Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm one of these zoom people now.
Speaker 1: So a couple of times I've zoomed on the go
Speaker 1: because one time I wanted to take my daughter to
Speaker 1: go school shopping and I had to do this zoom.
Speaker 1: So I was in the car and then walking into
Speaker 1: a store, and you know, the mute, the camera on,
Speaker 1: camera off, It's like a whole I don't even know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are rules, and I'm sure within companies
Speaker 1: they have rules, and it's my company, so I don't
Speaker 1: know any of the rules and I don't know how
Speaker 1: it all works. But I was on a very very
Speaker 1: important zoom with uh four business men, and I walked
Speaker 1: into the Soho House. To be honest, out of the car.
Speaker 1: I was doing the zoom in the car. It's like
Speaker 1: a sprinter van, so I used it for business. So
Speaker 1: I was doing the zoom in the car, and then
Speaker 1: I had my next meeting, and this call was going
Speaker 1: so much longer. So the Soho House is a private
Speaker 1: club in New York and they don't allow cell phones.
Speaker 1: So I was on the elevator trying to sneak it.
Speaker 1: But they're really serious about and then you're ladd it's
Speaker 1: sort of in the bathroom and this hallway so and
Speaker 1: I also had to pee, to be honest, and so
Speaker 1: they were all still talking and I wanted to go
Speaker 1: as long as I possibly could, and so then I
Speaker 1: um walked down the hall and I was dragging it out.
Speaker 1: And then I went into the bathroom and Paul Paul,
Speaker 1: my fiance, who I did not see this text, he
Speaker 1: was on the call to and I saw him call
Speaker 1: and I didn't answer because I don't know why. I
Speaker 1: just didn't. I didn't think I realized who else was calling.
Speaker 1: And then I get this text that says you should
Speaker 1: go camera off and mute, and the phone was coming
Speaker 1: through on the other line. And then he said, are
Speaker 1: you in the bathroom? And I said because I knew
Speaker 1: I was in the bathroom because it was me who
Speaker 1: was in the bathroom. And I said, l O L.
Speaker 1: How bad? He said, not amazing. This is his tex
Speaker 1: I'm reading it. Not amazing, I said, L O L.
Speaker 1: Now in caps he said, no private parts, which is
Speaker 1: where the bar is, Like, oh, really, you mean I
Speaker 1: didn't show my labia to the fucking businessman that we
Speaker 1: were just talking to the good olds guys who are saying,
Speaker 1: like hit him straight, Dan, when you go fucking play golf,
Speaker 1: I mean no private parts. That's like, oh good, they
Speaker 1: didn't see my So no one saw my vagina today,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. What about my crack or my taint? Was
Speaker 1: that shown to the fucking corporate public company, billionaire business guys?
Speaker 1: Um so, I said, no private parts? He said, no
Speaker 1: private parts? And I said I had to pee, Like
Speaker 1: now pleading with Paul, like what the fund does he care?
Speaker 1: He's seen my vagina, he knows it didn't happen today.
Speaker 1: I go, I had to pee, can't use phone in
Speaker 1: Soho house? He said, usually that's a camera off event.
Speaker 1: I had to be Usually that's a camera off event.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm dying, like it's just and the moment
Speaker 1: goes away quick. So it's okay, but like we really
Speaker 1: can't take away. These guys did see me in the
Speaker 1: bathroom peeing, but they didn't see private parts. So that's amazing.
Speaker 1: It's just a ship show. Everything is a ship show.
Speaker 1: Everything's different now, Like it's absolutely crazy. Who forgot? I
Speaker 1: got him a fucking called twenty minutes ago. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know anyone was like looking at me, you forget?
Speaker 1: There's so many people talking in that box comes up.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that, Like, I'm on like full tilt.
Speaker 1: What an idiot. I don't know what else I've done.
Speaker 1: Thank god Paul was there to tell me. I'd never know.
Speaker 1: There must be twenty soups I've done not knowing. It's
Speaker 1: so ridiculous. It's fucking pandemic, man. And also is it
Speaker 1: even the pandemic anymore? I don't know if anyone's ever
Speaker 1: going back to work again. My assistants think it's a
Speaker 1: punishment to come into work. They think it's like they're
Speaker 1: being punished for something like It's like, like, it's actually,
Speaker 1: you guys were bad, So now you have to go
Speaker 1: to work. You have to come to work. Yes, your bodies.
Speaker 1: You have to your physical bodies. Wait what yeah, not
Speaker 1: your yes, not on a computer. You have to bring
Speaker 1: your body store. I'm sorry, you were naughty. You're on
Speaker 1: the naughty list. It's started to come in not for
Speaker 1: too long. Don't worry, and I apologize. I'm like back
Speaker 1: in my day, when they didn't have avocado toast and kale.
Speaker 1: We used to go to work. We used to get
Speaker 1: in the car, we had to have an easy pass,
Speaker 1: we had to actually know back in my day, my
Speaker 1: real day, before they had Avocado coastick actually easy Pass
Speaker 1: was before Avocado coast, Avocado toast, Brussels sprouts, Slaw and Kale.
Speaker 1: We had quarters in the goddamn car and we had
Speaker 1: you used tokens, so we had to go on the
Speaker 1: subway with actual tokens. Or I think I was alive
Speaker 1: when it was fucking change pre token. Wasn't there pre token,
Speaker 1: pre fucking token man. So anyway, yeah, back when I
Speaker 1: the horse and carriage days. Pre Kale, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the new thing. How old your daughter? She's pre k
Speaker 1: pre Oh she's three, No, pre Kale, she's she she
Speaker 1: was born four. Kale was born Okay, I was born
Speaker 1: way after pre k is different. That's like a schooling system.
Speaker 1: This is just like a sort of Greens cultural system.
