The Gentlemen Project Podcast
Bi-weekly podcast highlighting impactful stories of parents and what they do to be successful at home and at work. Helping you turn the time you have with your kids into time well spent helping them learn the most important lessons in life. The Gentlemen Project Podcast is hosted by Kirk Chugg and Cory Moore-friends who are passionate about fatherhood and raising the next generation of great kids.
The Gentlemen Project Podcast
From Adversity to Olympic Triumph: Bill Schuffenhauer's Inspiring Journey
Three-time Olympian Bill Schuffenhauer joins us to share his powerful story of transformation, resilience, and success on the Gentlemen Project Podcast. From a tumultuous childhood to the pinnacle of Olympic achievement, Bill's journey is a testament to the power of choice and the impact of mentorship. He opens up about the critical moments that steered him away from a potential path of crime and towards a promising career in track and field, eventually leading to an unexpected pivot into the world of bobsledding. Bill's story is not just about athletic triumphs but also about becoming a beacon of hope for others facing their own challenges.
Bill recounts the emotional highs and lows of his Olympic career, highlighting his role in hosting the Olympics back to Salt Lake City for 2034. He delves into overcoming personal setbacks, including injury and financial struggles and a battle with mental health, providing insights into how he turned adversity into opportunity both on and off the track. His dedication to mental health awareness and personal transformation is evident as he discusses the importance of mindset and accountability in achieving success. Through his experiences, Bill offers valuable lessons on the cutthroat nature of competitive sports and life, emphasizing the importance of resilience and adaptability.
Listeners are invited to be inspired by Bill's ongoing commitment to serving the Olympic community and his entrepreneurial ventures. He shares his strategies for maintaining a positive outlook and aligning life with meaningful goals, encouraging others to learn from his trials and triumphs. With candid reflections on vulnerability, personal growth, and the pursuit of purpose, Bill's journey underscores the significance of community and human connection. Tune in to hear how this Olympic silver medalist uses his platform to inspire future generations and spread a message of hope and resilience.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Gentleman Project Podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Corey Moore and I'm Kirk Chug. Today, joining us in the studio is Bill Schufenhauer. We got to know each other a couple of weeks ago. We went on a Harley ride together, ended up having lunch together with our wives and I just thought, man, this is one interesting dude. We got to have him on the podcast. He's a local of Salt Lake City, utah, and only lives about a block and a half away from Corey's office where we record.
Speaker 1:I worked out nice.
Speaker 3: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:And the mustache is just right now, cause he has this gorgeous looking little mustache thing going on.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, the little handlebar action. Yeah, um, I like that. Yeah, I just it. You know I'm, I'm uh, we didn't even do the introduction, but I'm I'm a huge advocate for men's mental health and mental health in general, and so every mustache november, I try to do some of the mustache. But I realized this year that I'd already had the beard going on, and when I I was like, oh, what does it look like If I go ahead and shave the rest of everything else? And it's, this was. I think you got to keep it. This is like four days ago, so we're going to rock it all of November.
Speaker 2:I watched that on social media. I'm like maybe I'll be right behind, but I shaved my beard last week so I've got a full grow to go to catch up. So bill is intimately involved with the olympics and if you follow what's been happening with the olympics, uh, the olympics are coming back to our hometown, salt lake city, utah, in 2034. Yeah, and bill is a four-time, three, three, three-time olympic athlete and has been involved pretty much ever since with Olympics, the Olympic committee, the bid committee to get it back to Salt Lake, and he's working really closely with all the leaders in our business community and politicians and everything.
Speaker 2:So, like, we're kind of excited to hear about this experience of you in the Olympics, how that kind of forged you and made you who you are and then how you parlayed that into all of the business success that you've had since then, because you've really been able to make a career out of the experiences that you've had and the connections that you've made because of the Olympics. Right, yeah, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about how becoming an Olympian, because I heard a part of this story. It's pretty incredible. Tell us how you became an olympian. Like, how did you get recruited to be on the olympic bobsled team for the usa. How far do you want to go back? Go?
Speaker 3:back to where we started because, yeah, um, so you know I I always have to start kind of right here, of like where the story started. We can jump back and forth, but you know, I'm a local kid, born and raised in Utah, unfortunately, but and fortunately, also kind of where we are right now as well, corey is, I grew up in the system, so drug addicted parents on and off the streets. I know about the Rio project very, very well. My documentary called Against All Odds at the International Olympic Committee did. We filmed it here Rio Grande, with all the homeless people.
Speaker 3:And for me, at a young age, seventh grade to be exact, I just knew I didn't want to live that life. I knew we lived as a seventh grader. We live in an omnipotent world where there's so many opportunities. If we choose, if we make the decision to choose to pursue and surround ourselves with the right people, we can achieve anything we want. And I didn't want to. You know, back then as a seventh grader, I was like well, someday I'm going to have to grow up and be an adult, someday I'm going to want to have kids of my own. How do I go about pursuing that and not following the same footsteps as the rest of my family in and out of jail, prison dead what have you? Rest of my family in and out of jail, prison dead what have you? And so, you know, the joke back in the day and still is when I do speaking things is I was good at running from cops and jumping fences.
Speaker 3:So track and field and sports became kind of a staple for me. That I was really really good at. And you know, kind of make that long story short when I, when I came to the realization that I was actually really really good in sports, I decided that I, you know, 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've got the Olympics. And I was like, well, what are the Olympics? And they started explaining to me. And then I was doing the sport of the decathlon, which is 10 events competed over two days, and they're like, hey, the decathlete is considered one of the best athletes in the world. Sold, I don't even care what's involved with it, they're considered the best athlete in the world. Show me what it is and let's start getting busy doing that, doing that.
