A Life-Changing Loss at 19 : The Personal Story That Shaped My Life of Adventure

Hey Adventurers!

In this deeply personal and inspiring episode of The Adventure Reignition Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain on the journey that shaped me into who I am today. At 19, I faced the unimaginable—losing my father in a way that forever changed my outlook on life. But from that pain grew the seeds of adventure, resilience, and purpose that now guide everything I do.

Join me as I share:

• The pivotal moments of my youth in Switzerland that laid the foundation for my love of the outdoors and football.
• How losing my father forced me to confront life’s fragility and planted the seeds for my passion for self-discovery and adventure.
• The unconventional path I took in my 20s—from quitting a “safe” job to traveling the world, exploring 17 countries, and saying yes to countless adventures.
• Why I said goodbye to a dream job in 2024 to fully embrace my calling as a purpose coach and storyteller.

This episode is for anyone searching for inspiration to embrace life as an adventure, turn challenges into opportunities, and create a life designed on your terms—not society’s expectations.

Episode Breakdown:

• [00:01:21] My story begins: How losing my father changed everything.
• [00:11:38] Moving to California at 21: Using my dad’s legacy to chase a long-held dream.
• [00:18:05] The journey of a lifetime: Traveling to 17 countries in one year.
• [00:43:03] The lesson that changed everything: Why the journey is the goal.
• [00:45:00] Saying goodbye to my dream job: Reconnecting with my mission to inspire others.

Favorite Quote:

"The journey is the goal. When I shifted my focus from achieving to enjoying, everything changed."

Key Takeaways:

1. Life’s fragility is a gift—a reminder to live fully and say yes to what lights you up.
2. Adventure isn’t just travel—it’s about embracing the unknown in all areas of life.
3. Your challenges can shape your purpose—if you allow them to guide you.

Call to Action:

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to pursue your adventure, this is it! DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn with the word “Podcast”, and let’s start a conversation about how I can help you design a life aligned with your passions and values.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Adventure Reignition Podcast and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps us reach more adventure seekers like you.

Final Thought:

Life is too short to live by default. Whether your adventure is climbing Everest or starting a new chapter in your career, my hope is that this episode inspires you to take that first step toward living boldly and authentically.

Let’s reignite your sense of purpose—one adventure at a time.

Stay daring!

Where to find your host online :

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaisedepallens/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blaisedepallens/
Website: blaisedepallens.com

Chapters

• 1:21 My story begins: How losing my father changed everything.
• 11:38 Moving to California at 21: Using my dad’s legacy to chase a long-held dream.
• 18:05 The journey of a lifetime: Traveling to 17 countries in one year.
• 43:03 The lesson that changed everything: Why the journey is the goal.
• 45:00 Saying goodbye to my dream job: Reconnecting with my mission to inspire others

Transcript

00:00:57:08 - 00:01:05:19
Inconnu
Hey, everybody! Welcome to the Adventure Ignition podcast. My name is Daisy Palance. I am the host of the show

00:01:05:19 - 00:01:16:02
Inconnu
Thanks for listening. I am grateful and honored to have you here on the show with me. Fasten your seat belts and say yes to your life's next adventure.

00:01:21:09 - 00:02:01:03
Inconnu
Imagine losing everything that grounds you at 19. The person you look up to the most con and in the instant. What would he do to your sense of purpose? For me, it turned my world upside down. But what if I tell you that this painful moment planted the seed for crazy and extraordinary adventures? And I'm not talking about only travel adventures, but also self discovery adventures.

00:02:01:05 - 00:02:34:19
Inconnu
Welcome back to the adventure recognition. But guest, I'm really glad that you are here. Today is going to be a very special episode on my personal story, and we will cover a wide range of topics including first, I grew up in Switzerland and experiences. Then about my loss of my father, how that moment forced me to confront Lars fragility.

00:02:34:21 - 00:03:07:09
Inconnu
Then we will go a bit more, in in the challenge. How the mistakes, my failures and also the social pressure almost got me back into what I call the conventional path. And then we go through, how I found my way to a life aligned with my passions, purpose, and a sense of true adventure. And yeah, so stay tuned to find everything about my story.

00:03:07:13 - 00:03:33:10
Inconnu
I will transparently share as much as I can here, and I'm really excited to have you here, and I want to thank you for being here and listening to this episode. That is very special and close to my heart. And, whether you've been a long time listener, it's the first time for you. Thank you for being here.

00:03:33:12 - 00:04:01:16
Inconnu
And let's dive into this episode. The before is you on Spotify. Please leave, a review or if you are on Apple Podcast, leave a review as well, because it really helps a lot to get this message of adventure out. And if you're on YouTube, because I started to record my podcast now, please subscribe or just, leave a thumbs up.

