Breaking Trail

Terri Watts quit her job as an occupational therapist in Athens Georgia to race the IMBA National Enduro Series for pro women. This girl from Georgia seemingly came out of nowhere to win the 2017 USA Cycling Enduro National Championship. Now, she is semi-retired from racing and back working part time as an occupational therapist and part of the time as a PMBIA Level 1 mountain bike guide and coach with Ninja Mountain Bike Performance.

We talk about taking a sabbatical - how to do it and how it changes life afterwards; the difference in racing when you have no track record compared to when you've become a champion and expectations are greater. But most of all, we talked about how much more successful you can be when you relax in times of uncertainty and stress. She was specifically talking about biking, but it's an appropriate life lesson as well.

So, with that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to find Terri

• Instagram

• Facebook

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

In 2006, Eric Larsen completed a 62-day expedition to the North Pole pulling a 250-pound sled for 550 miles. Men's Journal named him one of the 25 Most Adventurous Men of the Past 25 Years. Polar adventurer, expedition guide, dog musher and educator, Eric Larsen has spent a lot of time traveling to some of the most remote and wild places left on earth. He is one of only a few Americans to have skied to both the North and South Poles. In November 2009, he returned to Antarctica for the first leg of his world record Save the Poles expedition. This time he completed a 750-mile ski traverse to the geographic South arriving on January 2, 2010. Two short months later he was dropped off at northern Ellesmere Island for a winter-style North Pole Journey. The international team reached the North Pole 51 days then on Earth Day - April 22, 2010. He completed the Save the Poles expedition by reaching the summit of Mt. Everest on October 15, 2010, becoming the first person in history to reach the world's three 'poles' within 365 days.

He travels to wild and specifically cold places to cast a spotlight on climate change and the melting Arctic.

Today, we have a bigger conversation about adventure. We also talk about how the Arctic has changed over the past two decades. Eric is one of the few people who have seen this firsthand. Lastly, how do you juggle all this while being a dad?

With that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to find Eric

• www.ericlarsenexplore.com

• Instagram

• Facebook

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

Charlotte Massey, Georgia Grace, and Bianca Gonzalez are redesigning pants so they work for womens' bodies. It sounds silly that no one has addressed this issue before. Why not? Charlotte Massey joins today, and she's going to walk us through a little fashion history, something we don't often discuss here at the Gear Show. We'll discover how three women in college have come together to solve a problem and take an essential step in making the outdoors more inclusive by making it easier for women to "go to the bathroom."

It's easy enough to come up with an idea. Charlotte will tell us how they made this idea happen. It's something women have been waiting for - their Kickstarter campaign raised over 50 thousand dollars when their goal was 15 thousand.

Today, you're going to see the outcome of when a dad never doubts your ability to do whatever it is you want to do.

and with that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to Find Charlotte

• Instagram - @charlotteemass

• Charlotte's website

• SheFly website

• SheFly on Instagram

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

Jeannine Anders followed "The Call" to Colorado 15 years ago where she settled in the Vail Valley. Many of us have heard a similar call - one to the mountains, right? She held a career in sales while pursuing her passion for cycling. She's competed in over 20 ultra-endurance mountain bike races including multiple 100-mile, 12- and 25-hour solo races as well as a multi-day stage race through the Swiss Alps. She eventually joined the board for the non-profit, Sacred Cycle, while managing their race team and helping to spread their mission which is to empower survivors of sexual abuse and sexual assault through therapy and mountain biking, creating a sacred cycle of recovery, personal development, and community impact.

Biking has had an extremely positive influence on Jeannine's life and we talk about how it defined her - how mountain biking helps all of us in various ways and now, how it is being put to work to help survivors of sexual abuse and assault.

