Episode #598 - The Champion’s Long Journey with Steffany Hanlen, CEO of Skatetech Group of Companies

Welcome to this edition of the million dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell. Now, Glint Sather, he began, presided over quite a rock championship run. For people who don't know hockey. Edmonton is a class organization, lots of championships. Did they win any championships after Gretzky left? I can't remember.

Yeah, they did in 06.

And Sather was there, you know, the ownership was there. And it kind of speaks to his foresight, you know, people. Another takeaway. Another takeaway from people is look for competitive advantages. And you know, from way back then, you know, you look back, what was some of the secrets behind, you know, just getting talent and doing things? Well, they were obviously looking for something that could give them a competitive advantage over the rest of the league. And that resulted in you being the first female to come into the league and especially in that coaching capacity. But it speaks to him. Kind of a legacy and it's a way you can impact those of you you're thinking you like to give back, but one thing you can give back is the way you go about your business can impact. You'll be copied. If you're successful, you'll be copied. And when you stay in your lane, are you doing positive things, taking positive steps, taking quality risks to move your business forward. And you're probably going to elevate the whole industry if you're successful because you will be copied. And, you know, so this is not an accident, the growth of this industry and the number of people in it. Can I ask you why you have you two on the. On your shelf behind you?

Well, actually, this is a shared studio. My husband and I were invited to a concert. I'd never seen you two wasn't really interested, didn't understand the brand. But there was a song that kept showing up for me and I figured out it was YouTube U2 is I still haven't found what I'm looking for, Right? And so that song stayed with me every time I would get to a certain goal and I would really do a good job, celebrate it, own the win, et cetera. But there was that. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. And all of a sudden we were invited to a VIP event and went to the concert, got to hear the song live, went and met the band and had canapes and a glass of champagne and left. And it was like, oh, that's all it is. It's just. It's just a song, but it also became a bit of an anthem for me. And when I realized that I could constantly keep growing because if I keep throwing myself in a situation where I'm reaching to my. What's next? It's not that I haven't found what I'm looking for, it's just that I maybe haven't found my biggest contribution yet.

There you go. And you got red boxing gloves up there. What's that all about?

Well, back in a couple of years, years ago, my husband was invited down to Las Vegas to. He's also a performance coach, coach, real estate investor. To work with the infamous Mike Tyson and his wife Kiki. At the time, they were going through some stuff and he was able to. To work with them from a relational side. And Mike G. Two pairs, actually. Two pair. Black.

Black. Yeah, the black and the red. Yeah, I see it. And did he give me the helmet? I hope he didn't get in the ring with him.

No, that helmet is from Daryl Sitler from one of the most famous Toronto Maple Leafs in the world. He signed that for us at a. At a. At an event where we, we like to go to fundraisers to make sure we're staying in that level of contribution. Because we're not fans, you know, we don't. I'm not a fan of sport, I'm not a fan of hockey, I'm not a fan of boxing. I. What I am a fan of is growth and excellence and healing and moving your life forward. So wherever we are, we tend to attract the level of athlete that have the same kind of values.

Thank you. And that's what I'm fascinated about. Growth, improvement, moving forward, stretching the boundaries, looking for what's better. Because the alternative is, you know, people that are. Don't take your advice from mediocre average people. Everybody, if you want to take away. Do not pay attention to the little random comments these people say, because they're not mean, it's just the world they live in. But they'll just say, why can't you be satisfied? You know, it's like they'll do to a golfer. You take up golf, you know, you get where you're shooting 90s and you're trying to get down to 85, trying to get to 80. People say, just enjoy the game. Why can you? Why? You're never satisfied. Yeah. If you don't keep improving. You get bored with a game and you know it. Just because it's boring to shoot the same score over and over forever. And you're, you're selling yourself short and you know, and so excitement comes from growth and improvement and every. No matter what it is, it can always be better. It could always be more fun, it could always be a little bit easier. It could always be a little bit less friction involved. And so it's kind of fun to get those things in your. Like when you get your house a little bit organized, you get a little track clutter. That's why it's great to constantly work at your house and your business and your finances on throwing out the clutter, you know, because the stuff that you really doesn't mean that much to you, but you've just always done it and then you clear that up and now you've got some more resources, some more time to find other things and so you have over your head. What we're kind of talking about here is the champion's journey. And it's kind of what I was referring to in my book serial winner is this going on from when the win to win. And talk about why you have that up there prominently in your background.