Speaker 3:And so I just really wanted to change the trajectory of my whole family heritage, because there's so many people in my family were those people that were just the exception. They fall into the system, they stay in the system, they're better friends with you know, convicts and the judges and the police than they are with their own family members. And I just didn't want that for myself and for my kids, and so I decided to pursue this crazy dream, you know, back in seventh grade, to pursue going to the Olympics. And we actually made that decision. It was my ninth, my ninth, 10th grade year of school and just you know, it was like I don't care what it takes, I'm going after it.
Speaker 3:And there was a lot of things that I had to change. Obviously, my mindset, cause I was still a kid running around, you know, with gang bangers and getting in trouble and robbing stores and robbing people and doing drugs and running the streets and all that, all that stuff, and so, um, I made a choice that you know. Thankfully, I had some great teachers and some great coaches and great mentors at the time, my grandma being one of them to kind of help guide me in the proper direction. And you know it took time, it wasn't something that happened overnight. But when I had that first taste of competition and I won my first 100 meter dash at Ogden High School, I was addicted right away. And the feeling of winning something like that and your teammates and your coaches coming up to you and cheering you, I was like I want more of that compared to what I was used to. And so I just pursued, like continuing to be the very, very best I could and, realistically, just being a student of the sport, student of life and student of the education system, to say, hey, how can I really take this and make a career out of the sport? And uh, you know, long story short, I had a great career in junior high, had a great career at Roy high school in sports and football, had a great career at Weber state university and track and field.
Speaker 3:And uh, it came time around to get ready for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and I was like, okay, well, I feel like I need to like put myself in the very best position possible. So at that time in around the 1996 Atlanta games, there was Dan and Dave in the sport of decathlon and they had the Reebok commercials. And I was like if you probably remember that right and I was like you know, because at the time I made more of a connection with Dan O'Brien because he was half black, half white and I had no clue what I was still at that point in time, but I identified with him. So I you know, we didn't have the internet and all that stuff back then so I wrote a letter, letter, physical letter, to mike keller, who was dan o'brien's coach, and send it in the mail and send it off. Didn't have any expectations and a few weeks later I got a letter and said, hey, come on up.
Speaker 3:And uh, jumped on a freaking greyhound bus from here to moscow idaho is brutal, in the middle of winter, mind you and uh, that was my first opportunity 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 the difference of going to business class 101 and then going to a like a high level mindset full of ceos and cfos and ceos that have already done it, and I just, I just thought it was great. 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 person and not being the exception to the rules. Like this, kid is supposed to grow up in the system and stay in the system. He should have been dead by the time he was 16. I was like, no, I'm not doing that, um, because we have the choice. Everybody has a choice.
Speaker 3:And so, making that long story short, you know I was a little too young to make the 96 Atlanta games, so we chose to pursue the 2000 Sydney games and that year was going super, super phenomenal. I'd actually moved back from Moscow, idaho, to Ogden, utah, to reconnect with my coaches at Weber State, did my first open meet at Utah State and scored I think it was like 8,010 points, which put me as the 51st American in history to go over 8,000 points. I was ranked number one in the world at the time and it was just like that was. This was the year where, like this 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 year and the rest of the world had had done their competitions and I was still top four in the world and getting ready for Olympic trials.
Speaker 3:We went down to BYU just to do a warm-up meet, didn't have to compete, we'd already qualified, we'd already made Olympic standard and in the second event of the decathlon, down at BYU, I blew my ankle out in the long jump. This is two weeks before Olympic trials and we were just like there's no way this happened and absolutely no way this happening. And I just, you know, at that point in time trying to figure out how do we keep moving forward through this, but also like feeling like my dreams and my legacy realistically slip away. So like feeling like my dreams and my legacy realistically slip away and I go to the trainer, we shoot my ankle up, we tape it up to the point where it's almost 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, really difficult.
Speaker 3:And then the high jump was the next event and that was pretty much the nail in the coffin. There was just no way I could jump and I remember it was a cloudy day, it was raining at BYU and I took my third jump and just laid on the mats when I smashed through the bar and realized that it was over and I feel the rain pouring down my face, tears coming down my face and the realization that it's over with. And what in the hell am I going to do now? Because that was all I had planned. And so, um, I, you know, I did what most people do when their dreams get shattered I, I put my tail between my legs, gather my stuff, walked off the track and felt that, felt sorry for myself, victim mentality, went home. Um, one thing I don't always tell 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 and drank and laid around and super, super victim mentality.
Speaker 3:And not too long, probably about three months after that, you know, I'm super grateful to the universe, god, heavenly Father, whatever anybody else wants to call it. You know, if you're, if you're trying to do the things right in life, a lot of beautiful opportunities open up to you. And somebody said, hey, you should try to do bobsled. And I was like what is bobsled? And they're like you don't know the movie cool runnings. And I'm like, no, I don't even know what you're talking about. And they're like winter Olympics. I'm like what is the winter Olympics? No, I was training for the summer Olympics. They're like no, the winter Olympics they're coming to Salt Lake City, you should do the winter Olympics. And I'm like, I've never figure skated, never played hockey, never skied. Like I have no idea what you're doing. They're like okay, just let me show you this video.
Speaker 3:And, of course, I watched the movie cool runnings, um, and it piqued my interest. Um, obviously there's a lot of hollywood to the the cool runnings, but at the end of the day, the goal was to change my stars. Didn't matter if it was track and field, badminton, men's pairs, figure skating, right, I wanted to be an olympian and represent my state and my country and my family and change my stars and again change that direction. And so um had an opportunity to watch the movie and, uh, they're like okay. Well, let me show you a video of the team, team usa, competing over in saint marit, switzerland. And that's where it really like, when I, when I saw the athletes and the I'm going to use this word the physicality of what it really truly took to be a bobsled athlete. Cause a lot of people ask me. They're like, well, what does it really take, right? And I'm like, well, you look at me when I'm in shape. I'm six, six one, 215 pounds. I can squat 615 pounds, I can bench 500 pounds, I vertical 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?
