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Secrets to Overcoming Fear and Pushing Limits with Michelle Khare · QUESTION EVERYTHING

0:04
Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
0:08
Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
0:12
Speaker 1: and I have conversations that put a new spin on pretty.
0:17
Speaker 1: This is pretty smart. Hello. I hope you're having a
0:22
Speaker 1: beautiful week. This is the last Thursday in January, and
0:26
Speaker 1: I feel like this episode is the perfect episode for
0:31
Speaker 1: this week because I don't know about you, but I
0:35
Speaker 1: needed a slow start to the new year. I was
0:37
Speaker 1: not ready to just jump in and rev up. And
0:41
Speaker 1: our guest today is always repped up. She is literally
0:47
Speaker 1: a daredevil, and not only did she inspire me to
0:52
Speaker 1: kick things into gear, but she does it in a soft,
0:57
Speaker 1: gentle way. So I hope you feel the same way.
1:00
Speaker 1: You know, When I was a kid, I believed that
1:03
Speaker 1: bravery was something you were born with, like it was
1:07
Speaker 1: a secret superpower that some people had or could tap into.
1:11
Speaker 1: And I don't know, maybe movies made me think that
1:14
Speaker 1: Brave Heart, Gladiator, Shindler's List, Twelve Angry Men to Kill
1:19
Speaker 1: a Mockingbird. All these characters were brave and they were
1:23
Speaker 1: all men. And as I got older, I realized a
1:27
Speaker 1: few things. First, bravery isn't really about being fearless. It's
1:33
Speaker 1: about being afraid and doing it anyway. And second, the
1:38
Speaker 1: kind of courage I'd grown up seeing in these movies,
1:42
Speaker 1: in fact was courage. But women were courageous too, And
1:48
Speaker 1: as I garnered more experience, I learned they were just
1:52
Speaker 1: as courageous, if not more. If we look back in history,
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Speaker 1: Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic in nineteen thirty two. Solo,
2:02
Speaker 1: that is brave. Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and risked her
2:07
Speaker 1: entire life repeatedly leading other people to freedom through the
2:11
Speaker 1: underground railroad. Bravery. Oprah Winfrey openly discussed her history of
2:17
Speaker 1: sexual abuse and so many personal struggles, inspiring millions with
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Speaker 1: her resilience daily that is brave. Diana and Nayad swam
2:27
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten miles from Cuba to Florida at
2:30
Speaker 1: age sixty four, and during Jellyfish things exhaustion, treacherous waters
2:35
Speaker 1: in her fifth attempt, that is bravery. And how about this?
2:41
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton famously said that the bravest thing she ever
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Speaker 1: did was stay in her marriage. That's also bravery. And
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Speaker 1: Today's Guests exemplifies bravery. She does it every week on YouTube.
2:57
Speaker 1: Michelle care is the mastermind behind the wildly popular series
3:01
Speaker 1: Challenge Accepted, the Streamy award winning show with nearly five
3:05
Speaker 1: million subscribers. She's also turned this into a multimillion dollar
3:09
Speaker 1: business built on a simple idea diving headfirst into challenges
3:14
Speaker 1: most people wouldn't dare to attempt. And when I see challenges,
3:19
Speaker 1: I mean intense ones. Michelle has trained to be a firefighter,
3:23
Speaker 1: She's joined the bomb Squad, completed hostage negotiation training, trained
3:28
Speaker 1: to be a Victoria Secret Runway model, hunted for treasure,
3:31
Speaker 1: and even joined a clown troop. Yes, and that is
3:35
Speaker 1: just scratching the surface. Okay, Michelle doesn't just try new things.
3:39
Speaker 1: She fully immerses herself, often spending months preparing, training, and transforming.
3:45
Speaker 1: Her show isn't just entertainment. It's basically a docuseriies on resilience, curiosity,
3:51
Speaker 1: and pushing limits. The first time I watched Challenge Accepted,
3:56
Speaker 1: I was struck by how real and raw each journey
3:59
Speaker 1: of hers is. Her episodes feel like feature documentaries, some
4:03
Speaker 1: taking up to a year before they're ready to post.
4:06
Speaker 1: Her honesty is what makes her so captivating. She's not
4:10
Speaker 1: just showing you what's possible. She's showing you that failure
4:13
Speaker 1: and fear and imperfection are part of the process. You
4:17
Speaker 1: definitely find yourself rooting for her, worrying about her, and
4:20
Speaker 1: maybe even shedding a tear with her. But what's particularly
4:24
Speaker 1: interesting is she'll tell you it's not about succeeding. She's
4:28
Speaker 1: almost hoping you'll see her fail, and the reason why
4:32
Speaker 1: may surprise you. She believes that everything you want is
4:36
Speaker 1: on the other side of fear, and I'm fascinated by
4:39
Speaker 1: her pursuits because fear is such a universal experience, whether
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Speaker 1: it's heights, public speaking failure, Facing fear can lead to
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Speaker 1: profound psychological growth. Some even say it helps you live longer.
