Podcast episode from Bullpen Sessions (host Andy Neary) interviewing Megan Pepitone (Regional VP, Transamerica). Conversation covers Megan’s youth and college sports (high school multi-sport athlete, college basketball at Tulane), the effects of NIL on collegiate women’s sports, and parallels between athlete/employee empowerment and workplace dynamics; the episode frames self-care and health priorities as underappreciated in the insurance industry.
Chapters
Hey. Hey.
Andy Neary here. Before we dive into today's podcast episode, think back to how you came upon this podcast. Maybe it was through a post, a share, or one of your own peers shared this podcast with you. I don't take any ads. I don't take any sponsorships. The only way this podcast grows is through word of mouth. So if you would be so kind to share this with a peer, with a teammate, with a friend, a family member, I would be forever grateful to you. This is how we impact more business professionals, and this is how this podcast grows. All right, let's dive into today's episode. Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Bullpen Sessions podcast. I am excited today as I am joined by Megan Pepitone. Megan is regional vice president of Transamerica, living in the greater Houston area. Megan, welcome to the Bullpen Sessions podcast.
Thank you for having me. It's the first time, I think I've been on a podcast.
Well, we are going to introduce you in your first podcast to a large audience of people in this industry. Now, they may have heard Transamerica and go, all right, what are you guys going to talk about? We're not even going to come close to talking about anything to do with product or Transamerica itself. What we're going to talk about in today's episode is we're going to spend a little time on your sports career, and then we're also going to dive into how your sports career has impacted the priority you place on your health today, because I think that is a topic that goes underappreciated far too much in this industry. So you ready?
Yep, ready.
Awesome. Well, you grew up in the greater Houston area, and offline, when we were chatting, you mentioned that you had gone to the Woodlands. You were. You went to high school in the Woodlands, which being a sports nut that I am, I know a lot of good athletes have come out of the Woodlands. Yeah. Growing up in an atmosphere, an environment like that, number one, what sports did you play in high school? And how did that impact your sports career? Being surrounded, grounded in, you know, by such a competitive sports environment.
Right. In high school, I. I mean, obviously, basketball took me to the next level, but I was a volleyball player. In fact, my parents really put me in every single sport. It was golf, it was soccer, it was softball. And then really, when you're at a school like the Woodlands, they. They kind of fight over you on, you know, who's going to engulf all of my time. So there ended up being an agreement, I think, between the volleyball and the basketball coach to, to split me and to share me. The soccer coach lost that battle. So I couldn't be a three sport athlete in high school. I, I had to choose two. So yeah, it was intensely, intensely.
There was intense competition. Honestly.
Yeah, at least he played two sports. I mean, you look at high school athletics today, it's hard pressed. You're hard pressed to find somebody who specializes in two sports. I feel like everybody today is a one sport athlete and it's amazing to me how competitive that has gotten.
When did you realize, because we'll talk about your college basketball career at Tulane here in a minute. When did you realize college basketball was going to be an opportunity for you? Did you have that moment, you know, where you're like, I can do this. What was it? How did that come about?
I, I was just almost happy to be there for the most part. I did not really have an aha moment. It was really just my parents kept investing time and money in AAU basketball and I just kept playing. And I think when I was, you know, freshman and sophomore, those letters started coming in and those looks started coming in. So I said, okay, maybe I can do this at the next level. But I was just, I don't know, taking it one day at a time, just playing each game, having fun.
If you go back and look at my 10 year old AU basketball team, every single girl on that team played Division 1 basketball. And it's kind of crazy to look back at just how competitive we were at such a young age.
It goes to show though, you surround yourself with people like that, you're going to get better as an athlete yourself. Right? Yeah. Wow. That's not every, every single one. And so nine and ten year old team played division one.
Right. And then we're not talking like, I mean Tulane, I love playing at Tulane, but talking Stanford, Baylor, Texas, Louisiana Tech, tcu. I mean these girls. I was on the low end of the totem pole on that team for sure.
