On the 19th of January, The Yes Tribe, our community of people who Say Yes More, held the first of many incredible evenings where we gathered to share stories of success, adventure, daring to dream and overcoming adversity.
For those of you who were there in person, dialed in, watching at home for a while on Periscope, I hope you’ll agree that it was pure magic to feel the strength and beauty of this fledgling community with all the incredible potential for what's to come.
Helen Proudfoot kicked off the evening with her epic Ham Sandwich cycle. Physical ham sandwich and all, she reminded us that adventures and yeses needn’t be somewhere foreign or long in length to excite us and push us out of our comfort zone, and if your yes is whimsical and fun to talk about, all the better! Helen’s next planned cycle is the Wellington Boot cycle which sounds like it will be equally awesome! Look out for details on The Yes Tribe Facebook page and perhaps say yes to joining her on her next mini adventure.
We’ve heard lots of rumblings and excitement about the evolution of our #supertribe. We had the marvellous Dom Jackman co-founder of one of our tribes, Escape the City talk about his journey to building a 250,000 strong global community of people who are doing something different and trying to do more fulfilling work.
He talked about his journey from management consultant 6 years ago to now running one of the first B-Corp Certified companies in the UK, a series of small steps towards a huge goal. He reminded us to get the big stuff done accountability, small steps, visualizing your idea and sharing it, finding your purpose to pull you through the difficult times and surrounding yourself with like-minded people are essential parts of success. Join their tribe now to be part of it!
The mesmerizing Suzanne Waterworth made us dig deep into ourselves, locate our ‘yes’, get to know it that little bit better, reminding us that it is always there when we need it. At Say Yes More, we can’t emphasize enough that you aren’t saying yes to everything, but to what it is you want to say yes to, so re-connecting with our own personal yes sits at the heart of our philosophy. Listen to what your yes wants, even if it’s a cheeky little tap dance ;)
Suzanne also spoke briefly about her business, Revive Stretching, where she pulls together a range of techniques from stretching to shamanism, self development to healing, to help you be everything you want to be and in fact already are.
Nick Kershaw took the floor, as co-founder of The Uganda Marathon and now running the Impact Marathon Series globally and spoke about something super important and often neglected in a tribe filled with so much positivity and pro-activeness. From the outside looking in, as one does via social media, Nick had the most incredibly successful 2015. He shared with us, that actually, for him, his reality was far from it, it was one of the most challenging years of his life.
We’re building this community not only to get shit done and celebrate successes, but to be there for one another when times are hard. Awful things will come and this community’s strength will come from how we pull together when times get tough. Thanks Nick for saying the hard things. Still gutted you didn’t rap Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise though ;). The Yes Tribe will be present at the Uganda Marathon so secure your place now with a £30 discount to boot!
Listening to Laura Kennington speak is good for your soul. She embodies the Say Yes More spirit and you can tell that adventure runs right through her. She spoke about leaving things unplanned, challenging yourself to stretch past your own limits, rolling with what comes your way and making your own rules. Case and point her next adventure in June where she’ll be swimming around Sark, kayaking around Guernsey and then cycling around Jersey, in what she’s coined the Channel Islands Triathlon. The Yes Tribe will be following closely!
Kate Davis and Andy Bartlett have been with The Yes Tribe from the very beginning. In fact they met through The Yes Tribe. The magic of this community of like minds is that when an idea is said out loud there is almost certainly someone who will hold you accountable and make your idea a reality, perhaps even joining you on your journey.
At the beginning of March these two will be Stand Up Paddleboarding the Danube, from the Black Forest of Germany through 10 countries, 4 capital cities & 3000km to the shores of the Black Sea in Ukraine 90 days later. A beautiful example of what this tribe is for, getting cool shit done. The Yes Tribe will be making plans to find Kate and Andy at some point on their journey so watch out on The Yes Tribe FB page if you fancy a little trip this Spring.
Annie Ross, public speaker in training, blew us away as she talked about her incredible hustle and eXerK (exercise + work, love it), where she completed 52 sporting challenges in 52 weeks in 2015. She also echoed the message that there is a line between saying yes more to everything and saying yes more to the right things.
As she hopped back and forth over the line through her epic story of juggling a full time Deutche Bank career and eXerK, it was clear that she learnt quickly how to focus her energy and time to get what was most important to her done. After she’s taken some well deserved time to say yes more to me time, we can’t wait to see what she’ll be up to for her next adventure!
Many of you project awesomers and yes tribers will already know Adam Sultan. Triber from the very beginning, Adam shared his challenge of running 15 marathons in 2015. This evolved over the year to become a life long project called LifeYears, where he plans to do 16 cycles of 100 miles or more in a day, and 17 challenges in 2017 and so on for the rest of his life. Later this year as part of the challenge Adam will begin Ride the World. The concept of LifeYears could be for any of us, challenges big or small. What could we commit to doing 16 times this year to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone?
We love Elise Downing. We dropped her a call at YesStories to see how she was getting on during her epic Run the Coast, where she is 2 and a bit months through her run around the entire coast of the UK, casual. She filled us in on her battles with a Rubik’s Cube, the kindness of strangers, her mathematical prowess, how she’s stopped listening to music and just started talking to herself as she runs and her fears before she took off and how these have evolved on her journey. We’re with you all the way Elise, look out for a Yes Tribe gathering to visit Elise on the coast soon!
Our original yes man, Dave Cornthwaite gave us a little update on all things expedition1000 and Yes. Sadly due to 2 stress fractures he’s had to cut short his journey with Leon McCarron, Walking the Mazar. Leon will be carrying on the journey alone and Dave has already hustled himself a new plan. At the end of January he’ll be heading off to warm climes in Bali (jealous!) to manage one of the first co-live/work spaces in the world, Caravanserai, soon to be named Roam. A lesson in the true art of the hustle, he convinced the team there to pay him instead of him pay to stay, and will be soaking up all the lessons for YesHQ plans back in London and the UK.
Sadly, our resident health and sexy officer, Adam Conlon, couldn’t join us in person at YesStories. Apparently hes a pretty big deal these days ;). He did record a cheeky message for us though from his private jet aka midlands train to say hi. Fingers crossed he’ll remember where it all began and he’ll come visit soon! If you’re ever in need of laughing so hard it hurts, hit up Adam.
Just one of his many testimonials if you’re on the fence:
‘Watching Adam perform was like physically being back there with him experiencing his life changing moments of profoundness and hilarity. He induced moisture from most parts of my body including, but not limited to, tears of laughter and potentially a slight peeing incident. Adam was worth every tissue. Highly recommended’ (Thanks for this, Emma!)
And last, but most certainly not least the glorious Alex Graff shared her story. A familiar one of feeling lonely and disconnected in London and not enjoying her job in film production, she reconnected with something she’s always loved and hadn’t yet pursued, singing. Alex leaves on Saturday, 23rd January, to study Opera in Paris and Madrid for a year, which proves that each person’s yes can be a completely personal adventure, it doesn’t have to be a physical journey or challenge, just what you truly, deep down want to do most. Alex also performed a stunning rendition of Ave Maria to a room full of closed eyed yesers, which was the most utterly perfect way to end such an incredible evening.
This is our Tribe. We’re incredibly proud of each one you wonderful people.
We want to hold YesStories regularly, so if you have a story to share we want to hear from you. Get in touch with us via facebook or events@sayyesmore.com. Look forward to meeting you soon!
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Thanks! Love The Yes Tribe xox