Start With A Win - Shaping Your Mindset to Succeed with Ruben Gonzalez

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

In this episode of Start With A Win, Ruben Gonzalez, a four-time luge Olympian, reveals how his experiences in the Olympics shaped his mindset to succeed in business and how he continues to thrive as an Olympic athlete.Ruben emphasizes how performance—whether in business or sports—is strongly dependent on a person’s mental state. He breaks down how the mental foundation requires a conscious understanding of your thoughts and process. For example, consider these questions:How does your mind prepare before a performance/deal?What does your mind think during a meeting, performance, or other endeavors?What do you think/feel after completing the goal/task at hand?How do you process lessons and apply them?How do you reinforce your habits?Ruben discusses how internal and external fears often integrate into personal and professional endeavors, which typically prevents individuals from overcoming self-limiting beliefs and challenges. Ruben explains that fear will gradually disappear once you focus more on what you need to improve and implement one step at a time. Ruben reveals that setting intentions in all pursuits influences the subconscious mind, which is key to development, consistency, and success.  Ruben shares how he consistently strives to be better, which requires training, practice, mental strength, and trust in your abilities. As the oldest Winter Olympian in history, he hopes his story will inspire others to dismantle their self-limiting barriers, pursue their goals, and live their dreams.   Connect with Ruben:oldestolympian.comhttps://ruben-gonzalez.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-gonzalez-olympian/Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. Coming to you from Denver, Colorado, home of REMAX World Headquarters, it's Adam Conto, CEO of REMAX with Start With a Win. How are you doing, Producer Mark? I'm doing fantastic. A little bit of singing going on today. So, hey, are you feeling Olympic today? I am feeling very Olympic.

You know, our family, it's one of the things that, you know, during the Olympic season, kids are still part of off for the end of the summer and they love watching the games and, you know, the opening general session, all that kind of stuff that goes on. It's it's really exciting. And then obviously I love America. And so it's like, let's go America, Team America. Awesome. Well, it's it's fascinating. I'm a huge fan of the Olympics and we have several friends who are Olympians here that we talk to on occasion. And one of them is a repeat guest on today's show, by the way. I mean, the reality is it takes a lot to get there. It takes a lot of dedication, a lot of effort, a lot of consistency and focus and excellence over and over again, because these are the best of the best athletes on the planet earth so uh help me uh welcome to the show today again repeat guest the luge man ruben gonzalez how you doing buddy

doing great hi how's my mark oh wow man you guys have gotten fancy we have have sound effects now, Ruben. Wow, I'm impressed. Yeah. So a little bit about Ruben. Age of 21, Ruben decided to compete in the Olympics. Took up the sport of luge. Four years later, was racing for the gold against the best in the world.

And he also became a best-selling author, business consultant, and speaker. Amazing public speaker if you're looking for someone to come in and motivate and direct your organization, um, goes around the world to create and sustain business growth in his speeches. Ruben's speaking specializes in leadership sales safety, which is really important, you know, focusing on the things that really matter. They're embracing change, teamwork, overcoming challenges. I mean, this is really cool because, you know, as an Olympian, you took these principles from that you learned being an Olympian and actually probably had a lot of them before that and are sharing them out there. So give us a little bit more about yourself. I know you're not too far from me right now. You're just down the road in Colorado Springs, but you've been around the world doing this, right? That's right. Yeah. I was born in Argentina and moved to the States when I was six.

I was an oil brat. My dad was a chemical engineer, so lived in Houston most of my life. Came out here to Colorado Springs to play Air Force Academy and School of Mines when I was in college. And I thought, oh, my gosh, there's no mosquitoes or humidity here. I want to live here. And so we finally moved here 10 years ago. Absolutely love it. And, boy, I actually get to live in Olympic City, USA. I mean, how cool is that?

Awesome. And for our listeners, Ruben, we're going to reveal something here later on in the show that is a huge surprise and something really cool that they can be part of with respect to the Olympics. So we've got the Summer Olympics going on right now, but you're a competitor in the Winter Olympics. When does the next Winter Olympics come up? Winter Olympics are coming up in just a few months because it's February of next year. So just a few months, just a few weeks ago, actually, I found out that because of COVID, it usually takes two years to qualify. You do your World Cup season, two years, they add up all those points and top 35 get to go, 36 watches it on TV. Well, I just found out that and I hadn't been able to train last year because

of COVID. I'm a speaker and there weren't any speeches, right? I did some virtual stuff, but that was it. And it's finally starting to open up, thank God. So I'd written it off. And I just found out, they said, we're not going to count COVID season. We're just going to count this upcoming season. So you got a shot. So you need to, you know, you need to get yourself out there. And so I'm scrambling to raise money so I can go play with the big boys again. So you, you called me like two days ago and go, Adam, I'm going back to the Olympics. I'm like, dude, aren't you like 58? And you go, yes, I am going to be the oldest Olympic competitor. Isn't it? Is that true? That's the goal. Yeah. I'm turning 59 this weekend. And, um, uh, when I get to compete in Beijing next year, I'll, I'll break a 98 year old record.