Speaker 3:It's a year and three months away from actually launching here in salt lake city and like, well, the chances of you making it into a sport you've never been into a year and three months before their biggest show in front of the world are probably slim to none. But what the heck do we have to lose? And I said you know what? Let's just take the same mindset. We had to get ready for this track and field thing and dump it all into this bobsled thing and just kind of see where it goes and see what happens. We have nothing to lose whatsoever. 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 at this point how long has your?
Speaker 1:your ankle been healing.
Speaker 3: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 jump on it but I can still squat and do some running and all that stuff, and so so that was getting getting much, much better. And you know, we said, you know what, how cool would that be if we could literally write that story. The kid who grew up on the streets of Salt Lake City turned his life around against all odds to then compete in the olympics in salt lake city, and we're like that would be a cool story, pretty far-fetched, but yeah, why not? Let's just go for it and see what happens. Long story, short made the team and um, that is a long story short.
Speaker 1:That's a short story that needs to be longer. There's there's much, much more to it. I have to know, like, how did that go? You have to give me a little more than that, like between I'm gonna go bobsled and then I actually make the team. How did?
Speaker 3:you do that, yeah. So my, the first team I got connected with was a guy named bruce roselli out of indianapolis, indiana, been a bobsled driver and a bobsled athlete for many, many years. He's very well known in the bobsled community. He was friends with somebody else that I knew was one of those six degrees of separation and he came. He and his team came up to ogden from park city because all the teams are training there because the olympics already been announced, it's right around the corner. And he's like okay, well, so-and-so, told me that you're a great athlete, we want to watch you work out. I and I was like, all right, cool. So they came out and watched me do a regular track workout and went to the gym and did my regular lifting and they're like, man, you're, you're putting up numbers that most of our guys struggle to put up. And I was like, oh, that's, that's cool, right and funny enough.
Speaker 3:Um, from the rafters of the stadium I don know who did this there somebody used to hang uh dvds I don't know why, it's just a dvd that was hanging and it was like 12 feet in the air. And so we're walking, having this conversation about what it looks like to be on the team and I'm walking, I just jump up and touch it and he's like, did you just touch that? And I was like, oh yeah, no problem. He's like do it again. So I was like, okay, jumped up and touched again. He's like, do it again. So I was like, okay, jumped up and touched it again. He's like holy smoke. He's like that's, I've seen enough.
Speaker 3:Can you come up to park city and just learn about the sport, and so you know? So the part that you're asking about is I drove from Ogden to park city every single day for three and a half months, just being a student of the sport. I didn't push the sled, I didn't load with the guys, I didn't work on the sled, I literally just came up every single day for three and a half months and that was my training. I watch everyone else and watch them how they do it. And then I had to transition in my mind what does that look like for me? Right, I can see the technique and I and I knew I was strong and fast enough, but do I have the technique and the skill set to actually apply?
Speaker 1:it to the sport, and did they have a spot at the time, or was it more like you were an alternate? How did that work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just a guy literally off the streets of Salt Lake City and there wasn't necessarily a spot, but they're always looking to get better and better and better, no matter if it's the athletes or the equipment, whatever it is, give us the very, very best. This is Olympic year. Whoever you are, we'll give you an opportunity to come out and if you can do it and there's a lot of guys and a lot of girls that come out and try bobsled, that are phenomenal athletes, but they don't ever make that A lot of times they don't make the transition, because running on ice is a really weird thing for most people. And so you know, after three and a half months they're like hey, can you, can you drive back up to park city? And I was like oh, yeah, sure. And they're like okay, so we'll see you here in about an hour. So I drive up to park city again from logged in and and they're like all right, today's the day.
Speaker 3:I was like for what? They're like we're gonna have you go down into four men today and I was like okay, this is literally about an hour before the event. Um, cause I didn't know exactly what we were doing. And they're like okay, you've watched right, do you feel comfortable? And you know, we kind of actually touched the sled and did some cadence timing with the team and all that stuff. And they're like how do you feel? And I was like good, I guess I don't know. I, you know, I feel like pretty confident. And so we go up and, um, push three runs with this team and at the end they're like cheering and all excited and I'm like what's, what happened? Like what's going on? They're like that is the very best we've ever done in a four man world team cup trial race. And I was like a what they're like? Oh, that was the team cup trial race to make the world cup team and that's the best we've ever done. And I was like what, that's crazy. So, um, so I, I stayed with that team for probably a good year.
Speaker 3:Um, did america's cup in calgary, did america's cup here, did america's cup in lake placid and did some europa cups over in europe and won gold and all of those and that's that started put me on the radar for team usa1 and team usa2 and team usa3 and team usa1 was ranked number one in the world because they, they were just so dominant and started getting like all the buzz going around and you know, bob sled maybe like any other sport where you're not on contract, is very cutthroat. So if I see, you know Kirk is beating 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 of requests from some of the bigger teams and I was like no, my guys, we're going to figure this out, we're going to do it.
Speaker 3:And two weeks before Olympic trials, a friend of mine comes up, says hey, todd Hayes wants to talk to you. And Todd Hayes is the driver of Team USA1. He and his team are at the hotel up in Park City and they're going to wait for you. Can you be here tomorrow at this time? I was like, yeah, sure. So go to the hotel, sit down, meet with them.
Speaker 3:And they're like so we've been watching you, you are like the pinnacle of like what we'd want to have on our team as an athlete. And, funny enough, they actually say it in the documentary. And you know they're like so because we're team usa one, we have a buy that we don't have to compete in olympic trials. We just we're already on the olympic team and we want to offer you basically a golden willy wonka ticket to join us as a team alternate. And I I was like, oh well, let me talk to my team and see what they say and I'll get back to you. 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 offered what you have to think about. What are you?