4:52
Speaker 1: But while most of us not along to the idea,
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Speaker 1: Michelle actually lives it. She doesn't just ask can I
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Speaker 1: do this? She asks what can I learn from this?
5:02
Speaker 1: How can I grow? So in today's episode, we're diving
5:06
Speaker 1: deep into Michelle's world. We're going to talk about how
5:08
Speaker 1: she built an empire on YouTube and what motivates her
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Speaker 1: to take on these extreme challenges, and also how she's
5:15
Speaker 1: learned to navigate fear in ways most of us can
5:17
Speaker 1: only dream of. We'll explore the surprising lessons she's picked
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Speaker 1: up along the way, from FBI negotiations to clowning workshops
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Speaker 1: to finding bravery in everyday life. And this is something
5:29
Speaker 1: that I took away from the conversation that I kind
5:32
Speaker 1: of noted up top, and I hope you'll take this too.
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Speaker 1: Michelle's story reminds us that bravery isn't reserved for dare devils.
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Speaker 1: It's something we all have inside of us. It could
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Speaker 1: be starting a new job, standing up for yourself, sending
5:46
Speaker 1: that cold email you've been avoiding. Bravery really takes all
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Speaker 1: shapes and sizes, and though Michelle's journey might be extreme,
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Speaker 1: the lessons she's learned are deeply relatable and actionable. So
6:00
Speaker 1: whether you're tuning in for inspiration, or curious about how
6:04
Speaker 1: to push through fear, or just want some bts behind
6:07
Speaker 1: the scenes stories from one of the most creative women
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Speaker 1: on YouTube, this episode is for you. This is where
6:14
Speaker 1: we jump in and come out on the other side
6:16
Speaker 1: of fear together. Let's get into it. Michelle Care, Welcome
6:28
Speaker 1: to Pretty Smart.
6:29
Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for having me.
6:31
Speaker 1: Everyone, we have a real life daredevil in the house today.
6:34
Speaker 2: Well, that's very kind of you to say.
6:36
Speaker 1: Do you consider yourself a Daredevil.
6:38
Speaker 2: Well, I think.
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Speaker 3: Everyone has a little dare devil inside of them, and
6:44
Speaker 3: I think my YouTube channel and Cheloge except that have
6:46
Speaker 3: just given me a vehicle to explore that every single day.
6:50
Speaker 2: But I think everyone has a dear devil inside.
6:54
Speaker 1: How do I bring mine out? I don't know if
6:55
Speaker 1: I have one.
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Speaker 3: Well, you definitely do already. I mean, you're putting yourself
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Speaker 3: out there online. That's really really scary. I mean, you're
7:03
Speaker 3: lead producing and hosting this amazing podcast. You're extremely connected
7:07
Speaker 3: in your industry. You're putting yourself out there every day,
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Speaker 3: and you clearly.
7:11
Speaker 2: Know what you're doing.
7:12
Speaker 3: When it comes to this, I want everyone who's watching
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Speaker 3: or listening to know that Danielle is not just sitting
7:17
Speaker 3: here hosting. She's also producing and like making sure all
7:19
Speaker 3: the cameras and lights are great, and that even our
7:22
Speaker 3: outfits or color coordinated.
7:25
Speaker 1: It's super generous of you. But I'm gonna list off
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Speaker 1: a few things and it's gonna make that look not
7:30
Speaker 1: so daredoublish. Okay, at thirty two years old, here are
7:34
Speaker 1: some of the things that you have already experienced and tried.
7:38
Speaker 1: Hostage negotiation with the FBI, trained with NASA, learned to
7:42
Speaker 1: play chess like a grand master champion, escaped a water
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Speaker 1: tank in under two minutes while handcuffed like Houdini, put
7:48
Speaker 1: through a nuclear war simulation, joined a traveling circus, ghost hunted,
7:53
Speaker 1: trained and dieted to be a Victoria Secret swimsuit model
7:57
Speaker 1: and Olympic figure skater, a runway model, a boxer, miss Usay,
8:02
Speaker 1: you even went to Santa School. Yes, we did, and
8:06
Speaker 1: that's just a drop in the bucket. You've done around
8:08
Speaker 1: fifty challenges, Yeah, I think so at this point.
8:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess you would know better than me, honestly.
8:14
Speaker 1: So these challenges and these risks that you're taking, they're
8:18
Speaker 1: at the expense of your health. Sometimes they're at the
8:21
Speaker 1: expense of your well being. Sometimes what makes it worth
8:25
Speaker 1: the risk for you?
