Do you consider yourself resilient and what does that mean to you? In this podcast, Resilient Entrepreneurs with Two Four One, we chat with business owners about what resilience means to them as they share their inspiring stories and life lessons.
What we've learned running our own business, is you're never alone even when it feels like it. So tune in anytime to this podcast. We're always here for you celebrating resilient entrepreneurs just like you. We're Laura and Vicki from Two Four One - a marketing company for early stage business owners who want to launch, grow and be resilient.
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Natasha Price and Adam Sheppard are the brainchild and founders of InvincAble.
And we are so excited to be talking to them today. InvincAble is an organisation that exists to empower all people to discover passion and purpose, to embrace challenges, to adapt and overcome obstacles. Here's what makes their work even more meaningful. They create positive and impactful change for people living with disability by helping to make disability visible.
Adam’s a para athlete, para athletics coach, retired wheelchair racer and former Australian record holder. Natasha or Tash, I think as she prefers to be called, is an elite wheelchair racer, author and an award-winning entrepreneur. She created the program, Live InvincAble, Embrace your Challenges to Adapt and Overcome - which is for able bodied and people living with disabilities.
They're an award winning business that exists to make an impact which is exactly why they're here talking to us today and their philosophy is to empower, inspire and create the kind of change promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace and in society as a whole, worldwide. Hey, they also have a podcast guys - wait for it - it's called “Two Cripples, One Pair of Legs” I reckon that’s something that needs to be heard.
In this episode of Resilient Entrepreneurs podcast, we're gonna dig into Tash and Adams’ ‘why’, what got them here, and the trials and tribulations they've overcome personally and professionally - they're both living with disability themselves - and what resilience means to them.
Welcome Tash, welcome Adam. We are so excited to be talking with you.
Great to be here.
Thanks for having us.
Listen, share with our community if you would, why you were called to create this business InvincAble. And what.. how did you get to where you are today?
That's a big question. So for us, we created the business four years ago. Certainly, I created a business four years ago and it was initially set up as a products-based business in order to try and design and invent products that could be sold online to support those who have disabilities. I saw a bit of a gap in the market and was working towards that.
When COVID hit, things kind of took a little bit of a back turn and like everybody else, we had to figure out a way to pivot and change the way we were doing business because suppliers were weren't easy to come by, materials are expensive, shipping costs, all those things were making the business not really very viable at that time. And around about then I met Adam. Adam who initially was just supposed to be my coach and my athletics coach, I guess we just really really hit it off. And people started saying to us, guys do you think you'd be able to come and speak to our group about motivational stuff, about your story, about the impact that you guys could have? And do you think you could come and do some accessibility consulting for us based off your lived experience? And we were like, cool, why not? Yeah, sure, we can do it. I guess we've always both been the type to just say yes to things, that's when the best things happen. And I guess the business has just taken a life of its own since then, more and more work coming our way, Us saying yes to more and more things. So that now we do motivational speaking, you do your Passion and Purpose training WhyFire, I do mine, the Live InvincAble Resilience program. We do InvincAble Motivate, and of course we do a lot to try and build allies to disability. So we do our InvincAble Aid program which is accessibility, inclusion, diversity and education. And everything we do, it's two sides of the same coin, really. We're trying to show everyone out there that just because you have a disability doesn't mean you're different to anyone else. We want to build a life where everybody is empowered to go out and chase the life that they want, regardless of what their ability is. And at the same time, go out and motivate people to be happy, to be joyous and to embrace their challenges and adapt and overcome.
Yeah and in your work and your blog, you talk about motivation. And I really like the way you position it, choose your motivation. Like we're all motivated by something, by different things. What advice do you have for people who might be in this audience, maybe feeling a bit flat at the moment or a bit alone which is very common for entrepreneurs? Maybe they're in a funk, how do you find that motivation?
