From Adversity to Olympic Triumph: Bill Schuffenhauer's Inspiring Journey

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Gentleman
Project Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Corey Moore and I'm Kirk Chug.
Today, joining us in the studiois Bill Schufenhauer.
We got to know each other acouple of weeks ago.
We went on a Harley ridetogether, ended up having lunch
together with our wives and Ijust thought, man, this is one
interesting dude.
We got to have him on thepodcast.
He's a local of Salt Lake City,utah, and only lives about a

(00:25):
block and a half away fromCorey's office where we record.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I worked out nice.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I was actually looking out of my off my patio
and looking over here.
I'm like I can walk over there,but I still drove.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
And the mustache is just right now, cause he has
this gorgeous looking littlemustache thing going on.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Right, yeah, the little handlebar action.
Yeah, um, I like that.
Yeah, I just it.
You know I'm, I'm uh, we didn'teven do the introduction, but
I'm I'm a huge advocate formen's mental health and mental
health in general, and so everymustache november, I try to do
some of the mustache.
But I realized this year thatI'd already had the beard going
on, and when I I was like, oh,what does it look like If I go

(01:06):
ahead and shave the rest ofeverything else?
And it's, this was.
I think you got to keep it.
This is like four days ago, sowe're going to rock it all of
November.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I watched that on social media.
I'm like maybe I'll be rightbehind, but I shaved my beard
last week so I've got a fullgrow to go to catch up.
So bill is intimately involvedwith the olympics and if you
follow what's been happeningwith the olympics, uh, the
olympics are coming back to ourhometown, salt lake city, utah,
in 2034.

(01:35):
Yeah, and bill is a four-time,three, three, three-time olympic
athlete and has been involvedpretty much ever since with
Olympics, the Olympic committee,the bid committee to get it
back to Salt Lake, and he'sworking really closely with all
the leaders in our businesscommunity and politicians and

(01:57):
everything.
So, like, we're kind of excitedto hear about this experience of
you in the Olympics, how thatkind of forged you and made you
who you are and then how youparlayed that into all of the
business success that you've hadsince then, because you've
really been able to make acareer out of the experiences
that you've had and theconnections that you've made
because of the Olympics.
Right, yeah, absolutely.

(02:18):
So tell us a little bit abouthow becoming an Olympian,
because I heard a part of thisstory.
It's pretty incredible.
Tell us how you became anolympian.
Like, how did you get recruitedto be on the olympic bobsled
team for the usa.
How far do you want to go back?
Go?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
back to where we started because, yeah, um, so
you know I I always have tostart kind of right here, of
like where the story started.
We can jump back and forth, butyou know, I'm a local kid, born
and raised in Utah,unfortunately, but and
fortunately, also kind of wherewe are right now as well, corey
is, I grew up in the system, sodrug addicted parents on and off

(02:56):
the streets.
I know about the Rio projectvery, very well.
My documentary called AgainstAll Odds at the International
Olympic Committee did.
We filmed it here Rio Grande,with all the homeless people.
And for me, at a young age,seventh grade to be exact, I
just knew I didn't want to livethat life.
I knew we lived as a seventhgrader.
We live in an omnipotent worldwhere there's so many

(03:20):
opportunities.
If we choose, if we make thedecision to choose to pursue and
surround ourselves with theright people, we can achieve
anything we want.
And I didn't want to.
You know, back then as aseventh grader, I was like well,
someday I'm going to have togrow up and be an adult, someday
I'm going to want to have kidsof my own.
How do I go about pursuing thatand not following the same
footsteps as the rest of myfamily in and out of jail,

(03:41):
prison dead what have you?
Rest of my family in and out ofjail, prison dead what have you
?
And so, you know, the joke backin the day and still is when I
do speaking things is I was goodat running from cops and
jumping fences.
So track and field and sportsbecame kind of a staple for me.
That I was really really goodat.
And you know, kind of make thatlong story short when I, when I
came to the realization that Iwas actually really really good

(04:02):
in sports, I decided that I, youknow, one day I was like, hey,
I want to change my stars.
And my coaches were like, well,if you want to go all the way
to the top, you know football,you've got the NFL.
Um, and track and field, you'vegot the Olympics.
And I was like, well, what arethe Olympics?
And they started explaining tome.

(04:23):
And then I was doing the sportof the decathlon, which is 10
events competed over two days,and they're like, hey, the
decathlete is considered one ofthe best athletes in the world.
Sold, I don't even care what'sinvolved with it, they're
considered the best athlete inthe world.
Show me what it is and let'sstart getting busy doing that,

(04:49):
doing that.
And so I just really wanted tochange the trajectory of my
whole family heritage, becausethere's so many people in my
family were those people thatwere just the exception.
They fall into the system, theystay in the system, they're
better friends with you know,convicts and the judges and the
police than they are with theirown family members.
And I just didn't want that formyself and for my kids, and so
I decided to pursue this crazydream, you know, back in seventh

(05:09):
grade, to pursue going to theOlympics.
And we actually made thatdecision.
It was my ninth, my ninth, 10thgrade year of school and just
you know, it was like I don'tcare what it takes, I'm going
after it.
And there was a lot of thingsthat I had to change.
Obviously, my mindset, cause Iwas still a kid running around,

(05:30):
you know, with gang bangers andgetting in trouble and robbing
stores and robbing people anddoing drugs and running the
streets and all that, all thatstuff, and so, um, I made a
choice that you know.
Thankfully, I had some greatteachers and some great coaches
and great mentors at the time,my grandma being one of them to
kind of help guide me in theproper direction.
And you know it took time, itwasn't something that happened

(05:51):
overnight.
But when I had that first tasteof competition and I won my
first 100 meter dash at OgdenHigh School, I was addicted
right away.
And the feeling of winningsomething like that and your
teammates and your coachescoming up to you and cheering
you, I was like I want more ofthat compared to what I was used
to.
And so I just pursued, likecontinuing to be the very, very

(06:15):
best I could and, realistically,just being a student of the
sport, student of life andstudent of the education system,
to say, hey, how can I reallytake this and make a career out
of the sport?
And uh, you know, long storyshort, I had a great career in
junior high, had a great careerat Roy high school in sports and
football, had a great career atWeber state university and

(06:37):
track and field.
And uh, it came time around toget ready for the 2000 Sydney
Olympics and I was like, okay,well, I feel like I need to like
put myself in the very bestposition possible.
So at that time in around the1996 Atlanta games, there was

(06:58):
Dan and Dave in the sport ofdecathlon and they had the
Reebok commercials.
And I was like if you probablyremember that right and I was
like you know, because at thetime I made more of a connection
with Dan O'Brien because he washalf black, half white and I
had no clue what I was still atthat point in time, but I
identified with him.

