The most impactful solutions are made when people unite to solve a problem. What’s more, Innovation soars when attention and focus are pointed at making the world a better place. When businesses take both on, amazing things happen.
We’ve seen this come to life in companies like Tom’s Shoes. Having “giving” as a mission is becoming more in demand and more common, but it hasn’t taken hold in the outdoor, bike, snowsports, endurance or travel markets.
Many companies in these markets have devoted incredible resources and time to protection of the environment. Few, if any, have taken on a solutions-driven, ‘giving based’ approach with global societal issues like poverty alleviation.
Until about 20 months ago…
Enter Cotopaxi; a company with an iron-clad commitment to using the power of business to drive social change.
Entrepreneur Davis Smith wanted to build an authentic outdoor brand equally devoted to product and apparel innovation as it is to making the world a better place in Cotopaxi.
Smith grew up in an adventurous family that lived all over the world and enjoyed outdoor pursuits along the way. He spent time in other industries prior to founding Cotopaxi, but kept being drawn back into what he loved: outdoor adventure. He began to study a way in and found a huge opportunity for a brand that resonated with the millennial consumer.
Smith and his team at Cotopaxi know that millennials need their own outdoor brand instead of adopting the brands of their parents and grandparents. The right positioning for this brand was clearly values-based, nimble with product innovation and launches, and ultimately, a brand that literally exists to improve the world.
This is no small undertaking.
Pushing a new concept like this forward required a different approach to distribution and marketing.
Cotopaxi as a brand is all about providing an experience to its target market, which involves great products and adventure. But Cotopaxi’s customer also wants to be part of the experience of a brand that’s eradicating global poverty and giving back, literally through its grant programs, which fund global nonprofits that focus on three key areas: health, education, and livelihood.
Smith explains how this is unfolding for Cotopaxi in this amazing interview. Additionally, we dive into the incredible backstory of Cotopaxi, how they’ve carefully used offline events (“Questivals”) to promote their brand when it seems like everyone wants to focus online, how a sense of adventure connects people, and how they plan on changing the world going forward. Get ready to be inspired to do more good, to help others out who need it, and to live an adventurous life, on this episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur!
There are a LOT of values-based and mission-driven companies in the outdoor, snowsports, endurance, cycling, health and wellness, fitness and travel markets. Being able to use our companies as vehicles for positive change is one of the biggest reasons we choose to launch businesses in these markets.
But launching is one thing. Growing is quite another. In fact, I’d venture to say that nothing makes founders recoil faster than making the association between accessing capital for growth and compromising their values.
As values-based business owners we’ve got a clear vision around how we want to make an impact with our companies. And going forward, that will stay in tact through the funding cycle if Alissa Sears has anything to say about it.
Alissa, along with Ted Ning, a leader in the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) marketplace and Luis Benitez, founder of Endeavor Consulting and also the newly-appointed director of the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office for the State of Colorado, launched the AdVenturesAcademy.
The organization’s goal is to “harness the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship to revolutionize how to grow truly great, resilient companies committed to building a better world.”
Alissa is my guest today on the Intrepid Entrepreneur podcast. We talk about the inception and growth of AdventuresAcademy as a vehicle to evolve venture capital to work more effectively with mission-driven businesses.
With the advent of the sharing economy, peer-to-peer reviews and the Internet effectively providing a higher level of transparency than ever before, mission-driven companies are growing quickly. In fact, Alissa points to the growth needs of values-based companies being driven by a growing contingency of values-focused consumers.
With more options available to the buyer than ever, consumers will continue to gravitate more and more toward supporting the businesses and brands that align with their values. The companies with strong values who are able to convey that story to their consumers, with authenticity, will win.
Alissa also shares the vision behind the forthcoming “Colorado Backcountry Investment Camp,” taking place in Colorado in April of this year. AdVenturesAcademy’s event brings together select entrepreneurs and investors in a backcountry environment to learn survival, team building, leadership, and innovation skills together. Sears says that hosting the event in the backcountry is very intentional, as experiences learned together are highly relevant in outdoors and in business. And, she added, nothing brings out more of a person’s true personality than working as part of a team in the backcountry.
I couldn’t agree more. …
What Alissa, Ted and Luis are spearheading in AdVenturesAcademy is disruptive and the timing is fantastic. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Alissa Sears on this important episode of the Intrepid Entrepreneur!