Speaker 1: What are your funny zoom stories. I presented an I
Speaker 1: Heart Award with no pants. It's great. You're only like
Speaker 1: you're saving money, like half a wardrobe. Now we only
Speaker 1: have to have like half Actually we don't even have
Speaker 1: to have a half a wardrobe. We could wear half tops.
Speaker 1: Crop tops should be so fucking huge. They are because
Speaker 1: the TikTok. But also because a zoom you wear it,
Speaker 1: it's like half the fabric a crop top. No one's
Speaker 1: gonna see my middrifts. Great start wearing bathing suits. My
Speaker 1: guest today is legendary speed skater and the most decorated
Speaker 1: American winter olympian, Apollo oh No. He's won eight Olympic
Speaker 1: medals and was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Apollo is also a New York Times bestselling author, writing
Speaker 1: many autobiographical novels about his vast experience, including up and
Speaker 1: coming book Hard Pivot. He's a Dancing with the Stars
Speaker 1: first place champion and now spends his time involved in
Speaker 1: motivational speaking, philanthropy, and travel. With a wildly successful career
Speaker 1: off and on the ice, you are sure to enjoy
Speaker 1: today's show. Please welcome our guest. So your story is
Speaker 1: very interesting. Obviously I've heard of you and know about you,
Speaker 1: but I have some really interesting people on here that
Speaker 1: have created businesses in a non traditional way, have definitely
Speaker 1: uh created a brand within a unique industry or a
Speaker 1: game changer. And I've had a couple of serious athletes on.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that really stuck out to
Speaker 1: me was that you're raised by a single father, and
Speaker 1: we often hear single mother the single mother's story, and
Speaker 1: I just I just thought that was compelling and and
Speaker 1: really interesting about your whole child childhood and your story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was really different, and especially because my father, um,
Speaker 1: you know, being a but he's immigrant, not speaking a
Speaker 1: word of English, not really understanding basically how to raise me. Um,
Speaker 1: but had that very strong tiger father. Uh kind of
Speaker 1: call it like philosophical instruction so to speak. So like
Speaker 1: the way that he really approached like two things one. Um,
Speaker 1: anything in my life revolving around sport and academic was
Speaker 1: always like at the highest level. So he just like
Speaker 1: fundamentally so funny, like my dad fundamentally believed that I
Speaker 1: could do anything literally anything you know, a basketball, you know,
Speaker 1: by football, like whatever you want to do. Um. He
Speaker 1: thought that that was something that was easily accessible for
Speaker 1: me and there was like no limitations. And the same
Speaker 1: thing for school, right just enrolled me into the absolute hardest,
Speaker 1: um kind of curriculum in programs that were far beyond
Speaker 1: my comprehension at the time. But I think it helped
Speaker 1: push me at that same room but it sounds like
Speaker 1: it was more energetic than being militant and grinding you
Speaker 1: into doing something. It was sort of just that good
Speaker 1: enough isn't good enough, like a state of excellence, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean kill yourself and I'm forcing you to
Speaker 1: do this. Yeah, I think that well, early on my
Speaker 1: career there definitely was this like semblance of like this
Speaker 1: idea that he could push me in a direction that
Speaker 1: would I think it required me to be pushed um,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't militant, But I don't know, like I
Speaker 1: can tell your story about how like when I was
Speaker 1: twelve years old, my dad used to wake me up
Speaker 1: at like three thirty in the morning to go like
Speaker 1: skate and empty school and church parking lots because you know,
Speaker 1: there was no other time that he could take me
Speaker 1: go practice roller skating. So he like tape this miner's
Speaker 1: light to my helmet and then that's when he would
Speaker 1: just sit there with like a clipboard with our like
Speaker 1: Volkswagen Bug or Volkswagen Rabbit, like the diesel engine and
Speaker 1: the lights on in the parking lot and there's like
Speaker 1: no one there and this like empty church parking lot,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like skating around. Yeah, Well, sometimes I
Speaker 1: think that we're the product of our parents unresolved issues.
Speaker 1: So is that because your dad was just working NonStop
Speaker 1: and you think he wanted you to fulfill some sort
Speaker 1: of dream that he didn't get to fulfill, or it
Speaker 1: was just about I think it. Look, I think it
Speaker 1: was probably both, right. I don't think my dad had
Speaker 1: any aspirations in terms of like athletic achievement. I think
Speaker 1: that because he went against the grain. You know, my
Speaker 1: grandparents were pretty clear in terms of like saying to
Speaker 1: my dad, we don't want you to leave Japan, we
Speaker 1: want you to continue here and go to the you know,
Speaker 1: kind of the the atypical process of of kind of
Speaker 1: working for a company for like forty years and then
Speaker 1: and then retiring. UM. And he went against the grain
Speaker 1: and he came to the U S didn't speak a
Speaker 1: word of English, didn't have any money in his pocket.
Speaker 1: He just he had a struggle. And I think that
Speaker 1: that probably drove him to be like a survivor in
Speaker 1: many instances, especially because he probably wasn't welcome here at
Speaker 1: the time when he arrived. UM. And then when I
Speaker 1: was born, you know, everything flipped and he gave everything
Speaker 1: to me every ounce and energy that he had, UM,
Speaker 1: every dollar and never saw him actually ever purchased anything
Speaker 1: for himself other than that was like a necessity up here,
Speaker 1: necessity for like decades. Um and uh, just his like
Speaker 1: full commitment. He you know, I think everyone who as kids.
Speaker 1: I don't have kids yet, but um I can, I can.