(07:18):
So I you know, we didn't havethe internet and all that stuff
back then so I wrote a letter,letter, physical letter, to mike
keller, who was dan o'brien'scoach, and send it in the mail
and send it off.
Didn't have any expectationsand a few weeks later I got a
letter and said, hey, come on up.
And uh, jumped on a freakinggreyhound bus from here to
moscow idaho is brutal, in themiddle of winter, mind you and

(07:43):
uh, that was my firstopportunity to be around like
big time athletes, like I mean,you know, we're, we're all in
the world of business now.
It's like you know thedifference of going to business
class 101 and then going to alike a high level mindset full
of ceos and cfos and ceos thathave already done it, and I just
, I just thought it was great.

(08:04):
I was like, oh man, there's,there's, even more and more to
this and the whole time, right,I'm changing my stars, I'm
morphing into this other personand not being the exception to
the rules.
Like this, kid is supposed togrow up in the system and stay
in the system.
He should have been dead by thetime he was 16.
I was like, no, I'm not doingthat, um, because we have the
choice.
Everybody has a choice.

(08:24):
And so, making that long storyshort, you know I was a little
too young to make the 96 Atlantagames, so we chose to pursue
the 2000 Sydney games and thatyear was going super, super
phenomenal.
I'd actually moved back fromMoscow, idaho, to Ogden, utah,
to reconnect with my coaches atWeber State, did my first open
meet at Utah State and scored Ithink it was like 8,010 points,

(08:46):
which put me as the 51stAmerican in history to go over
8,000 points.
I was ranked number one in theworld at the time and it was
just like that was.
This was the year where, likethis is finally the year, and
everybody who knew me was like,oh my gosh, it's finally going
to happen and um go.
Throughout the rest of the yearand the rest of the world had

(09:06):
had done their competitions andI was still top four in the
world and getting ready forOlympic trials.
We went down to BYU just to do awarm-up meet, didn't have to
compete, we'd already qualified,we'd already made Olympic
standard and in the second eventof the decathlon, down at BYU,
I blew my ankle out in the longjump.
This is two weeks beforeOlympic trials and we were just

(09:28):
like there's no way thishappened and absolutely no way
this happening.
And I just, you know, at thatpoint in time trying to figure
out how do we keep movingforward through this, but also
like feeling like my dreams andmy legacy realistically slip
away.
So like feeling like my dreamsand my legacy realistically slip
away and I go to the trainer,we shoot my ankle up, we tape it

(09:50):
up to the point where it'salmost a cast on it.
I got to go do the third event,which is a shot put, which
doesn't sound like a big deal,but I rotate on that foot in the
shot put.
So that made it really, reallydifficult.
And then the high jump was thenext event and that was pretty
much the nail in the coffin.
There was just no way I couldjump and I remember it was a
cloudy day, it was raining atBYU and I took my third jump and

(10:12):
just laid on the mats when Ismashed through the bar and
realized that it was over and Ifeel the rain pouring down my
face, tears coming down my faceand the realization that it's
over with.
And what in the hell am I goingto do now?
Because that was all I hadplanned.
And so, um, I, you know, I didwhat most people do when their

(10:32):
dreams get shattered I, I put mytail between my legs, gather my
stuff, walked off the track andfelt that, felt sorry for
myself, victim mentality, wenthome.
Um, one thing I don't alwaystell anybody I, that's probably
actually where I, you know,started drinking because I
didn't know what else to do.
I was so miserable.
I just went to my house anddrank and laid around and super,

(10:53):
super victim mentality.
And not too long, probably aboutthree months after that, you
know, I'm super grateful to theuniverse, god, heavenly Father,
whatever anybody else wants tocall it.
You know, if you're, if you'retrying to do the things right in
life, a lot of beautifulopportunities open up to you.
And somebody said, hey, youshould try to do bobsled.

(11:14):
And I was like what is bobsled?
And they're like you don't knowthe movie cool runnings.
And I'm like, no, I don't evenknow what you're talking about.
And they're like winterOlympics.
I'm like what is the winterOlympics?
No, I was training for thesummer Olympics.
They're like no, the winterOlympics they're coming to Salt
Lake City, you should do thewinter Olympics.
And I'm like, I've never figureskated, never played hockey,

(11:37):
never skied.
Like I have no idea what you'redoing.
They're like okay, just let meshow you this video.
And, of course, I watched themovie cool runnings, um, and it
piqued my interest.
Um, obviously there's a lot ofhollywood to the the cool
runnings, but at the end of theday, the goal was to change my
stars.
Didn't matter if it was trackand field, badminton, men's

(11:58):
pairs, figure skating, right, Iwanted to be an olympian and
represent my state and mycountry and my family and change
my stars and again change thatdirection.
And so um had an opportunity towatch the movie and, uh,
they're like okay.
Well, let me show you a videoof the team, team usa, competing
over in saint marit,switzerland.
And that's where it really like, when I, when I saw the

(12:20):
athletes and the I'm going touse this word the physicality of
what it really truly took to bea bobsled athlete.
Cause a lot of people ask me.
They're like, well, what doesit really take, right?
And I'm like, well, you look atme when I'm in shape.
I'm six, six one, 215 pounds.
I can squat 615 pounds, I canbench 500 pounds, I vertical

(12:43):
jump you know 40 inches.
And they're like holy smokes.
I'm like, yes, um, so you know,I had a conversation with my
coaches and my family and I said, hey, well, what if we try it
out for this bobsled thing?
It's a year and three monthsaway from actually launching
here in salt lake city and like,well, the chances of you making

(13:05):
it into a sport you've neverbeen into a year and three
months before their biggest showin front of the world are
probably slim to none.
But what the heck do we have tolose?
And I said you know what?
Let's just take the samemindset.
We had to get ready for thistrack and field thing and dump
it all into this bobsled thingand just kind of see where it
goes and see what happens.

(13:25):
We have nothing to losewhatsoever.
It's a year and three months.
Obviously had to get, you know,coaches and all that and family
members to come in.
I said hey, just give me atthis point how long has your?

Speaker 1 (13:35):
your ankle been healing.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
It's been about three and a half months, okay, so
it's getting close probably.
Yeah, so it's.
You know, I don't have to jumpon it but I can still squat and
do some running and all thatstuff, and so so that was
getting getting much, muchbetter.
And you know, we said, you knowwhat, how cool would that be if
we could literally write thatstory.

(13:57):
The kid who grew up on thestreets of Salt Lake City turned
his life around against allodds to then compete in the
olympics in salt lake city, andwe're like that would be a cool
story, pretty far-fetched, butyeah, why not?
Let's just go for it and seewhat happens.
Long story, short made the teamand um, that is a long story
short.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
That's a short story that needs to be longer.
There's there's much, much moreto it.
I have to know, like, how didthat go?
You have to give me a littlemore than that, like between I'm
gonna go bobsled and then Iactually make the team.
How did?

