Cameron Atlas
IMPACT INVESTING

Ryan Else

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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 up those passions which it sounds like you obviously engaged in that quite strongly and I Ilike that the line you used is getting in the way as yourself hmm do you want to share a bit about more what that means to you or what that meant at that time and has it changed.

Cameron: Yeah and how yeah that’s it’s played out multiple times and uh a little side noteyou mentioned about something that nobody knows or maybe a couple people know I want a busking competition when Iwas a maybe my mid-20s I think it was had a massive afro when took my digital piano down to the mall of Adelaide and be I beat the me the magician that wasuh you know it was pretty decent and yeah I’ve got number one prize so.

Jeffery: I love it I love it and thank you yeah yeah so I love it

Cameron: You know the what you’re sharing there though I think is really important because uh the getting intheir own way is what tends to happen is ideas can feed on themselves and curiosityends up being the bridge between where you are and where it is that you want to be but if we’re not open enough to create that bridge then we closed off from opportunities we close off becauseof the limiting patterns that are playing out and so curiosity is a beautiful way to open up you just think about curiosity it’s an open type of energy it’s what if it’s what could we do like that kind of language and there’s curious language and there’s curious tonality there and this happened uh when I was invited to deliver thetedx talk in Rome I was in Mexico City at the time and we had people from all these different countries recording the music video for that was going to play on the big screen behind while I performed itlive on stage and for my part in the video we had there was a grand piano that was in the apartment that I was in in Mexico City and I thought I’ll just film there and you know it’ll it’ll beokay but then everyone started recording their videos outside in Crazy locationsin front of castles and rivers and ruins and this is not going to cut it like I can’t just have me inside in this darkened room and everybody else in these crazy locations around the world and so I thought oh I just won’t won’t put myself in the video and I’llwork on doing that later in the year I’d say this idea of grand idea of taking a grand piano out into some crazy location and filming a music video there I’ll do that later this year I’ll just focus on getting this done and then one morningI was just lying in the bed there thought what if I could do it in this videoI only had a very short amount of time I had a couple weeks before I was going to be in Colorado and then I had to head to a you know I was booked in to a place in Budapest in Hungary uh which had a 150 year old piano for me to play on and rehearse on which did a whole other story there of it being Out Of Tune andthey Wonder worrying whether like all of the music that we that we’d recorded Was Out Of Tune so I had to go down to this local music store which had a digital piano for me to test it to make sure uh so classic in itself but coming back to Mexico City uh I just thought well what if I could okay what do I need in orderto to do that I thought well I need a piano I need a piano moving company Ineed a a location I need a videographer I need a photographer I need a drone pilot you know we need all of that we need the permits to in terms of location as well and and as I started thinking it sort ofyou’d be crazy not to at least have a go at this and Jeffrey within 24 hoursI had the piano either piano moving company I had the videographer eitherphotographer either drone pilot all we needed was the location and then a couple days later was able tofind uh and get in touch with Garden of the Gods in Colorado which is this crazyred rock formation and got permission they they were excited about it and sowe went there at Sunrise filmed there you know as the sun was coming up and the Sun hits the rocks it just turns this bright orangey ready kind of color and it’s just stunningly beautiful inthe photos yeah and in the video it looks like oh it looks like it’s such a beautiful day nope it was so cold it wasin about April time frame so it was freezing uh literally freezing cold atthat time and so I had to have these gloves in between takes put them back on theguy who was the videographer brought a thermos you know with him so that it’ll keep my hands warm but it’s one of thosethat doesn’t have any heat coming on the outside so it’s cold on the outside and hot on the inside so it didn’t work outa hole so he just had had to put gloves back on my you know skin came up apartfrom my nails because of how cold it was and how Frozen her fingers were so yeah crazy situation but the reason I shareall of that is that that was when I had the made that major insight as well of ohthe biggest thing getting in my way is myself I was the one that chose to believe that it wasn’t possible until I believed that it was possible and then went and made it happen I wasresponsible for that that was my limiting pattern of behavior and so with that comes okay if that’s possible what else is and notice the language there in the tonality comes up again it’s curious language and it’s curious tonality curious language and curious turn otherly opens you up uh even if you have curious language butyou don’t have the Curious turn I don’t think it can close you off you go ohwhat am I gonna do that’s a worry it’s a fear it’s as carcity type of energy that’s going on there and you’re going to retreat back because it’s going to feel unsafe out there and so you’re not going to take specific actions you’re not going todream bigger you’re not going to take risks you’re not going to have the courage to go for what it is that you believe in whereas if you use exactly the same language but with curious tonality andsay oh what are we gonna doexactly the same language completely different direction open up versus close us off and I think as companies as business owners as startups there needs to be that constant state of openness yes you need to be laser focused onceyou’ve made a decision as to how you’re going to execute but there also needs to be a time for possibility there also needs to be a time for dreaming there also needs to be a time for opening up and wondering what could be what could we do to solve this Challenge and that’s the thing with startups there is a constant state of challenges coming upand you’ve got to be so uh adaptable and Innovative in those moments becauseyou don’t necessarily have all the resources available to you that you that a large corporate mighthave and so you’ve gotta you’ve got to come up with some pretty pretty nifty solutions to the challenges that you’re experiencing and one of the ways that you go about that is through opening up through that curious language and what’s beautiful about that and the final thing I’ll say here is that you your bad idea might just give birth to somebody’sgreat idea and this exact thing happened when I sold everything that I owned just before that I thought I still want to travel I still want to coach people I still want to play music they were the three key aspects I wonder if there’s a piano that I could roll up in my suitcase that I could take around with me and I look on online and there is one it’s like 30 or somethinglike that on Amazon the most worst quality the worst quality piano you could possibly buy but it’s an option but for me learning on a piano growing up nowhere near an option I need to be able to feel the keys I need to be ableto feel the weight of those keys to get the expression there and the beautiful thing about that though was well later that day I think it was maybe the next dayI wonder if there’s places in the around the world that I could stay in that already have pianos in them and then worked out how to do this advanced search on on Google and found all these short-term rentals and there’sjust places everywhere around the world and crazily coming full circle that’show I ended up in Argentina that’s how I ended up in Mexico City and I wonder ifI didn’t have that bad idea to start with of maybe I couldhave a roll-up piano in my suitcase would I have been able to experiencethose things would I have been in Argentina to for that question to pop into my mind of if I died today what would I regret what have that then meant that I didn’t actually go forth and have the courageto uh go for it when it comes to having the piano on stage and then that definitely if that didn’t happen then Iwouldn’t have got invited to the tedx talk to deliver the closing talk there and having the grand piano on stage there and I wouldn’t have even been in Mexico City anyway to then uh allow me to uncover the biggest thing holding my you know getting in my ways myself and so he’s you know just crazy and beautiful and amazing that bad ideas cangive and create light around a great idea that you haven’t even thought of yet but you’ve got to give yourself permission to have bad ideas first and foremost and that’s so important.

