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Being fearless has a different meaning for everyone. Sometimes it’s jumping out of an airplane, sometimes it’s trying a new food…and sometimes, it’s just living in the moment with what is. On Friday I was sitting at my desk  feeling a little bored writing similar emails pitching people about the summit (I love my job! But sometimes things get repetitive, which applies to anyone at any job) and I decided to fly to Seattle 2 hours later. I literally booked my flight at 1:30 and the flight to Seattle from LAX was boarding at 3:50 PM. I texted a few of my friends asking them whether me going to Seattle for the weekend was nuts, and all of them besides 1 was like yep totally nuts.

I obviously only listened to my friend Hannah.

I booked the ticket, closed my laptop, ran home to change and throw an umbrella in a bag, and grabbed an Uber to LAX. On the flight I started talking to the guy next to me getting advice from a local about what to see and do with 24 hours in Seattle. When I landed, he showed me to the train and told me what area to book my hotel in so that I’d feel safe walking around at night. I went on HotelTonight and booked a hotel in downtown Seattle, right near the market. Though it was more expensive than I was hoping for, I typed in my credit card number and literally didn’t think twice.

I ended up having the best weekend I’ve had in so long. I missed out on two LA events (not that I ever enjoy events here anyway) and every Superbowl party filled with hot guys and probably a lot of drunk people (I hate sports, and I no longer feel ashamed to admit it) to live the life I talk so much about on social media: the one of fearlessness, and living a spontaneous life.

What did I ultimately walk away with after this trip? The realization that there are very few surprises left in life. While my friends and parents were busy being so concerned about why I just bought a ticket and left (I can’t count on both of my hands the amount of messages I received asking if I was OK, had my head on straight…blah blah) I was meeting eating the best food in Seattle, treating myself to an overpriced oat milk latte every hour, meeting new people, and finding myself.

Don’t ever second guess yourself or think twice about being spontaneous. As long as you’re being safe, you have absolutely nothing to lose.

 

I’ve been a fan of DoSomething for a really long time. If you haven’t heard of DS, it’s a global non-profit that encourages young people to go out in the community and make a difference. Celebs like Halsey and Demi Lovato stand by DoSomething, and use their voice on social media to make a difference. For you, it might mean donating clothing to your local drive, cooking breakfast at a homeless shelter or using your voice to spread awareness about what you think needs to be changed in the world. Something I started doing every morning a few months ago is going on my iPad when I wake up to check the news. There’s so much going on at any given time in every country, and even though reading the news can do more harm than good for our brains, it’s important to stay up to date with what is going on in the world. If you don’t want to read the news, raise your hand in your social sciences class and start asking questions about what is going on in the world!

For the next few months DoSomething has a campaign called signed, sealed, delivered that’s live on their site. The concept is to encourage you to gather all of your belongings that you don’t use/ need (from tampons to socks and toys) and donate them to your local shelter. In return, snap a pic and submit to win a $5,000 scholarship from them! If you don’t have anything at home that you want to donate, you can go around your neighborhood and encourage people to donate items to your campaign. It’s a really neat campaign because we all have stuff around the house (or your dorm) that is probably no use to you anymore but would be of great use to someone else in the world. Head to this link here to submit your own picture and enter to win a fantastic scholarship!

Brandon Leibel started Sand Cloud after a draining corporate call center job left him dreaming of sunny days at his local San Diego beach. Thanks to hard work and a break on Shark Tank in February 2017, Sand Cloud took off and has now done over $20 million in sales, while continuing to donate to organizations that protect marine life and ocean ecosystems as apart of the Sand Cloud mission to #SaveTheFishies. Leibel is the head of sales, licensing, marketing and public relations for Sand Cloud.

Listen to Brandon’s incredible journey on iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify. Plus hear his advice on how to land your own Shark Tank deal for the company you’ve started during this episode!

   Last week I was invited to go to Punta Cana with one of my friends whose close friends represents an all-inclusive resort where she gets to stay at for crazy cheap whenever she’s in the mood to travel. When they invited me I couldn’t resist because it’s not too often you’ll get invited to stay in the Dominican Republic for 4 days with everything included for $60! It was probably the worst time career wise for me to leave LA because I spent 99% of the time working or trying to find working WiFi, but I loved hanging out with them.

While I was gone the Fyre Festival debacle came to light with 2 new documentaries on Hulu & Netflix. I’ve been following Fyre Festival for some time because I used to hang in the same circle as Billy (the founder) when I lived in NYC and a bunch of my friends at the time tried to convince me to sign up for Magnises, his first failed business. No part of me could afford nor felt the desire to have a black American Express style credit card in my possession. Sure I would’ve taken the card if someone could’ve paid the annual fee for me, but I couldn’t afford to pay it myself as a struggling entrepreneur living in the city. As time went on I continued to feel left out when people I was at dinner with would pull out the Magnises card, but I just reminded myself that I’d rather have the real platinum card when I was successful enough.

   I never met him personally but we remain FB friends (guess he won’t have access to Facebook in prison) and I stayed fascinated by his entrepreneurial spirit as he launched Fyre after Magnises. I so desperately wanted to go to the festival because I love music, and I loved the idea of a private plane! For $1,500, I was literally willing to give up my apartment for the month to spend 2 days in the Bahamas. What the h*** was I thinking?! I was totally hooked on the idea.

I didn’t go because my friend Alix refused to spend that much money on a festival and she was the only person I wanted to go with. If you’re reading this Alix, THANK YOU!

Now that I’ve watched both documentaries over the past week, I wanted to talk about the power of social media. There’s something to be said about the fact that this entire festival existed off of social media. You were probably living under a rock if you didn’t see the Fyre Festival initial advertisement, filled with Kendall, Bella and every other super model in the book frolicking on a beach with champagne and pigs. The concept behind Fyre was intriguing and captivating. Who wouldn’t want to spend a few days with Kendall Jenner in a private villa or on a private plane? All you had to do was watch their genius and beautifully created video to *stupidly* agree to give your apartment up for 1 month to get to the Bahamas.

FOMO is a real thing. FOMO is something I talk about during every social media and mental health school talk. Missing out on any opportunity is never fun, and missing out on something that could be something is even worse. We admire these influencers and celebrities so much that if they are buying a new car, you’re looking for which body part or piece of furniture in your parents’ house you can sell to finance your own BMW or Tesla. Kendall Jenner or Will Smith is skydiving? You’re probably considering it now too. Think about the viewssssss.

Views. Views. Views. Likes. Views. Likes. While I was in the Dominican my friend casually said that she posted her picture and it wasn’t getting enough likes. She had posted it probably 3.5 minutes before she said that. I said to her honestly, you have much more going on in your life than caring about how many likes you get within 3.5 minutes. Who really gives a s*** or is paying attention to anything you post besides your biggest critic: yourself?

It’s not Kendall Jenner or Bella Hadid’s fault that Fyre festival was a disaster. They were paid to do a job: either post an orange block on Instagram (genius) or get flown on a private jet to the Bahamas for 48 hours to swim with pigs and pretend they even knew what Fyre was. You’re paid to drive to an office building and work behind a desk, just as much pretending you care about whatever sales call or person you have to email multiple times to get a response from as they cared about Fyre festival. Just because you aren’t taking a private jet to work doesn’t mean there is a huge difference between the social media world and careers in the real world.

Point being, these people you so dearly want to be or be friends with are busy living their lives and getting paid to do so. If you were offered $250,000 to post an orange square or pretend you have acne, would you not do that because a part of you may feel slightly fraudulent? I mean it’s $250,000. The issue is that you (or your favorite influencer) don’t realize the power social media has. As much as you envy someone, they just as much envy the person with the bigger house or nicer Tesla. I hate to say social media is fake but so much of it is. It’s the highlight reel of what any of us want to see. Keep that in mind when you’re scrolling through social media or debating which music festival to hit up next. You never really know someone or something until it’s affecting your life.

Now enjoy some pictures of my short vacation with my friends 🙂

You guys, I’ve literally been wanting to surf in California since I was an infant. I totally feel like I had dreams of surfing in California ever since I was a little girl. Though I can’t really ski or snowboard (also on my bucket list) I figured I’d give surfing a try, cause why not? Though I’m not a huge water person (pool please) I wanted to overcome two fears this week: drowning and failing at something so many times without being successful at the end of it. What I learned about surfing is that you’re going to get knocked down over and over and still have to get back up. It’s kind of like life: whether it’s rejection or trial and error, things don’t ever go as planned and it’s up to you to get back on that surfboard and ride the wave. Surfing is a VERY intense sport: probably harder than every Crossfit class I’ve ever taken because it’s working your entire body in a way that most of us aren’t used to. I enlisted the help of a pro at Santa Barbara Surf School  to teach me the ropes, and the private lesson was a solid choice for me considering I probably would’ve killed myself if I had no one telling me how to properly surf. That would’ve been quite a Fearless Friday, huh?