Also discussed:

• Secret tips for kicking ass at races despite the butterflies

• Giving up racing - to live life and missing it

• Finding your self worth when it's not tied to competition

Where to Find Jeannine

• Instagram - @J9anders

• Sacred Cycle

• Team Empower Hour

Other links mentioned:

The Keepers Netflix

Donate to Sacred Cycle

Apply to Sacred Cycle

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

Today, Brian Harder, a self-proclaimed non-compliant patient will walk us through ACL recovery one year post- event. We'll talk about the choices he made - like the graft choice and what he would do if he had it to do over again.

Brian is a frequent guest, a good friend of mine. He is an orthopedic physician assistant and a ski mountaineer based in Anchorage. he is also a former Exum Mountain Guide based out of Jackson.

Brian's ultimate goal is to get back out playing as soon as possible. For reference, he is in his late 50s and sometimes our brains are more eager than our bodies but that's my own observation. wink wink wink. This approach may or may not have caused some of the complications he's experiencing. We discuss that. We also cover a topic that is important to me and that is how to properly inform ourselves to make the best health care decisions for us. Not just related to ACL injury. We can all relate to that in one way or another, I'm sure.

With that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Resources Mentioned

• PubMed

• New England Journal of Medicine

• Lancet

• Peter Attia podcast

Where to Find Brian

• Instagram

• His website

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

When you become the best in the entire world at something, what do you do next? How do you not let that be the high point in life, instead, keep raising the bar? I had a wonderful talk with Shannon Barke-Happe today about that, about professional racing, and life afterwards. Shannon was on the US.. Ski Team for 12 years. During that time, she brought home a silver and a bronze medal. She also won the Overall World Cup title in 2003, had seven World Cup victories, 26 World Cup podiums and her list of wins goes on from there. She is a mom, founder of Team Empower Hour and the author of a children's book Mommy Why Is Your Hair Pink?

We talked about having conviction in your goals and how that got her to the podium and medal wins. Great insights we can all take home with us as we pursue our own goals. A big lesson in today's show - sometimes you have to know when to fold them. The hard truth in walking away from dreams and resetting the course.

We'll learn what it's like to be a professional racer standing at the starting gate, and how she applied this to her business Team Empower Hour where she and her team bring these principles to the corporate environment through keynote speeches and custom experiences and workshops.

The message in her book Mommy Why is Your Hair Pink isn't just for kids - that pursuing your dreams and knowing that everything you need to success is deep within yourself.

With that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to Find Shannon

• Instagram
• Her Website

• Team Empower Hour

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

"Blogging is like going to the word gym. I practice writing in the same I would go to a gym to get stronger muscles. Writing is a muscle and I try to stay fit for it. "

Is it possible to strive to be a writer and make a living at it? Shelley knew she wanted to be a writer at a young age but how could she make a living doing it? Today is all about making dreams happen.

Shelley quit her job, moved to France for a short period and wrote a book. By the way, she had never written a book of fiction before and had no idea how to do it. She's going to tell us how she got the idea eventually and how she made it happen.

Shelley's fiction, creative non-fiction, columns, and travel writing have appeared in a range of Canadian and international publications. She won the Fall 2015 Tethered by Letters fiction contest, the 2016 Frank McCourt Prize for Creative Nonfiction, the Winter 2016/2017 Nonfiction prize from Causeway Lit, and the 2017 Fiction prize from Freefall Magazine. The Quintland Sisters, her debut novel, will be published in Canada and the United States in March of 2019. You can order or pre-order depending on when you listen to this, at shelleywood.ca

Born and raised in Vancouver, Shelley divides her time between a full-time home in Kelowna, Canada, and a full-time job in New York, NY, where she is the Editorial Director at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and Managing Editor at the cardiology news website, TCTMD.

With that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to Find Shelley

• Instagram
• Her website

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

It's hard enough being a kid trying to fit in. Imagine being a brown kid with one leg growing up an affluent and very white Connecticut town. Vasu Sojitra was diagnosed with septicemia at the age of nine months which resulted in the amputation of one of his legs.

