“YOU” Series Winning

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Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman. Hartman.

Welcome back to another episode. And today we are on the U series and and it's about winning. And what does it really take to win is the question. And I'm just gonna use my experience a little bit about winning and what it takes to win. And I put this in my Facebook. I put the question is what does it take to win? And I got the answers that I expected. Giving 100%, having fun. Those are some of the answers I expected. Having loyalty for your teammates. And this involves business and sports. But I'm going to use a sports version today. Never giving up. And that's what I expected. But you know, even going back, I remember one of my coaches would say, you know, a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. And at that time I believed it because we were young. And there's nothing wrong with these answers, there's nothing wrong with them. But I'm going to give you the definition of what I experienced and what it takes to win and to really be a true champion. And what is the definition of winning? Well, when I was part of the New York Rangers in 1994 Stanley cup team and I always said I was a small piece to a big puzzle because we have to be real within ourselves. And we had coach like Mike Keenan who won Team Canada, if you remember, back in those days, whoever's a hockey fan. And we had players like Marc Messier, who was one of the best leaders in sports. Kevin Lowe, an amazing leader. I can go into stories forever about these guys. Essa Tikkinen was one of those disturbers on the ice that would really make it hard for you to play against Craig McTavish who did everything he could within his role to win face offs, to kill pedal lease block shots, sacrifice his body. Players like Jeff Bukaboom, another player won a Stanley Cup. Adam Graves, Stanley cup champion with the Edmonton Oilers. And Greg Gilbert, coincidentally enough, he won with the Islanders in the days. And we're going to get into a little bit about that. All those players really knew what it took to win. So what we did as players, especially some of the younger guys like myself, is we watched them, we studied them, watched how they carried Themselves. We watched their actions and how they handled things under pressure, with composure. Then we had guys like Jay Wells. Now, here's a quick little story, because we talk about stories, mindset and champions, and I just listed a whole bunch of champions here. But Jay Wells never won a championship, not at that level, not in the NHL. In fact, when I played in Buffalo with them, he was a healthy scratch a lot. Then he gets traded to New York and his career changed around. But just to get into it a little bit, Jay Wells. We were playing in Buffalo one night, and this is where I'm going. They're going to say, what does this have anything to do with winning? And we're going to get into this a little bit more. But Jay Wells took it upon himself. He realized that one of our superstar players were, you know, being roughed up by Brad May, who was a physical player, very physical player at that time, because I also played with Brad. Tough guy, big hands, meaning, like, you wouldn't want to get punched by him. And he took it upon himself and he fought Jay Wells fought him, and he bloodied his lip. I mean, beyond bloodied, it probably cut him open for about 25 stitches in his mouth. And he gets all stitched up. This was in the first period, I think. Well, in the third period, Jay comes back to play, and then we come in for, you know, game goes on and the scores like, I think we were losing three to one. Well, Jay comes into the dressing room all stitched up, and our real tough guy, probably one of the toughest guys on the planet at that time was Joey Kosar. Really a great guy, but, boy, you would not want to get hit by him. So he told the team in the dressing room in the third period that we're gonna go after Brad May, we're gonna get him and leave him for Joey. And then Jay couldn't even talk. He says, nobody go near him. And he said it with like this authority. He couldn't even spit out the words because, you know, he's got 20 some odd stitches in his mouth. So he does it and he says. He says no one go near him. And anyways, Jay goes out there and fights him and gets his, you know, toe to toe. He gets cut open again. Blood all over the ice and bleeding everywhere. And if you don't think that picked us up, doesn't matter if he won the fight again or not. He went out and showed what a teammate he is and what he was going to do to be part of the New York Rangers. And that just Takes us back from day one. So the first thing we did as a team with the New York rang in 1994 was watched the Miracle Mets parade when they won in 1969, I believe. Big baseball fan, not a Mets fan. But back in 1969, the Miracle Mets when they won the championship, that's the first parade we watch in the coach Mike Keenan showed us that video of what it means to win in New York with the ticker take parade. There was like millions of people hanging out the windows throwing, you know, confetti. It was amazing. But