Finding the Courage: A Conversation with Mountaineer Samantha Bye

All right, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Launch button where we interview entrepreneurs, business owners, real estate investors that have found their passion and want to help you get past that next level, so you can achieve the success that they do. And we got an amazing individual here today, Samantha bi, she is from the UK. But here's the cool thing. She found her passion. And her passion is taking people to the highest heights. Not necessarily in their business, but in the world. right all the way to the top of the world. She's taken people mountaineering, all the way up to 6000 meters. For those of the those of us in the US, that's over 18,000 feet. So it's amazing opportunity here to meet Samantha. And Samantha, tell everybody a little bit about your background and how you found your passion.

Thank you for having me here. So I've been mountaineer for 20 years. And I was very fortunate that I got into expeditions. Here in the UK when I was a teenager, we did a program called the Duke of Edinburgh Award as part of a extracurricular activity. And when mountaineering

so did you, did you choose that

or choose? Yes, I was given the opportunity. Yeah. And I've always been sporty, but I knew I had stamina. And I just was I've always always connected to nature. And again, like coming full circle, like nature, connectedness is like a big thing that I didn't realize when I was younger, like playing in the fields and climbing trees and just being happy by the seaside, like really connecting to all of the elements. It sort of took me down that journey of like expedition Ng, and when I was a teenager, when I hit 18, I did the highest level of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. And at the time, my instructor said, I think you've got something I'm putting you on. And at the end as like an extra perk, he put me forward for my mountain leader training, scholarship, which was really great, because at the time, there wasn't any females that did that. And as always, we were just chatting before the podcast, went in the UK, outdoor pursuits and outdoor education was not a proper job. And the peers at the time and the people that you respect your parents, the people around you said, you need to go and get a real job. So I did go and get the real job and did management, business management corporate world. And I did my mountaineering and I also did sailing expeditions in the evenings, in the summer time, and also at the weekends or on my holiday time. So I kept all of my qualifications up to date, and cut a long story short, and I got to the age of 22, I got to the highest point in my business career and I was bored was not fulfilled. I was not in a place where I was thriving anymore. And I just like enough's enough, I need to leave and completely changed everything. And this was during the economic crisis. And everyone was, what on earth are you doing like that? You've got a paid job, you've got this and that. I'm not happy

with benefits. You got benefits? Yeah, not happy.

And so I quit my job, didn't know what I was going to do. And I just thought, I know that I'm going to do something with my mountaineering outdoor world. And two weeks later, I was leading a trip to Peru and Bolivia. And I've taken nearly 1000 I think I was trying to work out the other day, taking quite a few 1000 people on expeditions from youth expeditions all the way through to adults. And I've done a lot of jungle jungle expeditions in Madagascar and Borneo, as well as going up to high altitudes, over in the Himalayas and the Karakoram as well as in South America. Africa, broadspectrum.

jungles, mountains, you gotta be like, I'm just an expedition or I think we need to change that expedition. Are you want to go anywhere in the world? Yeah, I can take you with your survival training through all of the answers. That's the big thing, right is it's not the easy part of just going it's all the things that might happen. Right? As the leader, right, you have in those plans and coming up with those plans. And, you know, like you said, you launched out of your corporate job and took that leap, which is huge, because a lot of people don't do it. So those guys that heard that type of URL in the chat, right, type that URL in there for them, so that she knows right that you're ready to leave. And then what if maybe in the future, we all go on an expedition together because I love the turtles. I love going to Hawaii. Actually I just booked a trip to South Africa. So you had an out there, too. You know, I've always said I want to go on safari. So obviously, this was meant to be here today with everything and so I just want you to sort of dive down because there's people stuck at their jobs that are hearing that, like, I heard that from my parents, right? Like, I wasn't it 911 happened. And I'm like, I'm gonna leave. And my dad pretty much taught me you know, everything but a four letter word. He's like, you're stupid benefits, it's it. There's all these things, and you're gonna go leave to train real estate investors, right. preeminent. Who knows that same with you? You leave to follow your passion? Yeah. What type of internal fortitude and courage did it take to go ahead and you know, just not listen to your family, and they do it out of love your friends trying to protect you? Like, what do you heard,

um, I think from an early age, like all of us are conditioned in our environments. And one thing that I have shared, like with all of my clients, and all of the people in my communities, and when I'm speaking, is that you have to really tune into your intuition, and your gut instinct. And so many people forget about this, because we think too much, and we use the chimp, the chimp comes through. And that gut instinct. And that intuitive nature, comes back to the hunter gatherer age, and I would invite anyone that is feeling a little bit out of place, or something's not quite fully aligning, really do some reflective practice of what are your values, what brings you joy, what lights you up, if you are someone that enjoys the festive season, and like, it feels like Christmas every day, like, I am so privileged that I get to choose where I go in the world who I spend my time with. And I get to create that adventure of a lifetime. And, and, like with anyone like that there's listening to your podcast, it's I talk about the metaphorical mountain or the physical mountain in my mountain mindset. approach that is in my book that's coming out in the spring. And it's very much about just really honing in to what does harass, mean and harass is community or sense of belonging. It's a it's a Welsh words. So I've actually English, if you speak to a Scottish or Welsh person, they're very, like, very patriotic, but I usually say I'm British. But here I'm English. And Parappa is a Welsh word, which is really difficult to translate, but it's it means effectively sense of belonging, and that community, but also living by living by purpose, it means a lot of different things. But that link strongly to that intuitive, like feeling that we as humans sometimes forget, we have.

We all crave that, right? We all crave that. That's why people stay at their jobs. That's why people stay in unhappy situations, because it's that sense that I belong here. I don't know if I leave. Right. So we go back to you said the hunter gatherer at the hunter gatherer time, right? If you left the tribe, or you were exiled from the tribe, you were dead, right? That saber toothed Tigers coming and eating and you don't have everybody to help protect you. And now we a lot of people still have that. And they're not willing to leave the tribe and chase that dream, that passion that's really burning a hole, you know, in them. And I was guilty. It took me 14 years to write my book, right? And then became the Amazon bestseller. But like, and for you, right? I'm sure there was that time you were like, Yeah, you listened to people, you went back at your job. So now, here's a little, we're gonna shift the conversation a little bit. So you guys hear the Launch button? You know, we'd like to go deep with people. And we'd like to, you know, because some people have this mindset, Samantha, that you know, it's life or death at their job. But it's really not. But on the side of a mountain, in a jungle, under the ocean on a vote, it really could be life or death decisions. Right? How do you remain calm in those situations? Because you have to have that calm voice to get the group or untrained group to move in a direction to do that. And is there a story you'd like to share about that or something? Yeah, so

I'd say it's about preparation and setting expectations. And in the expedition world or anything, like when we take lifestyle decisions as well. It's all about the matter of risk and like diverse risk assessment and being being dynamic with that risk assessment. So there's been a couple of times on trips where we've had like a natural, like store like natural disaster or a storm or extreme flooding and we've had to evacuate quite quickly. And it's all about a matter of tone in delivery. And when I'm doing my preparations for for trips people have already We've been given an understanding and awareness that this is their plan that we're going to be going from A to B to C, that we're all we're going all the way up to the top of the mountain, and like we're submitting, or we're going through this, but however we're working together as a group, and for anyone, it's setting those intentions that although individually, people might have the summit at the top of the their agenda, but two people get altitude sickness or someone breaks their ankle, then the whole group dynamic changes the navigation of the, the the, the the destination might, we might have to retreat and go back to the base camp. And there have been a couple of times where we haven't like I've been able to summit with half the group. And thankfully, I've had an expedition assistant, or a porter or a part of the expedition expedition team have been able to take the injured parties down. But I would say the biggest, like extreme extremity, which I really didn't truly understand until I was there. In Vietnam, we were doing a hike and our camp, there was extreme flooding, like flash flooding. And I really understood what flash flooding was because it happened like that. And we just had to evacuate. And it was like seconds, it wasn't even minutes, I was just like everyone out, we need to go we need to get to higher ground, and just left quite a lot of stuff and just had to accept that. Like the tents would like our shelter would be

amazing. Like, I know, I run out of ideas. And it's my fault. I ran out of oxygen under the Great Barrier Reef because I competitive because I was competitive. And it was my first dive after being certified. And I didn't know all the things but the divemaster was there had the extra hose, you know, so that I could do it because I didn't want to be the first one to tap out halfway or quarter. Right? Like just that's just me being competitive. And I'm sure you've had some unique situations with people there. You said something very important that you said it's tone and preparation. Did I catch that? Right?

Yeah. And delivery to preparation and setting expectations. Because if you set expectations that there was an element of failure or not necessarily failure, but we might not get to the end destination, then people are managing behaviors are much easier to navigate. Because when you're emotionally, like drained, you're tight, you're physically tired. Obviously, moods heighten. And that's when group dynamics can really have a catastrophic effect in the life and death situation. And unfortunately, it's usually the men that I have to be really firm with because it's that egotistical, natural, I'm doing this. And actually, you know, you're not you need to come back, you need to listen to

