Jeremy Bloom is the only athlete in history to ever ski in the Winter Olympics and also be drafted into the National Football League.  This conversation is about an hour, but it easily could have been 10, if we really got into all of the things that Jeremy’s accomplished in his life so far.  Seriously if you read his Wikipedia page it sounds like the “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercial.  He’s a CEO, an author, he founded his own non-profit organization, he received his black belt when he was 12….I don’t think there’s anything Jeremy can’t do.  But another incredible quality that he possesses, besides never sitting around and letting life happen to him is his contentment around the fact that every role he has or ever will play, will eventually come to an end, change or evolve at some point.  And he says that he actually loves reinventing himself and starting at the bottom of the mountain again and again. 

Brett Dennen’s journey to becoming a rock star began with a dream to become one of those super cool, long haired, summer camp counselors that wears hiking boots and plays old guitars by the campfire.  Now he’s a famous singer, song writer that tours around the world.  But he does it pretty differently than most.  At the beginning of his career, he realized that it was pretty easy to get stuck in a pattern of playing at the same venues in the same city’s over and over again.  He realized there’s so much more out there than just the established way, and the reality is that “established way” doesn’t really always work for everyone anyway.  So, he decided to expand his thinking and then his actions to do things differently and play in different capacities.  From small dive bars on the East coast to mountain resorts on the West, he decided he wanted to travel to his audience instead of having them come to him.  And while he was mixing things up, why not add in his passions for skiing and surfing too?  And then wrap it all up by using his platform to raise awareness around preserving and protecting these environments he loves.  And talk about climate change and give everyone a real and tangible call to action to get involved!  This is Brett Dennen’s story and it’s all about how he’s learned to dance to the beat of his own drum.

What happens after the Olympics have come and gone?  For some athletes, they’ll take the next 4 years to prepare for another chance.  For others, this was their last opportunity to compete on the world’s largest stage and they may spend the next four years trying to figure out what’s next.  Transition is a phase of life that we will all go through, many times, and yet it’s almost something we’re ashamed to talk about and experience in our society. Transition and the discovery that our identities are so much more than just our professions and the accomplishments we achieve, is a major theme Olympic Bronze medalist swimmer, Caroline Burckle, and Gretchen discuss in this podcast.  As impressive as Caroline’s accolades are, equally impressive is her fearless approach to sharing the vulnerable aspects of her success.  Gretchen and Caroline also touch on  things like being addicted to pain, the art of learning how to turn it OFF, depression, and a major take away that they couldn’t help but continue to come back to was this concept of integrating these seemingly opposing qualities that we all have within us......the bad ass that knows we can accomplish our dreams and goals and then the part of us that has a really big heart and feels guilty for having those desires, because we also just want to make sure that everyone else is happy......Caroline says you don’t get very far by only wanting to be one or the other.......

Arielle Gold has just come off a silver medal at the Winter X Games in Aspen, CO where she had the run of her life and just narrowly missed the gold by only 1 point.  Now she’s competing at her 2nd Winter Olympics.  In this episode, we dig into an experience that many of us have or will face at some point in our lives, how fear has the ability to bury our passions without us even knowing it.  And we get to a point where we start to question if we should still be going after our dreams.  The good news is Arielle has reconnected with her fire and reclaimed positive momentum in a major way.  And now we get to learn the tools and techniques she used to come out on the other side.  Have a listen and then cheer Arielle on as she competes in the Olympic halfpipe finals on February 12th at 6pm MT.

If there’s ever a time to peak in an athlete’s career, it’s right before the Olympics.  And that’s exactly what professional freestyle skier, and Aspen native, Alex Ferreira, has been doing on the contest circuit the past year.  This year, Alex easily qualified for his first US Olympic Team in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  He’s only 23 years old and in his talk he quotes Theodore Roosevelt and Warren Buffet.  He talks about a really important concept that most of us need reminding of: that sometimes when we’ve been grinding away on perfecting our craft, what can be the most beneficial to growth and acceleration is not more discipline, but actually taking a step away in order to explore, be spontaneous and reconnect to the source passion that fueled us in the first place.  Watch Alex compete in ski halfpipe finals on February 22nd.  

Ricky’s the head coach of the men and women’s US Olympic Snowboard Halfpipe Team.  This will be Ricky’s 4th Olympics, he’s a ripping skateboarder, the 1999 Snowboarding World Champion, and it’s Ricky who’s responsible for getting Gretchen to learn a crippler; the trick that she became most known for in her career.  In their conversation they discuss reactions from others when you follow your heart, tapping into the zone, how communication is everything when it comes to breakthroughs, and the secret to winning on the world’s largest stage in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  Watch him on February 13th and 14th as he coaches the world’s best snowboarders from the top of the halfpipe.