This short episode kicks off 2016, Intrepid-style! After working with 25 innovative entrepreneurs in Q4 of last year in the successful, first ever A-Game Mastermind, and closing the year supporting Verde’s 53 brands, I’ve got some ideas about where we’re all headed in 2016. Plus, we talk smart cars, wearable tech, and drones just for fun!
This is the year for the migration from the Old to the New Playbook - that’s my terminology for how we connect with, acquire and convert our ideal fans, followers and customers. It’s a whole new world for customer acquisition and I’ll be using this as the basis of my free monthly content and trainings this year.
In this show, I also talk about the convergence from traditional brand storytelling (Old Playbook) into digital direct (New Playbook). In 2014, I spent a year earning a business consulting and coaching certification, during which time I immersed myself in the world of online marketing. So much of what I’d learned then that I never felt I’d use at Verde is now highly relevant.
Also, I’m also announcing my new, completely free trainings that will be coming to you on a regular basis in 2016!
Chris Warner, is a high-altitude climber, entrepreneur, author and sought-after corporate speaker. He also owns the successful indoor climbing gym franchise Earth Treks Climbing Centers. Obviously, Chris is a guy who goes big in business and life but he’s also very approachable and has a lot to teach us as business owners. That’s why I love today’s episode of The Intrepid Entrepreneur. And one more reason? Chris has a great sense of humor!
Chris has been guiding domestically and leading international climbing expeditions since 1987. He’s summited over 120 times on peaks of 19,000 feet, and his rescue of other climbers on Mt. Everest was featured in National Geographic Adventure. He knows a thing or two about facing fear and still jumping in with both feet. But Chris had a moment of clarity when a friend posed the question to him: “as someone who takes such risks in your personal life, why won’t you take a risk with your career?”
That was a turning point for him and since then, he’s been taking the knowledge and insight gained through years of climbing, and applying it to business. It’s working for him as an entrepreneur (he’s the founder of Earth Treks Climbing Centers) and it’s working for the hundred-million dollar companies who hire him to speak. Let it work for you today.
Chris is also the author of High Altitude Leadership, which is the platform of what he teaches. I saw Chris speak at the Bicycle Leadership Conference in Monterey, Calif., and he’s incredible! The parallels he makes between climbing teams and teams in business covers trust as a team, focus, culture, and commitment required in both business and climbing. In fact, Chris’ insight and knowledge about who benefits the team and who holds it back is so profound that dramatic personnel changes are often made very soon after he speaks at a company.
In this show, Chris and I dig into why the team has to come before the individual, how stories open people’s minds, why entrepreneurs are in the business of opportunity, not strategy, and why when you make people have fun, they do their best work. All that and so much more, so get ready to take notes implement what you learn, on this episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur!
Stephen is one of the most prolific journalists and publishers working in the outdoor markets today. No one can question the strength of the publishing empire he’s built in Gearjunkie.com. Hilariously enough, I met him back in the day, literally, when he was first trolling Outdoor Retailer as a college student. Stephen was at the show, pushing his printed magazine called Vertical Jones (no longer in publication), which was a climbing publication that he launched from Minnesota.
Everything has changed since then, and continues to, in publishing and in Stephen’s life. He’s now a father and husband, and runs a full-fledged publishing empire in GearJunkie.com. Today’s podcast uncovers what it was like for Stephen to scale Gearjunkie.com while navigating the many changes of media and publishing in the past decade plus. You’ll hear how Stephen has studied his readership and audiences, and stayed nimble to their needs in GearJunkie. You’ll also get the connection between the success Stephen’s had in publishing and adventure racing.
One of the best parts about this episode? Stephen shares with us his top trends in gear evolution in the outdoor active lifestyle markets.
What is it really like to run a company? Entrepreneurship can be portrayed as glamorous in the media, which can create a magnetic pull for many people. What’s often not portrayed is the hustle, the endless to-do list and pressures of a launch. Today, you get to see the inside line to the nitty-gritty details of actually walking this road, day in and day out.
Meet Patrick Latcham, founder of ProEditors.com. Here’s a guy who has come to understand the hustle on a very intimate level. Patrick shares with us today the highs and lows, the joys and pains, the long hours and hard decisions that go into turning an idea into a successful venture. As Patrick says, “Ideas are a dime a dozen.” It seems like everyone has good ideas, but the sad truth is that most of those ideas will never turn into anything, because the idea is just the first step. What comes after the idea (read: the work, hustle and iron will) is what separates those who succeed in entrepreneurship from those who don’t.
