How Skincare Impacts Athlete Confidence and Performance

Welcome to the Legacy All Stars podcast. We feature inspirational stories from people who dedicate themselves to helping others. Here is your host, Alan Pavloski.

Hello everybody. Welcome to Legacy All Stars podcast again. This is Alan Pavloski. I'm excited to feature part two of a special two part episode with Gabby Arancio talking about her company, Game Plan Skincare, but more importantly, talking about all the amazing things that her whole community is doing to support athletes, athlete mental health and especially the kids that really need that additional help. So I hope you enjoy it. Here you go. So let's shift gears because I feel like we wouldn't do any justice to our audience if we didn't talk about what game plan Skincare is, what it does the nuts and bolts of the business right now. And I know you have plans to expand to other product lines, right? But tell us, and I've tried it, so I know it feels really good on your skin. Tell our audience what it is that Game Plan Skincare does and what the purpose for it is.

So gameplay of skincare is performance hygiene products that are engineered for the demands and needs of sport. And we have one hero product which is our sport wives. And what that product does is it is allowing athletes to cleanse their skin in a way that is beneficial for active skin because it is different at the point of sweat, but exactly when they need it to serve them. Sometimes a lot of life happens between sweat and a shower and it's not always accessible for athletes. If you think about even gym goers walking home from the gym. If you're an athlete, you sit on a bus sometimes and you have to drive home an hour, two hours in traffic and then drive back to your house, eat dinner. So there's a long period of time that sweat bacteria and honestly, he traps in, you know, all those things, things in your pores. Oil, sebum, eye black, all those things are the perfect storm for increased breakouts, irritation, dermatitis, bacterial growth, infections. And what we're doing is we're meeting them where they're at. So on the field you pull out game plan, you use it, it has ingredients that are catered to athletic skin and it works in a three step system. So first it cleanses by emulsifying with our emulsifying blend, then by lifting the dirt, sebum oil, eye black out of your pores with our two cleansing ingredients together. Then we soothe, protect and calm with antioxidants. And finally we restore hydration with our humectant system, which is something that you know we made these in South Korea for a reason. And the reason is because they really prioritize those moisturizing components for people with acne and people with, you know, affected skin moisture barriers. That's effective when you sweat. Salt is sitting on your skin, basically really disrupting your microbiome of your skin. So what we did was we installed those humectants to restore hydration from what sweat strips away. So you feel not only cleansed, but you feel hydrated and refreshed and cooled. And with the combination of ingredients has allowed athletes to see the results of that when they use it and they make it a habit. So again, it's meeting people at the point of sweat. But the beauty of the product is that it's perfectly the same, you know, use case for adults and kids. So it's a product that you start when you're a kid. It doesn't have a salicylic acid or anything super acne specific because when you use that after you sweat, it could make you have a rash or breakout because it's too heavy for your skin being hot. It's a great, well researched product. But at the point of sweat, we tested it, it didn't make sense. It was giving our athletes rashes, redness, etc. Because it's too strong for that moment. So that's the beauty of Game Plan. It's a habit that you form when you're a kid. It helps your skin in that moment and then you go home and you properly clean off. It's a habit that you could take from being a kid to being an adult.

Yeah, makes total sense.

I get really in the weeds with the nerdy stuff. But that was a good enough mission. But for sure, you know, I looked at it and I said, how can I make it simple? Because athletes don't need more noise, they don't need more steps, they don't need more supplements being thrown at them. I just wanted to make it as easy as I could. And since a wife's disposable, it's an amazing hygienic habit to have.

Yeah. What does it mean for Game Plan to become a badge of honor, if you will?

Quotes one of my favorite, one of my favorite terms to say. Picture this. You know, you work hard, you're an athlete, maybe you win a game under Friday night lights, maybe you perform your very best in your tournament, but maybe you still work really hard and you don't get any of the honor. I wanted to give people a red package when they take it out of their we call it a brick. When they take it out of their bag and they hold it and they use it, it's a celebration of all the work, all the effort, all the sweat that they put into having a active lifestyle. So by pulling out game plan and holding it, you know that anybody that sees it knows you take care of yourself. You prioritize your hygiene and you're giving yourself self care. So it's a celebration of sweat, but it's a badge of honor for what people accomplish in celebrating the small wins every day. You know, so how often do you work out and kind of look at the reward after? Right. And we want it to be that reward, but that celebration of what you've done, no matter what the level or what the intensity is, it's a badge of honor that you take care of yourself. You prioritize having self care.

