Alice Kao has overcome many challenges in her life. She lost her father when she was 3, grew up attending six schools in three countries, before finally growing up in the US as a parachute kid. Since then, she became an investment banker to make her mom proud, shifted into running sales & marketing in the toy industry. Alice is now the Founder and CEO of SenderOne, one the largest world-class rock climbing gyms both in Los Angeles and Orange County. Sender One is dedicated to helping people discover themselves and connect with others through climbing.

What an episode! In this one we hit on:

• How and why interest in indoor climbing has grown tremendously.
• What it was like being a CEO during covid. Making hard decisions and how Alice decided and shut down a 100+ person company.
• How to build coalitions in industries and what Alice learned from building a climbing gym coalition.
• How to create personal / company values and then share them in a way that company-wide, employees make aligned decisions.
• What Alice learned growing up as a "parachute kid" for 4 years.
• What does the label "trauma" really mean? What do you address during therapy? How do you choose what to address?
• How Alice's experience in the toy industry drives strategic decision making in creating rock climbing gyms.
• How asking questions without embarrassment can be a super power
• What Alice took away from trying Ayahuasca
• Improving yourself to be an even better role model for your kids.