You Must be Specific if You Want to Become Elite with John Clendenin, Two-Time World Champion

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I'm talking with John Clenden, and John is a legend in the ski industry in the hall of Fame. He's taught skiing since 1997. He's probably developed more elite skiers than anybody in the industry. And he started off, it's no surprise he's successful because he started off as, as pretty much the first champion in, when they started the skiing competitions way back in 1973. And it's been in the ski videos. Have you ever seen those Warren Miller videos? You've seen the ski videos. Johnny has appeared, produced and starred in 20 plus promotional ski films. You guys must have done some really crazy things. John.

It was a crazy time, Larry. I mean, you, you know, we all had to live through the 70s, right?

Right. What you've got, what you're fascinating, I think is fascinating about your life is how you've constantly challenged yourself. You know, you faced life head on and things happened to you and, you know, you kind of sent you on a tumble. One of those was you, you wound up in la. Then, you know, you went through that phase and then you wound up in Aspen and you decided, you know, I'm going to make something here. And you developed the school. And I know all the things that, obstacles dealing with the ski co and the status quo, you know, but you fought your way through and having your own method. You know, everybody's critical when you, you come with a method there. They, you know, if, if it wasn't their method, they're going to be criticized, you know, and then you want them, you want them over. Talk about writing the book and what you learned from that.

Well, you know, as I shared with you, I went, I went through college. I was an English Romantic Literature English major. I became fascinated with words. One of the things that has made it successful is the lexicon, and that's my choice of words. And I like the idea of embodying what might be considered several different technical items in one word. Like I have a term called the love spot and skiing. And that's when both skis release and there's no edges on the skis. It's a very quick, instantaneous thing. But you can only have a love spot if you have a parallel turn initiation, if you step into your turn like 90% of the people do, there's no edgeless moment. And that edgeless moment is so important in skiing. That is the difference between being a good skier and a great skier. You can get down the mountain stepping into your turns, but you'll never be a great skier until you learn how to release and have that flat spot in the turn.

Again.

I call that the love spot. But it embodies all kinds of technical things, because all things that go on during that period are your commitment to gravity. And you've heard me talk about dancing with gravity and how important it is to learn how to let go to gravity rather than being defensive to gravity. That's what that little step is. It's a defensive move. And I think, again, the fact that the lexicon is something that all the coaches share. So the students are learning the same words from each one of my coaches. And I don't know if you remember this, but in my camps, I. Each group, each day goes with a different coach, okay? And I do that on purpose because some people get their tone is better with another coach or the way the coach presents the material is a little more different, and sometimes better. People pick up different things from different people that way. But the thing is, the coaches are all teaching the same method. And the problem that exists in ski teaching, unfortunately, is you could go to Vail and get the very best certified instructor they have there, and he can give you what could be considered a very good lesson. And then you come to Aspen, and you could hire one of our very best certified ski instructors, and you could have a lesson with them. But you don't hear any consistency. You don't hear the same lexicon. You don't hear the same words. There's no consistency between the two. Real good example. I'm doing a camp at lunch. A guy comes up to me who's in the camp, and he says, john, you haven't met me yet, but I just want to tell you something. I've been taking private lessons now for 20 years, and I just now did the first day of your camp, and I've had two different coaches, and I just learned more than I've Learned in all 20 years of private lessons. I just learned more. I want to tell you that. And he says, and I happen to be on the board of directors of the Vail Ski Corporation. I just thought you might want to know that, too. But the consistency in the lexicon, I think, is one of the things that Keep people coming back and has grown a reputation now that, you know, I don't. I don't have to go out and sell the program anymore. I've got 15 people on a waiting list for my December camps right now. You know, I don't know, maybe you've had these problems. I have not had them before.

It's a good problem to have.

It's a good problem to have. Right?

Yeah.

And.

And the thing is that consistency, you know, I used this reminds me of principles I've taught and used my entire life. And that is you gotta be specific to be dynamic. You can't hit the bullseye if you don't know where it is.

Right, right.

