IAM1169- Adventurer Inspires Clients to Look at Life as a Journey

Maryann Remsburg is an adventurer in every area of life and as an ICF certified coach, inspires her clients to look at their lives as an adventurous journey ready to explore. Maryann is co-author of Your Adventurous Life Awaits; 7 Coordinates for Living a Purposeful Life of Adventure and co-founder of Adventurous Life with her husband Brian. With her four kids and husband, she loves to hike, bike, and have daily time to thank God for his many gifts.

• CEO Hack: Networking
• CEO Nugget: Celebrate where you have come from
• CEO Defined: Freedom, being different, getting to push and challenge myself as well as having fun

Website: http://www.adventurouslife.net/

Book: Your Adventurous Life Awaits: 7 Coordinates for Living a Purposeful Life of Adventure
Free + shipping at www.YourAdventurousLifeAwaits.com and also available on Amazon

Facebook: Adventurous Life Coaching with Brian and Maryann

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Transcription

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00:20 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:48 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Maryann Rimsberg of Adventurous Life. Maryann, it's great to have you on the show.

00:56 – Maryann Remsburg

Thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here.

01:00 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely super excited to have you on and before we jump into the interview I want to read a little bit more about Maryann so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Maryann is an adventurer in every area of life and as an ICF certified coach inspires her clients to look at their lives as an adventurous journey ready to explore.

Maryann is a co-author of Your Adventurous Life Awaits 7 coordinates for living a purposeful life of adventure and co-founder of Adventurous Life with her husband, Brian, with her 4 kids and her husband. She loves to hike and bike and has daily time to thank God for his many gifts. And Maryann, I love everything that you stand for. We had a phenomenal kind of intro call and I love everything that you're doing. So I'm super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:44 – Maryann Remsburg

Oh, I'm excited. Thank you.

01:46 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, let's do it. Let's get started on this adventure. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:57 – Maryann Remsburg

Well, it started with Brian and I thinking we would have our own adventure in life. And we moved to Nairobi, Kenya. I was 23 years old and we thought, okay, we're going to go there for 2 years. We're teaching in a, in a school there. And that really kind of cracked open the door to this idea of living an entire life of adventure, having an adventurous mindset that we can take into every area of life, business, relationship, faith, finance, everything. Because when we came back from that time in Kenya, we thought, okay, our adventure is done. We did the adventure and now we go into normal life. And that's, we just grew from there and realized, no, it's not like that.

You don't go have an adventure and then it's over and you don't use that same adventurous mindset and anything else. So from there, we did go live in Saudi Arabia for 12 years and in South Korea for a few years after that. And I was in education that whole time as a teacher and then a school counselor for years and years. And I love helping people grow, develop, challenge, and push themselves. So Brian and I had this dream of starting a coaching company. He was a principal and loved to do the same thing.

And we thought, Oh, maybe it'll be after our kids are raised, but that wasn't the plan. It was like, well, the adventure, I guess it's now we have kids at home and going to college and all that. But you know what? That's part of the adventure. So now we get to live our dream of just working with people every day, helping them grow, develop, push themselves, and really live their adventurous lives, whatever that looks like for them.

03:27 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. I love the phrase that you use, adventurous mindset. Cause I think so many times, especially when I was growing up, I remember going to school and it was a lot like, you know, college would be the best 4 or 5 years for some people, like time of your life. Exactly. Exactly. But you almost feel like when you go through that, like you, like you said, when you came back from Kenya, you almost feel like, okay, well, it's now it's time to be normal. But I love how you talk about adventure as an aspect of every aspect or every part of your life. It's just how you look at it and have that mindset.

03:59 – Maryann Remsburg

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that isn't taught maybe in school so much. It's taught the, you know, follow this routine, the pattern of learning. And I'm all for education. I'm, you know, I was in education for years and years and still think of myself as an educator and helping people grow, But pushing ourselves and really growing, we call it in our book, your zone of challenge.

And that grows like anything else you learn. You can learn about calculus, you can learn about physics, whatever it is, but you can learn about growing your mindset and growing and challenging, and making your life what you want it to be. Not just kind of what gets handed to you.

04:37 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And it kind of reminds me of kind of like, you know, that phrase where they say everything you want is on the other side of that comfort zone. And you kind of have that image of us staying in that comfort zone, which is kind of natural. And I guess probably even a whole psychological thing, but I love how you said zone of challenge because that to me is where the adventure happens, where the growth happens and you really had to get to have that exciting time.