Speaker 1: I can imagine like when people have kids, they believe
Speaker 1: their kids are just incredibly special, right, and they believe
Speaker 1: that the best and they only see the best in
Speaker 1: their kids. And my dad like really drilled that into
Speaker 1: my head. Like when I say that, he told me
Speaker 1: there was no limitations. This was every day in many
Speaker 1: different life lessons and he would tell me so like
Speaker 1: unresolved conflict. I don't know, maybe I think my dad
Speaker 1: definitely had something to prove. I think growing up, my
Speaker 1: father felt like I was at somewhat of a disadvantage
Speaker 1: because you know, I didn't come from money. Um, I
Speaker 1: didn't have time and the resources to buy the best equipment.
Speaker 1: UM I didn't, you know, Like it wasn't like my
Speaker 1: family was like highly intellectual or academics in any capacity.
Speaker 1: And so he like effectively told me that I had
Speaker 1: to work twice as hard like that was also drilled
Speaker 1: and drilled to my head that I was basically somewhat
Speaker 1: at a disadvantage, but that I could still achieve those things.
Speaker 1: How do I put in the time, effort and work
Speaker 1: and so you know, back then, obviously we didn't know
Speaker 1: anything about sports science and sleep and rest and recover.
Speaker 1: It was just all about this like hardcore belief of
Speaker 1: just continue, keep struggling, keep pushing, you'll figure it out. Well,
Speaker 1: there's two things I wanted to ask. One is about
Speaker 1: how much is too much for kids and the pressure. Um,
Speaker 1: then that's a sort of negative aspect that what is
Speaker 1: perceived to be negative, what looks like it could be negative.
Speaker 1: But then reading about your childhood, that being a law
Speaker 1: your father didn't want you to be a latch key
Speaker 1: kid and unrolling you in different sports programs, it's a
Speaker 1: great It is a great babysitter for kids, as I
Speaker 1: think about it, if you can't, if you have to work,
Speaker 1: and don't you know, want your kids just to be
Speaker 1: home eating cheetos, respectfully, the cheetos, watching uh, you know,
Speaker 1: garbage television. What a great thing for your kids to
Speaker 1: be sort of working towards something, and even if they
Speaker 1: don't become an Olympian, just the sucture and the discipline.
Speaker 1: And I want to know if that structure and discipline
Speaker 1: is all upside or you know, what are the sort
Speaker 1: of ramifications of that both sides of that equation. Well, look,
Speaker 1: every human that goes through life is going to have
Speaker 1: these conditioning mechanisms that create behavioral consistency and changed. Right,
Speaker 1: So psychologically, typically, most of the way that we act
Speaker 1: in our day to day lives today in your plus
Speaker 1: years on this planet, are typically derived from experiences or
Speaker 1: very few experiences that have occurred in your life that
Speaker 1: leads you to believe that you are biased towards a
Speaker 1: certain response and reaction, and so like how much pressure
Speaker 1: is too much pressure? I think pressure is incredible. I
Speaker 1: think it's incredibly insightful. I think it's absolutely critical. And
Speaker 1: the same thing with losing and failing and not hitting
Speaker 1: your dreams and not getting what you feel like you
Speaker 1: deserve and you desire the the insights derived from that
Speaker 1: is a really important part of growth. And anyone who
Speaker 1: has lived an incredible life at least extra only from
Speaker 1: our view, has never had an easy life. It's always
Speaker 1: been about struggle and strife and perseverance and going through
Speaker 1: those things. Now, I agree, as we go through life,
Speaker 1: right and as we have this progression around, how do
Speaker 1: we identify the new characters of strength in today's modern era? Right? So,
Speaker 1: and pressure not being cruel and not you know, just
Speaker 1: being mean and badgering even in the work a workplace,
Speaker 1: but being you can be strong and you can be
Speaker 1: kind at the same time. You can be strong, you
Speaker 1: can be kind, you can be incredibly resilient, and you
Speaker 1: can also be human. And I think that is that
Speaker 1: wholesomeness that I think we're seeing more transparency and open
Speaker 1: discussion about is very healthy. Now, the flip side of
Speaker 1: that is we go too much on one side of
Speaker 1: the spectrum where we don't allow for you know, more
Speaker 1: wind to make good timber so to speak. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees, so to speak.