Oh, because the journey of a champion is, you know, there's check ins along the way that you can call a championship or a win or a medal or you know, a Stanley cup, but it's the journey that from beginning to middle to end that really is inspiring. And I know it maybe sound a little cliche, but 30 years ago, when I started my own journey, I realized that it really wasn't about an outcome. It was about what I was doing, who I was being, who I was meeting, what the lessons were. Two steps forward, one step back. Felt like a little bit of a cha cha all the time. And you know, when I realized it was a journey and the journey of a champion. You can be a champion mom, plumber, you can be a champion school teacher, doctor, whatever the word champion means to the individual that if I can help them reframe it as a journey, it's not just going and getting something and then putting it on the mantle. Because as soon as you have that medal around your neck or the, the. The national anthem plays over the loudspeaker. When you've won something, it ends. Yeah, you know, the flag comes down, the anthem ends, you know, the guy starts sweeping up the stage, you look around and go, well, now what? Yeah, so when I realized I was in the the now what with people, I think that's what one of my chapters in my book is called is the power of now what right is that? I realized that if we don't have at least some seeds planted in the next part of the journey, even if we don't know where we're going, just start to plant some seeds, make some good decisions, build some relationships, you know, be kind to somebody that you don't need and you know, move forward, check in, but plant those seeds so that future is pulling you forward. You're not looking at it like, oh no, this big empty thing.

Yeah. Stay curious. When someone mentions, how about this? How about that to you. Don't just me shut it down. No, I don't have time for that. No, I can't afford it. No. Oh, it's just like, that's interesting. I wonder how, you know, I wonder what that would take. I wonder what that would mean. I'm in Aspen right now because my friend Rusty Cross and I came out here and spoke at one of his conventions. And then I got where I'd come out periodically, stay at his house and ski. And he said one day, he said, why don't you move to Aspen? You know, why don't you move to Aspen? I said, why don't I move to the moon? I said, do you realize what that would mean for me to, you know, boom, boom? But he, you know, like, boom, it went, that seed went in my mind, you know, and even though I just shut it down, it's like, and now, you know, half of the year I live in Aspen and it's just, don't be so close mind about. Because what you can't do today, you might be able to do tomorrow.

Absolutely.

Or the next month. Things can change, you know, and especially in a year, how can things change? And so stay open. Now when you came up, one thing about the direction you chose or that you chose to get into is people need to think about choosing directions that's going to keep likely get you to where you're spending at least some of your time around positive, similar motivated type people, you know, because athletes want to get better, they want to win championships. They want, you know, they got a short timeframe in their health and their age, you know, and they want to, you know, they want, they want to win things. And so as you go through life, you can, depending on what you choose, you can choose to be around, you know, in directions to what's going to keep you involved with people like that. Maybe they're not at the top of the game, but they're got an attitude that's going to cause them to be elevated and that makes them open to the kind of conversations you want to have and also gives you a chance to be, possibly learn from them, you know, and rather than, you know, because people are going to influence you one way or the other, you know, and as the Bible said, bad company corrupts good morals. And if you get. Or Tim Tebow says, you know, they ask him why he's so dogmatically, positively, you know, motivated and speaking all the time. He said, well, because I know this negativity and positivity both spread. And he said, I'd rather be out there spreading positive and kind of snuff out the room for the negative to take over. Because in a void, when it's quiet, negative thoughts come in, in your mind, you know, my mind. All of us, when we get quiet, we get a chance to breathe. Usually it's not gratitude and thankfulness and satisfaction, happiness. Thoughts come in where we're just grateful to God for all he's done and you know, the people around us and whether, no, it's like we get worried about this, worried about that, you know, so don't, you know, just, just naturally you can't. If you're going to live, I'm interested to have you speak on this. If you're gonna live and accomplish things, you can't, you gotta live by design. You can't let it just happen naturally. Right. Because good things just don't happen naturally.

Yeah, well, you could, but then you're, you know, you're striving to be mediocre. You know, I have no real desire to be average. It's funny, you know, you're in Aspen right now. One of my magical turning points in my life was to be brought into Aspen to work with Aspen minor hockey for several years in a row. Went back when I was starting my business and got to meet some of the, the women that were playing hockey, learning hockey. Martina Navratilova was one of them.

Right.

And when I was speaking with them then I was invited back to speak at their banquet one year after I sort of had some success in the NHL and, and I was able to, to really acknowledge what they had taught me, the circle that they had built around them. The people, the women, the like mindedness, the positivity people. They were choosing intentionally who they wanted to surround themselves with. And when I started to build my, my performance coaching business, I created an exercise called the Cir Support and what is in there? Who is in your circle intentionally? Who's out, you know, who can get into your heart and who can't? Who's allowed in your performer sphere and who isn't, who's allowed in your community? I work with, you know, basketball players, hockey players, figure skaters, and a lot of them think they have to carry everybody with positive or negative family, cousin, hairdresser, stylist, whatever, in their inside their star or inside their heart. And that's not true. A lot of times people are coming in because they want something from you. And I started to pick up on that really, really early. So I started to be very choosy as to who I surrounded myself with. And my circle of support is very intentional. It's not huge. But to your point, when you bring champions together and they have that champion mindset, they elevate. I happen to be honored to be one of the partners in what's called the Ice Academy Montreal. And it's the ice dance mecca of the world. We have all the champions from all from, I think it's from 30 different countries now training with us in Montreal. So when you think about champions competing against each other for their countries, training with other champions, don't you think that that elevates an entire environment?

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