“The best way to expand your experience is to ask questions of others that get to the core of their existence" - Derek Loudermilk

Basically my whole life I have been incessantly curious, which that has resulted in my "interviewing" (cornering them at parties) people about themselves and all the things they knew. Because I am on my own journey of discovery, and only recently learned that I should be a podcast host, I wanted to help you all get to know me a bit better as well

You may have been listening to the show for a while now and wondered, who is Derek Loudermilk? In this episode I bring my friend and fellow podcast host, Alex Kuhn, (who I interviewed in the previous episode) on to interview me about my life and the Art of Adventure!

What you will learn in this episode:

-Why I let Alex interview me on my own show

-Why cycling is the most beautiful sport

-Why Tuna is my favorite type of fish

-How I came to name a hot spring after myself

-The virus I discovered in Yellowstone National Park

-Why I started the Art of Adventure Podcast

-What I learned while traveling in the last 5 months

Links:

Get in touch with the host of this episode Coach Alex Kuhn

Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast in iTunes or Stitcher. If you enjoyed the show, please help us by leaving a 5-star rating and review!

If you are interested in working with me as an athlete, see my coaching page

"I realized I needed to earn the right to be successful" -Alex Kuhn 

Alex Kuhn went from champion collegiate swimmer to swim coach who was known for his recruiting prowess and turning programs around from losing records to winning in a short time.

Alex told me the story of listening to motivational speakers at the age of 11 on his walkman instead of MC Hammer, and cultivating a dream to help people. Two and a half years ago, Alex left the swim coaching world to fulfill his childhood dream of helping even more people, and that is where we find him today: at the helm of his Self Made team!

Alex didn't get here the easy way however. Listen to the whole episode to find out how Alex bounced back from hitting rock bottom: nearly bankrupt, camping out, and eating peanut butter sandwiches.

What you will learn in this episode:

-How important body language is in listening

-How people want to be understood before they want help

-Different ways to measure success

-How to speak on stage to one person at a time

-How your mindset affects everything including your priorities

-How creating your own solutions leads to better results

Links:

Coach Alex Kuhn - You can find all the Self Made blog posts and podcast show notes here

The Self Made Podcast

The Self Made Community on Facebook

Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast in iTunes or Stitcher

“Would you be proud of what you accomplished on this planet if you were not here tomorrow?" - Navid Moazzez

Navid Moazzez's name means "positive message", which is fitting for a man who's mission is to help people by teaching them how to enhance their personal brand.

Since launching his first website just a year and a half ago, Navid has created a world class podcast: The Lifestyle Architects, connected with many high level influencers, delivered tons of value to entrepreneurs everywhere through his epic guides, and generally punched fear in the face!

What I learned from Navid in this interview about the adversity in his life and how it lead him to find his WHY - his reason for getting out of bed and working so hard each day, really motivated me. I learned a lot from this chat, and I am sure you will too.

What you will learn in this Episode:

-How you can start from scratch as an entrepreneur

-How meeting the right peers kept him learning and accountable

-How he turned adversity into personal growth

-How he found his first mentor in Nate Bunger

-Networking tips like:

->His #1 tip for new podcasters is to collaborate with people

->Offer your help for free

->Leaving thoughtful blog comments

-How his first interview with Pat Flynn forced him to launch his blog with an in-depth blog post

-The power of interviewing people (even before he had a podcast)

-The “Act before you are ready" philosophy

-Navid's advice on time management: Plan tomorrow today, Navid plans 3 things to do for the next day so he canâ€t fail

Links:

navidmoazzez.com - Where you can find all his blog posts, podcasts, show notes, and other offerings!

The Branding Summit - Navid's newest project, where he has interviews with over 60 branding experts!

Navid on twitter

Speakpipe for recording voie messages

Twitterfeed tool to share content

Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast in iTunes or Stitcher

Navidâ€s challenge to you: reach out to three people you admire and want to connect with - tell them the value you got from them. Leave us a note in the comments of who you connected with and how it went!

I remember going out to a race course when I was 17 with my teammate and writing his name in big chalk letters all over

the steep part of the road.  Go Aaron!  AB!  Crush it Aaron!  Luckily he did the same for me!