00:04:01:16 - 00:04:32:03
Inconnu
And that would really mean the world to me. All right, let's dive into this episode today. So to give you a bit of context, born and raised in, the French part of Switzerland, in Lausanne, to be precise. And long story short, I've been raised in a middle class family. My mum was a stay at home mom and my dad was an entrepreneur.

00:04:32:03 - 00:05:16:24
Inconnu
It has its own primary company and I was spending as a kid a lot of time outside. But my main passion was, without the doubt, football. I could remember so many times where I would just run after school to my house to do my homework the quickest possible, take my football and go straight to the football field to play football until the end of the day, especially in summer when the light is, is longer until seven eight.

00:05:17:01 - 00:05:33:19
Inconnu
So yeah, that was my biggest passion. Between 5 to 25 was really playing a lot of football. But on top of that, I was spending most of my days outside. I would just be on my bike,

00:05:33:19 - 00:05:55:14
Inconnu
the neighborhood or in, a camping spot we had with the family would ride my bike a lot there. I would either be running in the neighborhood with friends, just playing in wintertime, I would just go sledging in the neighborhood, with friends.

00:05:55:16 - 00:06:51:23
Inconnu
And yeah, it's been pretty much my childhood, I have to say, pretty happy one. One, really, based on being outdoors and doing so much activities with friends. So that's pretty much how I grew up. Until the age of 18. And that was a very tricky moment because I just turned 18 on December 2007, and as we can go out in nightclubs here in Europe, I started to do that with friends, and I remember it was the 3rd of January 20, 2008 and I was just having fun doing kind of like a small New Year's Eve party in a club in Lausanne.

00:06:52:00 - 00:07:19:13
Inconnu
And I came back, I was pretty drunk, and next morning I woke up around, around lunchtime, I think around noon. And that's where everything changed for me, because I woke up and two hours before that, around 10 a.m., I just heard my dad in the apartment, and it was a bit weird to hear that because he was supposed to be working.

00:07:19:15 - 00:07:54:02
Inconnu
And I fell back to sleep. And then I woke up around noon. The only thing I wanted to do was going straight to the kitchen to grab a, glass of water because I was really hangover and thirsty. And on my way there, there is the living room and when I got there, I saw many people, including my dad's associate, my mum, and I think there was 1 or 2 policemen and one lady that I had no idea who she was.

00:07:54:04 - 00:08:25:21
Inconnu
And then my mum called me and asked me to come over and sit down, and straight away I could feel something was wrong, but I really didn't want to sit because I, I felt something was was on and I wanted people to tell me what was going on. I decided to sit, and that's when my mum said those words that changed my life forever.

00:08:25:21 - 00:08:33:09
Inconnu
She said, your dad has just jumped out from the window.

00:08:33:11 - 00:09:05:07
Inconnu
Another that moment was a bit crazy because it was unthinkable. I couldn't realize it. For me, it was like my dad's gonna come home after work as usual. So the first reaction was nuts believing it, but very close. After this, I felt like the weight of the word hitting. I had literally. Then the lady, I didn't know who she was.

00:09:05:07 - 00:09:35:03
Inconnu
I had the chance to talk to her and she was actually a psychologist, but I remember our conversation was a bit weird in a sense that as I wasn't realizing what was going on. Was hard for me to express, feelings, thoughts and everything that was going on. And she even told me that if I wanted to, I could cry.

00:09:35:05 - 00:10:08:18
Inconnu
But I didn't feel like it. Not because I didn't want to cry, because I just couldn't realize it. And it really hit me. 1 or 2 hours after the news, when I went to see my best friend at the soccer fields, because we were supposed to spend the afternoon playing football together. And when I saw him, he knew already the news, because our parents knew each other pretty well at this point.

00:10:08:20 - 00:10:57:02
Inconnu
And it came to me. He hugged me and I knew he knew. And that's where I realized. And I just burst into tears. So was really, difficult time at 19 at 18 at this point. But my dad survived, so. He lost a leg in the process. And long story short, six months after that, he tried again to end his own life, and he finally found peace a year and a half after the first attempt, when I was 19, and he finally found peace.

00:10:57:04 - 00:11:38:24
Inconnu
That was definitely an event that turned my life upside down for many years, including those years where it was very difficult, but also after those and it really brought me to realize life's fragility and the importance of living a full life. And that's only when I started to move on, maybe a year after he passed away, that I reconnected to one of my teenager dream to go live in the US for six months.

00:11:38:24 - 00:12:30:18
Inconnu
So at 21, I decided to use the legacy of my dad to make this tragedy a meaningful experience for me that will serve me in the future, of my life and career. So my goal was to go in the US to learn English and when I reconnected to that dream, it started to help me move on. And then in March 2011, at the age of 1021, I took off 10,000km away from my home in San Diego, California, alone for the first time.