Speaker 3 (14:31):
you do that, yeah.
So my, the first team I gotconnected with was a guy named
bruce roselli out ofindianapolis, indiana, been a
bobsled driver and a bobsledathlete for many, many years.
He's very well known in thebobsled community.
He was friends with somebodyelse that I knew was one of
those six degrees of separationand he came.
He and his team came up toogden from park city because all

(14:53):
the teams are training therebecause the olympics already
been announced, it's rightaround the corner.
And he's like okay, well,so-and-so, told me that you're a
great athlete, we want to watchyou work out.
I and I was like, all right,cool.
So they came out and watched medo a regular track workout and
went to the gym and did myregular lifting and they're like
, man, you're, you're putting upnumbers that most of our guys

(15:14):
struggle to put up.
And I was like, oh, that's,that's cool, right and funny
enough.
Um, from the rafters of thestadium I don know who did this
there somebody used to hang uhdvds I don't know why, it's just
a dvd that was hanging and itwas like 12 feet in the air.
And so we're walking, havingthis conversation about what it
looks like to be on the team andI'm walking, I just jump up and

(15:36):
touch it and he's like, did youjust touch that?
And I was like, oh yeah, noproblem.
He's like do it again.
So I was like, okay, jumped upand touched again.
He's like, do it again.
So I was like, okay, jumped upand touched it again.
He's like holy smoke.
He's like that's, I've seenenough.
Can you come up to park city andjust learn about the sport, and
so you know?
So the part that you're askingabout is I drove from Ogden to
park city every single day forthree and a half months, just

(16:00):
being a student of the sport.
I didn't push the sled, Ididn't load with the guys, I
didn't work on the sled, Iliterally just came up every
single day for three and a halfmonths and that was my training.
I watch everyone else and watchthem how they do it.
And then I had to transition inmy mind what does that look
like for me?
Right, I can see the techniqueand I and I knew I was strong

(16:21):
and fast enough, but do I havethe technique and the skill set
to actually apply?

Speaker 1 (16:25):
it to the sport, and did they have a spot at the time
, or was it more like you werean alternate?
How did that work?

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah, I was just a guy literally off the streets of
Salt Lake City and there wasn'tnecessarily a spot, but they're
always looking to get betterand better and better, no matter
if it's the athletes or theequipment, whatever it is, give
us the very, very best.
This is Olympic year.
Whoever you are, we'll give youan opportunity to come out and
if you can do it and there's alot of guys and a lot of girls

(16:51):
that come out and try bobsled,that are phenomenal athletes,
but they don't ever make that Alot of times they don't make the
transition, because running onice is a really weird thing for
most people.
And so you know, after threeand a half months they're like
hey, can you, can you drive backup to park city?
And I was like oh, yeah, sure.
And they're like okay, so we'llsee you here in about an hour.
So I drive up to park cityagain from logged in and and

(17:12):
they're like all right, today'sthe day.
I was like for what?
They're like we're gonna haveyou go down into four men today
and I was like okay, this isliterally about an hour before
the event.
Um, cause I didn't know exactlywhat we were doing.
And they're like okay, you'vewatched right, do you feel
comfortable?
And you know, we kind ofactually touched the sled and
did some cadence timing with theteam and all that stuff.

(17:34):
And they're like how do youfeel?
And I was like good, I guess Idon't know.
I, you know, I feel like prettyconfident.
And so we go up and, um, pushthree runs with this team and at
the end they're like cheeringand all excited and I'm like
what's, what happened?
Like what's going on?
They're like that is the verybest we've ever done in a four

(17:55):
man world team cup trial race.
And I was like a what they'relike?
Oh, that was the team cup trialrace to make the world cup team
and that's the best we've everdone.
And I was like what, that'scrazy.
So, um, so I, I stayed withthat team for probably a good

(18:16):
year.
Um, did america's cup in calgary, did america's cup here, did
america's cup in lake placid anddid some europa cups over in
europe and won gold and all ofthose and that's that started
put me on the radar for teamusa1 and team usa2 and team usa3
and team usa1 was ranked numberone in the world because they,
they were just so dominant andstarted getting like all the
buzz going around and you know,bob sled maybe like any other

(18:39):
sport where you're not oncontract, is very cutthroat.
So if I see, you know Kirk isbeating you and I'm like you're
out, kirk, come on on.
Like it's very cutthroat,they'll switch people in and out
on a dime.
And so I was getting a lot ofrequests from some of the bigger
teams and I was like no, myguys, we're going to figure this
out, we're going to do it.

(19:00):
And two weeks before Olympictrials, a friend of mine comes
up, says hey, todd Hayes wantsto talk to you.
And Todd Hayes is the driver ofTeam USA1.
He and his team are at thehotel up in Park City and
they're going to wait for you.
Can you be here tomorrow atthis time?
I was like, yeah, sure.
So go to the hotel, sit down,meet with them.
And they're like so we've beenwatching you, you are like the

(19:25):
pinnacle of like what we'd wantto have on our team as an
athlete.
And, funny enough, theyactually say it in the
documentary.
And you know they're like sobecause we're team usa one, we
have a buy that we don't have tocompete in olympic trials.
We just we're already on theolympic team and we want to
offer you basically a goldenwilly wonka ticket to join us as
a team alternate.
And I I was like, oh well, letme talk to my team and see what

(19:48):
they say and I'll get back toyou.
I think about it now.
I'm like what are you thinking,man?
And uh, it was interesting too,cause you saw the looks on
their face, like we just offeredwhat you have to think about.
What are you?

Speaker 1 (20:01):
doing.
You're like what's going onhere, yeah, but you probably
don't know exactly the world noright, you don't know it's
cutthroat.
Not at all, that not like youdo now.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah, not even close.
No, I had no ideas where, noidea what's going on.
So I I called my team togetheron the next day for breakfast
and I said, hey, I gotta takeyou guys out for for breakfast
and and have a talk with you.
And they already had an idea.
Um, it wasn't like it wasn't Ineed to have a talk with you.
And they already had an idea.
It wasn't like it wasn't kindof out there already.
And I said here's a situation.

(20:30):
And my driver was like damn it,they do this every time to me,
like you're an athlete and theysteal them away.
And I was like, well, I get it,and I didn't think I'd be a
part of that, but like, what areour chances of making the
Olympics with a team right now?
And he's like, well, we'regoing to try and do this, we're
going to try and do this.
And there were too many ifslike for me at that point in
time and the rest of myteammates.

