A former professional ski racer and Olympian realized her destructive self talk was practically ruining her life. If we stop clinging to things that are not permanent, learn to take control of our thoughts and adapt to change, it’s pretty amazing how much happier we can be.
Libby Ludlow retired from the U.S. Ski team 10 years ago. She was in the 2006 Olympics, is the 2004 U.S. giant slalom champion, raced around the world with 45 top-30 World Cup results, three of which were finishes within the top 10. Libby was a member of the 2007 and 2003 World Championships teams. At the 2007 Alpine World Championships in Sweden, she finished ninth in super G and was ranked 10th in the world in the discipline heading into the 2007 season.
As a professional racer, Libby was hard on herself. Harder than perhaps she should be.
After earning her degree at Dartmouth in philosophy modified with Eastern religion, she learned about the impermanence of things and that understanding was key to unlocking potential and opportunity. This eventually led to her co-founding ZGirls, a non-profit organization that empowers teenagers to change their own self talk and boost their self confidence.
She eventually carries these principles forward to her own child and we talk about how she worked very hard to maintain her identity as she transitioned to motherhood. We had some real talk about becoming a mom - not the kinds of unicorns and rainbows you see on Instagram - If you are considering having children (or have young babies) and you love the outdoor active lifestyle, you’ll want to hear this. Too often, you don’t get the real picture and we think it’s important you do.
Today, she is a full-time paralegal for Backcountry.com and is also a mom, and soon to be author of a children’s book called A-B-SKIS.
Like so many guests on this show, she had a roundabout way of getting to where she is today and each one of those experiences has informed who she is today in a fascinating way. Hope you love this conversation as much as I do and with that, let’s listen in and gear up for what’s next.
Where to find Libby:
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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.
Kim Vinet is a skier, an earth scientist and a public speaker. As we enter the crazy holidays here in the U.S., I hope this episode will serve as a reminder to value what matters.
Kim lives in Revelstoke, BC with her husband and two dogs. She is a sponsored athlete and competitive freerider on the Freeride World Tour Qualifying series (formerly the Freeskiing World Tour). This love of skiing and the outdoors has driven her on an exploration of the hypocrisy of loving the outdoors, possibly to death and it has driven her into a lifelong career in sustainability. She hold a B.Sc. Hons. degree in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Western Ontario. Following graduation, her specialization in Sedimentology and Sequence Stratigraphy led her to Calgary, AB to apply her skills to petroleum exploration. (We’ll talk about this)
Never feeling especially comfortable with the environmental impact of petroleum production, she turned to regulatory compliance work and project management. This experience created a solid foundation for understanding energy markets and government policy.
Kim, like many guests on this podcast, rejected social conventions and the traditional way of making a living when she left her high paying job (and it’s resulting lifestyle) to lead a more conscious existence in Revelstoke
So, we have a lot to explore and tease out of that story - things like:
She had quite the circuitous path to get to where she is now and for those of us who are in the middle of our own crazy, seemingly directionless path, maybe you’ll find some inspiration in the fact that it somehow all comes together and works out in the end.
Enough of that - let’s listen in and gear up for what’s next.
Where to find Kim:
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.
“Letting go of the tendency we have to want things to be different, allowing things to be as they are and allowing yourself to be as you are…” Jon Kabat Zinn on the mindfulness.
Janet Curry is the founder of Stillpoint Counseling and Mindfulness Training in Durango Colorado. She is a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and licensed professional counselor. She has not one, but two masters degrees.: One in Mental Health Counseling from Seattle University and the second in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy from Oxford University. Janet is one of the first 130 (MBSR) teachers around the world who has been certified by the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness (CFM) in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. In 2017, she was one of 30 Certified MBSR teachers around the globe to complete the CFM’s year-long inaugural ‘Train the Trainer’ program. The CFM is where MBSR began, and is the oldest, largest, continually running MBSR clinic and teacher training organization in the world. Also - she is a fully trained EMDR provider and has completed the Certificate Program in Traumatic Stress Studies with the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute. Trauma treatment is an area of personal passion and expertise.
In other words, Janet knows her stuff! And I’m so excited to have her on the show. We cover so much in this conversation.
I started a meditation practice almost two years ago. It’s helped me so much. I found a pattern where I waste my time thinking about the future and then look back on my life and think "Hey, have I been properly enjoying my life?" Every day I think and plan to the future - you know? What if I were able to actually enjoy this ordinary Tuesday for once and not start the day with a list of things longer than I can actually accomplish? and when I asked you guys what questions you had about meditation and mindfulness, the number one question I got was where to start so that’s where I started with Janet.
With that, let’s listen in and gear up for what’s next.
Where to find Janet:
Resources and Links:
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 pproblem-solving.
To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.
I wanted to have Janette on the show because she has come up in conversation about three previous episodes, all by guests mentioning Janette as a huge influence on them. For example, that's Ash Bocast of Roam Events in the teaser quote at the top of the episode. Before even talking to her, it was clear she subscribes to the idea of women supporting each other and lifting each other up. Although we look at this through the lens of the mountain bike industry, it’s a great metaphor for life in general.
Janette is the marketing manager for Yeti Cycles, a high-end boutique mt bike brand. She has served as a mentor in the industry and is what a self-proclaimed semi-nerd, kind of in the vein of our recent show with Brendan Leonard of Semi-Rad, we will only slightly nerd out on bikes. Last year, we did a whole episode exploring if a better bike will make you a better rider and you better bet your ass it will. Janette is going to tell us how bike geometry and technology has evolved to make us better riders. I’d equate it to the advent of shape skis.
We talk about:
So let’s listen in and gear up for what’s next.
Where to find Janette:
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 pproblem-solving.
To learn more about booking Lisa for consulting, speaking or workshops, visit www.bigleapcreative.com.
Rene is an awesome and inspirational woman. She is a running coach, a race director for a fantastic race series in Western Canada. She is now on the communications team for the Gore-Tex Trans Alpine Race, a race she has been chronicling via Instagram for as long as I’ve known her. It has, in turn, intrigued me because of my love for Europe. Trail running, the Alps, eating, drinking… what more is there? The Gore-Tex Trans Alpine Race, an eight day stage race from Germany to Italy, passing through Austria and Switzerland along the way.
Rene has competed in the race 7 times, and is now on their communication team.
We talk about:
With that, let’s listen in and gear up for what’s next!
LINKS and RESOURCES
Where to find Rene:
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.