Young and Profiting with Hala Taha (Entrepreneurship, Sales, Marketing)
Colin O'Brady, Conquer Your Mind and Develop an Unstoppable Mindset | Mental Health | YAPClassic
Fri, 29 Nov 2024
Colin O'Brady was once so severely burned that his doctor said he would never walk the same way again. But in 2018, Colin completed the world’s first solo, unsupported, and completely human-powered crossing of Antarctica. Now, he's a world record-breaking explorer and endurance athlete. In this YAPClassic episode, Hala and Colin talk about the injury that changed his life and the mindset he cultivated to bounce back from it stronger than ever before. They discuss how to work against your fears and push yourself to take risks in spite of them. In this episode, Hala and Colin will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (00:45) Colin’s Unconventional Upbringing (03:10) How His Mother Instilled a Growth Mindset (06:13) What is a ‘Possible Mindset’? (11:05) The Solo Trek Across Antarctica (14:25) Overcoming the Fear of Failure (20:20) The ‘Why’ Behind His Extreme Adventures (27:01) Life-Changing Accident in Thailand (36:33) From Injury to Triathlon (47:38) Finding Community and Support Online (50:37) Scarcity vs. Abundance (01:01:34) Overcoming Common Limiting Beliefs (01:07:29) The Zone of Comfortable Complacency Colin O’Brady is a record-breaking explorer, athlete, and entrepreneur. In the summer of 2018, Colin took on the 50 US High Points. His 13,000-mile journey took 21 days, 9 hours, and 48 minutes. He was also the first person to post on Snapchat from the summit of Everest, which attracted over 22 million viewers. His highly publicized expeditions have been followed by millions, and he has been featured in The New York Times, The Tonight Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, and The Today Show. He regularly speaks on mindset and high performance at Fortune 100 companies like Nike, Google, and Amazon, and his TEDx Talk has nearly 3 million views. His first book Impossible First, is a New York Times bestseller. Resources Mentioned: Colin’s book Impossible First: https://www.theimpossiblefirst.com/ Colin’s book The 12 Hour Walk: https://12hourwalk.com/ Sponsored By: Airbnb - Find yourself a co-host at airbnb.com/host Mint Mobile - To get a new 3-month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com/profiting Found - Try Found for FREE at https://found.com/profiting Working Genius - Get 20% off the $25 Working Genius assessment at www.workinggenius.com/ with code PROFITING at checkout Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Indeed - Get a $75 job credit at indeed.com/profiting Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new All Show Keywords: Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, mental health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth mindset. Mental Health, Health, Psychology, Wellness, Biohacking, Motivation, Mindset, Manifestation, Productivity, Brain Health, Life Balance, Self Healing, Positivity, Happiness, Sleep, Diet, Psychology, Mindset, Habits, Positivity, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Human Nature, Human Psychology, Critical Thinking, Robert Greene, Chris Voss, Robert Cialdini
Chapter 1: What was Colin O'Brady's upbringing like?
Today's episode is sponsored in part by Airbnb, Open Phone, Shopify, Mercury, Built, Indeed, and Microsoft Teams. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com slash deals.
What's up, Yap Fam? So many life coaches and self-help experts these days love to talk about the importance of mindset. And honestly, after a while, it can get a bit stale or repetitive. Mindset is such a buzzword in our space. And I think that sometimes we just tune it out or we just nod and say, yeah, I know it's all about your mindset. And we kind of just move on.
Well, my guest on this Yap Classic episode embodies a positive mindset like nobody else I've ever had on the show. And that's because he's walked the walk, quite literally. And you'll want to hear him talk the talk, believe me. Colin O'Brady was once so severely burned that his doctor said he would never walk the same way again. Now he's a world record-breaking explorer and endurance athlete.
Chapter 2: How did Colin develop a growth mindset?
His feats include the world's first solo, unsupported, and fully human-powered crossing of Antarctica. And his efforts are a living testament to the power of mindset. In this conversation from episode 184 recorded in 2022, Colin and I talk about how to cultivate a possibility mindset and to avoid what he calls the zone of comfortable complacency.
