From Athlete to Entrepreneur: Shaun White on Risk-Taking, Reinvention, and Building What’s Next

The Entrepreneur’s Studio
 From Athlete to Entrepreneur: Shaun White on Risk-Taking, Reinvention, and Building What’s Next

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White shares how he’s applying an elite athlete’s mindset to entrepreneurship; building new ventures and reimagining the future of snowboarding.

Topics Covered:
• Translating an elite performance mindset into business
• Finding “white space” and building in untapped markets
• Taking calculated risks and committing to long-term vision

What do you do after you’ve reached the top of your sport? For Shaun White, the answer wasn’t stepping away, it was building something entirely new.

In this episode of The Entrepreneur’s Studio, Shaun shares how his journey from Olympic champion to entrepreneur has been driven by the same mindset that fueled his success on the slopes. From relentless competitiveness to detailed visualization, he explains how those habits now shape the way he approaches business, risk, and opportunity.

A key turning point in Shaun’s career came when he realized that being “as good as everyone else” wasn’t enough. That insight now drives his approach to entrepreneurship, finding differentiation, creating new experiences, and building where others aren’t looking. Whether launching his snowboard brand Whitespace or developing the Snow League, Shaun focuses on identifying gaps in the market and filling them with intention.

The conversation also explores Shaun’s relationship with risk. Rather than acting impulsively, he takes a calculated approach, knowing when to push forward and when to step back. He shares how visualization, preparation, and commitment helped him succeed at the highest level in sports, and how those same principles now guide his business decisions.

As Shaun transitions from individual competition to leading teams and building companies, he reflects on the importance of patience, collaboration, and long-term thinking. For him, success today isn’t just about winning, it’s about creating something meaningful that lasts and opens doors for the next generation.

• Why differentiation—not imitation—is the key to long-term success
 • How visualization and preparation translate from sport to business
 • What it means to find and build in “white space” markets

“It’s not enough to be as good as everyone else. You’ve got to be better—you’ve got to have something that’s different.”
 — Shaun White

Resources Mentioned:
 Woodward Training Facility
 Burton Snowboards
 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
 Good to Great

If you enjoyed this conversation, share this episode with someone thinking about their next chapter, whether in business, sports, or beyond.

https://www.auris.io/

Follow The Entrepreneur’s Studio so you never miss an episode:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com

The Entrepreneur’s Studio is sponsored by Auris, helping small and mid-sized businesses simplify payroll and HR with powerful tools and real human support. Learn more at https://www.auris.io 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:22

At that point, I realized like it's not enough to be as good as everyone else. You gotta be better. You gotta have something that's different. And so I stopped aiming for what was going to match my competitors. I started going for like what's gonna win.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Welcome back to the Entrepreneur Studio. I'm your host, Chris Allen, and today we're talking with three-time Olympic gold medalist Sean White. In this episode, Sean unpacks the mindset that made him a champion and how he's applying those same principles to building businesses like Whitespace and the Snow League. From visualizing victory down to the smallest details of what he'd wear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, Sean shares the intentional thinking behind sustained success. And if you're standing at the edge of your next chapter or thinking about what it really takes to build excellence from start to finish, this conversation will challenge how do you think about commitment, failure, and defining what you want. Sean, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Glad you made it. Glad you were here. Yeah, of course. Fresh from California. Yeah. Just came in. Yeah. Well, you know, the cool part is we're we're just fresh off uh the winter Olympics. And when most people hear your name, you know, they think three-time Olympic gold medalist, snowboarding champion, but that's not, you know, all of the story. That's one of the reasons we wanted to sit down and have a conversation with you because you're involved in several entrepreneurial ventures, including the performance brand white space and the snow league, which we would definitely want to talk about. So tell me what's the through line? What's the thing that really connects the Sean White competitor on the mountain with the Sean White entrepreneur in the marketplace?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

You know, it's a great question. I I always felt like it was a mix of things for me, you know. I think being competitive is an amazing asset. Yeah. Just because I was always striving for, well, how can it be better? What can we do? Like what's the angle? And then, you know, setting goals, obviously in sport. It's really important, knowing where you want to get to at what point in time, especially for something like the Olympics, you want to, you know, crescendo at the right moment. You want to get to the right place at the right time in this, you know, all the way down to that hour window of competition. And you need to be at your peak at that moment. So timing was everything as well. Um, and so a lot of that crosses over into the business side of things where I sit down and I look at the sort of landscape. Let's take Whitespace, for example. You know, that was something where, you know, I had been inspired by people that came before me. You know, I grew up around Jake Burton, who owned Burton Snowboards, Tony Hawk, Hip Bird House skateboards, um, you know, these guys that like owned their own brands and did their own thing and really like made products that changed the sport. And everybody wanted to ride for their companies, you know, it was a big deal. And so looking at the landscape of what was currently out there, I was like, well, how can I be different? How can I be unique in the space from look, from name to field, from our advertising, all that stuff. But that was the same way I kind of approached my runs. Yeah. I'm like, he's doing this trick, that guy's doing that trick, but nobody's doing this. And if I drop in and just do that, I'm already different from the rest of the pack. And a bunch of that does. Yeah, a bunch of that stuff started happening over my career. Well, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

There's that.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Then you gotta go do it. Yeah, and that's where the the training and the the hard work comes in, obviously. And and that same thing with with the business side as well. I feel like, you know, you gotta put in the time, you gotta like get in the weeds with it all.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

When you're sort of imagining the competition, the competitor in you, um, what who who do you sort of imagine when you're like no, is it the people that you're competing with? Is it competing with yourself? Are you competing with numbers? Like what what are what's the thing you sort of compete with in your mindset?