(20:51):
There were four or five guysand they just said, hey, listen,
this is your Willy Wonka ticket, this is your dream.
We all came, all of us cametogether because of you and you.
You know, even though we won'tmake it.
This is your opportunity tolike, take that willie wonka
ticket and move forward.
And you know, you got a bunch ofbig, strong guys hugging and

(21:11):
crying like little girls andwishing each other the best of
luck, and so, with theirblessing, I decided to uh, to
take the chance and and jump onteam haze's crew as a team
alternate, um so, which meant Iwasn't competing at the time and
it was announced, but it did.
It did secure my Olympicposition, so I'm now an Olympian

(21:33):
.
Right, team USA.
That's awesome, right, yeah,that was I mean, I was.
That was ecstatic enough, likeyou know.
Again, reflecting back on whenwe decided to even pursue this
idea, and there were a lot ofathletes that were pissed off at
me because I showed up out ofnowhere- and you just had to be
one heck of an athlete, that'sfor sure, yeah, I try to keep

(21:55):
going.
Yeah, yeah, I tried my best and,you know, unfortunately I had
some great coaches too thathelped kind of guide me through.
You know, not, not that helpedkind of guide me through, um,
you know, not, not not only howto be an athlete but how to be a
good human being.
So, uh, thankfully to them isfor that stuff too.
But so, yeah, so I, you know,took the willie wonky ticket.
I'm on the team as an alternateand, um, I'm, I'm literally like

(22:17):
carrying everyone else's bagsand hey, do you guys need some
coffee?
Like what do you need?
We're on tour and I'm literallyjust the workhound, I'm just
doing the grunt work foreverybody else.
And and then we are two weeksout from the olympic games.
Um, because we we're on tourover in europe and we're in cold
weather all the time, we choseto go to olympic training center

(22:38):
in san diego for two weeks andget some warm sun and get on the
track and feel just good.
And, um, unfortunately, one ofthe teammates that was on the
team tested positive for a badsubstance that he bought from
GNC and of course you know courthearings start kicking in right
away because they figure thisout really, really quick.
He was actually my mentor and hewas actually the first guy I

(23:01):
watched on Team USA push over inSt Louis, switzerland.
His name's Pavle Jovanovic, buthe was considered one of the
best bobsled athletes in theentire world and everyone's like
, oh my gosh, what are we goingto do?
Like what's going on.
And you know they're like, hey,you got to start getting ready,
like mentally, in case thisgoes down.

(23:21):
I was like, well, I've mentallybeen ready the whole time, so
you'll just call me up, I'll beready to rock and roll.
And you know, the judgment camedown that they were going to
ban him and cut him off the teamand give him like a four-year
ban.
And so I got the call and wecame back to Salt Lake City
because the teams are doingOlympic trials also, still just

(23:44):
to get more runs on the track.
And Todd Hayes is like, hey,listen, I know we weren't
planning on having you pushbefore the Olympics, but
everybody's pissed off that wechose you.
They don't think that you'rethe right guy.
They don't think that you couldfill the shoes of any of the
guys on my team.
So let's go ahead and have youpush in a four man and just show
them and shut everybody's mouthRight.

(24:05):
And I said, ok, cool, ahead andhave you push in a four-man and
just show them and and shuteverybody's mouth right.
And I said, okay, cool.
So we, we pushed in a four-mancompetition before the olympics
and literally broke the trackrecord and destroyed everybody
at the start, and so I kind ofshut the whispers up, um, oh
cool.
And and I think it also gaveconfidence to my team as well to
like, okay, he, he actually isat the same level as the rest of
us.

(24:25):
And so, um, it was thenannounced worldwide and, you
know, during the Olympics herein Salt Lake city is like so
surreal for me, right, I'm doingopening ceremonies and, um, you
know, I grew up on thesestreets here, and to see the
Olympic rings on the on the upthere on the Hill and starting

(24:45):
to remember, like, um, thejourney that got me to where I
am at that point in time, right,and realizing that we actually
did change our stars and weactually did accomplish this
monumental goal of going fromthis kid that no one ever
expected to do anything to nowrepresenting Utah and the United
States at the Olympic Games andI just remember.

(25:07):
There's so many memories oflike walking into the Olympic
ceremonies and just peoplescreaming USA, knowing that all
my friends and family membersare in the crowd and, you know,
having that opportunity to raceat the Olympic Games in your
home state in front of yourfamily and friends and everybody

(25:29):
included.
And not only that, we won anolympic medal, we won a silver
medal in the first olympic medalthe team usa has won in 46
years and that's incredible itwas just so surreal and you know
, coming out to when, when wehad the uh award ceremony he's
right over here, my grandmother,who was a big part of like
taking me in when my mom and allthat was getting in trouble,

(25:51):
she, she held up a sign thatsays mijito, which is my son.
I told you that dreams do cometrue and I'm, you know tears are
coming down and realizing that.
You know where we, where we hadthe uh the award ceremony, like
within blocks, I had run thestreets there and eaten out of
garbage cans and slept on thestreets and, um, to just have

(26:13):
that opportunity of realizingthat you did create something
where your dreams do come true.
And now you have an opportunityto share that with the world,
to hopefully inspire otherpeople, whatever it is that
they're doing in the world Right, doesn't matter if it's
personal life or business that,because we do live in this
omnipotent world with beautifulhuman beings all around us.
If we choose to focus on that,that, we can create anything we

(26:35):
want.
And and so my uh college coachesat Weber State um always used
to tell me, anytime I didanything, well, once they'd say,
any fool could do it once.
So I decided to pursue two moreOlympic games, so I did 2006 in
Torino and then 2010 inVancouver, and that was
interesting because we wentthrough the 2008 crisis of our

(27:00):
economy and, like other people,I lost gosh half a million
dollars in personal sponsorshipsand lost my house and lost a
car.
Million dollars in personalsponsorships and lost my house
and lost a car and um.
So just it's.
You know, I've been super,super grateful, um, cause most
people would look at my life andand a lot of times people like

(27:21):
focus on the downfalls, rightand but those downfalls are are
keys to the, to the rise tosuccess as well, and I,
fortunately, have had a lot ofdownfalls that I've learned from
in life to create success inboth sports, life and business.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
so so after you retired from being an Olympic
athlete, you stayed involvedwith the Olympics.
What's your role now and whatdoes that feel like to be like,
back involved with the Olympicsand coming back to Salt Lake
City in 2034.
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Yeah, it's super cool .
After Salt Lake, after I won myOlympic medal, I did.
I don't know if this is a greatidea or a bad idea, but I just
remember walking the streets ofSalt Lake City when there was
pretty much empty, like theexcitement of the Olympic and
Paralympic Games was just, and Iwas walking and I was walking
downtown and I was like justlooking and I was like you know