8:26
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
8:27
Speaker 3: Well, I guess I should preface that, Like with every
8:29
Speaker 3: challenge we take, it's safety is the number one concern
8:33
Speaker 3: with everyone, and I only put myself in situations I
8:35
Speaker 3: feel comfortable to try and pursue. But I think that
8:40
Speaker 3: something that really stood out to me a few years
8:42
Speaker 3: ago before I started Challenge Accepted, was this idea that
8:45
Speaker 3: everything you want is on the other side of fear,
8:48
Speaker 3: and I've found personally that the moments of the greatest
8:52
Speaker 3: growth have been when I have, you know, confronted and
8:55
Speaker 3: gone to that other side a little bit. So honestly,
8:57
Speaker 3: challenge accepted is a way for me to continue growing
9:01
Speaker 3: and expanding myself, my understanding of the world, and hopefully
9:05
Speaker 3: share with a larger audience some of the learnings along
9:07
Speaker 3: the way.
9:08
Speaker 1: Do you still get an adrenaline rush?
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Speaker 2: Yes, literally every time.
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Speaker 3: It could be as simple as like we joined a
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Speaker 3: traveling circus and that was terrifying, Like flying off the trapeze,
9:19
Speaker 3: standing in the globe of death with the motorcycle flying
9:21
Speaker 3: around me. I definitely experience fear. I think it's a
9:24
Speaker 3: healthy thing to experience fear. It's an innate human response
9:28
Speaker 3: and it is our body, you know, communicating with this
9:32
Speaker 3: in a proper way. And I think it's important to
9:34
Speaker 3: have a good metric on that fear. If I was
9:37
Speaker 3: just doing things without fear at all, I think it
9:40
Speaker 3: would be dangerous and even reckless. But I think it's
9:43
Speaker 3: also about mitigating and understanding when it's rational and when
9:46
Speaker 3: it's not.
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Speaker 1: What's that sort of rubric for you? How do you
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Speaker 1: determine what it's.
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Speaker 2: Rational when it's when it's rational fear or not.
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Speaker 3: Wow, that's a really hard question to answer, but I
9:59
Speaker 3: think I think a feeling.
10:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a.
10:02
Speaker 3: Vibe honestly, But there's quantitative elements of like when.
10:05
Speaker 2: I'm going in a you know, an.
10:08
Speaker 3: Underwater tank, handcuffed upside down to try and escape Harry.
10:12
Speaker 2: Genie's Deadliest Magic Trick.
10:14
Speaker 3: Quantitatively, I know, okay, I've done the training, there's a
10:18
Speaker 3: full stunt team and safety team on standby in case
10:20
Speaker 3: anything goes wrong. And then you know, also I have
10:23
Speaker 3: to qualitatively trust in myself, like I've done the steps
10:27
Speaker 3: that I need to do before attempting something like this,
10:31
Speaker 3: So it's a relationship with my body.
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Speaker 1: I guess the trust in yourself is what's really interesting
10:37
Speaker 1: to me personally. I don't know if maybe it's because
10:39
Speaker 1: it's something I've struggled with, But do you feel that
10:42
Speaker 1: muscle gets stronger each time, or is that something that
10:45
Speaker 1: you've always had.
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Speaker 3: I think that confronting fear is absolutely a muscle. The
10:50
Speaker 3: more you do it, the easier it becomes to assess
10:54
Speaker 3: that fear, what's rational, what's not. And I also think
10:58
Speaker 3: it's important to look at the historical data. How many
11:02
Speaker 3: times have you gone out on a limb and it's
11:03
Speaker 3: actually gone better than you thought it would, probably more
11:07
Speaker 3: than you would think day to day. But if you
11:09
Speaker 3: sat down and wrote down every time you've gone out
11:12
Speaker 3: on a limb or like pushed yourself to try something different,
11:16
Speaker 3: I would venture to say that, you know, maybe you
11:18
Speaker 3: were surprised at some of the positive results, and you
11:21
Speaker 3: can lean on that data to inform future risks and
11:26
Speaker 3: choices and endeavors you yourself pursue.
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Speaker 1: What challenge has been the hardest on your mind and
11:32
Speaker 1: which one has been the hardest on your body?
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Speaker 2: Oh wow, this is you know. My answer to this
11:38
Speaker 2: change is all the time.
11:39
Speaker 3: But I think mentally the most difficult challenge for me
11:42
Speaker 3: was the Chess challenge. For purely, absolutely shout out to
11:46
Speaker 3: anyone who plays chess and or is in chess club
11:49
Speaker 3: or anything like that. That challenge was exceptionally challenging for
11:53
Speaker 3: me because I thought that it would take me one
11:57
Speaker 3: month to hit my goal, and it took I think
11:59
Speaker 3: eight to ten months at the end of the challenge
12:02
Speaker 3: of just playing chess every single day and memorizing all
12:06
Speaker 3: of the patterns and techniques and working with a coach,
12:08
Speaker 3: and it was a new experience for me and I
12:11
Speaker 3: really really enjoyed everything I learned from it. I think physically,
12:15
Speaker 3: a challenge I'm really excited about that hasn't come out yet.
12:18
Speaker 2: Was.
12:18
Speaker 3: I finished a challenge earlier this year where I tried
12:21
Speaker 3: to get a black belt in.
12:23
Speaker 2: Taekwondo in only ninety days. What. Yes, it takes people
12:28
Speaker 2: ninety years to do that.