Jeffery: I love that I’m not even sure I would say it’s a bad idea I actually think that

Cameron: Yeah great ideas

Jeffery: It’s the execution that may have been hampered like you said you can’t carry around a grand piano but you had to start somewhere and that exploration is what drove you into a bigger realm of of concept so if you take that think of the fact that today you can go into so many cities and there’s a piano sitting at the harbor front and you can sit down and playthere’s a piano at the airport that you can play that wasn’t there 10 years ago but there is now and someone probably said well why is there a piano here well when they looked at the numbers they said you know what there’s something unique about this tribe there are people that are probably 20 million people in North America that know how to play the piano well that’s a unique offering maybe if we drop one down someone will go and play it and long and behold there’s lots of video of people sitting down and amazingly playing it and now you’ve got experienced people showing up and playing these pianos just because because it’s so unique right so what you created or what you started with may have perceived as being a bad idea but I think in the the short coming but in the long run you actually opened up an entire world to doing something somewhatunique which is hey there is a tribe out here that wants to be able to travel go somewhere where there’s something thatthey can get comfort from which is a piano and I need to search for this so it’s just like a a person looking forTrails well those are common we got to have Trails so people will travel and have Trails or golf courses or something well there wasn’t anything for that artist and that creativity so now you’ve got all these unique experiences that have started to come out in the last say five six seven years and they’re matching to what you were being creativeabout 10 years ago so I I think it was a great idea just at the time you’re likeI can’t wheel this thing around as junk so maybe it was perceived as a bad idea but I honestly think it was brilliant because today it’s changed the way people want to connect with people and that goes from how you explore investingin a product or how you work with something is are there enough people out there that can do the same thing or wantthe same thing that I want and if there is now I’ve got to Market well you were able to determine that tribe which was Ineed to find some unique people that have these systems and actually when you probably were in there you probably metsome really cool creative amazing people all because you found someone that knew how to play a piano and I’m going to think you’d meet some of the coolest people because of thatjust that one element that isn’t super unique but it’s so unique that nobody would think I need to look for this andyou got to find that on someone else’s doorstep and then kind of hang out stay there for a bit and experience that Talent.

Cameron: Yeah I love that that’s uh yeah yeah I mean you’re spot on and you talk about from a unique standpoint I think there’s finding and this comes from a startup standpoint companies in general is if you can find something that’s both unique and valuable those two aspects is something that I continue to for my own self continue to ask the question of how am I creating in a way that’s both unique and valuable because unique on its own is uh anyone can create something unique but unique and valuable where you mentioned about having the market fit you know having that having a market where you’re you know you can build something if you can build both of those and then have something in alignment with something that you really enjoy doing at the same time that’s uh that’s a home run to me.

Jeffery: It makes life a lot easier it certainly gives you that energy that you need to move forward it reminds me of a couple stories when you were sharing that on my end and what it came down to and I was trying to remember there was a Jim Carrey movie where it was the opposite and he says instead of where he would say no he says yes so he ends up sayingyes to everything yeah and yes man and I think it kind ofthe the storyline of what you’re saying is that you know sometimes we have to change the narrative and the only way to change that narrative is that our comfort zone is to go what we’re familiar with and in your case you didn’t have a comfort zone of selling everything and going to other countries and traveling around and looking for pianos and looking for stories so thatwas super unique so you had to figure out how can I do this or in this environment where you had 24 hours to do something you notice what the creativity level that you could create in the shortest amount of time because of the time crunch you put yourself in and I think that’s what makes it exciting that’s what drove you to get to that end result is because it was the immediacy I have to have this done in order to deliver acts so if you take that type of Drive I look at where the most pivotal changes occurred on my end and thosehappen to always be where I didn’t want to be somewhere I fought against being there and then at the last minute made the change and that was actually the life-changing moment that occurred in my journey all the ones that were normal natural I went there and this happened the outcome wasn’t the same it was always when there was an emphasis on I don’t want to be here I drove 45 minutes past the meeting and then when I went to the meeting there was an investor there a few investors there that just tagged me down because the conversation occurred on a on a Podium that I wasn’t even meant to be part of and that changed and triggered everything I got invited to all of these investor meetings and boom now I’m you know investing going all over but that was a trigger point that wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t turn the vehicle around even though I drove past the place and went all the way back why didthat happen well there was something that Drew you to that but it was also that urgency I have to fix something Idon’t even know what I’m fixing but what is it and in your case you knew what you’re fixing but you waited to the last moment and that last moment is what triggered the bigger outcome so how do you take that type of energy and that focus and help startups realize that heyI’ve got something here but I need to action it and the problem is the action never occurs so you can’t create urgency for everything obviously but there is something that triggers that person just like it triggered you when that incident occurred across the street it was that moment trigger that changed you over into the next realm of your journey startups they look at a problem oh yeah that’s a problem and then they go to work and they forget about it what is that action that gets people to really react and change and I think that’s where you’ll start to see noteum to come to think of it when there’s big lay offs in Tech startup boom occurs that’s where the best startups come because they got laid off they’ve got Severance they’ve got comfort and now they start to challenge life and say I’m going to create a new company and then boom you’ve had.com you’ve had the financial crisis some of the most amazing companies come out of those times because of the controversy they had to manage right so how do you create that same controversy in regular their life just to get yourself to do something and step above your common ground.