We had learned that the best riders in the Tour de France had fans who wrote their names all over the big mountains climbs so the racers and TV viewers could see when they were racing by.  Well, we didn't have any fans yet, so we had to be each other's hype man.  On race day, it turned out we were the only ones in the race who had our names chalked onto the race course, but it worked!  We set the course record that year and Aaron lent me one of his shirts so that we could wear matching "uniforms" when we went up to the podium.

In episode seven of the Art of Adventure Podcast, my guest is one of my best friends from growing up in St. Louis - Aaron Barcheck.

We were both short track speed skaters, both got our eagle scout award on the same day, and we used to go for long rides in the countryside, dreaming about they day we would open a bike/donut shop, where he would be in charge of the bikes and I would invent new types of donuts!  Well, Aaron actually followed through, and now is one of the most well respected hand built bicycle makers in the world, winning the NAHBS show award for best cyclocross bike.

Aaron opened the doors of Mosaic Bespoke Bicycles 5 years ago, and has made 1500-2000 bikes by hand in the past decade.

What you will learn in this episode:

-Whether building bespoke bicycles is more engineering or art and design

-How to change bicycle frame performance by altering the design

-What you need to start making bespoke bicycles

-How to figure out the starting goal of your business

-How to make the tools to solve your own problems

-The basic of scaling a business as it can apply to all business

-How business changes when you bring on new people - personalities make their way into a product

-How dealers are an integral part of the process because they have the in-person/hands-on relationship with the customers

-How a cycling race team does product testing and bicycle development

-How your definition of success changes as you grow

Links:

Team Small Batch

Mosaic Bespoke Bicycles

Mosaic on Instagram - the best place to find amazing photos of the Mosaic process

Mosaic on Twitter

Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast in iTunes or Stitcher

At one point in her career, Molly Hurford was saving money by being "professionally nomadic" and not renting or owning a place to live other than her truck.

She has traveled all over the country racing cyclocross and triathlons, build up a career as one of the top cycling journalists, wrote two books, and recently had the industry's biggest publication - Bicycling Magazine - come begging to hire her.

One of my favorite stories from this show is how Molly escaped from a two story window of a house she was locked in, using sheets tied together and live tweeted the whole thing. I think I actually used the term “oh my word,” because it was the most ridiculous thing I could imagine!

In this Episode You will Learn:

-How to stay fit while traveling

-The number one rule to stay healthy in cycling - its not what you think!

-Why cyclocross is so great (the same things that make the spartan race and mud runs so popular!)

-Why collegiate cycling is the perfect introduction to cycling

-The art of a good heckle

-How to build a writing portfolio

-How to go from free writing to paid journalism

-How to approach top professional athletes to interview them

Links:

Molly's website and blog MollyHurford.com where you can find all of her latest projects

Her first book: Mud, Snow, and Cyclocross

Molly's newest book and community: Saddle, Sore: A Women-Only Guide to You & Your Bike

You can also find Molly's writing in Bicycling Magazine, like this great article here

 

Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast in iTunes or Stitcher

Meditation is an “Ice bath for the soul”- Matt Elliott

Have you ever felt like you were just going and going, putting out hard work and being productive, feeling like you were on top of the world, yet still struggling underneath it all?

I this episode of the Art of Adventure Podcast, I talk with Matt Elliott, former head coach of the Rugby League Penrith Panthers, The New Zealand Warriors, and the Bradford Bulls.

Matt talks about how several events in his life grabbed his attention and helped him realize that the 'Australian male' was not well trained in the art of emotional resilience. Matt talks about how people these days think that "feeling bad is uncool” and shows us a better way to deal with tough emotions than beer or drugs.

What you will learn from the interview

-Matt's specific 6-minute meditation routine that helps work through adversity

-How high performance entrepreneurs need planned recovery just like athletes

-Matt's concept of “Emotional Resilience”

-His upcoming book “Beer, Whine, Spirit” - a direct response from adversity in his life

-You are going to feel bad when you have adversity in your life. Adversity is a signal to change something - how you learn from it is what matters.

