We recently connected with Ruben Gonzalez and have shared our conversation below.
Ruben, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I’m a four-time Olympian in the sport of luge. I used to sell copiers in Downtown Houston, TX. Right before the 2002 Slat Lake City Olympics, a 12-year-old kid in my neighborhood asked me if I would be his “show-and-tell” project when I came back from the Olympics. Thinking it would be just a few kids in his classroom I agreed. When I went to his school, the Principal took me to a room filled with 200 students and teachers and said, “You have 45 minutes.” I thought I was going to die and almost ran out the door. I told the kids my story and gave them tips they could use to realize their goals and dreams. Afterwards, the Principal said, “Ruben, you need to do this for a living. You have a gift. You’re better than the people we pay!” I replied, “You get paid for show-and-tell?” He said, “It’s the speaking profession. You can inspire and equip people to be the best they can be.” I had always wanted to own my own business. I thought about it for three days, then I quit my job. I figured, “If I can sell a copier, I can sell a Ruben.”
Ruben, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be in the Olympics, but I’m not a great athlete, so I didn’t think it was possible, and I never pursued it. Then, when I was 21 years old, I was watching the Olympics on TV, and saw Scott Hamilton win the Gold Medal in figure skating. I said to myself, “If THAT little guy can win, I can at least play. I’ll be in the next Olympics. It’s a done deal. I just have to find a sport.” My strength was tenacity, so I started looking for sports that matched my strength. I chose the luge. I went to Lake Placid, NY and four years and a few broken bones later I was competing in the Olympics. I went on to become the first person to compete in four Winter Olympics in four different decades. My presentations take people’s excuses away. They walk out thinking, “It THAT guy could make it to the Olympics, I can do anything!” Since 2002 I’ve spoken for over 100 Fortune 500 companies around the world. I just came back from Nashville where I got to speak for 6500 Chick-fil-A Operators and employees about resilience, stick-to-iveness, attitude, and how to reach your goals faster. That was such a fun gig! Got so share the stage with Garth Brooks, and many other top country artists. Because of my sales background, I do a lot of sales kickoffs for big companies. But my message applies to anyone because I teach success principles that work for anyone, anywhere, anytime. A couple of months ago I was speaking for some middle school kids and that’s going to turn into a TV documentary. I just did a TED talk called, “The Power of Following the Leader.” That will up up soon. My books have sold over 300,000 copies and been translated to 10 languages. And it all started with a little kid asking me to be his show-and-tell project…
Have you ever had to pivot?
In order to succeed in business you have to constantly adapt. You constantly test different marketing methods and in my case, you test new material to keep the presentations fresh. When I got started in 2002, I just had about 45 minutes of material. Today I have over five hours of material I can use to tailor my presentations to the client’s goals and challenges and theme of their event (leadership, motivation, teamwork, change, sales, overcoming challenges, etc.). When covid hit, the phone started ringing because everyone was cancelling their meetings. I immediately got together with two speaker friends and we agreed to work together to figure out how to do virtual events. If you want to succeed big, you have to be willing to fail big. If you want to succeed fast, you have to be willing to fail fast. We decided to try every approach to virtual presentations. We were going to test everything as quickly as possible to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. And we touched base by Zoom every couple of days. In less than a month we figured out the lighting, best ways to engage people virtually, and how to do fun, high energy virtual meetings. When conditions change, whoever adapts first wins. Don’t try to be a perfectionist. Perfectionists never get anything done because they wait for conditions to be perfect before taking action. Throw mud on the wall, some of it will stick, you can clean up the mess later. Actually you’ll never get a chance to clean up the mess because you’ll be off to the next project. Meanwhile, your competition will say that you’re just lucky. Action, action, action. Outwork the competition and you’ll leave them behind.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
About three months after I started speaking professionally, the Get Motivated seminar featuring Zig Ziglar, Colin Powell, and many other top speakers came to Houston, where I lived. It was going to take place at the Summit, where the Houston Rockets used to play and where Joel Osteen has his church now. I went to the seminar. Not to listen to the speakers but to see if I could find the man who ran the seminar (PL). I spotted PL, went up to him and told him, “I’m an Olympic athlete with an incredible story that fills people with hope and takes their excuses away.” Then I handed him a CD of one of my presentations and told him, “Listen to this CD. You’ll be glad you did.” The Get Motivated Seminars company was based in Tampa. The next week I had a speaking engagement in Tampa so I took my Salt Lake City Olympic Torch with me (I was a torchbearer). I went to their office on a cold call. Just showed up. Asked, “Is PL here? I need to talk with him.” PL was there but they said he was out of town. Hannah, his Personal Assistant, who I had met at the seminar in Houston, took me to their board room and met with me. I showed her the Olympic Torch and told her, “If you all book me to speak for you, I’ll fire up your audiences so much that your business will go through the roof!” Hannah replied, “Ruben, let me talk to PL about you. I think bringing you in would be a good idea. KEY TO SUCCESS – I followed up with Hannah on the phone every month for 18 months. Then they started booking me. I got to share the stage with Zig Ziglar in huge arenas about 25 times over the years. It was a great learning experience and it opened up doors all around the world. Sales is a transference of feeling. Your prospect is only going to get fired up about your product or service you’re if you’re fired up about it. And if you follow up. the fortune is in the follow up.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://ruben-gonzalez.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelugeman
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-gonzalez-olympian
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelugeman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RubenGonzalezMotivationalKeynoteSpeakerOlympic