Uh, the oldest guy right now in the winter Olympics is a Swedish curler from the 1924 Olympics. And so, um, so yeah, it'll be a new, and I'll be the first person to do five Olympics in five different decades because my first one was in 88 the second was in the 90s the third was in 2002 the fourth one was in 2010 and this will be 2022 so uh I tell people man do it for the old guys you know let's uh let's show them we still got some awesome and we're going to talk about how you can support Ruben in his efforts to get to the Olympics, because it's not cheap to train up, get your equipment right, you know, have all of the, you know, the efforts behind you that you need to get to the Olympics. So we're going to talk about that today as well. But were there Winter Olympics in Beijing

when you competed before? Have you been there? No, never have. In fact, Beijing will be the first city to host a Summer Olympics and a Winter Olympics. They did the Summer Olympics. Remember they had the bird's nest as the opening ceremonies? The Luge track, they built it right by the Great Wall of China. So at the beginning of the season,

it's a couple of weeks of just training on North American tracks. Then you go to Beijing and train out there, learn that everybody's going to be learning the new track. And then we race, and then we have races all over Europe and Canada as well. So it's hopping around the world, and it's like a little traveling circus.

And we all just get out there, race, and pray that we get enough points to qualify. This is going to be an interesting one because, like you said, it's a new track. So, I mean, people are going to be breaking this in, but you have a lot of experience on a lot of tracks around the world. Does that, do you think that helps you with understanding how to get to a new track and the dynamics of that? Absolutely. First thing we do is we'll get a video because they've been training there. The Chinese team has been training. And so there's, you know, we're going to get some of these videos to start figuring out this track before we even go there. And you do it with your

coach. And then as soon as we get over there, we walk the track with coach and we're putting together a game plan. And then, you know, you take a run and you got coaches on the spots where you're having challenges and they're videotaping you. And then you watch the video and it's constant improvement, little bit by little. And like you said before, all these things that I've learned over over 30 years of Olympics are applicable to to corporate America to success, period. Right. And so I actually had I used to not have safety as one of my topics. I had this lady call me from Italy and she said, man, anybody that can change sports at age 21 and make it, you know, we're doing a thing about safety and change and make it to the Olympics.

There's no something about change. I said, yeah, I guess so. And she goes, well, anybody can roll with the bulls and jump from airplanes and do the luge and climb mountains still lives to tell about it and was no something about safety. Yeah, I guess I do. So all of a sudden I, uh, I had a couple of more topics and so I've been doing those as well. Awesome. You do talk a lot about, you know, overcoming challenges, overcoming fears, things of that nature, because I, I don't know how fast you go down that Hill, but you are, I mean, you're taking your life in your hands every time you get on that little bitty sled and go screaming down the luge track.

How do you put your mind at ease and bring everything into focus when it comes to overcoming major challenges like that? When you get to that level, it's 90% mental, right? If you're going against, let's say you're going against another realtor, right? And you're trying to list that house. Well, you both have skills and hopefully you've been trained well, and now it comes down to the mental side. So what do you think before the performance, right? When you're sitting up at the start house and the performance might be a phone call, right? Or you're going to call somebody because you want to offer to list the house. What do you think during the performance? What do you

think afterwards? How do you reinforce the good ones, right? afterwards how do you reinforce the uh the the good ones right and how do you uh take the lesson and then forget the old ones right so you you have a self-image of winning and so these are things that you learn and uh and help you do it but it's fast i mean most tracks are uh the slow ones are 75 miles an hour the fastest one is over over 90 you pull six g's on some of the curves and you're steering the whole way. I mean, people think all we do is hold on and pray, but no, they're, they're steering a ball too. It's amazing that you go that fast and you're like just a couple of inches off of the track, just screaming along. I mean, what does that feel like? Is that just

the most exhilarating thing on the planet or what? You know what? Every time I tell somebody I do the luge, they say, oh, that looks like fun. That's like a water slide. I'm like, no, man, it's a water slide on steroids. It's not fun. I started when I was 21. Most lugers, they start when they're 8, 9, 10 years old.

Some of them, when they're 5 years old. And so they go from a lower spot on the track, right, kind of like t-ball. And then when you go to the junior start until you turn 19 and now you have to go to men's start or lady started up at the top with me, they, they crammed 10 years of training into just two years because the next two years I had to compete. I said, you're going to get hurt a lot. Okay. And so they, um, it was really tough for me because they were pushing me really hard. And it took me about 25 years to get over the fear. I mean, I hated the luge, but it was my ticket to the Olympics. That was my vehicle. So I'm going to stick with it. And it wasn't until right before Vancouver that a coach that knows how the mind works showed me how to get over the fear.