SPEAKER_02 4:11

I felt like for the longest, I was just competing with everyone. I was trying to be as good as them and just like be considered a real athlete because snowboarding wasn't really a desired sport in the community I I grew up in. Obviously, Colorado is a lot different, you know, certain places really support winter sports, but you know, sunny California down the beach and San Diego area, like they were like, You want to do what? You know, so no one really understood what I was doing. Um and then later on in life, I felt like, oh, and and one other thing was I I was a kid, I was pro at 13, and all the mic competitors were in their mid to upper 20s. And so I was like, So, you know, these Pokemon cards are pretty cool, guys. It's just like, what? Like me trying to explain. They evolve, they get the Pokemon, they evolve. And I just remember sitting there trying to explain this. I'm like, we're not gonna be as tight as I I'd hoped. Um, you know, so there was like an age gap and a and it's sort of like, you know, disconnect from where I came from. Um, so I felt like I was always trying to fight to get to this place within the sport. Um, and then I finally did it. I was probably 15, and I I remember I'll I'll never forget, I was competing here in Colorado. I want to say Breckenridge, and I was trying to make the Olympic team. It was it was my first chance to go to the Olympics. Um, I'm in first place, need a first place finish to make the team, and there's one more guy to go, JJ Thomas. He drops in, takes the takes the slot, takes first place by like three tenths of a point. Oh man. And I was pretty devastated, you know. And at that point, I was a kid. I was like, it's like I got the got everyone's going on the field trip except me. And I d you know what I mean? I was just like so, so frustrated and disappointed and and whatnot. But um, at that point I realized like it's not enough to be as good as everyone else. You gotta, you gotta be better, you gotta have something that's different. And so I stopped aiming for what was going to match my competitors. I was I started going for like what's gonna win. Yeah, what's gonna be the next thing? And then after winning, you know, that's probably the hardest part is to win after winning because you've reached the top and then you start competing with yourself. You're like, okay, well, I did this last season. How do I one up that? And who cares that this person's doing whatever? Like, let's just keep going. Like, let's push this. What's next? Um, and that way you're really motivating from a different place. You're not really looking over the fence at what others are doing. You're like, what am I doing? What am I doing today? Um, obviously, you're taking inventory of what's happening in the sport, but for the most part, you're just kind of battling with yourself.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

