The Derek Loudermilk Show

For my 36th birthday last week, I decided to ride the longest ride I had ever done - 200km.  I had ridden long rides before, including races that were more than 170 km, but this would be just me and the open road. We are living in Portugal for a few months, and there are no mountains here, but there are also no flat places. I could expect just as much uphill as in the mountains. In this episode, I talk about what I was thinking and feeling as I rode more than 9 hours, how i prepared for the process and some of the more philosophical reasons behind doing a big adventure challenge like this Here are some themes and concepts that I cover in this episode: * The film that inspired me: "35" * Last years birthday challenge: 24 hours of adventure in Bali * The amount of planning that goes into a big ride * Why its important to test yourself * Feeling the experience - there is no other way to know * Comparison of this ride with other hard things and making future things feel easier * Physiology change - did I "get in shape" in a single day? * Managing nutrition during the ride * Managing mental chatter during the ride * The story of the world record setting "3 peaks challenge" * My previous biggest day of cycling in Spain * Racing against Lance Armstrong * A near death experience being caught in a snow storm * Why the ride was never too hard at any moment, but overall extremely challenging * The superpower of being ok with discomfort * Physical vs. Emotional discomfort

"People with privilege have a duty to do good things for the world" - Tommy Joiner Today’s guest on the podcast is one of the co-founders of a seven-figure business, the ContentPros, Tommy Joiner. As a teacher and entrepreneur, Tommy started his freelancing business from nothing. With his skills, creativity, and interest for numbers, his business had grown big after many years and have catered to numerous clients. In this episode, Tommy shares how he started his business. From teaching in South Korea, to finally landing and staying in Colombia, Tommy reveals the development of his business and how each country that he lived in has affected him personally, and his business as well. You are going to enjoy this inside look into the mind of Tommy Joiner – an ever-evolving entrepreneur and business nerd. Listen as he shares his unique business model and how this has helped him live the nomadic life. What you’ll learn in this episode: * The development of Tommy’s business * How each country he lived and stayed affected him personally * How the different countries influenced his business * How Tommy has grown and changed along with his business * The psychology and reflections of someone who has become a successful entrpreneur Quotes: "You know you have leveled up when complaints don't make you loose sleep" - Tommy Joiner "When you look back at your early work, you will probably feel embarrassed" - Tommy Joiner "We have interacted with over 1500 writers over the life of the company" - Tommy Joiner "If you experience enough hardship, you can look back with confidence" - Tommy Joiner "People with privilege have a duty to do good things for the world" - Tommy Joiner Continue the Adventure:InstagramContentPros  

From a free Glamping trip in 2018 Want to know how to get free trips and luxury hotel stays for being an influencer? People get really excited about getting free trips, gear, or luxury hotel stays just by posting on Instagram. And guess what? It's totally possible and probably easier than you think. The biggest thing is learning how to ask for what you want. Sometimes hotels and businesses will find you and make you an offer, but most of the time staying in a castle or getting free hot air ballon rides doesn’t just fall into your lap - its up to you to go after the opportunities you want. The next biggest focus should be to create a win-win situation (make sure both sides get value from a collaboration). Wondering if your social media is really valuable enough to get free stuff? This is a great opportunity for a hotel to get in front of your audience - what would they pay for traditional advertising on TV or in a magazine? It will probably easier for companies to say yes after you get to 1000+ Instagram followers or 100+ podcast/YouTube subscribers, but I have heard of people starting to get free stuff with as little as 7 followers. Let's looks at an example - say you want to stay in a boutique hotel for two free nights in exchange for media exposure on your instagram account. Here is what I have done that works really well: Find out when the hotel has rooms available and go during low season. Its fairly low cost for a hotel to give you a couple free nights when they have extra capacity. Find hotels or trips that align with your existing audience - the hotel wants to know that they could actually get some customers from your posts. In my case, I prefer to work with eco lodges or boutique hotels that are a little more adventurous. I try to play the odds - if 10% of the hotels say yes to partnering with you, then how may would you want to pitch to guarantee you get a match? Generally I will send start by emailing 10-15 potential partner hotels. I find the email for the hotel manager or the marketing manager on the hotel website. When you get to the hotel, make sure you know what photos/video/stories you want to capture and how long it will take you to collect those, so you can enjoy you experience when you are finished. I try to shoot photos of the room in the first 10 minutes before it gets messed up with luggage unpacking I try to ask what has worked well for a hotel in the past and if there is any specific angle they would like to promote. When we were staying at castle Otocec in Slovenia, the hotel manager really wanted me to focus on their highly rated restaurant and the fresh local food (the breakfast buffet made me feel like a Lord) Then I try to over deliver - if I promised five instagram posts, then I’ll do six, plus a facebook live, plus a mention on the podcast. I also make sure I give them all the photos I take so they can use them for later for their own social media. When negotiating with hotels, it's great if you can provide some testimonials or case studies of hotels you have worked with in the past. So when people have reached out and said, “I went to this hotel after you mentioned it and had the best sleep I've had in years," I keep track of that in a file. Sometimes a hotel can only give you part of what you ask for. For example, you might have to settle for one free night instead of two, and a discounted dinner instead of free. I invite you to experiment and have some fun with this! You never know what you will get until you ask. Examples of free hotel stays and trips we have gotten: * Hot Air Ballooning in Southern California *

"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