The Intrepid Entrepreneur

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:

K-EDGE.com

KristinArmstrongUSA.com

Complete show notes can be found at: http://www.LivingUber.com/Kristin-Armstrong.