Source: https://youtu.be/JH-qdyAJmqA
I’m Mel Stewart and this is the GMM podcast.
Joining me today we have A3 Performance CEO Dan Meinholz.
Dan has deep roots in the sport.
Swam as an age grouper all the way through college.
Started a team dealer and then launched his own brand A3 Performance and he supports some of the best elite swimmers on the planet.
Phoebe Bacon, Katherine Burkoff with more coming soon.
A3 also supports our coverage of women’s NC2A championships.
They have for years.
That’s not why I have Dan on today.
I have Dan on because Dan also recently did a TED talk and it’s fantastic.
If you’re a young athlete or a coach which has developed into a powerhouse social media and you might be experiencing anxiety, you might be trying to really stay true to who you are and find your authentic self in this very noisy world.
This is a great TED talk.
Dan talks about it.
He breaks it down.
I think you’re going to enjoy this.
Dan Meinholz.
Dan, how you doing?
I’m great.
Well, we got Dan Meinholz.
He’s back, the CEO of A3.
I I was thinking about this before our conversation, but we’ve been business married for over a decade.
That’s a long time.
And it’s been a good decade, right?
It has been a good decade.
We We’ve been business married.
I I want to refresh people on your your background in swimming, but I I don’t want to bury the lead.
You surprised me this past year and you said, “Hey, I’m doing a TED talk, and you know, I’m excited about sharing some some ideas that I’ve been thinking very deeply about.” And I was blown away.
I was like, “What a TED talk?
I gotta hear about this.
I have seen the TED talk.
We’re going to link to it in the show notes for the podcast and we’re going to break it down in this podcast.” I called I’ve worked through about half my swim friends and half our industry people.
I’m I’m going to send it to more people, but everybody I’ve sent it to CEOs, heads of NGBS, they’ve all they’ve all been like, “What?
Dan did this?” You know what?
That kind of makes sense.
It was one of those things where I wanted to, you know, speak, wanted to have opportunities to share and to have impact.
At the end of the day, it’s to have impact.
And it was funny because I was trying to research, you know, how do you go about, you know, creating opportunities for yourself to maybe go and speak in front of small groups, those sorts of things.
And the next day, a friend of mine walks in the city that we’re in, Okanawak, Wisconsin.
It’s 150th birthday. and he said, “We in addition to a Harley ride and music festival downtown and all sorts of different things,” he said, “we’re also doing a TEDex with 16 speakers and and 15 of them are already booked, but I have one spot available and it’s yours if you want it.” I think that you’re one of the luckiest guys in the universe.
You just do things and things fall into your lap that are very creative and very cool.
You told me he just Everybody’s listening, I can’t tell you what else is going on in his life.
He’s got something that’s happening that’s really cool that some will report on as soon as it is as it’s produced and done, but it’s going to be it’s going to be another moment.
It’s kind of interesting.
It’s this is what every CEO of a company would want to happen.
You don’t have to be I could be, you know, a partner in a marriage and and I would want somebody to come do this for me, but God, I I wish I could share it.
We’re not going to share it.
We’ll we’ll we’ll do it at a later date.
But let’s let’s give people a refresh.
You have very very deep roots in our sport. you care deeply about it.
Can you can you just take us back to so people just to refresh your your your grassroots in the sport, how you got started and how you got to where you’re at right now?
Yeah, age group swimmer, you know, swam my whole life.
Started when I was 5 years old.
Absolutely.
You know, competed in other sports, but swimming was the one that just spoke to me, right?
And it wasn’t even because I was having some success.
It was just the thing that was right for me and and swam at a relatively high level.
Went through the highs and lows of age group swimming.
You know, you tell people, I tell people all the time, if you can keep your boys in the sport past 13 years old, if you can get them into high school, everything will change and it will all get better and they will become much more motivated and excited and really start to sink their teeth into training and they’re having success. high school that that age range was very good for me and it gave me an opportunity to go to school on a scholarship.
I swim at the University of Wisconsin which was great because I met my wife there and she already told me I needed to add that but no swam at a relatively high level as you know national age group ranked swimmer at 16, 17, 18 years old. went to school and then suffered some injuries and went through a series of, you know, very traumatic sort of life changes because when you’re when you’re that age and you’ve been swimming for 10 plus years, that really is your identity.
You know, it certainly was for me.
And to have that kind of stripped away with through injury and not being able to achieve the goals that you wanted to, that was that was a challenge.
So, I floundered for a little bit.
You know, I I tried to figure out I mean, I I coached that came very natural to me and I loved coached a little bit at the University of Wisconsin and then started doing some club coaching and loved doing that but did not see that as a vehicle for me long term at the time.
Swim coaching as a profession was was incredibly challenging to have a family and and just to be able to afford it.
So took a series of different jobs and was frustrated because I had no control over my path.
And what I was learning by analyzing my own self and my own direction was I wanted to be in control of where I was going as an individual, as a person.
And uh I kind of coerced my wife into starting a business.
And we started a swim dealership.
And I I felt like this is a great place for us to sink our teeth into and get going.
