Live Limitless

Adventure, Business, Travel

world domination summit

LL 020: Turning a Passion into a Business with Sam Hunter

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In the 20th episode of the Live Limitless podcast, I chat with Sam Hunter of www.huntersdesignstudio.com.

Sam hunter Design Studio

Sam went from a 25-year career in IT to a full-time quilt pattern designer, fibre artist, and entrepreneur. Ever since she was a child (she started sewing at the age of 7 and quilting at the age of 20), Sam wanted to be an artist but peer pressure encouraged her to choose a more “stable” career, which is what brought her to graduating with a degree in electric engineering. Although Sam certainly doesn’t regret her IT experience (as a single mother, it paid the bills), she still longed for the life of an artist. Then, at the humble age of 40, she went back to school and earned a BA in sculpture and an MFA in fibre arts.

But it didn’t stop there. After talking with many beginning quilters, she learned that all of the beginner patterns were basic and boring. Sam then found her niche by designing patterns that looked complicated but weren’t that difficult for a beginner to emulate. In her first three years, she sold 15,000 patterns and hasn’t looked back.

In addition to her success as an artist, Sam also created We Are $ew Worth It, a worldwide movement and philosophy for quilters and artists. The mission of WASWI is to champion claiming our worth as makers and to educate our customers about the value of what we create.

There’s a lot of gems in this episode.

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LL 018: Jennifer Underwood – Just Say Hello

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Interview with Jennifer Underwood Just Say Hello

In the 18th episode of the Live Limitless podcast I chat with Jennifer Underwood of www.justsayhellotour.com.

I was introduced to Jennifer through the World Domination Summit. After quitting her stressful job as a social worker, Jennifer started a business on Amazon utilizing what’s referred to as retail arbitrage and calculated gambling. In other words, she buys things and sells them through Amazon. However, most of our talk revolved around her latest project: the Just Say Hello Tour.

Jennifer sold everything she owned and hit the road in a camper van with her 8-year old daughter to break down the stigma associated with homelessness. The Just Say Hello Tour is an advocacy project created to record and share the stories of those who are homeless in hopes of inspiring people to challenge their misconceptions and judgments of homelessness and to “Just Say Hello” to those on the streets of their communities.

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World Domination Summit & What Comes After

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Wow.

Last week I attended the World Domination Summit in Portland , Oregon. It wasn’t my first World Domination Summit but it was every bit as spectacular.

The first WDS I attended consisted of only 500 people. This one was 3000. Six times the size in just two years.

Despite the rapid growth, it was one hell of a show. Kudos to Chris Guillebeau and his team who manage to blow away attendees each and every year.

world float world domination summit 2013
That moment before crushing a Guinness World Record

10 Inspiring speakers took to the stage over two days to dispel their wisdom and motivate all of us to chase our dreams, challenge our fears and live remarkably. The welcome party had 3000 of us take over the Portland Zoo while the closing party had us create an epic dance party at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland. We also broke a world record, took a cruise down the Willamette River and connected with inspiring people from more than 30 countries.

It was a heart-warming, energizing and soul-lifting weekend.

But what happens after?

Someone I spoke to a few days later mentioned different sales conferences they used to attend. Sales conferences are different from World Domination Summit but still filled with motivational speakers inspiring people in their particular field. She mentioned how much she enjoyed those conferences and how inspiring they were but was always disappointed in the months that followed.

I understood what she meant. She was talking about all those crazy dreams and ideas that are born during the conference but slowly wile away as time goes on. Maybe she set her short-term goals too high or maybe she just didn’t work hard enough.

This happens to many people after a conference / summit. It certainly has to me. We hear all these amazing stories from people who have been primed to give mind-bending talks. They come out on stage and blast us with an hour of well-rehearsed and coached talks that fill our hearts and souls with all kinds of dreams and aspirations. We come home ready to tackle the world head on only to realize a few months later that nothing has happened or that our goals were not reached to the extent we had dreamed.

Did we fuck up? Were we tricked?

No, it’s just us. We can be motivated and inspired all we want but unless we actually take action, we won’t see any results. If we do take action, we need to realize that we are likely to fail along the way. The important part is to not let that stop us. We must learn from it and fail again, becoming “professionals” as we go.

Don’t let that inspiration fade away. We need your project.

Chris Guillebeau world domination summit 2013

Here are some quick tips for what should come after the World Domination Summit:

1. Set some time for yourself to write down your thoughts after WDS. Try to capture that inspired version of yourself so that you can continue to look back on it when the WDS-momentum starts to fade. Jot down everything you can. Small ideas, big ideas, outrageous ideas. Everything. Use this as your starting block.

2. Get started on your project immediately. Don’t worry about it being the “right” one or not. Just get started on step one and move from there. If the idea changes, that’s fine because you’re learning as you go. If you never start, nothing happens. Even if you start with just 15-30 minutes per day, it will add up to a finished project and it will feel damn good!

3. Stay connected with the people you met during the summit and tell them about your project. This will not only help build the relationships but will also hold you accountable for getting your project out into the world. Another idea might be to form some sort of accountability/mastermind group for further accountability and collaboration.

4. As a bonus, join the World Domination Summit Facebook group. It’s a great place to stay connected with the WDS spirit and also a great place to post your project and get feedback.

Do you have any other ideas for continuing the momentum after a summit?

***

Feature photo and photo of Chris courtesy of Chris Guillebeau.

 

 

LL 005: A Live limitless Interview with Tyler Tervooren

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In the fifth episode of the Live Limitless podcast I chat with Tyler Tervooren, the man behind Advanced Riskology and Brew Pony.

