Trevor Farnes founded MTN OPS, a self-described outdoor performance supplements company. You may ask why you would listen to a chat about another company in this crowded space, but you will quickly find out that MTN OPS is a very different kind of company. For one, their customers are not anonymous buyers but part of a community that shares experiences and triumphs. Interestingly, MTN OPS focuses on the hunting community, but their products are also extremely well-suited for any endurance athletes. It makes sense when you think about it, because hunters spend long hours and days in the field and require proper fueling. Trevor has also created a unique MTN OPS corporate culture that is based on 12 principles that begin with recognizing God, empowering their employees from what he calls the Four Quadrants of Life, and community service. This latter principle led him to create Operation Conquer Hunger, an organization that has provided six million meals to families in the United States and the African country of Malawi. This project was spurred by Trevor’s own life in which his prior business ventures failed and his ability to put food on his family’s table was in question. It’s an impressive operation that brings people together to assemble meal kits in various communities. What’s very cool is that MTN OPS donates a meal for every sale they make. I also like that they are very serious about testing and delivering on their formulations, especially in the wake of recent reports about a prominent company in this field that was not delivering what was promised on its packaging. This is a very interesting story about the birth of this company, which evolved from when Trevor created a concoction that helped prolong his father’s life, to locating in a historic building in a small Utah town where they are literally the only business, to developing this unique culture and community. I hope you enjoy hearing from this engaging, faith-based force in the performance supplements world.

Trevor Farnes
mtnops.com
Facebook and YouTube MTN OPS
Instagram and Threads @mtnops and @trevorfarnes

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

What a difference a year makes. After a bunion that broke through the skin and eventually resulted in surgery wiped out pretty much all of my running and other activities in 2023, this year has seen me excitedly get back into doing big things - whether it was an amazing mountaineering trip in Chile, tearing out the turf in part of my yard and replacing it with a waterwise garden with native plants, editing Cole Chlouber's memoir, "Grit, Guts & Determination," about the birth and growth of the Leadville Race Series, and now completing the Leadville Heavy Half. The latter was with Team Leadville and that included the challenge of raising funds for Warriors' Ascent. The race went very well and the group collected more than $125,000 to fund programs that help prevent veteran and first responder suicide, SAVING 62 lives! Everything is building up to the Leadville Trail 100 in August where I'll be attempting to become the first runner to ever finish it in four different 10-year age groups. Do you have it in you to do something big? Train for a big event? Write that book? Take an epic adventure? I hope I can inspire you to take the leap to give it your best shot to challenge yourself to do something big!

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

After Nick Jonsson, a Swedish-born, Southeast Asian businessman, found the mounting stresses of his job and climbing the corporate ladder untenable, he began drinking heavily, abandoned his fitness regimen, and put on a ton of weight, leading to him losing his job, as well as his wife and son. After getting help to control his alcoholism, Nick, who has now been sober for six years, recognized that one of the primary reasons business leaders were failing was having no one available to open up to about these stresses. Instead, they blew off steam in the bars and in other unhealthy outlets. He realized that businessmen, in particular, could benefit from having support to cope, just as he had to regain his sobriety. The well-traveled Nick now leads the Executive’s Global Network in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia to bring business leaders together to discuss issues they face both in and out of the office. He encourages leaders all over the globe to seek out similar groups before work stresses cause them to slip down the slopes that he did. His book, “Executive Loneliness – The 5 Pathways to Overcoming Isolation, Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in the Modern Business World” is an Amazon worldwide bestseller, and provides a very logical framework with which to put anyone, not just business leaders, onto the path of a more fulfilling career and overall life. In the meantime, Nick has hammered himself back into prime shape and is one of the top-ranked competitors in the Ironman 70.3 Triathlon World Championship in New Zealand this December. I hope you will enjoy this chat with a very insightful business leader and accomplished triathlete.

To donate to Team Leadville and Warriors' Ascent, which saves lives by providing holistic programs helping veterans and first responders dealing with PTS symptoms, go to:
https://give.classy.org/We-Are-Superman
Thank you!