I pray for this, I'm going to the top, I don't get that person. Yeah, I get that all the time. I fully admit it, like I did that at that point. But I think it's really important. Because it's not only just in mountaineering, or the jungle or diving that these things happen. It happens in the work environment all the time, and happens as leaders, if you're not like, Hey, this is our goal. But you know, we may have to do these other things or pivot along the way, you know, make slight changes and do those different things, which I see you have to do a lot on the mountain side, and it's just quit, right? It's like rapid, and then get that communication through the roof. Yeah, otherwise, as you said, it truly is life or death. It's like you get swept, swept away in the water, or you survive, which you choose. So how do you remain? Because, you know, people have told said that, you know, as we, the authoritative tone, get a little deeper, people tend to listen to do that. And, you know, that's more natural for guys. You know, as we were saying, you guys and women are different, right? It's a little more natural for that. How do you convey that through your voice in those moments? Is there something you just have it or something,

I would say learn behaviors. So I was very fortunate had really strong leadership guidance from the training that I had within the UK, but also, like, in between, in my 20s and 30s. I was I was very fortunate, I already had strong leadership skills in my corporate job. And I had a lot of respect. And I had learned along the ways like when to change your tone and pitch and convey those messages. And when you're like locking around and joking to this is serious guys, we need to like take now.

There are real hard questions here that she just dropped her toe. I don't know who said it. There were two guys, this is seriously her octave dropped. And that's what it is. And that makes a good podcast that makes a good show that makes a good leader. I don't know if you even realize you do it because I think when you would naturally now that you've been trained so much you don't even realize you're like all right. Right there on the podcast.

See again that you'll you'll see If you're seeing my delivery, which is far because we've obviously just only met through Palooza, but I was what you said earlier about just before we came on to risk, I wanted to share a little bit about, like the importance for anyone that's listening as well. Whether you haven't quite figured out what your purpose is, like, understand what your why is, if you haven't, if you want to follow your dream, like, find something that will strengthen your why, because it will make you take that action. And I know that I'm so glad I chose to leave my employed position as an expedition manager, and planning all because I was not happy. And then I thought, You know what, I'm going to be the person that creates an inclusive environment, share my love of mountain nearing with the world, and encourage other people to go into entrepreneurship or follow their dreams and passion. It doesn't have to be business, but you have to make that decision to strengthen your why. And my why is to get more people out adventuring, and connecting to nature, whatever,

I'm going to help you do that. Right. And so you know, you guys on the launch button, you guys sort of know a lot of guys have the book. But in the book, we actually have exercises for them to go ahead and exactly what you said, and Smith and I did not plan this, we just met but there's exercises in there to help you find your passion, your why if you haven't had it yet, because that's that's one of the biggest things that keeps you going when times are tough. So it's easy when things are good. But if you know when your times are tough that you're able to go ahead and do that and have that ball and not let people steer you from that summit that you did say you're having a book come out. I can't spell a new grammar. And I wrote the Launch button book. So I got confidence in you, because you're already ahead of me. Tell us a little bit about the book.

Say my book is called Mountain mindset and me and that's coming out on the 24th of April 2024. Head of the game head of the game, just to come back on the 11th of December, I have my podcast called Let's move mountains, which is all about adventure, and being the change and really extrapolating like following your dreams, understanding why it's important like to be the change you want to see in the world. And that came out of writing my book effectively, because I thought I need to get my message out there. So my mountain mindset and me book is more about, like understanding what the difference is around the challenges we face day to day and I talk about facing your fears. And when you embrace fear what you see on the other side. And we we go through different things such as the physical mountain to the metaphorical mountain challenges that we face week on week, and active exercises that are proactive to get you from A to B and work through like your base camp all the way up to your mountain and out the other end to create sustainable, healthy habits, but also really strong mindset techniques. Because mountain mindset for me has been the game changer in my life. Because as we as you and I probably hear all the time people say you're so lucky, but you get to do what you do and and the relative. And the reality of it is you've worked hard or you've taken act action steps to get you to the place where you have been today than people seeing you at this point. Yeah,

yeah. 100%, right. Everyone's like, Oh, you're lucky. And it's like, no, no, no, you didn't see the struggle, any professional and then never see the struggle. They never see the practice they never see behind the scenes. But guys be on the lookout for that. What we'll do was in the show notes will drop her book and her podcasts in there. And who knows, maybe I'll get to be on her podcast in the future. Definitely, we're gonna do that we're gonna get some information. And you know, one of the things we talked about is our E family Ohana after the flight model, including all the people. And I think there's good potential for us to talk more in the future and see how we can co collaborate on stuff as we travel the world and do different things together. But you guys are right here. So if you enjoyed the podcast, you know in the chat, go ahead and drop a big E in there. And we will see everybody soon. Remember, find your passion. Find your way like Samantha said, your corporate job is is breed for some of you guys. But if you've got a passion where you want to find your passion, jump in, subscribe to this podcast. Subscribe to Samantha's new podcast when it hits. We'll put the links in there. Just go ahead, click the button below and we'll see everybody soon. Everybody have a wonderful day. Go make your dreams happen. And remember, just take one more step. That's all you got to do to reach success. Keep going. Have a great day everybody.