And we did that for, you know, four or five years.
And like anything else, you never know what’s coming down the pike, right?
So the internet was this thing that came along and and wasn’t just a transfer a platform for transfer of information.
It became a massive e-commerce engine.
And like we saw in many niche businesses, the middleman in those businesses, and those industries went away.
There’s far fewer swim dealers today than there were 20 years ago.
And what happened at that point was, you know, the the brand started to have more control over the flux of the business.
And I did not like the fact that somebody was determining what I could sell, what I couldn’t sell, how much I could sell it for, who I could sell it to, those sorts of things.
I lost control in in that respect of the business.
I took away my ability to grow the way I wanted to.
And at that point, I decided, we’re going to start to make a couple products.
So we made a few products.
We made some goggles.
We made some caps, some some paddles.
The very first product we actually molded, made a a paddle, which we still sell today, which is a great paddle.
And slowly started to evolve and and at that point when we had customers coming back to us saying, “Do you have more of this product?” It’s when I started to dawn on me that I think that we might have something here.
And I knew that there were going to be a lot of steps that we had to take and it was very much of a risk for us to make that move at that time.
But right around 2002 is when we started manufacturing a lot of our own products. 2004 we incorporated and trademarked and just continued to develop the brand.
We didn’t actually have a tech suit in the market until 2012.
So our very first tech suit was the first closeback suit made and that was kind of our foray into that elite level of swimming.
I was going to get into this later, but it it just seems like the way you’re making this description, you’re you’re talking about your history.
Um that’s the infancy of A3.
That’s the that’s that’s your it’s your genesis story, but we’re coming up on the the Westmont Pro Swim.
And I don’t know if you can share who’s who who’s testing out the the tech, but you know, it’s a podcast.
I think you can you can you know, talk about your ambassadors, talk about who’s who’s racing in A3 and and and looking at A3.
Yeah.
So I think, you know, right now it’s, you know, on on the women’s side, like we just had Maggie Wanuzak swim at Big 10’s and swim incredibly fast, you know, 148, 200 back.
She won the 100 back.
She’s an she’s an athlete ambassador for us with in the college landscape, it’s a little still a little wonky, but you know, at the Pro Series, we’ll have Katherine Burkoff, who won the World Championships in the 50 back in Singapore.
AJ Pouch will be there as well.
We just signed Phoebe Bacon that we’re super excited about because she’s not just a really talented person, but she’s great character, you know, that and that’s that’s what we’re looking for.
So, I think one of the things is because we had that success with with Prana, that suit that we put on people and they just wanted to wear it to compete in.
That gave me the confidence to reach out to a couple more people.
So, I’m not a social media guru by any means, but I figured out how to DM somebody, right?
And uh and we reached out to a couple people and just said, “Hey, would you like to try the soup?” And you know, Simone, Chris, Juliano, um Michael Andrew, Alex Shackle, I mean, these were people who Anna Peplowski that reached out to us or, you know, through communication said, “We’d love to try the suit.” And I think that we’re going to see quite a few people, not just people on the pool deck, but people in the final heat that are going to be wearing our suit in Westmont.
And and that’s pretty exciting for us because these guys have they literally have access to anything that they want and for them to select our brand to race in at this meet which is a pretty high level competition that means a lot.
So that that gives us a lot of confidence.
It’s nice to see the logo in in the final heat in so many different events.
I think a lot of people out there really love swimware.
Somewhere is like Formula 1, you know, and and you know, you might be I mean I I wanted to start a swimware brand, but it’s like I I didn’t want to work that hard.
I didn’t want to work as hard as new Dan, but I think a lot of Olympians do.
I think a lot of people who swam their entire life, they kind of they like, “Hey, I could do this.” Something that you don’t know, you might not know if you’re not in this industry, is that sometimes some of the biggest stars on the planet are wearing tech, but they’re not signed up as as an ambassador.
But it’s a really big feather in your cap. the simple fact that they would do that.
I’ve we’ve gone to several Olympic cycles and trials and I’ve sort of, you know, watched these athletes walk by and they have lots of medals and they’re wearing A3 and I’m thinking to myself, Dan has really come a long way.
It’s it’s really neat to see that.
And you know, the this fan that’s sitting in the stands, the spectator, most of the times they don’t really pay attention to that.
The brands in our industry are uber focused on who’s wearing what.
Absolutely.
I mean, there’s brands.
I don’t know if they’re still doing this, but would sit in the stands and count how many suits in their brand.
We we don’t that’s not important to me.
I I’m not going to go through the numbers and say we’re 2% or 5% or whatever the case may be.
But I do often times when I see an athlete ask myself, why are they in that brand?
And it could be because of a relationship that they have with the the brand owner.
It could be because it was provided at no cost.
It could be because this is what makes them feel their best.
And the the very cool thing for us is as we put PRNA out on more and more athletes, we’re hearing that.
We’re hearing that I I feel great in this suit.
I love wearing the suit.
And then we’re seeing some really, really good performances to back that up.
So, that’s all really, really exciting.