You know, the uh the getting to three was such a big story, right? And uh, you really did an unlock that when you talked about this in sort of our pre-conversation, it really resonated with me. You know, like the book Good to Great's got this uh, you know, hedgehog concept. This is the thing you repeat and you do over and over and over and over. And one of the unlocks that you had said was like, okay, I could strategically choose to get the outcome I'm looking for, I got to have this run. And that run's got to look like this. Unpack that because that was like a that was a huge unlock that I think has a huge parallel in business as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah. I mean, it's all kind of visualizing, right? And and I got crazy with it. I would just visualize everything. What am I gonna listen to when I drop in? What what will I what will I be wearing? What would I say at the bottom in my interview? Like, what would it be like after to feel the victory and what would I do and all these things? Um, you know, and so I would kind of like start planning and really dream up this huge sort of, you know, the biggest dream possible, and then go at that and pick it away piece by piece. But um, you know, I think it's also being aware and like being in it, I don't know how to describe it, best would be an example. I was surfing with a buddy of mine, and this was like we're gearing up for the I want to say 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and I'm surfing, we're hanging out, and he's like, Yeah, you gotta win that next Olympics, huh? And I'm like, Yeah, no pressure, no pressure, like for sure. And um, you know, we're paddling around. I was like, God, you know, it's been so hard lately because I go to the resort, and you know, with the newfound success from the first Olympics, you know, big red hair, everybody recognized me. It wasn't hard to get around. People would be trying to take selfies at the half pipe wall. Hey, my phone, it's my daughter's birthday. Would you just talk to her as I'm trying to drop in and do some trick that's like really dangerous? And it's a beautiful part about our sport that you get access. There's not many like basketball courts you could just walk on and try to like get a selfie with LeBron while he's doing his free throw practice, you know. But you know, that's a beautiful part of our sport. You you have accessibility to the athletes, but I was like, man, I well, what if we trained in private? Like, what if we went somewhere that that wouldn't happen? I can completely focus. I'm not chasing the half pipe. And at that time, you know, the half pipe at maybe 12 o'clock has the best sunlight. But at the public resort, I would show up and it would be just sloped by then because it's slushy and you know, all the athletes had gone through it. It's just like aftermath, but I'm like waiting for the backside wall to get sunny or something like that. So I was like, oh, we can really train when I want to train. I don't got to worry about that. Um, and then we can film, we can bring in helicopters, we can do all these things. And so we just kept dreaming up this dream of a private half pipe. And then I was like, man, you know, what they're doing in gymnastics is pretty crazy. They're jumping into foam pits. And we had talked a little before, but like Woodward. I mean, they have these huge foam pits. I was like, why aren't like the technology's there? I'm watching Travis Bastrana try double backflips into a phone pit. It's like, why don't we do that in snow? And so it's kind of having the vision and having the dream and then going for it. And at that time, you know, I was with Red Bull and I was like, who's crazy enough to want to do this with me? So it's like, of course, these guys. They're like, yeah, sure. That was the easiest phone call. Um, so you know, it's kind of having the vision and then pursuing it. And at that point, you know, double flips were being done in the backcountry of the sport because it's a natural foam pit. These guys, I want to say it was JP Walker, kind of formal, former, you know, handrail urban snowboarder, um, you know, went in the backcountry and started doing these crazy double flips. And so I was like, how can we replicate that? And then the foam pit idea and it all just kind of came together. Um and then I started dreaming up different tricks and how to pursue that and what was next. But it was, it was constantly kind of being in a place of like, how do I excel? Like, how do I get a leg up on my competition? How do I, you know, put the pressure or come up with something unbeatable? And it was like that was kind of like what just stirred me every single day. I would just kind of think those thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah. And you you really picked apart everything that was in your way and you systematically took it all apart. But I the thing that I I really love that you said is that you you're like, I sat and imagined what I would say, what I would wear. Yeah. That I mean, it's just a it's a huge thing that I think um is uh is a undervalued uh aspect because it isn't um that is not empty. That is not empty time uh wasted. That's like it's the that's when the creator in you is alive.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Yeah, and it's fun. It's like it doesn't always have to be this like, of course I wanted to win the Olympics, you know, but having that is like I gotta win the Olympics. That's like such a daunting mountain to climb. Yeah. Right. And so I had these like sub-goals, and some of them would be like, I was turning, you know, 16 or whatever. I was like, how many cars can I win? Because I remember they were handing out cars. I was gonna get my license, like, I gotta get these cars. But by getting the car, I I was winning the events, which meant I was heading to the Olympics kind of thing. Yeah. Um I had a few. There's like five or six cars. It was insane. I was like, no way. There was like a Suzuki sidekick, there was uh two Jeeps, I want to say like two Volvos and something. It was pretty funny. That's awesome. Um honestly, I ended up donating them. I don't even know what to do. There was like a there was like a battered, uh, there's a there was a battered women's shelter nearby, and you know, they needed vehicles to go pick people up from certain situations and these things. And I was like, oh, you know, hey, like let's just I'm not driving these and my family's fine, and like what you know what I mean? And yeah, yeah. You know, there's great tax implications and things, and I was like, oh, this is great, it's a win-win for everybody. Yeah, um, but um the other story I wanted to tell, which is so funny, I don't really tell it very often, but I was super inspired by Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose in this video is like running around stage in these like American flag shorts. They're really short shorts, it's aggressive. And I was like, that's the cool look. I don't know if I can go for the shorts, but maybe pants. Pants would be cool. Because I remember after my first appearance at the Olympics, I was put on the cover of Rolling Stone and I was like, this is insane. Like, I'm I'm gonna win, you know, and I remember watching Almost Famous and all these things, and it's the wrong it's Rolling Stone. Only two other athletes had been on the cover before. Uh, it was Muhammad Ali and uh Michael Jordan. So I was I was so thrilled to be the third, you know, it's pretty wild. Rolling Stone Rushmore's pretty cool. I was like, well, they call what if I win again and they call me again, I'd be ready with these pants. It was this whole thing about these pants. And so I had these pants made and I had the tailored and all these things, and it just became all about this these pants. And so, like, it was like the fun goal of you know winning the Olympics and it made it all. And um, sorry, long story short, but the whole dream this all started with seeing um Guns N' Roses memorabilia and Billy uh idols like stuff at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, and I was like, man, I'm an athlete, but like how could I get something into this hotel on display? I was like, Well, if I were to be on the cover of Rolling Stone and I did have the pants, I did the thing, you know, maybe it would be. And it all happened. No, it all happened. I made the thing, I won the Olympics, Rolling Stone called. We shot the cover, uh, we like lit my snowboard on fire as like a throw to Jimi Hendrix, and then the burnt board, the pants, and like this the cover of the magazine were all on display at the the hard rock there. Yeah, so rad. You know, and it's crazy because like you can dream it up, and every day was like a little like, okay, I got the pants made. Oh, they got them tailored. Oh, this is so cool. And like every little step was like toward that big goal. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

So I mean, I the pants. The the wild part about that is like, you know, there's the gold medal, and then there's obviously what what success comes from that, but like you have this whole adjacent visual thing that you're gonna go do. Like, well, if I do that, that connects to this. Pants are gonna happen. Hard rock's gonna happen than it all did. That's really rad.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Paying off that story's gotta be really things and things in a smaller way would happen, obviously. And and some things don't go to plan, you gotta pivot and whatever. But yeah, like a lot of I'm just trying to show how much I've really visualized everything, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

You know, you the thing is is that uh the wildest part about the the height that you get, like you just go, I mean, even on uh on your book, right? Um the height is like over where they're measuring and all that kind of stuff. It is pretty freaking risky, right? So, like, how does Sean White process risk? Yeah, yeah. You know, there's physical body, you know, and stuff. And then it's like your whole sort of, I'm gonna say relationship with risk is probably different than most people. So I just thought it'd be great to unpack like what goes through your mind, or do you not even see that as risky?