04:58 – Maryann Remsburg

Yeah. I love it right here on my wall, next to me, my office, You kind of almost just said it Gresham and you've never been to my office. So I know you, but this is from our book. It says journey into your zone of challenge where growth occurs and the adventurous life awaits. So that's our motto. That's what we believe. Growth occurs in your zone of challenge when you're pushing yourself.

05:16 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I love that. And so, I wanted to hear a little bit more on how you kind of, you know, tap into that for the clients and the people that you work with and your podcasts and everything, could you take us through a little bit more on how you serve your clients to work with them there?

05:29 – Maryann Remsburg

Yeah, We do this both for individuals as well as business teams, but it really is tapping into what's holding people back. So what is the fear? A lot of times it's fear. What is that? That they're clinging onto the fear that's trapping them more than the dream of growth. So, yeah, we just really dive into that. You start coaching is all about starting where you are right now and looking at where you want to get to. And there's going to be obstacles along that way that we help people overcome. First is acknowledging acknowledging them. What are those obstacles? What is that fear?

What are the lines that people keep telling themselves over and over, maybe since they were young and they have to reroute that thinking in order to get to those dreams, to get out of that zone of comfort? That's just trapping them in. So, so we do that. Yeah. With, our book is a big part of it. You mentioned it, your adventurous life awaits which is really helping people see the mindset and the process to look at life as an adventure and, get over some of those obstacles that are, that are dropping them.

06:34 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That, that makes so much sense. And I love how you said, and even kind of touched on it as well, too, around that education piece. I almost feel like, there's not an awareness that life can quote unquote be different, or be less than what we've been told. And a lot of times we kind of hear that and it becomes part of our overall being that's ingrained in our daily activities. We don't get into that zone of comfort or even look at that or even know what that is. So I love that you have so many ways that you can kind of help empower people to do that.

07:05 – Maryann Remsburg

Yeah, our first coordinate is to know your zone. And that is a big part of it is just knowing where you are. Then second coordinate explored possibilities. Because yeah, I think we just get so routine. A lot of it isn't like, you know, we're just, we do our thing and it's routine and we live life. Like we see people around us living life and, sometimes it's just stopping to say, what do I want to be different? What am I really dreaming about? What would it look like if I could ideally, you know, create my life 10 years from now? And then, okay, how could I actually get there exploring that? So, so that's the beginning. Yeah. Is self-awareness and that education piece around what's possible and, and who we are and, and what, what that looks like for us, our passion, our desire, our faith, whatever that is for us.

07:52 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

08:05 – Maryann Remsburg

So I was thinking about this and I narrowed in on networking. Networking for me is so, so important. My husband and I were both actually presidents of different networking groups. We're part of our chamber, local networking, as well as international. For me, this gives me such a connection with people, such encouragement to keep going on those tough days, and such education as well.

I'm you know, there's So many, so many education pieces that come along with both of our groups. I'm part of BNI, and my husband's part of master networks, but they both give all of those elements that are really important. And again, the mindset, the support, the encouragement, and the growth through those. So that's mine. I'd say without networking, I don't think I could be a strong business owner at all.

08:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that and kind of like the multifaceted benefits of networking, because I think so many times you think of just, you know, passing out business cards, but you actually get to build relationships. You get to have, you know, maybe like-minded people or even people that are maybe going through, their own adventure that you can kind of pull from their wisdom, their experience in so many different ways. And I think there's just so many different aspects that, you know, you can learn from the people that are around you as much as you can from your experiences yourself.

09:18 – Maryann Remsburg

Yeah, definitely. There's so much to it. I didn't even know when I first started, kind of like, okay, I'm going to try this out. There are so many added benefits that I didn't, I wasn't aware of until I got into it. And so it is a real, real encouragement. And, of course, yeah, you want to pass referrals in business too. That's the bottom line, but there's a lot more to it than that.

09:37 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Let me not skip over that. You definitely get more opportunities, which is always what we want to when we're connected with people too. Exactly. Very important. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call CEO nugget. So, this could be more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell a client or if you hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

10:01 – Maryann Remsburg

So, coordinate number 7 of our book reflects to grow. And in there, we talk about celebrating wins. And this is a huge one for me as an entrepreneur, as a business owner for myself, I can say, I can get so focused on what's next, you know, or what didn't go exactly as I was hoping, you know, I didn't quite get to that number I was hoping or I didn't quite get to that. And that for me personally can be frustrating. And so I tried to really, and I talk with my clients about this, but really take time to celebrate. Celebrate where you have come.