He also shares how taking one day off to unplug, leave your house, and go for a 12-hour walk can be truly life-transforming. So put on your metaphorical hiking boots, grab a bottle of water, and get ready to conquer your personal Everest with Colin O'Brady. Hey, Colin, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.
Thanks for having me here. It's great to be here with you.
Chapter 3: What is a 'Possible Mindset'?
I am very excited for this conversation. For those of you who don't know, Colin is one of the world's best endurance athletes. In fact, he is a 10-time world record-breaking explorer, and he became the first person in history to cross Antarctica in 2018 solo, unsupported, and unassisted.
And in 2019, Colin, along with his team, successfully rowed a boat across the infamous Drake Passage, the most dangerous stretch of water. It's claimed the lives of 20,000 sailors and at least 800 shipwrecks. And he's a highly sought after public speaker. He's a New York Times bestselling author.
He is about to release his new book at the time of this recording, The 12-Hour Walk, Invest One Day and Unlock Your Best Life, which we're going to get into pretty deeply in this interview. So Colin, we always like to start from the beginning.
And before you became an entrepreneur, the mindset expert that you are and professional athlete, you spent your childhood exploring the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and cultivated a passion for adventure in the outdoors. So tell us about your upbringing and how your mother first instilled a growth mindset in you.
Yeah, I came into this world in a somewhat untraditional way. My parents were young when they had me in the early 20s, but I was actually born at home on a hippie commune in Olympia, Washington on a futon. And my mom invited like 30 of her friends over to like hang out and celebrate the birth. I think it was a bunch of hippies, you know, hanging out on this organic farm, basically.
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Chapter 4: What was Colin's experience crossing Antarctica?
And my mom played Bob Marley Redemption Song, for those familiar with that song, on repeat throughout my birth. So a very untraditional way to enter the world. But it was a great way to grow up. We moved from Olympia, Washington when I was super young. So I grew up in Portland, Oregon, still in the Pacific Northwest. And didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid, but big dreams.
And, you know, certainly with the things I've achieved in my life now, people ask my mom, you know, like, don't you get worried? He walks across Antarctica by himself. He's climbed Everest twice. He must be worried as a mother.
And she kind of always smiles with this coy smile saying like, well, careful what you wish for when you tell their kid from day one, you know, they can achieve anything they set their mind to. And the context of entrepreneurship actually is interesting in my childhood is when I was about 13 years old, my parents were involved in the health food, kind of natural foods movement.
Chapter 5: How did Colin overcome the fear of failure?
And this is like in the late 80s, early 90s, before the words like sustainable and organic and things like that were commonplace. Like they were like part of this kind of hippie counterculture, bringing that into the more of the mainstream. And they worked at grocery stores, you know, from store clerks, etc. And then when I was a young teenager, they decided to open their own
their own store, which ultimately to this day was a very successful chain of natural foods grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest called New Seasons Market. They didn't have any of that success when I was a kid. But what I did have when I was a kid was a front door seat to entrepreneurship 101.
My dinner table conversation when I was 13, 14 was my parents like, looking at this sales forecast, should we do this marketing plan? I got bootstrap business born out of our kitchen table. And so that definitely throughout my life and the entrepreneurial success I've had over time from being a founder to an ex-founder, etc. is definitely a result of that observation as a kid.
I love that. What a wild and different and unique upbringing. No wonder you're so much different than most of us. We were just talking offline. And you've never really had a real job. You had a real job for like six months. We'll get into that. But you've just led such a unique journey. So let's talk about something that you talk about in your first book. You talk about impossible first.
We just kind of mentioned how you had this unique mindset and you actually completed the world's first solo, unsupported, completely human powered crossing of Antarctica. It was pretty much what people thought was an impossible feat. And you say you only achieved this impossible feat because you had a possible mindset. So I think we've all heard of growth mindset before.
That's something that's common, but a possible mindset for my listeners, I think is something new. And we're going to go deeper on this later on in the interview. But for now, what is a possible mindset? I think you've coined that phrase. What does that mean to you?
Yeah, so it's literally how I, in my book that came out a few years ago about my solo and autocrossing called The Impossible First. And I'll tell a little bit more about that. But this phrase, this phrase, a possible mindset, it's actually the first page of my new book, The 12-Hour Walk.