(28:16):
what, if the Olympics ever comeback, I want an opportunity to
serve on that side and and helpserve our athletes and our
community.
And there was no conversationat my level as an athlete that
we were going to pursue anotherOlympics back then.
And so so I I originally didn'tstay involved with sports a

(28:38):
whole lot.
You know, after, after 2010, Igot into entrepreneur and doing
my own companies and stuff likethat and really stayed far away
from sport Cause I was just like, oh my gosh, traveling so much
nonstop, living out of bag.
I was just done with it for awhile.
But you know what, thankfully,I'm, you know I'm, I'm, I'm a
very spiritual person and, um,I'm super, super blessed that

(29:02):
I'm.
I feel like that I'm extremelyguided in a positive way through
life and, um, somehow I juststarted getting back involved
into sports and business andconsulting and coaching and
stuff.
And then we started havingdiscussions at the Olympic level
that they were looking forsomebody to kind of run the

(29:24):
alumni chapter.
So we have alumni chapters inevery state for Olympic and
Paralympic athletes.
And back in 2018, somebody said, oh, you should put your name
in to be the Utah chapterpresident.
And I was like, eh, I've kindof been like off the radar, like
nobody even really remembers meanymore, but if they need
somebody to do it, I think Icould do it.
So back in 2018, I put my namein and had to be voted on upon

(29:47):
my peers and now I'm serving mysecond term, um, as a chapter
president for the Utah Olympicand Paralympic alumni.
And um six months ago, um, theCalifornia president said, hey,
you should put your name in forthe executive committee.
And I was like why, he must'veseen something like right.

(30:09):
So, um, I said, you know what Iwas actually?
You know, at that point in timeI started getting more involved
with my companies and so I wasa partner in three tech
companies and three consultingcompanies and all this other
stuff and I was like, man, Idon't know if I want to take on
that responsibility, becauseit's a lot of work with no pay.
But I was like well, rememberthat one time you had that

(30:29):
conversation with yourself atthe Olympics ever come back Like
this would be a good way foryou to kind of be a part of that
.
So I put my name in six monthsago with absolutely no thought
of being elected, and justrecently got elected, In fact.
We'll actually make it officialnext month when we go to our
annual meeting.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
That is so cool.
Congratulations, I think that'sso cool.
It's going to be hard work, butcongratulations, it is going to
be hard work.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
So the thing is, a lot of people don't understand
too the Salt Lake OrganizingCommittee and the US Olympic
Committee are two completelyseparate entities.
So one of the things I'vereally wanted to do over the
years is really build therelationship with the Salt Lake
Organizing Committee and at theend of the day, we're all the
same people.
We all come from the same clothand we all want the same thing.
It's a great experience forUtah and the world to come here

(31:15):
in 2034.
And so now, serving on theexecutive committee, I have more
of an opportunity to be moreinvolved in those conversations
that stem not only from SaltLake 2034, but what's going on
in LA 28, cortina.
Um, I get to sit on all sorts ofconversations and, like some of

(31:36):
them, we don't really enjoythem, but that's, that's comes
with the territory of.
You know, serving on theexecutive committee of an
organization like the unitedstates olympic and paralympic
committee, and when we go tocolorado springs next month for
the meetings um, it's funny howthis keeps working out I was
asked to also put my name in asa president of the overall

(31:57):
entire national chapter, or soWow, we'll see if that happens
as well, but I'm just excited tobe in this position and have an
opportunity to sit here andreflect back on the journey of
where it started and where it'sgone, and now being in a
position more of service thananything to have this chance to
do that and, like, just even sithere with you two gentlemen and

(32:18):
chat.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
You're way cooler than we are.
But I want to ask a questionbefore I forget, because it
feels like multiple times atleast three major times in your
life you decided that you had adecision, that you had a choice,
as you called it right,certainly when you were in your
youth, and then after you hurtyour ankle, and then in 08 and

(32:40):
probably other times in yourlife.
Maybe talk a little bit aboutthe psychology of that, because
whether someone's going throughsomething major or something,
they just have a big goal inlife.
Maybe, right, you grew up in acertain culture and I think it's
easy to just say, yep, that'sthe way it is, I grew up that

(33:03):
way, that's the way it is, it'show it's always going to be
right, or, oh, that's too big ofa goal, there's just no way I
could do that, regardless of howyou grow up.
So can you talk a little about,maybe, the psychology in your
head that got you in each one ofthose moments in time to say
time out, I can do anything Iwant, I have choices.

(33:23):
Maybe just dive a little deeperinto that, because I'm thinking
about my own kids, right?
Yeah, absolutely, what would Iwant them to hear like?

Speaker 3 (33:31):
that, yeah, well, you know, I think it is too.
And if, if we're just eventalking about kids that have
these big goals and dreams, likesometimes, you know, I have
kids now, right, and and the,the whole point of doing
everything I did was to be in asituation where I could provide
better for my kids too, right,and so having the, the blessing
to kind of help guide them alongand and and help them realize

(33:54):
that whatever you want to do inlife, you can.
You can do it, and you knowthere are plenty of people out
there that are going to bewilling to support you.
But if we talk about a littlebit of the darker side even, you
know, there, there, and thereare a lot of dark sides to my
story.
You know I didn't even get intoit after 2010,.
I went to a massive depressionthat lasted eight and a half
years, of me falling intoalcoholism, addiction, partying,

(34:16):
victim mentality, suicide,mental health and all that stuff
.
And for me, I just realized andI think we all have that same
conversation, even when we're inthose bad situations like I
don't like this, right, thissucks, I hate this.
Why is this happening?
Happening to me, all thosethings that you're telling
yourself.
There is some truth to that,but, the end of the day, the

(34:37):
only ones that are going to getus out of those situations is
ourselves.
Right, and, and even you know,we could be sitting here at a
table three with us and I couldbe going through some really
dark, terrible, hard stuff thatI might think that you guys
might understand.
But I still can make a choiceto say hey, kurt, I am

(34:58):
struggling with something.
Would you be willing to helpsupport me on something?
Or I just need to talk tosomebody about it.
Right, it's?
It's when we keep all thatchaos inside of ourselves and
choose to allow it to festerwithin us, we're, we're, we're
making a conscious choice toallow it to fester within us.
We're, we're making a consciouschoice to allow that to happen.
Oh, I don't, you know, and I'vebeen there plenty of times oh,

(35:18):
I don't want, I don't want theseguys to know that I'm
struggling, but so I'm not gonna.
I'm just gonna wear this maskin in 2019.
I was asked to do a fundraiser,um, up where the Huntsman's live
, and it was a fundraiser about,you know, addiction and suicide
and mental health, and, uh, theguy's like, oh my gosh, I know

(35:41):
your story about, like thesuicide part that happened in
2016.
And we'd get into that as wellif we need to.
But he's like you would be theperfect person to be the speaker
at my event and I was likethere's no way I am not going to
go and start telling peoplethat I went through a massive
mental health problem andsuicidal and addict, and you
know, after winning the Olympics, and like, no, that's not.