Cameron: I this is a great conversation to have with your situation there’s a couple of things to engineer and this nicely dovetails into thisyou had an outcome that you know you wanted to achieve there’s a reason why you went back thereeven though it was painful even though it wasn’t what you wanted to do in that moment you you had an outcome and areason why you did that and that if if you don’t have that you are you’re up it right you’re right you’re massively up against it because here’s the thing if you understand then okay this is the outcome that I want to achieve and you might not have absolute Clarity let’s say somebody gets laid off for example and they go and create a startup they go I don’t know what I’m going to create yet but I know I want to make a name for myself I know I want to create some kind of change in the world I knowthis specific problem really gets to me and I want to be somehow have have a role in solving that yeah for me it’s around that well-being component of especially on the mental and emotional side and so because it’s huge it’s a huge Challenge and if I can play a bigat least some a role in that then that’s a great legacy to leave and so you might have some type of a subjective understanding as to what it is that you want to create and then at the end ofthe day the thing that gets somebody to move and do something is they’re either it’s pain and pleasure either you’removing away from pain or you’re moving towards pleasure if you don’t have enough friction there between where you are right now and where it is that you’re going or moving away from then why would you move like there’s no point there’s no there’s no hidden benefit thereif my perception is that I am just gonna be exactly as I am today tomorrow the only reason you might do that in terms of staying the same was well well that’s another day that I’m healthy as an example right but usually if it’s Iwant that outcome I’m here right now and there’s a gapand you’ve got to either increase the amount of pleasure Associated towards moving towards something or increase the amount of pain associated towards staying where you areand that’s what’s going to get you to move and there’s no right or wrong as to which is which is better uh the moving away from Pain usually is what’s easier because it’s I gotta get out of here uhit’s man you know it’s often why people’s biggest break throughs happen after the biggest breakdowns is because they’re forced to move there’s no other option they must moveand so there’s an almost like an X the external environment is forcing them to move what I would say is that if you canif you can develop the uh the ability to internally uh force you to change that is that then you’re not reliant onany external environment external environment still comes up and it’s a challenging situation but regardless of whether that’s there or not that’s also to me that’s ultimate empowerment that no matter what’s going on externally I know I’m going to execute in the way that I’ve deemed to be most appropriate at this timeand to do that first and foremost the outcome that I’m aiming to achieve and really drive up why why is it that Ido want that and for what purpose and why would I want them want that and eventually you’re going to get to somesort of because this would allow me to know that my life has been worthy of living this will allow me to know that I have done everything I could do on this Earth during my lifetime some kind ofgrandiose purpose right then what if you’ve got that built upthen your purpose the way I look at it is your purpose has got to be bigger than your problems purpose bigger than your problems and if you’ve got that then it doesn’t matter what comes upeven if you don’t feel like doing it there is a I’m going to do what’s required because I’m going to choose myand the way I see this is that most people will choose short-term Freedom atthe expense of long-term pain rather than choosing short-term pain with the benefit of long-term freedom and that’s what we’re talking about here is really that freedom is a sense of pleasure in whatever version of that that is for you it could be from a financial standpoint it could be from happiness it could be fulfillment it could be uh free like Mobility from a physical body standpoint as you get older there’s many different ways that you could Define freedom freedom from Mastery of a certain skill set which allows you to explore things that other people simply don’t have an opportunity to experience or explore and and when you look atshort-term pain versus short-term Freedom people aremore willing to eat that cookie to scroll through that social feed because it’s an instant release it’s an instant pleasure right thereand if you can understand and it’s something that I’ve come to understand for myself personally specifically with the piano you know I’m a what about 18 months specifically into the guitar now and for for the first 500 Days it was an average of four hours a day on the guitar every day for 500 Days and so it’s full on and and I you know there’s a level of proficiency definitely that’s happened there but I’ve been playing piano for 30 years now and so the skill set there is there is aa level of Freedom that comes from a depth of understanding and and if for those of you tuning in ifyou can really grab hold of and and really work to understand and then it’struly actually experience it the freedom the long-term Freedom that comes from Mastery is an extraordinary feeling because any time you know there’s an hour on piano that I do each day as an example uh in preparation for talks it’s hour a day on the piano Arrow vocals hour of guitar they are on the piano I’ll finish up there and when I finishit’s it’s like I go back through all of the moments that I’ve been through over the last 30 years in a spirit of like 10 seconds and it’s the it’s that feeling of Freedom it’s the feeling of that long-term Freedom that that is so muchmore rewarding than the short-term fix that you get from scrolling through a feedor from eating uh eating something that’s tempting as an example there or procrastinating because it feels easier to do or not not following up with those phonecalls not following up with the investors you’re not doing the work that’s boring and monotonous right but that’s that’s what leads to the long-term freedom and and when you get there as well and then there’s a never-ending Journey that you go on but you know you get to a version of it at least which then you move into the next version and it’s just a that’s what’s beautiful as well it’s just never ending is it it’s it’s it’s then the monotonous stuff that you’ve gone through that you really love and appreciate because it was those small moments thatled to the Grand version of yourself that you’ve become and that could be the version of the company that you builtand how you built it up from nothing to something truly extraordinary it could be a relationship of yoursthat was really challenging to begin with but it’s grown into something so beautiful you know getting incredible shape physically emotionally mentally spiritually financially well Financial well-being whatever that thing is for you or thingsaren’t for you that long-term freedom is if we canmore of us can be thinking about that to me a lot more Innovation will be donea lot more problems will get solved that are actually problems that we need to solve versus you know short-term fixes so yeah.

