“Keep On Keeping On”

Straightforward life advice but also extremely powerful.  Nothing can stop you if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other and barreling forward towards your goals.

This week we proudly bring you the story of the non-profit organization Keep on Keeping whose intent is to “assist those living with physical disabilities and educating and empowering others to make a difference in their communities.”

To demonstrate the power of this mantra, Keep On Keeping On’s president, and all around awesome guy, Tim Wambach decided he would spend 40 days running 1,000 miles from Orlando, Florida to Chicago, Illinois…twice.

Throughout these two attempts it is fair to say that Tim faced major adversity.  Fatigue, blisters, rain, humidity, extreme heat (running in a Florida August and September will do that), blisters, decision fatigue, and did we mention…blisters???  And how he overcame these obstacles is nothing short of inspiring!

Along with the 40 day endurance challenge, in this episode Tim explains why and how he founded Keep On Keeping On and the formation of his two man show “Handicap This!”  He also talks about how befriending his speaking partner Mike Berkson, a funny and bright person living with cerebral palsy opened his eyes to the challenges faced by those living with severe disabilities.

Tim is a tremendous role model of why we should just jump right in when pursuing a goal and I was so honored to have him on the podcast to share his story.

To hear more from Tim or to support the cause, please check out his foundation at www.teamkoko.org, his speaking engagements at www.handicapthis.com, and his “Boss Free Society Podcast.”

Thanks again for listening!  Have a great holiday season and keep striving to make the world a better place!

“The Endless Winter”.  A year spent climbing mountains all over the world.

In 1969 when asked if he would like to engage in this adventure, my uncle Joel Bown said “something really profound like ‘sure, why not?'”  Two years of planning later, armed with a tent, a future paradigm-shifting mountaineer Arlene Blum and an “around-the-world” plane ticket,  he was off to climb the world.

This meant climbing in places like Ethiopia, Uganda, Afghanistan, Iran, and camping out in the wilderness on the other side of the world in order to face some of the tallest mountains on the planet.

This is some real life-altering adventures here folks.

Really anything else I write can’t possibly do justice to this story.  And quite frankly, I’m so excited to share this episode that I do not want to spoil ANYTHING!

My Uncle Joel has always been a funny, engaging storyteller, but somehow I had never heard this story; the excursion that set him off towards lifelong adventure in the wilderness.

Eventually, there will be more episodes with Joel, seeing how he has many stories beyond his globetrotting year of rock climbing.  So check back in for those in the future.  As always I am extremely grateful that Joel would share his story with us as we continue our quest to ignite adventure in everyone who listens!

Last week we discussed futbol, this week we discuss football.

More specifically, one man’s love of the sport, how it has changed his life, and why he’s passionate enough to choose college football coaching as a career.

Our podcast covers a wide variety of topics this week, including how football shapes personality, creates powerful mindsets through adversity, teaches players to handle failure and ultimately encourages people towards becoming the best version of themselves.

Along with many experiences from our high school playing AND coaching days.

Shane Dowty went from goofy young middle schooler dreaming of playing for his high school team to college football coach who has worked under some of the biggest names in the sport.

How’d he do it?  What did he overcome along the way?  How does he stay positive in the ultra competitive world of college football coaching?  What was it like to be low man on the totem pole?  How has his experiences with the sport shaped the way he views football?

In this episode we barely scratch the surface of Shane’s story, essentially exploring his love of the sport from childhood up to the point he became a student assistant for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

In the future we will check back in with Shane so he can share the lessons learned from working under the great Kirk Ferentz, the hustle involved in searching for coaching jobs, his experiences as a grad assistant for the Iowa State Cyclones and how he feels after earning a spot as a positions coach for Missouri S & T.

7,000 miles. 8 countries. 4 friends. 1 dream.

Document the importance of soccer through the lens of a variety of Latin America.

This is American Futbol.  A documentary film that was a journey of a lifetime for my friend, and all around great guy, Petar Madjarac.

These filmmakers took a pause on life to chase a dream, an idea they had thought up years ago.  With an extreme passion for soccer and a yearning for adventure, they left behind perfectly good jobs to travel from southern California through many Latin American countries on a quest to Brazil and the 2014 World Cup.

Along the way they captured the spirit of each country through the eyes of soccer.

In this episode Petar shares stories and insights from the journey, guidance for all of us pursuing a goal, his thoughts on the soccer culture in the United States, the nitty gritty day to day details in filming a travel documentary, and how following a whim can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Petar is the kind of person who I look up to; the kind who boldly claims he’s going to do something and then actually does it!  He’s also genuinely one of the nicest guys I know and is the type of person who you meet and instantly realize “I’m gonna be friends with this dude.”

So thank you so much to Petar Madjarac and the rest of the American Futbol crew for aspiring to chase a dream, inspiring all of us to seek out adventure in our own lives, and for bringing cultures together through the love of sport.

You can check out all of their segments on KICKTV and follow their post-documentary experiences on the American Futbol website and Facebook page.

Below are a few fantastic episodes of their series.  Be sure to check them all out!!

Episode 1: US-Mexico Border

Episode 5: Blind Soccer in Columbia

Episode 7: Who will save Fubol in Argentina?