Speaker 1: So we need those types of callous environments in order
Speaker 1: to fortify not only physiologically but psychologically. Right. When you
Speaker 1: have pressure, that pressure allows the human experience to do
Speaker 1: extraordinary things and either by pure default and you have
Speaker 1: no choice for injury, some kind of tragic failure loss
Speaker 1: that you're facing and you have to bounce back, or
Speaker 1: it's because you deeply desire to win and you want
Speaker 1: to innovate or whatever that might be right. And so
Speaker 1: there's always these things, and I think it's very we
Speaker 1: have to be very careful today about there is this
Speaker 1: line that we don't want to cross. We don't want
Speaker 1: to push kids so much to say like, look, you
Speaker 1: need to be a machine and you need to just
Speaker 1: figure out everything on your own. But I think the
Speaker 1: kids can have that element, right that is there, that's
Speaker 1: a level that they can utilize, this obsessiveness that once
Speaker 1: they harness that in short spurts, is extremely powerful. But
Speaker 1: that if that becomes all encompassing and consuming, I'm speaking
Speaker 1: from experience here, it can be highly internally toxic, very
Speaker 1: self deprecating and of defeating. And oftentimes you live in
Speaker 1: this era where you actually start to limit your growth
Speaker 1: versus actually exude and be that person who you potentially
Speaker 1: to be. You're deteriorating. It's it's it's degenerating. What about
Speaker 1: who's the gymnast who who left the event? Her team
Speaker 1: was so mad it was such a big right, So
Speaker 1: what about that, Like, is that now that we're looking
Speaker 1: at that, you know, months later however long it's been later,
Speaker 1: I blacked out on time. But uh, is that too
Speaker 1: much pressure? Is that bailing on your team? Is that
Speaker 1: just knowing your body? Like? What about that? I think
Speaker 1: it's very complex, right, I think, first and foremost, um,
Speaker 1: when we look at Olympic athletes, and I think making
Speaker 1: this statements important, we tend to export our belief on
Speaker 1: what they should and what they represent right right now, Like,
Speaker 1: we have no idea what's going on in her head,
Speaker 1: the type of trauma. I mean, we kind of know
Speaker 1: because they were open about this in this entire scandal
Speaker 1: that existed that was horrific across those girls in gymnastics. UM,
Speaker 1: and these girls carry that weight with them, and they
Speaker 1: carry that trauma with them, And so we don't know
Speaker 1: the complexities and the texture of how this person is
Speaker 1: digesting and living in that moment. The the external pressure
Speaker 1: of America saying it doesn't matter that you went through
Speaker 1: those things, you still have to perform for us. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's okay either, And so you've got
Speaker 1: this delicate balance of When I first watched, I think
Speaker 1: like full transparency. I was like, because I'm conditioned in
Speaker 1: a certain way, I saw I was like, hey, that
Speaker 1: doesn't seem fair to her teammates. But then I you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm, I'm I feel like i'm i'm hopefully growing
Speaker 1: and getting some maturity. And so I said, wait, wait
Speaker 1: a second, like what am I missing? Why do I
Speaker 1: believe that to be a truth. I actually don't know, Simone. Um,
Speaker 1: I respect her immensely, and I said, oh, I'm actually
Speaker 1: wrong in this belief of exporting what I think happens
Speaker 1: to be true. And this is like identity politics in
Speaker 1: a nutshell, right, what was happening in our country with
Speaker 1: the with the politicized nature of everything, also celebrity celebrity,
Speaker 1: what we think people are doing right and wrong. I
Speaker 1: was just talking about it before, about people flaunting their divorces,
Speaker 1: flaunting their relationships, like I was talking about that today,
Speaker 1: Like we think we know what somebody shouldn't shouldn't do.
Speaker 1: It's similar, it's similar, um, but uh business to me.
Speaker 1: So I I'm I'm athletic. I mean I snowboard, I
Speaker 1: you know, ice skate, not professionally obviously, I've hiked fifteen
Speaker 1: miles in my life and talked about it for fifteen
Speaker 1: years since. Uh, but I know that feeling when you
Speaker 1: just have to pull from within to finish something, to
Speaker 1: do something. I'm definitely not an athlete, I don't, but
Speaker 1: I know that feeling and that and I really know
Speaker 1: that feeling in business, like you just everything's wrong, it's
Speaker 1: going wrong, but you just you gotta collect yourself, get
Speaker 1: you can't go through the window. You've tried the door.
Speaker 1: You gotta go in another way. Like I do see
Speaker 1: a parallel there with business and and sports and just
Speaker 1: not sports, just being tremendously competitive as an athlete, where
Speaker 1: you just gotta like regroup, collect your self, take care
Speaker 1: of yourself, and attack it again for another day. And
Speaker 1: I read about you when you weren't doing so well.
Speaker 1: First of all, it sounds like as a kid you
Speaker 1: had a natural ability and didn't know necessarily what road
Speaker 1: you were on. And then you just we're winning. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're doing really well. It seems like it came fairly
Speaker 1: easy to you as a competitive person. But then you
Speaker 1: hit some roadbumps, like you weren't just winning the way
Speaker 1: that you were when you started, like not beginner's luck,
Speaker 1: but like you just hit it right in the beginning,
Speaker 1: and then later it caught up with you not either
Speaker 1: practicing or taking it seriously. So what what was that
Speaker 1: whole journey like a mustering you know it up and
Speaker 1: and and and regrouping and then going back in. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, those those struggles and triumphs associated with
Speaker 1: sport are are kind of apparent across my career. Especially
Speaker 1: early on. I was this kind of thought about as
Speaker 1: like this phenomen athlete, this prodigy for the sport um
Speaker 1: and I didn't recognize it. I didn't have that self
Speaker 1: confidence and belief. Um I just was kind of having
Speaker 1: fun on the sport. And so when fun was moved
Speaker 1: at the age of fourteen and fifteen, after I had
Speaker 1: won my first trials and I was technically the number
Speaker 1: one athlete in the US, UM I now was doing
Speaker 1: this professionally and professionally as around grown men and women
Speaker 1: who dedicated their lives away from their family to pursue
Speaker 1: their Olympic dream and path, And so it was no
Speaker 1: longer fun. It's not excuse, right because I now I
Speaker 1: was training with the national team and I had earned
Speaker 1: that right. But I do think there was something there
Speaker 1: where um I now was put in this environment where
Speaker 1: I just kind of went through the motions because I
Speaker 1: didn't enjoy it anymore, and that was really really tough.
Speaker 1: I didn't understand resilience and hard work and discipline and
Speaker 1: all these things that compound over time could really really
Speaker 1: be in terms of a result. And my dad shown
Speaker 1: me some really tough love associated with that, right like
Speaker 1: basically after not making the Olympic team in n Um,
Speaker 1: finishing dead last those at those trials, to my dad
Speaker 1: then shipping me or you know, basically driving me to
Speaker 1: this remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest and leaving me
Speaker 1: there alone at the age of fifteen to figure it
Speaker 1: out on my own and basically give me the ultimatum
Speaker 1: of Paula, you need you to really identify with what
Speaker 1: you want to do in your life. I don't care
Speaker 1: if it's academics, it doesn't matter to me good sport,
Speaker 1: but your habituation that is being created, this behavior that
Speaker 1: I see can be potentially patternistic, and we don't want
Speaker 1: that to be something that you can normalize. So my
Speaker 1: dad had this vision overall, not of me being this
Speaker 1: great athlete, but he just wanted me to be able
Speaker 1: to figure out how life will slap you down or
Speaker 1: give you these challenges and if you shy away from them,
Speaker 1: or if you cower away, Um, that's going to create
Speaker 1: some type of conditioning that is in the opposite direction
Speaker 1: of what you actually ultimately want no matter what you do, right,
Speaker 1: it sounds like the game what happens with success Even
Speaker 1: in business, as we were talking about, the game moves
Speaker 1: pretty quick and then the game has changed. So you
Speaker 1: had the game had changed, you didn't even really realize it.