Nick Jonsson
www.nickjonsson.com
LinkedIn Nick Jonsson
“Executive Loneliness – The 5 Pathways to Overcoming Isolation, Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in the Modern Business World” is available on Amazon and his web site

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

On a bike ride on an open road in New Jersey in 2011, Ron Gold was struck head-on by an SUV whose driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel even though it was the middle of the day. He barely survived, suffering critical injuries, and was left a paraplegic. It was bad enough the driver was totally unapologetic about causing this tragic event. Ron spent many months in rehab, not to mention wrestling with feelings of despair and hopelessness. After he finally got back home, one thing he learned, which you would likely never find out otherwise, is how challenging it is to find a reliable home health care provider. Ron and I are fellow alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, and leveraging the business acumen he had gleaned both there and in his Wall Street jobs, Ron and his wife Betsy, who had encouraged him to find purpose in his life despite his situation, founded and run LeanOnWe. This organization serves to help pair people in the New York Tri-State area who need home healthcare with screened providers, as well as enable those providers to receive a livable wage, which is often a barrier to many remaining in the profession. LeanOnWe innovatively addresses both of these shortcomings, and has now matched more than 1900 individuals with providers. In the meantime, Ron has charged back in to the athletic world, in both para-rowing, in which he has competed in the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, and as a marathoner using a handcycle, where he is roughly horizontal to the ground and “pedals” with his arms. He completed the Hartford Marathon in 2:56, and then improved to 2:42 at the New York City Marathon. Along the way, he has helped the fundraising efforts of Eric LeGrand, the Rutgers football player who was paralyzed in 2010 and is now an inspiring entrepreneur himself. Ron’s efforts have helped raise more than $36,000 for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to aid paralysis research and treatment. Ron’s story will inspire you how he pushed back against very dark times in his life, found a purpose, and had he not done that, the impacts on others that never would have been possible.

Ron Gold
LeanOnWe.com
rongold@leanonwe.com
www.RonGold.live
substack.com/@rongold
Instagram and Threads @the_ronnieg
Facebook and LinkedIn Ron Gold
YouTube RonGold.live

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

The We Are Superman Podcast has hit 300 episodes... we think. But thanks to David's impetus, inspirational WASP guests have touched millions of listeners around the world. Or at least thousands. After a quick historical recap, I'm honored to bring you my recounting of my truly amazing trip to Chile and climbing peaks in the Andes as high as almost 20,000 feet in the driest and one of the most remote spots on Earth, the Atacama Desert. Our trip included many impressive elite athletes, surprising sights, spectacular scenery, jaw-dropping starry night skies, and consuming so many wraps that I still haven't eaten one since. The climbs were some of the toughest challenges I've ever undertaken, but the rewards of exploring my limits - as well as seeing the others doing so - were well worth it. I hope you enjoy following along with this awesome adventure (which you can do as well, see below).

If you'd like to take the same amazing trip, contact Tyler Andrews at:
Instagram @TylerCAndrews
chaski.run/contact

To donate to Team Leadville and Warriors' Ascent, go to:
https://give.classy.org/We-Are-Superman
Thank you!

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

Imagine you are an 18-year-old and you have worked your entire life and gotten to the cusp of achieving your dream of playing hockey on the Division 1 collegiate level and then the NHL, and suddenly you are told that your dream is now kaput due to a health issue. That was the reality faced by David Carle, a star defenseman from Anchorage, Alaska following a physical he received at the NHL combine for top prospects just prior to the 2008 draft. Instead of hearing his name picked in the early rounds by a team that would be eager to add him to their roster after a few years of playing college hockey, he now faced an uncertain future due to a drastic diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the myocardium heart muscle. However, George Gwozdecky, the head coach at the University of Denver, where David had decided to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Matt, a winner of the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey, honored the scholarship offer he had made, and added David to the staff as a student coach. Few freshmen athletes arrive at college thinking they would be stepping into a coaching career, but he embraced this new opportunity to stay in the game he loved. Following his college graduation and a couple of seasons with Green Bay in the USHL, David returned to DU as an assistant coach and helped the Pioneers win the national title in 2017. When head coach Jim Montgomery left for an NHL job in 2018, David at age 28 was elevated to head coach, the youngest in NCAA Division 1 hockey. He guided the Pioneers to the NCAA Frozen Four in his first season, and they took the national championship in 2022, with a tense overtime win in Boston over Michigan in the semifinals, and then a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Minnesota State. Earlier this year, he coached Team USA at the prestigious World Junior Hockey Championships, with the team capturing the gold medal over host Sweden. This season, the Pioneers had a record of 32-9-3, the first time in program history with three consecutive 30-win seasons, and won the NCHC league playoff title. It all culminated in St. Paul, Minn. with DU winning the national championship for the 10th time, the first NCAA program to hit double-digits in titles. The Pioneers beat Boston University, 2-1 in overtime, and then shutout the leading offense in the country, top-ranked Boston College, 2-0 in the final, games that have made sensational goalie Matt Davis a DU folk hero for years to come. David was later named USCHO Coach of the Year. His career coaching record stands at 148-62-16, a winning percentage of .690. All this and he’s still in his early 30s and with a heart they said shouldn’t let him play hockey but is withstanding a lot of high-tension moments. As many listeners know, I am a huge DU fan, have been a season ticketholder since the 1980s, and have attended all of those Frozen Fours mentioned, including those three championship games. So I was very honored to chat with Coach Carle and am excited to bring this to you. I do want to deeply thank Ron Knabenhauer of the DU athletic staff for helping me to arrange it.

