Darius Nabors is unlike any guest I've had on the show before, but his story is something I knew my audience needed to hear. Over the past year, Darius has been on a trip he’s dubbed #59in59, with the goal to visit 59 national parks in 59 weeks, alongside his friend Trevor. The end of their trip brought them to Acadia National Park in Maine on August 25, 2016, for the National Parks Service 100th Anniversary; something they'd planned from the start.
Growing up in Colorado, Darius has felt at home in nature nearly his entire life. Since childhood, one of his dreams has been to see every U.S. National Park, which culminated recently with his idea for #59in59. The deadline of the NPS Centennial created a “now or never” feeling in Darius, which pushed him into motion.
One interesting lesson that Darius took from the trip, is the concept of a condensed timeline. This means that when you're filling your life with new and different experiences, it actually feels like MUCH more time has passed. This notion became obvious when he linked up with friends at the end of his travels, who he'd seen earlier in the trip. For them, not much had changed, and it felt like no time had lapsed since their last visit. For Darius though, SO much had happened. He'd lived lifetimes of adventures, and created so many new memories because he was proactively seeing new things each day.
We can incorporate this lesson into our own life by consciously choosing novel activities. By filling our weeks with 'newness' we can ensure that at the end of our life, it doesn't all blur together.
When Darius shared his #59in59 plans with friends and family, he naturally was mat with some skepticism. Surprisingly, the naysayers were all from the younger crowd. Older generations supported Darius in his journey, but most people in his own age range met the idea with pessimism and doubt, most likely brought about by limiting beliefs, or possibly jealousy.
To support the cost of his journey, a large part of the funding came from a crowdfunding campaign they hosted through Rocket Hub. Contributors were offered a variety of rewards for their donations, such as allowing fans to join Darius & Trevor in-park for a “B&B” experience, or the sillier gift of having a stick named after you. Rocket Hub was an easy choice for their preferred crowdfunding platform after Darius chatted with the CEO Brian Meece. Meece's dedication showed how much the company cares about the projects that they help fund.
Obviously this sort of adventure requires some intense planning and preparation. Here are some of the steps Darius took to ensure the trip would be a success.
Before the Trip Began:
Brainstorming - while watching through the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Darius jotted down notes on the parks and requested materials for the parks service to help plan his trip.
Finances - in addition to money in preparation for the trip, Darius relied on Rocket Hub to help supplement the funding for the trip.
Transportation - originally, Darius considered flipping an old bus or van as a travel vehicle, but in the end his parents offered for him to use their Dodge Ram 2500, providing for a similar size vehicle at zero cost. (score!)
Sleeping - at the beginning of the trip, a tent was an easy choice. As the trip went on, Darius decided to save time by sleeping in the bed of the Dodge or in a hammock. Set up and tear down time was taking away from precious experiences.
Notable Memories:
The trip was not difficult to accomplish physically, but Darius struggled trying to stay aware and updated with all of his ongoing plans, social media, and the blog for the #59in59 website. However, one notable struggle was an evening in a car in the Florida Everglades, where temperatures refused to drop below 80 degrees. (Note to self: don’t visit the Everglades in July). In general, the expectations for a lower standard of living throughout the trip kept Darius & Trevor extremely content.
The reason Darius spent so much time with content creation and social media for 59in59 was fueled by his drive to get readers out of the house and into the parks. Not everyone grows up with a love and respect for nature, and he hopes that he can change that for the readers of his blog.
Next up for Darius is updating his followers of the rest of the trip, uploading the last batch of photos, and sending off the final rewards from his contributors. At home, Darius has been caring for his four younger siblings, but plans to get back into the working world this November.
“As long as you keep working hard and trying, if it’s something that you really care about, stuff just happens… it’s like the universe is conspiring to help you.”
Darius continues to live his life as though he’s preparing for his older self; not for retirement, but for memories. There is no vision of his future that contains regret, as he’s working consciously to prevent future resentment. According to him, it’s too easy for people to wish they had done something, and then later on regret that lack of action.
I’m glad to share this unique story with you all, and I hope Darius’ journey resonates with you. And for all of you glued to your laptops and phones, use this episode as inspiration to get out into the natural world!
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Production & Development for The Bold Life Movement Podcast by Podcast Masters
I connected with Mike Vardy at the World Domination Summit in August, a worldwide gathering of remarkable people, and he is no exception.. Mike is a writer, speaker, podcaster and founder of Productivityist. He also manages to add a lot of humor and entertainment into the productivity space.
Mike is a productivityist, or a productivity enthusiast. He enjoys studying the tools and habits of productivity, and he looks at the world differently because of it. Through the Productivityist blog and podcast, Mike is helping people stop “doing” productive and start “being” productive, by giving them the tools to start paying attention and setting the right intentions.
We start our conversation about productivity discussing non-alcoholic beer and decaffeinated coffee. Seemingly tangential, body and energy are directly tied to productivity so I was interested to hear about his recent experiments in cutting both of these from his life. “I really enjoy finding ways to keep the rituals I have, but also do it in a way that’s responsible and allows me to be the night owl that I am ... but not have those productivity spikes.”