But there’s only so much we can do when it comes to the athlete stage.
And the most important thing for us is to build a product that that athlete has a high level of confidence in because you know the happy swimmer is a fast swimmer.
There is that mind body connection.
It’s difficult to be great on the days that you’re psychologically or or physically not great.
So if we can put your body into something that makes you feel great, race ready, ready to unleash your unstoppable, that’s what we’re trying to do.
That’s what we’re trying to build. that I think we’ve accomplished that with Prana.
What I like about your company also is that if I’m an elite athlete and I’m and I’m wearing your tech and I want to have a relationship with you, I have a relationship with the founder and CEO.
And I think that matters and uh cuz that that isn’t always the case when you’re working with a with a with a brand.
You you really care.
You know, I’ve I’ve stood in the stands with you when you’re watching your athletes in in in your tech race, and I like watching you because I could feel you move them through the water.
Well, and and it is important to me because they’ve entrusted us and we do want what’s best for them and it it in every single possible way.
And when they get in and swim, part of me is swimming their race with them.
And I want to have that relationship.
I mean, even when we’re working with an athlete that has an agent, I want to establish a personal relationship with that athlete.
I think it’s very important that they understand who’s behind the brand.
I think it’s very important that they understand the level of support that’s available to them.
And I’m not just talking about product.
You know, I I had a phone call with Katherine Burkoff maybe 3 weeks ago.
We’re on the phone for an hour.
We talked about a lot of different stuff.
And I think that that’s super important because I know that they have coaches and they have parents and they have all these other people that they can speak to, but the topics that we’re discussing might be a little bit different than what they’re normally talking to those people about.
So, it was a great opportunity and I and that’s, you know, one of my favorite things in and what I do is being able to have that relationship, share our experience, find out what I can do to be better and what I can do to help support them at a higher level because ultimately we want them to be the greatest they can be.
If you’re an elite and you’re out there and you you’re curious about A3 and you DM A3 on Instagram, you’re gonna hear back from Dan.
You just need to know that.
You need to be aware you can have a conversation with Dan.
This is part of the reason why I enjoy these talks.
Let’s let’s we’ll come back to A3 and what’s what’s on the horizon, but I wanted to talk to you about the TED talk.
I want to bury you the lead TED talk.
You gave this TED talk.
I was surprised to hear that you did it.
I loved it.
I was impressed with it.
Shared with my friends.
This was the topic.
Breaking free, escaping influence, and finding your authentic self.
Breaking free, escaping influence, and finding your authentic self.
We’re going to put this in the show notes so everybody can click on it and watch it.
What was the genesis of this talk?
Because you know you you you got a you got a slot to do a TED talk.
That’s that to me that sounds like you’re a minnow swallowing a whale.
Yeah.
So what do you do?
The there was a theme for the event and it was freedom.
And he said, you know, we want you to give a talk on freedom and I have this person who’s a war veteran and I have this person who is an immigrant from Russia and and now lives in the United States and all these people are going to be talking about freedom.
And I started to think a little bit about well that that’s that’s not necessarily what I’m passionate about speaking on.
What I would much rather talk is about interpersonal freedom.
I would much rather talk about the individual’s freedom and not necessarily country to country but what’s happening inside the individual.
That to me is incredibly important.
Not not even as a a business owner but just as a human being.
That to me is very important.
So this gave me and I asked him I said are you okay if I do this on an individual basis he said whatever as long as it as long as it’s within the line of freedom and it hits our theme.
So I like to I love to study psychology and spent a lot of time actually had already had notes kind of written about this before I even knew that I was going to be doing the talk and it’s very much about what takes us where does our angst and anxiety come as an individual and what takes us there and how to get away from that how to get back to your original self. you know, the the person that you were born as.
Because from day one, you’re inundated with influence from virtually everything and and everyone that you come in contact with, whether it’s coaches, parents, teachers, siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, on and on and on.
There’s all these levels of influence.
And as human beings, you know, especially growing up, we tend to absorb those things subconsciously.
We’re not even really aware that we’re being influenced, but it is changing who we are.
And that change to who we are may not lead us to excitement or to self satisfaction.
It may cause more anxiety.
Often times it does.
You know, if you shut off your social media, sometimes it’s like, I feel better.
Everybody who’s quit social media for a month comes back and says, didn’t really miss it and I feel better.
You know, I do think that there’s a lot of value there, but it’s also it can be dangerous.
You know, it can be a little bit of a time suck.
Before you know it, you’re in it and an hour has passed.
So, you know, everybody’s telling you that you’re not wearing the right clothes, you’re not acting the right way, you’re not earning the right amount, you’re not all of these things.
But the reality is none of those things determine your happiness.
And ultimately, you know, whether it’s for you or for your family or the people that you’re around, that’s truly your happiness and your peace is what’s most important.
So, how do you get back to that stage?
How do you shed those layers of influence that have been added?
You know, one one of the things I said was if if your brain was an iPhone, how many of those apps have been downloaded without your consent?
You know, a lot, right?