ProEditors was Patrick’s idea. It’s a platform that takes raw video footage from fledgling videographers (read iPhone and point-of-view camera users) and turns back a pro-quality video. But his journey from that fantastic idea to the reality of a viable business has been a roller coaster ride that any entrepreneur can relate to. He’s gone through The Telluride Venture Accelerator (which has made an appearance on Intrepid Entrepreneur before) - which is an intense boot-camp for entrepreneurs, through the process of taking on funding and learning about the details of the venture capital world, and through the long hours and sleepless nights of turning an idea into reality.
This episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur gets into the details of what this journey looks like, from the eyes of the individual going through it. As an adventurous, intrepid entrepreneur, Patrick has worked to find a balance between the long, grueling hours required to launch a successful venture, and his first love, the passion that started this venture in the first place: a love for the outdoors. Patrick calls his time living an adventurous life in Telluride, Colorado, ‘outdoor-market research,’ - but also talks about the ways that it revitalizes him, and how this time doing what he loves gives him added productivity and inspiration in the office.
So get ready for an inspiring story about how one man was able to take his passion, formulate a needed product around it, work extremely long and hard hours to eventually turn it into a reality, and finally develop the ability to attain a balanced lifestyle in all of this, finding time to do all of the things he loves and to develop the venture that has become his main focus. Get ready to learn and be inspired by Patrick Latcham on this episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur!
Why would you choose to do away with the practicality of modern technology and go backwards in time? Who would purposefully take something dynamic and current like Adventure-Journal.com, and seemingly turn the clock back to launch a quarterly print magazine? And who would be gutsy enough to suggest such an idea?
Steve Casimiro would and did! It’s because he understands his customers on a deeper level than most. He has spent the last seven years creating a dialogue with his customers, listening to all they’ve got to say, and digesting it. What did he come back with? Kind of what you’d expect. … The reader of Adventure-Journal.com wants An experience.
But the Deeper You Go, the Deeper You Go. That’s actually AJ’s tagline.
So, Steve went for it, despite the fact that the move seems so opposite of current trends in publishing. For anyone who knows Steve, that’s exactly why it was the right move. In a lot of ways, this kind of a big move is his unique selling proposition: He leads with his heart, and this is an incredibly unique, rare, and valuable attribute.
But it’s SO not the easy road. The AJ print quarterly debuts in April 2016, at which time we’ll all see if the experiment works. Steve’s well aware of the risk, and he shares a lot of insights about managing it and going for it despite the fact that it’s, well, just a little scary!
Steve’s goal with the quarterly print magazine isn’t about click-bait titles that rack up website visitor numbers. Rather, AJ’s print quarterly will be about telling a heartfelt and true story about what it means to be an adventurous human being.
Seeing this as the end goal, Steve was able to analyze the mediums available, and going the print route shows his deep insight into how the medium affects the way it is consumed. Old-fashioned print aligns perfectly with Steve’s goal to give consumers aquieter, deeper, and more thoughtful experience through the stories he tells.
Hear Steve’s insightful story about how he came to the decision to launch a print publication — a dream of his. You’ll hear him talk about facing risk, battling demons and a host of other challenges we as outdoor founders encounter on a regular basis. This is an important episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur, one you won’t want to miss!
And the outdoor industry, that's no easy task for a start-up. This is especially true with the evolution of wholesale and the continued momentum of direct-to-consumer revenue streams. It costs real money to break into a trade show, and a lot of strategy and experience to make a blip on the radar of the end consumer.
Young and growing businesses in the active outdoor lifestyle markets need a break!
Amy Hatch is the founder of Garage Grown Gear, which could just that. Garage Grown Gear could be the best next step from Kickstarter to true consumer launch for founders in the outdoor active lifestyle markets.
Learn how Amy has grown her own business, and continues to help other small and growing businesses in the outdoor lifestyle industry, on this week’s episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur!
Today could be the most opportunistic time in history to launch the dream of a start up. This is why Garage Grown Gear is growing, and why its such an amazing opportunity for outdoor founders.
Through the website, both the e-commerce and the blog portions, Garage Grown Gear helps young businesses connect with their consumers. The ‘why,’ or story behind every business is an essential aspect of what forges deep relationships with customers, and this is a large part of what Garage Grown Gear helps businesses convey through their online magazine.
