Utah has always held a deep emotional imprint for me. It’s where I stepped into my first Olympic Games, where the air felt different, where dreams suddenly carried weight, and where the reality of performance under pressure became very real. Every time I return, I’m reminded of who I was then, who I’ve become, and how the process between those two identities shaped my life.
Recently, I had the privilege of revisiting this special place to speak at the SNAC International Executive Leadership Forum, an event that brought together some of the most innovative executives in the snack industry. My life today sits at this beautiful intersection of High Performance, Wellness, and Business. As a professional speaker, I’m often invited to discuss performance psychology, reinvention, and mindset. The room was filled with individuals actively shaping the future of their organizations, their categories, and in many ways, their consumers’ daily lives.
It was the perfect environment to deliver my keynote, The Gold Medal Mindset, and to explore what sustainable excellence really looks like in a world that refuses to stand stay the same.
Stepping onto that stage reminded me of something I learned early in my athletic career: performance is rarely about inspiration in the moment - it's about the habits built long before the the curtain is ripped open and the spotlight hits. That idea has guided so much of my work as a motivational speaker, and it resonated with the leaders in the room because the core principles are universal and transferable.
These are lessons that carried me through multiple Olympic cycles and continue to shape how I approach business, reinvention, and life today:
Motivation is fleeting. Discipline is what remains when motivation disappears. The highest performers don’t wait to feel ready. They train, prepare, and build structure until readiness becomes automatic.
You don’t magically elevate under stress. You default to your training. The same is true for leaders navigating unpredictable markets, shifting consumer behavior, or internal uncertainty. IE: Your body never asks you what you would like to do when under pressure or in a crisis - it merely just defaults to what you’ve practiced the most.
What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow - and that isn’t a threat, it’s an opportunity. Reinvention is not an occasional act; it’s a continual commitment to retooling, analyzing, and evolving.
These principles show up everywhere - in Olympic arenas, in boardrooms, in team dynamics, and in personal growth. They are just as relevant for athletes as they are for executives, founders, or emerging leaders trying to build something meaningful.
One of my favorite moments at the forum came from attending a session led by Michael Peroutka of Gopuff. His perspective on clarity, decision-making, and purpose echoed something I’ve seen repeatedly in sport and business:
Organizations that endure are anchored to their “why,” even as their strategy evolves.
He spoke about meeting consumers where they are, leveraging technology, and refining operational clarity. These are the ideas that apply not only to distribution and logistics but also to the way individuals and teams approach leadership.
As someone who now engages in engaging with executives, teams and delivering inspirational talks across industries, I’m constantly reminded that the principles behind elite sport mirror the principles behind elite business performance. Purpose creates direction. Clarity eliminates friction. Teams thrive when they know what matters and why.
This intersection, where athletic mindset blends with executive leadership, is where some of my most meaningful conversations happen. It’s where people begin to see themselves not through job titles or roles but through the processes that shape their outcomes.
In nearly every organization I meet, one theme keeps emerging: the pace of change is accelerating, and leaders must be more adaptable than ever. Reinvention used to be a phase; now it’s a continuous requirement.
This is how and why we design many of the motivational programs & high performance strategies around adaptability, identity shifts, and mindset recalibration. Because excellence today isn’t just about doing more - it’s about responding better, thinking deeper, and adjusting faster.
The best leaders no longer rely solely on what they know. They stay open, ask questions, and explore new frameworks.
Strong systems matter, but so does the ability to modify those systems when conditions change.
The future belongs to teams who collaborate, communicate, and stay aligned on purpose, not just results.
When leaders embrace reinvention not as an admission of weakness but as a sign of strength, real transformation happens.
The SNAC forum offered something leaders rarely get: space.
I’m grateful the SNAC team trusted me with the stage and allowed me to contribute to that atmosphere. When I give these inspirational talks, my goal is never to deliver a temporary emotional spike. Instead, I aim to ground people in the power of daily discipline, internal clarity, and long-term mindset resilience.
Events like this remind me that whether we’re talking about sport or business, excellence is not perfection - it’s intentional effort, repeated consistently.
If there’s one message I hope stayed with the group, it’s this:
Excellence is repeatable - but only if you practice it daily.
The work done behind the curtain - the early mornings, the quiet decisions, the process refinements, the habits repeated - eventually shows itself when the pressure comes. That final stretch, the “last mile,” is where most people stop. It’s uncomfortable, lonely, and demanding.
But it’s also where the biggest gains are made.
That 1%; the subtle improvements, the incremental choices, the small course corrections; stack up into something massive over time.
As I left Park City again, I felt the familiar mixture of gratitude, nostalgia, and excitement for what’s next. Speaking at the SNAC International Executive Leadership Forum reinforced why I continue this work, not just as a strategist and motivational speaker, but as someone committed to helping people rethink performance through clarity, process, and purpose.
The environments may differ, ice rinks, stages, boardrooms, but the core principles remain the same. Show up with intention. Do the work. Embrace reinvention. And stay committed to the daily process that shapes long-term excellence.
Because in sport, business, and life, the truth always rises: what we practice in the dark eventually shines in the light. That is the essence of the Gold Medalist Mindset - quiet, consistent effort that transforms into extraordinary results when it matters most.