Q&A with Smart Woman Michelle Roark
On Smart Meeting’s What One Thing podcast, we sat down with Michelle Roark with World Cup champion freestyle mogul skier Michelle Roark. She spoke with us about conquering obstacles, both mental and physical, and tackling the sports world and the chemical engineering world in her effort to help others.
Rourke attended Colorado School of Mines for chemical engineering, which our Smart Meetings founder and CEO Marin Bright described as “the Harvard for mining.” She then went on to become the founder and CEO of Phia Lab, studying wellness resources and producing products to increase performance. She speaks about her resilience, her grit and her book Be A Force: Hacking Physics, Persevering Like an Olympian and Realizing the Alchemist in You.
Q: How did you begin your athletic career?
A: When I was five years old, I knew I wanted to do two things. I wanted to compete in the Olympics and be a chemical engineer. I started off figure skating, but when my parents got divorced when I was 15 it became too emotionally draining on them. I was crushed and devastated. But I thought to myself, how can I still accomplish my goal of competing in the Olympics? I knew I was good at skiing, so I jumped right into competing in freestyle mogul skiing when I was 16. I made it onto the US Ski Team in my first year.
Q: What inspired you to not only compete at the highest level of athleticism but to also attend Colorado School of Mines in a male-dominated field of engineering?
A: It definitely didn’t come without its own challenges and bumps in the road. I got kicked out of my house when I was 15 and moved up to the mountains, working three jobs and enrolled myself in high school to because I still wanted to go to Colorado School of Mines and become a chemical engineer. I was really blessed to have a really unique experience young in life when I went up to the mountains and lived in a tent. It really felt like something larger than myself was always watching over me. I know your podcast is called What One Thing? So that one thing is just being able to get over all of those bumps and hurdles that are thrown at you from so many different directions.
Q: Why did you found Phia Lab?
A: As I was training for the 2006 Olympics, I had missed so many Olympic games and I really wanted to go so I was crossing all of my “t”s and dotting all of my “i”s. My sports psychologist said, “make sure you visualize with all of your senses. So, hear it, feel it, see it, taste it and smell it.” I could do all of them. But smell? I had no idea what it smelled like to ski well. So I thought I’d find a fragrance awareness but was highly dissatisfied with commercial blends. They would often give me a headache and they burned my nose. I did some research and found out how toxic commercial perfumes can be. I decided to apply my background and come up with my own. I found I could combine natural essences and essential oils in such a way that would amplify energy.
Read More: The Story Behind Smart Women in Meetings Awards 2023 | Smart Meetings
Q: What was your inspiration to write your book?
A: I’ve had seven knee surgeries and two near-death experiences. I kept bouncing back and I really look at all of that from the natural laws of physics and explain it from a more scientific perspective. What was causing those tangles in my energy and body? But I needed to release subconsciously and that really made all the difference in the long run. I could connect all the pieces for any young athlete – I highly recommend they read the book because it really does help explain how you can get around all of that with some really simple practices.
Q: What is one word that describes Michele Roark?
A: The word that comes to mind is alchemy, which is transformation. Anything that appears to be bad can always be transformed into something better. Energy can’t be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed.