Learn more about Amy Hatch at: GarageGrownGear.com
Checkout the show notes page and the $50 gift card giveaway at: www.LivingUber.com/Amy-Hatch.
Robin Enright is in the business of creativity. She is the founder of Merchandising Matters, a visual merchandising agency where she endeavors to enhance an emotional connection between buyer and seller, and Permission to Leap, where she guides organizations and individuals to enhanced creativity in business and life. She feels a bit of magic when observing others transition from, “I can’t, I don’t know how,” to “I can and I will,” and she isn’t afraid to wave her wand a bit to encourage this transformation. I had a great conversation with Robin in this episode of The Intrepid Entrepreneur. We talk about having two companies (she and I both are in that zone) as entrepreneurs, the awesome feeling of having a company that positively impacts people and what authenticity really means. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I enjoyed talking with Robin! Her enthusiasm and passion for what she does is inspirational and contagious.
Sign up for Robin’s monthly Merchandising Matters newsletter, which includes tips to inspire creativity in marketing and merchandising. Upon signing up, you’ll receive her downloadable PDF, Merchandising Magic: Tips to Make your Store Sizzle.
For complete show notes and more conversations, please visit www.livinguber.com.
Everyone is on a journey, striving to better themselves, to accomplish more in their given field, and to attain the next level of success, whether in business, finances, sports, or personal life and relationships. But what is not always fully understood is the level of sacrifice that is required to achieve high levels of success in any pursuit.
Kristin Armstrong understands this better than most. She’s a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist (cycling time trial in 2006 and 2009, respectively), holds two World titles and a bronze and silver in Worlds, five National Championships and countless other victories. Kristin is also co-founder of a high-end cycling accessory business, K-EDGE, and she works at her local hospital doing community outreach. The biggest job of all? She’s the dedicated Mom to a young son and a wife (she’s married to Joe Savola, who runs K-EDGE with Eric Jensen).
What has allowed Kristin to continually accomplish so much, even while having so many things going on in her life? Where does she get her seemingly unending energy? Is she a super-human?
Kristin gives credit to discipline and dedication. She strips out everything from her life that does not in some way aid her in achieving her goals, whether those goals are about competing in the Olympics, contributing to product design, development and branding at K-EDGE Cycling Solutions, or being a Mom and having a family life. Without the willpower to cut out extraneous aspects from her schedule, achieving and maintaining this much would be impossible. She shares insights on this in this amazing interview.
If you have ever aspired to be truly great at something, to achieve Olympic-level success in your field, this episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur will give you insight into what it takes to be a top level performer, and some of the steps required in anyone’s journey to the top. Plus, it’s just plain inspirational to talk with Kristin as she guns for another Gold in Rio, 2016!
Learn more about at Kristin at:
Complete show notes can be found at: http://www.LivingUber.com/
Rebecca Rusch has never done anything small and everything she’s taken on has a common thread: determination. Join me this week as I interview this humble and approachable outdoor sport legend, who has been such an inspiration to so many (myself included). She’s a professional athlete with a storied career in climbing, adventure racing and mountain biking, among other pursuits (riverboarding anyone?). Rebecca almost seems to have made pioneering new climbing routes and outdoor sports part of her repertoire and she literally pays no attention to obstacles. In this interview, she shares her approach to overcoming fear, using her mindset to create successes in her life and also, what it’s like to become a pro mountain biker at age 38. She’s balanced all of this by giving back to her community in Ketchum, Idaho and to the outdoor active lifestyle markets, through inspirational events (see website links oin show notes page for details).
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Recently, Rebecca launched one of her biggest accomplishments: becoming an author. If you haven’t picked up Rusch to Glory, you should. Better yet, enter to win one of 10 signed copies of Rebecca’s new book by heading over to livinguber.com/giveaways. Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur to Instagram and Twitter (@GoLivingUber) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LivingUber) and visit the LivingUber.com to sign up for more awesome free content, built just for adventurous entrepreneurs in the active outdoor lifestyle markets. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to The Intrepid Entrepreneur, doing so helps build awareness for our amazing outdoor active lifestyle markets!