So, if you know your attention is currency, spend it where your soul earns interest.
You know, the these are things where the outside world has impact on us, but truly only if we allow it to.
You know, somebody can’t make you feel bad. they can say something that you may feel bad because you see something inside of yourself inside of yourself where you may be falling short.
So it gave me an opportunity to dive into that to write rewrite practice honestly the night before I gave it I was not good.
I was I I was in my living room with my wife and I kept going over it and I was terrible.
So I said, “You know what?
I’m just going to go downstairs, you know, in into a a dark basement and was a little bit better.” But that next day, came back and said a couple prayers for sure.
And went to practice over and over and over again and saw other people struggle a little bit because I was in the middle of the lineup.
Was actually right after lunch, which was, you know, the worst time to to get up and talk.
But once I got up there, I just really felt like here’s an opportunity to say something that I really want to say.
And hopefully this helps someone.
What was really cool, Mel, is that the response that I got back from people that I hadn’t seen or talked to for years was pretty tremendous.
I never really anticipated it to be a motivational talk by any means.
It was really more informative.
But I had some people that I like I said haven’t talked to for a couple years who came back to me and said I was very moved by that and thank you for doing that.
So that you know that that you know it’s something that makes you feel great because you know ultimately if if you can have impact on one person what an awesome thing if you can impact more than one person just absolutely amazing. [clears throat] We see people do this and you can tell that they’re really trying to to when they do these talks, they look like they’re they’re really forcing themselves to be a certain type of person.
That is giving a talk.
Yeah.
And that did not that wasn’t the case with you.
You really look like you belong there.
You look like you embodied yourself and you were ex you were extremely comfortable.
It’s like you were just walking out in your living room and saying hello to friends.
And that’s the first thing I noticed and I thought, “Oh, wow.
Dan needs to do this a whole lot more.” We we had a chance to do a run through the day before, which was interesting cuz I walked into the building, introduced myself, and they put a microphone on me and said, “You’re next.” I I here I’m thinking I’m going to have two hours to get comfortable with the environment and you’re walking up on a stage.
And and it was not good.
You know, it was okay, but I forgot parts of it.
The thing about a TED talk is you don’t have any notes.
So there’s nothing for you to go off of.
So I felt a little bit like I didn’t have quite the energy that I wanted because you have to be somewhat focused on on your outline, which which is a mental outline.
You want to make sure that you hit all the parts because you do have some research, you do have some data, you do have some names that you have to recall.
There are some things that are really important that you don’t want to gloss over and if you get caught in the moment, it’s really easy to forget certain aspects of it.
So I think the other thing was most of the people who were speaking some of them were professional speakers, some of them are coaches, business coaches, life coaches.
So I was a little bit intimidated to be in that environment with those people that have done this quite a bit.
And then after listening to them practice, I thought, you know what, I think I’m going to be okay.
I think I can do this.
I did, you know, when you walk up onto the stage, it’s I’ve prepared at my highest level, right?
So it’s no different than than being an athlete really.
There’s nothing for me to be anxious about.
Just do what you came here to do.
It looked like you let go.
You jumped off the blocks and you were you were Yeah.
And you were fine.
I Here’s the You know, I I kind of assumed that there was a teleprompter.
I thought that with these talks, you know, they’re they’re it’s at a length where I know what human beings are like, and I always assume there was a teleprompter with at least notes or topics, but so you’re just going.
Yeah.
It’s which is which is a challenge because it it kind of forces you to remember a lot of information and the structure and and and you’re going to uh disseminate that or or present that it takes a long time to take a 15-minute talk or 12minute talk whatever it turned out to be and memorize.
I mean you you you freestyle some of it but you have to memorize what that outline is like.
So you can’t freestyle too much because if you get for me if I get distracted then I’ll forget exactly where I was and I want to make sure I hit those points.
So the challenge for me was putting myself into it but making sure that I stayed in line because I didn’t want to forget you know everything that was was presented in that talk I thought was really important.
So I wanted to make sure that I was able to deliver everything and and not having an outline was was really kind of a challenge and trying to make it as natural as possible.
It turned out okay.
Turned out okay.
It turned It turned out great.
I’m gonna put you on the spot now.
How do you return to your original self?
Because we are all battling it.
We’re always You’re always finding it.
We’re always, you know, we live our entire lives as you mentioned.
I feel like we’re becoming, but you you the influences are everywhere.
Some are great.
Some define you and you latch on to them.
And some are debilitating and hold you back.
And but we all want to be that, you know, we want to let our light shine.
We want to be who we are and we want to shine bright.
How do you get to that original self?
Yeah.
So, a number of things.
I mean, part of it is finding your voice, right?
I mean, part of it is so often we we will silence our voice because we want to fit in or we want to be liked or we want to be approved of.
So, we So, it’s important for you to to find your voice and to say your truth, right?
There’s a way to to present that information, but that’s that’s one of the ways to do it.
The other thing is is you kind of unplug and and you unplug from negative influence.