Jeffery: Uh wow that’s awesome so I think if you take all of what you just shared and Ithrow this into a quick summary that long-term the long-term Freedom comes from short-term challenges and the short-term challenges are actually created by your subset mind like your mind that has been thinking about these changes that you want to implement and you’re put into a situation where it’s gratification or long-term pain and you probably sit there and think why is the world against me why is this happening and that’s because you’re meant to change you’re meant to shift at that moment and your moment is to choose to make the shift and to change long-term gain or short term and the problem is that most people will take that short-term gain which is instead of looking at this challenge as being a wayto continue to grow so right now I’m financially being beat up well instead of going and figuring out how to build along-term play to get further and longer you do something that’s quick which doesn’t get you out of the gets you outof the rut but doesn’t get you out of the rut of what you’re doing and then you just become monotonized into what you’re doing so it hasn’t changed youhaven’t really morphed into the change you’ve just continued to work along so you’ll never get further than that and if you would have rode with the mindset of what was challenging you and use that as the energy to drive even harder you’ll find yourself Propel yourself into that big change which is loss of money loss of relation loss of all of these things because all you know on the other side when you come out you’regoing to be that much further ahead and being that much more smarter quicker faster whatever that might be so itsounds that if you take that time instead of not taking the action and you’re already in the back of your mind thinking I need to do X and I need to get here then you should be riding that wave and when you’re faced with those challenges instead of just going to the monotony of everyday life take the challenge go after it fight it getovercome these barriers and move into the right the right spot and I think the line you used which wasum uh which was I think really conducive to the conversation which is being curious I wonder and I wonder if I can do this I wonder if Ishould do this the world’s driving me this way I need to go harder what is that Innovation what’s that long-term freedom and how can I create an Outlook in this new Direction and take the New Direction instead of taking it to the world’s against me push yourself in this new New Path and find new entities or new people to support you on that new Journey because it sounds like that’s where you want to go anyways.

Cameron: Yeah I love that the you if you cancelebrate the challenges see anybody tuning into this what’s What’s led you to grow those challenging situations where you’ve come out stronger than before great friend of mine said you know you always come out stronger than before when I was being really challenges I wasjust complaining she said you always come out stronger than before oh you don’t understand though this is a really challenging situation and artists Ithought you know what she’s right and each time now when I approach that a challenging situation is you always comeout stronger than before man come on step up you got this yeah and that that languageof Step Up of utilizing uh language that is uncompromising but supportive the way I see this as being your uncompromising best friend where you’re celebrating your wins when you’reup you’re supporting yourself when you’re down but you’re giving you giving yourself a good kick up the butt when you need it right just to to Really step up and uh you know if you can celebrate the challenges that you’re experiencing then it becomes uh what’s the stock principle Amor Fatilover of Fate to love it all right and if you can love it all the good and the bad knowing that each of those situations is allowing you to become a more remarkable version of yourself andthen it’s your responsibility to continue stepping up in and through that you come out the other side like you mentioned much stronger better faster smarter and better for it.

Jeffery: And so the next time and you have to keep doing that and I think I learned uh when I was I remember sitting one time and we had closed a large deal and everybody’s like why are you not happy and I was like you know what I’m already thinking about the next thing I am happy I’m just not showing it but you’re you’re already so involved and passionately involved in what you’re doing that sometimes that overlay of the pain you’re you’re not you’re not seeingit because you’re trying to step over it and there’s nothing wrong with stepping over it because you’re going through it no matter what but it’s how you receive it and how you celebrate it along the way because I think those little wins um and I go back my mother used to sayto me celebrate every little win you have so when I graduated make sure you’re there I was like I’m too busy goand you know I remember when I graduated uh for the second my second graduation Iliterally went on stage with my backpack under on top of my robe because I was still in class for my next degree so Ihad to go on I didn’t want to put my back and everybody was like what’s this dude doing and it was because I had nowhere to do with it so I’m graduating while I’m in school still because I was on my next thing but you have to take those moments and I think at the end itreally was gratifying and if I look back at now kind of all the things that you shared is that no matter or what you’regoing to be faced with these it’s the fork in the road that you choose what is best for you and if your mind was already going down that New Path thenfigure out how to challenge that do it with a smile bring the new crew on with you and keep challenging and every entrepreneur always loves to blow things up so when things get complacent or get boring you’re going to rip it all apartany ways so if you already have your mindset in the direction you’re going kind of keep figuring out how to get there and challenge yourself even morealong that journey and that brings me to this I kind of overlapping peace which ischange and you and I have talked about this a few different ways and I’m going to share only because it is one of my favorite books and then I’ll I’ll dive into one more question before we change to the next segment but please there’s abook by uh the heath Brothers called change which is called switch so it’s a really good book that really helps you better understand how to modify and work with change and I know that throughout the years you’ve gone through these stages that you talked about and you’ve gone through changes and some of them are brought on by family or business there’s always something that contextually brings in change what are a couple of things that you can share on change and how to get through change so that you don’t end up on the wrong side of change but that you do stay positive and move forward but because you’ve gone through so many great changes and uh you know the last time I saw you live in person was in itwas in 2017 at uh David Suzuki was talking you were playing piano and itwas just a random thing that I had gone to I can’t even remember why I was there who I was with but I do remember being there and seeing you on stage and be more excited like oh my God I don’t you got up there and played in some you know made a great a great introduction and set up the whole stage for the event which was pretty amazing but all of that was part of change so there are a couple points that you can kind of share that help people really engage change and not take it as you know that it’s the most difficult thing in the world because we already know what is but how did you go through it and how do you let other people kind of work through that angle.

