Stifel Financial Corp’s annual report conference. Athlete panel with Alex Ferreira (Halfpipe Skiing), Jaelin Kauf (Mogul Skiing), Kelly Kraft (PGA) , and Greyson Sigg (PGA). Las Vegas, Nevada. Audience of 1,500 people.
think the the best athletes are the ones that didn’t find immediate success you think of Michael Jordan that chip on his shoulder right Tom Brady chip on his shoulder which I know Ron just showed that clip from the roast Keegan Bradley chip on his shoulder um yeah it doesn’t go away even once you find success right never it’s like we’re only just getting started right I mean Alex for you I watched um yesterday there was a great video you did about when you had your ankle injury and it was what 41 days before the Olympics yeah and this I thought really resonated because how many of us wake up every day loving our job so like right that doesn’t always happen but you have to somehow find a way through the things you don’t want to do to get to where you want to be and you woke up 7:30 every single morning for 41 days and you had your schedule packed from the moment you woke up until you went to bed putting things in your body doing things to your body everything for this one goal and I’m sure there were so many days that you didn’t want to get up when that alarm went off at 7:30 the pain you were in take just take us through that time and where you found like where you had to really dig deep to get yourself out and stay focused for when people are having a tough time with their job right like what can they remind themselves of to keep going like this is just temporary and for long-term games yeah absolutely I mean we had five qualifying events going into the Olympics and you have to Podium at 2 to be considered to be able to go and then you have to win two to lock in your spot I won the first two events I got second at the next two events we’re coming into the fifth one and all of a sudden it’s bad weather it’s really windy I get blown into the middle of the pipe and my leg bends not how it’s supposed to bend and I go to the hospital the X-ray nothing’s broken I go to the MRI and the doctor saw the video and he’s looking over the MRI and he says Alex I don’t know how but you’re okay you just have a bone bruise and a really bad spraying ankle 41 days before the Olympics you’re thinking oh my gosh how am I going to get through this and every day just chipping chipping chipping and I just tell myself affirmations over and over again I am the 2018 Winter Olympics Champion I am the 2026 Winter Olympic champion you just can’t give up on one your dreams you can’t give up on yourself and I feel that there’s so many people that want me to succeed you can’t give up on those people people like your family members my mom she’s been watching me compete since I’m 10 years old she wants to see me go to the Olympics and do these great things so you you don’t necessarily only owe it to yourself you owe it to everyone around you so I’m sure there are plenty of days when you all wake up and think I do not want to open the wealth Tracker app today CU I know your on that’s not true nobody laughs but yeah there are are many days you wake up and you don’t want to be there but you just have to tell yourself I can do this today if I can make it through today I can make it through anything um before we let you guys go I think it’s really important and I want all of you to understand like the importance of a steel ambassadorship partnership for your careers up here like I think hopefully you guys think it’s really cool that they all get to represent you um but I think it’s also really important for you to understand why it’s really important for for this to be a part of your life as well so I’ll I’ll start with you go down the line Alexa but I think you just like it for the Hat no one else could look make that hat look as cool as you’re making it no one tried that at home by the way yeah I saw it in the room I had to put it on but uh what steel being a partner of Steel means to me is the world really I mean being able to connect with all of you wonderful people in this room being able to connect with Ron being able to connect with these athletes is such a special part of being alive I feel very very blessed and grateful I mean I I’ll lay it out really simply here there were seven events this season I had seven starts and seven wins this is where success meets success and I’m just extremely grateful so thank you good good luck backing that up yeah thank you I think we all kind of talked about it last night actually at dinner it’s the culture here you all seem to genuinely like each other which that doesn’t happen a whole lot um it’s really wonderful to see a really hardworking passionate group of people come together for a greater purpose but then also enjoy their time while doing it um and I think that I I don’t know if that could correlate any better to what we all love to do in our own lives um with the career paths that we have chosen as well so thank you so much for allowing us the time to be here with you we love representing you uh in all of our different spaces and enjoy the rest of blueprint