And that another one, John, is great ideas don't care who use them. But also, when it comes to great words, once they're identified, they don't care who uses them in the teaching. You know, any instructor can use it once they get it in their mind. Those. We don't own the words, but you've got to identify them. You know, that's the thing is, like, what is it? I've seen you talk and talk and talk to try and refine these things, you know, and, you know, and way in the past, you know, before you got to this point, it's like, what exactly is it? And what was driving you was not that you didn't understand it, but you wanted to get clear in your mind. I remember when the Love Spot idea came out was that you wanted to get it in terms where other people could get it. Because that's like, you say, the key is, can you teach it? Can they understand you?

You know, hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business that's accrued over $5 billion.

In assets under management and has done.

Well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of.

Learning into five short weeks.

Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move, right?

And if we talk about the technical elements that go on in the Love Spot, nobody. I mean, you get involved in stuff that's, you know, you want the centrifugal forces to be neutralized when you release the inside edge of the outside ski. I mean, there's stuff going on that if we talk to in A real analytical sense. You know, if we talk about the kinetics that are going on or the biomechanics that are going on, people don't need to know all that. You know, there's a lot of advancement that can make. With the basic concept of. I felt the love spot. Oh, man, you're right. It's so easy to steer the skis into the new turn. When I. When I have that free floating moment in the turn, I go, yeah, that's it. You got it. Yeah. You don't need to. They don't need to go any further. At the same time, as people grow through the system, I want them to understand more of the kinetics involved or more of the physiology involved in it. But. But on a real. In the basic sense, in the introductory sense, it's. It's something you want to make so easy for people to get, and that's our job, is to. I want to say one other thing, Larry, that I want to make sure that people understand or hear. Coaches. I have got six very bright people involved in my program right now, and we sit and have meetings. We're going to have a meeting tomorrow night about how what we all agree on might be the best, simplest, most efficient, clearest way to communicate these different technical issues or the progressions for skiing. So we all. It's not like I'm dictating. That's what I wanted to say. It's something that we have, that I share and develop with my team as we go. And we're. In other words, we don't want to be involved in a camp and have someone come to us, say, now, what is this? If I put my hip against a tree and stand on a pole and roll my foot. Now, how does that relate to what we're doing, John? I go, well, where did you hear that? Well, an instructor was telling me that over in Keystone. And I go, okay, well, I'm not sure what they meant by that, but it sounds like they're trying to talk to you into how to tip the foot, maybe in the direction of the new turn or how to release the gravity. Maybe that's. In other words, we don't want to have our students hearing something that we've never heard before. In our group, you know, we work hard on developing what we all agree on. Let me put it that way.

Well, what I'm hearing, John, you know, we all try to get these things the same way, but you have been saying these things, and I'm going to try and pull it out. The reason for Going slow and important for you to know how to do slow is when you're. If you're going to be teaching somebody else, they're going to be going slow because they can't go fast, you know, and they're going to be trying to learn it. And if you've got it ingrained in you, you can make it. You know, the way you make. Get them through the technical issues without talking technical issues early on, is to make it fun and simple and to get them to where there's one thing they can do. They can feel that move, you know, I know that you have these drills where you go across the hill and you're up on one edge, and you want us to feel that, you know, and, you know, you tip on the edge and then you go off of it, you know, and, you know, you're doing those S turns across the hill, right? And when you get that, it's like, okay, I understand that now. I own that. Or like when you do those garage turns, you know, like where you turn into the mountain and then you back out, you know, and it's like, oh, that's letting go, you know?