Yeah. Why did you intentionally narrow your early focus to youth sports and pilot markets?

Yeah, so that was very difficult to do for me because we have so much interest from so many different people. And when you look at the package, it feels prestige, it feels high end. Right. So we've had all different levels of athletes reaching out, but I really felt strongly about starting our playbook with youth sports and kind of these emerging young talent because it's a behavioral gap that I saw. And I think at early ages, and there's research that shows that at early ages you are able to implement a habit such as, you know, I gave brushing your teeth twice a day, putting on deodorant. But all of a sudden it doesn't become just a habit, it becomes incidental. So it becomes something that you do when you feel a certain way because you're relating it back to that habit. But that all starts at young ages. And I think for whatever kids do, even negative things at young ages that happen in their lives can impact their adulthood. But positive changes in their early years. I just feel really passionately about providing a solution for them to make them feel more confident during those, you know, junior high years and early age, early years that we spoke about before. I think it's a really important kind of community to focus on because it's bringing kids together through not a team, not school, not friendships. It's bringing kids together through a brand that prioritizes confidence. And I want every kid to feel confident in everything they're doing. If I could give all my confidence to every kid out there, I would, but I'm doing so by giving them a solution for their skin. And when you form a habit early it sticks with you for life. So we're turning one time buyers, like I said, into lifelong users, but with something that they enjoy and that is effective in their routine. But I feel very strongly about starting habits from a young age. I think I carry a lot of habits from my early years. I'm sure you do too. But my work all starts because of playing sports when I was younger. So I, the light bulb went off and I said, how can I make this a habit for them too, that they carry with them throughout the rest of their life? And that's something that I would be so proud to do.

Yeah. You know, if we're talking again in five years, I want to know what impact do you hope game Plan has made?

Oh, I hope for the world. First of all, I hope that in five years this product and the future product lines and 60 million kids bags that will be playing youth sports. That is my, that is my dream. But beyond that and beyond just helping kids with their confidence, with having better, healthier skin and hygiene habits, I hope to bring a community together that I could look back at and say, I am so proud of that. And that would be for me, bringing them together in hosting summits, having summits where we bring athletes together. And we have mental health professionals come in, we have nutritionists come in, people that help them elevate their game from early ages to college to pro keynote speakers with all these wonderful athletes that maybe I've connected with already, but also that I continue to meet. You know, I think that even, even having keynote speakers, you know, for our young athletes can change the entire outlook about how they look at sport, how they look at routine, and how they continue on in their journey. So my hope is that I want game plan at the Olympics. I want game plan to be a key player. But you know, giving back to the community is just as important to me and supporting them through the mental health struggles that I've seen in my time as an athletic trainer. You know, I think it's so important that kids know that they have options and that there are supporters out there that can help them. But I think that speaking to athletes is a different language often than speaking to surrounding sport. I'm not a mental health professional, but I have liaisoned a lot of those conversations to professionals. And I think the way that you address it, and it's more of like coaching instead of kind of a more psychological approach, but, you know, I'm no professional, but I know in my heart that, you know, we can make a really big difference with bringing Those professionals in and having them talk to kids in these summits and giving them key takeaways to take with them throughout the rest of their athletic career. And you never know how many lives you can change in one meeting. So my hope is that we can put on these summits. We can continue with athletes, we can build teams. I would love to have a flag football team, a league, a volleyball league, but having APM lead events that bring people together in our community is my dream.

I want to frame this next question in the context of mental health because you and I had this long discussion at super bowl about this, about the tragedy of mental health challenges, especially for younger kids and for people that are in those formative ages. How do you measure success beyond revenue with game plan skincare?