Cameron: Definitely there is two things that Iwant to mention one is you mentioned about pain before uh there’s something that I that I call pain stacking if you’re gonna go through the way I see this if you’re going to be going through a certain level of pain anyway find a few more things to stack on top of that that you know you needed to change with anyway if you’re going to experience in the pain anyway like why not stack it on top and go you know within reason you know whatever you can handle go go pretty extreme though ifyou can and if you can stack that on top of each other you were going to go through that challenging situation anyway if you come out the other end with five things done instead of just one thing all of a sudden you’re in a much better space and you don’t have to go through that pain over and over and over again you can go up to the next phase and also you’ve just seen and experience how you can go through that level of chat of pain and come out the other side even stronger so it’s a win-win there and that fits into the framework I’ll give you this I’llgive everyone a framework here so from a change standpoint and how to implement new habits or Implement a new strategy anything you have these four stages right so especially around us as humans and our us is changing whether it’s in business or it’s in personally you have certainty of outcome first and foremost you have flexibility in your approach you have recognition of your progress and you lock in the new identity allright you have certainty of outcome first which is understanding what is the outcome I’m aiming to achieve and why then you have the ability to be able to be flexible in your approach if you’re not you’re in a science lab all right and so if you’re flexible in your approach you’re able to go around different scenarios different situations so flexibility in your approach is critical if you’re not you’ll get stuck and just notice with each of these phases if you don’t have the previous one sorted you will get stuck if you’re not clear on the outcome you’re going tobe implementing stuff that takes you in the opposite direction if you don’t have flexibility in your approach it doesn’t matter how certain you are about theoutcome you’re wanting to achieve you won’t make progress because life is not a science lab business is not a sciencelab you can’t control the situation so you have flexibility in your approachso all of a sudden you’re able to adapt to the different scenarios that that are playing out any single second then as you’re being exposed to these challenges the third step you recognize the progress you’re making and this comes through there’s a process that I call reference points all right I’ll give you you know everyone tuning inhere the structure for a reference point which is the ability to be able to havethe self-talk that allows you to see the and notice and take note of the progress that you’re making and so this is splitin to past present and future past present future we want to disassociate from past associate to present and align to the Futured is associate from who I was associate with who I am align with who I’m becoming and so the more that you can disassociate from who you were which was old version of yourself the person whoused to implement in this way all of a sudden I’m implementing now in a different way so I’ve decided that I’mgoing to execute this strategy when it comes to raising funds or this strategy when it comes to generating clients thisstrategy when it comes to being healthier whatever the thing is and then I notice the difference that’sbeing made so I’m disassociating from who I was oh look at look at how you used to implement this look at theresults you’re getting now as a result of you doing something different imagine what it’s going to be like overthe next three six 12 months of continuously executing in this way keep going man this is extraordinary and sowhat you’re doing is you’re Bridging the Gap between the old version of yourself and getting over to the new version of yourself but the risk is is that under a pressured situation we revert back tothe level we’re most comfortable with and if you haven’t disassociated from who you were and who you are now you’re going to go back to the old version of yourself and keep repeating the same crap over and over and over again and wonder why ah I’m just Maybe not maybe I’m really not just cut out for this stuff why people go through diets righton the on the health and well-being side and then they end up putting on more weight than before is because they haven’t built in enough reference pointsand enough recognition of the progress that then leads to the identity being locked in and all of a sudden it becomes because in this fourth stage this is who I am not this is what I do which is instage three this is who I am and if it’s who I am it would feel weird not to do this now it will feel weird not tofollow up it will feel weird not to go out and have that work out first thing in the morning it will feel weird to not implementing this way and it goes it’s the same as onthe belief side if you have a negative belief about yourself uh the one that I had of uh you know your ways come outstronger than before right I Implement that in this way it leads to a certain number of actions if that’s my identity now and this is who Iam I always come out stronger than before you’re gonna act in a completely different way when you go through these stages to then get to another stage of identity which is the next level of yourself which could be the next level of your company the next level of your leadership the next level of your relationship the next level of yourhealth and well-being whatever the situation is and so those four stages what I love about each of those fouris that there is an internal and external component to each of thoseinternal certainty of outcome I know what I want to achieve everyone else in the marketplace says itcan’t be done there’s a lack of certainty of outcome from the external world if you don’thave the certainty of outcome internally that’s enough to overcome people’s doubtyou will give up and you haven’t even gotten past the first stage yet to be able to get through any of this other stuff same with recognition or progress this often happens is someone will givesomebody else a compliment and they go Ah that’s just you know that was this person that did that or oh you’re just saying that because you know you need to be nice you need to take on those compliments internal recognition of progress becauseif the external recognition of progress isn’t there which by the way in a startup there’s gonna be a bunch of timewhere the recognition of progress is not there from the external world the clients aren’t going to be coming onboard the customers aren’t going to be knocking down your door investors are going to be saying noyou’re not going to have the best employees yet you need to have enough recognition ofthe progress that you’re making so that then you take the external world as feedback rather than validation because if you’re taking external world as validation the external World becomes thenwho it is or what it is that you execute on or don’t execute on oh it’s maybe I’m not good enoughmaybe I’m not cut out to do this whereas feedback allows me to go ahthat didn’t work what am I going to do differently that would allow me to get a different outcome yeah and so then recognition of progress is hey I’m continuing to try I continue to do continuing to change continue tochange those four stages internal and external you can pinpoint where it is that you’re going wrong and then Rectify that and all of a sudden you’re firing again.

Jeffery: Absolute gold I want to like cut that out I don’t know you can’t even cut it out but just post it up on the wall man now that’s brilliant I I was running out of space to write so I hope I can remember how it goes but yeah I think I think guys those four pieces really nicely on the the stages of change and and the one that I think really resonated was uh the last part where you talked about the feedback and notinternalizing the feedback as against you but how you turn it around to makeit about a learning exercise to enable you and the word there is enable you have to figure out a way to enable yourself from that feedback because I think of the startup pitching their model or pitching for money they’re always going to get a lot of negativity oh you can’t do this you can’t do that I know that just is human nature people don’t see the vision of you in 10 years they see the vision of you today and youneed to see yourself in 10 years and where this is going to morph because really the line is this is what I’m doing today this is Cameron 1.1 and next week it’s 1.5 and the month and two months from now and two years from now it’s going to be camera 2.9 and that’s the difference that’s going to happen isthat if you’re always evolving and learning and building that all of these things become a learning ability for you when someone gives you the negative feedback you can internalize that quickly shift it around and find the positive and figure out how do I alter what I’m doing to get to that next layer and I think that that is so valuable because I think a lot of the time we get defeated by all of the words around ourselves and we don’t listen to the words that are actually guiding us forward which are the pieces that you need to pull out of there to find that positive outlook.

Cameron: 100% and make sure that the feedback that you’re taking is from a warranted source because some people’s feedback is just not worthy you know someone’s got their everyone’s got an opinion right you you go you’ve got to make sure that you’re taking on the feedback from the the people that matter uh which if you’re targeting a certain Market there’s a good piece of feedback but if somebody else that’s completely separate to this doesn’t quite understand it so what let them have their ever have their opinion Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and continue on go forth.

