Cameron Atlas
IMPACT INVESTING

Ryan Else

#136

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Speaker | Storyteller | Executive Coach | Singer-Songwriter

Forcing change on your terms – Cameron Atlas

“At the end of the day the thing that gets somebody to move and do something is either pain or pleasure”

ABOUT

Cameron delivers experiential keynotes, blending live music on stage with insights on high performance, leadership, creativity & innovation. His unique approach transforms audiences and empowers them to become more than they ever thought was possible.

With more than 300 songs written about topics including purpose, resilience, courage, and overcoming adversity, Cameron’s music has been heard millions of times across 195 countries and is performed live by Cameron on a grand piano and acoustic guitar during his keynotes.

When he’s not on stage, Cameron enjoys privately coaching founders, executives & family offices, helping them build high performing teams. He is also a National Geographic Explorer, Speaker Resource for YPO, TEDx Speaker and a proud uncle to 4 remarkable kids.

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THE FULL INTERVIEW

Cameron Atlas

The full #OPNAskAnAngel talk

Jeffery: Perfect welcome to supporters fun ask an investor I’m your host Jeffery Potvin and let’s please welcome Cameron Atlas at keynote speaker coach Ted Talk and Creator as our first superhuman for today welcome Cameron it’s real pleasure having you join us today.

Cameron: Great to be here man looking forward to it.

Jeffery: Love it well Cameron before we Dive Right into this and and I’m excited to get to chat with you today and not because of the great content that we’re going to be able to put out today but because I think I’ve been following your journey and we connected probably 10 12 13 years ago and I think throughout that time I’ve been excited to follow along your journey because you’ve done a lot of great things you’ve changed a lot not only on the music side the coaching but you’ve just done so many things that make anybody in business think man this guy is learning so much doing so many things and I think that’s what got me excited about being able to have you on today and when I said the first superhuman is because I haven’t really figured out what this segment is going to be when we do a lot of obviously everything investor-wise and I thought man this would be such a good fit for how startups actually get out in the world and what they do when they challenge the world and I think you’re the first person that came to mind on the person I know that really challenges the world every single day and comes up with new ways to be amazing in this world and I’m glad that we got to have you on today oh dude I’m really appreciate that it’s a it’s a big setup a better deliverright you’ve got this well the best way to create this and this and to start off is the is that you’ve myself so you can go all the way back from your TED Talks all the things schooling everything you’ve done just give an overview of kind of where you’re where you’re coming from and then one thing about you that nobody would know.

Cameron: Um all right so we’ll go right back to start with uh I was born in Outback Australia and and spent I did all my schooling out there had singing lessons over the phone you know in grade 12 because there was no singing teacher within 500 miles of where I live so thisis days before the internet was good enough to have any kind of video call or anything like we’re doing now so uh sothat was an experience in itself and got to experience that how technology can allow us to connect in ways that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to and have access to opportunities that we wouldn’t otherwise have opportunities to to access and so uh you know when I when I moved to the city you know there was aabout 13 years ago there was a pretty traumatic experience of somebody committing suicide across the road from where I where I was living at the time uh Mother’s young boy it was only 17 years old and and myself and another neighbor were the first two people that were over there and yeah to see and experience everything that go like that it’s something that you never never forget you know to see a mother with a teenage blood in her arms is uh is pretty yeah pretty dramatic and so to see thethe father and the grandparents come home afterwards and seeing the look of absolute helplessness on their faces wasa was enough to have me ask a couple of big questions of you know a statement first of no one should have to gothrough that not the boy who felt like that was the only way out and nor the family and everything they would havegone through afterwards and so the second thing was dude there’s people that need help whatare you doing about it and I think that’s it’s often how a business startsright it’s often how we we develop a sense of purpose is we ask ourselves aquestion and we get very passionate about solving the problem that we’re asking thequestion about and for me it was about that element of suffering the the pain that we gothrough in our lives and for me to begin with when I started coaching which is afew months after I you know enrolled in a coaching course and I had no intention no intention of working with any kind of business at all it was simply to help people that were going through challenging situations and then a couple of clients in uh one of the guys just happened I was working with on a personal level happened to be a business owner as well and then as we worked on the personal stuff it allowed the business to grow at the same time and I thought huh maybe there’s a is there a connection between the two and andthat’s been a a beautiful journey to go through over the last what 13 years now of of realizing that there is a huge connection between who we are as human beings how we show up the limiting patterns of behavior that we often developed as a child that then come into a business World whether it’s struggling to trust people uh whether it’s not believing in ourselves because we don’t believe we’re worth it isn’t imposter syndrome that can come in there’s so you know comparing ourselves to other people uh thinking that we need to go in in a certain direction when we really want togo in another Direction and so we end up building something that makes us completely miserable um and so there’s so many patterns thatplay out and right up to today you know the oh it was about 70mid 70s is the older oldest guy that I worked with and even him we went back to Childhood in the first sessions right so you know there’s there’s usually stuff that’s playing out underneath the surface that if we can get to that wecan get to the core of the challenge that’s playing out and that’s being included as well I still rememberit was in 2017 I it was after I’d sold it I’d sold everything that I owned and went on a on a journey around the worldand it was a beautiful experience and I found myself in Argentina uh in Buenos Aires andI was playing on a on a grand piano creating some music thereafter filming in Colombia andI had this question just pop into my mind of if I died today what’s the one thing I’ve regretted not doingand it’s just such a great question I continue to ask myself that question over and over and over again uh because you know if you’re younger even if you’re in your 50s 60s even into your 70s if you go right so you get to theend of your life what’s it been about to make it all all worth whileand you know you could be there’s an exercise that I did as a you know right near the start of the coaching Journey they’d say sit on a rocking chair andyou’re 80 years old and you’re looking back over your life what’s it been about to be really worthy of of uh of a you know a worthy Pursuit and that’s a great exercise to go through and a warranted exercise to go through still now but it can lead to some complacency because you know for me I’m only noteven halfway through that yet and so now I could get around to that stuff but if I’m gone if I’m dead today and I’ve got no other chance to get something done so often I’ve found with clients and forme personally it was straight away it was having a grand piano on stage while delivering a talk so immediately it came to my mind I thought well if that’s what you really want to do man you know I’d given talks I’d delivered coaching engagements and but I hadn’t found a way to bring the two together in a way that was uh impactful valuable and made an impact in people’s lives and so I went about making that happen you know build out the relationships reached out to the network this is what I’m doing and with Clarity and conviction was ableto then be delivering you know deliver a talk was it three months later and it’s been a wild wild Journey sincethen you know the tedx talk you mentioned that was in Rome and we had people from 40 different countries around the world involved in a music video and then performing the song live on stage and you know there’s uh it’s just a great experience ofuh the biggest thing getting in my way is myself and that has been my experience over and over and over again and as a result of that there’s ultimate responsibility that could get taken and I find that with clients as well is that if we can take ultimate responsibilityfor the results we’re getting or more importantly the results we’re not getting then we have full power to change that.

Jeffery: I love that and there well there’s a lot of things done back there that you that you’ve shared along this journey and the one that it really surfaces is that life’s an experience so all of these things that you’ve created are experiences and the one that transformed you in the journey was obviously what happened in front of you when you were there earlier on but if you go back as you mentioned the one that probably transferred you even trans transitioned you even more into the music world was doing something over the phone and learning that experience and that kind of stapled something into you that this is a passion I love this but you didn’t move it in the direction you needed it to and then this next experience opened you up a little bit further and then as you started to learnand you got involved in more things that all kind of collided together and then you’re able to open