The program I run is called WhyFire and it's all about helping people discover their Why and their passion and their purpose. And I think it's really important for people to live a great life and a fulfilling life and have direction in their life. And particularly for those, you know if you're feeling in a bit of a funk or to gain some understanding around your own Why and what you're here for and where your passion and your purpose lies.
Yeah, I guess everybody has those intrinsic motivators, those things that motivate them from deep inside. And, like the one thing you say with your program is stoke that Why with fire. You want to.. you want to give passion to it, not just have a Why, not just have a reason, but kind of keep stoking it (keep it going), keep that fire burning so that you have that reason to get up every day, you have that reason to keep chasing your dreams and the only way you can do that is by figuring it out and knowing exactly what it is, hone in on it and then use that as the fire in your belly to keep you going.
Absolutely. We talked a lot about using your intrinsic motivators. So you know stuff that you're really really passionate about, the stuff that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up in life to pull you, to move you forward and you know, everyone ends up in those funks. And like, as you said, it's using those things to help pull you out and keep you on the track .
What's your Why?
My Why is my son, my son Fletcher, he's five. And basically being the best dad and the fittest and healthiest dad I can be for him. Yeah, that's it.
I guess your story has really made you realise just how important Fletcher is to you. I mean, not that you didn't already know that. But…
So in 2018, I ended up in hospital in renal failure which was a little bit of a shock to me. And on the third day the doctor came in, and he said to me, I'm putting you on the same drug Lance Armstrong used to cheat with, I’m like, love it, that's awesome. But in the same breath, he said to me, another two or three days at home and he said, you're just gonna go to sleep and not wake up. And at the time, my son Fletcher was not even a year old. So that was a real kick in the pants I guess you’d said, it's not that I wasn't living a bad life, I wasn't doing anything bad but I had no.. aside from him and my wife, I didn't have a purpose or a reason, I didn't feel like I had a reason or a purpose and so everything I do now revolves around a good life for him, showing him a good life, and showing him how great life can be, and for me being around as long as I possibly can for him.
Yes, yes.
Beautiful. How do you help people find their Why if they haven't had a momentous kind of trigger or tipping point like that?
Well finding your Why is different for everyone. It is, it's truly different for everyone. Not everybody, as you said, has had that, that big thing in their life. The adversity often shapes your life and it can shape your life in positive ways if you allow it, and use it in those positive ways. But everybody has had some kind of challenge in their life. Everybody. Some people can be greater than others but quite often, honing in on that and realising the things that you were feeling at the time that you were going through those challenges will actually help you to figure out what your Why is.
So for me, personally, I was bed bound for nearly 10 years by a rare disease that I didn't know I had. I woke up one day blind in both eyes, within a couple of weeks I was paralyzed from the waist down. And that experience kept me in a.. not in a negative way but kind of doubting my own abilities and doubting my ability to go out and lead a life that I wanted. And that kept me in that situation for much much longer than it needed to. Now that I've managed to make those changes in my life, my Why is to show other people that they too can have a great life as long as they've got the tools and the ability to be able to do that. And I don't ever ever want to see anyone feel that they can't do something just because of what their perceived abilities are, or the thoughts and feelings and opinions of other people are. So my Why is very very much about making sure that nobody feels that sense of hopelessness that I felt during that time. So by understanding what I went through, understanding what my thoughts and opinions were at that time, I've been able to really really hone in on the difference that I want to make in the world for others. And I think that is the best way for anyone to figure out what their Why is, wouldn't you say? Understanding your own thoughts and feelings around something, not just, it can be quite a deep process but once you figure it out, it makes a world of difference, it really does.
Is that where coaching helps? When you coach somebody to help them find it, is that part of that process?