You unplug from whether it’s social media or whether it’s it’s the the television, the media that you’re watching, whether it’s people, it’s unplugging and getting away from negative influences that are impacting your life.
So just removing yourself from that.
But but truly, I think the underlying key is you you want to find your joy.
It’s like what are the things that you’re passionate about?
What are the things that make you laugh, that make you love?
What are those things?
Those, you know, th those little things are the breadcrumb trail back to your true self, you know, and and being true to that, knowing that and then pursuing that and understanding that that’s the priority, right?
Finding my original self, finding my true self, that’s my priority.
And when you start to do that, the impact of the influence becomes less and less, right?
And then ultimately you ask yourself every day when you wake up am I living my original self or am I am I living a role because there’s so many people Melan and you know this you you meet a lot of people talk to a lot of people super successful right income you know married beautiful home all of these things but when you talk to them you you can sense that there’s this emptiness about them because they’re successful by society standards right but they’re empty because they’re not true to themselves because they’ve been influenced to believe that this is what you have to accomplish to be successful and they’ve achieved it but this is not necessarily who they want to be.
So identifying that and then making the commitment to get back to that that’s that’s really the key.
We’re men of a certain age, so we see this quite often.
And and what’s interesting is I see it all the time.
And I and you know, I there’s a friend of mine who is extraordinarily successful, owns dozens of businesses, and he’s now doing something with his spouse, and he was like laughing about it, but it was something creative, and he’s like, you know, he even used the word joy, and I’m like, he’s always kind of been this guy.
He always kind of wanted to be in this creative space where he was playing and doing something fun.
What was we were talking off camera and this is the the topic for that we were covering is also for a future podcast that you’re going to share because it is a creative endeavor that you have which is separate from the other creative endeavor that’s happening about you.
But you said something interesting.
You said that you took some time with your wife and this was vacation time and you unplugged and you you clear everything out and you liked that process because you turn your brain off because what you liked about it was when that’s when the ideas flood in.
So you stop thinking and that’s when the and then you clear out and you get a baseline and that’s when all the good stuff comes in.
That sounds like that sounds like a process to get back to your original self cuz it seems like when we let go and we’re joyful and time becomes timeless, the universe rushes in and says taps you on the shoulder and goes, “You’d be really good doing this.” Yeah.
Well, we we grind, right?
So, we you you get focused on a path.
You get focused on, you know, what you want to accomplish.
And that focus becomes so strong that there’s not a lot of room for creativity.
And when you remove yourself from that scene, the entire scene, and you’re not focused on what has to be done today, what has to be done this week, but you’re really sort of letting the universe speak to you, that’s when all sorts of things start to flood into my mind.
And I I actually can’t write fast enough.
So, it’s best for me to open up my phone and just start going off into the phone.
And then at some later point, I can kind of move that onto the paper or move that onto my computer.
But it’s a great place to be creative.
And I wouldn’t necessarily, you know, there are creatives and again you you probably been surrounded by a lot of these people, but there are definitely creatives.
I wouldn’t necessarily put myself in that category.
The way I’m creative is a is a different way.
And it might be solving solving problems, solving issues, looking for better ways, implementing new standards or new ways to be able to accomplish what we haven’t been able to accomplish.
Or, you know, we’ve been doing things this way for 40 years.
I think I have a different way for us to proceed and and accomplish something at a higher level with less effort or or along those lines.
But those are the things that kind of flood in.
And it it was it was great to to be away and to be with my wife and just to spend some time.
And it took me a number of days to sort of unwind from that that grind or that treadmill that we’re on every day.
And then as soon as they started to flood in, I was like, man, I I need to do this more often.
I need to take more vacations.
You know, I have a question for you.
And this is I’ve been at this for so long it has become a thing.
You know I’m in sales.
I’m in in media sales and we’re we’re we’re providing a service and a platform and for an audience and there is a sales component.
You’re in sales.
You produce and design and create and then sell.
When I go on vacation with my family, I always turn to my spouse and say the same thing.
We’re going on vacation and I’m not I’m going to try not to look at my email, but all the sales are going to come in as soon as I stop thinking about do or stop doing it.
It’s it’s it’s like a it’s like a flood a flood of sales happens.
Is that does that happen to you?
Well, yeah.
I think I think that scenario is like when you take your eye when you take your eye off your concern for the result when you’re when you’re in it and you’re constantly pushing for the result and you take your eye off of that, you know, and that’s one of the things we’ve done in our business, but I will also do when you get a chance to unplug is you you stop staying so focused on the result, all of a sudden things start to present themselves to you that you don’t know how they’re presented.
You you know that you have aspirations to accomplish something. you’re not not exactly sure why they’re being presented to you, but for some reason, just removing your your focus on the result for a little bit and being more present and in the moment presents you with a lot more opportunities, a lot more creativity, a lot more energy.
So, that’s one of the things that I’ve kind of taken into my own life is I’m not going to get too stressed about the result, but I’m just going to focus on the now. what I can do to be better now as as a business owner, as brand owner, as a leader in our company, what I can do to be my best today and kind of teach everybody else that the importance of that.