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Website:
http://www.rebeccarusch.com/rusch-to-glory/
Kristin speaks with Scott McGuire, President of The Mountain Lab, about his 20 years in the outdoor industry. Before being at The Mountain Lab, Scott served numerous roles ranging from working in retail, to being a sales rep, to being an in-house product line manager at many leading companies, to being a ski patroller and a participant on international expeditions. Scott's insights into the industry are sure to get entrepreneurs thinking. So, make sure you listen now so you can be ahead of the curve!
Learn more about Scott at www.themountainlab.com. Get full show notes at www.livinguber.com.
Interested in meeting someone who is literally living The Life traveling the world as a content provider for hire, making up amazing stories to present to audiences worldwide? That's Mark Anders. It hasn't been a cake walk - he's had to morph and be nimble - but, over the past 20+ years, he's made it work and he's entertained and inspired so many people through his gifts. Give this a listen - you'll be inspired and glad you did!
Make sure to hear more inspiring stories about entrepreneurs in the outdoor lifestyle space by visiting www.livinguber.com.
Would you rather run naked through an airport… or work on marketing your business?
Entrepreneurs often seem to have some sort of allergic reaction to marketing. They love to build solutions to problems. This is what they live for. But when it comes to getting the word out about what they’ve created… they’d rather retreat to their basement and build some more.
If this feels like you at all, this episode of Intrepid Entrepreneur is for you!
Maybe you feel that those who try to gain attention for the sake of monetary profit are selfish and greedy. Or you just don’t want to post updates of your nachos or your cat to your social feed (because you don’t love when other people do that). Either way, today’s episode will give you tips and tools to gain engaged fans and followers on your social channels
But where do you start? How do you attract attention in a way that’s genuine? How do you decide where to spend your valuable time? How do you make time in your busy schedule for marketing in the first place?
We'll cover all of that and more in today's episode.
Like the show? Please leave a review on iTunes. Click here to help out!
Head to livinguber.com/giveaways, where you can enter to win a G3 swag bundle – including a beanie, trucker hat and t-shirt.
Two decades ago, Oliver Steffen founded G3 (Genuine Guide Gear), an independent, design-savvy leader of hardgoods and accessories designed to enable people to enjoy the winter backcountry (read: untracked powder, sans lift). Oliver has lead G3 from a single product (an avalanche probe pole) built on a workbench outside of his basement apartment, into a global brand complete with a 20,000-square foot factory and warehouse in Vancouver. G3 is known for its no-compromise, design-savvy manufacturing of skis, bindings, accessories (including skins) for all things backcountry. Every G3 product has been put through the rigorous screen of one question: Is this something a Guide would want to use? This is nothing short of an amazing story! Please rate, review and share this podcast with anyone you know who LOVES “walking around the mountains” on the snow, as Oliver so deftly puts it! Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur on Twitter + Instagram (@GoLivingUber) and on Facebook. Visit the LivingUber website to join my weekly newsletter, which gives you access to members-only podcasts and content built just for motivated, adventurous entrepreneurs! Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Intrepid Entrepreneur Podcast, and share it with a peer who you know will be inspired!
Website:
I’ve got a very special show for you today on the Intrepid Entrepreneur! Join me as I interview three very experienced entrepreneurs in the active outdoor lifestyle markets: Thea Chase, Director of the Telluirde Venture Accelerator (TVA), Gordon Seabury, Founder and CEO of Toad & Co. (formerly Horny Toad Activewear), and Ross Saldarini (@rsaldarini), Founder and President of Mountain Khakis. When do you ever get a chance to hear three successful, visionary entrepreneurs talk shop about creating success and impact with a business in the outdoor, bike, snow, endurance, travel or health-and-wellness markets? Apparently, that would be today, in this podcast! You’ll also learn why TVA is an exceptional accelerator program for founders in these markets.
Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur to Instagram and Twitter (@GoLivingUber) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LivingUber) and visit the LivingUber.com to sign up for free content, built just for adventurous entrepreneurs in the active outdoor lifestyle markets. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to The Intrepid Entrepreneur, doing so helps build awareness for founders in our amazing outdoor active lifestyle markets!