12:30
Speaker 3: Typically it takes three to five years to get a
12:33
Speaker 3: black belt in taekwondo on like an average path when
12:36
Speaker 3: when someone's like going a couple times after school or
12:39
Speaker 3: after work. But we kind of asked the question, what
12:42
Speaker 3: would happen if we just went every single day for
12:45
Speaker 3: multiple hours.
12:46
Speaker 2: It in kind of condensed everything.
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Speaker 1: So the fact that you're continuing to do taekwondo is
12:52
Speaker 1: interesting to me because I read that you took up
12:55
Speaker 1: cycling just for fun kind of, and then you decided
12:59
Speaker 1: to go pro.
13:00
Speaker 3: I probably will not be becoming a professional martial artist,
13:04
Speaker 3: but yeah, the cycling journey was definitely interesting and informed
13:09
Speaker 3: a lot of the daily patterns I bring to challenge.
13:12
Speaker 1: Except that I suppose, m h, yeah, can you say
13:16
Speaker 1: more about that? Yeah, you mean it brings more to
13:19
Speaker 1: the daily patterns.
13:20
Speaker 3: So I started cycling because I came to Los Angeles
13:25
Speaker 3: for an internship and I didn't have any friends in
13:29
Speaker 3: LA but I saw a lot of people riding bikes here.
13:31
Speaker 3: It's a very outdoorsy city, and so I thought, Okay,
13:35
Speaker 3: maybe if I ride my bike around, I'll join.
13:39
Speaker 2: Like a social group or something like.
13:40
Speaker 3: So for me, it was a social opportunity and I
13:43
Speaker 3: really just fell in love with it, and instead of like.
13:46
Speaker 2: Making lots of friends or like developing.
13:48
Speaker 3: A social life, I just kept riding my bike with
13:51
Speaker 3: this group of people who were very, very good. And
13:55
Speaker 3: when I went back to college after finishing the internship,
13:58
Speaker 3: I joined.
13:59
Speaker 2: The collegiate team and we went to nationals.
14:01
Speaker 3: And yeah, the first year I was after college, I
14:05
Speaker 3: was working as a producer and then also on the
14:09
Speaker 3: pro tem on the weekends.
14:11
Speaker 1: Okay, so these productions that you put together, I heard
14:14
Speaker 1: you were inspired by documentaries, which makes a lot of
14:17
Speaker 1: sense because I'm watching how you film these, and it's
14:20
Speaker 1: docu style when you're filming yourself, but when you're filming
14:24
Speaker 1: your trainers or other people, it's filmed really beautifully. The
14:27
Speaker 1: way you chop it up is so interesting. I heard
14:30
Speaker 1: you spend anywhere from ten to thirty thousand dollars per challenge.
14:34
Speaker 1: Is that a correct number?
14:35
Speaker 2: I guess it's changed.
14:36
Speaker 3: It's sort of like particular to whatever we're doing. But yeah,
14:40
Speaker 3: I mean the state of YouTube nowadays is people are
14:44
Speaker 3: making bigger productions, and single point creators are turning into
14:48
Speaker 3: teams of people and production companies. And that's how we
14:52
Speaker 3: run our company at least.
14:54
Speaker 1: I love when you say our company, because I've heard
14:56
Speaker 1: you talk a lot about your team. I can tell
14:58
Speaker 1: it's really important to you. Yes, And you won Streamy
15:02
Speaker 1: Award in twenty twenty three. It was Show of the Year, right, Yeah,
15:06
Speaker 1: it was, And I loved watching your speech. I think
15:10
Speaker 1: at the very end of it you said, we're just
15:13
Speaker 1: getting started. Yeah, what does that mean for you?
15:17
Speaker 3: Well, our whole team was there that night, which was
15:20
Speaker 3: so so cool, And also I think it's the beginning
15:25
Speaker 3: of our journey.
15:26
Speaker 2: Like for me, it was like we.
15:27
Speaker 3: Were not expecting to win something like that, and for
15:31
Speaker 3: us it was like, Okay, it's time.
15:32
Speaker 2: To level up.
15:33
Speaker 3: That chapter has closed, let's start writing the next one.
15:37
Speaker 3: And I don't think I necessarily meant okay, now all
15:42
Speaker 3: the videos are going to be ten times as big
15:44
Speaker 3: or more expensive, or crazier or scary or.
15:47
Speaker 2: Anything like that.
15:48
Speaker 3: But I am excited about the possibility of a long
15:53
Speaker 3: term career.
15:55
Speaker 2: Doing what we're doing.
15:57
Speaker 1: When you say that, I can't help but think what
16:00
Speaker 1: that means in terms of like more traditional distributors, because
16:03
Speaker 1: I've heard you've turned down some offers from traditional well.
16:07
Speaker 3: Like we've had meetings with various companies and whatnot, and
16:12
Speaker 3: I think a lot of YouTubers are getting interest in
16:15
Speaker 3: offers and that's so so exciting. But at the end
16:18
Speaker 3: of the day, for me, it's really about the opportunity
16:23
Speaker 3: and what are we going to be able to gain
16:26
Speaker 3: from this that we wouldn't already on our own YouTube channel.
