This week we have blogger, Digital Marketing Consultant, and creator of the "Year of Fear" challenge, Kendra Wright on the show. Kendra has massively improved her happiness and quality of life by facing her fears, and now she wants the same for you.
Many people know Kendra from her inspiring ‘Year of Fear Challenge.’ This challenge was spawned from her realization that many failures and non-starts in her life came from a fear of failure. She figured the best way to get beyond this was to face her fears head-on, and thus the challenge was born!
Amazingly enough, Kendra was so committed she exercised this daily challenge for an entire year! She's now gone on to complete over 700 "comfort zone challenges, and she'd be the first to admit it was well worth it.
The challenge led her to face fears (like heights), do things she had never considered before (like a police ride along), and she's also knocked-off some of those bucket list items that tend to accumulate in everyone’s life (like hot air ballooning). It even led her to change her peer group as she firmly believes in the saying:
“You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with.”
From the outside it might look like such an adventurous and active person must naturally be outgoing, positive and brave. But that's not necessarily true. Kendra admitted that positivity doesn't come naturally and she’s had to develop some enjoyable daily rituals for self-improvement in the area of mindset, including:
Kendra’s a firm believer in living her own life and doesn’t let anybody tell her what she should or shouldn’t do. Even though she believes that you should say “Yes!” to anything you haven’t done before, you should still pick and choose things you think will be fun and add to your life. She still does things that scare her, but there’s got to be some enjoyment for her to do it and she’s not afraid to say “No.”
Speaking of being afraid, facing her fears and living outside of her comfort zones has led to bigger successes in life. Kendra actually left behind a great job to go full-time in her own consulting business, and went sleepless with worry for three weeks because of it. But it’s been the best thing for her, and she credits her yearly challenges to laying the groundwork for her to believe in herself enough to pursue her dreams. She says that people need to wake up to how their fear holds them back:
“Most people don’t realize what they’re able to do, what their real possibility is ‘cause they never swing the bat, they’re always in the dugout. I’d rather swing and miss and at least going for it than sitting in the dugout. You’re never getting on base if you don’t try.”
Kendra wants people to stop comparing themselves to what they see in social media. She says, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are highlight reels; you only see the best things that people want to put out there. We shouldn’t be comparing our uncut life to the awesomely curated highlight reels of others on social media because everyone has their own stuff to wade through.
“It’s going to be messy, but at the end it will be the biggest beautiful mess you’ve ever seen if you just keep going.”
Kendra is a super inspiring person and I count myself lucky to consider her a friend. I'm positive you'll get a kick out of Kendra's views on life and feel inspired to go out and take your own risks!
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Corey Blake comes on today's episode to share with us the value in being openly vulnerable in today's world, how that's impacted the success of his business and relationships, and how he's spreading the word.
In 2005 he started Round Table Companies, which is a story telling company that supports organizations, CEO’s and thought leaders. Corey believes every successful company or person has a compelling story to tell, and he helps them verbalize it in a way that’s captivating, appealing and leads to deeper connections with their audiences.
Getting back to Core Values, RTC actually has seven of them:
Corey went into detail on three of these values:
Brilliance allows for a black and white approach to the quality of work they produce. “Is it brilliant or not? Do we feel magic in it?” If the answer to either of these is “no”, then it’s back to the drawing board. Love it!
The staff at RTC and their clients are challenged to lean into Courage in all the work they do, to dig in there and do things that might scare them.
Momentum for any creative agency is key in finding the magic and poetry in everything they do. What a fortuitous coincidence, “Momentum” is my theme for the week!
Corey practices what he preaches in a big way, and actually has an executive coach on retainer for his staff of 40 to take advantage of at any time. He firmly believes in developing himself and his team and notes:
“The company is only as strong as I am and the company only has the capacity that I represent as its leadership. As we continue to grow, that expands to the capacity of other people on the leadership team… ultimately we’ll get the company that we deserve.”
In addition to running RTC, Corey is fully invested in the “Vulnerability is Sexy” movement that he's created. It’s a metaphor for the work they do in the world by supporting people that invite their audience into a loving space where they get to know each other’s humanity. The movement is catching on and gaining momentum (there’s that core value again).
“Vulnerability is Sexy” started back in 2014 when Corey and his team created a concept called the Vulnerability Wall after seeing how people at conferences didn’t take risks until the end when it was time to leave. The wall is a huge, blank canvas on display and people can drop their insecurities, secrets, shames and vulnerabilities in a box and his artists will turn them into beautiful representations on the canvas. This helps people relieve themselves of some of their burdens and to quickly honor each other’s humanity.
“When we have the strength to be vulnerable, there’s an opportunity for an alignment check.”
Ultimately, if you’re interested in growth and living a life of purpose, then displaying your vulnerability will guide you to this even though there may be some pain associated with it.
Corey’s a super insightful, caring and open person and we really enjoyed our discussion, as I’m sure you will as well.
Joining me on today is one of the hardest hustlers I know, Jimmy Hayes, who co-founded his business with his best friend and travel companion, Doug Barber. These are two hardworking guys who left New Zealand to develop an incredible high-end travel gear company called Minaal.
They turned their incessant love of travel and their disdain for the drudgery of “normal” jobs into a sustainable business where travel is automatically built in.