(36:02):
I don't want people to likethink that way of me and you
know this is my story, so itmight be very, very different
than a lot of people's, but Iturned him down and I went home
and my personal life Iconstantly have conversations
with my higher power on aregular basis, 24-7.

(36:23):
That's literally what helpsguide me to make the right
decisions in my life.
And so I went home that nightand was having these
conversations or prayers, orwhatever you want to think about
it, and the the the response Igot was like I've I've put you
in this position on purposebecause you have the strength to

(36:45):
overcome all these things andyou are supposed to be a role
model to other people.
You can handle this and I wantyou to move forward and I want
you to go tell your story.
And you know, I woke up the nextday and I was like, oh my gosh,
I can't believe I'm going to gotell, like this story of my

(37:05):
biggest failure in life in frontof people that were clients of
mine, like, and people I workwith I mean, there's the
governor and some of thesepeople that we all know were at
this event and I was like I'mliterally going to be the most
vulnerable human being that Icould ever be and tell everybody
that I completely failed afterbecoming an Olympic champion,
right?
And so you know, what I foundthat's worked for me is I just

(37:30):
don't allow negativity to livewithin my architecture.
So I'm pretty conscious andwhen I work with clients, too, I
talk.
Funny enough, we're at yourplace talking about architecture
.
I am very conscious and veryaware of my life architecture
and if there are things that areshowing up in my life

(37:51):
architecture that are notserving me directly, then
they've got to go, and those canbe people, places and things,
and so you know with you knowwith young athletes, with adults
, wherever you're at in life,again, what is it that you want
to do If you want to become aCEO of a massive construction
company.
There's probably a few of themaround here that I could go and

(38:13):
reach out to and say, corey, youknow what?
I want to start a constructioncompany and be a CEO.
You know, could you help, maybeguide me and give me some
pointers?
I'm pretty sure you'd say, yeah, we might have to schedule some
meetings and stuff like that,right, but we, we live in again
you're going to hear me say itover and over again we live in
an omnipotent world with so muchopportunity we were talking
about it even with you guys'transition, with you and your

(38:36):
wife, into your business.
What is it you want to do andfigure out?
What does that architectureneed to look like for you to
accomplish that?
Because too many people intoday's day and age is filling
their lives with what I callnear wins.
Near win is like perfect timing.
We've got the new year's comingup.

(38:56):
How many people go out and say,this year I'm going to get in
shape and I'm going to befinancially sound, blah, blah,
blah.
They go out and they findthemselves a financial coach, a
fitness coach, they, they seekout a food delivery that's more
healthy.
They go out and buy, you knownew gym clothes and they get a
gym membership and they go tothe gym for a week or two or

(39:17):
three or four weeks and all of asudden they fall off.
They got their near win.
They don't do it again untilthe whole, near the whole, until
the next year, and they're inthis vicious cycle.
So they keep filling themselveswith these near wins, which
eventually chips away at theirintegrity, and this equals out
failure every single time.
So instead of chipping your,you know, chipping away at these

(39:37):
near wins, like again, whydon't you find people around you
?
And it could be just one person, it doesn't matter, it doesn't
have to be a guy, it doesn'thave to be a girl, whatever.
Find those people, you know,dan Clark.
Dan Clark's a really good friendof mine.
He's been on the podcast, yeah,so dan actually is part of one
of my companies.
Now, you know, dan alwaystaught me back in the day, you

(39:59):
become some of the seven peopleyou spend the most time with, so
what do those people look like?
In your architecture, right.
You want to be an nfl athlete?
All right, let's go find nflcoaches and other athletes that
have that same mindset.
You want to be a constructionCEO?

(40:19):
Let's go find those guys.
You want to run the best men'ssuits and clothing company in
the world?
Let's go find more of thosepeople.
There's hundreds of millions ofpeople who've done it before us
.
We just have to be self-awareenough to take accountability.
I was telling you I'm going toJack Canfield this week.
One of the things he taught meto is take a hundred percent
accountability Doesn't mean it'salways right or wrong, but what
taking a hundred percentaccountability does when you do

(40:42):
that and you can do it ishelping you see from the outside
in on what you're doing, andthat was like one of the hardest
lessons I had to learn.
It is taking a hundred percentaccountability back then, of all
the stuff that was happening inmy life from 2010 until 2018.
Cause I was.
I was just creating chaos afterchaos after chaos, and when,
when I was able to take thataccountability and see what I

(41:04):
was doing and how other peoplewere interacting with me, I was
like, oh, I get it.
Now it's me being self-awareenough and taking that
accountability to not make, andcontinue to make, the same wrong
decisions day in and day out.
And I think that's what a lotof people do is they get in this
vicious cycle.
They're filling their worldwith near wins, excuses, victim

(41:25):
mentality, so on and so on, andit becomes natural for them.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
So I like what you said there, said there.
I want to hit that for a second, because I'm thinking again
about my kids, I'm thinkingabout work, I'm thinking about
myself and I'm thinking, okay,you said, be accountable, even
if it wasn't your fault, beaccountable anyway.
I think of that, like withpeople at work, it's always well
, this guy didn't show up ontime and this owner didn't show

(41:51):
up on time and this owner didn'tmake decisions, and that may
all be true.
Yep, it'd be accountable anyway, because then you're going to
put being, you're going to havea proactive mindset, right?
Right, you're going to have awhat could I have done different
so that someone else didn'tmake a mistake?
You're same thing with kids,right?
Yep, I remember my daughterasked for a rabbit once and I

(42:11):
said no.
And she said I knew you weregoing to say no and I said, well
, it's because you haven't eventried yet.
Like, think about it for aminute.
What could you do?
You could tell me how to takecare of it, you could come up
with the money, you could showme how easy it is.
Like you haven't even tried.
All you did is your point.
I just love how you said beaccountable even to things that

(42:33):
maybe wasn't your fault, maybe,but if you just have this
accountability mentality and nonvictim mentality, that's
awesome.
Yeah, no, I I'm going toremember that one forever.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
I literally lived my my life day in and day out that
way.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
But, Kurt, you were going to say something yeah, I
was actually going to before weend.
I wanted to touch on, um, theend part of that dark period of
your life, when you were at theend of that eight and a half
years.
Was there something that youcan put your finger on that you
said this is what I did to getout of that, because I think
there's a lot of people thatlisten to the podcast that may

(43:07):
be in a similar situation.
They may feel similar aboutlife and the place that they are
, about failures that they'vemade or those near wins that
you're talking about.
Can you put your finger on onespecific thing?
Like, was it just you comingout and saying you know what I
need help?
Like, did you talk to somebody?