Speaker 1: It could be somebody at home bacon cookies and now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they're professional and it they've opened
Speaker 1: a bakery and they're like, wait, this is not just
Speaker 1: the cute everybody thinks I'm so cute that I make
Speaker 1: cute cookies and likes them. Now I gotta deal with this.
Speaker 1: So the game changes and then you have to reshift, pivot,
Speaker 1: and you know, regroup and then it's a new game.
Speaker 1: So how did you make the new game fun? And
Speaker 1: by the way, it's not all fun like it could be.
Speaker 1: It's work. You're just a little young, but it's it
Speaker 1: is work, And so how did you make it that
Speaker 1: you wanted to do it? You know, if you're fourteen,
Speaker 1: the game changed, it's now sort of business a little bit,
Speaker 1: so how does that, you know, reshift. I think it's
Speaker 1: a part of that is just kind of mustering up
Speaker 1: this belief that even though you don't know what the
Speaker 1: outcome is going to be, you are still going to
Speaker 1: forge ahead, uh to be and show up fully as
Speaker 1: your best self. I get that it's process over prize,
Speaker 1: which is what you say. It's this process, and it's
Speaker 1: this marathon, and it's this one golf hole and you're
Speaker 1: just doing this one thing at a time, and and
Speaker 1: if you do everything to the best of your ability
Speaker 1: every day, whether it's sports or otherwise, it'll take you
Speaker 1: somewhere great. I think that's part of it, right, I
Speaker 1: mean for sure, I think like we in this country,
Speaker 1: like we love to celebrate champions and we never talked
Speaker 1: about the people who got second third. We just don't.
Speaker 1: That's been our conditioning that now so um so, that
Speaker 1: has been ingrained in all of our beliefs since we
Speaker 1: were very young, even in the way that cartoons and
Speaker 1: movies and film has been shown to us. And so
Speaker 1: we believe that, and so we have subscribed now to
Speaker 1: tie our happiness directly to a result, which is great
Speaker 1: for competition, which is great to keep track of score, um,
Speaker 1: it is not probably the most holistic and wholesome way
Speaker 1: to value or look at your own personal life. And
Speaker 1: so if we can look at our life as a
Speaker 1: series of chapters and understand that each chapter, no matter
Speaker 1: we feel like we deserve a different result or not,
Speaker 1: we have to surrender to that chapter after it has
Speaker 1: been completed, and then we have to move on to
Speaker 1: the next one. That's really hard to do because we're competitive.
Speaker 1: Like you know, if I don't get what I want,
Speaker 1: I'm angry, I'm upset, I'm confused, I'm frustrated. And that's
Speaker 1: good if you can harness that in terms of recalibrating
Speaker 1: for the next time, but if you stay dwelling itself.
Speaker 1: So that's totally my whole life. But it's great, it's
Speaker 1: very I find that the it that a failure when
Speaker 1: I've had a real failure, I didn't get something, or
Speaker 1: even back in the day when I came second on
Speaker 1: the Apprentice, right you you you get sad, you get bombed,
Speaker 1: you are depressed. But that regrouping and that like brushing
Speaker 1: yourself off, that's very empowering. And that's I think what
Speaker 1: you're talking about. That's when like all the good stuff happens.
Speaker 1: We screwed it up. It could be a business. We
Speaker 1: screwed the whole day up. Everything sucked. But you know what,
Speaker 1: let's get excited for tomorrow. And I like people around
Speaker 1: me that are like that because it's I know people
Speaker 1: who never get excited about something. They say, I'm not
Speaker 1: getting excited until I know it's for sure. I get
Speaker 1: excited about everything if it's if we if we ship
Speaker 1: the bet and it sucks, I still got excited. So
Speaker 1: now I got excited and it sucked, versus not being
Speaker 1: excited and it's sucking. It's better to be excited and
Speaker 1: it's sucking. Yeah, And I think, look, look, life is
Speaker 1: super short, right we we we've been given this gift
Speaker 1: of eighties six thousand, four or seconds in a day.
Speaker 1: I say this often we lose most of those two
Speaker 1: a spiraling down world kind of negative self talk mechanism
Speaker 1: that is so critical that we don't even allow ourselves
Speaker 1: to be present. We're thinking about some think in the
Speaker 1: future that we need to hit, and we're kind of
Speaker 1: operating based on those kind of traumas or micro traumas
Speaker 1: or failures that have happened in the past, and so
Speaker 1: we're like never really here and we're never really there,
Speaker 1: but we're living in the past. It's just like weird mechanism.