nothing was said, just we watched that. So these are some of these things that you could use within your business. I'm not saying you're going to go punch somebody in the mouth in business or in sports even, but I just want you to learn a little bit from this. So, you know, just going back again, we didn't say a word in the dressing room, but we learned a lot from the beginning. And what we were taught in the beginning by coach Mike Keenan, who nowadays is a little bit different. I mean, we're going back to 1994, but it was tough. I mean, the first thing we worked on was mental toughness. And I apply that to our business. Today we have a mind map and if you scroll to the bottom of the page, Hartman Academy and print it, we use these same methodologies today is what I learned back from Mike Keenan. So we take the mental toughness work and boy, you had to be mentally tough to play for Mike Keenan. So if any of you are not hockey fans, go back and do your research. I like Mike Keenan a lot today, had a lot of great conversations, but playing for him was probably one of the hardest things I ever did, especially being a bubble player. You never really knew where you stood. And then we did the physical work and, man, was that tough. We grinded it out. We had a boy. Every day was a tough day. And there's a story going back too, that we lost to an expansion team, I think it was Anaheim back then, and we got our butts skated off at that level and you don't see that when you lose a game. But we learned that the physical was tough and then we really took care of our body, nutrition wise. We had a team dietitian and we really took care of everything. So I use those same things today and this all involves what it takes to win. So again, I personally use that platform within my business. But these champions, what I learned too is they never share their wins. We didn't have Facebook or Social media back then, but they would never write in, hey, look what happened to me today, everybody. Wow, I had a big win. Wow, everybody look at me. I have a hundred thousand downloads or wow, look at me. You don't win like that. Champions never win. And we call those actors. And I hope I'm not offending anybody, but we have to keep it real on this show. You could reach out to me and say, hey, I don't believe what you're saying. But I lived it, I've been around it. I'm not cocky about it. I've learned from some of the best, best leaders in sports and they would never do that. Hey, everybody look at me. Look what I've done. So think about that. If you have a big win, I want you to really think about that because a world class athlete is thinking about winning again next year. So you ever watch those commercials? You might see the Disney one. Hey, where are you going? I'm going to Disney. But if you ever watch a game, I watch Tom Brady and I'm not a big football fan. But what does he want to do? I want to win next year. What does Mark Messier want to do? I want to win next year. Kobe Bryant, when he played, I want to win next year. What about Michael Jordan? And I'm not big basketball, you know, these are just different sports. I want to win again. Derek Jeter, it's now winning again. And that's what it takes to be a winner. The party is not even over and they're already talking about next year. The party hasn't even started. So this is something I want you to think about, how you could apply some of these methods into your business, your life and whatever that is. So what I really learned most about these champions, they never did a lot of talking. They didn't talk about it. They didn't sit there and talk about winning. They did it. And I'm going to get into some of the definitions, what I call is winning a little bit later here. But they didn't sit and just brag about it. We didn't have the social media platform. They didn't tell the press. I remember watching Derek Jeter and they just won a big game and they were going to the World Series. They were in the World Series and I think they were up three games and nothing. And he looked miserable. And they asked him, why are you so miserable? He says, because we haven't won anything yet. And that's how a true champion thinks. The only thing they want to do is win. Nothing else. Matters, their contracts don't matter for next year. So if you're in business, you can't think about anything else but winning. And how are you going to do it? They used to say, well, it's a marathon. I listen to some of these business people talk and it's a marathon. No, it's not. It's many short sprints. It's a lot of short sprints. Getting there. Yes. If it's a marathon, we're exhausted, we're tired out. You're not recovered. I've said this many times, it's tough. So when I talk about some of the people I mentioned above, like the Mark Messiers of the world, one of the best leaders ever, the Craig McTavish's, the Kevin Lows, they were my idols growing up. I used to watch hockey night in Canada, in Detroit, and I used to watch these players and I watched them, how they carried themselves. But it wasn't until I sat next to them every day, you know, playing for the New York Rangers and really learning from these players. So if