#20 - Attitude Wins: 11X Ironman Champion Lisa Bentley’s Playbook for Sustainable High Performance
Today’s guest is 11X Ironman Champion Lisa Bentley
Closing the gap between high ambition and sustainable, fulfilling performance. Lisa helps people replace self-doubt, data-obsession, and perfectionism with mindset skills, simple systems, and repeatable habits that make winning—in sport and life—actually last.
In today’s conversation Lisa Bentley explores how mindset, visualization, and “doing the best with your deck of cards” fueled her rise to 11 IRONMAN titles while living with cystic fibrosis. She breaks down race-week mental rehearsal (Plan A/B/C), chunking the course, and using mantras to keep going when your brain wants an exit. Lisa explains why attitude beats fact, how to trust the “workouts no one sees,” and how to manage tech so it doesn’t manage you. You’ll hear the story behind some of her hardest wins—and how she turned setbacks into a playbook for everyday resilience.
You will learn how to run Lisa’s visualization routine (scenario-planning, assets lists, and mantras), why attitude > fact when pressure spikes, how to use numbers without letting numbers use you, and how to shift from all-or-nothing to “start, notice, adjust.” You’ll also learn how to translate elite endurance lessons into busy, real-life routines—so progress happens even on imperfect days.
You will discover that extraordinary results come from ordinary behaviors—done consistently—guided by a trained mind that has rehearsed adversity in advance. That’s the engine behind Lisa’s wins and her coaching
When life gets noisy, high performers default to perfectionism, self-critique, and device-driven goals. Lisa replaces that loop with clarity, confidence, and controllables—so you can perform at a high level without burning out.
Key take aways:
Attitude beats fact—train your mind first.
Visualize Plan A, B, and C before go-time.
Trust the workouts no one sees.
Numbers inform; they don’t define you.
Do the best with your deck of cards.
“Attitude is more important than fact.”
Today’s Expert Guest - 11X Ironman Champion Lisa Bentley
Lisa Bentley is a triathlon icon: 11× IRONMAN champion, 11× IRONMAN 70.3 champion, multiple top-5 Kona finishes, and a decade ranked top-5 in the world—all while competing with cystic fibrosis. She’s an author, keynote speaker, coach, broadcaster, and long-time advocate for cystic fibrosis and healthy high performance.
Lisa blends elite racing experience with a teacher’s clarity and a mindset-first method: visualization, scenario-planning, mantras, and pragmatic training that fits real lives. Her philosophy—win in life first, then on the course—turns adversity into fuel and makes excellence sustainable.
Follow Lisa Bentley on Instagram & Linked In.
Check out her website.
Explore her book.
An Unlikely Champion: Finding a Path to Fulfillment and Winning in Life
An Unlikely Champion redefines winning. It will show you how to adopt a champion’s mindset, carve out your unique excellence and achieve success in any endeavor.
Ironman champion Lisa Bentley chronicles her path from “no-talent” high school runner to champion triathlete, and her transition from hiding her cystic fibrosis to seeing it as a gift that enables her to bring hope to others and meaning to her own career greater than any found on a racecourse.
But An Unlikely Champion is not about winning races. It’s not about cystic fibrosis. It’s about winning in life, about being the best you can be with the cards you’ve been dealt. It is about finding a path to fulfillment even when every path looks impassable. It is about having the courage to get out of your comfort zone, to never stop learning and to turn seemingly inevitable failure into victory.
This podcast contains advice and information relating to health and wellness. It should be used to supplement rather than replace the advice of your doctor or another trained health professional. If you know or suspect that you have a health problem, seek your physician’s advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this podcast / interview / article as of the date of publication. The author and publisher disclaim liability for any medical or other outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this material.