Speaker 1: And so what I have found is that there's nothing
Speaker 1: but during sports your present. During sports your present. But
Speaker 1: I also think that there's nothing wrong, by the way,
Speaker 1: with having that and knowing as long as you know
Speaker 1: that you're on the treadmill, so to speak, right, and
Speaker 1: you can get off the treadmill at times. Right a
Speaker 1: catalyst or a lever or an incident that happened in
Speaker 1: your life can be perhaps one of the most powerful
Speaker 1: emotional tools that supersedes anything else. Education, physical ability, good looks,
Speaker 1: whatever those things are, they mean nothing. When you see
Speaker 1: a man or woman on fire, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like when they are, it's it's incredible. Yes, but you
Speaker 1: said something that made me think about meditation. People think
Speaker 1: that meditation is supposed to be absent of worry and stress.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be sort of just identifying it. And
Speaker 1: they say, if you don't like people worry, Oh god,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about my list when I was trying
Speaker 1: to meditate, and then they they did it wrong. If
Speaker 1: you lean into what you were thinking about, usually it
Speaker 1: will dissipate versus if you run away from it, it
Speaker 1: will chase you. So I think it's kind of what
Speaker 1: you're saying, like it's okay to be not present then
Speaker 1: to be worried. But I guess if you identify that,
Speaker 1: then you're ultimately being more present. Yeah, it's um, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean like deeply rooted in Buddhist philosophy. Is this
Speaker 1: like belief of like if you seek happiness you'll never
Speaker 1: get it, right, Like exactly what we're saying, the same thing, right,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, except what it is. And then
Speaker 1: you it's a lot less pressure. We're always thinking we're
Speaker 1: doing it wrong or this I should be relaxing more.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be worrying about this right now. You know,
Speaker 1: you're at a spa and you're thinking about something and
Speaker 1: you're like, damn, I'm supposed to be relaxing. It's not
Speaker 1: relaxing to be thinking you're supposed to be relaxing. Um.
Speaker 1: So you're an entrepreneur, you're a business person. You uh
Speaker 1: talk about it, you write about it. So, um, was
Speaker 1: that is that part of your sort of striving for excellence?
Speaker 1: What what was your understanding of business and money as
Speaker 1: a child. I know you said you're father was certainly
Speaker 1: not someone who cared about money. You wrote you wrote
Speaker 1: that it's a tool. But how did you become someone too?
Speaker 1: I guess financially in business wise. Extend your minutes of
Speaker 1: athletic greatness. You know, not to say that you you
Speaker 1: were fifteen minutes. But we all have a moment when
Speaker 1: it's the biggest. So I'm asking about the extension plan.
Speaker 1: My moment was like twenty years ago. It's crazy, I
Speaker 1: didn't say that. And and that's a realization that like
Speaker 1: at some point in your life, what you did in
Speaker 1: the past is not the most happening thing anymore. And
Speaker 1: that's just that's life. You have to expect that, and
Speaker 1: you have to figure out, um, what is it gonna
Speaker 1: be fulfilling and important? That part of the reinvention, and
Speaker 1: you know, part of the reason why I wrote this
Speaker 1: book Hard Pivot is really deeply rude in this belief
Speaker 1: that we all were faced these types of changes, either
Speaker 1: by force, by nature or whatever it might be. And
Speaker 1: the more prepared that we can be to embrace those
Speaker 1: changes and those challenges, the better outcome that we will
Speaker 1: actually be able to experience. So from my first identity,
Speaker 1: which is the Olympic athlete, I had to kind of
Speaker 1: dissolve that, so to speak, and I didn't know how
Speaker 1: to do that, like twelve years ago, so I basically
Speaker 1: ran away and ran away, meaning like I went to
Speaker 1: the furthest place on the actual planet physically, which was
Speaker 1: in Asia, and I started pursuing businesses that I had
Speaker 1: no idea what I was doing, but I was ambitious
Speaker 1: and a part of this was this kind of deep
Speaker 1: rooted feeling that I had to keep moving that was
Speaker 1: really really important. I knew that I couldn't remain stagnant,
Speaker 1: and I also knew that my routine and what got
Speaker 1: me to be a great Olympic athlete was simply the
Speaker 1: attributes now the natural skill sets and talents that I
Speaker 1: was given um from the universe, from this, from whatever
Speaker 1: I have um they you know, wearing tights and going
Speaker 1: in circles in business means nothing like no one actually
Speaker 1: really cares and most people don't want to go in
Speaker 1: circles anyway. But that was that was what I perfected
Speaker 1: when I was in the sport, and so I moved
Speaker 1: from that into this arena of saying Okay, Like I
Speaker 1: have to stop saying no to everything else, which I
Speaker 1: did my entire life. I said no to everything that
Speaker 1: didn't involve me being the best in the Olympic path.
Speaker 1: And then I started saying yes to everything, and it
Speaker 1: didn't matter what it was. I wanted to curate these
Speaker 1: experiences because my natural curiosity became a superpower. I understood
Speaker 1: that I had advanced so much in my personal life
Speaker 1: and when in regards to my sport. But outside of that,
Speaker 1: I was a baby. I was a kid. I was
Speaker 1: I was like nine, you know, I was like whatever
Speaker 1: was going on? Fifteen? Like I literally was so stunted.
Speaker 1: And so you can imagine like no real collegiate or
Speaker 1: university experience in a dorm room setting, or learning, no
Speaker 1: internships in any capacity, not ever working for a company,
Speaker 1: not understanding business. And I'm starting but but I'm seven
Speaker 1: years older than anyone else potentially that would be in
Speaker 1: the same position, right, And so I've got these credible
Speaker 1: life experiences and I've got zero business experience, And so
Speaker 1: there's this emotional feeling of like I don't want to
Speaker 1: feel stupid in this room. Now I can get into
Speaker 1: any room that I want in the world. The problem
Speaker 1: is after the first kind of you know, hey, great
Speaker 1: to meet you. My son or daughter is a big fan,
Speaker 1: why are you here again? Like like what actually you?
Speaker 1: And so that chip on the shoulder became a really
Speaker 1: strong motivational tool. That's amazing, you know, and I read
Speaker 1: a little bit. We have similar principles. First of all,
Speaker 1: I wrote a book called The Place of Yes but
Speaker 1: um and talking about the pandemic and thinking about the pandemic.