You know, a real simple one, Larry, that's so important is one of the things we take. Another word we use is cascading. And what I mean by cascading, you understand it. It's just when you let the skis slide sideways down the mountain, that's cascade. I. You know, and I like the word cascading because, you know, when you watch a cascading waterfall, it's really pretty. It falls down and hits a pool and comes out, comes down again. And I call cascading, because that's when you go down the hill more than you go across the hill. Okay, Anytime you do that, that's a cascading move. And I've had so many people, when they first learn that, they say, is that okay? I mean, you mean we can do that? It's okay? I thought we were just supposed to go on our edges all the time across the, you know, great skiers learned how to let the edges go and let them loose and let them slide down. And you want to learn to manage that and feel it. It's a huge thing. Johnny Mosley told me he's an Olympic. He's a friend of mine. He learned to ski on a ski deck, by the way, in Tiburon. And Johnny Mosley is the first gold medal winner in the mogul, eventually in the Olympics. And he said to me, john, a lot of people don't know it, but I'm letting my edges slip more than I'm edging. And I said, can you explain that a little bit, John? He says, yeah, I let my edges go until I feel right where I want to hit them, and then I hit my edges hard, and then I slide. I let them drift again and let them go, and then I hit my edges hard. So I'm going from soft to hard edges, all the way down, soft to heart. I went, that's interesting. He says, I'm probably drifting more than I imagine in a mogul run. I went, whoa. Really? Here's an Olympic mogul champion.

I'll tell you how I interpret it. Interpret that, John. To life is fact that when you're now Johnny's elite, but you've said this, I'm going to teach you the basics, and then once you they're ingrained, just forget them and go ski, you know, just kind of forget about it, you know, and let it happen a little bit. But what you find is that in life, leaders, life, when you start to get successful, life starts coming at you so fast, you got to make decisions. You can't go back to the rule book, which is the edges. The edges are the system. You've got to always do this in this situation. That's the edges. But we kind of freestyle and slide up, make it up as we go through life, and then we get a precise moment. Then we're like, okay, hammer down. We got to go back to the tried and true method right now to get back in control, like hitting the brakes more or less, right? And this. This skiing, you know, what you're doing has applications. It's a performance thing. You're teaching a performance art and excelling in life. You got to play the game. You got to make decisions. You know, you're. You got things coming at you and what have you.

You.

You know, you've been. One thing I see about you is you're always driven to improve.

John. Yeah, I'm still working on some stuff right now. Really? Even today, before our conversation, I'm working on a progression to present to the coaches tomorrow night at our meeting. You know, I want to say I'm not exactly sure how this might relate to exactly what you're saying, but I wanted to throw this in. I've got a little phrase that I've got. When your feet get it, you can forget it.

Yeah, there you go.

So. So you don't have to worry about the minutiae a lot. Once you get it, you own it. Yeah. You know, once you digest it, you're free from it. You know, there's just a lot of ways to think about it, and that allows you to take your onion to the next level. You can actually apply your consciousness to another aspect of your challenge and when. But you. You can't go to that other level until you have the previous one. So, so, so your. Your primary focus can evolve as you get stuff. And I'm talking about people starting to ski on a really high level. And I think you understand what I'm talking about. When you get it, you can forget it. You can. Feet get it, you can forget it. All of a sudden, you can start thinking about other things, like, can I look further ahead? Can I decide?

Right, right. You're not thinking about the technique, you're thinking about where you're headed.

And intention becomes such a big part of great skiing as it does in life. Can I create what I intend?

But also, John. You know, the corollary on that, John, is the bigger you get in life, the more you look down the road. You know, you're like, you're. You're looking at your schools this year, you know, in other areas, geographic expansion. You're looking at the calendar year. You know, you're filling it up. This is not the first time you thought about December schools. You know, you've been planning for that. But, like, these bands that play stadiums, you know, they're. They're planning, like, five years in advance. If you're the Rolling Stones or, you know, those kind of type bands, you know, there's not that many venues.

I forget how much you know about that business, too. Are the Stones out again? Are they gonna. Are they gonna.

Yeah, they are out.

Okay. By the way, everybody I go to, Larry, when I want to find out what's happening in the rock and roll world.

John, this has been great, man. I'm not going to keep you any longer because, you know, you and I could go forever, and we're going to have to get together as soon as I get back out there, and I'm going to try and elbow my way into one of your camps just as soon as I get there.

All right, buddy, I'm going to look at that. Your windowsill across from. Poppycocks. If I see that thing open, I'm knocking on your door.

Thank you, man. Thank you so much.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellawinning.com forward/webinar now in order to move up as fast as as possible. I'm Larry Widell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, Go.