Guest Titan: Jennifer Heil, Three-time Olympic skier.
Tea of choice: Vancouver’s Steam Tea House.
What we cover: “Everything is perspective.” —Jennifer Heil
A few months ago, my friend Susanne Biro, Guest Titan Episode #6, put together a dinner party of six people who didn’t necessarily know one another, but who she all thought would hit it off. And guess what? It worked! Jennifer Heil was one of the people seated at the table, and I instantly fell in love with her. She’s a three-time Olympian — both a gold medalist and a silver medalist — and she’s wise and humble and approachable. I obviously pounced on her and begged her to be a Guest Titan. Better still, turns out, she lives not far from me at all — so getting her here was all the easier. She walks us through the chronology of her time getting to Salt Lake in 2002, Italy in 2006, then Vancouver, in 2010 and the life lessons she picked up along the way.
This is a conversation about focus, about commitment to the process, about the power of visualization, about getting back up when you’re going through times in your life when the way you feel emotionally and psychologically might instead dictate you’d rather curl up on the couch. It’s about having the tools to know that if you want something bad enough, it’s up to you figure out how to make it happen. It’s about being grateful in the moment, and experiencing joy in the moment. It’s about pushing yourself beyond what you ever thought was possible for yourself — Jenn is truly one of the most driven, accessible, inspiring, intelligent, big thinking people I’ve ever spoken with.
To this day, she is the only skier to have completed the Skiing Grand Slam, winning every title in her sport. Yes, she’s a gold and silver medalist. But she’s also a four-time world champion, she’s had 58 World Cup podium finishes, and she’s won five overall World Cup Championships. She knows what greatness is — and she gives us a candid, behind the scenes look at the psychology behind what that takes.
How you can learn more: jenniferheil.com