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah. No, it's a great question because I'm I'm completely the opposite of what people would think. I mean, maybe there's like one guy I know that's that crazy. I think Travis Pastrana maybe like wakes up and is like, I just need to jump out of something today. You know what I mean? I'm but I'm much more calculated to like I know when it's the time to push the gas and throw some new tricks or do whatever. But a lot of times it's like watching poker on TV. Like that's edited down to the best hands that are being played. Yeah. Right. Where for me, or you know, but if you sat there, they're just folding and folding and folding, waiting for the right hand to play. I felt like it's very much like that for me in the sport. It was always a marathon, not a sprint. And so I was like very calculated and when I wanted to do the tricks and when not to. And and then the risk and and the fear was just like you just you just get a relationship with it. And my mom taught me this kind of valuable lesson when I was younger. Um, we were watching people learning how to do backflips. I don't know if you've ever seen that. It's a pretty wild thing because only my kids. Well, this is I hope this didn't happen, but they they ride up to the jump and the whole time they're like, I'm gonna do a backflip. And then they start doing a backflip and they get upside down, they go, I don't want to do a backflip anymore. And they stop and then they land on their heads, you know, and it's like a it's the ones that actually commit and flip around, you end up on your butt, on your back, on your side, something, anything but landing on your head, you know. And so you just needed, I and for me, it was that I needed to learn just the level of commitment that it takes to do this sport, you know, like if I'm gonna do it, I gotta go for it. And I would just make a decision. And the more you do that, the more the muscle memory trains itself to be like, okay, I am scared, I am nervous, but if I'm gonna do this, I'm doing it. And so that that switch would just kind of happen. But but yeah, there's plenty of days where like getting in that mindset just wasn't easy. Yeah. I'm like, no, it's cold, I'm jet lagged, I'm over it, I'm hungry. Time is it, you know what I mean? And and and so I would wait for it to be a good scenario, and then I would push on the gas. But um, but yeah, it was all about timing and and really kind of like being, you know, if you weren't afraid, that's that's a worrisome thing. I was definitely always a bit of fear going into it. And then the only time that I wasn't afraid was during a contest. Really? Just because it's like, I don't know, the pressure's so great. It helps so much for me at least. Like, I'm like, I have to do it. I have to. Everyone's here, the cameras are on, I want to win. I have to do it. And it took the seed of doubt away. You know what I mean? So if I was at the top during practice, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go for the double McTwist, 1260 or double whatever. And I'd be like, okay, next run, I'll do it. There's no next run. This is it. So it was a it was a luxury to show up at the comp contest because I would just, I'm like, okay, well, I'm doing it. Obviously, if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna put my best foot forward and go for it. And that usually, you know, yielded the best results for me because I was just all in. There was no backing out. Um, and I was pretty terrible during practice. Um, not always, but some days, like I would just show up and be kind of garbage, especially at the 2018 Olympics. It was hilarious. I was not looking good. I'm falling all over the place. I can't see. I'm trying to change my goggle lenses. Each run, I'm trying a new lens. I can't see anything, it's overcast, it's cold, kind of windy. And I'm like, well, all days. Today's the day I can't even stand on my feet. And something clicked in my head because I was like, Well, I'm I know that when the contest starts, like I'm gonna deliver because I have to. And that was the sort of you know, um energy I would take into the contest. I'd find this the silver lining either way, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yeah, it's a you know how to arrest the moment for sure. Yeah, it's pretty wild. I mean, d, you know, um, that's not uh I would put in the normal category of um just being like, well, everybody's here, I gotta do it. Most people are like, everybody's here.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

If I don't do it, yeah, yeah. No, I think it's all how you spin it too. Cause I remember people like, how do you deal with the pressure of the media and the people? Because these billboards start going up before you've made the team. And uh, you know, the commercials running on NBC are hopeful Sean White's coming back for start, you know. It's just like it's it can be stifling that pressure. And for some reason I just loved it. I was like, oh my God, everybody believes I can do this. I must be able to do this. Oh my not like everyone's expecting it, like everyone believes in me. Let's let's go, you know what I mean? It was like a it was like a building block for me rather than like something that weighed me down. And no one, no one could put more pressure on me than myself.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

I was such a hard critic of myself at every twist and turn if I wasn't performing the way I wanted to, subtle tweaks, things like, you know, so that outside pressure never really got to me. It was just like what I was dealing with internally for the most part. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Well, you were uh really good at showing up different, right? And um, I I think talking about white space, yeah, right. I I think it really started to show up where, like, you know, you got the long red hair, you know, one of the things you said is you're like, when people were doing this, I was doing that. Yeah, I was like, now that Sean really thinks in a differentiated way. And when you think of white space, what was the connection of thinking different and sort of identifying a market gap? Because I mean, it's a crowded space.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

