Mindset Stories

Shaun Suisham doesn’t believe in momentum. To him it only shows up when you choose to take the emotional ride.
He grew up in Wallaceburg, Ontario, playing hockey and soccer, and became a kicker because his high school team needed one. About five weeks after he first thought about playing football in the US, he was enrolled at Bowling Green, without kicking cleats. He went undrafted and was hired and fired almost every week for two years. After he missed a 23-yard kick, he was fired, so he made that exact kick the first one he took every day. He went on to play 11 seasons in the NFL, including a Super Bowl with the Steelers. Today he’s the director of girls’ hockey for Pittsburgh Penguins Elite.
Shaun explains why he missed a kick in the Super Bowl, and how he used his breathing to make sure it didn’t happen again. It wasn’t nerves, it was excitement. His 20/20 hindsight: separate the human from the athlete. If you’ve ever let one mistake follow you onto the next play, this one’s for you.

The result tells you what happened. It doesn’t tell you who you are.
Luc and Sara look back on their last three guests: Cassidy Preston, Grant Yangst and Rich Peverley. None of their paths followed the script. Luc and Sara cover:

• why adapting isn’t giving up
• why early success can work against young athletes
• why a reset routine stops working when there’s something you won’t accept
• how accepting your role is how you earn a bigger one

If you’ve ever been told there’s only one path to the next level, this one’s for you.

Every level told Rich Peverley where his ceiling was. Good college player. ECHL guy. American League player. He kept proving it wrong.Rich went undrafted, from St. Lawrence to the ECHL in South Carolina and Reading, then to Milwaukee, Nashville, Atlanta, and a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011. Then, at 31, he suffered a cardiac arrest on the bench in Dallas, and the game he had fought his whole life to play was taken away. He talks with Luc and Sara about earning every opportunity, finding confidence when it doesn't come naturally, accepting the end of his playing career, and building a new one in the Dallas Stars front office.His 20/20 hindsight: "Have realistic goals, but don't give up." If you've ever been told you're not good enough for the next level, this one is for you.

At 17, Grant Yingst is playing forward for the Oshawa Generals in the OHL, and he got there by learning to reset one shift at a time.
Grant grew up in Pittsburgh in a close hockey family and chose Shady Side Academy to stay near home and keep school first. He talks about the hard work that turned an OHL camp invite into a contract offer, the chin strap reset that changed how he plays, and why he now sees mindset work as "a complete gift." He also shares the daily habits behind his work ethic, like extra time on the bike and giving three compliments a day.
His 20/20 hindsight: "Enjoy the process and don't let external validation hold you back." If you're an athlete working toward your next level, this one is for you.

At seventeen, Cassidy Preston made the OHL, then got scratched 48 times and finished his NHL draft year with zero points. Back home in North Bay, someone told him they would have scored at least one. He went home and cried, and then he had to decide whether to quit.Cassidy, the founder and CEO of CEP Mindset and our mentor, shares what came next: why he refused to let that season define him, how learning to adapt (not just grind) changed his game, the "confidence pills" that didn't work, and the phone call with his dad that turned envy into inspiration. He also opens up about growing up with an old-school "never give up" mentality, what parents can learn from his car rides home, and why he still works on his own mindset every week.His 20/20 hindsight: "You can really want the external goals, however don't lose sight of who you're being and why you love it in the first place." If you've ever had a season that made you question everything, this one is for you.

If your confidence rises and falls with ice time, stats or what your coach said after the game, you've handed someone else the keys. In this episode, Luc and Sara look back at the lessons from Gina Kingsbury, Brad McKenzie and Doug Christensen. They talk about why you can't be great at everything, why vague feedback like "work harder" leaves your brain guessing, and why a coach's belief should be the cherry on top of your confidence, not the source of it. You'll also hear the reality check from Doug that stuck with both of them: sometimes your best isn't good enough, and that's okay too. If you've ever felt like you were always falling short, this one's for you.

Doug Christiansen didn't know healthy scratches existed. He found out he was one.
Doug is the commissioner of ECAC Hockey, an NCAA Division I conference. He grew up outside Milwaukee, played four years at Union, spent time in the minors, and has put in fifteen-plus years between coaching and hockey front offices, including the USHL, before coming back to the league he played in. He says the jump from high school to junior was the hardest of his entire career, harder than college to pro, because it was the first room where everyone had done exactly what he had done.
He also talks about the rule his family held him to when he wanted to quit, which was that you finish the season and you never decide anything while you're still emotionally invested. His line on it: you're probably not as good as people think you are, and you're probably not as bad as people think you are.

Three or four coaches he trusted told him not to do it. All but one said moving down to Junior A was a road you don't come back from.
Brad McKenzie is the head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads in the QMJHL. He was an instructor at 13, co-wrote a book on the psychology of hockey at 18, went to Finland at 19 as the youngest student in his class, and was coaching university players who were older than he was. Then, newly married and a month after buying a house in his hometown, he left a good QMJHL job to go be a head coach in a town of 5,000 people where nobody knew who he was. Two years later he was back, and he would not have the job he has now without it.
His 20/20 hindsight: "We're all so worried about making the right decision. Make the decision right." If you've ever been stuck on a decision because you were waiting to be sure, this one is for you.

Two Olympic golds. Six world championships. General manager of the Toronto Sceptres, and eight years running Canada's national women's program.
Gina Kingsbury has been the player fighting for a roster spot and the person deciding who gets one, and in this episode she talks honestly about both. Getting cut in 2002 and what the hardest part actually was, which wasn't the doubt. It was the phone call to her parents. Why she still feels behind after all of it. And the difference she's built her life around:
"Nice people tell you what you want to hear. Kind people tell you what you need to hear."
Plus why saying your goal out loud matters more than protecting yourself from missing it.

Nico Somerville was named a team captain in his third year of college. It turned out to be the year he got scratched the most.

Nico is going into his third season of being pro hockey player in the ECHL. This season he will be playing with Greenville after spending the past two in Wichita, and prior to that four years in the NCAA and four in the BCHL. He left home at 14. For years he handled not playing the way most athletes do, by grinding harder physically, two-a-days, first guy on and last guy off, until he admitted the part he was avoiding was the mental side. Nothing was wrong with him physically. He calls that a tough pill to swallow. The conversation that changed it was with his older brother Luc, who is sitting across from him in this episode.

Nico talks about separating who he is on the ice from who he is off it, and what he would tell the version of himself who went quiet and pulled into a shell: everything is going to be okay.