Uh, but I I think where that kind of creativity or where those sales flood in are when you you stop stressing about the result and all of a sudden things start to happen for you and and you wonder, well, if I’m not there, are these things still going to happen?
You go away and they keep happening.
That’s a great lesson for us to learn, right?
We should learn from that.
I think that we are older and we we’ve we’ve made choices in life and we’ve we’ve built businesses and we can also do things in our private life that are creative and fun.
If you’re Dan Reinholds, that might be doing a TED talk.
But if you’re young now, it feels like there’s so much opportunity and you see so many people doing so many things.
It’s overwhelming.
And that’s that’s another iteration of of social media and just media in general and and anxiety.
So, how do you help swimmers, elite swimmers, choose between useful influence and identity shaping pressures that can hinder you?
Like, how do you how do you how do you sparse the two?
You thought about that?
Yeah.
I think part of it comes from what what your internal drive is.
I think every human being is driven.
They’re driven to do something and you have to be true to that.
And if somebody says, “Well, you’re really good at this.
You should be doing this.” what does your internal drive say?
And then you start to seek out the the influencer so to speak or the the leadership or the support system that can that can help you in your drive.
But it really is comes back to being true to who you are and what you want to accomplish.
I mean for the for the longest time I didn’t know truly what I wanted to you know to accomplish in life as a professional those things but I knew certain things like I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
I wanted to do certain things, but I I didn’t necessarily have an accomplishment, you know, finish line or a goal.
So, I think knowing what your drive is, pursuing your drive, finding people who can support you in that process, the more focused you are on that and and on yourself, and I don’t mean in an arrogant or a selfish way, but the more focused you are on yourself, I think the less influence, the less damage influence can do to you.
And you start to surround yourself the the people that are are right for you. they’re right for your path and for your drive, they start themselves more.
You start to see things in other people and say that person is somebody who can help me, you know, and most of those people, most of those elite athletes are surrounded by people who want to have some impact on what they’re doing.
May not always be the most positive thing, um, but they definitely want to have impact.
So, I think at those levels, I I think those athletes, and certainly you were one of them, you’re you’re so focused on an accomplishment or focused in a direction that you now want to find people who can help support your very best effort in that direction.
You know, you’re in the thick of of a of a narrative where everyone has an opinion and it’s women’s backstroke.
Kathern Burkoff is the daughter of David Burkoff, who I share an Olympic medal with, who is who is an innovative backstroker.
And I think that in terms of the way the audience sees her, they’ve seen her gradually move up the world rankings and and and achieve more and more and more, but ultimately we’re being judged against the Olympic platform.
And in that mix is Reagan Smith.
And in that mix is Kayla Mchuan out of Australia.
And all three of them born at a different time in history would be the star of this one stroke.
So they have to go compete and they have to go headtohead.
And no matter what that result is, they’ve got to there’s got to be meaning and they’ve got to stay true to themselves because the truth is the difference between gold, silver, and bronze is minuscule.
And it might just be the person who’s there on the day, right?
And so I often think, you know, it’s like and and everybody in the media world or in the social media really are quick to weigh in what their opinion on on this.
And I often think, what is the story they’re telling themselves?
And it sounds like that’s how you get back to your original self.
What is what is my story?
What is my story where I’m the same person no matter what color that medal is?
Or maybe there’s no metal.
Correct.
I think I think it’s it’s a couple things.
It’s the label that we wear as a swimmer, you know, that becomes such a big part of our identity that the next level of that identity is the level of success that we’re achieving.
And we often times will judge ourselves based off of our own level of success.
And really the the the life lesson to learn is there there is going to be somebody who’s number one.
And in women’s backstroke, incredibly competitive, incredibly, but there is going to be somebody who’s number one.
And and it also has to happen on that day.
You know, you you could win nine out of 10, but if somebody wins it on that one day, they’re the Olympic champion.
You It’s It’s really easy to say this because I’m not that level or I wasn’t that level of athlete.
But what you want to accomplish is can you put together your best race today?
Can you be your greatest self today?
Can you clear your head?
Can you trust your training?
Can you put yourself in the best position to be the greatest athlete that you can be today?
And you have to be able to live with that, right?
Whatever happens, if somebody else ends up having a better race or whatever the case may be and is has I don’t know, have you sw a perfect race?
Do you feel like, hey, man, there’s a 200 fly that absolutely crush every single aspect of it?
I think you know, human beings there’s going to be flaws along the way.
We’re dealing with equipment.
We’re dealing with, you know, starting ledges.
We’re dealing with all kinds of different things.
Can you be your best athlete, your best self on that day?
And I think, you know, obviously these guys train at a great level and they’re incredible physical athletes, super talented.
It’s now putting yourself in a position to be your absolute best.
And whether you’re swimming the 50 or the 100 or the 200, whatever the case may be, the longer the race goes, I think that that that approach is a little bit different.
But when it comes down to the 50, it just every detail has to be executed at a high level.
And and the best way for you to do that is don’t get in your own way, right?
Just let everything you’ve done in training come to you.