Speaker 1: It's sort of I think I've read in some of
Speaker 1: your the press about you, just about the way that
Speaker 1: the world has shifted now and there are different things
Speaker 1: to grab onto. Like so many people are worried about
Speaker 1: the fact that, oh that change, and I see it
Speaker 1: that way, But I see that as a total opportunity
Speaker 1: in business like this the snowboots was shaken. Everything's upside down,
Speaker 1: and so there are so many new pockets for success,
Speaker 1: so many new ways to be successful and entrepreneurial. And um,
Speaker 1: how have you changed the way you're doing business or
Speaker 1: what what's happening that's different now based on this time? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you know, I I spend most of my time now,
Speaker 1: um in venture, meaning like we find great company needs,
Speaker 1: analyze the data, and then we invest in those founders
Speaker 1: and support them along their journey UM throughout the investment
Speaker 1: life cycle of that company UM. And so what we've
Speaker 1: found is that many times when I meet young founders
Speaker 1: who are talking about a new particular niche, business, a sector,
Speaker 1: a vertical that I believe doesn't need to exist and
Speaker 1: is unimportant because I don't watch or subscribe or interact
Speaker 1: with those types of protocols or projects wherever the may be.
Speaker 1: And so an exercise that we've all done is like,
Speaker 1: what am I missing? Why am I missing this? And
Speaker 1: there's a very famous UM venture capitalist that's based in
Speaker 1: San Francisco that had passed I believe on pinterest UM
Speaker 1: at the at the earliest stage, and it would have
Speaker 1: like returned his whole fund, meaning like he would have
Speaker 1: had multiples and it was would have been a huge
Speaker 1: home run for him. And then you know, like a
Speaker 1: couple of months later after he comes back home from
Speaker 1: work and his wife is talking about this like new
Speaker 1: this website Pinterest, and he's like showing all these things
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, I am not a fifty three
Speaker 1: year old woman at the time, this is the time
Speaker 1: and obviously the demographic has changed immensely, and so he's
Speaker 1: got this in the in the background of like his
Speaker 1: like his office. It basically reminds him. He's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: the reason why you don't get it is because this
Speaker 1: is not a part of your experiences, whether that's in
Speaker 1: video games, whether that's in you know, Web three, in
Speaker 1: crypto or n f T s are just a crazy
Speaker 1: and that could be scared because you have to learn it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that could be Jessica's or turned down Uber. She was
Speaker 1: one of the people they asked in the beginning, the
Speaker 1: girl from Gossip Girl, Jessica's Or. They asked her in
Speaker 1: the beginning to be part of Uber. She was embarrassed
Speaker 1: to tell me. I'm like, it's part of your journey,
Speaker 1: but that I I want to cry thinking about it.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of those stories, right, Like we have
Speaker 1: stories like all across the board, and so many different
Speaker 1: investments that would have returned like ten thou ex returns right,
Speaker 1: but then it's neither here nor there, right. I think
Speaker 1: the only way that we learned from that is to
Speaker 1: remove ourselves. This is a part of the why the
Speaker 1: book is important, is that you go through lie if
Speaker 1: in this conditioning of your upbringing and your belief on
Speaker 1: how the world works and should work. And the more
Speaker 1: that you subscribe to that is powerful and strong, and
Speaker 1: it gives you identity to align with, it gives you
Speaker 1: the tribalism around. I missed the days and we didn't
Speaker 1: have cell phones and people went to concerts and they
Speaker 1: really experienced them, or in the Olympics and they really
Speaker 1: watched them and they weren't on their phones and tweeting
Speaker 1: and instagram and like, there's all that right, and and
Speaker 1: that's fine. But I think from a business perspective, the
Speaker 1: ones who are able to subscribe and have the foresight
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, I'm missing something, and maybe I don't
Speaker 1: believe in it, but I can understand how this new
Speaker 1: technology communication or way that people are are engaging with
Speaker 1: each other is going to be something spectacular and I
Speaker 1: need to buy into that or you lose an opportunity.
Speaker 1: So I have no idea what you're going to say
Speaker 1: about this, uh question, what percentage are you lucky and
Speaker 1: what percentage smart? I'm for sure not very smart, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say I'm heavily skewed on the lucky side. Look,
Speaker 1: I look I believe that I have been, like really
Speaker 1: gifted an incredible life amidst all the challenges and hardships
Speaker 1: and failures. Like I just I don't think that I
Speaker 1: was originally intended or supposed to be here, or maybe
Speaker 1: I was, but I just I feel like things have
Speaker 1: happened in my life that are incredible. The people that
Speaker 1: I have met, the individuals, the stories, just the a
Speaker 1: the access be, the actual experiences, the things that I
Speaker 1: have seen, the rooms that I have been in, the experiences,
Speaker 1: the Olympic Games, um, the chances that I've been given,
Speaker 1: whether I win or lose, whatever, but like the chance
Speaker 1: I've been given, like my life is incredible, and so
Speaker 1: I feel that's that's lucky. I fund to believe that,
Speaker 1: And I'm okay believing that. Do I believe that I
Speaker 1: have to do the hard work, and the work is
Speaker 1: the actual shortcut of course, like that's the standard metric
Speaker 1: for how I operate and live. But not for a
Speaker 1: second do I ever believe that, Um, it is because
Speaker 1: I was more intelligent or smarter than in your athlete.
Speaker 1: I think I was really lucky. I was lucky to
Speaker 1: be able to something was instigated in me to want
Speaker 1: to do more than other athletes. I don't know what
Speaker 1: that is. I don't know if that's my father. I'm
Speaker 1: lucky to have a I mean, like I have a
Speaker 1: dad singing about in household. But my dad was incredible,
Speaker 1: Like he's just like every day I can't believe like that,
Speaker 1: my this is my dad, And I hope that one
Speaker 1: day I could be the same father to my kids.