And he showed it was an overnight thing. He said, stop focusing on those walls that are going faster and faster and scaring you. Focus on what you need to do on every section of every curve to ensure you'll have the best time and the fear will disappear. Just shift your focus. And that night I did about a hundred mind runs, right? Visualization run with blinders like a horse. The next day, the fear disappeared. And what are people focusing on today? You know, they're focusing on the economy, on COVID, all this stuff. Man, that's not helping your business, okay? Don't read the paper. Don't read the newspaper. Don't get away from naysayers, right? And just your new focus needs to be, what do I need to do in the next 15 minutes to move my business forward? Who do I need to call? Maybe it's a follow-up, send a card, whatever.

And if you do that, you know, and in the meantime, just buy a subscription to USA Today to your competitor, right? Let them focus on that. And you'll pass everybody up. You'll have momentum, right? And then when things shift, you got that momentum and look out. That's when you're going to turbocharge past competition. Some key aspects of business performance here. So I hope everybody heard what Ruben said. People are too focused on the

challenges that the rest of society is having presented to them, not truly what you are facing as an individual. I don't even watch the news. I don't read the news. I don't turn on the TV. I 100% agree with you. And you see all these people there, you know, I call it doom scrolling on their phone. We literally scroll, I think it's like 385 feet a day with our thumbs. Really? And it's the height of the Statue of Liberty. And instead of doing what you're talking about, which is, hey, just think about the next corner. And that's the next challenge that we have to overcome is, okay, how am I going to,

how am I going to focus on this particular thing? Cause I'm sure as you're doing, you know, 90 miles an hour down there, you're not going, ah, I wonder what inflation's doing right now. You would end up in a pile of, and you don't have time to think. Yeah. It'd be a yard sale on the, on the, on the lose track. Yeah. You don't have time to think you want, you don't want to think, right. You want to be able to flow. You want to be able to let your subconscious take over. Right. And, uh, and trust that your training will get you to do the right thing. And so on the phone calls, I'm in sales. Okay. I'm a professional speaker.

What that means is I'm, uh'm I'm calling people to get booked. And so before every call, I say to myself, you know, I'm going to have fun. I change lives. Here I come. That's my little mantra. Right. And that puts me in. That's a switch that switches me to subconscious. Right. And now I do the call and I have fun. And at the end, man, that's like me. All right. I pump fist pump. That's like me. Now that's anchoring that. Yeah. That's not like me to make those phone calls. Right. And, uh, and you do that. And before the luge run, I've got something on the cowling of my side, same thing, you know, here I come smile, have fun, you know, and, and that's it.

And that puts you in the mental state that you could be your best. That's another good point here, because you have a lot of people that leave a challenge to go try and accomplish something. You have to clear your mind. You have to think positively. You have to understand the I can, I am, I will mentality of this. And I mean, I'm sure you don't take your personal problems out of the track. It just doesn't help things. But a lot of people take their personal problems into their next sales call or into their next meeting or their next client presentation or something like that. How do you separate those? Is it just like a conscious act of, okay, that stays outside, this goes in with me? Or I mean, what do you do to avoid taking your personal problems into your next attempted accomplishment? For one thing, you have to do your training, right? If you're in sales, you have to read the books. You have to attend the seminars. You have to practice, right? With your mentor, your coach,

right? Do role practicing. Practice what are you going to do with all the objections. So you're ready, right? With us, we don't just visualize the perfect run, okay? When we're up at the track and we're going to go take a run in 10 minutes, that gives you time to do a few mind runs where it's perfect. Back at the hotel or before you get to that track and before your first training, we do escape routes. That means contingency planning. It's a mind run where what am I going to do if I'm a little late in curve one? How am I going to fix it? What about if I'm a little early? What do I hit the left wall? What about hit the right wall? You do that for every curve of the track. So you get to the point where you realize, hey, no matter what happens, I can handle it. All right. And so

now that that allows, so it's not fake it till you make it. It's train hard, work your tail off, and then trust that you have the training. Tiger Woods, before every putt, before every shot, his mantra is trust. I trust myself, right? And just let it go. Don't be thinking, oh, this arm needs to do this. The wrist needs to be at this angle. No, forget it. You're toast if you think like that. That's one way to think of it. The other way of a more big picture, I'm a big fan of Thomas Edison. I read a lot of his biographies. He used to work 90 minutes on one thing with no interruptions. He never even checked his emails.