Speaker 1:doing. You're like what's going on here, yeah, but you probably don't know exactly the world no right, you don't know it's cutthroat. Not at all, that not like you do now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not even close. No, I had no ideas where, no idea what's going on. So I I called my team together on the next day for breakfast and I said, hey, I gotta take you 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 I need to have a talk with you. And they already had an idea. It wasn't like it wasn't kind of out there already. And I said here's a situation.
Speaker 3:And my driver was like damn it, they do this every time to me, like you're an athlete and they steal 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 are our chances of making the Olympics with a team right now? And he's like, well, we're going to try and do this, we're going to try and do this. And there were too many ifs like for me at that point in time and the rest of my teammates. There were four or five guys and they just said, hey, listen, this is your Willy Wonka ticket, this is your dream. We all came, all of us came together because of you and you. You know, even though we won't make it. This is your opportunity to like, take that willie wonka ticket and move forward.
Speaker 3:And you know, you got a bunch of big, strong guys hugging and crying like little girls and wishing each other the best of luck, and so, with their blessing, I decided to uh, to take the chance and and jump on team haze's crew as a team alternate, um so, which meant I wasn't competing at the time and it was announced, but it did. It did secure my Olympic position, so I'm now an Olympian. Right, team USA. That's awesome, right, yeah, that was I mean, I was. That was ecstatic enough, like you know. Again, reflecting back on when we decided to even pursue this idea, and there were a lot of athletes that were pissed off at me because I showed up out of nowhere- and you just had to be one heck of an athlete, that's for sure, yeah, I try to keep going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I tried my best and, you know, unfortunately I had some great coaches too that helped kind of guide me through. You know, not, not that helped kind of guide me through, um, you know, not, not not only how to be an athlete but how to be a good human being. So, uh, thankfully to them is for that stuff too. But so, yeah, so I, you know, took the willie wonky ticket.
Speaker 3:I'm on the team as an alternate and, um, I'm, I'm literally like carrying everyone else's bags and hey, do you guys need some coffee? Like what do you need? We're on tour and I'm literally just the workhound, I'm just doing the grunt work for everybody else. And and then we are two weeks out from the olympic games. Um, because we we're on tour over in europe and we're in cold weather all the time, we chose to go to olympic training center in san diego for two weeks and get some warm sun and get on the track and feel just good. And, um, unfortunately, one of the teammates that was on the team tested positive for a bad substance that he bought from GNC and of course you know court hearings start kicking in right away because they figure this out really, really quick.
Speaker 3:He was actually my mentor and he was actually the first guy I watched on Team USA push over in St Louis, switzerland. His name's Pavle Jovanovic, but he was considered one of the best bobsled athletes in the entire world and everyone's like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do? Like what's going on. And you know they're like, hey, you got to start getting ready, like mentally, in case this goes down. I was like, well, I've mentally been ready the whole time, so you'll just call me up, I'll be ready to rock and roll. And you know, the judgment came down that they were going to ban him and cut him off the team and give him like a four-year ban. And so I got the call and we came back to Salt Lake City because the teams are doing Olympic trials also, still just to get more runs on the track. And Todd Hayes is like, hey, listen, I know we weren't planning on having you push before the Olympics, but everybody's pissed off that we chose you. They don't think that you're the right guy. They don't think that you could fill the shoes of any of the guys on my team. So let's go ahead and have you push in a four man and just show them and shut everybody's mouth Right. And I said, ok, cool, ahead and have you push in a four-man and just show them and and shut everybody's mouth right. And I said, okay, cool.
Speaker 3:So we, we pushed in a four-man competition before the olympics and literally broke the track record and destroyed everybody at the start, and so I kind of shut the whispers up, um, oh cool.
Speaker 3:And and I think it also gave confidence to my team as well to like, okay, he, he actually is at the same level as the rest of us.
Speaker 3:And so, um, it was then announced worldwide and, you know, during the Olympics here in Salt Lake city is like so surreal for me, right, I'm doing opening ceremonies and, um, you know, I grew up on these streets here, and to see the Olympic rings on the on the up there on the Hill and starting to remember, like, um, the journey that got me to where I am at that point in time, right, and realizing that we actually did change our stars and we actually did accomplish this monumental goal of going from this kid that no one ever expected to do anything to now representing Utah and the United States at the Olympic Games and I just remember. There's so many memories of like walking into the Olympic ceremonies and just people screaming USA, knowing that all my friends and family members are in the crowd and, you know, having that opportunity to race at the Olympic Games in your home state in front of your family and friends and everybody included.
Speaker 3:And not only that, we won an olympic medal, we won a silver medal in the first olympic medal the team usa has won in 46 years and that's incredible it was just so surreal and you know, coming out to when, when we had 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 all that was getting in trouble, she, she held up a sign that says mijito, which is my son. I told you that dreams do come true and I'm, you know tears are coming down and realizing that. You know where we, where we had the uh the award ceremony, like within blocks, I had run the streets there and eaten out of garbage cans and slept on the streets and, um, to just have that opportunity of realizing that you did create something where your dreams do come true. And now you have an opportunity to share that with the world, to hopefully inspire other people, 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 beautiful human beings all around us. If we choose to focus on that, that, we can create anything we want.
Speaker 3:And and so my uh college coaches at Weber State um always used to tell me, anytime I did anything, well, once they'd say, any fool could do it once. So I decided to pursue two more Olympic games, so I did 2006 in Torino and then 2010 in Vancouver, and that was interesting because we went through the 2008 crisis of our economy and, like other people, I lost gosh half a million dollars in personal sponsorships and lost my house and lost a car. Million dollars in personal sponsorships 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 and and a lot of times people like focus on the downfalls, right and but those downfalls are are keys to the, to the rise to success as well, and I, fortunately, have had a lot of downfalls that I've learned from in life to create success in both sports, life and business.