(43:27):
Um, was there an event in yourlife that triggered that?
Was it like getting involvedback in the Olympic community?
Cause, in my head, I'm going,okay, eight years that was 2018,
which is actually when youthrew your name in to serve
again.
Yep, right, so will you.
I don't want that to be youranswer per se, but if it is like
I was just doing the mentalmath and I'm like, okay, this is

(43:49):
when he started to look outwardagain, yeah, no, that's a great
question and and and there wasa myriad of things right.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
And you know, I I had the opportunity to watch and
you guys, you know, bring a lotof people on here and talk about
being great parents and whatdoes it take to be a great
parent too?
And part of my my start to thenext, that journey was
reflecting back on me, wantingto change my star so I could be
a better parent for my kids.
And at that point in time, Iwas not being a good parent.

(44:21):
I was being very, very selfishand very, very victim mentality.
And at that same time, I wasconnecting with a guy talking
about taking corporate retreatsto the U?
S Olympic committee and we'rejust having a business
conversation.
He's like hey, um, tomorrow I'mactually going to jump on this,
this zoom call with a bunch ofpeople and we are going to do.

(44:44):
He's like I, he's a, he's acoach, and he's like I want to,
uh, bring this organizationcalled TMIC to the world and it
stands for the most importantconversation.
He's like I'd love to have youon if you're interested.
And I'm thinking to myself ohmy gosh, here we go with these
life coaches and businesscoaches Like this is a waste of
my time, but I had nothing elseleft.

(45:06):
I, you know I'd done thetherapy.
It didn't work.
You know, I had my friends thatI'd talked to when things were
going bad and nothing wasworking.
I was just kind of at my endand you know to stress, even in
this conversation for peoplethat are listening I was on my
very, very last leg.

(45:26):
You know, I tried the suicidein 2016 and wasn't successful,
thankfully.
Tried the suicide in 2016 andwasn't successful, thankfully,
and things that I just didn't doany work between then and that
point in time to get any better.
And at this point in time Isaid, yeah, I'll jump on this
Zoom call and kind of see whatthis is all about.
And you guys have heard me talkabout it a few times already

(45:46):
through here.
But the first conversation thatI have with Chad LaFavor, who's
the coach in this program andnow actually one of my business
partners, he says the firstthing I want to ask you guys is
do you lead a life by default ordo you lead a life by design?
And I was like what is this guytalking about?
And this is in 2018.
He says well, if you lead alife by design.

(46:07):
Everything's going well.
Your relationships, yourbusiness, you're happy, you don.
Everything's going well.
Your relationships, yourbusiness you're happy.
You don't have any.
You know weird, crazy stuff inyour closet.
You know you feel in alignmentand I was like no, no, no, no,
no.
He's like.
But if you lead a life bydefault which most you know,
good majority of people do itsome to some degree, but you're
not happy, you're not.

(46:28):
You know, you're not fulfilled,you're not in alignment, he's
like it's not too late to take alook at your architecture and
figure out what's serving youand what's not serving you.
Once we identify the thingsthat are not serving you, then
we can start decluttering thosethings out of the architecture
and start rebuilding that withnew, better processes, better
thoughts, better ideas, betterpractices.

(46:48):
At the same, I'd got ascholarship from this guy named
Jack Canfield, who at the time Ididn't know who it was, but
then I was like, oh, suit foryour soul, I've heard of those
somewhere.
And so, literally that sameweek, I had that conversation
about my life, architecture withTMIC and then, at the same time
, I had a conversation with JackCanfield talking about taking a

(47:10):
hundred percent, a hundredpercent accountability.
And Jack has this equationcalled E plus R equals O, and I
added an E to it.
But it's, you know, you have anevent or, sorry, I added an R.
You have an event plus aresponse or a reaction equals
the outcome.
The more you can respond asopposed to react to that event,

(47:32):
then you can dictate thatoutcome.
So I was fortunate enough that,you know, my higher power threw
two big learning lessons at meat the same time.
I still had to choose tocontinue to be involved.
I still had to choose to grabmy laptop and jump on the
computer and jump on these TMICmeetings and you know, take the
learning lessons from JackCanfield.

(47:53):
But I just realized again thatI wanted something better.
I knew there was somethingbetter.
There's no way that my legacywas meant for this to make it to
the Olympics to fall completelyoff.
And so, being, you know, a guyand you know, six foot 250, 60

(48:15):
pounds, something like that Um,I realized that I had to do
something different, and one ofthose things that I had to do
different was become vulnerable.
The reason I had to becomevulnerable is because I had to
reach out to the people thatwere closest to me and say I
need help.
Because I had to reach out tothe people that were closest to
me and say I need help and,funny enough, I still have the
letter I wrote to a handful ofpeople in my phone that was me

(48:39):
being extremely vulnerable,saying I need help.
This is what's been going on.
Nobody had any clue how bad ithad got.
But then I actually had to takeaction on these constant and
consistent trainings with TMICGlobal, with Jack Canfield, and
really start to implement them.
And you know, early on, one ofthe things that really helped me

(49:01):
out is that I wanted to figureout what was my purpose after
the Olympics, because there wasa big, massive loss of my
purpose on who I was as anathlete any longer.
And thankfully, thankfully,through Jack Canfield and Chad
LaFaveur's program and TMIC, Icame to find out or discovered
that service was my number onepillar of focus in life.

(49:23):
And realizing that at the timeyou know we live in in Utah and
very prominent LDS, you knowstate and you know so I'd heard
all my family members andfriends and all that like, oh
yeah, being of service was, likeyou know, so rewarding and I
was like, no, what are theytalking about.

(49:43):
So I was like you know what Ihave?
No, I have no other optionsexcept to try and see if this
works.
And so I started, like tryingto find ways to be of more
service to others, be, you know,less less focused on me even
though I did have to be focusedon me was but really start to
implementing a lot of thelessons and strategies and
education I was learning fromthese two groups.

(50:12):
And went to AA Admitting thatyou have an alcoholic problem.
That was really reallydifficult back then, because, as
an athlete, that's what we didto celebrate hey, you won a race
, let's pull out the champagneand blah, blah, blah.
And then also admitting thatyou had that big of a problem
that was financially impactingyour life, emotionally impacting

(50:35):
your life, that nobody wantedto spend time with you because
you were such a hot mess.
And again it really came backto that hundred percent
accountability thing.
And you know, I, I, I, afterthat first conversation with
Chad about living in life bydefault or by design, I went
into my bathroom and I looked inthe mirror at myself.