And he'd just work on that. And then he'd take a little break. He had a lake where you could walk. And he liked to fish, right? And he'd just go and fish for a little bit. And he little bit and come back and work on another project for 90 minutes. That's one reason that he was so productive. He was able to 1,000 patents. He had all these engineers working for him. You have to focus

on one thing at a time. I've homeschooled our kids. We homeschool our kids ever since they were little, their whole lives. And ever since they were six years old, I tell them, look, you give me 90 minutes, right? No interruptions, zero, because I'm there in the house. And then we're going to play something. We'll play cards. We'll go play with the dog, wherever you want. You got me for 30 minutes. And then if I can get four of those 90 minute chunks in a day, well, that's a really productive day. So it's like you go with a purpose, right? And with a focus and with blinders on and it works. So true. Some great examples here. You've really done a great job of understanding

how to squeeze that peak performance out of your brain in order to put it in your body and in your actions and your accomplishments. So I've got, I've got a question for you. You've been to the Olympics several times before, right? You know, and, and you're going back again, buddy. So, uh, is there anything you look at and you go, I want to do this differently going back next time? Is there anything that you look forward to changing or is it, I want to go back and do it the way that I did it before, because that is how to maximize it. No, I want to do it better. I went three years ago when I was 55, I went to Calgary and it might've been, we might've talked about this in our, in our last interview. I went to Calgary. I hadn't slid in seven years since, since I competed in the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

And I just wanted to see if my neck could even handle the G-forces, right, at 55. Well, I was sliding really well. And so the coach, my coach friend that lives there, he says, you know, why don't you come back in December? We're having a World Cup race. If you qualify, you know, you'd be the oldest ever to compete internationally in this sport. So I went. Well, I got a 25 year old sled everybody's laughing they're saying man that thing belongs in a museum not in a world cup race oh well this is what i got well sled technology uh had had improved and i was gonna have to beat my personal best by two tenths of a second doesn't sound like much but it's an eternity in the loop and we had had to do different things, right? And I had to trust more and I had to, believe it or not, holding the handles in a

different way made a difference that allowed me to relax more and be faster. And on one of the, you get five shots to qualify. And on one of them, I qualified by four one hundredths of a second. I mean, a blink of an eye, but I did it, right? And they said, okay, now you need a new sled, okay? No more clunker. So bought a new sled, and it's about a second and a half, second, 1.3 seconds, we think, faster than the old sled. So that's going to make a difference. And I'm mentally stronger. Isn't that crazy? I mean, you get older, everybody thinks that you're no good, but no, you're mentally stronger. And since the mental side of success is so important, you can get a lot more done. Presidents aren't in their 20s.

Presidents are seasoned guys, right? Sometimes too seasoned. But anyways, my hope in making this fifth one is to inspire people to get off the couch and, you know, live their dreams, uh, to stop listening to that number that's holding them back. Uh, you know, if a 59 year old guy can make it to the Olympic man, uh, anybody can do anything. Awesome. Well, Ruben, I, uh, I ask everybody a question on the show.

I know I asked you, uh, the first time you were on, tell me Ruben, I want to talk question on the show. I know I asked you the first time you were on. Tell me, Ruben, I want to talk about this real quick. Then I want to talk about how are we helping you get there financially. So tell me, how do you start your day with a win? How do I start my day with a win? I stretch out a bit, do a little yoga, got the roller and just calisthenics to get my body awake and take the dogs out and read something positive. 15, 20 minutes, read something positive or listen to an audio that just put me in a good frame of mind. Quick breakfast, I mean, quick breakfast,

and I hit it. And so a little bit to wake up the body and a little bit to wake up the mind and then hit it hard. Awesome. And where can we find your find your gofundme page how do we support you getting to the olympics buddy oldest olympian.com oldest olympian.com my goal is to uh my my low goal i need 70 to 75,000 to get off the gates. And I'm hoping to get 125. If I can do that, then I can get a couple of good coaches to come with me and, you know, increase the probability. Otherwise, I'm just depending on people to help me piecemeal. And so, yeah, so if you guys can help me out, I appreciate it big time. And everybody that everybody that donates at least 100 bucks, they get their picture on my sled. So I'm going to make a mosaic, an inspirational mosaic on the bottom of the sled made up of everybody's picture.

So it's going to be really cool. That is so cool. Everybody, make sure you check out oldestolympian.com. Help Ruben get to the Olympics. Ruben Gonzalez, thank you so much. The Luge Man for being on Start With A Win again. Great to have you back. Adam, thanks for being on my green team, man.

You guys rock. Thanks a lot, my friend. Hey. And thank you guys for listening to Start With A Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question or tell us your Start With A Win story, give us a call. Leave us a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go on to iTunes and subscribe if you've just been passively listening. Write a review. Give us five stars. It helps us get the word out and reach more people. And for more great content, head over to

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