This morning, before heading into Zumiez for another long holiday shift, I went out for my run like I always do. I’m on day 696 of my streak and honestly it’s the one thing keeping my mind steady lately. With all the pressure of running Skate The Foundry, building Start Your Skate Business, and managing Zumiez during peak season, my mind has been packed. I already felt overloaded before the run even started. This moment ended up teaching me a lot about the skate business mindset.
Halfway through, I saw a woman walking two big dogs without a leash, a pit bull and a rottweiler. That’s normal in Fairmount Park. But today I wasn’t in the headspace for surprises. My stress was already maxed out. And then the rottweiler suddenly broke away and charged straight at me. Full speed. Eyes locked on mine. The owner was yelling its name over and over and it wasn’t listening.
Normally I would have freaked out or sped up or looked for somewhere to run, but something in me just shifted. The dog came within a few feet of me when I suddenly stopped running, turned toward it, and stared right back. And in my head I said, “Don’t even think about it. Don’t mess with me. I’m not in the mood.” The dog froze, stared at me, slowly walked backwards, and then ran back to its owner.
That moment stayed with me all day because it explained something I didn’t fully realize about myself. That moment wasn’t me trying to be tough, and it wasn’t adrenaline or leftover frustration. It was something completely different. It was clarity. No fear gripping me, no thoughts racing ahead, no replay of the past. Just this deep steady sense of presence, like everything around me suddenly quieted and I met the moment exactly as it was.
And there’s actually biology behind that! When your brain hits overload, the overthinking part shuts down for a second. The body switches from frantic fight or flight into a calmer, instinctive mode. Your nervous system moves into a parasympathetic, hyperfocused state, the same one athletes enter when they’re in the zone. Breathing slows, awareness expands, reactions sharpen, and fear gets quiet. That’s exactly what happened to me. The dog didn’t stop because the owner called it. It stopped because it felt the energy shift.
All day I kept thinking about how similar this is to running a skate business or even managing a store. Things come at you out of nowhere. Sales dip, staff get stressed, parents complain, systems break, your own self doubt hits you, and everything feels like it’s coming full speed. Most people react emotionally. They panic, shut down, or run mentally. But that moment with the dog showed me that when you’re grounded, you can face things without fear. The problem doesn’t shrink because it gets easier. It shrinks because you stop running from it. It made me rethink what the skate business mindset really is.
Lately I’ve realized the version of me that my business needs isn’t the overthinking, stressed-out one. It’s the grounded one. The present one. The one who takes a breath, looks at what’s happening, and chooses the next step instead of reacting to everything at once. You don’t need hype or forced confidence. You don’t need to be loud. You just need presence.
That’s where the real power is. And when you show up like that, even the things that feel like they’re charging at you start backing off.