Coming up with your own products to sell can be quite difficult, but Jimmy has to give credit to Doug for his passionate dislike for the travel gear he was using at the time, and having the vision and the gall to believe he could create something better. That coupled the great feedback they received from potential customers during the prototype phase (myself included) gave them momentum and pushed them to continue past the inevitable hurdles that come with any startup.
Crowdfunding has been a game changer for the product development industry, and Jimmy threw everything he had at their Kickstarter campaign. They blew past their $30K goal in 6.5 hours, and ended their funding with $343,000 in funding. Unbelievable!
Jimmy credits this successful campaign to the work they did through the testing and sample phase of development. He says that for a successful campaign, you’ve got to be in there with your customer base, soliciting feedback and using that feedback to make your product better. If your target market is included in the process of building your product through their feedback, they’ll have a much greater personal investment in the final product because their direct input went into producing it. You will have created a customer for life by including them in the process.
The seeds for your success come before the Kickstarter. People who help in the development phase write the story of the product, and have incredible buy-in to your success.
Creating products that they would want to use and to be seen using just naturally led to their aesthetic and branding. Jimmy’s big on being authentic in life and business, and this desire unsurprisingly led them to a branding that the average traveler can relate to.
Jimmy considers his job with Minaal done when two customers meet and get married all due to their Minaal bags: “I want a user marriage!”
All joking aside, the future for Minaal is something Jimmy’s thinking about. They’re constantly taking a look at what’s working and what isn’t, and what they enjoy doing as they plan the future. He sees much more customer interactions and being facilitators for a community of people with shared values.
Some of the issues they’ve experienced is not being able to fulfill so many orders. A great problem to have for sure, but it’s something they’ll be working on in the near future.
On a personal (and business) note, Jimmy’s really working on managing the business and his time better while he’s on the road. It’s difficult to get work done while traveling full time, and he’s looking to scale back and strategize his travel more in the coming year, removing the concept that “every ticket is a one way.”
Jimmy’s enthusiasm for building a business around what he loves comes out in everything he says. You’re gonna love this interview with one of my favorite Kiwis!
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Dr. Alexis Shields: TRAVELING THE WORLD AND TREATING VIRTUAL PATIENTS WITH NATUROPATHIC REMEDIES
Alexis studied naturopathic medicine in Portland, Oregon at the Natural College of Naturopathic Medicine, where she earned her doctorate degree in medicine. She found natropathic medicine when her father was faced with health issues and traditional medicine was not providing the necessary results. During his treatment, she witnessed the benefits he found through natropathic medicine and this impacted her so much that she decided to become a naturopathic doctor herself.
After graduating medical school, she started her brick-and-mortar practice. After four years in business, she and her then-fiancé decided to sell off the business and move across the country. Before settling on the East Coast, they wanted to take the opportunity to travel abroad for an extended amount of time. Alexis sold most of her posessions in preparation for the extended trip abroad, and this unfamiliar task actually helped her realize that she could do with a lot less in life - a valuable lesson to learn before starting her nomadic lifestyle.
Alexis’ travels have taken her to dozens of countries where she’s met so many incredible entrepreneurs (like myself) who have opened her eyes to the possibilities of developing a thriving virtual medical practice. Once she learned that it was possible, she and Shannon decided to develop their virtual businesses and continue their world travels, and have successfully done so for almost 3 years now.
Living the nomadic lifestyle can be tough and isolating, even with a partner in tow. Alexis and her husband now have a year long lease in Portugal, surrounded by a small community of like-minded entrepreneurs but over the past few years, they’ve spent a lot of nights in hotels or Airbnb apartments and often it’s tough to meet others and make friends.
The duo has taken it upon themselves to search out groups for support and to develop friendships with other travelers and expats and she emphasizes the importance of creating alone time when traveling with a partner. She spends a lot of time by herself in coffee shops doing work, and there she’s able to meet others and making friends. Facebook groups of like-minded people have also helped her deal with the nomadic lifestyle.
There’s never a perfect time to take an extended journey abroad. Just take the leap and go. You’ll find what you need on your journey.
Staying healthy while traveling is a major component of her nomadic lifestyle. In a new community it’s important for her to find a gym for exercise (and it’s a great way to get to know the locals). She uses some online resources as well, like Yogaglo.com (yoga, meditation, stretching and many other classes) and barre3.com (dance, pilates and weight training) for exercise at home. She uses the Stronglift App as well for strength training on the road.
Having solid nutrition principles to follow every day will really help you stay healthy and fit. Even if you’re dining out a lot, you’ve got to figure out how to eat healthily and seek out food that makes you feel good.
Alexis recommends doing yearly blood work to track your health year over year. Also, commit to doing something every day that brings you closer to your health and fitness goals. Don’t allow the “go-go-go” mentality push you to avoid paying attention to your health.
“People, when they’re healthy and feel good, perform better.”
Alexis has lots of big plans for the future.
Within the next year she’s going to take a team based approach to her business and will build a team to better help her patients. She’s also building out corporate wellness programs for companies that want their employees to be more productive and function at higher levels.
Alexis has radically changed her life and business to suit her desires, and she’s a fantastic example of what is possible when you think outside the box and have the courage to make life an adventure.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES