The Freedom Project

Meet the godfather of freeskiing - Mike Douglas.

Mike - alongside a handful of others - reinvented ski technology and therefore the future of skiing itself.

After being instrumental in the creation of the twin tip ski that unlocked a completely different style of skiing, then becoming a mainstay of the pro skier scene, Mike turned his attention to creating ski films.

In doing so, he became an icon of winter sports.

He has gone on to produce ski films that do more than produce ski porn - pow shots and cliff drops.

Mike tells stories - beautiful stories that enrich the viewers experience of life through a broadened perspective.

Along the way, Mike has set up a production business, hired and disbanded teams, and produced genuinely world changing films.

All of this, he did whilst keeping his sense of adventure and maintaining his freedom.

In this episode you will learn:

• How to balance business ownership and adventure
• How Mike had to readjust his business through Covid
• The thrill of being vulnerable and how to embrace it
• How the flow state of business corresponds to the flow state of freeskiing
• Mike’s adventure bucketlist

What could possess a man to run the fastest known time from the base of the valley to the top of Mont Blanc and back?

The thrill of adventure, the unknown, and the chance to test oneself.

Iain Innes spent years making his way into professional ski racing.

Eventually he realised this wasn’t his journey, and took a step back from his life long goal.

Without this structure, Iain entered the unknown.

He found his way again through embracing adventure and discovering mountaineering, and mountain exploration.

Iain seeks freedom in all guises.

In this episode, you will discover:

• How Iain trains for these insane challenges without a training program to follow.
• The thrill of going solo and unsupported.
• How to handle difficult transition moments in life.
• How to satiate your desire for adventure when times are uncertain.

Does your scarcity mindset create a life you secretly despise?

I used to have a horrendous scarcity mentality. There was never enough time. There was never enough money. There was never enough X, Y or Z for me to really live the life I want.

This royally fucked me for years. It’s not like I wasted those years. But I certainly didn’t make the most of them.

I dragged myself out of that hole over the course of years and now understand how to obliterate that mentality.

Now, I see the same pattern in potential clients day in, day out.

They have excuses that sound like logic but are really just traps.

On one hand they call themselves an adventurer or an ultra runner or an alpinist.

And they may have been that person one day. But their current reality tells a different story.

If you took a snapshot of their past 12 months, all you’d see is someone yearning for adventure, but establishing their own road blocks.

They don’t show up as their best self consistently.

They fail to book the trips.

They fail to live the life of an adventurepreneur.

They settle for mediocrity and the status quo.

Scarcity creates a mediocre life for extraordinary people.

Today, I’m going to describe the 3 golden rules I teach my adventurepreneur clients to take.

Then I’m going to explain the single most effective tool to overcome a scarcity mentality.

The conventional path never was for Willis Morris. Willis sought another kind of freedom.

He moved from indoor climbing to alpinism, and became world class at it.

Then from alpinism to speedriding. He wanted, in his words, “the toughest way up, and the gnarliest way down.”

What’s more, he chose to teach himself how to speedride.

This podcast is an exploration of:

• How to learn any skill
• What you learn from climbing the hardest pitches on The Eiger
• How to climb hard alone, without dying
• And much more

I’ve seen countless people massively shift their levels of performance. And I’ve seen countless fail to change anything at all.

The latter end up mediocre, miserable and resentful. The former ends up free, successful, and satisfied.

Which camp you fall into is not down to luck. It’s down to your choices.

There are five choices adventurepreneurs make time and time again which ensure mediocrity. Today, I will help you identify which you make.

Adventure comes to us in many different forms. For some of us, the mountains, the sea, or the sky reveals itself to us as our path. For others, our call to adventure is a literal call to arms.

A signal reveals itself to us and whispers “this is your journey, this is your gauntlet”. The price of admission is mighty, and the potential cost is your life.

The adventure of a military career is rewarding in a way that civilians will only guess at. Camaraderie, danger, fulfilment, humour, and misery beyond anything the civilian world can offer.

For James Malone, his deployment to Afghanistan in 2018 came with all of the above. He returned with the onset of PTSD which morphed to alcoholism to cover the pain.