Yeah 100%. And also, because everybody's situation is different, everybody.Quite often you'll find parents that their kids are flying the nest and they're like, Oh my God, my kid has been my Why my whole life and now, I don't know where to go from here, I feel flat and I'm not sure what to pursue now. But we help people to figure that out because as important as it is to put your child front and centre, at the same time it's really really important to understand yourself. (Exactly.) And if you don't understand yourself, then you can feel much like you don't know what your purpose is and what to do now. So helping people to figure out for them personally what their intrinsic motivators are, and what they feel passionate about inside and figure out the new goals in life, yeah, that's exactly what we do.
Yeah, I think this would be so relevant for people who might have suffered through or experienced a business failure and you're left thinking, I thought I was on the right path and yeah now it's all falling apart or feels like it's falling apart. And people do reflect around the end of year and beginning of year as to what their life purpose is, so it's such a timely conversation - I think it really impacts everybody.
Is there a time that you, especially during that experience, you described being 10 years bedridden? That's incredible, and then to see your.. the achievements and accomplishments and incredible things that you've done with your life since. There must have been many times there where you felt like quitting?
No. I think I am a very stubborn, determined person. You'll account for that. I never had that point where I was like, Ah, I can't go on, I don't want to do this anymore, I'm sick of it. Whenever I feel that or start to feel like things are really really tough, I tend to try and switch my thought processes on things. So if I feel like I'm failing with something or feel I'm not doing enough, then I'll check my feelings and say, Actually what are the positives that I'm gaining from feeling like this right now? What are the positives that are happening as a result of the challenges I'm going through now? So yes, my story is one of adversity and challenges but I only see that as a positive. It's all positive because that shaped who I am today, it allowed me to meet Adam. It allowed us to start the business we have now and we're going out and making an impact every single day on people and had this stuff not happened to me, I would have been doing what I was doing prior to everything happening, which wasn't fulfilling and it wasn't something that I was passionate about. So I think we can both safely say we both wake up in the morning with fire in our bellies.
We’re ready to get at it and keep doing what we do.
Yeah, exactly.
That's exactly how every entrepreneur should feel when they get out of bed, right? That's so exciting to hear you say that and sometimes we can't quit, sometimes that's not an option, but it's great to hear that you spin it and I wonder.. not spin it, you interpret it, that way as a positive. And is your philosophy one where... I often hear from great thought leaders about psychology and mindset, is that your thoughts aren't always true, your feelings aren't always true.
Oh, 100% 100%. What's going on in your head isn't always an indication of reality. I think everybody has impostor syndrome or there’s that little devil that sits on your shoulder trying to persuade you of things. I think the most important thing that we can tell ourselves as humans is those are just thoughts. And your thoughts, when they're negative shouldn't always shape your actions and it doesn't shape reality and what's actually going on on a day to day basis. So trying to keep check of yourself and keep check of your feelings is really important.
Like you were saying before, you do need to check yourself and reflect back on.. we talk a lot about celebrating every success. and, yeah, it's a really, really important thing to do particularly for entrepreneurs. Because often we're going it alone or our team’s only very small, so when we have successes, it's really, really super important that we have something that we can reflect back on. Okay, yeah, that was a really great moment.
Yeah, remember the good stuff. And that good stuff only needs to be something small, like successes can literally be getting through your to-do list on a day. And I think it's really easy for people to forget just how important it is to celebrate the small wins, as well as the major wins, because it's those small wins that keep you going, that keep you feeling positive. And making sure that you reflect on those and don't constantly reflect on the negative, that's the way to keep moving forward.
And I think you tend to see more of what you think about as well. So when you're seeing more of the positive view. It definitely brings you more…
Yeah 100%
You manifest it.
Yeah, exactly.
What do you guys do for your own self? Do you have any morning routines? A lot of successful entrepreneurs have some crazy morning routines. Or is there anything in your day that you do consistently, that helps you to stay positive and to stay in the right mindset?
We’ll say the same thing?