Oh, yeah. And, you know, to frame it on mental health, I felt so much pressure when I was a kid. I felt so much pressure throughout my career. And I think I was feeling that pressure because I wasn't looking at success the way I do today. And, you know, there's always going to be pressure, but specifically around mental health. I always tell myself, man, I wish I was good at math so I can make a ton of money in finance. You know, I wish I. I wish I became a doctor so I can. And, and those are amazing careers. But I think a lot of kids define success still in that and they put pressure on themselves if they're not that in some ways or if they're not that entrepreneur that exits a business. But what I would say, I measure success. And I told you this before, you know, I always say I'm filthy rich and I am loaded, but it's not necessarily money. It's in relationships. And I think that when I started looking at how many people that game plan started to impact and the mental health aspect of the brand in terms of empowering these kids that might not feel so confident with that, I couldn't be more successful. So I didn't start this business to make money. It never started that way. It started because I wanted to see how far I could take this and give people a solution and a brand to root for. I wanted to give something, something to root for for these people. So defining success for me would be relationships would be the impacts bigger than just skincare that we can have on the rest of the community. Those would be the two measures of success in my book. If I do those things and I change lives in that way, then I'm the most successful person, you know, on the planet to myself.

Yeah. You know, I Always talk about this with other people. But there's often a tipping point in somebody's life that it's going to go one way or the other. If a child or a junior high school or a high schooler has skin care that they're struggling with and they're not able to, you know, get through that, and people start teasing them about their skin, you just never know where that tipping point, what direction it will push them totally. And what I hope for you and for any business, is to be able to make enough impact on people's confidence to allow them to get through and feel the resilience in themselves to get through those challenges and not go down a path that's going to be tragic. And I've seen too much tragedy in my life. I really like that that's part of your. Why? Because that's, you know, a long conversation we had, like I said earlier. And that made a really big impact on me when I heard you talk about that.

Thank you. And I think that, you know, I think for kids, it's just so important at that tipping point, like you said, to realize that you're not alone. And my Jack, I. Jack Maroochy, my old boss that I spoke to you about at lsu, I spoke to him the other day and he just said, you have the wonderful ability to connect with people. And that still is something I think about. So if I can use that and I can connect with these athletes and resonate with them and make them feel validated feeling, you know, I think that's an important thing that people don't do enough of. You may hear something, but being able to relate to them in that moment, maybe where they need you to or give an example of something you went through, I think sharing those things, it might seem little, but it really weighs in a lot when you're in a moment where you need more confidence. And when I tell kids that I had a back brace, braces and acne, all of a sudden they start talking a little bit more about maybe what they're going through, their insecurities and through game plan. I'm able to, you know, continue to spread that message. But I agree. I think it's that moment and it's important to kind of open up about those things as the founder of the brand, but also kind of the indirect face of the brand. And for the athletes we bring in, they're all wonderful, too. And I think I found that watching them interact with, especially the younger athletes, they're motivating, they're empowering, and that has to be. That has to be the people that I have around me. It can't be anything but that.

Yeah. Let me shift gears a little bit. What has this journey in this company taught you about your own leadership?

It's, you know, in the company, I. I always say this. I really look back to my time in sports, and I was behind the scenes as an athletic trainer. We're not on the field playing, but you're certainly around the day in, day out, and you see leaders in a lot of different lights. So, you know, an example I like to give is lead by example. And what I tell people is that, you know, one of the athletes, I mean, Joe Burrow, was our quarterback, and he would sit with the O line every day at dinner, every meal, he would sit with his O line. And Joe wasn't really like the most outspoken leader at the time and, you know, at that age, but I watched him build this camaraderie just by doing the right things and being present.

Right.