Website:
Telluride Venture Accelerator – www.tellurideva.com
Mountain Khakis - www.mountainkhakis.com
Toad & Co - www.toadandco.com
As of this podcast, I can now officially say that I’ve got a regular guest! Michele Flamer joins me again on today’s Intrepid Entrepreneur podcast. Michele is a well-known sales and training development management professional with a decade of leadership under her belt. She’s also the podcaster behind The Retail Couch. Today, Michele and I talk about implementation and creative ideas to drive a successful fourth quarter in your business. We also talk about the role of the sales reps in the changing retail landscape – a topic that Michele’s an expert with. Michele has worked in the gift, home, travel and outdoor active lifestyle markets and is impassioned about her industries, the retailer buyers and her peers in the sales representative world. We all need Michele’s insights as we continue to migrate through all of the changes in the consumer decision journey (meaning, how people research, buy and share products).
Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur on Instagram and Twitter (@GoLivingUber) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LivingUber) and visit the LivingUber website (www.livinguber.com) to sign up for my newsletter (read: awesome free content people!). Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe if you’re diggin’ the Intrepid Entrepreneur podcast!
For more from Michele, check out The Retail Couch podcast.
Resources:
Welcome to the Fourth Quarter entrepreneurs! It doesn’t matter if you are launching a start up, putting a product to market, extending your brand, changing your approach to holiday – no matter what you do, the fourth quarter is a pivotal one! It’s this quarter that separates the good from the great – we need to dig deep and deal on achieving year-end goals, while also being visionary on what we want to do in 2016. Talk about duality! I offer my top five tips and tactics to finish the year strong, align your team and build focus and commit to implementing. Best of all? No overwhelm!
Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur to get more updates by joining our community on Twitter + Instagram (@GoLivingUber) and on Facebook. Visit the LivingUber website to join my weekly newsletter, which gives you access to members-only podcasts and content built just for motivated, adventurous entrepreneurs! Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Intrepid Entrepreneur Podcast, and share it with a peer who you know will be inspired!
Website:
I have an eye-opening conversation with fundraising strategist, consultant and attorney Jenny Kassan. With two decades of experience as both an entrepreneur and attorney, Jenny is now on a mission to help entrepreneurs discover new ways to raise capital for their companies. The best part? She works with founders to enable them to choose creative funding strategies that make them feel like they’re not losing control of their ideas, or all they’ve built.
Jenny is also offering an awesome free gift to my audience – an e-book outlining the basics of preparing for raising capital you're your business (the link is on the podcast notes page: livinguber.com/podcasts). Follow the Intrepid Entrepreneur podcast by joining our community on Twitter + Instagram (@GoLivingUber) and on Facebook. Visit the LivingUber website to join my weekly newsletter, which gives you access to members-only podcasts and content built just for motivated, adventurous entrepreneurs! Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Intrepid Entrepreneur Podcast, and share it with a peer who you know will be inspired!
More about Jenny at www.jennykassan.com.
Go to this link to download Jenny’s free e-book on creative funding strategies: http://www.jennykassan.com/gift.
Two brothers were fighting the good fight in high school, back in St. Louis, Missouri. Daniel and Dave Chancellor weren’t in with the “in” crowd in high school, and instead were completely absorbed in the counter-culture world of indoor climbing. That was almost 14 years ago. The company So Ill holds has since grown and evolved into a leading climbing hold company and inspirational culture-driven brand. And, nearly 14 years in, So ILL still feels like a start up to Daniel. Listen in today as Daniel shares So ILL’s incredible journey. Hear what it was like to create and launch So ILL his parents’ basement, while in high school and college into the global brand it is today. You’ll also get to hear what it’s like to go from founder to brand steward, and the impact of having his first child has had on his entrepreneurial instinct and success motivations. And just in case you’re wondering, Daniel and Dave named the company so ILL because they founded it while in college in Southern Illinois! Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur to Instagram and Twitter (@GoLivingUber) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LivingUber) and visit the LivingUber.com to sign up for more awesome free content, built just for adventurous entrepreneurs in the active outdoor lifestyle markets. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to The Intrepid Entrepreneur, doing so helps build awareness for our amazing outdoor active lifestyle markets!