And it's something that I have a prescription to basically in one day, I think you can shift from a mindset of limiting beliefs to a mindset of a possible mindset. The way I define that is a possible mindset is an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. And to be clear, I'm a big fan of Carol Dweck. I'm a big fan of growth mindset.
Growth mindset is a core component of possible mindset. Possible mindset is just a little bit further encompassing. It also encompasses intuition. It encompasses the way you nurture and cultivate community around you, et cetera. But the entire book, my new book, The 12-Hour Walk, is really how we all have this power inside of us to unlock limitless possibilities.
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Chapter 6: What pivotal accident changed Colin's life?
Because I believe like when we dare to dream greatly, when we set massively audacious goals, we either succeed and amazing, that's wonderful. Or maybe we fall a little bit short of that. But in daring to dream greatly, we got 90% of the way there. We succeeded immensely in doing so.
The actual, so I always say, you know, I'm not the only one that ever says this, but you know, you either win or you learn. There's no failure. You either win or you learn. So it's like, That's the ethos that I've, you know, I sit here with 10 world records. I sit here having had successful business ventures and stuff like that. But that's been built on the backside of learnings over time, etc.
And my new book, The 12-Hour Walk, one of the core components of that is breaking down that limiting belief, that fear of failure. So many people don't even start. Hey, that goal is impossible. That summit's too high. Everest is too far. What's my Everest? It's too far. I'm never going to get there. So they don't even start the process. To me, that is the ultimate failure.
Trying something, putting your heart and soul into it, starting that business, iterating, pivoting, shifting, evolving, and then maybe not getting the exact end goal you want. Amazing. You learned a million things and you're going to apply that to the next thing that you go after.
Oh my gosh, I love this. And I can hear the enthusiasm and passion from you. And we had a guest that really reminds me of yourself. Wim Hof was on recently. He's the Iceman. And he also is just like so enthusiastic. He also does these crazy challenges that everybody thinks is impossible. And he has like a deeper purpose.
His purpose is he wants people to release their beliefs about what is possible with the brain and how we can control our bodies and what's possible for humans. And I have to imagine that you have some deeper purpose. It wasn't just you trying to prove that you can do something. What was like the real drive behind all of your excursions so far?
Yeah, absolutely. You have to have a why. I don't think there's the external gratification of, you know, I'm the first or I did this is really anything. I mean, it's enough to maybe get you out the door, but it's not enough on day 35 when you're starving in Antarctica to keep putting one foot in front of the other. For me, it's been a cultivating a passion in twofold.
One is to push my own body and mind. But in a way, I love telling stories. I love sharing stories. That's why I love writing books and other film and TV and media projects that I've done. And I imagine that's why you have this podcast. Are other people's stories have the ability to inspire, to ignite, to have this ripple effect? That's why I love consuming podcasts. That's why I love reading books.
Because other people's stories, other people's learnings, there's so much to be gained from that. And so for me, part of my mission is to do this for myself. But the bigger mission is to inspire others. I have a nonprofit that's really focused on kids and kids' health. I ask them this question, what's your Everest? I ask these eight, nine, 10-year-old kids to raise their hand in assembly.
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Chapter 7: How did Colin transition from injury to triathlon?
Colin, my Mount Everest is to make sure the snow leopards are off the endangered species list. Or Colin, my Mount Everest would be the first person in my family to graduate from college. You're sitting there in Jersey City. I'm guessing you don't actually want to walk across Antarctica solo or actually climb Mount Everest. But look at what you're doing. You've got this podcast. You're crushing it.
So many people are listening and inspired by your message because that's your Everest to do this. And so a big part of that is inspiring others. And ultimately, my new book, The 12-Hour Walk, at its core is just that. My first book, and I'm proud of it, New York Times bestseller, The Impossible First, is my story. It's a memoir of my life and that expedition.
I'm incredibly proud of the story in there. But in the 12-hour walk, I share these adventure stories. I share them edge of your seat, thrilling stories. But I also turn the narration back on the reader. I say, I'm not the hero of this story. You are the hero of this story. This book is written for you to unlock your best life.