Just be present.
Be at your absolute best.
Enjoy the moment, you know.
But again, you may be a great great I mean, look at the United States.
We have great backstrokers and our the the young lady who gets third at Olympic trials could have gotten fourth at the Olympics in the 100 backstroke, but they don’t get to swim in that meet because we are so strong and so deep in that event.
I love your TED talk, but I want to know where your TED talk bleeds into A3 performance culture.
Where where where does this talk start?
Where’s where’s A3?
Where does it blend?
Yeah, I personally I think a lot of it came from me growing through that phase.
You know, when you’re when you’re an entrepreneur and you you start from scratch, right?
You start with one product and you try to build something along the way there’s going to be I mean even your own friends who are going to say, “Are you sure you want to do this?
I I don’t think that you’re going to succeed. that you hear all of these things.
You hear people telling you this is how you should do it.
This is how you shouldn’t do it.
I it really comes back to following the drive that you believe that you’re set on.
And but being able to be in contact with with what that is.
You have to think about yourself.
You have to be introspective.
You absolutely have to be.
And what we want to do as a brand, what I want to do as a as an individual is to have impact on other people.
If we can do that with a product, fantastic.
If we can do it through some of our marketing or through we can do it through a TED talk or we can do it through you know spoken word somehow that’s what we want to do.
So we want to have that level of impact because again what what makes the difference you know somebody puts on you get a 10-year-old 12-year-old they put on a brand new tech suit drop 6 seconds in 100 freestyle and everybody says that suit I need to get that suit.
Was it the suit that made the difference?
No.
But the lesson to be learned there is that the suit put them in a place mentally, spiritually, however you want to define that, that allowed them to remove all of their own obstacles to perform at their absolute highest level.
That’s what we want to help support.
That’s what we want to help accomplish.
And if we can kind of share that information through our brand, we absolutely want to do that because ultimately I I believe this all the time with with every athlete, with every entrepreneur, we tend to be our own worst enemies.
You know, the own the our own self-doubts that roll through our mind.
We have to get really good at identifying those, eliminating them, and replacing them with something positive that allows us to achieve things that nobody thought possible.
Let’s dovetail to A3 and what’s on the horizon because it’s I understand the philosophy behind it and what the mission and what’s driving you.
What what what can we expect in the future?
Well, you know, a number of things.
I mean, our commitment to innovation on the tech suit side will never waver and our our focus and our goal is to continue to innovate.
You know, we we are limited by world aquatic standards.
There’s only certain things that you can do in that small realm.
We’re going to do everything we possibly can to give the swimmer an advantage, but part of the advantage is the way that they feel in the product.
So that that’s that’s continual development.
Over the last couple months, I’ve actually had an opportunity to talk with a lot of athletes and I just listen to what they have to say.
Some of them, the majority of them, especially on the women’s side, absolutely love this.
On the guy side, I would say 70 80% of them love the suit.
Some of them will tell me, “Well, I don’t like this about it.” Those are all things that I want to absorb because I want to get better because I’m hungry and eager to get better.
So, we’re going to continue to do that.
Make something that meets the needs of all athletes from the elite to the person who’s just getting in the water and learning how to swim to the 14 and 15year-old that’s trying to make their first sectional cut.
We want to build something that helps every single person elevate in the sport.
In addition to that, and I we discussed this a little bit off air, there’s been a product that I’ve been wanting to bring to the market for probably 20 years and just did not have the knowhow.
Again, the drive, but not the knowhow.
Most recently, I’ve started to connect with the support and sources to help me learn how to do that.
So, I’m very excited about going down this path because, you know, I I think I’m going to use the analogy of the snorkel.
I think the snorkel had a pretty significant impact on the sport of swimming, on the way we teach, on the way people uh feel in the water, view their body, analyze their stroke, all of those things.
I think that we are working on something that is going to have that type of impact times two or three or four.
So, I think it’s going to be pretty significant.
I’m pretty excited about that.
And that’s all I can say.
That’s a tall order.
How what’s the what’s the horizon?
How long do we have?
I think that there will be something in the market I would say within a year to 16 months and I know that that’s a long way away.
So that’s a super early tease, but there’s so many things that have to be done.
You have to break the product so many times before you put it in the market and build it, break it, build it, break it.
The most important thing to me is that the athlete gets from it what what our intended purpose is.
So, it’s not so much it it’s not it’s important that it’s it’s sustainable that it can be dropped or whatever the case may be and not break and continue to function.
That’s important to me.
But what’s most important is is it having the impact on the athlete that we want it to have and I think that we’re going to get there.
I’ I’m way more confident today than I’ve ever had that we can build this.
And now we’re in the process of, you know, prototyping and testing and breaking and rebuilding.
And I’m excited about it.
It’s not something that I necessarily anticipated having in the brand because I was so not really lost, but I just didn’t know if I would ever get there, but we’re there.
So, it’s it’s very exciting.
I’m looking forward to seeing it cuz just so everybody knows, he won’t even tell me what it is.
I You won’t even tell me what it is, which tells me that it’s probably a great product.