Jeffery: Don’t let it defeat defeat you because that’s not what it’s about right to your point it’s find the right people that are the a-listers in that space take their feedback take it as criticism use that to morph your opinion or change andthen try to uh appeal to the other people but it really isn’t as important as to the market you’re going after sowell shared well shared we’re going to kind of pivot now because I think we can keep going on this because this isobviously very exciting and uh well well provided on the coach side there’s a lot of great tidbits here that every founder can learn from every business owner or everybody just in general personally on how they can adapt to change because weall want it we’re just too afraid to implement it and I think you’ve created a good way for you to kind of work through those stages which also brings a comfort when you work through the stages it’s kind of knowing what those are which is uh a friend and I were talking about um how one of their sons was put into Kung Fu and he’s six or sorry into kick boxing he’s six foot four big big kid but he was is as his dad would sayhe was a teddy bear and he was afraid of everybody and then when he put him in here his his son changed he became more confident and that confidence came because he understood how to take care of himself as being a bigger person he knew how to stabilize himself and how to balance himself now where he didn’t have those things before and that helps youin that next progression in life which is the same thing you’re going to do when you’re dealing with nose and noseand hundreds of nose all the way through it’s how you internalize and change and make that change to go forward so that you could be a better version of you but you can also go to your 10-year plan and not look at it as I have to alter thisand I’m just going to stay my regular job there’s a way to kind of tackle that forward and take the value out of it soI appreciate all of that it’s uh very well shared we’re going to jump now into our um uh one use case if you will of an experience or a moment that you’ve had that really defines what it takes to be an entrepreneur you know just kind of aquick story that kind of shares what you feel a case study would be that entrepreneurs are going to go through and say you know what this is going to happen but here’s the outcome and you got to look forward and I think everything we’ve talked about really defines that but I’m sure you do have agreat case study of a business or a Founder that you’ve worked with that you could share.

Cameron: Yeah there’s one example there’s a client recently that I was going through some some very serious challenges both personally and professionally both personally and professionally and was very challenged by this very challenged by this one of the things that we went through was understanding what is the worst case scenario what’s the worst case scenario here and we laid it out and we wrote it down and realized that okay it’s not an ideal situation but it’s not the end of the world either in his mind he had made it out to beingthe end of him but the reality is it’s not it’s an undesirable situation right absolutely it’s not the ideal situation but he’s gonna be okay that ability to be able to make peace with the worst case scenario is what will allow you to go forth without fear because if there’s nothing to fear anymore if you’re if you’ve made peace with the worst case scenario if you know that even in the worst outcome I I’m gonna be okay then and make sure you write that down as well because in your head we just we tend to make things out to be much bigger than what they are what they actually are and having that as a as a grounding point to be able to then lift off from to beable to then solve the challenges that you’re experiencing it’s it’s huge it’s huge and so I’d say that you know I mean there’s a bunch that I could share but that one in particular is pretty recent and I think you know especially in today’s world there’s challenges going on people have different challenges uh situations that they’re being uh very challenged by and again if you can make peace with that worst case scenario you can come from a more abundant curious place while still being strategic and methodical.

Jeffery: I like that it’s taken the worst cases scenario and it’s working backwards it’s basically saying Here’s the final outcome that you’re going to be if we don’t change make this happen and do these element different things we take that and work our way back we’re going to come up with a better plan that will hopefully get us not in the worst case scenario but let’s figure out what that worst case scenario is and I think that’s a great way to look at even at this early onset of your business here’s my business here’s what the worst outcome can be if we don’t do these things and every time you plan that next uh quarterly meeting or that next yearly strategy is what is the worst outcome that we’re not going to get to and if we don’t do this we’re going to be out of money we’re not going to raise we’re not going to hit these kp is so no one will invest and we’ll never grow the business so now let’s take that back and figure out what has to get us there so that we can avoid that worst step but also findthe right steps that are going to get us into that next stage so I think that really aligns.

Cameron: Absolutely nicely you know that reverse engineering because and then in a day you go you go out three to five years time or ten years time whatever the time frame is get back to 12 months what has to be done getback to 90 days what has to be done what am I going to do this week and then on a weekly basis what worked what didn’twhat am I going to do about it what do I need help with those four questions and do that over and over and keep changing keep repeating keep adapting keep tweaking and and that as a structure interms of rhythms those 90 days then spans into the 12 months the 12 months goes into the three to five years and you know all the unit you can just laser focus in on the things that need to be done over this next week or next month.

Jeffery: I love it and it reminds me of a great book called uh World Inc and what theydo there is they talk about some of the world’s largest Brands one of them being uh I think it was Toyota and Toyota plans 10 20 years out and they’re like how do you have time to plan that or even know how to plan that out and that was part of their main strategy was that in order for us to get where we need to be we need to plan really far out and then we can bring it back and restructure it along the way but knowing that that’s where our end goal is and then keep coming back to that so that 10-year 20-year projection may change but at least it gives you a Target and you figure out how to get there from today and what modifications do you need to make to you to your business and to where you’re going in order to get to that and I think to your alignment to what you said that’s really what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to figure out how to avoid all these pitfalls and those pitfalls coming with having a plan and maybe you have to hire coaches and other people to keep you aligned to all of that because that’s a lot of work to be able to keep regurgitating and figuring out how can I get through this and how do I do it in apositive way that doesn’t make me feel like I should just give up because this is too hard or too much work and I thinkthose plans of being able to see where you want to be in the future makes a big difference.

Cameron: I couldn’t agree more and make sure as you’re planning that out for your company plan it out if you’re a founder planning out for your life there’s a reason why you’re building this yes it’s to solve challenges yes it’s to make an impact yes it’s to leave a legacy but it’s to create a life for yourself as well and if you build something that ends up leading to dysfunctional relationship your health and well-being suffering you’re not getting to know your kids like these things that is maybe the reason you went into it in the first place get clear on what those are yeah there’s going to be certain sacrifices you’re going to have to make on the way but that again should be a long-term Freedom that you’re shooting for and get clear on both sides on the personal and the professional side because I’ve had too many clients come to me who have exited out of a company have no idea what they’re going to do next there’s a very extreme loss ofpurpose because all of a sudden I’d never have to work ever again and and yet I’d have no sense of purpose because everything was all about that and the other areas of their life are really strugglingand that’s not okay you deserve the opportunity to have a life that’s extraordinary and that comes from yes having an extraordinary company and exiting out well and raising and doing all whatever whatever it is that you’re going to do there but it also comes from the areas of yourlife that you deem to be most important to you and usually it’s going to revolve around those areas that I’ve mentioned relationship family health and well-being maybe friendships and belonging and thenthe professional side now maybe there’s one or two others but they’re usually the main ones that come in there makesure you’ve got clarity about what extraordinary looks like to you so last thing that I’ll mention here is a songthat I wrote in 2020 called worth while and I was reflecting on my own uh life and also my I don’t have kids of my own at the moment niece and nephews lives and who are they going to be coming what are they going to create in this world and are they going to live a life that’s deeply fulfilling and the final chorus there’s these four questions thatI continue to ask myself and clients continue to ask themselves as well what have I become was it all I really loved what have I given up and was it worth whileand if you can answer those four questions hand on heart that it was worth while enough times in your lifetime you’re going to live a very extraordinary life if you answer enough times the answer isno that’s where regret Creeps in and you get 10 20 30 years into the future yougo man I wish I’d done this differently and you don’t want to be doing that especially when you’ve heard this now is you’re going to know in 10 20 30 years time oh you know what I had that wisdom I had that insight and I didn’t do anything about it well that’s on you now that’s your responsibility and ifyou haven’t taken responsibility for that and taken action in alignment with that it’s going to kick your ass later on might as well put the things in place that are going to allow you to experience an extraordinary life now even though there are going to be sacrifices along the way ensure thatit’s leading to the long-term freedom and it’s whatever that long-term freedom is for you.