16:30
Speaker 3: And traditional Hollywood is sometimes really unpredictable. You know, you
16:34
Speaker 3: can have an amazing show, do really really well and
16:37
Speaker 3: be really well received by audiences and it gets canceled
16:42
Speaker 3: for X y Z reason and just tangibly. As someone
16:47
Speaker 3: who is looking to have a long term career in this,
16:49
Speaker 3: I like having security and I like having control over
16:53
Speaker 3: what we create, and obviously that's not I think there's
16:55
Speaker 3: so much opportunity for collaboration, Like I would love to
16:58
Speaker 3: do something, you know, bigger, or I would love to
17:01
Speaker 3: collaborate with the studio. I think that'd be so cool,
17:03
Speaker 3: But I think when the right opportunity presents itself.
17:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, how long do you prep for each challenge?
17:10
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, so our production process it depends on
17:13
Speaker 2: the challenge.
17:14
Speaker 1: But I would sea walk me through. Actually, I'm kind
17:16
Speaker 1: of curious.
17:17
Speaker 3: Okay, So let's take the Houdini project. That was several
17:22
Speaker 3: months of prep. We were interviewing magicians, we were interviewing
17:28
Speaker 3: engineers to build the box that could hold all the
17:31
Speaker 3: weight of that water and build the lid that would
17:33
Speaker 3: hold my feet, And it took us several months to
17:37
Speaker 3: find the right people to work with. Then once we
17:39
Speaker 3: found the right people, I trained for six weeks in
17:43
Speaker 3: the pool doing breath holds every day. Then we have
17:47
Speaker 3: a few days of shooting at the end for the
17:49
Speaker 3: final challenge in rehearsals, and then from there it's like
17:53
Speaker 3: two months.
17:54
Speaker 2: Of edit, then color, sound, and then we upload.
17:57
Speaker 3: So it's a long runway for a big project, but
18:01
Speaker 3: all things considered, our team moves very very fast.
18:05
Speaker 1: Do you know the ad for the most Interesting Man
18:07
Speaker 1: in the world, the Dosa kiskuy Yes, I feel like
18:10
Speaker 1: you're the most interesting woman in the world, Like, who
18:13
Speaker 1: has all of these experiences and hobbies under their belt,
18:17
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable.
18:18
Speaker 3: Well, I'm like a Jill of all trades, I suppose,
18:21
Speaker 3: but I'm definitely not a master one.
18:24
Speaker 1: How do you feel about that? Like, I'm curious about
18:27
Speaker 1: the jill of all trades master of none feeling.
18:30
Speaker 3: I feel like our team has really mastered in many ways. Obviously,
18:35
Speaker 3: always so much to learn, but we've gotten very good
18:38
Speaker 3: at long form video production online, and I'm very proud
18:42
Speaker 3: of our team and the way that we've grown and
18:45
Speaker 3: the incredible unique skill sets that everybody brings to the table.
18:49
Speaker 3: So I think that we're definitely in the masterful side
18:52
Speaker 3: of that. But also I love being surprised by the challenges.
18:57
Speaker 3: Someone asked me, do you ever go into a challenge
19:01
Speaker 3: of expecting it to be easy? And I think in
19:04
Speaker 3: the beginning maybe I thought, Okay, this will be an
19:06
Speaker 3: easier one than the other, and then I learned very
19:08
Speaker 3: quickly when you meet with people who are at the
19:12
Speaker 3: top of their game in anything, and I mean anything,
19:15
Speaker 3: even clowning, you will be challenged and it will push.
19:20
Speaker 2: You in a new way you weren't expecting before.
19:22
Speaker 3: I just really loved learning from other people and broadening
19:24
Speaker 3: my understanding of the world, and I love being surprised.
19:29
Speaker 1: Is there sort of a niche community you were most
19:31
Speaker 1: surprised by?
19:33
Speaker 3: Honestly, my eyes were pretty open doing the clowning episode
19:37
Speaker 3: because you hear clown, you think birthday party clown with
19:43
Speaker 3: a red nose, like just I think it's very silly.
19:46
Speaker 3: But the clowning troup we worked with was a professional
19:49
Speaker 3: clowning troupe, and they are very passionate about the work
19:52
Speaker 3: that they do, and clouding, to them can be It
19:55
Speaker 3: can be funny, but can it also be very emotional
19:58
Speaker 3: and very sad and very heart wrenching into I see
20:00
Speaker 3: my expectation of what the art form was.
20:03
Speaker 2: He completely changed by participating in this clowning boot camp workshop.
20:09
Speaker 2: It's very humbling.
20:11
Speaker 1: I kind of need to know who raised this, Dare deevil.