For sure. And it's a tough space. Yeah, you know, like buying a snowboard is kind of like buying or leasing a car. People keep their boards forever, yeah, like instruments, you know. It's like, oh, I still have my burden, whatever, I still got my Sims, you know, whatever it is. And so, you know, and they they almost become collector's items at a at a certain point over time. And um, so when somebody's standing there and they're looking, like, oh, I could get the board I know, it's gonna be there for me, or I could try this new board, you know, white space board. You really gotta win the trust of that consumer. Um and so my and my name will only get us so far. So immediately I just started diving into like what's gonna make the best board. How do I test and write all these boards? And um, simultaneously they had changed um the The wax that we're allowed to use for the Olympics to be more environmentally friendly, right? So they changed from floral wax to something else, and everybody kind of scrambled to get new boards that had a different base material that would take the new wax better. And so everyone's scrambling. There's a factory out of Switzerland that everybody was getting their boards made. And I started building boards with them. Um, you know, I was fresh out of my Burton contract, and I was like, okay, let's just give it a pause. Um, you know, simultaneously, Jake Burton had passed away. The company, we didn't know what the future was, and you know, something like that makes you start looking at your own life and time on this earth and these things. And I was like, wow, where do I want to be in the next five, 10 years? So that vision started to grow and build. And now I got these new boards, and okay, what's different? And um, and like you said, I wanted to be unique, I want to be different. So I called the company. I'm like, hey, what base color is everybody getting? Like, oh, Scotty's going all black, and Iuma's going all stone's going all black. Everybody just got the same black base, and I was like, because black is the fastest material colorway for some reason. And I was like, Well, I want the speed, but I want to be unique. So I was like, give me just like a white stripe down the base. And um, and that set me apart from the other athletes. So you'd look up at the pipe and just see me there. Yeah, you know, and then the name white space came about. And I was like, Oh, there's a white space on my board. White space is a term used for like a gap in the market, avoid waiting for something new, um, a blank canvas, like so much of what my approach to the sport was that it's like the the gap in the market, what's you know, waiting to, you know, be done that hasn't been done yet. And um, and so then when I started looking at the marketplace, I was like, God, there's a lot of like dragons and skulls and pandas with waves that are on fire, and you know, it's nothing wrong with with those graphics. I was just like, how do we be unique? I was like, let's go with something simplistic and clean, just white space with, you know, like let's take the stripe off the base of the board and put it on the top, under the binding, so it's not overbearing when you're looking down, but you know it's a white space board and just these subtleties of just like, okay, we'll stand out on the floor pad. And then I think my favorite decision was I remember having just such a hard time coming up with bass graphics for when I had a pro model at Burton. And I remember seeing, you know, any brand, but the one that really called out to me was it was the women's shoe brand, Lou Baton. I didn't know the name for a minute, but I just knew the red sole of these shoes and I could see it. And I just knew that was that brand and that it was expensive or that it was fancy. I don't, I still don't actually know how what the price point is, but but it, you know, I just spotted it and um I was like, we need that for our brand. Why not do something that no one else is doing and just have the same base graphic for every single board? And that's our calling card. When you see that white space, that white stripe flying through the air, you know that's our board. That's that's it. When you're looking up at the chairlift, riding down the mountain, like that, those are the white stripes, those are our boards. And so um almost like Porsche doesn't change the body style too much. You know, there's subtle variations, but but this is what they do.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

I mean, when you're riding though, you're only the only time you see what anybody's using is at the chairlift line, right? Yeah, you're like they can see it from everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Yeah, no, and that was the thing. And so, like, you know, all these subtle differences, and then I was like, okay, we want to market it different. I want to go for this sort of elevated, clean look, you know, maybe a hint of like what a big fresh fashion brand would be doing, but you know, keep it in a price point that's on par with everyone else. Yeah. And so yeah, it just really like it all came together in an amazing way. And so there's meaning behind the name. We got the the base graphic. It all just kind of came together in this beautiful way. And we launched around the Olympics uh 2022 in Beijing. Yeah. And so that was just like a mad dash to get over the finish line because you're not allowed to use products at the Olympics if they haven't been in market for a certain time. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Because you can't just show up with like a with Pepsi's the sponsor as Coca-Cola's a sponsor. You can't just show up with like a Pepsi snowboard. They're just like, no, no, no. Like you can't do, you know what I mean? You can't like hijack their or whatever gorilla market there, there, the Olympics. They're they're smarter than that. Um, I think rumor had it, a girl showed up with like a Prada snowboard on her base graphic was Prada, and they made her like paint over it. No way. Yeah. At the big air. But anyway, so yeah, luckily we didn't have to get painted, and uh, we got it through in time and got to launch the brand as I kind of exited my career. Not kind of, but yeah, I guess kind of. I'm still doing a lot of things. I'm doing stuff, but competitively, you know, I got to exit while kind of opening this new venture, which was pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah, it's really awesome. And talk to us about uh, you know, speaking of the Prada and you know, some of these other and Louis Ton. Yeah, you've got a relationship, you know, with uh you've done a number of collaborations. Talk to us. I think it's Tiffany's that you've you've got a really good relationship with. Talk about the evolution of you kind of saying, okay, we're gonna be that exclusive brand, and then you start figuring out how to do the collaborations. Talk to us about like what was behind the scenes that people don't really understand about you know, creating those types of those types of relationships.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah. I mean, look, we'll see where white space in the brand goes in in the years to come. Obviously, we're gonna find the white space, we're gonna look for that gap in the market and try to fill that void. But um, you know, I remember my days working with Target stores. I had a clothing line there, and I remember they'd bring in these guest designers. And whoever the designer was, like used to be at Gucci or used to do Tom Ford, whatever it was, maybe not Tom Ford, Tom does Tom. But um, but yeah, they'd bring in a designer and then and then everybody lose their minds like, oh my God, I'm getting this high-end fashion brand at Target for this affordable price. And so, you know, my whole thing was doing these big collabs with these big brands. So, like we have a collaboration with Montclair, and they're selling, you know, $3,000 puffy jackets, and we're selling, you know, it's a different, it's a much different price point. It's a different customer. Um, I love the fact that I own my own brand because this would never have been greenlit at any other sponsor of mine. Um, but I was like, oh, let's collaborate. This is great. And we did a collaborative board together. That price point's obviously a lot higher because they command a higher price for um their products. And and they wanted us because, you know, sometimes if you show up, um, let's say you show up to the track meet and you're wearing, you know, your Gucci running shoes, people be like, Well, what the heck? You know, like this, this is ridiculous, you know. But if you showed up with Adidas collab Gucci shoes, you're like, Well, I know Adidas makes great running shoes, and and I, and okay, now it's got the flair of the Gucci. Like, they wanted that. They wanted the our our function to meet their faction and have that credibility. So it's like an amazing collaboration with them. Um, and so you're doing these like big things, but that's just kind of brand building for us. So now, like, you're a part of that Montclair thing, you're a part of some of that kind of high-end feeling, but at this price point. And so it was like something I'd learned kind of at Target and some other places. And I was like, I want to do that. I want to do these big brand collabs. And uh another one that was fun we did was a brand called Farm Rio, which is pretty insane. Every, every every female, we only did a women's line. Every female, I'm I'm, you know, I get tagged and so much, and everyone that's at an Aspen or Park City or whatever, and they're all wearing this Farm Rio collab. And it's really been fun because our products are very simplistic. I like to think it's not like big, bright, colorful stuff, and that's what they do. They're all bright, they're patterns, they're color. And I remember them telling me the design or the the idea for the for the ad they wanted to run. They're like, okay, like our model's gonna come in and do a backflip, and then she just turns into like a parakeet and flies down to Rio. It's like, okay, yeah. Like, let me let's workshop that. But yeah, okay, you know, but it was just fun. It was fun to do something outside the box, and that's exactly what it was. Like, no one had done something like that with them. No one has done the Montclair Cole. Yeah, yeah. These are those white spaces. That's that, that something new to be done. Um, and you mentioned Tiffany's. Um, that one I'd like to address specifically because, you know, when I was thinking about building the Snow League, jumping over to that, you know, business. Um one of the first things I thought of is like, what are we gonna do for the trophy? You know, it's that subtle detail of like, what is it gonna be that I hand somebody and they feel the weight, they look at it and they go, wow, I just did something really amazing. Yeah. I just became part of history. I, you know, like you look down at that Olympic gold medal, it's heavy. They put that on your neck, you're like, oh, okay. Like you feel the weight, you feel the magnitude, they're raising the flag, people are crying. It's like the anthem's blare. Like it's a it's a moment, it's a thing. It's like I'm like, how do we recreate that for our event? You know, because there's been a lot of competitions that I've been to where I felt like not novelty, but just like the trophies were, you know, they had a theme. One year it was like a dragon's shield, like a medieval times sort of excuse me, uh, shield. Got a couple of those. The one was like a sheriff's badge, one was like a manhole cover, like a like in the street, the storm drain cover.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Now, were these one of one, or did you get one too that you sort of keep? And you know, the other people get it, but like, do you have like a secret room with these really dope? They were just bizarre.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