Share what you’re doing every week with me on social media using the hashtag #fearlesseveryday!

Watch the full video below and on my IGTV!

I’m lucky that I get to interview so many cool people in my field. From founders of apps like Headspace to celebrities who inspire people everyday, to regular kids, I talk to people of all walks of life.

Notice how I said regular there? Like a 12-year-old who is selling socks and making millions isn’t normal, but a 12-year-old who isn’t blogging or going to school (like a regular kid) is totally normal. What the f*** is normal and why do we look so negatively upon kids who are normal vs. kids who are starting companies before they can drive?

Let’s dive a little deeper into this topic. Prior to social media, most of the influencers and celebrities you’re filling your newsfeeds with were famous for some other reason than posting on Instagram. They were going to castings trying to land their next gig, or spending hours in the kitchen experimenting with different types of flours to make the best organic cupcake mix. Imagine Ina Garten without Instagram. She’d still be super cool, super successful, and probably super happy she didn’t have fans standing outside of her house in East Hampton wondering how her and Jeffrey are still together 20+ years later. Then came social media, and all of these people who were still putting tons of hard work into their careers offline got a little bit of new attention thanks to the Internet.

What I mean is that actor or nurse, ER doctor or pimple popper doctor on TLC, social media has created a new definition of the word normal. I’m not a fan of this new definition either, because classifying young successful entrepreneurs as outside of the box thinkers and changers of the world doesn’t give any credit to the kids out there who are just living, breathing and trying to pass their next class in school. Sure, those kids probably won’t become the next Steve Jobs if they don’t have that entrepreneurial spirit in them (or maybe they will!) but that doesn’t mean they aren’t smart, incredible people who will change the world in their own way.

All I’m saying is if you’re someone who is desperate to be one of those not so average kids or outside of the box thinkers, you’re probably spending so much time thinking of how to be outside of the box that you’re losing out on the opportunities that would naturally be outside of the box for you.

You are not normal just because you like the idea of working a 9-5 job. You are not normal just because you like waking up at 9 AM and I like waking up at 5 AM. You are not normal because you will make $30,000 x year and not $300,000 per year. You are you and you is good enough just the way you are. If you aspire to do bigger and more outside of the box things, than it’s up to you to make that your destiny. If you don’t care, that’s also up to you. It’s not like entrepreneurs have some freaky rare trait that we are genetically born with. Many people become entrepreneurs after years of working for someone else.

For those of you who fear one day being “boring”, trust me: you won’t become boring unless you have no career and no passion. Keep learning and experimenting.

BE YOUR BADASS INSIDE OR OUTSIDE, ALL AROUND BEST SELF! No one is normal.

As I mentioned earlier this week, GIRLS’ Life Magazine has partnered with me for the first Be Fearless Summit coming to Drexel University on March 15, 2019! GIRLS’ Life is one of the magazine I grew up reading so having them involved in my idea is a huge honor. I was driving by a newsstand in Studio City earlier this week and ended up finding myself in the magazine on newsstands NOW! Since they’ve partnered with us for the summit, their editorial team is heavily involved with making sure the summit runs smoothly and includes all elements that young people are interested in, from career development to internships and even dressing for your first job!

If you get your copy of GIRLS’ Life magazine this month you’ll see the full page spread and what to expect at the summit. One of the panels I’m putting together that I’m most excited about is one including different executives from the entertainment industry, who will be there to answer your questions about leaving college and landing your dream job!

Stay tuned to Fearless Summit on social media for everything you need to know about the summit!

TONIGHT on Fearless Everyday, Amanda LaCount stopped by to talk all things body positivity, self-love and what makes her feel fearless aside from dancing! I’m excited for you to tune in all week on Radiodisney and listen to her interview! I recorded over 3 interviews this week in the studio and I’m pumped about the lineup of guests we have coming up. From influencers to real kids doing awesome work, to some of your favorite actors, all of these young people are inspiring me and you guys to be fearless in your everyday life. You don’t have to do something totally outside of the box to be fearless: trying a new food, a new sport or even reading a new book is fearless. 

 #fearlesseveryday