Jeffery: I love it Cameron that’s uh brilliant I love the extraordinary Life part but well said well shared we’re gonna we’re gonna jump into a couple of quick last segments uh we’re gonna do this one that always excites meI it’s the newer one which is the 60 second rent so I’m gonna time this uh Ithink you uh you know the the structure to this you’ve got 60 seconds to to rip through and let me just pull up theall right I’ll let you know when we’ve got five seconds left but the point of this is to just rip on anything that you think is great I will try and force the rebuttal and you’ve got one comment after that and then we’ll jump into the last segment ready to roll.

Cameron: Let’s do it man

Jeffery: All right you’re on I’m gone with uncompromising best friend we talked a bit about this many people especially inthe startup World especially across the board are Their Own Worst Enemy If Your Own Worst Enemy you’re kicking yourself when you’re down and when you’re up you’re saying it’s not going to last that’s not okay if you’re with your ownself you spend far too much time with your own self not to enjoy your own company instead if we shift that over and we go to a best friend yeah you’re going to support yourself when you’re up you’re going to sell you support yourself when you’re up celebrate when you’re up you’re also going to support yourself when you’re down but when you’re not taking the action you need to you’re probably going to cut yourself some slack uncompromising best friend celebrate when you’re up it’s going to support you when you’re down and when you’re notdoing what you need to do the language becomes come on man you’re better than this Step Up step up and it’s not beating yourself up it’s not tearing yourself down it’s notsaying You’re a worthless piece of crap it is saying you are better than this you know it let’s go.

Jeffery: I love the Let’s Go part and I think it’s very motivational on all aspects ofwhat you’ve just shared so my rebuttal to this and maybe it’s not a rebuttal the supporting factor is who do you find that can help you when you’re in those down days when you’re just trying to figure out how do I get around this corner what is it that you do to overcome that because I think to your point you have to look for the Silver Lining and every little thing that you do listen to the voices around you and find that game plan to keep plowing forward but when you are hitting a wall who’s one person you reach out towho is that person that you know will give you that Insight that you don’t expect and is it a random person they just asked on the street a question and you get the answer you’re looking for or do you have a go-to

Cameron: Yeah there’s a go-to there’s multiple go-to’s so it depends on what Challenge and which challenge like which area of Life The Challenge isin and so I’m going to if there’s a specific area that I’m being challenged in I’m going to find the person or thepeople that have the solution that I’m aiming to have in that specific area andfind out and I asked the question what am I missing where am I falling short what haven’t I thought of because there’s something in there there’s a blind and I’ll say I have a blind spot around this what is itand then there’s there is one guy in particular a great friend of mine who’s back in Australia uh we catch up on amonthly basis and I we’ve got to just got a great friendship where when we jump into the call we know very quickly who we’re going to be focusing on for the day and for that you know our session our conversation where there is no holds bar it is all right I’m gonna share exactly what is on my mind and you need those people in your life no one no sugar coating this is where you’re falling short this is where you’re not stepping up come on you’re better than this which is in in its own right an uncompromising best friend.

Jeffery: I like this that you’re better than this line and I think we all need to lookinto ourselves to figure out can we find someone that we can trust enough to spend some time on a zoom call or in person once a month and just hash about and let all the cards fall and see where that lands so I think that that’s very valuable share to get people to think is there somebody I can do this with that’s going to bring enough value or at least trigger my mindset to be able to come up with a solution to move me forward because there’s no point in staying locked up when you can get out and expand your mind and have somebody help you do that.

Cameron: Yeah completely agree

Jeffery: All right we’re gonna go into the uh the quick questions personal side rapid fire and then we’ll wrap it up so uh all right first question what is the piece of advice you give Founders nine out of ten times.

Cameron: Those four questions what have I become was it all I really loved what have I given up and was it worth while and if it wasn’t let’s do something about it

Jeffery: I love it do you have a philosophy orany rules that you stand behind

Cameron: Yeah I mean a bunch of what we’ve shared today I mean the major one is the biggest thing getting in my way is myself that one is just so incredibly empowering.

Jeffery: What tech will Define the world in the next five years
Cameron: Hmm AR

Jeffery: Who is your hero mentor and why

Cameron: Grandpa is uh was a remarkable human he started woodworking when he was 80. and it was a great lesson in in you know for me of this is someone who was never too old to reinvent himself.

Jeffery: I like that what is your biggest fear or phobia in business today

Cameron: Not experiencing not experiencing the full potential that I knew I was able to execute on if I wasn’t able to execute on that that would uh that would allow me to you know result in me feeling that I haven’tlived up to what I could have actually executed on which would be a real shame

Jeffery: That pressure the pressure that that’s a lot of pressure yep totally uh totally understand that what is your biggest goal that you find that you’re going to achieve in the next two to three years like what’s something that you’ve just nailed on the wall have to do that

Cameron: Um is it an enhancement of what I’ve done already I want to have a grand piano out under the stars for a certain type of retreat uh for a corporate type event so whether that’s with a string quartet or an orchestra or something like that some uh you know cool experience like that.