I'm I'm more just saying that the trophies were kind of all over the map. Yeah, yeah. You know, and so if I had a room, it would be filled with some bizarre stuff. There'd be a dragon shield, a sculpture of a monkey. I won that in Japan. I've won, it was the Nippon Open. They gave this, it was like a monkey holding a snowboard with headphones and like, you know, just these random things. And I was like, okay, like I guess it speaks to, you know, my accolades or whatever, my my success, having all these things out, but there was no kind of common thread. I was like, oh, and nothing really, I felt like spoke to the magnitude of what I had accomplished at those events. Cause I'm like going forward, I'm doing tricks that are incredibly dangerous. I'm I'm pushing the sport, I'm doing this stuff, and I'm winning big prize money. And this is the trophy. So, anyways, long story short, I was like, you know, it would be incredible to partner with Tiffany's for a couple of reasons. Obviously, it's a high-end luxury brand. They're known for doing some incredible things, but they also make every single trophy out there for all the major sports. They make the Super Bowl trophy, the FIFA World Cup trophy, the MLB trophy. Like they make all these incredible trophies. And wouldn't it be nice to have snowboarding and free skiing on the same level as all these other traditional sports? And it's so it's it speaks more to that in my mind than oh, this is a Tiffany's trophy and oh, look how expensive it probably is. You know what I mean? That I'm saying we're our sport is now in the upper echelon of sports where everybody else is. And when you win, you get handed something really special. And, you know, when the trophy was being made, there's this huge file. Like the guy handwrites the notes. He takes all these notes down and he was taking the notes for the trophy. And he opened this big filing cabinet, and he and he's like fumbling through, and you know, and right there it's like the Super Bowl trophy, all these trophies, and like boom, our file goes into that box with all those trophies of just like a historical moment. I'm like, this is insane. It's just a snow league. Here we go. Um, so everything kind of has a meaning behind it. I don't really do certain things just to do it. Everything's got a bit of an angle or something's happening, and and that was the big reason why I was so thrilled to partner with Tiffany's.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Yeah, it's amazing. Super, and I, you know, you can tell that just in your planning, how you think about things, visualization that we talked about, you you know, you're pretty meticulous, and the attention to the the details really real. You know, I I think one of the things that is really interesting about the the move that you made is, you know, I mean, I remember the X games and all that, all the stuff, and you're skateboarding and all that kind of stuff, and then the snowboarding thing and all that you were competing as an individual, yeah, right? Yeah, and then now here you are, you're like, well, Snow League is we're gonna make it different. And and business is a team sport too. Yeah. So talk about like you moving from executor uh and uh you know, strategist on, you know, obviously your brand, your career, and all that kind of stuff, but moving to like, I got to build businesses and all of the stuff around, you know, building the business, not just the strategy, but actually having to deliver on all of the business operations and things like that. It's a team sport.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

