The Organic Climber – Vegetarian running, cycling, swimming, rock climbing and raw foods.

I recently spent the past few days in California, attending Expo West, the largest natural and organic foods expo in the nation. The exhibits expand five large exhibit halls in the Anaheim Convention Center, in Anaheim California. The expo attracts small and large companies, alike. It was pretty amazing to see companies not much larger than mine (Bearded Brothers), and to see similar companies producing on a large scale.

It was daunting on one hand to see companies like Kind bar with a HUGE booth passing out loads of free samples, giving out t-shirts and displaying large HD screens with promo reels running highlighting all the awards they have won from various media sources. On one hand I was intimidated by the large corporation and their massive amount of “success”, and part of me was fearful of having the kind of success myself. Being a small startup company, it’s hard to immagine becoming, “big”.

I wondered If I could even handle being that successful? But, when it comes down to it, as we grow – our staff will grow. Responsibilities will be shared, and I will go from working in the business, to working ON the business. I think it’s actually the fear of success that kept me from going into business for myself a lot earlier. I think it’s the same fear that holds many people back from doing something bold and new.

I was particularly inspired by the company Go Raw. They are an organic raw energy bar – though very different than ours. But, their process is still done by hand. Parts of the process have been automated, such as the packaging of the bars, but the actually making of the bars is still done by humans. It’s a process Bearded Brothers aspires to keep, and it’s encouraging to know it’s possible to do on such a large scale.

Two Mom’s in the Raw is another company that was inspiring. Though smaller than Go Raw, it was started up by two individuals that just enjoyed making raw snacks, sort of like Bearded Brothers. They are also still producing their product by hand. Voices in my head, as well as outside voices have told me to automate and make it more efficient, but I don’t think doing that would be holding true to what we truly believe in.

There is something to be said for food that is not produced by a robot. As I browsed around the show and checked out the massive amounts of other products, including MANY energy bars. I was reminded of how unique our product is. We have been blessed with great branding, and have started off with four amazing flavors. I’m also proud to say that we are just two individuals without any seed funding, investors, or massive amounts of personal income, doing something amazing.

Many of the other bar companies I looked at this week were started as a branch off of another company (thus they already had money), or started by a group of people that were already wealthy from other jobs (doctors to be exact). So, to say that we are bootstrapping our company feels pretty amazing. When we look back on this in a few more years we will have a lot of pride in what we have become, and how it was done.

Is there anything you are inspired to do, but are fearful of? Perhaps you actually fear success like I do at times. Or maybe you fear failure? Truthfully I think both types of fear can be motivating, but also paralyzing. I would say in most cases, though it paralyzes. It explains why so many people say they have an idea for a business, but never act. But it can be inspiring when you use the fear to propel you forward. Don’t let fear keep you from doing something amazing, you are capable of far more than you realize.

Another company I am encouraged by is one of our biggest competitors, right here in Austin. The founders still continue to work their day jobs while growing the company. Those guys are truly working hard to make something they believe in come to life. It just goes to show that you don’t have to quit your day job to start a business. If the idea is really worth pursuing you will find a way to make it work; but it won’t be easy at first.

Any GREAT idea truly worth pursuing will take LOTS of hard work. Anybody who tells you that you can make six figures working four hours a week is a joke in my opinion. Sure, you can probably make that kind of money outsourcing web design gigs to India, but what value is that adding to your life? It’s essentially just another J.O.B. Worth while pursuits take time, but the best part is you enjoy all the time spend on that project because you know it’s truly adding value to people’s lives. So, get out there and CRUSH IT, pursue those great ideas and give them life!

Life and Motivation by OrganicClimber
energy bars, Expo West, fear, motivation, organic food, success
No comments

---

Things have been insanely busy lately with Bearded Brothers so I haven’t had much time to blog here, but hope that will change as the business becomes more self-sustaining. But, today I find myself sitting in my favorite coffee shop with a bit of time to kill. So, I thought I would write a blog I had thought about several months ago.

“I would never do that”, is something I have said many times. Many of the times it has been climbing related, other times fitness or goal related.  Despite having said that, many times I find myself doing the very thing I said I would never do.

When I first started rock climbing I felt safe in the realm of top rope climbing and said to myself I will never sport climb; but quickly realized my climbing options were very limited without that skill set. So, I set off to learn how to become a sport climber. This opened up lots more possibilities to where I could climb. Rather than being stuck at a crappy conglomerate stone crag in West Texas, I was able to venture to places such as Shelf Road in Colorado and Horseshoe Canyon in Arkansas.

The next thing I caught myself saying I would never do was trad climbing. But if you have been following this blog for any length of time, you will know I’m an avid trad climber. I would much rather spend a full day climbing 3 – 12 pitches high above the earth, than climbing just a few hard sport climbs. Trad climbing has opened up endless potential in terms of climbing.

Since taking up trad I have made many ground up first ascents of previously untouched rock. I have blazed my own trail up the East Face of Longs Peak when the start of the partially bolted route was covered in snow. There is a much greater since of satisfaction having climbed a route while placing your own gear than merely clipping a pre-drilled bolt. On top of that, I get to climb in places a majority of climbers will never even dream of. It has even allowed me to use my skills to guide groups of other climbers with the non-profit organization Ascend Outdoors.

I have even said this about running and triathlons. When I first started running I thought I would never run more than three or four miles, but one day after running six miles I was challenged to enter a half marathon. I replied, “no way, that’s not for me”. In other words, I would never do that. But, after researching the training required I realized I was half way to being able to run a half marathon with plenty of time left before the Dallas White Rock Marathon, so it was at that time I became a runner.

After having run several half marathons I knew several people that participated in triathlons, and again I said, “I would never do that”. Fast forward to over a year later I find myself starting my training for the Austin Triathlon, in which I finished 17^th out of 71 in my age group. Once again, having said I would never do something, I found myself doing that very thing.

My latest business endeavor, Bearded Brothers was another such thing I told myself I would never do. Even though I had always wanted to own my own business, I told myself I didn’t want the responsibility, but looking back on it now I see that it was just fear. Now I am fully emerged creating, selling, and marketing the best energy bars on the planet. We are just 7 months into the venture and already have a presence in nearly 50 retail locations. We are currently working on getting our product into larger grocery stores such as Whole Foods.

So, the lesson to be learned here is, never say I would never do that, because you just might. And, if you catch yourself saying it – realize it could be fear holding you back. It’s likely just an excuse to not try something you really do want to do out of fear of failure or putting in the time it takes to learn it. When in doubt, just go for it!

Climbing, Cross Training, Health & Fitness, Tri Training by OrganicClimber
business, fear, rock climbing, Running, sport, trad, triathlon, venture
1 comment

---