For listeners in Washington County, Vermont: Robert Norris -- the first athlete in his category to finish Ironman Arizona unguided, in 15:35:00 -- joins Marlynne Stutzman for a joint MindSets conversation built around a single phrase Robert lives by: born ready.
Robert runs the YouTube channel “Get Fit with Robert21,” roughly 800 videos and growing, and is training toward the 777 Great World Race -- seven marathons, seven continents, seven days -- as a fundraising challenge. The conversation covers the cold-water training discipline that's part of his daily routine and the family support system that makes an unguided Ironman finish possible in the first place.
Washington County, Vermont sits in the Northeast, inside its own local training and race calendar -- the mindset in this episode holds regardless of terrain, but how you schedule around it doesn't.
Washington County, Vermont is its own county-level market in the Northeast -- distinct county government, workforce base, and local business community from the state's larger metro areas.
The lesson MindSets pulls out of it: “never give up” isn't a slogan here, it's a daily training decision, repeated on days nobody's watching.
Why it matters
The practical lesson: "born ready" is a training decision made on ordinary days, not a mood you wait to feel on race day. Robert's daily cold-water discipline and his family's support system are both part of the same infrastructure -- the mindset gets the credit, but the system is what actually carries it.
The first step: pick one small, uncomfortable, repeatable daily action -- Robert's is cold water -- and do it on a day nobody's watching and there's no reason to. That's the actual training, not the big day everyone sees.
About the show
About MindSets. MindSets - The Reject Mediocrity Podcast is hosted by Ellis Franks -- Ironman finisher, ultrarunner, US military Training Instructor for 14 years, and certified leadership and performance coach. The show covers the mental side of success through conversations with guests from business, endurance sports, and leadership, plus solo episodes built the same way Ellis coaches: directly, without softening the point for the audience. Ellis has finished 11 Ironman triathlons and 50 ultramarathons since 2023, and is a John Maxwell Team certified leadership coach -- the same credentialing behind the leadership training linked below, not a separate media persona from the actual coaching work.
Bring this to Washington County, Vermont. If this way of thinking fits how your team already operates, the same coaching framework Ellis uses on the show is available as a leadership program for organizations in Washington County, Vermont through Reject Mediocrity's leadership training -- built for teams that want the direct version, not the softened one.
Listen to the full episode on MindSets - The Reject Mediocrity Podcast, and see how this thinking translates into a program for your team through Reject Mediocrity leadership training.