-What we can learn from the communities of the developing world - to ask for help form our friends and community

Links

Matt's meditation practice was founded by Ron Rathbun. Kelee Meditation

Deepak Chopra influenced Matt's thinking

Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast in iTunes or Stitcher

“The world craves authenticity” - Zio Ziegler

One of the hardest things to do in life is to stay true to your own personal style of working and creating, in the face of people and society trying to shape your activities and personality. In episode 4 of the Art of Adventure Podcast, Zio Ziegler weighs in on how to to succeed without compromising your values.

This is one of my favorite interviews, because Zio makes the case and is living proof that people crave authenticity. He has achieved his popularity as an artist, despite "the system's" (art school) attempts at enforcing conformity.

I love this peek inside the way an artist's mind works - Zio has the amazing ability to bring references into a conversation from a wide variety of literature and history - in this show alone, he references Marcus Aurelius, Zeno, Dickens, Sherlock Holmes, Cormac McCarthy, The Count of Monte Christo, Caesar's commentaries, Herodotus, Xenophon, Plutarch, David Foster Wallace, Alan Watts, and Ayn Rand.

In this Episode, You Will Learn:

-How to go from being an artistic outcast to hugely popular

-The power of filling your mind with the right things: Zio listens to audiobooks while he is working and tries to read 2-3 books simultaneously

-Zio's favorite quote: "Every person should have two pockets. In one should be a piece of paper on which is written: “I am but dust and ashes.” In the other: “For my sake was the world created.”

– Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshishâ€cha

Links:

Zio on Instagram

Zio on Twitter

http://www.zioziegler.com/

Subscribe to The Art of Adventure in iTunes or Stitcher

Summary:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be married to a food blogger? Well, let me tell you, my days are filled with lots of tasty testing! Sometime I even get to make a guest appearance as the disembodied hand pouring syrup!

In episode three of the Art of Adventure podcast, I interview my wife Mary Loudermilk about her food blog, The Kitchen Paper, where she posts new recipes each week, as well as blogging tips and travel photos. Mary is the author of a cookbook, and a guide to Pinterest for food bloggers.

What you will learn in this episode:

-How to take good food photographs

-How to use Pinterest to bring visitors to your site

-How to hire a designer

-How to publish your first cookbook

-Why nut butters are awesome

-Finding your 'voice'

Show note and links:

Mary's Blog: The Kitchen Paper

The Pinterest for Food Bloggers eBook

Nut Butters: twenty nut butter recipes and creative ways to use them

Pinch of Yum's Food Blogger Pro course for food bloggers

 

Summary:

"“Its all about people.  When I was truly the most successful it was not necessarily what I was doing as an individual, but only because I was smart enough to hire really brilliant, capable people to support me” - Nick Traggis

In episode two of the Art Of Adventure Podcast, I chat with Nick Traggis, former general manager of a world class photonics company and now director of the top ranked elite cycling team in the US, about team building, networking, and the business of cycling

In this episode you will learn:

Nick Traggis

-Team building and hiring the right guys

-How teamwork won them the national championship

-Business model of cycling

-The networking approach to sponsorship "only 1% of cold call proposals come back with any response vs. close to 50% for someone that already knows who you are"

-How the best riders treat each bike race like a business trip for the guys who are gonna make it

-How do decide where to spend your limited resources

Links:

Nick is the director of the Horizon Organic / Einstein Bros Bagels Elite Cycling Team, the top ranked Elite cycling team in the US.

You can find Nick's sports management company and personal blog over at http://bouldersportsmanagement.com/

Find him on twitter @ntraggis

 

Welcome to the Art of Adventure podcast! I'm so excited to finally be launching this show!

Our first interview is with guest Jef Mallett, creator of the comic strip Frazz.

In this episode, you will learn:

-Jef's process for being creative everyday

-How to lead and interesting life

-How to start a new project

-How giving a shout out to people and products you love can lead to unexpected results

Jef's influences and favorite cartoons:

Jim Borgman, creator of Zits

George Booth, cartoonist for the New Yorker

Gary Larson, creator of The Far Side

Dave Coverly, creator of the comic Speed Bump

Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes

Richard Thompson, creator of Cul de Sac

Self Portrait of Jef Mallett