What? Yeah, I played at Tulane, which was Conference usa and I was on the low end of the totem pole of my 9 and 10 year old team. I'd be happy to say that any, any day of the week. Yeah. Before we get into college, I'm curious, I'm going to ask you about this because, you know, you played in the early 2000s.
Yep.
And for a long time now, decades, we've there's been this fight for equality. Right. For female sports at the collegiate level. Now that we have nil, you know the name, image and likeness. Do you feel like that's had a positive impact on women's sports at the collegiate level?
I had this conversation the other day at one of the charities that I was volunteering at and we actually had a news reporter there and he was bringing up the. Oh my gosh, the Fab five. Oh my gosh. From Michigan.
Michigan, yep.
He was talking about how he couldn't buy his own jersey, you know, walking along and I was like, you know, that was bad. But for me, getting, you know, what at the time was a $50,000 scholarship, you know, every year for four years was a big lift off of my parents shoulders. So I felt like any day was, you know, a blessing to be able to go to school for free. Nil. I think it would take away some of the ticky tack stuff that the NCAA I think tried to pin on people like meals with donors and, and things like that where it was just you couldn't go get a hamburger with someone because it was going to be against the rules. But I think nil, I think it's good and bad. I can't, I've had arguments both ways. I think the good programs are really going to accelerate to the top because of it. I, I worry about like the mid majors when it comes to NIL because I still don't think the visibility is quite there yet. But we'll see. It's not because I didn't have it. I think I'm probably more against it than for it, to be honest.
You bring up a really good point though that I don't think I even thought about. You know, I went to a mid major public university so the tuition wasn't extravagant, but I had a full ride. Yeah, and you had a full ride to a private school which is a lot more expensive where you're talking about $200,000 over four years. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I get it. The school could be profiting off your jersey, which is, you know, a lot of where this nil came from. But don't forget the school's already giving you a gift by paying $200,000 of your tuition for sure.
And I think this is hard. And my husband was a baseball player and he was not full scholarship, so he had to earn his scholarship as he progressed through his baseball playing years. So it's a discussion we definitely had in our household. But I took every day as a gift and when I was able to move off campus and get a stipend, I found a cheap place and was able to take the additional money and kind of plug it away for, for the future. Honestly, I think I use some of that money to this day to set me up in my young adult, in my young career. Really?
Yeah, I, I had athletes, I had teammates too that were either not on scholarship or maybe partial that had to make tough choices because they had to pay for school and baseball wasn't paying for the majority of their tuition. And I had some teammates who ended up having to equip the team to go work because they had to pay for college. And very blessed that I didn't have to do that. And I think it is something that's overlooked. I'd be curious. I didn't intend to go here, but I'm going to go here.
Okay.
Now if I asked you the question about nil's impact on female sports, you know, I haven't been following this Angel Reese thing very closely at LSU and I again I'm not close enough to make an opinion on it but I've heard it could be grades, it could be whatever. But don't get me wrong, when I saw this, for those who don't know, she's probably one of the top players, top two or three players in college basketball and she hasn't played for the last, she's basically been non existent for the last four or five games. My first thought Megan was with all this nil and probably people talking in her ear, is she just getting bad advice? And is that what led to what this suspension or whatever we're dealing with today. Do you have any thoughts on that? I was just curious when I saw this. I'm like Kim Mulkey the coach is very hush hush about it obviously but it just leads you to wonder.
I think about that too because I think when people get, when that fame kind of goes to their head a little bit and again I don't know the personal situation. I think Kim Mulkey's done a great job from a publicity standpoint of handling it. But yeah, you begin to wonder is the dog wagging the tail or is the tail wagging the dog? I think from an employer's perspective, I think we see that sometimes now with employees and employers too where the employees been given a lot of power. So it's a different, it's an interesting dynamic honestly if you think about it. But it's, I think you're onto, onto something when it comes to, you know, her, her. She probably has a team of people that are going to maybe you don't need this but who knows.
Yeah, unfortunately it's opened the door for us to have those thoughts. Right?
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. No, I think what you said. Well, it's a great correlation to what we see in the health insurance space. Employees have a lot of power these days and provide benefits to those employees. They're going to have a lot of.