you ask them the definition of winning, they would say it meant sacrifice, hard work, sweat, battling, focus, mental toughness, challenging yourself every day. And you know what? At the end, it's truly amazing. That's the end result. And keep in mind that these great players, like the Messiers, even Gretzky back then I read something where Mark Messier, I think it was, boy, the year 1982, I'm a real, I'm not an encyclopedia, but I studied everything. It was like 1982, the Islanders won the Stanley Cup. And at that time the Oilers, we had a walk by at the island was kind of strange where you'd walk by the other team's dressing room. So you'd walk by the Islanders dressing room if you played to get out to where the bus is to take us to the airport. So the Oilers were walking out and they didn't see a lot of celebration. Yeah, the Stanley cup was there. They had their champagne in there. But what it was was they noticed that Dennis Potvan had like ice bags on his shoulders. Ken Morrow, who just came up from the Olympic team I think maybe a few years before, was missing a. Missing teeth or it goes on and on. Brian Trachier, who was a great player, was on the table with ice bags on his back, bruises everywhere. And it was right then and there, I think Messier and Gretzky looked at himself. I don't know the full story. I'm sure it's been exaggerated. They looked at themselves and they said, okay, we have to make a shift in our mindset and our mental toughness. And it was there that they learned so all of us could learn from. From others on what it takes to be a winner. You know, and sometimes if you look at these champions, they're lost for words. They don't. They're not these braggers. They're. They're lost for words. If you. I watch commercials, like these NHL commercials, because I'm still a big NHL fan, even played, you know, the years I did. But they would say at the end of the thing, they couldn't even spit out the word, what does it mean to win a Stanley Cup? And they can't spit out the words. So I love listening to some of these people that have never won. You know, I get some of these people tell me this is what it takes to win. And I'm. And I don't want to be the guy that's trying to be right. I learned from these great people that, wow, how they carried themselves, how they acted, how they portrayed themselves. And you look at some of these business people, I've met the owners of our teams, and the way they carry themselves as well is winners, and that's really what it takes. So I hope you get something from this. You can even go to my website. You can go to hartman.academy.com, use the homepage and give me your definition of winning. Give me your thoughts. I would really love to hear your definition of what it takes to win. And again, I'm only doing this here. My goal is to help and lead and just give the knowledge and experience through stories that I've done. People ask me, boy, what happened to you when you were a young kid? Somebody asked me this recently, one of our. Actually our therapists that you always say, well, you were just a small part of the team. Well, you have to be real. And I'll share this last story with you. We were in New York at our 25th anniversary for the New York Rangers, and I haven't seen these players for a long time. And I was with my girlfriend, and they took her right in. She goes, I've never met a nicer group of people. I said, yeah, these are true winners. These are champions. And she said to me, she said, I can't understand something, though. They're not. They're the nicest people ever, but they don't hold back their feelings or thoughts. They were joking with you, and I was joking with them. You know, we had, like, we had the Black Aces then, and the Black Aces were known to come in and out of lineup whenever we did. We had to do our job whether we played one minute, seven minutes one night I played 13 minutes the next night. I wouldn't dress for five games. Some nights I'd play four shifts. But as a champion and a winner, you have to do whatever you can without sulking. And. And they were joking with me about one of my, you know, shifts in a game that was horrible, that I think I dumped the puck in and they came back and scored and I caused, you know, as the last shift I played in the game and Mike Keenan got mad at me. It's a whole other story. But the point is, she says, I can't believe these guys are. They don't hold back and you don't hold back. I go because it's real. Winners are real. They don't hold the fluff. I don't swear on my show, but it's directly real. Be direct, be honest. We're here to help people, but not stick it in their face again. I have a whole series we're going to do on coaches, but that's going to be at a different time. But be a winner, be a champion. I hope you got something from this. This is the whole purpose. Feel free to reach out, go to Hartman Academy. Love to help you with anything you need. And we're going to be doing many of these you series. I hope you like it. We love to have your feedback. Until next time. Hope you enjoyed the show.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.

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