Well we're both up at 5:30 every morning to go to the gym. And on average, we spend an hour and a half to two hours in the gym of the morning and just exercising, stretching, whatever. We generally have a routine that we do, but some days it's just about getting in there and getting on the trail and on a grinder and moving our arms, or it just depends but that's.. I think I could speak for both of us and say that, without that, if we have a day where we don't have that we both..
We’re both horrible to be around!
You didn't go to the gym today - neither did you!
And, yeah, and I mean, on top of that, as an elite athlete I'm also training another two hours a day in my race chair. So we make sure we're very routine based, we have to be in order to fit everything in, but that training, that is what keeps us both able to focus on everything that we need to do in each day, because we lead incredibly busy lives. Yeah.
Is the gym customised in any way? Or how do you work that?
We've found a gym that works really well for us. It's a really big space so very easy for us to get around, lots of equipment and for us, lots of adjustability in the equipment as well. So things we can pull down to our level or lift up or highly adjustable stuff. I've been pretty lucky that over the years I've learned ways of adapting equipment to the way I need it to be but yeah, we've certainly found one, a gym that's really good for us and yeah, and easy to use.
As wheelchair users you get used to having to adapt, you do, you have to be flexible, you have to figure out ways of making it work. Whilst it would be lovely for the world to be totally inclusive and accessible it just isn't and we've got a really really long way to go before it's that. However there are some gyms that are much better than others and especially the newer bigger gyms are providing equipment that is really quite accessible to us, so we're very lucky that we have one very local to us.
So you do advocate on accessibility, yes? And trying to get the society a little bit more user friendly I suppose. Where do you think we are with that, on a scale of 1 to 10?
Probably five or six maybe.
It depends on where you are in the world. So the UK is very very inaccessible. I guess because of the age of the buildings, everything's retrofitted. In the newer areas of course it's different, but everywhere is so old. So it can be quite, quite challenging to get around.
What I love about Australia and what I love about being here is just the Gold Coast itself is a newer city but also they're working really hard to make the city an accessible place to live. And there's a long way to go considering we say that it's still only a five or six, there is a hell of a long way to go but it's still so much better than so many other places.
We had an interview with somebody yesterday and you know, I'd say the aim, our aim really is for us not to have to have the conversation about accessibility or inclusion. The ultimate goal, I guess you can say, for accessibility is that it's just there and it doesn't even have to be a thought for people.
We're looking for any not equality, equity would be nice so that the tools are all in place for people to have their needs looked after, regardless of what they are. But the main aim is liberation where the barriers don't even exist in the first place, where it's just an accepted part of society that we're all treated in an inclusive manner and accessibility isn't even thought about; it's not an afterthought, it's just there. And that's the way the world should be. So many people live with disability. Around 20% of the population so why isn't it taken into account more often?
Yeah, that's a really good question. I didn't realise it was that high of a percentage, that's really good to know.
Huge, it’s huge. Yeah.
So guys, what do you think the most important concept is for success in business?
Passion is obviously important.
Yeah passion but a willingness to just give it a go. I think in business and in anything in life, people are so controlled by their fears. They're so concerned about getting things wrong that they don't give themselves the chance to get it right. And I think the reason things work so well for us is because we say yes, just say yes, just honestly, just say yes, if it doesn't work out, who cares, you've given it a go and you've learned something and you can apply that learning and that knowledge to a different thing.
Nothing will ever work if you don't try it in the first place. So don't be don't be ruled by that fear. I guess let go of those fears and use those fears as a driving factor. Generally, if you're scared of something, that's the time when you should do it, because it will generally lead to something good. Would you agree? Yeah, absolutely.
We tend to be scared more of what the fear is than of the thing itself. Right? The fear takes over. Or the potential shame or humiliation of something not working out? What will they say? What will I say about myself? What does that mean about me if it doesn't work?
And how amazing would it be if it worked out though? (Yeah, exactly.)
It's so exciting.