I'm going to share some learnings, some failures, some ups and downs through my life in a way that's going to ignite your brain, excite you. But it's about you overcoming the limiting beliefs. You know, the limiting beliefs that many of us have. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. What if I fail? What if people criticize me?
I break down all those limiting beliefs and show how you can actually shift to that possible mindset and begin to unlock your best life. And so that's definitely one of my deepest purposes and something that brings me great joy.
That is exceptional. And your book is super actionable. I can't wait to get into the steps that we should take to take this 12-hour walk that's going to help us reduce and release our limiting beliefs. But let's talk about overcoming the impossible. We are on this topic. And from my understanding and from my research, I learned that you went through a really big setback in your 20s.
You graduated from Yale. Super impressive. And before you went off on your career, you decided you take a backpack and your surfboard and explore the world. And you ended up traveling to Thailand where you suffered a very severe injury that almost left you unable to walk again. In fact, the doctors put a limiting belief in your head. They said, you probably are never going to walk normal again.
And you were severely burned. And so I'd love to hear that story. I'd love to understand what mentally you were going through at the time and how you ended up moving forward. Maybe learn more about your support system during that time and how you ended up competing in your first ever triathlon just eight months later.
Yeah. So, you know, as you said, I just graduated from college, didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid growing up, actually painted houses every single summer to kind of pay for books and things like that. But I said to myself, I always wanted to have an adventure. Like I always wanted to travel a little bit, see a bit of the world. And I didn't have the opportunity when I was young.
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Chapter 8: What is the importance of community and support?
I actually ultimately met my now wife in Fiji. on the beginning of that trip. And the only reason I was in Fiji was because I bought the world's cheapest student ticket. And then I was trying to get to New Zealand. They were like, well, there's a 10-day layover on your ticket in Fiji. It was just like, you have to stop here for this period of time. I was like, all right, cool. I'll check that out.
So letting the fate kind of dictate a little bit. But as you said, I found myself in Thailand many months into this adventure. And maybe because I was 22 and didn't have a fully formed prefrontal cortex. I'm not sure. But I saw some guys jumping a flaming jump rope, literally a kerosene-soaked jump rope. And I thought, gee, that looks like fun. So I jumped that rope.
And in an instant, my life changed. It literally lit my body. They sprayed kerosene across my body, lit my body. I'm fired in my neck. Survival mode kicked in when I needed it most. I jumped into the ocean to extinguish the flames, but not before about 25% of my body was severely burned. And I was in remote in rural Thailand. There was no ambulance ride.
I had a moped ride down a dirt path to a run room nursing station. And I was on an island, so I couldn't get to a big city or anything like that. I had eight surgeries over the next week. There was a cat running around my bed in the ICU. I mean, it was a bad place to be for this circumstance. And the physical pain was immense for
For sure, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, but I will never forget the emotional pain of the moment the doctor walks in and he looks me in the eyes and he says, hey, I hate to tell you this, but based on how badly your ligaments are burned, your ankles, your knees, et cetera, I don't think you're ever going to walk again normally.
you're never going to regain full mobility and range of motion. And that was just devastating. I think that would be devastating for any person at any age.
But as a 22-year-old kid who was very in his body as an athlete and whatever, it was just like my identity was just like, in an instant, I made one mistake and boom, who am I without this physical capacity that I've kind of depended on throughout my life? The heroine to this story, really the turning point of the story is my incredible mother. She shows up in Thailand, kind of finds me.
It takes her four or five days to kind of track down. I'm in such a remote part of Thailand. It takes her a while to even find me, but she gets there in the hospital. And I can only imagine as a mother what it's like. She tells me now that she was crying in the hallways, pleading with the doctors for semblance of good news, not getting it. But she actually never showed me that fear at all.
And this is the crazy part of this story. This is the turning point. This is the thing that changed my entire life. She instead came into my hospital room every single day with this huge smile on her face, this huge air of positivity, daring me to dream about the future, saying, look, you messed up. We're not going to sugarcoat this. This is a bad situation. I'm freaked out. But life isn't over.
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