David Carle
Instagram @du_hockey

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

This past late winter I met a truly impressive group of athletes on a trip to the rugged and beautiful, high-elevation Atacama Desert of Chile. One of these is Kat Edwards of Richmond, Va. A relative newcomer to ultrarunning at 24 years old, and having never experienced performing at altitude, Kat crushed climbing peaks of 16,000 and 18,000 feet before tackling her first FKT attempt, on nearly 20,000-foot Nevado San Francisco on the border between Chile and Argentina. This same insanely difficult climb with 4400 feet in elevation gain over just 4.67 miles took me more than nine hours to the summit and back. Coached by Tyler Andrews, who led our trip, Kat quite impressively set the female FKT by reaching the peak in 3:37 and completing the roundtrip in 5:40. Kat has followed that up by taking on more scary challenges that have been more opportunities for growth. She raced for the first time on foreign soil in the Petzl Trail Plus 80K in Ecuador on a dastardly beast of a course that led to a DNF, but she also gleaned a ton of knowledge to apply to the future as she discusses here. She bounced back in a huge way in early May as the first woman finisher by nearly four hours – and fourth-place overall – in the Sedona Canyons 125 on the Cocodona course in Arizona. Kat comes from a varied athletic background in which she has also biked, rock climbed, and enthusiastically hit weight training. She may be young, but she is on the fast-track of seeking new ways to challenge herself, and she has now joined Tyler as a coach with the Chaski Endurance Collective, and she will take on the Moab 240 this fall. She also recently got engaged. One thing you’ll notice is how meticulously Kat approaches her training and racing, which belies her easy-going personality. I certainly enjoyed getting to know and admire Kat while we were in Chile along with all of the incredible people on the trip.

Kat Edwards
katedwardspt.com
Instagram @kat.elizabeth_
For coaching inquiries: www.chaski.run

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

This is a very special and personal episode for me. I want to introduce you to Nate Zayonc, a young man whom I am very proud of. His life was not in the most positive place a bit more than a year ago, but now he is thriving as a private in the U.S. Army. Nate was a top distance runner on the cross country and track teams at Bear Creek H.S. where I helped coach him. His desire was to run in college and then professionally. However, his life at home was difficult, and in fact he did receive a partial scholarship offer from UConn, but his parents for whatever reason never told him about it. Actually, his parents were an aunt and uncle who had adopted him. His biological mother was 14 when she had him and hasn’t been in his life since he was a toddler. Nate was also born with fetal alcohol syndrome, which led to him having behavioral issues growing up. His father was 18 at the time and subsequently served time for statutory rape and is currently imprisoned on another charge. Nate’s adoptive parents weren’t great about supporting his running career, and after an incident with another boy on his high school team, they prohibited him from running during his pivotal senior year. Nate had told me that when he hit his 18th birthday, he planned to move out of the house, even though he had nowhere to go. This is where things got interesting. In today’s society, and especially in public schools, insanely, it is frowned upon for an adult to show concern for a struggling young person who is not their own. A Bear Creek H.S. teacher reported me for offering to aid Nate, and I was immediately fired and all the athletic director and principal would tell me was “I don’t know.” I only later learned that it was because I’d offered to help Nate out of his dilemma. At that point, there was no reason not to invite Nate to move into my spare bedroom in the basement. My original thought was that he would only be there for a few months until he left for Army basic training. We immediately got him back onto the track team so he could do what he liked best for the remainder of his senior year. The best part of Nate staying with me was watching him thrive in a positive environment for the first time. I’ve jokingly called it my late life fatherhood because all of a sudden, I was driving him all over and helping him in various ways to navigate his new independence. Following his basic training and subsequent stationing in Arizona, he has been assigned to Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs. What has been a pleasant surprise is that he is now home on most weekends, and we have bonded over everything from running to our common love of sports. He jokingly tells his fellow soldiers that he is staying with his stepdad. He’s very proud of his status in the Army and is strongly considering going for Army Ranger school. And I’m proud of him, too. I likely forfeited my coaching career to give him this opportunity to live in a more positive home, but I have zero regrets about that. I don’t understand why any school district would not support an educator being willing to go above and beyond for a student in need. My bottom-line message is to get involved when there is a young person in need – the rewards go both ways! I really hope you will enjoy this very special chat with a young man who is going to do great things and who has become like a son to me.

Nate Zayonc
Instagram @nathanzayonc

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast