The Derek Loudermilk Show

"Is the best possible result worth risking the worst result?" – Kristy Arnett Today’s guest on the Art of Adventure is professional poker player and risk and relationship coach, Kristy Arnett. Kristy also hosts #RiskEveryday, a self improvement podcast. Kristy hosts a popular vlog about poker on YouTube. In this episode, Kristy shows us how risk plays as a key component in adventure. She shares how she takes the risks she learned through poker and applies it in broadly in the aspects of her life, relationships, and business. You’ll love how Kristy framed how the worst result as a reasonable risk for a chance at the best result. She mentions in this conversation the importance of joy in risk-taking. Listen as you will also get to discover Kristy’s secret as a show host, as to why she is so good in coming up with great questions and in getting the right responses from the people she interviews. What you’ll learn in this episode: * How you can think about risk in different ways * How to assess outcomes in the way you approach risk * How risk helps you become the person you want to be * The skill of listening and question asking Quotes: "Is the best possible result worth risking the worst result?" – Kristy Arnett "Life mirrors poker, we are trying to put the odds in our favor" – Kristy Arnett “When we are facing our biggest pain we have the opportunity to learn the most.” – Kristy Arnett "My objective is not to spend any energy hoping for a certain outcome" – Kristy Arnett "When I am not in joy when I am taking risks, the bigger picture is missing" – Kristy Arnett "Taking a risk lets you be somebody you have never been"– Kristy Arnett “It’s really easy to be the best person when things are going great. But true character, leadership is in how you show up when you are facing challenges.” – Kristy Arnett Continue the Adventure:Kristy ArnettInstagram

Today's Five-Minute Friday is about how I am moving my family to Portugal. I recorded this episode a few days before I moved with my family to Portugal - including my two-year old and four-month old. (We have now been in Portugal for two weeks) So, how does this all work? We booked our flights using airline miles accumulated from all those travel hacking. We are going to live in this little village called Atouguia da Baleia which is about an hour north of Lisbon. Atouguia is a surf community - it turns out there is a lot of great surfing in Portugal. Why Portugal? Lisbon is a digital nomad hotspot. Portugal is not super expensive compared to the rest of Europe, so it seemed like a good potential location. There is already a community of people I know and several co-working spaces. There is decent English spoken there. This will be the third year that we left the United States to live abroad. So, we've got some experience under our belt. Right now, we are packing up our things and trying to have as little luggage as possible. We ended up traveling with 4 large checked bags. A consideration when moving abroad is trying to find a house as quickly as possible. Normally we wait until we are in a new city to fid housing. When we announced that we were moving to Portugal on our Facebook, one of our friends who happened to own an AirBnb property, reached out. That house is where we then ended up arranging to stay. That saved us several days of house hunting and a lot of headache. Because we have friends in Lisbon and Atouguia, we were also able to have a couple of connections. We already have a driver who will pick us up from the airport, we already have an access to a nanny for the child care. Through digital nomad Facebook groups, I was able to get connections with folks that live in our village. We ended up being tapped into a community, thanks to Natalie Sisson, a fellow podcaster and digital nomad who owns the Airbnb. I plan to go to the local bike shop and see if there are any group rides so I can build a community through meeting cyclists. I am also planning to play ultimate frisbee. I'm told the frisbee community there is really good. Co-working spaces are also a great place to meet people. I plan to go and do some workshops and talks which is really a good opportunity to develop potential business opportunities and collaborations. We will be two miles from the beach and will have access to a car so we will probably go to the beach and surfing frequently. So, that are some of the considerations that we are going to take when moving to Portugal. As U.S. Citizens, we are given three months or ninety days to stay there, so that is what we are aiming for right now. Hopefully you found this episode useful and we'd love to hear from you!

 “All of us are architects of the games in our lives and games of other people’s lives. We have to make a great game where everybody can win more.” – Casey Fenton Today’s guest on the Art of Adventure is the co-founder of CouchSurfing, Casey Fenton. Founded over ten years ago, CouchSurfing was one of the first global communities for travelers and has become a platform for hosts and surfers to review and rate their experiences with each other. In this episode, Casey shares his insights into building one’s identity. Casey also shares the exact ratio of positive feedback to constructive criticism that you need to maintain for people to be able to hear you. He also talks about how you become the person you need to be in order to achieve the big targets that you set for yourself. Casey is a deep thinker who starts companies. You’ll love this episode as he shares his biggest lessons from CouchSurfing and weaves his startup experiences, understanding of psychology, and ideas about the labels we put on ourselves into the conversation. What you’ll learn in this episode: * How we establish trust between people who don’t know each other * How Casey acquired his broad knowledge base * The growth mindset and ego-hacking * Casey’s Couchsurfing stories * Casey’s new venture, Upstock * Insights into building your identity  Quotes: “All of us are architects of the games in our lives and games of other people’s lives. We have to make a great game where everybody can win more.” – Casey Fenton “Be who you want to be, create snowballs and help other people create snowballs for you.” – Casey Fenton “If we have too much negative feedback, we can’t hear what people say.” – Casey Fenton “How is it that we are so driven yet uninformed?” – Casey Fenton Continue the Adventure:Casey FentonCouchSurfingUpstock  

“Instead of being busy, I’m much more interested in living life with intention.” – Shelby Stanger Today’s guest on the Art of Adventure is an adventure podcast host herself, Shelby Stanger. Shelby hosts the Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast, a show that interviews people who have taken wild ideas and made them a reality. She is now on her third season. She has over a million downloads, and she has had high quality interviews with high level guests. In this episode, Shelby shares how she builds and maintains relationships. We’ll also get to appreciate how great of a storyteller she is and how she has refined this craft. She has a gift and talent for building and maintaining strong relationships with people. She even sent me a handwritten thank you note for being on this episode. When I was in California, she invited me to her house by the beach and hang out in person. You will love this episode as Shelby shares how she has developed her skill and talent for getting what she wants and asks for. You also get to hear her share her love for her parents. She also gets to share with us how she has put together her amazing podcast and how it has grown along with her. Be inspired as you get to hear how she also inspires other people to live their passion and take on new adventures. What you’ll learn in this episode: * How Shelby gets the opportunities she wants * How the Wild Ideas podcast grew so quickly * How Shelby builds relationships and maintains relationships * How Shelby has developed her journalism skills Quotes: “My guest's stories give me the courage to go out and try something on my own” – Shelby Stanger “So here’s the hack that I think you and I would both really like; and that’s having a sense of humour.” – Shelby Stanger “I realized from a young age how powerful journalism is” – Shelby Stanger “Instead of being busy, I’m much more interested in living life with intention.” – Shelby Stanger “I really love people and I love their stories, and I always want to know how people got to where they were and what their story was.” – Shelby Stanger  Continue the Adventure:Wild Ideas Worth Living@GetWildIdeas on TwitterFacebookInstagram  

Today’s guest on the Art of Adventure is Andres Roberts, founder of the Bio-Leadership Project and Way of Nature. The way Andres applies what he has learned from nature is pure, clear, and inspiring. Through his studies and introspection, Andres has realized that the best way to impart his knowledge, realizations, and discoveries with leaders, businessmen, and other influential people is to take them into the wilderness to allow them to experience it for themselves. In this episode, Andres discusses how he believes lessons he has learned from and experiences he has had in nature can be powerful tools in in solving some of the biggest problems that we face today, including health, disengagement at work, and the planetary crises. You will love learning about Andres’ approach to learning from nature, experiencing lessons in nature, and changing our lives to reflect what we have learned from nature. He expresses his sincere belief that we have much more to learn about ourselves from nature than can possibly be imagined. Subtle adjustments can result in some big changes! What you’ll learn in this episode: * What is the Bio-Leadership Project * The Bio-Leadership map * What led him to work with nature * Finding a sense of playfulness * How and why we are disengaged from nature Quotes: "A lot of people aren't connected to all parts of themselves"– Andres Roberts "The less you take with you [into the wilderness], the more awaits"– Andres Roberts "What are the filters through which you see the world?"– Andres Roberts “I always have this question: What is the biggest picture?” – Andres Roberts “At some point in my life, I asked: Will it all sit within nature?” – Andres Roberts “By being out in nature, I found space to actually really look within myself in a way that I have never actually done before.” – Andres Roberts Continue the Adventure:Andres RobertsWay of Nature A Secret Island Quest: http://wayofnature.co.uk/programmes/#summerprogramme A Modern Vision Quest: http://wayofnature.co.uk/programmes/#modernvisionquest

One concept from the book that I'm really excited about is the importance of lived experience in shaping leaders.  That is, we must go beyond an intellectual understanding of an experience and be fully immersed to really understand what it feels like. This is something that I struggle with during those times when I'm not out adventuring. I read lots of books and listen to lots of podcast and think strategically about business. This is highly intellectual activity and actively takes me away from feeling my feelings - which is half the equation of life. Virtual reality, storytelling, books, YouTube, etc get you close to an experience, but they also keep you from actually going on an adventure and experiencing the phenomenon for yourself. What specific feelings do you get when you are out among the redwoods or climbing a volcano? What is it like when you are splashing holy water on your face or trying to figure out how to bribe a militant rebel?  You get the full range of emotions, the real lived experiences When you are out in the deep dark forest, the trees are working their magic on your entire being. You get the physiological benefits of calm, clarity, and immune boosting, as well as enhanced creativity. It's like a hack for connecting with something bigger than yourself. When you drop into a new country with a new language, culture, and money, you get the lived experience of being a total noob and having to figure out everything again for the first time. You are rewiring your brain and experiencing emotions that you can only get through these lived experiences. This will allow you as a leader to draw on this bank of experiences to make better decisions, be less surprised by new encounters, be comfortable with the full range of emotions, and be in tune with the larger systems at play (e.g., ecological, social, biological).

“Without any risk, life would be boring. I’d much rather risk it and have some good stories and have those experiences.” – Paul Kuthe   Today’s guest on the Art of Adventure is Paul Kuthe, the pioneer of the discipline of sea kayak surfing. He plays on the waves like a surfer on a sea kayak and pushes the edge in the sport of kayaking. Paul also launched Tributary Coaching LLC, a training and coaching company. In this episode, Paul shares his stories of adventure which include the kayaking experiences that pushed him to the edge. He describes his near career-ending incident in dramatic detail and shares how this incident spurred him to ramp up his coaching business. You’ll love this episode because Paul is a great storyteller. He tells us how he started canoeing and then kayaking, talks about his childhood heroes and work, and describes how losing his father inspired him to tread this career path. What you’ll learn in this episode: * How Paul became a pro kayaker * How important key mentorship is in pursuing your dreams * The types of risks involved in kayaking * The accident that almost led to the end of Paul's career * How Paul founded Tributary Coaching Quotes: “I want to be an example that is different for my boys. I don’t want to stop pursuing what’s important to me just purely because of their arrival. I want to live in a way that exemplifies what I think is going to be important for them, which is, to not follow the designated path.” – Paul Kuthe “Without any risk, life would be boring. I’d much rather risk it and have some good stories and have those experiences.” – Paul Kuthe “It is really important to remember that life is so brief, none of us will make it out of here alive, anyway.” – Paul Kuthe “Either way, you’re risking it. It just depends how you’re going about it, what’s worth that risk, and what you’re doing to reduce that risk a little bit.” – Paul Kuthe “For me, the risk of inaction is depression and feeling disengaged with life.” – Paul Kuthe   Continue the Adventure:FacebookTributary Coaching

Today, I'm going to tell you about my latest book project: Experience: the Revolution. This will be my second book and the pre-sale campaign is on Publishizer. My first book, Superconductors, was also launched through Publishizer, a crowdfunding literary agency. Experience the Revolution is about leadership lessons taken from transformative experiences. I was encouraged by one of my coaches that I need to be fighting for something in this book. The things I’m fighting for are threefold: * the need to build leadership qualities through lived experience; * the need to embrace our uniqueness and unconventional self-actualization process; and * the need for a new breed of leadership that is going to solve humanity's greatest problems. This book is thus about how we can become the new leader. I have been experimenting with these areas in my own life through traveling around the world, doing psychedelics, week-long fasts, meditation, yoga, silent retreats, visiting remote tribes, vision quests, and festivals. There are so many people like me who are unsure how to effect the causes that are important to them. It will also be about empowering people who have had transformative experiences to translate those experiences into leadership skills. I would really like to create this as a movement, a place where we can all share our stories of transformation. I will then look at all this information as a large data set to try to understand this nascent cultural movement. I will also look at how people are going through their heroes' journeys, their transformative experiences, and how these journeys and experiences impact culture and the economy. I think the most important piece of this book, now more than ever, is to encourage people to go out, to live phenomenal experiences, and to delve into what these experiences can teach us about ourselves, especially as technology makes it ever easier to stay secluded and sheltered within the walls of ours homes. We are going to use content from many of this podcast's interviews for the book and a research team will also be assisting. I really expect and hope that this will be a globally influential book. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, if you’ve had a transformative experience, if you want to be a leader, or if you want to learn how to choose experiences which will help you develop as a leader, I would love for you to check out the book. Your pre-orders on Publishizer will help Experience the Revolution get picked up by a major publisher and insure its success. This book is nexus linking my many interests; it will bring together interviews from my podcast, act as a sort of sequel to my last book, and explore careers and leaderships in the future. I hope that you will be as interested to read it as I am to write it. I am so excited to create this movement so we can be effective leaders and tackle humanity's  greatest challenges.  