And if it works out and you achieve it, then that sense of.. the sense of self worth that it gives you and the sense of confidence and knowing that you've given something a go and it's worth it, it overtakes everything. And like I said, if it didn't work then you've learned the lesson and that knowledge can be applied to other things. So there's never a negative, not really, everything works out in the way it's supposed to work out in the end.
What scares you guys?
That was a good question.
It's a really good question. What scares you?
What scares me? Heights.
Not being enough and not being around for the people that rely on me, when they need me is probably my biggest fear.
Oh you’re gunna get me all emotional now. You poor bugger!
I’m trying not to. But yeah, for me that'd be it.
It's a really tough question for me because I don't fear a lot. Do I? I'm not a person that is controlled by fear and when I’m scared I make myself do it anyway.
I guess for me more than anything, I'm scared of going back to, backwards to where I was with my health and not being able to continue leading this life, like I could have a relapse at any time. I was told that I'd probably only live five years if I was lucky after my original diagnosis and I guess that's part of the reason why I'm so driven because I know that there's an expiry date. And for me I just want to keep pushing beyond that, but I guess there is an element of fear there because I want to be able to leave this world knowing that I've achieved these things and made a difference and continued on this path that I love, and I guess that is the biggest fear.. is not being able to lead this life anymore, because we lead an incredible life.
Making an incredible impact. Wow, you guys! If you could go back in a time capsule and talk to yourself 20 years ago, what advice would you give yourself?
This is funny, we actually ask a very similar question in our podcast and I've never actually thought about how to answer it myself, have you?
It would be just say yes, we're all about just saying yes. And for me, it would be just say yes, stop overthinking it, stop worrying what other people think, just do it, just say yes. Because that's where the magic happens.
I think for me, 20 years ago, I was actually making myself very, very sick because I was controlled by eating disorders, like I had really bad anorexia and Type 1 Diabetes and I wasn't taking my insulin, to try and control my weight. And I think what I'd say to myself back then is stop worrying about the stupid rubbish, none of that stuff matters. Your body image is not important. What really matters is happiness and fulfilment, find a way to be happy and find a way to stop being so desperate for control that you're doing that to yourself because I think that's what it came down to is, I felt like my life was out of control and that was the only way to be able to regain some control of it. So I think I would have told myself don't be so bloody ridiculous.
Well, I can imagine. You guys are the very definition of resilience. It feels silly to even ask you what your definition of resilience is because you're I think my definition of resilience. But what does resilience mean to you guys?
A lot of people think that resilience is about constantly being positive and happy and that's just not the case. Resilience is about being able to pick yourself up and keep going, even when the chips are down, even when you feel like you can't keep going on. It's finding that way to keep managing how you feel in order to keep moving forward each day. And that, for me, is the definition of it. Keep moving forward, even if you're only taking baby steps, or in our case, no steps at all, but keep taking those small steps to move forward even when, embrace your challenges and find a way to adapt and overcome because that is how you become resilient.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think for me, it's about riding the waves and enjoying the journey and keeping an eye on, having one eye on the prize at the end. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon and you've got to enjoy it. There's always going to be times when it's not enjoyable. But keeping an eye on the prize at the end and to the best of your ability, enjoying every part of the process is important.
Phenomenal guys! Phenomenal! Tash and Adam from InvincAble, you truly are invincible and resilient and so many other descriptive words. It's an absolute pleasure to meet you in person..well on zoom in person. And yeah, listen, I'm a big fan. I'll be listening to Two Cripples and Pair of Legs?
Two Cripples, One Pair of Legs!
That's the podcast name. Yeah. I'll be tuning in for sure. And we really appreciate you sharing your wisdom and experience and vulnerability with our community today and I know that people will have gotten so much from this.
Thank you so much.
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Thanks for joining us on Resilient Entrepreneurs. We love supporting entrepreneurs, especially with mindset, marketing and motivation which is why we’ve built an incredible community of business founders who meet weekly in the Level-Up League. If you'd like to know more about it, look us up at www.twofouronebranding.com
