy gymnasts who know how to win through mental performance coaching. We work with competitive gymnasts all over the country ranging from 9-23 years old.
We are super specialized as all of our coaches are deeply knowledgeable in the sport of gymnastics and are certified coaches from the Life Coach School. We use behavioral science, sports psychology and our experience as former gymnasts and coaches to help gymnasts in a step by step approach.
While gymnasts work with us to work towards their goals in gymnastics, the mental and emotional skills they learn transform them for life. It is so fun to watch a young girl move from anxious, stressed and ridiculously hard on herself to calm, focused, self-confident and happy.
Knowing that we are not just helping them be better gymnasts, but that one by one we are setting up girls to reach big goals, be self confident and knowing how to navigate their emotions in the process.
Our mission is to help coaches and parents understand how to work with their gymnasts in an emotionally healthy way that also produces success, hopefully decreasing the prevalence of emotionally abusive tactics common in the sport.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Our original training came from the Life Coach School. The founder is taking a break this year, but all of her past podasts are there and are incredibly transformational. Learning to manage your mind and emotions is such an essential skill and has really helped me in life. Also learning so much about re-wiring the subconscious brain through Manifestation Babe Academy has been super helpful for me personally and for a lot of the work we do with our gymnasts.
The Mind your Business is my go to podcast and Business by Design has been a game changer for me in digital marketing and running our business.
Along the way I have really had to work through a lot of my past stories about money. I have just started reading Chill and Prosper and can tell I am going to become a big fan.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gymnasticsmindsetacademy.com
- Instagram: gym.mindset.academy
- Facebook: gym.mindset.academy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVPJ7X_dcEpdtzlzQE2r9Ug