(50:55):
And I looked at myself in themirror until I saw myself for
the very first time in 48 years,I think at the time and it was
such a eye opening emotionalexperience because I I literally
did see myself and it's, it's.
It was a weird experience andjust started having the
conversation that, hey, listen,you know what?
You have a shiz ton of problemsthat you created.

(51:19):
The only reason that you're inthe space that you're in is
because you allowed these thingsto happen and you chose not to
do anything about it.
No one's going to come save you.
And I'm I'm in tears at thispoint in time, like having, by
myself, in tears in my bathroom,said no one's going to come
save you, god's not going tocome save you, but you have the

(51:40):
tools and resources to saveyourself.
And I had to ask myself do youwant something better?
Do you think that there's abetter life to yourself?
Do you want to be a good fatherto your kids?
Do you eventually, someday,want to be a great husband?
Do you want to be a greatfriend?
Do you want to be a greatcousin?
So on and so on.
And every time I asked myselfthat question, the answer was

(52:00):
yes, I do, but I didn't know how, and it was just like, hey, hey
, if that's what you want to do,then let's get to work.
And so I literally just startedtrying to find ways to be
extremely accountable foreverything I did.
It was it was almost likecoming up with the very first
business plan you ever wroteright, okay, I can't go out and

(52:20):
drink every single day, check,right.
Just, I mean weird things likethat had to literally start at
ground zero and and start makingthose accountability checklists
to do so.
And so, combination of you know, getting involved with you know
, I guess what I would consider.
Higher learning with the TMIC,with Jack Canfield eventually
went to Dartmouth's Tuck Schoolof Business and got an executive

(52:42):
management certification and Ijust started like connecting to
all these things Like how do Imake myself better as a human
being Cause I don't need to makemyself better as an athlete
anymore Cause those are yearsare gone but how do I make
myself better as a human being?
And if service is my number onepillar, how do I make myself
better as a human being to them,be of service to other people,
to actually help support them inwhatever situation they're in?

(53:04):
So long story short again,that's that's kind of the route
I went, but I really relied onum people around me.
I had to change my, myarchitecture, people, places and
things, um, because I havefamily members that want to go
out and party and I was like Ican't do that and um.
So it was an extremelydifficult decision and it took

(53:25):
some time, but you know, I'm, I,it's I'm.
I'm thankful that I did takethat accountability, because now
the opportunities I've hadsince 20, even 2016, we'll even
say 2018 have been so monumentalthat it's, it's.
You look back and you're justlike man, whoever that was.

(53:45):
I'm so glad they put me in theposition to be here today and
just do the things I do.
And so now I guess get to dowhat I do, whatever I want to do
, day in and day out, and it's,it's, it's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
That's an inspiring story.
That's super cool.
I love it, thank you.
Thank you for sharing thevulnerable parts of that story
with us, because I think that'swhat makes it so good.
Yeah, um, anybody can sit andlisten to a you know story about
.
This is how I was successful.
Follow me Right, right, butwhere you you've been kind of on

(54:23):
this roller coaster where youstarted down here, you got up
here, you ended up down here,but then you got back up and
then down again and then back up, and I think that's life, right
.
Yeah, when you find yourselfdown in the troughs, you have to
picture yourself back up on themountain and you've done a good

(54:44):
job of that and I'm proud ofyou for the success that you've
had and the impact that you'rehaving on other lives.
Yeah, Thanks for what you do inour community and thanks for
sharing the things that you didtoday.
I think it's going to be apowerful podcast for a lot of
people.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
I mean, I'm going to assume thethree of us live a pretty good
life here and it's not like weall haven't probably been
through something in our lives,right?
And I think that's what a lotof times people see us here at
our tops, I guess, if you willand assume that everything has
just been like this beautifulrainbow the whole time.

(55:23):
But it is like you said, kirk,it's life and things happen and
you know we just have to makethe right choices on how we
navigate those waters.
You know again, if you want tobe a CEO, then you go to classes
to be a CEO.
If you want to be a doctor, yougo to classes to be a doctor.

(55:45):
If you want to be a good humanbeing, there's plenty of
community out there to help usbecome great human beings.
And if you're suffering in lifea lot of people out there that
have suffered and overcame, andyou know being one of them, you
know, and now being, uh, uh,someone who chooses to be of
service to others, to help themout Um, it's, it's always nice
to be able to do that and be inthat position.
So, thank you.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
That's super cool.
I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
I think God allowed you to go through those things,
so you, could be who you are andtell the stories that you do.
Yeah, 100, super cool.
Yeah, so, and then, yeah,what's next?
Okay, we can keep talkingforever, but I feel like we
totally could and it'd probablybe a value.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
We might need a phase too, this interview, but well,
when the Olympics get closer.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
I'm 100 in, yeah, you know, and as things start to
happen and you, you're going tohave some cool stories to share,
and the ones that you can share, we'd love to.
We'd love to have you on againAt the end of every podcast.
We've asked every guest overthe last four years it's been
four years, corey.
That blows my mind.
I think it's this week actually, dang.

(56:46):
It's been four years, corey.
That blows my mind.
I think it's this week actually, dang.
Four years.
We've asked every guest whatthey think it means to be a
gentleman.
Would you give us yourdefinition of that?

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Oh man, good grief.
You know as crazy and aschaotic as my life is growing up
.
You know I was fortunate enoughto still have parents that
cared, even though they wereaddicts to the extreme.
I had parents that cared.
I had a grandma who cared verydeeply and she just always told

(57:19):
me you know, at the foundationof who you are, just be a good
person.
And that's why now I'm ofservice to others is just being
a good person, and that's whynow I'm of service to others is
just being a good person.
And you know, don't turn yourhead from opportunities to help
another human being out whenthey're right there in front of
you.
So you know, being a gentlemanis just being a good human being

(57:41):
, not so much a human doing.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Whoa.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Great answer.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Never heard that one before.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
No, that was a good one.
That was a good one that was agood drop mic drop.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
There you go.
Don't drop the mic, right, well, bill.
Thank you very much, uh.
If people want to connect withyou, uh, how do they do that?

Speaker 3 (58:02):
yeah, the easiest way .
And, uh, I got a full salarybecause we're doing a bunch of
rebranding One of the otherstores.
I started another company, butanother story to be told, but
you can just go to my website,the Olympian speakscom.
It is under reconstruction butall my contact info is still on
there.
So, yeah, love to help supportany people, organizations,
groups, if I can.

(58:22):
And yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Well, thanks everybody for joining us today,
spending the time with us andlistening to Bill and Bill's
story.
Hopefully you find value in it.
If you did share it withsomebody whose name popped into
your head while you werelistening to it I know several
popped into mine and that was aprompting and follow those
promptings.
Act on each good thought.

(58:45):
I'm Kirk Chug.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
And I'm Corey Moore.
Thanks for listening.

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