Speaker 2:so so after you retired from being an Olympic athlete, you stayed involved with the Olympics. What's your role now and what does that feel like to be like, back involved with the Olympics and coming back to Salt Lake City in 2034. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's super cool. After Salt Lake, after I won my Olympic medal, I did. I don't know if this is a great idea or a bad idea, but I just remember walking the streets of Salt Lake City when there was pretty much empty, like the excitement of the Olympic and Paralympic Games was just, and I was walking and I was walking downtown and I was like just looking and I was like you know what, if the Olympics ever come back, I want an opportunity to serve on that side and and help serve our athletes and our community. And there was no conversation at my level as an athlete that we were going to pursue another Olympics back then. And so so I I originally didn't stay involved with sports a whole lot. You know, after, after 2010, I got into entrepreneur and doing my own companies and stuff like that 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 a while. 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 I'm. I feel like that I'm extremely guided in a positive way through life and, um, somehow I just started getting back involved into sports and business and consulting and coaching and stuff.
Speaker 3:And then we started having discussions at the Olympic level that they were looking for somebody to kind of run the alumni chapter. So we have alumni chapters in every state for Olympic and Paralympic athletes. And back in 2018, somebody said, oh, you should put your name in to be the Utah chapter president. And I was like, eh, I've kind of been like off the radar, like nobody even really remembers me anymore, but if they need somebody to do it, I think I could do it.
Speaker 3:So back in 2018, I put my name in and had to be voted on upon my peers and now I'm serving my second term, um, as a chapter president for the Utah Olympic and Paralympic alumni. And um six months ago, um, the California president said, hey, you should put your name in for the executive committee. And I was like why, he must've seen something like right. So, um, I said, you know what I was actually? You know, at that point in time I started getting more involved with my companies and so I was a partner in three tech companies and three consulting companies and all this other stuff and I was like, man, I don't know if I want to take on that responsibility, because it's a lot of work with no pay.
Speaker 3:But I was like well, remember that one time you had that conversation with yourself at the Olympics ever come back Like this would be a good way for you to kind of be a part of that. So I put my name in six months ago with absolutely no thought of being elected, and just recently got elected, In fact. We'll actually make it official next month when we go to our annual meeting.
Speaker 1:That is so cool. Congratulations, I think that's so cool. It's going to be hard work, but congratulations, it is going to be hard work.
Speaker 3:So the thing is, a lot of people don't understand too the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and the US Olympic Committee are two completely separate entities. So one of the things I've really wanted to do over the years is really build the relationship with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and at the end of the day, we're all the same people. We all come from the same cloth and we all want the same thing. It's a great experience for Utah and the world to come here in 2034. And so now, serving on the executive committee, I have more of an opportunity to be more involved in those conversations that stem not only from Salt Lake 2034, but what's going on in LA 28, cortina.
Speaker 3:Um, I get to sit on all sorts of conversations and, like some of them, we don't really enjoy them, but that's, that's comes with the territory of. You know, serving on the executive committee of an organization like the united states olympic and paralympic committee, and when we go to colorado springs next month for the meetings um, it's funny how this keeps working out I was asked to also put my name in as a president of the overall entire national chapter, or so Wow, we'll see if that happens as well, but I'm just excited to be in this position and have an opportunity to sit here and reflect back on the journey of where it started and where it's gone, and now being in a position more of service than anything to have this chance to do that and, like, just even sit here with you two gentlemen and chat.
Speaker 1:You're way cooler than we are.
Speaker 1:But I want to ask a question before I forget, because it feels like multiple times at least three major times in your life you decided that you had a decision, that you had a choice, as you called it right, certainly when you were in your youth, and then after you hurt your ankle, and then in 08 and probably other times in your life.
Speaker 1:Maybe talk a little bit about the psychology of that, because whether someone's going through something major or something, they just have a big goal in life. Maybe, right, you grew up in a certain culture and I think it's easy to just say, yep, that's the way it is, I grew up that way, that's the way it is, it's how it's always going to be right, or, oh, that's too big of a goal, there's just no way I could do that, regardless of how you grow up. So can you talk a little about, maybe, the psychology in your head that got you in each one of those moments in time to say time out, I can do anything I want, I have choices. Maybe just dive a little deeper into that, because I'm thinking about my own kids, right? Yeah, absolutely, what would I want them to hear like?
Speaker 3:that, yeah, well, you know, I think it is too. And if, if we're just even talking about kids that have these big goals and dreams, like sometimes, you know, I have kids now, right, and and the, the whole point of doing everything I did was to be in a situation where I could provide better for my kids too, right, and so having the, the blessing to kind of help guide them along and and and help them realize that whatever you want to do in life, you can. You can do it, and you know there are plenty of people out there that are going to be willing to support you. But if we talk about a little bit of the darker side even, you know, there, there, and there are a lot of dark sides to my story. You know I didn't even get into it after 2010,. I went to a massive depression that lasted eight and a half years, of me falling into alcoholism, addiction, partying, victim mentality, suicide, mental health and all that stuff. And for me, I just realized and I think we all have that same conversation, even when we're in those bad situations like I don't like this, right, this sucks, I hate this. Why is this happening? Happening to me, all those things that you're telling yourself. There is some truth to that, but, the end of the day, the only ones that are going to get us 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 could be going through some really dark, terrible, hard stuff that I might think that you guys might understand. But I still can make a choice to say hey, kurt, I am struggling with something. Would you be willing to help support me on something? Or I just need to talk to somebody about it. Right, it's? It's when we keep all that chaos inside of ourselves and choose to allow it to fester within us, we're, we're, we're making a conscious choice to allow it to fester within us. We're, we're making a conscious choice to allow that to happen. Oh, I don't, you know, and I've been there plenty of times oh, I don't want, I don't want these guys to know that I'm struggling, but so I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna wear this mask in in 2019.