It is, it is. And that's something that like was a very humbling sort of um, you know, excuse me, uh realization when I jumped in. I was like, oh wow, because I can't do it all. I can't be there holding someone's hand that's doing the trophy while, you know, meeting with the mountain owners and operators to like secure the venue and then pop out and do, you know what I mean? There's just so much happening. And I can't be looking at the blueprints for the schematics of like what the structure is gonna be like that we build. Like I'm getting the overall vision during these updates and these big meetings, but I can't be in the weeds and so trusting the group and believing in the group. So it really, again, it's like it taught me patience because I'm like, okay, not everyone's gonna have the work ethic I have, and not that sort of everything has to be perfect, sort of chip on the shoulder of like, uh it's gotta be this way. Like this is the vision. It can't skew or sway at all like this, it has to be it. So um, you know, I kind of came to a realization that like there will be mistakes, there will be things that go wrong, and that's okay. And we gotta band together to get it done rather than like, you know, isolating somebody and and and and being on their case for you know, messing something up. It's like it's okay. I get where you're coming from, I appreciate what you did and I understand your efforts. This is what I was thinking, but let's let's find a way to move forward together. It's more of like you're building that relationship with everyone rather than, you know, I used to just like you know, hammer myself with with sort of those frustrations when I wouldn't compete well, I wouldn't do things well, but you can't, you know, what's happening in my head to myself when I'm competing, that that sort of, you know, doesn't fully translate over to business, I find. Um but yeah, no, it was an interesting thing to switch to that. Um, but I really love it. It's been such a a humbling experience to have a team. And like when we did our last event, like we did a group shot at the bottom of the half pipe, and it was like our crew, everyone's wearing their vest for Snow League, and they're all just so proud of what we've created. And it's like we're all in it together. And so when things go south, we band together to get back on track, and when things go well, there's a whole team to celebrate with. So it's really, it's really nice, it's really fun.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Yeah. I think one of the things that is like it's almost like your superpower. Obviously, we talked about the superpower at the beginning, which was like, oh, I've got ice in my veins. I I love the pressure. I can, I can deliver. But I think you're a curator, right? You you can imagine and curate these experiences. Um, and it's because, you know, you really you you have an understanding about where you, you know, you want to go, but you also understand who you're doing it with.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

And I think that really that that's that's a huge superpower.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. People always ask me, like, what was the special sauce, especially because they have kids and they're like, I would like my kid to figure out what you did. So what did you do? What did your mom feed you? What was the secret ingredient that got you to this place? And, you know, I think you hit it on the head. Like, if you would say my my power was to be, it was creative. It was always being a creative type where I was like, oh, like this, what if I did it this? You know, just kind of thinking outside the box or like planning or scheming how um, maybe not scheming, but like um strategizing of like what my next move is gonna be. You'll still be plotting. Plotting, yeah. Yeah, in my lair. But um, you know, it was it was that and then and then the combination of like, you know, kind of being told I wasn't gonna amount to anything, that like my sport was not legitimate, that I was gonna be, you know, out in the streets if this thing didn't pan out, and and no one really, you know, there was no clear path for me to success. It was all just kind of like, oh, I hope this works out. Um, and so I was always fighting for every little bit of I felt like what I was earning at the time. And um, and then that and and that sort of feeling was like just dedication to hard work because I can't let it fail. I have to I have to do this, you know? And so um I was man, I grew up with asthma. I had tetrology flow, it was a congenital heart defect. I had multiple surgeries to correct that. They're like, your kid's gonna be very inactive, he's gonna be a sluggish, sort of slow child. And I was just like, like I was that horrible redheaded kid in your community, like chopping your rose bushes and stuff. Like I just had this energy. Um and yeah, it was just like perfect combination, and then obviously like a product of my environment. Um, I forgot the book you just referenced. It was the Road to Success. It wasn't I I read the Malcolm Gladwell uh okay The Outliers. Yeah, and I was sitting there thinking about it. I'm like, wow, you know, he's talking about the hockey players and what you know month out of the year they were born, and that gave them a physical advantage over their other, you know, um peers because they were just how at that young age, your growth in a couple months can be staggering. And then they shuffled them into from then they sort them into, you know, A, B, and C rankings, and then that you know, the A team practices double the B team does. And then all of a sudden, when they meet back up, it's not even just it's not fair. They were bigger and they're better because they practice more. And so I started breaking down my life, and I was like, wow, there's so many coincidences that led to this place. You know, I started riding at Big Bear in in Snow Summit in California, and I was like, well, what if I grew up on the East Coast? What if I grew up in Colorado? I was like, well, the amount of days that I rode that were sunny and slushy were every day. It was never cold, that cold. I was in a t-shirt or hoodie most of the time. The landings were soft. So if I crashed, I was just kind of forgiving. And the big mountains didn't want to have snowboarders. They didn't want big parks, they didn't want all that stuff. It was so early. And Big Bear was like, we'll take your money. Yeah, buy a lift ticket. And we'll put them over on that West Ridge. So West Ridge became that famous, amazing run. And this guy named Chris Gunerson that got his start building jumps at Snow Summit, who went on to build all the X Games parks, all the major events. So I had access to his jumps and his build and his like creativity. So, like right there, I'm I'm in somewhere that's warm and sunny, it's forgiving, and I got access to these amazing jumps. And then the half pipe they built had a tow rope, right? So if you grew up here and had to take the chair, I'm probably getting like two or three runs for your every run. And if you would hike the pipe, you would definitely you'd probably get like one less run. I'd I'd still be probably lapping you, probably like two runs for your every every one of your runs. But I have more energy because I'm not hiking all day. So my sessions are way longer. And you extrapolate that over a career, a lifetime, you know, as a kid and going up every single weekend. And it's a competitive advantage for you. Oh my God, there were so many of those crazy things that happened. And it was like just so happened to pull up to the skate park and like Tony Hawk was there. Like, it's yeah, like going to your local music shop, and it's like Hendricks is there. Just like, you want to try that trick? You should bend the note a little more, like giving you pointers and tips and things. Like you, you know, I had access to these guys that were the best in any sport, any business, anything, they tell you go learn from the best. Go find the guy that's crushing it in real estate and go learn from him or her. You know, go, go find the person that is is, you know, was or is leading the charge in tennis or whatever it is. Like find the masters at what they do and learn from them, you know. And so I had a lot of those things happen in my life where broken down, and then the you add the determination, all that other stuff in there. And it was like, oh, that's why this makes so much sense. This all happened. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Looking back, looking back for sure. Well, you know, you've uh been uh creature of reinvention, right? But you've really like remained disciplined. Uh and you've really had, I mean, clearly you've had the drive. But um, as we wrap up, you maybe tell somebody that's like standing at the edge of their next chapter, what what would you, what would you want them to know from you?