Do something fun for yourself. And I think business owners, can be the worst bosses ever. And so like you would if you had your team around you, you're gonna celebrate them. You're gonna say, great job, thanks. Oh, that was awesome. I really appreciated what you did. Doing that for yourself as a business owner and taking time to look at what has gone well, what have you done, the progress you've made and celebrate that. I think that's my nugget, of encouragement and wisdom. If I have one.

11:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I love that. And I too need to kind of work a little bit more on that. And I'm very, very hard on myself. As I mentioned, imagine most people that are listening to this, are a little bit type of drivers that want to go to the next thing and the next thing. But I love that kind of reflection piece as well too, because as you said so well, sometimes that's the win, but sometimes it's the less than a win, I guess you can say where things don't go according to how we want them to go. But if we just kind of push it out or don't look and reflect upon it, I imagine we don't get that kind of learning lessons, the good and the less than good that we could get from those experiences.

11:38 – Maryann Remsburg

Yeah, and I mean, I know you've heard mistakes, we learn from them, but resiliency is like the number one key if you're gonna be successful or not. And if you only are resilient when there's been something that didn't go so well. Right. So if we're that number one key to success comes after a failure or something that didn't go well or a mistake or, or not knowing everything you should have known yet. So that resiliency is really the key, but I think it is saying, okay, I did do some things. Well, I'm not done. I'm still growing, and that's all kind of wrapped up together. I think.

12:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of sounds like it also overlaps into what we were talking about over earlier, that resilience piece, because I feel like if you put yourself through those challenging things, like a marathon or whatever that might be, you build that resiliency for those other times as well, too, it sounds like.

12:27 – Maryann Remsburg

Oh yeah, completely. Yeah, exactly. It circles back. That mindset is okay. I got through that before I got through that mistake or, oh, I got through failure or COVID or whatever it was, I can get through the next thing. So yeah, that mindset, of pushing forward.

12:44 – Gresham Harkless

It's so very needed. Yeah. Especially during a time like this, as you said so well. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So what does seeing a CEO mean to you, Maryann?

13:00 – Maryann Remsburg

Being a CEO is, was different than being in formal education for me. So to me, it means freedom. It means really getting to push myself and challenge myself. It means having, the fun and the hard times of it that have grown me so much. Yeah. And just the, being a different person, being a CEO than I was before I was a CEO because of that growth. So for me, it's been really powerful.

13:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I love how you kind of talked about the fun, obviously, but the less-than-fun experiences as well. I don't know how you feel about this, but I almost feel like you have to kind of have that duality for lack of a better term, where you have to experience the, the, the not so good to experience, to really know what good is. You have to go through the challenges to experience the wins. And I feel like if you have that, you kind of step into that and embrace that, then you really have a very adventurous opportunity for you.

13:55 – Maryann Remsburg

Yeah, there's definitely both sides to it. There's the, the awesome sides where you imagine, you know, I'm going to be able to take off for my kid's games. And I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go for a bike ride on a Tuesday at 01:00 because I just want to. Right. So there's that one side. But then there's a part where you're like, I haven't worked like 16 hours. Yeah. It's both sides for sure.

14:16 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. Well, Mary, I truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best they can get a hold of you and your husband, get a copy of your book, listen to your podcast, find out about all the awesome things that you work at.

14:36 – Maryann Remsburg

Awesome. Thank you for the opportunity. And yeah, if anything resonated with what I was speaking, I would love to hear more from you, and from your listeners. You can get our book We have a free plus shipping offer set up and that's at your adventurous life awaits.com. So go on there, get it. That'll give you all about the mindset. You can add to our workbook if you like our podcast.

We get just like you do Gresh to talk to people and We interview everyday adventurers. We call them people who have lived adventure in some area of life. There are a lot of different areas, and we want their stories to encourage, and encourage you and your listeners. And so that is your adventurous life podcast. And our website is, adventurous life.net right on there. You can be in touch with us. You can link to the podcast. You can set up a complimentary session, which we love to do to have that time just to talk with people and see if coaching could be a good fit to help them live out there.

Interesting like nice. I absolutely love it and we would definitely have the links and information in the show notes as well too. And I love how you're creating this. I feel like a spirit or this mindset that everybody gets to, to kind of take part in it. Cause I, I'm a big believer in that when you do kind of run your race, when you do stay true to who you are, not only do you help yourself out a lot, a lot of times people will see you and they're rooting you on and they start to do it themselves.

15:56 – Gresham Harkless

So I love how you've created that atmosphere, that spirit in so many different ways. And I of course appreciate you for bringing it here today. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:04 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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