Jeffery: I love it and one last question on on this uh this portion if there’s one thing that you could change what would it be and Part Bin your Ted Talk is there anything that you would update being that it’s been almost five years since the Ted Talk is there anything that you would say differently I had to throw that in somewhere becauseI really enjoy the Ted Talk I don’t think there’s anything to change but if there was you’re the artist so you would say yeah you know what I probably wouldn’t have wore that shirt but everything else is great but you tell me.

Cameron: Two two things on the Ted Talk side uh one I would have changed the title uh so it wasn’t the lesson that I learned is that the title really matters and a title we didn’t get right and so from a uh being able to impact then umber of people that it could make yeah impacted a decent number of people but uh title big time uh and secondly it would be I look at the both the piano skills and the vocal ability that I have now uh you know it’s like I said it’s a five years later of going through a very intense training period And I look back and go oh I cringe a little bit when I sing so uh yeah there would be the inserting of a maybe a dub track.

Jeffery: That’s the artist yeah yeah always

Cameron: Always growing and evolving so yeah

Jeffery: I love it all right we’re gonna jump into some last last rapid personal questions and then we’ll end it up there uh so pick one or the other most famous person that pops in your mind.

Cameron: Guides

Jeffery: First brand that pops in your mind

Cameron: Nike

Jeffery: Book or movie

Cameron: movie

Jeffery: Superman or Batman

Cameron: Batman

Jeffery: Fortune cookie or birthday cake

Cameron: fortune cookie

Jeffery: Five minutes with Basils or Oprah’s

Cameron: Basils

Jeffery: Mountain or Beach

Cameron: Mountain

Jeffery: Bike or run

Cameron: bike

Jeffery: Big Mac or Chicken McNugget

Cameron: none

Jeffery: Trophy or money

Cameron: hmm trophy

Jeffery: Beer or wine

Cameron: neither

Jeffery: All right Ted talk or bookreading

Cameron: TED Talk

Jeffery: Tiktok or Instagram

Cameron: Insta

Jeffery: Facebook or LinkedIn

Cameron: LinkedIn
Jeffery: Favorite movie and what character would you play

Cameron: Oh secret life of odomity is a classic and I’m gone multimedia my friend

Jeffery: I love it that’s awesome great great movie favorite book

Cameron: Um this is a great one that I’m reading right now so it may be recency bias so Peak great book and it’s on how to develop expertise

Jeffery: Peak I like it favorite sports team

Cameron: Port Adelaide which is over in Australia AFL Australian football team

Jeffery: That’s good I like that that’s pretty cool all right we’re almost there what’s the meaning of success to you .

Cameron: Living in alignment with your values

Jeffery: And what is your superpower

Cameron: Helping people to see what they can’t see and helping them move through that

Jeffery: Pretty bang on I would probably throw in that you also have people to engage and to be comfortable in sharing and I think that you have an ability to get people to action things and move forward and I remember from the first time we met which was at a dinner in Toronto and I’m gonna say it was back in 2011 I don’t remember the specific year even though I tend to always remember years or dates but I do remember you engaged we had a great conversation and that’s kind of where all things have started so I think you have a very good way of getting people aligned into where you’re going uh you share very well in your vision so I think to all of the things you shared today I’m going to say Cameron it’s been an honor and a pleasure to finally get the opportunity to interview you and learn a lot more about yourself but you shared a lot of fantastic things it took many many notes of course but I want to thank you again for all of your time especially uh being on the other side of the world and jumping into the podcast so thank you for that and the way we like to end our show is we like to give you the last word so anything that you want to share to the community investor or startups business business Minds I turn it over to you to share that and please also share how people can get a hold of you and reach out to you .

Cameron: Yeah final thought you’re capable of so much more than you think you can do right now you’re capable of so much more that’ll be the big one just to finish with just imagine what’s possible uh Cameron Atlas is the website and at Cameron Atlas is the social handle for the main social channels so we’d love to connect with you guys.

Jeffery: I love it that’s great I was too quick on the buttons there but uh thank you very much for sharing that camera brilliant thank you.

Cameron: Absolutely welcome

Jeffery: Okay there was wow there’s so much stuff to unpack so I’m just going to surface level some of these but uh you know I think that some of this really goes back to just understanding when it goes to the change part and being able to move yourself forward as an individual as a business um you know he mentioned the four stages you know I I think it’s brilliant that if you understand this technique how it can help you while you’re being faced with challenges you know and to make that change to go forward is note whatthe change is being flexible and then referencing the change point and where you start to progress forward you know disregard the past understand your present figure out what the future is and where you’re going and if you’regetting there and you know the realization component to that and then making that change and then kind of denoting the new you and I think those really make a big difference on how you tackle problems how you tackle things that you’re being faced with and how you manage manage pain and manage things that you’re going through as a business or when you’re being attacked from all fronts how do you morph and step intothis and make it better and take that negativity and change that into a positive and that goes back to the you know the pitching Or the critical feedback you get how do you take that in internalize it come up with a solution and move it forward and make it a progressive benefit to you instead of taking it as oh I should get out of hereand I don’t fit I think there’s so many good valuable pieces to that and I think we have to take you know summarize allof this and and take how this is all being delivered and that is that change is inevitable and how can you make that change benefit you and how can you find the positives in the feedback that you’re getting and surround yourself with the new team when you start to make those changes and get the support that you need and to his point he has someone he talks to on a monthly basis where they can just rant and throw everything out that those things make a big difference in your well-being but also in your mindset of how you’re going to get to where you want to be and have that long-term goal have that Innovation have that change figure out what that friction is that’s going to change you and keep making you become the better version of yourself and all of these things take time and they won’t just happen overnight so remember that that this is all part of the plan and this is all part of you strategizing where you want to be and once you figure out where you want to be you’ll continue to work to that angle until you get to the next stage until you figure out where you want to be next so always figure out what that long-term freedom is I love that love what is that long-term Freedom that you are looking for and then work your way towards that so thank you again Cameron that was fantastic thank you everyone for joining us today if you enjoyed this conversation please feel free to share with your friendssubscribe to our YouTube channel or please follow us on Spotify apple andor Stitcher feel free to share an audio or video clip around our show and we may include it in one of our future podcasts you can follow find us and follow us at marketing openpeoplenetwork.com or at LinkedIn supportersfund your support and comments are truly appreciated please visit us at supportersfund.com or startup events at openpeoplenetwork.com thankyou and have a fantastic day.