He spent much of his youth finding his way in the world. In fact, His TedX Bozeman Talk is titled "What is Your Normal?"

Now, Vasu is the Adaptive Sports Director for Eagle Mount Bozeman, Coordinator for Earthtone Outsideᴹᵀ, the first adaptive Athlete for The North Face.

Vasu shared with me how he managed and what got him through those years. He shared with us how he started skiing, what skiing did for him and how he figured out how to engineer equipment to get him out in the backcountry. And now, now that skiing and the outdoors has restored his self-confidence and belief he can do anything, he's advocating for all marginalized identities. He talks to us about how we can all be better, more empathetic and inclusive. All of us, no matter how we identify, can be ignorant of how our words, actions (and lack of both) affect others.

For example, there is one word Vasu said people with disabilities absolutely hate. And you'll have to listen in to find out what it is.

With that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to Find Vasu

• vasu_sojitra - on Instagram
• His website

Resources mentioned:

• TedX Talk What is Your Normal?
• Earthtone Outside MT on Facebook
• Unlikely Hikers
• brothers of climbing
• Brown Girls Climb
• Paradox Sports
• Eagle Mount Bozeman
• Vermont Adaptive
• Catalyst Sports

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

The long-term influence of seemingly small interactions.

Adrienne Lindholm took a life-altering trip at the age of 11 - a cross-country camping trip that expanded this Western Pennsylvania girl's awareness of what is possible in this life. Now, she lives in Alaska with her husband and two kids is an author and land conservationist.

She has worked for the National Park Service as a backcountry ranger, park planner, compliance officer, and natural resource manager. She now oversees the Wilderness Stewardship Program for the national parks in Alaska.

Twenty years ago, she published several instructional books about backpacking as well as a memoir of her 2,100-mile hike of the Appalachian Trail. More recently, her stories and essays have appeared in a variety of journals and magazines. She recently released her new book It Happened Like This; A Life in Alaska, a beautifully written memoir. I highly recommend but after you listen to our conversation, I know you'll want to read it too.

In today's episode, Adrienne and I talk about writing as therapy, her evolving relationship with the wilderness over the decades, and how we tie our self worth to our performance in the outdoors.

You're going to enjoy this one.

With that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to Find Adrienne:

• Website

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.

Erik Murdock is the Policy Director for the Access Fund whose mission is to protect climbing access and conserve the environment. He represents climbers' interests and values in Washington, DC while monitoring activities on Capitol Hill to identifying possible threats (and opportunities) to climbing access and conservation.

What draws someone to this type of work, I wondered? You'll learn more about his journey to where he is now but let me start by saying, you never know the impact a decision or an event can have on the rest of your life. In Erik's case, it was a cross country road bike trip at the age of 16 (and, he'll add, a parenting decision on behalf of his mom who actually let him do the trip) that set his life on a huge trajectory.

His various experiences combined the physical sciences with the human dimension to understand how to manage lands and advocate for our interests - those of us who live to play in the wilderness.

I learned a lot talking to Erik and know you will as well, from what types of policies are currently being reviewed by our congress, to the impact of government shutdowns on our environment and how we can stay informed and get involved.

it's great to have people like Erik advocating for our interests and I was pleasantly surprised by how optimistic he is with the current state of affairs.

With that, let's listen in and gear up for what's next.

Where to Find Erik:

• Email Erik

File an Access report, subscribe to the monthly policy digest, and get involved:

• Access Fund website

BEFORE YOU LEAVE - If you are enjoying the shows, I hope you'll subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends!

About Lisa Gerber:

Lisa advises CEOs and senior level management on how to use the power of storytelling and effective communication to influence action and bring ideas to life.

She guides companies through the digital maze of constantly changing tools to build discovery, loyalty, and ultimately help them achieve their own big leaps.

When she is not in her office, she might be out skiing or trail running. This is where she does her best creative problem-solving.

To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.