“You have to be generous to everything around you.” – Rachel Rudwall Today’s guest on the Art of Adventure is Rachel Rudwall, also known as Rachel Roams. She’s an EMMY-nominated explorer, TV host, producer, travel blogger, influencer, and all-around fun travel personality. She has done creative projects in over seventy countries and on all seven continents. In this episode, Rachel shares her memorable travel experiences and her evolution as a storyteller, from pitching projects in front of and behind the camera. She also discusses travel experiences with her supportive husband and how she realized that she is an “Instragram wife.” You’ll love this episode and adore Rachel as she generously and entertainingly shares how she captures moments on camera. As much as she loves being in front of the camera, she thinks being behind it is an essential skill. Whichever side she's on, she tries to remember that it isn't about her, it's about facilitating the interplay between an idea and an audience. What you’ll learn in this episode: * How Rachel thinks of herself as a vehicle for storytelling * Rachel’s favorite countries * How Rachel evolved as a storyteller * How Rachel pitches ideas for projects * Rachel’s advice for my future book and travel plans Quotes: “In order to be effective on either side, it is important to know what it’s like on the opposite side.” – Rachel Rudwall “Whether you are in front of or behind the camera, it is important to remember that it is not about you.” – Rachel Rudwall “You have to be generous to everything around you. You have to really listen, instead of always talking. You have to read people’s expressions, instead of assuming what they are going to say.” – Rachel Rudwall “If you have a thing you really care about, or are excited about, learning to pitch and learning to weather the process of pitching will be really important.” – Rachel Rudwall “We have expectations about everything. And my homework this year, and moving forward, is to let go of expectations because they are not serving you.” – Rachel Rudwall “I can have goals to learn more, or become better at what I am doing, to be more patient. Goals, in that sense? Great. But to expect a certain outcome isn’t serving you. And so, I am allowing things that don’t serve me, like that, to just slip away.” – Rachel Rudwall Continue the Adventure:Rachel RoamsInstagramFacebookTwitter    

This is a quick run-through of my journey to become a digital nomad - that is, a rundown of all the businesses I have had that have let me travel the world and create freedom in my lifestyle. I often talk about being a digital nomad when asked to speak publicly or when presenting workshops or keynote speeches. Afterwards, people often come up to ask how I did it - how I became a digital nomad. But really, until you do it, you can't know what it is going to be like. It's different for me than for anyone else. When I talk about being a digital nomad, you don't hear about the boring things that go on behind the scenes; the endless following-up with prospective clients, business partners, and sponsors, the ceaseless efforts to try to make something happen, the thousands of hours of work that go on at home - unobserved, the head-banging frustration to figure things out, obsessing over whether something should be done this way or that, and the painstakingly small, repetitive actions that must be performed to insure success. These behind the scenes hours don't make for compelling stories, but know that every entrepreneur has to put in this time. My journey to become a digital nomad started with the desire to be an entrepreneur. Although I was interested in full-time travelling eventually, I didn't let the daunting nature of this goal stand in my way. I just started with a coaching business. As a professional cyclist, I taught younger cyclists how to go pro. I trained them to become better athletes and to be better racers. I had clients and I was charging about $250 a month. When I decided to leave grad school and go abroad, I looked towards Asia and South America, places where you can live for about a thousand dollars a month. So, I needed four clients to equal my cost of living. When I had that, I basically knew that I could travel indefinitely. That gave me the confidence to go to Vietnam, my first country. There was a time when these coaching clients graduated and moved on. I didn't have clients or income for some time and that was when I started the Art of Adventure podcast. Just like anything where you expect to get rich quick, podcasting was not the scheme I expected it to be. Art of Adventure is largely a free show but lots of people kept asking me how to start a podcast. They asked for help, walk-throughs, and advice. So, I started hosting podcast launch groups where people would come over to my house to practice interviewing and to learn how to set up a podcast. I helped a lot of people by podcast coaching and would make about $2000 per month. At the same time, I was giving a lot of talks. I was speaking for free because I knew that I wanted to be on stage. Eventually I realized that, with everything I had learned from podcasting and all the books I had been reading, I could teach this stuff and get paid to speak. Then on Episodes 48 and 49 of the Art of Adventure podcast, I had David Wood as a guest and he talked about how easy it is to start a coaching practice. I ended up hiring him to teach me how to become a coach and how to coach more broadly about business and life. And so, that's how the coaching branch of my business was born - an idea from a guest on the podcast! With that said, I've taken so many ideas from guests on the podcast. A later guest suggested that I should write a book. Eventually I would turn content from the interviews I had done for the podcast into my book, Superconductors. I launched it as a crowdfunding campaign on Publishizer, who is now a sponsor of the Art of Adventure podcast.