For years, he turned away from the decision to confront his problems, but then he found a more authentic way of living, stopped drinking, and bought a camera with the money he saved.

When we’ve created a persona which serves a purpose but betrays our authentic self, the juxtaposition creates pain.

James’ journey is one of rediscovering authenticity, and through that, discovering true satisfaction for the first time in his life. In this podcast you too will discover what discovering authenticity looks like.

James’ current venture is creating a feature length documentary Once We Were Warriors - an exploration of what it means to be a veteran, and why the labels of “bad, sad, or mad” are lazy stereotypes.

Once We Were Warriors shows the journey of a handful of veterans exploring the slopes of Chamonix and using the mountains as a tool for growth.

You can support this incredible project by visiting: www.oncewewerewarriorsfilm.com

Two months back, I had a “fuck it” moment.

It’s not every day you get the chance to go on a ski mountaineering trip of this kind.

I no longer live 45 minutes away from the best skiing in the world. I live at least 5 hours, a plane journey, and multiple countries away.

Because of this, big trips:

1. Cost a lot more money
2. Take a lot more time
3. Are a big interruption to my family and my business

For many, this is a dead end.

But if you cut open my soul, it still bleeds adventure.

So there’s no way I’m turning down a trip like this.

I’ve helped clients plan trips like this, and I’ve made it happen for myself before. But this trip will be a whole new beast.

Today, I’m going to show you exactly what I’m going to do to ensure I have the trip of a lifetime, but - and this is an important but - ensure my family life and my business thrive whilst doing so.

At some point in life you’re going to have to drop the identity you’ve built up and change who you are.

Sometimes, this comes at the end of a challenging career when you’ve realised you’re just not going to make it.

Other times, this is when you’re doing incredibly exciting and daunting things. For example when you’re moving onto another stage in life.

When Jackie Paaso decided to give up on her mogul skiing Olympic dream, she encountered the first identity shift. It sparked an incredibly difficult time for her. But the lessons she learned in that time ultimately made her one of the world’s greatest pro skiers.

Jackie dominated many events of the freeride world tour and set the bar for the type of skiing that was possible. She built a career that many dream of but few achieve.

Once more, her identity was built to support this life. But when Jackie and her husband got pregnant, once more a shift of identity was imminent.

Jackie found herself asking questions around how her life would look post baby and what would happen to her career and also her way of life.

Alongside Elyse Saugstad, Jackie featured in Here, Hold My Kid; a ski movie sharing this journey as they shred big mountains.

Alongside the details of Here, Hold My Kid, we discuss:

• Dealing with mental health and how to approach challenges you face.
• Navigating the uncertainty of identity shifts.
• What kind of example Jackie intends to be for her kids.
• What Jackie wishes she could have known when going through her initial identity shift.
• And her process of skiing big lines.

True: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

But, that step must be in the direction of travel.

Plus, it helps if each step covers as much ground as possible.

Today, I’m going to show you how you cover as much ground as possible each and every day.

Because if you fail to make the most of every single day, you’ll end up looking back at yet another year of stagnation.

We’re going to cover:

• Thriving in the most challenging situations
• How to stop wasting time
• When positivity won’t help you
• Finding the right support

What kind of person is compelled to travel from the lowest point in every continent to the highest through human power alone?

Well, the same kind of person who is willing to walk the length of the world’s largest freshwater lake whilst it’s frozen over.

And the same person who ends up in the hands of Uzbek interrogators accused of narcotic smuggling.

This person is adventurer, explorer and expedition leader, Oli France. Through his journeys, Oli has learned a tonne.

He’s learned the components of a great adventure, how to plan for success, and how to avoid failure.

In this episode of The Freedom Project with Oli France, we discuss how to plan the expedition of a lifetime and how to give yourself the best chance of success.

You will leave this with a thorough understanding of the planning process and how to execute successfully.

Including…

• The stages of planning a life changing adventure.
• How to build a team that thrives in hardship.
• How to prepare your body and mind for robustness and performance.
• How to make the most of all these experiences.
• And how to get over post expedition blues`.