Speaker 1: He was to me like just a semblance of that. Well,
Speaker 1: it's funny because I was just thinking, you're you may
Speaker 1: be one of the people that just actually is very
Speaker 1: very lucky. But I mean, but what's funny is that
Speaker 1: somebody's very lucky if they're smart. I just thought of
Speaker 1: that for the first time. Like if you're if you
Speaker 1: happen to be really smart, then you happen to be
Speaker 1: really lucky. I mean, in sport, we used to have
Speaker 1: this saying where you know, short track speeds getting into
Speaker 1: sport where you need luck like you absolutely need it. Um.
Speaker 1: But then there's also a saying that says like make
Speaker 1: your own luck. You put yourself in the right and
Speaker 1: the best possible process and timing to where like you
Speaker 1: can actually get that's the preparation prep being prepared for
Speaker 1: when those fish calm, having your net and wait to
Speaker 1: be lucky like that is the wrong move. That is nothing.
Speaker 1: Thank you being prepared to be lucky, UM, Rose and
Speaker 1: thorn of your career. The Rose was my first ever
Speaker 1: Olympic final in sport. My first ever Olympic final in
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City about twenty years ago, UM in two
Speaker 1: thousand two, where I intended and I was in the
Speaker 1: lead to win this race. I was favored to win
Speaker 1: this race. I was like on the cover sports, like
Speaker 1: all these things. I was highly hyped as a as
Speaker 1: as an Olympic athlete. UM, and I didn't and I
Speaker 1: got silver. I had fallen. UM, I cut my leg.
Speaker 1: That was the rose because of the edible life lessons
Speaker 1: that it gave me later on life, and that was
Speaker 1: to get back up. I can't control the outcome. When
Speaker 1: you believe that you are deserving of a particular result
Speaker 1: and you don't get it, you have a choice to
Speaker 1: perceive that as I'm going to live the rest of
Speaker 1: my life angry and bitter, or I'm going to take
Speaker 1: this as a gift, like as I said, and I'm
Speaker 1: lucky enough and I'm grateful enough to have represented the
Speaker 1: US and have won this medal. Is it the color
Speaker 1: that I originally wanted to know? But that's okay. I
Speaker 1: actually I wouldn't change the color today. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be silver because of what it represented in so many ways. Um.
Speaker 1: And the thorn that could be called that could be
Speaker 1: a that could be called your silver rose. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: silver rose. Um. I like that, I would say, like
Speaker 1: because of my you know, I didn't grow up with
Speaker 1: a mom in my life, right, I had mother figures
Speaker 1: so to speak, like godmothers and people like that, but
Speaker 1: I didn't have I think that that tenderness and empathy
Speaker 1: I didn't get. I got no that did not have anything, um.
Speaker 1: And so I was raised in a way where I
Speaker 1: think it really affected. I think it still does affect
Speaker 1: the way that I approach relationships. And it's been really
Speaker 1: really hard, um, really really hard, and uh, I'm getting
Speaker 1: better at it. But I think that my not like
Speaker 1: the way that I naturally am in a relationship is
Speaker 1: it's tough. Um. And again like I'm super lucky because
Speaker 1: I have met incredible women in my life that have
Speaker 1: taught me so much, and one of them is is this.
Speaker 1: You know, my my current is is Bianca. Um, she's
Speaker 1: just she's been so incredible in so many ways. But UM,
Speaker 1: just like having someone to kind of basically re teach
Speaker 1: me this is the stuff that I should have been
Speaker 1: taught like thirty years ago. Well, allowing yourself to be
Speaker 1: loved is not that easy for certain people, especially you're
Speaker 1: on the you know, you're on the road, you're doing
Speaker 1: this and you're goal oriented, and it's hard to stop
Speaker 1: down and just be porous and allow yourself to be loved.
Speaker 1: So I really do understand that that makes perfect sense
Speaker 1: based on your background. So that's good. So that you're
Speaker 1: doing that now, that's amazing trying to do the work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. This was so wonderful to talk to you.
Speaker 1: I really and I really do love talking to athletes.
Speaker 1: I spoke to Maria Sharapova and Lindsey Vaughan and Gabrielle Reason.
Speaker 1: It's just like a yeah, there's it's a very interesting
Speaker 1: type of person, just like a very solid person. So
Speaker 1: I'm from my experience here. So I've enjoyed this very much.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Thank you, Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Good luck. The book is hard, pivot. I just realized
Speaker 1: the double entendres. So I love the name and I'm
Speaker 1: excited for you. So congratulations, and I hope this helps.
Speaker 1: But it was a great conversation. I loved talking to Apollo.
Speaker 1: What an interesting conversation. He is so strong, so solid,
Speaker 1: so sage uh. And I've really liked talking to the
Speaker 1: serious competitive athletes. I find that to be a gift,
Speaker 1: and I'm so honored and grateful that I've gotten to
Speaker 1: share with you some of their wisdom for really striving
Speaker 1: and battling the odds and still thriving and succeeding, because
Speaker 1: that's a real that's just a real challenging road. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just you do it or you don't. There's no
Speaker 1: gray in sports. If you want or you lost. So
Speaker 1: I think it's been really interesting speaking to the competitive athletes.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate you, rate, review and subscribe. Another wonderful day,
Speaker 1: and I'm just so grateful, So thank you. Have a
Speaker 1: good day. Just b is hosted by me Bethany Frankel.
Speaker 1: Just be as a production of Be Real Productions, I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Blue Duck Media. Are EPs are Morgan Levois,
Speaker 1: Antonio Enriquez, and Kara hit to Catch more moments from
Speaker 1: the show, follow us on Instagram and just be with
Speaker 1: Bethany