SPEAKER_02 43:17

I think the biggest for me was there's just no mistakes. There are no mistakes. If you learn from it, if if you're constantly making the same mistake, like, okay, you know, whatever, shame on you. Not even that, but just like Yeah, with the repeat mistakes. If you're making mistakes and you're like, oh, I'll never do that again, and you build from there. I mean, I there's so many times on the snowboard I was just like, I learned this whole horrible but valuable lesson of like what not to do. My face is split open. I'm getting 60 stitches and putting my lip back together, like after a bad accident in New Zealand. Like, but I learned a lesson, like what not to do. I was like, I'll never do that again. I'll never approach the half pipe when it's not perfect and try to push something, you know, whatever it was, the lesson to be learned. So I would say it's okay to make the mistakes as long as you learn from them, you know, and and and adjust and and kind of formulate a new plan. Um and then um and then I think you have to make up your mind like what do you really want? And that's like the hardest thing I would say, because like if Your heart's in it, then there you know you're just kind of unstoppable because that's what you want to do, you know. And that's a very hard question because you might want it, it sounds good. Do you need it? Do you have to have it? Is that it? Is this like because I'll tell you when I was again, I'll reference the the time I crashed. I was sitting in the hospital, I'm in New Zealand. I just, you know, I had pulmonary contusions and I'm spitting up blood in this bucket with this sort of um humidifier in my nose so the blood doesn't coagulate in my lungs and like dang foreheads cut open, faces explode, you know, I'm just all stitched up. And I was like, man, I really wanted to win this next Olympics. That was like a man, wouldn't that be great? And everything turned that night to like, I have to do this. I'm not gonna have gone through all of this for nothing. And my heart was set on it. I was like, most people in my corner were like, this is a sign you need to retire. This is what's gonna happen. And uh, and I pushed forward because that's what I believed in. If I didn't feel that way, I would have called it for sure. Yeah, I'm not gonna argue that. My gut is telling me this is it. That was a sign, I don't want this to happen again. But I made a decision in that hospital room. I was like, I'm gonna push forward, I'm gonna do it. I know the mistake I made, I'll never do that again. And here's how I'll do it. Here's the goal. I started visualizing, you know, I'm start dreaming of the pants again. How do I get there? Like, what's it gonna look like? What do I gotta do? And and I ended up, you know, going on to succeed. So I would just say, like, really ask yourself what you want and then formulate that plan and then know that it's okay to make those mistakes, you know. And and obviously you wanna, you wanna you wanna make the shots that are really important, but if you miss a few, that is okay, you know, get pushed forward.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

So but it's like, you know, the lesson that your your mom, you know, uh had you around people learn how to flip, you gotta commit. You gotta commit.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Yeah, you gotta do it, you know. And it's great when there's people that believe in you, but you don't need that necessarily. If you got an idea and you got a vision, you got something that's pushing you and driving you, like follow that gut, follow that thing. And there will be upsets along the way. I love the videos that show behind the scenes of me crashing and me just like breaking something that's like that's what it took to get there. When you see me at the Olympics or you see me at a competition, like that's time to shine. I'm playing the concert at this point. Not me like writing the songs, stressing. How do I get there? Like, what do I gotta do? No, that's that's the show. That's where I get to perform. That's why it's fun, that's why it's exciting. I get to like debut this thing I created or this, this, this vision I've I'm unfolding. But all that hard work went in beforehand, you know, when the cameras weren't on, when I was tired and I didn't want to go when I was being told by people to stop or that it wasn't gonna pan out, or all those things. It was just like those are those moments where you gotta kind of ask yourself, well, what is it that I want? And then go for it, you know, push forward. But yeah, it's it's easier said than done. And I trust you, like, you know, people are like, Well, you're so successful, you're whatever. I'm like, dude, but there was a time where I wasn't. It was a time where I like it's like in the van. I remember brushing my teeth at the lodge when I was already pretty well known in the sport, and the kids were coming in and all their new gear and all their stuff, and I was just like, oh, hey, my robe or whatever at the lodge, uh, bathroom. Um, but yeah, like you, you, you pushed through and and and now I appreciate the things that I do have, and and you kind of get the grit from having to fight for it. But um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Well, it's always been uh entertaining watching your gift be alive in front of all of us. So thanks for coming spend some time with us, man. It really means a lot.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Right now, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 47:55

Thank you for listening to the Entrepreneurs Studio Podcast. Check the show notes for resources and links from today's episode, and follow us on Instagram at the entrepreneurs.studio. See you next time.