00:12:30:20 - 00:13:09:22
Inconnu
And that experience was undoubtably the moment where it planted the seed of adventure and self-discovery. And at the same time, I reconnected to the joy of life, exploring the world, meeting new people so I really wanted to use his legacy to make it meaningful and very important for me.

00:13:10:00 - 00:13:41:17
Inconnu
Then after this crazy experience in California, I came back home with the goal to study business and business development while working on the side. So it was kind of like a program where we could work up to 70% and study at the same time, because I really thought that this would bring me closer to my dream to become an accountant.

00:13:41:19 - 00:14:13:11
Inconnu
And that dream was kind of like born, because in high school I was pretty good with mathematics and accounting. And then I thought. Seems pretty cool and exciting. So because I'm good at let's go. And if there's often a correlation between skills and kind of like satisfaction of being good at something.

00:14:13:11 - 00:14:57:14
Inconnu
Now, in respects, I don't think it was the right career path to follow, but that was the one I wanted to follow. When I started business school was like either a accounting or end up somewhere in finance. But around the middle, the last third of my studies and work at the same time, I had an opportunity to work in an accounting department, and I was told I was really excited because I thought, finally, I can test this and see if it if I really love it.

00:14:57:16 - 00:15:29:13
Inconnu
And I very quickly felt disappointed because all I was doing was turning bills all day. So I would like take the bills, scan them in in the in the machine, and then I have to click on the computer to validate the, the amounts that would be either paid or transferred in different accounts. I know it's not the full picture of accounting.

00:15:29:15 - 00:16:10:08
Inconnu
So if you're an accountant, I'm not saying this is accounting, but that was my introduction to accounting and that was all that people I was working with would give me, tasks. So I arrived at the end of my studies. Really questioning the conventional path because all I was doing was like doing my day of work, and all I wanted was to go out to do football or anything else that would just, like, bring me some sense of joy.

00:16:10:10 - 00:16:36:01
Inconnu
And I was looking at the watch so many times, but it has been very, a very like deep questioning moments because as I was going to the end of my studies, I had first to choose, specializations and.

00:16:36:03 - 00:17:08:01
Inconnu
I thought, I want to go in finance. Then I'm arriving at the end of my studies and I have no idea what to do next. But as I knew that adventure became something important to me, I decided to come up with a plan for the last year to save up as much money as I could to quit my job and realize my next dream to travel the world for a year.

00:17:08:03 - 00:17:36:13
Inconnu
Long story short, it didn't start as, as this plan. I first wanted to just visit 1 or 2 countries and then I started to put more and more countries, and it became this giant adventure I dreamt of. And that was my, my plan. So when I finished my studies, 25, 26 at the end of 2015, I quit.

00:17:36:13 - 00:18:05:04
Inconnu
My job was quite scary because I will. You end up your studies. Maybe that's not the best career move to do. You supposed to start really working and grinding? I don't know, but that wasn't my vision. Maybe it is for most people. So I quit my job and a few months later, I took off to to go start my dream travel alone in Southeast Asia.

00:18:05:06 - 00:18:39:13
Inconnu
I landed in Bangkok, and, yeah, I ended up visiting 17 countries throughout Southeast Asia, Oceania, and South America. And I met so many beautiful people I've seen breathtaking landscapes and yeah, I've been connected to to many people and different cultures that really.

00:18:40:00 - 00:19:06:23
Inconnu
Gave me like a sense of we all in this together, like a sense of connectedness to the human species. So yeah, it was, quite, an adventure. And I will not go into details here about like one year in 17 countries because I think I could do, five hours podcast just on that.

00:19:06:23 - 00:19:56:00
Inconnu
But this adventure gave me a fresh perspective on life. It helped me go through a very deep self-discovery. I had so many bus rides, ten, 15, 20 hours alone where I was processing everything that was happening in that travel and the people I was meeting and, and also think about my life because I literally felt that my life here and Switzerland was in pause, where me Blaise was like experiencing a lot, testing a lot of different things, visiting the world, exploring, saying yes to adventure.

00:19:56:02 - 00:20:30:13
Inconnu
And I could like, literally observe from where I was in, in my travels, like the Blaise from, from Switzerland and also the Blaise from the past to really kind of realize many things about me and help me connected to my values, to I wouldn't say vision because I didn't like have a straight vision at the time, but like really connected me to just what light me up at the time.

00:20:30:15 - 00:20:31:21
Inconnu
So.

00:20:32:11 - 00:20:39:01
Inconnu
I met so many peoples there that also impacted me and.

00:20:39:10 - 00:21:13:05
Inconnu
When I came back, I came with a feeling that yes, I visited a lot of countries and discovered a lot of cultures and met a lot of people, but I really felt that I didn't know anything about life and the world and had so much more things to see. So this adventure definitely, opened my eyes to a new perspective, and it also connected me to something that I haven't told you yet.

00:21:13:07 - 00:21:39:11
Inconnu
Is creativity, because I left with the desire to share a bit of my adventures with a small camera. But the beginning of the year, just before the trip started and I wanted to share more videos, but I ended up like doing more photography and fell in love with photography. Literally. I have no idea what it was doing with my camera.

00:21:39:13 - 00:22:03:20
Inconnu
I was just shooting everywhere. No purpose in really no direction, no idea what I was doing with the thing. But the more I was like taking photos, the more I was improving and I felt better and better, and I did. And I met also many photographers along the way that taught me so much stuff about photography that.

00:22:04:03 - 00:22:29:09
Inconnu
Yeah, it like sparked the fire within me about creativity and also was doing a couple of small videos. I was trying to make videos, which was more like videos takes a lot of time. So the people who does would do the videos, they know and first, like taking, I don't know, six hours to do like a 30s to one minute video is crazy.

00:22:29:09 - 00:22:59:01
Inconnu
Amount of time. So I had this hate and and love relationship with the geography. But long story short, it really ignited the spark about creativity during my travel around the world. So. And it brought me to to this doing this today and started this podcast in 2021. So yeah, so, so many transformative thing, that happen around the world.

00:22:59:01 - 00:23:11:12
Inconnu
But creativity was definitely, one of the one that, really sparked my curiosity and just wanted to improve.

00:23:11:12 - 00:23:43:24
Inconnu
Then, coming back from such a transformative and high intensity experience because I was like, moving every three days places to places. Sometimes I didn't know where I would sleep. But on average, even if sometimes I stayed a week in the same spot because I was just tired, I was like moving every three days to a new city and new place, new country, new continents, sometimes 1717 countries in 12 months.

00:23:43:24 - 00:24:17:17
Inconnu
Is quite intense. I would recommend doing that, to be honest. But coming back from such high intensity and transformative, for me, experience was challenging. I really felt like I described before that I was living in my own bubble outside of the matrix, and when I came back, I could really feel the social pressure to kind of like, conform and follow more of a traditional path.

00:24:17:17 - 00:24:44:18
Inconnu
I remember when I came back, I heard people around me telling me that my adventure High will ultimately go down. I had people tell me, yeah, come back to reality, this is not life. And also some other people say, okay, now you enjoy your life, it's time to settle, to find a job. So those are like the comments I heard around me when I came back.

00:24:44:20 - 00:25:22:23
Inconnu
And without noticing those voices, I was like, slowly allowing them to get into my psyche and altering my sense of personal time that I got from a year around the globe alone. So as I came back from that trip, I made. I made myself a promise to never accept a life by default and do whatever it takes to create a life.

00:25:22:23 - 00:25:55:07
Inconnu
I personally desire a life that I would design myself, not like the the the the path, the conventional path that is easy and comfortable to follow. But after such a transformative experience, for me it was like impossible to, just imagine that would be the best year of my life just behind me. And I would just have to cool down and accept so-called reality.

00:25:55:09 - 00:26:19:15
Inconnu
For me, it was impossible. So I made myself the promise to, never accept a life by default. But the problem was that I didn't know where to get started with this. So I came back. I started to grow and develop my creation creativity skills, but I never really thought of it as something I could do long term.

00:26:19:17 - 00:26:51:22
Inconnu
2016, it was starting to become something possible, but still something hard to to imagine at the time. So as I didn't know where to get started, I decided, despite the uncertainties, to apply the lessons I got from adventure and embrace discomfort and the unknown and make this moment of my life. As I came back, I was 27.

00:26:51:24 - 00:27:19:02
Inconnu
As I came back, I made this moment as a series of experiments and believe me, I tried all of the different things and I failed at most of them. I could, like tell you. So all that I have done, I remember that my focus when I came back from my travel was still to explore and still wanted to travel.

00:27:19:04 - 00:27:42:22
Inconnu
So as I was like going back to work to get some money in my bank account, I really wanted to find a way to make money what I was traveling. So I look up for a lot of those make money online kind of things, and I ended up following some of the get rich quick schemes, which is an experience.

00:27:42:22 - 00:28:11:18
Inconnu
It's fine. Definitely mistakes that I wouldn't do now, but yeah. So I so many ideas that I saw online or I bought a course on this and I tried, many things. So the first one I tried was selling t shirts and t shirts online, and I spent more than 600 USD and or Swiss francs.

00:28:11:20 - 00:28:44:13
Inconnu
Buying ads to sell those t shirts. And I ended up selling one t shirt at 12 USD of profit. So, yeah, definitely not, a big win. I pretty quickly understood that it wouldn't be sustainable. You don't need a, business degree to understand that, there is no future in this. This may be for others, but not for me.

00:28:44:15 - 00:29:16:18
Inconnu
Then I got into affiliate marketing. So affiliate marketing is a way to promote others people, products and get a commission from it. If people buy basically. And my idea was to create a blog because in 2017, SEO was a big thing. I don't know if it is now, but at least it was, easier, a few years ago.

00:29:16:20 - 00:29:52:18
Inconnu
And the idea for me was to build a blog around something I thought was a passion and create articles to people that was maybe trying to buy that thing, and that thing was drones. So I decided, because I love drone photography, and I bought myself a drone right after I came back from my travel. I thought, okay, let's build that, drone website where I give advices on drones and reviews on drones and people will hopefully click the link and buy it.

00:29:52:22 - 00:30:18:06
Inconnu
And I got a commission from that. But to be honest, I wasn't passionate about that. All I was doing was reviewing drones, specificities, technicalities. I didn't care about that. So after a few months I just give up on that idea. I remember telling friends that, yeah, I'm creating the drone websites and they kind of laugh at me.

00:30:18:06 - 00:30:53:12
Inconnu
I would have love of anybody else who would tell me that as well. But, yeah, definitely another success. I also started to learn and doing website designing, and I actually did the websites of my father in law, and then I had like another guy who contacted me for web designing services, but yeah, very quickly understood that wasn't for me.

00:30:53:12 - 00:31:19:20
Inconnu
It was taking me too much time and energy and it was draining my energy. So was no good for me. And at the same time, as I was working on the job to get money in the bank to go back to travel, which I did in 2018, I went back to to Thailand because my best friend was traveling also for a year with, his girlfriend.

00:31:19:20 - 00:31:45:22
Inconnu
And I have another some of my best friend as well, when more in South America. But then he moved to Canada alone for a few few weeks. So I decided to join him in in Toronto, Canada to go road tripping. And at the same time, I was also working on my skills as a creator, as a photographer, and as a videographer.

00:31:45:24 - 00:32:15:14
Inconnu
And I decided to upgrade a bit my gear. So I, but, a new camera to what I'm using now, lenses. I had a drone, obviously, and I wanted to take this, pretty seriously. And then I started to get some, few jobs on it. And I was also creating another video for my for myself.

00:32:15:14 - 00:32:42:17
Inconnu
Like my video, if you haven't seen about those where I wanted to revisit my hometown with my traveler's eyes when I came back, because I feel sometimes we live in a place and we just coast the whole place. We so used to see in the idea behind the video was like, okay, let's revisit my hometown with my new eyes, my troubles eyes.

00:32:42:19 - 00:33:13:06
Inconnu
Because when I came back after a year of travel, I realized how beautiful my home, how how beautiful my home city is. So that was the idea. So I did a several videos and, I really wanted to to improve as a creator, but I never like, saw it as a, as a career path I could further. I didn't take it seriously, but one of the mistakes I did during this time, was to focus more on the money.

00:33:13:06 - 00:33:41:20
Inconnu
Definitely. And it was the same mistake as for me to go a normal job and settle down, because I was all I wanted to do was making money so that I can travel. But, first, nothing comes easy and money doesn't come easily. So that's why I said I kind of like bit explore that, get get money.

00:33:41:22 - 00:34:15:10
Inconnu
Fast scheme a little bit. And, Yeah, it was definitely a mistake in my it. That's only when my focus came back to my passion for creating, and that I decided to focus on that. I started to first enjoy it and then started to get concrete results. But as I was still on that, desire to travel, I travel again.

00:34:15:12 - 00:34:51:23
Inconnu
With my girlfriend between 2019 and 2020. And that's pretty much where I that's where I turned 30 in December 2019. And as I was traveling with her, I started to feel that, yes, I love creativity. I love making videos, I love sharing my photography, but. I felt something was missing. And when I reflected on my personal story.

00:34:52:09 - 00:35:04:03
Inconnu
My sense of adventure, my desire to explore and. Live fully per se.

00:35:04:05 - 00:35:31:09
Inconnu
I thought for me, I would be too comfortable staying behind the camera, and for me it was very scary to say, okay, now I move in front of the camera like I'm doing now and and talk to you. And that was really uncomfortable for me, but I knew that was the path moving forward. So then of course, the pandemic hit in 2020.

00:35:31:11 - 00:36:00:05
Inconnu
So I mean, creating, a creative business. I mean, when I'm in creative, like I'm in the freelancer business, doing videos and photos in 2020, 2021, in 2022, that was pretty complicated because everybody was at home and videos, I mean, companies didn't need videos at the moment. So yeah, it was it was definitely not the time.

00:36:00:05 - 00:36:06:00
Inconnu
And as I was like evolving personally trying to, really think about.

00:36:06:18 - 00:36:31:03
Inconnu
The deepest thing I would do next in my career, I started to dip my toes into these, coaching thing alignment. Seeing Caroline and seeing. But to be honest with between, I started doing that in 2020 and in 2021.

00:36:31:12 - 00:37:03:20
Inconnu
I, I wasn't confident enough, obviously, because I, I was it always been the guy behind the camera. So when I turned the, I turned in front of the camera and being in the spotlight was very uncomfortable. Uncomfortable for me. And it still is today and probably it will require even more videos and podcasts like this for me to be more comfortable with this.

00:37:03:22 - 00:37:37:15
Inconnu
But at the time I was lacking that self-confidence. Maybe that clarity and that purpose to, go fully in at the moment. And I still had this desire to, to be a creator and to reconnect to my sense of creativity. Because between 2020, in 2022, it was kind of like harder to to make videos. So, at least like freelance videos.

00:37:37:15 - 00:38:01:20
Inconnu
So definitely I, I tip my toes into the personal development and, alignment and purpose coaching thing, but, I kind of, like, shied away, at the end of 2022. That's why in 2023, I didn't have any podcast episodes. But I always knew that I love podcasts, just like it was hard for me to kind of like combine everything.

00:38:01:22 - 00:38:31:08
Inconnu
And I took a break in 2020, three. And, yeah, I wanted to reconnect to my sense of creativity, and I had the chance to find a job, in, in spring 2023 as a content creator in a Swiss company that I really love. And they're doing great thing. Great vision about public transportation. So, yeah, it was, it was it was amazing for me.

00:38:31:08 - 00:38:33:14
Inconnu
But I also wanted to,

00:38:33:14 - 00:39:17:22
Inconnu
Before to get into that job, I also wanted to, keep doing some adventures on the side. So in 2023, right before I started that job, I decided to realize one of the dream I had since my big travel in 2016. It was to explore my own country because I met so many travelers that were traveling and been to Switzerland, that had visited so many places that are close to home that I never been.

00:39:17:24 - 00:39:39:18
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I had many stories about going to Zermatt. See the Matterhorn, which is a very famous a mountain here. People are going to Lucerne, Zurich and many other cities and places that I never been. Because you think it's right next to your place and you never go for some reason because you're like, yeah, it's close by. I can go whenever I want, but you never go.

00:39:39:20 - 00:40:09:04
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So I had this idea to visit my country at some point. I never find the right timing, especially because I was still on the traveling desire between 2016 and 2020. And then the pandemic happened. And, yeah, I decided to to combine my passion for cycling in and my desire to explore the country to make this, a crazy adventure.

00:40:09:04 - 00:40:46:14
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So I decided to combine my love for cycling adventure and wanting to explore my country. And I decided to make a project that I called home 26 to visit the 26 regions of Switzerland with my bike. And that's what I've done, in 2023. So as I was trying to reconnect to my desire to create content, create videos, create photos again, I also wanted to connect, reconnect to my desire.

00:40:46:16 - 00:41:37:14
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Creating my own small adventures. Especially after, the Covid period where we were like, kind of like stuck inside. And I had a great, 20, 23 was a great transition year, and I really had a good time. Creating videos and, processing that bikepacking adventure. I remember for the story that I met a Canadian backpacker that was traveling from France to Turkey, and when I met him, I was kind of like in the very top spot.

00:41:37:14 - 00:41:49:12
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Like the first couple of days were very tough for me. And he said something that really changed my perspective on on life, even if I kind of like we all know that saying that. I will tell you in second.

00:41:49:16 - 00:42:22:24
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But really impacted me at this moment. And came true for me. He said to me, you know, even if you don't reach your goal to visit the 26 regions of Switzerland, it doesn't take away the journey. And in my head, it clicked, because I was so focused on achieving the thing that I lost the perspective of enjoyment, fun, exploration, curiosity.

00:42:22:24 - 00:43:03:20
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I will just focus on on doing the thing. And for me, it became clear at this moment, even if it's cliche. But sometimes the clichés are so true that. We don't hear and process them. But for me, the lesson here was the journey is the goal. And when I shift my focus from wanting to explore the 26 region of Switzerland to let's have fun, let's do the best I can and let's see, if it happens, if it happens, fine.

00:43:03:20 - 00:43:36:20
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If it doesn't, it doesn't take away the journey. So that was like the big lesson I had from that adventure, and it took me quite some time to process it. I think it took me around. I don't know, 6 to 8 months to process and what happened is that I felt called back to to reconnect to my personal mission, to share my story like I'm doing now and trying to inspire others.