20:14
Speaker 1: I was reading about your family. My God, your father
20:18
Speaker 1: is a doctor, your mother studied biology. By all accounts,
20:23
Speaker 1: you were a really smart, high achiever, and your parents
20:25
Speaker 1: assumed you would be a doctor or a lawyer, or
20:28
Speaker 1: maybe even work in finance. What do they think about
20:31
Speaker 1: what you're doing.
20:31
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
20:33
Speaker 3: My parents were definitely the people. Like my mom was like,
20:36
Speaker 3: I don't think you should do this after school sport
20:39
Speaker 3: because it's too dangerous. I don't really know where exactly
20:44
Speaker 3: it came from, but I do think my family is
20:47
Speaker 3: daring in other ways. My dad is a you know,
20:49
Speaker 3: he immigrated here from India that and learned a totally
20:54
Speaker 3: new language. And other people in my family have experienced
20:58
Speaker 3: that bravery in other way too, And so just growing
21:02
Speaker 3: up with that mentality of like, every moment matters, and
21:05
Speaker 3: I need to make the most of every.
21:08
Speaker 2: Moment I have.
21:09
Speaker 3: And the privilege I'm afforded by their sacrifice has made
21:13
Speaker 3: me very aware of Like even when I started my
21:16
Speaker 3: YouTube channel, I've.
21:17
Speaker 2: Got to go all in now. I think they really
21:21
Speaker 2: like it.
21:22
Speaker 3: They have a lot of fun watching the videos, and
21:24
Speaker 3: I love sharing the work with my family.
21:27
Speaker 1: Does your mother ever call you and say, like, please
21:29
Speaker 1: do not do this one.
21:31
Speaker 3: They were pretty nervous about the Houdini one, Like my
21:34
Speaker 3: sister came to watch it live, and I think my
21:36
Speaker 3: dad called.
21:37
Speaker 2: Her when she was driving over, like tell me everything's okay,
21:40
Speaker 2: and when she gets out or whatever. But that one
21:43
Speaker 2: was you know what. Okay, So that one made me nervous.
21:47
Speaker 1: Yeah too, Like the Victoria's Secret Swimsuit model one. I'm like, Okay,
21:51
Speaker 1: this is hard on your mental health and your physical wellbeing,
21:55
Speaker 1: but I'm not nervous for your safety.
21:57
Speaker 3: Sure.
21:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Houdini one, I'm like holding my breath. So
22:02
Speaker 1: you went to Dartmouth and you studied digital media and technology,
22:05
Speaker 1: But did you have sort of these aspirations of being
22:08
Speaker 1: in entertainment at that point?
22:10
Speaker 3: Of course, I grew up, you know, watching my favorite
22:13
Speaker 3: TV shows and seeing how you know, I thought I
22:17
Speaker 3: thought it looked really fun to be a part of
22:19
Speaker 3: all of that, And like I did theater growing up
22:21
Speaker 3: and loved being a part.
22:23
Speaker 2: Of telling stories.
22:24
Speaker 3: I just wasn't sure when I graduated if it was
22:27
Speaker 3: realistic for me, honestly. I mean, you hear the statistics
22:32
Speaker 3: of how many people try and fail, and it's very
22:36
Speaker 3: sobering and also important to keep in mind. So when
22:41
Speaker 3: I came out to LA I came on another job
22:44
Speaker 3: to be a producer, and you know, kind of was
22:48
Speaker 3: trying to develop that other.
22:50
Speaker 2: Side while I had a day job, I suppose.
22:53
Speaker 3: But I'm really glad with how it turned out, and
22:57
Speaker 3: I also feel extremely lucky knowing all of those things.
23:01
Speaker 1: What was your goal back then? Was it acting?
23:04
Speaker 3: My goal was just to be a part of the
23:06
Speaker 3: world and of entertainment, honestly, and I love performing, love hosting,
23:12
Speaker 3: love acting. But I was just like, any way I
23:15
Speaker 3: could be on a set, I'm happy and excited to
23:18
Speaker 3: do it.
23:19
Speaker 1: So how did your YouTube channel come about?
23:21
Speaker 3: Then?
23:21
Speaker 2: So?
23:22
Speaker 3: My YouTube channel came about because I was producing for
23:25
Speaker 3: another YouTube channel and I kind of got to this
23:27
Speaker 3: point where I was like, you know what, maybe I
23:29
Speaker 3: could do this myself and kind of on a I
23:33
Speaker 3: don't know if I would have done this again, no, no, now,
23:36
Speaker 3: but I'm glad it worked out. I just sort of
23:39
Speaker 3: got to this point and I, you know, did a
23:42
Speaker 3: lot of prep. I did a lot of Tim Ferris
23:45
Speaker 3: fear setting, and I quit my job and just decided.
23:49
Speaker 2: To go all in.
23:50
Speaker 1: I love quitting jobs.
23:52
Speaker 2: You love quitting.
23:53
Speaker 3: Jobs, and decided to go all in on my YouTube channel,
23:56
Speaker 3: which was, wow, you know, a big jump.
23:59
Speaker 2: I don't I think.