Website: http://soillholds.com/
Rebecca Rusch has never done anything small and everything she’s taken on has a common thread: determination. Join me this week as I interview this humble and approachable outdoor sport legend, who has been such an inspiration to so many (myself included). She’s a professional athlete with a storied career in climbing, adventure racing and mountain biking, among other pursuits (riverboarding anyone?). Rebecca almost seems to have made pioneering new climbing routes and outdoor sports part of her repertoire and she literally pays no attention to obstacles. In this interview, she shares her approach to overcoming fear, using her mindset to create successes in her life and also, what it’s like to become a pro mountain biker at age 38. She’s balanced all of this by giving back to her community in Ketchum, Idaho and to the outdoor active lifestyle markets, through inspirational events (see website links oin show notes page for details). Recently, Rebecca launched one of her biggest accomplishments: becoming an author. If you haven’t picked up Rusch to Glory, you should. Better yet, enter to win one of 10 signed copies of Rebecca’s new book by heading over to livinguber.com/giveaways. Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur to Instagram and Twitter (@GoLivingUber) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LivingUber) and visit the LivingUber.com to sign up for more awesome free content, built just for adventurous entrepreneurs in the active outdoor lifestyle markets. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to The Intrepid Entrepreneur, doing so helps build awareness for our amazing outdoor active lifestyle markets!
Website:
http://www.rebeccarusch.com/rusch-to-glory/
Hud Knight was one of the first 25 employees at goliath online gear retailer Backcountry.com, where he worked for 12 years. Hud started with the original group of founders at Backcountry and grew into the company’s lead merchandiser—it was quite the journey. Backcountry.com grew and grew, and as it did, Hud began to miss the start-up feel of it all. He started to dream about opening a new business to serve a different passion: craft brewing in his hometown of Park City, Utah. Hud and four partners, two of whom worked with him at Backcountry.com, put the stake in the ground for Park City Brewery in 2014. This fearless team of founders dropped the clutch on their vision, and within five months built the taproom and brewery. Soon after (very soon) they were shipping their first kegs. Now, they’re already adjusting manufacturing to handle the incredible demand for their product. It’s an incredible story that’s unfolded in just over a year! Learn how Hud’s background at one of the outdoor, snow and bike industry’s biggest retailers actually set him up quite well as a founder in the super competitive craft brewing industry. Plus, it’s awesome to hear first-hand how his network and connections in the outdoors markets helped spread the demand for Park City Brewery’s awesome beer!
Head over to livinguber.com/giveaways, and enter to win one of 10 Park City Brewery trucker hats!
Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur to Instagram and Twitter (@GoLivingUber) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LivingUber) and visit LivingUber.com to sign up for more awesome free content, built just for adventurous entrepreneurs in the active outdoor lifestyle markets. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to The Intrepid Entrepreneur.
Website: http://www.parkcitybrewery.com/
What happens when huge opportunity meets preparation? A phenomenal launch, sales, placement at retail, and more product accolades than most companies see in many, many years all crammed into one pivotal summer.
This is exactly what’s happening to Southern California surfer and entrepreneur Chris Crawford, the inventor of the RinseKit – the world’s first portable power washer and shower. Crawford and his team are on an incredible entrepreneurial ride and are perfectly positioned to help the State of California with its grueling drought. This is one start-up story you don’t want to miss!
Follow Intrepid Entrepreneur by joining our community on Twitter and Instagram (@GoLivingUber) and visit the LivingUber website (www.livinguber.com/podcasts) for other podcasts with adventurous founders! Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on iTunes and Stitcher, and share with other entrepreneurs!
Zander Nosler launched Kitsbow mountain biking apparel in 2012, after his first startup was sold to Starbucks. Leaving the specialty coffee industry for the small niche of performance cycling apparel was a leap, but Zander took his passion-driven approach and completely went for it! In today’s episode, you’ll learn first-hand how this small, Bay-Area startup has a big mission: To redefine what people wear while mountain biking. Zander calls Kitsbow’s lifer’s The Obsessives, which makes perfect sense. He too is obsessed with building the best of the best – it’s a trait that carried forward from his first startup into Kitsbow. Zander is relentlessly focused on building mountain biking apparel that’s so outstanding that people who know Kitsbow won’t think to wear anything else. Learn how he keeps his passion-driven approach front and center through his entrepreneurial businesses.
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KEEN Footwear’s Linda Balfour shares the vision of the brand’s Live Monumental initiative, which embodies the entrepreneurial spirit found everywhere in the KEEN culture and Portland, Oregon headquarters. KEEN’s Live Monumental is all about building grassroots support for protecting America’s wild spaces. What does success look like? Well, the KEEN Effect team has a goal of amassing 100,000 signatures on a petition that they’ll drive into Washington D.C. (the end point of their road tour) on Sept. 23, to activate the Obama Administration to permanently protect three million acres of public lands! See the shownotes page for more details and how to sign this petition online and share it with your friends and family!