00:43:36:20 - 00:44:15:01
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People like me embrace life as an adventure and find meaning in the challenges that we have along our life, so that you can create a life of purpose and gratitude. So that mission was coming back to me, and that's the reason why last fall, fall 2024, I decided to quit my dream job as a content creator was really a job I loved, even if I was like, kind of like experiencing some sense of burnout at the end.

00:44:15:03 - 00:45:00:22
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There was kind of like a misalignment burnout. I was questioning my path, and then I decided to embrace, uncertainty, adventure once again and embrace that mission and create that purpose. Coaching career. While, bringing my passion for creativity, videos, photography, exploration and adventure all together. That's why I'm really excited every day when I get a chance to create content, because I can bring my expertise as a videographer, as a creator, I can improve my storytelling.

00:45:01:01 - 00:45:46:18
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And I can serve other people with all my experiences, all the tools I gathered over the years to help people create that. Life that excites them in the morning instead of dreading Mondays or dreading any mornings. So now my mission in 2025 is to have 20 ambitious professional that are encourage transition. Like I, I've been for most of my 20s, align their next career move to their passions, values, strength through self-expression and adventure.

00:45:46:18 - 00:46:18:22
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Because for me, it goes hand in hand. Because if you spend your time just introspecting for me, it's like overthinking at some point because you just like thinking, thinking, thinking. But nothing happens. And adventure is the side of the things where you're like, okay, I don't have all the answers. Maybe I have 1,520% of clarity, but I put myself into movement to go toward this and then create the vision on the scene that excites me.

00:46:18:22 - 00:47:02:01
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So that's my mission for for 2025, and it's pretty uncertain. I don't know what the future will have in store for me. Definitely. There is, money pressure. Even if I have enough savings for almost a year. And I wanted to make this happen. Whether I, I succeed or not, I really don't care, because I thought to myself, when I quit my job, I was like, would you regret this at the end of your life?

00:47:02:03 - 00:47:28:14
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Would you regret trying? The obvious answer was no, but I would definitely regret it if I wouldn't take the shot. So that's why for me, I use my own tools and I was able to shift very quickly and to take the leap. And, it's been quite a journey so far. And yeah, I'm really excited for what's to come.

00:47:28:14 - 00:47:32:10
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I will definitely get something out of this.

00:47:32:10 - 00:47:50:08
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Either like skills as a videographer, content creator, storyteller, or as a coach as well. Or, listening to people talking to the camera. I have so many things that I'm.

00:47:50:10 - 00:48:31:18
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I keep improving, so. Nothing is lost. And it's just challenges and learnings and detours. If it doesn't work. As much as I want straight away. So that's my journey. If I have to summarize, this episode, I think it's been quite long already. Life taught me early lessons on life's fragility and my desire and the importance, at least for me, to live fully, with the tragic death of my dad's.

00:48:31:20 - 00:49:06:11
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Then I spent pretty much all my 20s exploring different directions. Avenues. I tried to conventional path. I tried business endeavors that failed. I kept exploring the world, exploring myself, tried different things, and literally turned my life as a giant adventure. And that's how I want to live my life. So for me, that's fine. And that's I think, the way to go, I this is so many things.

00:49:06:13 - 00:49:28:07
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I also, I remember when I came back from my travels, I also tested a bunch of morning routines. I never been a morning guy. My friends know that I used to wake up around 11 and noon in the weekends when I saw people, for example, running in the morning when I was going to work at 6 a.m., I was thinking people were crazy.

00:49:28:09 - 00:49:52:20
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But then I shift my mindset and I said, okay, if they're doing that before to criticizing them, try it. I try to run every morning for I think was three weeks, and I started to love it. And I still do, run. Not every morning. Some mornings, and I tested many different, things to keep that adventurous spirit into my life.

00:49:52:20 - 00:50:21:13
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I connected to the cold, in 2018, where I started with cold shower, then deep in the lake and then cold bath. And I have a a cold bathtub in my garden. So. And I might become, Wim Hof instructor in the future. That's something I have into my mind. And I just did, introduction with a friend of mine who is an instructor as well, and it was quite a great experience, to be honest.

00:50:21:15 - 00:50:56:10
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And what else did I do that I thought was quite crazy? Oh, so dived, 20m down, free dive training is down in Thailand. When I came back in 2019 for my 30th birthday without oxygen was quite crazy. I run marathons and so on. So I keep that spirit of adventure into my life, and I think the most important thing is not about the big achievement is how how would you define adventure for yourself?