So, I didn’t bring you on for this reason, but A3 is is supporting our coverage of women’s NC2A.
You have for years and years and years.
And I just got the email about the pick them contest or pick them contest is going to be rolling out in about a week and you have A3 products and in your giveaway.
Part of it is tech.
If you win the pick them contest, you get A3’s highest tech.
So what can people expect if they’ve never used A3, they never swam and raced in A3 and they win this contest?
Yeah.
So on what most of the athletes will tell me the very first time they put the suit on and get in the water is that they feel very buoyant.
Now I think every tech suit that’s new out of the box regard you’re going to get a little bit of that when you have a woven fabric that has some level of treatment to it.
You’re going to get some of that feeling.
It’s perfect example when we we sent suits for world championships and USA swimming asked for five suits for one individual. that individual wore two suits through the entire meet because it lasts.
You know, the the technology lasts, the coating lasts, the way it’s actually, you know, the fact that the fabric is saturated for for days, not just sprayed on coating, those sorts of things.
So, it’s it’s integrated into the fibers of the of the fabric.
So, I think we get a little bit of that.
The other thing that is really cool about it is, you know, from the hips down, other than modesty panels, it’s single layer, which is pretty new technology.
And one of the reasons why that is so cool is because it gives you such great range of motion, especially off the blocks, especially in and out of the walls, breaststroke, butterfly, such great range of motion through the hips.
And that’s the other thing that we’re hearing.
And when Michael Andrew tried the suit on, he posted a bunch of videos and listened to one of the videos and one of the things he reinforced was, “My god, I have a great range of motion.” In in looking at the production or the way the suit is constructed, if you take a a lining in a shell and you line them up, they do provide good compression on the muscle when you bond them, good compression.
But when they’re bonded together, they also limit your range of motion.
And what we really try to do is make sure that we’re compressing the big, especially the big muscle groups, that we’re compressing them so they’re beneficial to your performance, but we’re giving you full range of motion where you’re not restricted in any movement by your suit.
And I think for the longest time that has been the case, especially people who are thinking, shoot, I should be wearing my suit smaller.
The reality is you want to wear it snug, but you don’t want to wear it so tight.
And there’s still so many people that wear their suit so tight that they have to take it off immediately after they get done racing because they can already start to feel that they’re, you know, kind of losing their feelings.
So, I think those those are probably the two main things that people’s takeaway is going to be when they get in the product for the first time.
Well, I know everybody’s going to drop in for women’s and 22A.
We appreciate the coverage and the support for years and years and years.
Again, 2026, you guys are going to play the pick them.
I hope that you win.
Best of luck, Dan.
So, when are we going to have you back on?
I’m trying trying to think of what’s coming up next.
That’s, you know, that’s Melworthy, quite honestly.
That’s that’s at the end of the day, that’s what it needs to be.
Well, yeah.
You have something that’s coming up and and and but that’s going to take a minute and you’re going to keep me posted on that.
But it’s something that that’s that’s creative.
It’s around you and it’s around A3 and and it’s it’s from an outside source and we’re going to talk about that and we’re going to report on that.
But I think that the next A3 story that we’re going to tell is Katherine Burkoff’s story and we’re gonna app her on.
She’s awesome.
She’s she’s great to talk to.
I think one of the things that really attracted me to Katherine, obviously she’s an incredible athlete.
She’s just so authentic and genuine.
You know, you can ask her anything.
She’s going to tell you the absolute truth.
She doesn’t even think about how to sugarcoat anything or how to redirect you.
You’re just going to hear it directly from her.
And love her character and her personality.
And uh yeah, just can’t say enough about it.
I’m looking for I’m going to get a chance to see her tomorrow.
She’s racing at Westmont.
You know, it’s it’s interesting because you never know where people are in their training going into a meet like this.
So, it’s always kind of interesting to see, you know, somebody backing down for a couple of days so they could they really want to do something special this week.
We’re looking at pen packs is now what five months away, four months away.
Yeah.
So, they’re they’re really trying to start to figure out the race strategy and and different things that they’re trying to accomplish.
Looking forward to seeing Phoebe race as well.
We just signed her recently and she’s obviously a stud and AJ’s going to be there and he’s been working on a number of different things race strategywise.
And it’s funny because even though you’ve been in the, you know, you’ve been competing at a high level for such a long time, there’s always something, right?
There’s always something that you think you can do or that you want to try to make yourself even better.
And AJ certainly is a is a good example of that.
But yeah, I think Katherine’s going to have a great weekend.
Katherine’s going to swim fast.
She always swims fast.
Yeah, this is a long window without without a rest.
So, uh I’m I’m hoping we’re going to see some fast swims late May.
I think our our elites are going to are going to test their speed a little bit in late May before they go into another training block where as they as I train on the runup to Pan Packs, but we’ll see.
Anyway, I will see you somewhere down the swimming road.
I’m not going to be at NC2A, but my team will be.
But I appreciate having you on.
Yeah, you’re you got it.
Thank you, Mel.