Tyler Tervooren writes about smart risk-taking at his blog Advanced Riskology, where he inspires people to embrace uncertainty, take more risks, and live remarkably . Tyler is also a key part of the rapidly growing World Domination Summit held in Portland each year and just launched his new business Brew Pony, which is responsible for sending Portland’s finest coffee to households all over the United States.

Tyler wasn’t born into internet stardom. He grew up a living a typical conventional life, went to college, got a useful degree and then a good job. However, Tyler always felt like there was something more and when he was laid off, he committed to changing his life and helping others do the same.

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Home Sweet Home

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2004 Ford Mustang GT in Californian redwoods
The beautiful car that transported us to our many adventures

Home sweet home.

Familiarity, family, friends, and my own bed. Yet home is suddenly new. It becomes part of the trip. A distant land. It’s funny how that works. It’s only been about 40 days since I left for the World Domination Road Trip but pulling into the driveway felt almost the same as pulling into a new city or a new adventure.

Let’s get back to the trip.

When describing the journey, epic would be an understatement. In those 40 days and 40 nights, we squished in so many places, new people, and adventures that we barely had any time to actually chill out and relax. Sleep had no priority.

We drove over 9000 miles, escaped the grasp of the famous Seattle troll, met countless inspiring people at WDS, jumped out of a plane in Oregon, jumped off a bridge in Washington, snuck into a castle in Napa Valley, rode the cable cars through San Francisco, got soaked under the world’s fifth largest waterfall in Yosemite National Park, met the famous Mickey Mouse in Disneyland, Sat 20 rows from Ryan Renolds during the Hollywood screening of the Green Lantern, had lunch in Tijuana, watched the amazing show called “O” by Cirque Du Soleil, Drove route 66 through the desert at night, watched the sun set and rise in Grand Canyon National Park, hiked 4 miles through a river in Zion National Park, watched the planet saturn, galaxies, star clusters, and the International Space Station through telescopes in Bryce Canyon National Park, almost got swept away in a windstorm while watching a rainbow form over the world famous delicate arch in Arches National Park, checked out the 4th of July fireworks in Salt Lake City, and watched Old Faithful blow before sleeping in the car in Yellowstone National Park. Of course, this doesn’t include couchsurfing with new friends the entire time.

It was truly a jam-packed adventure that I’ll never forget. That we’ll never forget. My girlfriend Karla experienced so many things for the first time like visiting the United States, jumping out of a plane, and leaping 200 feet off a bridge.

But now we are back home which, as always, brings mixed feelings. Happiness to see family, friends, and to have some rest. Sadness that the amazing road trip is over.

I learned a lot of things on the road trip including how I should have unlocked my phone (more on this later), and how difficult it is to maintain a blog while on a non-stop adventure road trip. It was pretty much impossible to take days off to write and find WiFi. This unfortunately kept me from writing on the blog for the whole trip. For those that follow, I’m sorry I couldn’t update as the trip went along. However, the good news is that I have plenty to write about now and look forward to writing about the many adventures over the next few months.

And although coming home is usually more sad because the adventure stops, I have arranged for that not to happen. Since it’s Karla’s first time in Alberta during the summer, were gonna keep the adventure going. I have booked us some white water rafting, a helicopter tour over the mountains, a day at the Calgary Stampede and evening show, and camping at my favorite spot near a beautiful emerald lake in the middle of the Canadian Rockies.

That’s another thing I’ve learned from travel. Adventure can be found close to home. You don’t need to travel to far distant lands to find excitement. You just might find it around the corner.

Have you found any adventures near home? If so, what?

The Day Before the Jump | A World Domination Road Trip Update

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The Famous Troll of Seattle
Making Friends with the Famous Troll of Seattle

Today is Thursday, June 2nd. This means that tomorrow at 10 am, Karla and I will be jumping out of a plane. I can’t say that either of us are nervous right now but I know tomorrow morning is going to be full of those light-stomach butterfly-type feelings.

Although I’ve jumped out of a plane before, it doesn’t get much easier the second time. It’s still a freefall from 13,000 feet with a backpack and a parachute. I think I’m more excited this time since I know a little bit about what to expect. For Karla, it will be her first time so she will be getting a video made of this fantastic experience. When she’s not looking, I’ll upload it for you to see.

Tomorrow will also mark a week since we left with our best car gadgets for the World Domination Road Trip. It’s been a wet journey after leaving Calgary during torrential downpours and bringing it with us most of the way. Luckily we enjoyed little rain for a day or two in Vancouver and Seattle, allowing us to walk around downtown and catch some sights. It was cool sipping a coffee in the first-ever Starbucks before touring the alleys to find the Seattle Gum Wall.

The Couchsurfing experience has been pretty incredible thus far. Our first night was last Friday in Kelowna where we were greeted by a great couple, their friends, and some delicious crepes. The next day, I wanted to stop for some mini golf at Scandia to bring back nostalgic feelings from when I was a little kid. It was also Karla’s first time playing and Scandia is a great place to do it.

Although I didn’t get to see a hockey game in Vancouver, we were able to spend 3 nights with a good friend of mine from college. We visited some great parks, walked around downtown, and took the ferry over to North Vancouver to check out the neat little market.

After spending some good times with my buddy Mike, we then hit the road for Seattle, stopping only after the border to videotape Karla’s first time in the U.S.A. We hit Seattle around 3:30pm and found some parking near the space needle. Since it was a sunny day, we knew we had to take advantage. This was a great choice because rain was moving in the next day. [Read more…] about The Day Before the Jump | A World Domination Road Trip Update