00:50:56:16 - 00:51:32:05
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For some, and I interviewed a lot of people on my podcast already, more than 40 people for some is like code transition, for some is starting a business, for others becoming parents, for some ideas for turning their life into something meaningful. For some is to travel the world and for others to go. Time of Everest. The message here is like, do whatever it is that is your own sense of adventure.

00:51:32:07 - 00:52:15:18
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And I love to to say, to come back to my 20s, I think it's important to have some times in your life, like moments where you just go everywhere, say yes to adventure, say yes to things you would never say yes so that you can gather a lot of data. And for me, my 30s, I'm no 35. So I would say my first half of the decade was really to bring together all the data that I had, and that's how I was able to confidently make that career move, to really give you a shot to that, because it's been combining all the skills, interests and things that

00:52:15:18 - 00:52:21:14
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made me and makes me me creating,

00:52:21:16 - 00:53:04:08
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storytelling. I did public speaking as well. So I still need to, to, to improve and coaching in alignment and everything. So this what I'm doing is like, a way for me to, to, to make confident can move and refine as I go along the way. So to conclude and, it was a bit of a longer episode than I expected to conclude, I, I often look back at my story when I tell it in retrospect, as.

00:53:04:10 - 00:53:47:12
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Sometimes I wish I didn't have such, heavy background story to tell, because I don't love the game that I sometimes see online. One wanting to have a more dramatic story to tell. I think they call it the pity party. Okay, I don't like that. I'm not very optimistic. Guy. And I really don't think you need to have a crazy story to live.

00:53:47:14 - 00:53:57:23
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Dramatic things like I did to be either inspiring or have a good life or enjoy your career.

00:53:58:04 - 00:54:34:09
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There are several examples of people I'm sure you can find, either online or around you, that didn't have a crazy tragical story, and still they are inspiring. One of the one I'm thinking at the moment is a YouTuber, a French YouTuber called Enoch Stagg that I didn't know before. Last fall when I watched one of his documentary. We challenge himself to go to the top of Everest in one year without never doing any, mountain mountaineering.

00:54:34:16 - 00:54:37:11
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And I think this guy comes from a pretty.

00:54:37:15 - 00:54:42:10
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Normal background. I don't know his full story for sure.

00:54:42:10 - 00:54:59:02
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But is pretty inspiring. Is really inspiring me to do a lot of different things that I'm doing now and that I want to do in the future, and he's pretty young, is 22, I think, now. And, inspired the whole generation to go outside and leave their phones and their screens behind him.

00:54:59:02 - 00:55:41:11
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And I think it's pretty inspiring. So you don't need to have crazy stories. And sometimes when I look at mine, I'm like, I wish I didn't have, such a heavy story to tell. And because I'm also don't like to be on the spotlight too much, even if now I accepted this, I know I have to share that story, and I also need to acknowledge my own past, my own past to realize, losing my dad was the hardest thing that I have ever experienced in my life.

00:55:41:13 - 00:56:20:11
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And yet it's also the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me because it shaped my outlook on life, my perspectives, and the person I am today. And without. That experience, I wouldn't have traveled the world and explore. And having these desire of self-discovery, adventure and be in service today and just be where I am today as a person.

00:56:20:14 - 00:56:24:00
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So I also need to acknowledge that.

00:56:24:03 - 00:56:56:21
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So, yeah, that's it for this episode. That was my personal story. I tried to share it as much as I could, even if of course, I can go into every details, but I really hope it's inspires you to live life as an adventure, because that's been my mantra since. Basically, I lost my dad, and that's something I want to keep doing and keep inspiring people to do.

00:56:56:23 - 00:57:23:20
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And if I can help you along the way to really identify what it is for you, just feel free to contact me on social media, whether it's on Instagram and LinkedIn, that's the places I am the most active. And, thank you for your attention. Thank you for your time, and I really appreciate all your support. And I see you very soon.

00:57:23:22 - 00:57:24:15
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Bye.

00:57:24:15 - 00:57:42:13
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That's it for today's episode. I really hope you had a great time on the show today. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe to the Adventure Ignition Podcast and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify because it helps a lot.

00:57:42:15 - 00:58:12:12
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Get this message of Adventure out. If you have any question, any suggestions, or you just want to contact me, please do it on social media. I blaze the stones over LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook. I would be pleased to start a conversation with you and answer your questions before to leave you. I really want to take a moment to acknowledge you for still being here on this episode.

00:58:12:12 - 00:58:41:14
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And thank you so much for your support and being part of my journey on the Adventure Recognition Podcast. And as usual, I'm going to end this episode with a famous quote from Allen Keller that I love so much. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. Thank you so much for your support. Don't forget to say yes to adventure, surf the vibe and spread the love.

00:58:41:16 - 00:58:43:03
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Peace out.