Mike sees most people getting stuck in a trap of doing just for the sake of doing, and that’s not productive. “They’ll basically go through the motions, they don’t really segment out their to-do list, and as a result they end up with a fragmented to-do list.” They work haphazardly, trying to get as many things done as possible, until the day is done. Then they get home, wiped out, and do nothing.
“The problem is, when we do that, we aren’t moving forward with any kind of purpose.”
At World Domination Summit, Mike talked about the idea of theming your work days, and the idea resonates with a lot of people. “Your calendar should be your overarching guide, but the details are in the to-do list.” What people tend to do is look at a given day, without giving it any meaning or purpose, then go through a checklist without intention.
Mike doesn’t like the idea of letting your schedule be your guide, or hyper scheduling, because it leaves no room for flexibility. If you theme your day and something unexpected comes up, like a last-minute coaching session, then you aren’t lost when you get back to work.
“I think there’s some merit to giving themes to each day so you have an overarching focus, but when you hyper schedule yourself you run the risk of just completely falling off track, feeling overwhelmed and feeling that you haven’t accomplished what you set out to do over the day.” It doesn’t matter if you’re a startup founder, working on your side hustle or a stay-at-home parent, theming your days can help you be productive.
For someone who can’t completely untether him or herself from their email, at least make it more manageable. Mike talks about the idea of Inbox Today. While many people try to get to Inbox 0, Mike tries to clear the backlog so that you only see email from today. Additionally, your inbox shouldn’t be where you go to look for things. “It’s a loading bay, not a warehouse”
Mike has a system called Three Mail, where each email goes into one of three folders. It’s a simple process:
Mike uses a number of physical and digital tools to improve his productivity:
“I like both the Saent and the Zie, because it’s physical. It sits on your desk. You can’t help but see it. I think physical tools, like having those visuals in front of you, are really important, because, frankly, digital tools can hide in the background. This can’t.”
Mike isn’t actually a diehard tracker, but he believes the tools can be helpful for putting yourself in a good, productive mindset. Your brain sees the day or time, sees what it should be doing, and everything outside of that can fall away. “Again, paying attention and setting the right intentions. These tracking tools, unless you have the right intentions for them and then you find a way to pay attention to them, they’re not going to be as much help to you as you’d like them to be.”
“I’m a big believer in human automation, the automation that you set up … I’m not as huge a believer in setting up a bunch of digital automations because they can break, and they’re not as connected to you.”
Productivityist recently self-published The Productivityist Playbook. It includes video interviews, audio and a number of productivity plays. When you buy the guide, you receive 15 plays, and you can assemble your own productivity playbook out of them. If listeners of the show go to Productivityist.com/TheBoldLife, they will get one play for free! (Thanks Mike!)
“I’m a big believer that even when business isn’t personal, productivity always is. I don’t think there’s enough talk about the personal component of productivity, and I really want to put the personal back into it. That’s what this whole guide is designed to do.”
Mike is probably the most entertaining person in the productivity space, and I appreciate him coming on the podcast to talk. He gave us a lot of great tips and tools for living a bold life with more attention and the right intentions.
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Today’s episode is a little different, because we’re talking about the legal matters entrepreneurs might not be aware of in their businesses. We're getting down and dirty on all things legal, with my guest Sarah Kornblet. Sarah is an online attorney, business owner and passionate traveler.
Sarah is super passionate about keeping your passion protected. She does so, by helping business owners better protect themselves at every stage of business growth. Her Let’s Get Legal! packages provide a strong legal foundation to build your business upon – for startups, growing businesses and pros. She also offers a la carte services for businesses looking for specific legal protections, and more affordable templates for the DIY entrepreneur who still wants comprehensive legal protection.Sarah frequently sees entrepreneurs making two major legal mistakes:
“Copyright law is such that, whenever you create something in a fixed form – so the moment you publish this podcast or hit publish on a blog post or put out a video – you are the legal owner of that content.” The difference with copyright is that, if you want to actually bring a legal action in the court of law, you have to register the copyright with the government.
If anyone steals your content after the copyright is registered, you have the rights to statutory damages and money. If you don’t register your copyright you still have rights, such as sending a cease and desist order and asking violators to remove the content, but until you register the copyright you don’t have the right to bring legal action.
“The best you can do is have things in place, register stuff. That gives you a little more protection. Be aware. Periodically do searches if you suspect someone. Chances are it’s going to happen, but you do have options when it does.”
Hiring a lawyer to draw up the standard policies and contracts that any online business needs will vary in price. A lawyer at a law firm will likely be much higher than if you work with a small business online – a single contract can be thousands of dollars compared to Sarah’s $600 contract. “What’s great is that online business lawyers are really popping up, and making things much more accessible and cheaper than the traditional route, which is something really exciting because it enables more people to be protected.”
For most service-based entrepreneurs, the most important documents you’ll need include:
That’s the bare minimum. Once you get into hiring virtual assistants, running group programs or building a membership site, all of those things will need their own legal agreement. As your business grows, you will need to build on the above protections.