Speaker 3: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, the guy's like, oh my gosh, I know your story about, like the suicide part that happened in 2016. And we'd get into that as well if we need to. But he's like you would be the perfect person to be the speaker at my event and I was like there's no way I am not going to go and start telling people that I went through a massive mental health problem and suicidal and addict, and you know, after winning the Olympics, and like, no, that's not. I don't want people to like think that way of me and you know this is my story, so it might be very, very different than a lot of people's, but I turned him down and I went home and my personal life I constantly have conversations with my higher power on a regular basis, 24-7. That's literally what helps guide me to make the right decisions in my life. And so I went home that night and was having these conversations or prayers, or whatever you want to think about it, and the the the response I got was like I've I've put you in this position on purpose because you have the strength to overcome all these things and you are supposed to be a role model to other people. You can handle this and I want you to move forward and I want you to go tell your story.
Speaker 3:And you know, I woke up the next day and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm going to go tell, like this story of my biggest failure in life in front of people that were clients of mine, like, and people I work with I mean, there's the governor and some of these people that we all know were at this event and I was like I'm literally going to be the most vulnerable human being that I could ever be and tell everybody that I completely failed after becoming an Olympic champion, right? And so you know, what I found that's worked for me is I just don't allow negativity to live within my architecture. So I'm pretty conscious and when I work with clients, too, I talk. Funny enough, we're at your place talking about architecture. I am very conscious and very aware of my life architecture and if there are things that are showing up in my life architecture that are not serving me directly, then they've got to go, and those can be people, places and things, and so you know with you know with young athletes, with adults, wherever you're at in life, again, what is it that you want to do If you want to become a CEO of a massive construction company. There's probably a few of them around here that I could go and reach out to and say, corey, you know what? I want to start a construction company and be a CEO. You know, could you help, maybe guide 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 it over and over again we live in an omnipotent world with so much opportunity we were talking about it even with you guys' transition, with you and your wife, into your business. What is it you want to do and figure out? What does that architecture need to look like for you to accomplish that?
Speaker 3:Because too many people in today's day and age is filling their lives with what I call near wins. Near win is like perfect timing. We've got the new year's coming up. How many people go out and say, this year I'm going to get in shape and I'm going to be financially sound, blah, blah, blah. They go out and they find themselves a financial coach, a fitness coach, they, they seek out a food delivery that's more healthy.
Speaker 3:They go out and buy, you know new gym clothes and they get a gym membership and they go to the gym for a week or two or three or four weeks and all of a sudden they fall off. They got their near win. They don't do it again until the whole, near the whole, until the next year, and they're in this vicious cycle. So they keep filling themselves with these near wins, which eventually chips away at their integrity, and this equals out failure every single time. So instead of chipping your, you know, chipping away at these near wins, like again, why don'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't have to be a girl, whatever. Find those people, you know, dan Clark.
Speaker 3:Dan Clark's a really good friend of mine. He's been on the podcast, yeah, so dan actually is part of one of my companies. Now, you know, dan always taught me back in the day, you become some of the seven people you 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 nfl coaches and other athletes that have that same mindset. You want to be a construction CEO? Let's go find those guys. You want to run the best men's suits and clothing company in the world? Let's go find more of those people. There's hundreds of millions of people who've done it before us.
Speaker 3:We just have to be self-aware enough to take accountability.
Speaker 3:I was telling you I'm going to Jack Canfield this week.
Speaker 3:One of the things he taught me to is take a hundred percent accountability Doesn't mean it's always right or wrong, but what taking a hundred percent accountability does when you do that and you can do it is helping you see from the outside in on what you're doing, and that was like one of the hardest lessons I had to learn. It is taking a hundred percent accountability back then, of all the stuff that was happening in my life from 2010 until 2018. Cause I was. I was just creating chaos after chaos after chaos, and when, when I was able to take that accountability and see what I was doing and how other people were interacting with me, I was like, oh, I get it. Now it's me being self-aware enough and taking that accountability to not make, and continue to make, the same wrong decisions day in and day out. And I think that's what a lot of people do is they get in this vicious cycle. They're filling their world with near wins, excuses, victim mentality, so on and so on, and it becomes natural for them.
Speaker 1: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 thinking about work, I'm thinking about myself and I'm thinking, okay, you said, be accountable, even if it wasn't your fault, be accountable anyway. I think of that, like with people at work, it's always well, this guy didn't show up on time and this owner didn't show up on time and this owner didn't make 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 have a proactive mindset, right? Right, you're going to have a what could I have done different so that someone else didn't make a mistake? You're same thing with kids, right?
Speaker 1:Yep, I remember my daughter asked for a rabbit once and I said no. And she said I knew you were going to say no and I said, well, it's because you haven't even tried yet. Like, think about it for a minute. What could you do? You could tell me how to take care of it, you could come up with the money, you could show me how easy it is. Like you haven't even tried. All you did is your point. I just love how you said be accountable even to things that maybe wasn't your fault, maybe, but if you just have this accountability mentality and non victim mentality, that's awesome. Yeah, no, I I'm going to remember that one forever.
Speaker 3:I literally lived my my life day in and day out that way.
Speaker 2:But, Kurt, you were going to say something yeah, I was actually going to before we end. I wanted to touch on, um, the end part of that dark period of your life, when you were at the end of that eight and a half years. Was there something that you can put your finger on that you said this is what I did to get out of that, because I think there's a lot of people that listen to the podcast that may be in a similar situation. They may feel similar about life and the place that they are, about failures that they've made or those near wins that you're talking about. Can you put your finger on one specific thing? Like, was it just you coming out and saying you know what I need help? Like, did you talk to somebody?