Yeah, totally. I mean, it's something that. It was obviously instilled in him to be that person. But when I think about the way I lead, you don't always have to be the most outspoken, but you have to lead by example. And I've seen that in my business, like celebrating the small wins and being positive. If I were to be negative, it would affect the rest of my team. So just showing up and being a good person, but also leading by example and living that and not just talking about it, but being about it. How can you. How can you lead if you're not living the way you want to live? So I really look at my habits, and that's huge. Part of what I've learned about being my own leader is showing up, showing up, putting in the effort on a daily basis, but being the person I want to be when nobody's watching to that is absolutely something that everybody should. If you're going to take one thing when the cameras are off, if you're an athlete, when the cameras are off, when you're at the grocery store, you know, do you take the cart back to the grocery store? Like, do you leave it by your car? Be the person every moment that you want your team to be or that you want to lead them to follow. And that's a piece of advice I'd give to anybody that is leading, looking to be a leader. It's not always the ones that talk the most. It can be, but it's the people that do the right thing every time. You know, 99% of the time, no, he's perfect. But as close as you can to great, you know, and leading that way, I think that absolutely is a skill that I carry through the company.

That's a great message. I appreciate that.

Thank you.

What is one small step parents, coaches, or athletes can take to support confidence,

celebrate the wins, even if it doesn't feel like a win, finding one thing that you learned. And I think that going over those things again, I'm not a sports psychologist or anything like that, but I am a leader, and I have been a coach, and I've been around a lot of youth athletes and been there kind of person. Right. Like their caretaker. And what I've learned is that if they're in their head and that, you know, something bad happened that day, find the good thing. Find the one, the good thing. And if you leave that situation by learning something, it's already a win. I always give myself a rule. Be mad for 10 minutes and then stop being mad, because you have way too much to do to let this drag you down. So I would say to parents and coaches, et cetera, just through my experience, and my two cents would be, find that one good thing, let them be mad for 10 minutes, and then we're moving on, we're getting through it, and we're taking what we learned and we're applying it. Because a lesson isn't learned if you don't apply it. So how do you do that tomorrow? And how do you show up tomorrow? And what does tomorrow look like for you? Because I've seen losers really lose, and I've seen winners really win, but it's all about the next day that matters most. And that's what I've seen through sports and being on an actual championship team.

I've talked about this on this show before, but, you know, my favorite TV show is Ted Lasso and leadership. Yeah, the leadership of Ted Lasso and the whole concept of being a goldfish because they have the shortest memory. I just think that's one of the most powerful messages that's been on any show. And any leader can give to anybody who's struggling with something that happened or something they're struggling with their confidence about is just be a goldfish and let that go and forget about it and move on to the next task.

I love that. I love it. It's so funny. My soccer team used to call me, like, the Ted Lasso of the team because I didn't know a lot about soccer when I started. But also, same thing, just that beacon of Positivity. And, you know, I think that that's gotten a lot of my athletes through the roughest days. But I love that you just gave that. Gave that sentiment. I mean, everybody should watch Ted Lasso. If you haven't watched it, go watch it today.

Season four coming up.

Oh, I'm so excited.

Right.

I'll probably re watch the whole thing because it does make me happy and it does matter how you show up. And I think that's a lesson in leadership in itself for sure.

Yeah. I'm ashamed to say that I've already watched all three episodes three times, so it's like I don't have anything to do. Absolutely. My favorite show. I love it.

Oh, it's the best. It's almost like you can't help but laugh because it's almost like too good to be true with it. It's so, like, corny, but in the best way. I love that.

Yeah, most definitely. All right, let's make sure people know how to find you. For those who would like to learn more about Game Plan Skincare, tell us where we can find you. Sure.

So you can follow us on Instagram @gameplan skincare, and you can see all the wonderful athletes that represent us and that are posting us and supporting us and that we also fully support back. You can find us on LinkedIn at Game Plan Skincare and then TikTok at GamePlan Skincare. You can find me at Gay Gabriella Arancio on LinkedIn and then you can find Game Plan Skincare's website at www.gameplan skincare.com.

i love it, Gabby. Such a great opportunity to spend some more time with you. Thank you for your courage and your heart behind what you're building. Game Plan Skincare is proof that Legacy is built through intention, consistency, and care. For everybody who's listening, I hope you get some inspiration from this. Can't help but get the infectiousness of Gabby's attitude. So I hope you enjoyed the episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and be notified of new episodes. I'm Alan Pavloski signing off for Legacy All Stars.