23:59
Speaker 3: I didn't even tell my family i'd quit until I
24:03
Speaker 3: was like, oh, by the way, I'm not working there anymore,
24:06
Speaker 3: and I'm doing this other thing like I'd already made.
24:09
Speaker 3: I wanted the choice to be mine and ultimately the
24:12
Speaker 3: failure to be mine if that was the path that
24:15
Speaker 3: was gonna go down. But I needed to go in
24:18
Speaker 3: and put in the two weeks and make that my
24:20
Speaker 3: own choice.
24:21
Speaker 2: So that's what I did.
24:23
Speaker 1: What's Tim Ferris fear setting?
24:25
Speaker 2: Oh my god?
24:26
Speaker 3: Okay, So in Tim Ferris's book The Four Hour work Week,
24:30
Speaker 3: he has this incredible exercise called fear setting, where you
24:35
Speaker 3: write down if there's there's something you're considering doing. So
24:37
Speaker 3: in my case, I want to start a YouTube channel
24:40
Speaker 3: and quit my job. You write down every single thing
24:43
Speaker 3: that you think could go wrong. I'm gonna flop and
24:46
Speaker 3: totally embarrass myself. I am going to spend all of
24:51
Speaker 3: my savings and have to like run back to find
24:55
Speaker 3: another job. I'm going to embarrass myself in front of
24:58
Speaker 3: my friends and family.
24:59
Speaker 2: On social media.
25:00
Speaker 3: I'm going to, you know, make work that's really bad
25:02
Speaker 3: and really cringe. You write everything that makes you nervous
25:05
Speaker 3: about that choice out, and then in the next column
25:10
Speaker 3: you write, if this happens tangibly, what you would actually
25:14
Speaker 3: do to solve it. So, like the first one is
25:18
Speaker 3: I spend all my savings. I have to get a
25:20
Speaker 3: new job. Okay, I would make a post on LinkedIn,
25:22
Speaker 3: I would reach out to these contacts. I would try
25:26
Speaker 3: to get a job at these other companies. And then
25:28
Speaker 3: in the third column you write what you can do
25:30
Speaker 3: to prevent that now, So that means like, Okay, before
25:33
Speaker 3: I quit my job, I'm going to update my LinkedIn.
25:35
Speaker 3: I'm going to make sure my resume is ready so
25:36
Speaker 3: that if there's a crisis, those materials are already ready
25:39
Speaker 3: to go.
25:40
Speaker 1: WHOA, this is very practical.
25:42
Speaker 2: Extremely practical.
25:44
Speaker 3: I love it because when you've finished that, you're like, oh,
25:48
Speaker 3: I have a game plan for if everything goes wrong.
25:52
Speaker 1: Did anything end up going wrong?
25:54
Speaker 3: Oh?
25:54
Speaker 2: Of course, I mean, yeah, of course things go wrong.
25:58
Speaker 1: What went wrong?
25:59
Speaker 2: In many ways?
26:00
Speaker 3: I think on paper, a lot of things went right.
26:04
Speaker 3: I was really fortunate that I had an education and
26:06
Speaker 3: understanding of how to make things perform well on YouTube
26:10
Speaker 3: from my prior job. So I started off by doing
26:13
Speaker 3: that and the channel was growing pretty quickly in the beginning,
26:15
Speaker 3: which is a huge blessing. But behind the scenes, you know,
26:19
Speaker 3: I was learning how to do taxes and manage a
26:25
Speaker 3: team of people, negotiating pay with people that are close
26:29
Speaker 3: to you, sometimes even your friends who were helping out,
26:31
Speaker 3: or like, hey, would you do me a solid and
26:33
Speaker 3: do this for free and I'll buy you dinner tomorrow.
26:36
Speaker 2: Like navigating all of that.
26:37
Speaker 3: And especially to do it, you know, I think at
26:41
Speaker 3: that time I was like twenty four and most of
26:45
Speaker 3: my colleagues were not entrepreneurs. They were people with full
26:50
Speaker 3: time jobs or freelancers with steady work, and so navigating
26:54
Speaker 3: being a CEO by myself at that age was.
27:00
Speaker 2: Very taxing at times.
27:02
Speaker 3: So those were really important lessons for me because I'm
27:05
Speaker 3: really excited and grateful for that business education that, like
27:10
Speaker 3: in real life crash course, I was given, and it's
27:13
Speaker 3: something I'm really passionate about for other up and coming
27:16
Speaker 3: young especially female content creators, to understand and to really know,
27:21
Speaker 3: like you know, who's your accountant? Are you filing quarterly
27:24
Speaker 3: or annually? Like what type of retirement account do you have?
27:26
Speaker 3: How are you investigating? Like those are the things that
27:30
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people find out by themselves
27:32
Speaker 3: in private and honestly covered in a lot of shame
27:36
Speaker 3: because we're sort of expected to just adult out of nowhere.