“We all enter into legal agreements all the time that we don’t sign, and probably don’t even know about.” For one-on-one services, it’s always a smart practice to have your clients sign a contract. For any sort of group program or membership site, you can have a legal agreement or contract called Terms of Purchase.
Basically, the Terms of Purchase outlines the terms of the program or membership site: how your refund policy works, disclaimers, jurisdiction and more. Whoever is buying agrees to it at the point of purchase. “At that point, you are entering into a legal agreement whether you know it or not.”
People who are drop shipping or selling products on Amazon need additional legal protections. “One of the most important things they need to have is a solid contract in place with their manufacturer or supplier.” They really need to know what the payment terms are, what happens with damaged goods, what happens with late shipments, what are they entitled to and what they are they on the line for. People selling online also need to include a similar Terms of Sale and Terms of Use to a service-based business. “If you are not the manufacturer, you do not want to be held liable for issues with the actual product.”
Sarah believes that entrepreneurs should wait to trademark their product or brand until they are positive the name and logo will not change. “If you are investing legal dollars in a lawyer, you’re better off, at the very beginning, thinking about making sure you have the proper policies and contracts in place, and then thinking about trademarking down the road when you’ve really built a solid brand.”
“Once you start saying you’re in business, you’re in business.”
As soon as you start selling a service or product, you are a sole proprietor. You may have to register a sole proprietor and name with your state, but that won’t offer any legal protections. “Limited Liability Company (LLC) is what I usually suggest small business owners start with.” There’s no need to start a huge corporation if it’s just you selling a product online.
A registered LLC can provide a number of benefits to small business owners:
“Just starting out, LLC is definitely the way to go.”
Your business name does not need to be the same as your LLC. However, in the copyright statement at the bottom of your web page (or any other legal documents), you need to use the name of the LLC.
Sarah has done an amazing job following the success steps necessary to create a business that thrives, and she’s helping other entrepreneurs protect their passion along the way. This episode is packed full of useful, necessary information that entrepreneurs need to ensure adequate legal protections for themselves and their businesses.
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Amy smith is a highly experienced life coach dripping with authenticity and style. At The Joy Junkie, she endeavors to help her clients gain self-confidence, stand up for themselves and live a more joyful life.
“The nucleus of everything that I do is helping people stand up for themselves without being assholes.” It’s two-fold really: it’s the internal component of believing in your own self-worth, believing you’re valuable enough to speak up for your thoughts, opinions, stances and beliefs, and the external component of what that looks like. How does it sound to establish a boundary?
Without a doubt, Amy has found that the most common reason that people struggle to stand up for themselves is because they are afraid of what other people are going to think. People's’ fears are shrouded in a number of topics: they’re not going to accept me, love me, they’re going to think I’m stupid, etc.
“It’s all about what someone else might put a brand on you as. ‘If they think something about me, then that must be true,’ and somehow that that will equate, or negate, your own self-worth.”
“What I see people do most of the time is people-please, and silence who they really are, what they really think, and what they really feel.” Amy believes there is a huge fallacy around what it means to stand up for you and stand up for your convictions. In many situations we silence ourselves, because we have convinced ourselves that speaking up is rude or aggressive.
As a basic jumping off point, one of the things that you can start doing as a sort of check-and-balance in the different relationships in your life, is to always ask yourself: is my silence making me a liar? Is my silence giving me a false sense of compliance? Amy helps her clients realize:
“I don’t have to be a dick. I can decline that sort of conversation with the utmost kindness and grace.”
Amy has another tool, which she calls, “If this, then that,” and it’s where we take a circumstance and we create a truth from it. The idea is to take the negative stories we tell ourselves, such as, “If I don’t get this job, then I’m a failure,” and remove their charge: “If I don’t get this job, then I didn’t get the job.”
She also has a quick and dirty tip for building confidence: “One of the fastest avenues to confidence is to start really doing things that you’re proud of.” Start looking at what you need to do today, or how you can conduct yourself today, that you will actually be proud. We need little wins that create a compound effect.
One of the biggest shifts that Amy believes we can make to alter our relationship to confidence is unpacking our concept around self-worth. The idea is conceptual. Currently, most of us evaluate our self-worth based on accomplishment, adoration or accolades from other people. It’s not just something that we have. Amy advocates that that worth is inherent. It is something that we already have.
“What if you were already worthy, you were already valuable and enough as is, and everything else in life were simply experiences?”
Through her own experiences, Amy has developed a new management system: the way in which she manages self-talk and hardship. One major piece is her allies, what she likes to call her soul tribe. She knows that, when something happens in her life, she will need to tell that story to a few people in her soul tribe to process it.
There’s another element: core value system. Amy teaches that your core values are elements that you need in your world in order for it to be fulfilled. “Am I honoring the things that I know bring me joy?”
If you head over to Amy’s website, TheJoyJunkie.com, you’ll see a free e-workbook and audiobook called Stand Up For Yourself Without Being a Dick. It’s nine different, very actionable challenges that are designed to help you catapult your self-love and self-confidence.
Amy and The Joy Junkie stand for everything that I stand for here at The Bold Life Movement, so I’m really excited to share her message with everyone. Listen, enjoy and check out The Joy Junkie!
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