Speaker 2:Um, was there an event in your life that triggered that? Was it like getting involved back in the Olympic community? Cause, in my head, I'm going, okay, eight years that was 2018, which is actually when you threw your name in to serve again. Yep, right, so will you. I don't want that to be your answer per se, but if it is like I was just doing the mental math and I'm like, okay, this is when he started to look outward again, yeah, no, that's a great question and and and there was a myriad of things right.
Speaker 3:And you know, I I had the opportunity to watch and you guys, you know, bring a lot of people on here and talk about being great parents and what does it take to be a great parent too? And part of my my start to the next, that journey was reflecting back on me, wanting to change my star so I could be a better parent for my kids. And at that point in time, I was not being a good parent. I was being very, very selfish and very, very victim mentality. And at that same time, I was connecting with a guy talking about taking corporate retreats to the U? S Olympic committee and we're just having a business conversation. He's like hey, um, tomorrow I'm actually going to jump on this, this zoom call with a bunch of people and we are going to do. He's like I, he's a, he's a coach, and he's like I want to, uh, bring this organization called TMIC to the world and it stands for the most important conversation. He's like I'd love to have you on if you're interested. And I'm thinking to myself oh my gosh, here we go with these life coaches and business coaches Like this is a waste of my time, but I had nothing else left. I, you know I'd done the therapy. It didn't work. You know, I had my friends that I'd talked to when things were going bad and nothing was working. I was just kind of at my end and you know to stress, even in this conversation for people that are listening I was on my very, very last leg. You know, I tried the suicide in 2016 and wasn't successful, thankfully. Tried the suicide in 2016 and wasn't successful, thankfully, and things that I just didn't do any work between then and that point in time to get any better. And at this point in time I said, yeah, I'll jump on this Zoom call and kind of see what this is all about. And you guys have heard me talk about it a few times already through here.
Speaker 3:But the first conversation that I have with Chad LaFavor, who's the coach in this program and now actually one of my business partners, he says the first thing I want to ask you guys is do you lead a life by default or do you lead a life by design? And I was like what is this guy talking about? And this is in 2018. He says well, if you lead a life by design. Everything's going well. Your relationships, your business, you're happy, you don. Everything's going well. Your relationships, your business you're happy. You don't have any. You know weird, crazy stuff in your closet. You know you feel in alignment and I was like no, no, no, no, no. He's like. But if you lead a life by default which most you know, good majority of people do it some to some degree, but you're not happy, you're not. You know, you're not fulfilled, you're not in alignment, he's like it's not too late to take a look at your architecture and figure out what's serving you and what's not serving you. Once we identify the things that are not serving you, then we can start decluttering those things out of the architecture and start rebuilding that with new, better processes, better thoughts, better ideas, better practices.
Speaker 3:At the same, I'd got a scholarship from this guy named Jack Canfield, who at the time I didn't know who it was, but then I was like, oh, suit for your soul, I've heard of those somewhere. And so, literally that same week, I had that conversation about my life, architecture with TMIC and then, at the same time, I had a conversation with Jack Canfield talking about taking a hundred percent, a hundred percent accountability. And Jack has this equation called E plus R equals O, and I added an E to it. But it's, you know, you have an event or, sorry, I added an R. You have an event plus a response or a reaction equals the outcome. The more you can respond as opposed to react to that event, then you can dictate that outcome. So I was fortunate enough that, you know, my higher power threw two big learning lessons at me at the same time.
Speaker 3:I still had to choose to continue to be involved. I still had to choose to grab my laptop and jump on the computer and jump on these TMIC meetings and you know, take the learning lessons from Jack Canfield. But I just realized again that I wanted something better. I knew there was something better. There's no way that my legacy was meant for this to make it to the Olympics to fall completely off. And so, being, you know, a guy and you know, six foot 250, 60 pounds, something like that Um, I realized that I had to do something different, and one of those things that I had to do different was become vulnerable.
Speaker 3:The reason I had to become vulnerable is because I had to reach out to the people that were closest to me and say I need help. Because I had to reach out to the people that were closest to me and say I need help and, funny enough, I still have the letter I wrote to a handful of people in my phone that was me being extremely vulnerable, saying I need help. This is what's been going on. Nobody had any clue how bad it had got. But then I actually had to take action on these constant and consistent trainings with TMIC Global, with Jack Canfield, and really start to implement them.
Speaker 3:And you know, early on, one of the things that really helped me out is that I wanted to figure out what was my purpose after the Olympics, because there was a big, massive loss of my purpose on who I was as an athlete any longer. And thankfully, thankfully, through Jack Canfield and Chad LaFaveur's program and TMIC, I came to find out or discovered that service was my number one pillar of focus in life. And realizing that at the time you know we live in in Utah and very prominent LDS, you know state and you know so I'd heard all my family members and friends and all that like, oh yeah, being of service was, like you know, so rewarding and I was like, no, what are they talking about. So I was like you know what I have? No, I have no other options except to try and see if this works. And so I started, like trying to find ways to be of more service to others, be, you know, less less focused on me even though I did have to be focused on me was but really start to implementing a lot of the lessons and strategies and education I was learning from these two groups.
Speaker 3:And went to AA Admitting that you have an alcoholic problem. That was really really difficult back then, because, as an athlete, that's what we did to celebrate hey, you won a race, let's pull out the champagne and blah, blah, blah. And then also admitting that you had that big of a problem that was financially impacting your life, emotionally impacting your life, that nobody wanted to spend time with you because you were such a hot mess. And again it really came back to that hundred percent accountability thing. And you know, I, I, I, after that first conversation with Chad about living in life by default or by design, I went into my bathroom and I looked in the mirror at myself. And I looked at myself in the mirror until I saw myself for the very first time in 48 years, I think at the time and it was such a eye opening emotional experience because I I literally did see myself and it's, it's.
Speaker 3:It was a weird experience and just started having the conversation that, hey, listen, you know what? You have a shiz ton of problems that you created. The only reason that you're in the space that you're in is because you allowed these things to 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 this point in time, like having, by myself, in tears in my bathroom, said no one's going to come save you, god's not going to come save you, but you have the tools and resources to save yourself.
Speaker 3:And I had to ask myself do you want something better? Do you think that there's a better life to yourself? Do you want to be a good father to your kids? Do you eventually, someday, want to be a great husband? Do you want to be a great friend? Do you want to be a great cousin? So on and so on. And every time I asked myself that question, the answer was 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.
Speaker 3:And so I literally just started trying to find ways to be extremely accountable for everything I did. It was it was almost like coming up with the very first business plan you ever wrote right, okay, I can't go out and drink every single day, check, right. Just, I mean weird things like that had to literally start at ground zero and and start making those 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 School of Business and got an executive management certification and I just started like connecting to all these things Like how do I make myself better as a human being Cause I don't need to make myself better as an athlete anymore Cause those are years are gone but how do I make myself better as a human being?
Speaker 3:And if service is my number one pillar, how do I make myself better as a human being to them, be of service to other people, to actually help support them in whatever situation they're in? So long story short again, that's that's kind of the route I went, but I really relied on um people around me. I had to change my, my architecture, people, places and things, um, because I have family members that want to go out and party and I was like I can't do that and um. So it was an extremely difficult decision and it took some time, but you know, I'm, I, it's I'm. I'm thankful that I did take that accountability, because now the opportunities I've had since 20, even 2016, we'll even say 2018 have been so monumental that it's, it's. You look back and you're just like man, whoever that was. I'm so glad they put me in the position to be here today and just do the things I do. And so now I guess get to do what I do, whatever I want to do, day in and day out, and it's, it's, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:That's an inspiring story. That's super cool. I love it, thank you. Thank you for sharing the vulnerable parts of that story with us, because I think that's what makes it so good. Yeah, um, anybody can sit and listen to a you know story about. This is how I was successful. Follow me Right, right, but where you you've been kind of on this roller coaster where you started 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 yourself down in the troughs, you have to picture yourself back up on the mountain and you've done a good job of that and I'm proud of you for the success that you've had and the impact that you're having on other lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Thanks for what you do in our community and thanks for sharing the things that you did today. I think it's going to be a powerful podcast for a lot of people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's beautiful. I mean, I'm going to assume the three of us live a pretty good life here and it's not like we all haven't probably been through something in our lives, right? And I think that's what a lot of times people see us here at our tops, I guess, if you will and assume that everything has just been like this beautiful rainbow the whole time. But it is like you said, kirk, it's life and things happen and you know we just have to make the right choices on how we navigate those waters. You know again, if you want to be a CEO, then you go to classes to be a CEO. If you want to be a doctor, you go to classes to be a doctor.
Speaker 3:If you want to be a good human being, there's plenty of community out there to help us become great human beings. And if you're suffering in life a lot of people out there that have suffered and overcame, and you know being one of them, you know, and now being, uh, uh, someone who chooses to be of service to others, to help them out Um, it's, it's always nice to be able to do that and be in that position. So, thank you.
Speaker 1:That's super cool. I'm with you.
Speaker 3:I think God allowed you to go through those things, so you, could be who you are and tell the stories that you do. Yeah, 100, super cool. Yeah, so, and then, yeah, what's next? Okay, we can keep talking forever, but I feel like we totally could and it'd probably be a value.
Speaker 1:We might need a phase too, this interview, but well, when the Olympics get closer.
Speaker 2:I'm 100 in, yeah, you know, and as things start to happen and you, you're going to have some cool stories to share, and the ones that you can share, we'd love to. We'd love to have you on again At the end of every podcast. We've asked every guest over the last four years it's been four years, corey. That blows my mind. I think it's this week actually, dang. 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 what they think it means to be a gentleman. Would you give us your definition of that?
Speaker 3:Oh man, good grief. You know as crazy and as chaotic as my life is growing up. You know I was fortunate enough to still have parents that cared, even though they were addicts to the extreme. I had parents that cared. I had a grandma who cared very deeply and she just always told me you know, at the foundation of who you are, just be a good person. And that's why now I'm of service to others is just being a good person, and that's why now I'm of service to others is just being a good person. And you know, don't turn your head from opportunities to help another human being out when they're right there in front of you. So you know, being a gentleman is just being a good human being, not so much a human doing.
Speaker 2:Whoa.
Speaker 1:Great answer.
Speaker 2:Never heard that one before.
Speaker 1:No, that was a good one. That was a good one that was a good drop mic drop.
Speaker 2:There you go. Don't drop the mic, right, well, bill. Thank you very much, uh. If people want to connect with you, uh, how do they do that?
Speaker 3:yeah, the easiest way. And, uh, I got a full salary because we're doing a bunch of rebranding One of the other stores. I started another company, but another story to be told, but you can just go to my website, the Olympian speakscom. It is under reconstruction but all my contact info is still on there. So, yeah, love to help support any people, organizations, groups, if I can. And yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks everybody for joining us today, spending the time with us and listening to Bill and Bill's story. Hopefully you find value in it. If you did share it with somebody whose name popped into your head while you were listening to it I know several popped into mine and that was a prompting and follow those promptings. Act on each good thought. I'm Kirk Chug.
Speaker 1:And I'm Corey Moore. Thanks for listening.