27:39
Speaker 3: And that's education I'm really passionate about other young women
27:43
Speaker 3: having I can tell that independence is really important to you,
27:46
Speaker 3: Like you talk a lot about keeping your YouTube channel
27:50
Speaker 3: the way that you envision it.
27:53
Speaker 1: I'm curious about the significance of that for you.
27:57
Speaker 3: I think it's important for people who or doing something
28:00
Speaker 3: creative to have ownership of the idea and what they're creating.
28:07
Speaker 3: And I also think it's important when you have a
28:09
Speaker 3: really strong vision and north star goal to really follow
28:12
Speaker 3: that heart center. I really like YouTube for that reason.
28:16
Speaker 3: And surrounding myself with people who challenge me but are
28:20
Speaker 3: still aligned with the.
28:21
Speaker 2: Same vision I think is important too.
28:23
Speaker 1: Talk to me about not being scared of getting a no,
28:26
Speaker 1: because I've been thinking about something called rejection therapy a lotly. Okay,
28:32
Speaker 1: and it's actually popular on TikTok, but people are doing
28:35
Speaker 1: these challenges where for thirty days they are asking for
28:39
Speaker 1: something that they think is outlandish or ridiculous or makes
28:42
Speaker 1: them nervous, that they get a know by asking, and
28:45
Speaker 1: the results are pretty unbelievable because most people are getting
28:50
Speaker 1: lots of yeses, and so their idea of asking and
28:54
Speaker 1: their fear of rejection totally changes. You seem like you
28:58
Speaker 1: don't have that fear Oh, of course I do.
29:01
Speaker 3: But you know, when you email the FBI, you aught like,
29:05
Speaker 3: we're like, we're probably not even gonna get a response
29:08
Speaker 3: from this, And the fact that someone actually responded and
29:11
Speaker 3: called is crazy.
29:12
Speaker 2: I love that challenge. I think everybody should do that
29:15
Speaker 2: because I do believe you.
29:17
Speaker 3: Never, like literally, in many cases, what's the worst that
29:20
Speaker 3: can happen? They say no, Right, you move on to
29:22
Speaker 3: the next like, and then it's about asking the question,
29:25
Speaker 3: how am I letting the thought of no prevent me
29:28
Speaker 3: from being my highest self?
29:31
Speaker 1: So like, when you first contacted the FBI, how what
29:34
Speaker 1: did you do? Where did you even start?
29:36
Speaker 3: You know, I have to shout out our producer at
29:39
Speaker 3: the time, Iris she just picked up the phone and
29:43
Speaker 3: called a number on like FBI dot gov or something.
29:47
Speaker 3: She gets off the phone, she's like, okay, I got
29:48
Speaker 3: an email.
29:49
Speaker 2: We got to email them. It was crazy.
29:52
Speaker 3: And of course I was like, okay, sure, go ahead,
29:55
Speaker 3: send them an email. We'll see what happens. Probably nothing,
29:58
Speaker 3: And it just kept going and going and going, and
30:01
Speaker 3: of course, you know that process of getting approval with
30:05
Speaker 3: the FBI and the Secret Service and some of the
30:08
Speaker 3: extremely high security people we've collaborated.
30:11
Speaker 2: With takes a long time.
30:13
Speaker 1: Months.
30:13
Speaker 2: We're talking months of this back and forth.
30:16
Speaker 3: And I think it's also on you as an individual
30:18
Speaker 3: when you ask for something big, to have everything ready
30:21
Speaker 3: to go for when they say yes, because I think
30:23
Speaker 3: a lot of people aren't prepared for that moment.
30:26
Speaker 1: I want to talk about your work ethic. You used
30:28
Speaker 1: to work at BuzzFeed, and your schedule during that time
30:33
Speaker 1: was pretty rigorous. You would wake up at five am
30:35
Speaker 1: every day to train, You would compete every weekend for cycling,
30:40
Speaker 1: for cycling all the while, Like BuzzFeed, people don't even
30:44
Speaker 1: realize what an intense schedule that is. That takes hours
30:48
Speaker 1: of writing, directing, casting, editing, all of the things.
30:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, what made it.
30:53
Speaker 1: Feel worth it to you?
30:55
Speaker 3: What made it worth it at the time was seeing
30:57
Speaker 3: things working and paying off. Whether it's my video performed
31:02
Speaker 3: really well or I'm happy.
31:04
Speaker 2: With my race results.
31:06
Speaker 3: But I'm going to be honest, like, I got to
31:08
Speaker 3: a point where it was unsustainable and I had to
31:12
Speaker 3: make a really tough choice to discontinue cycling in the
31:17
Speaker 3: way I was at least and I felt, at least
31:20
Speaker 3: through the work I was doing making online content, that
31:24
Speaker 3: I could have a bigger impact that way by doing that, So.
31:29
Speaker 2: That choice was really really hard.
31:30
Speaker 3: But I'm happy now because I feel like I've kind
31:33
Speaker 3: of come full circle and now with challenge accepted, I'm
31:36
Speaker 3: able to be a I'm going to put in big
31:38
Speaker 3: quotes professional athlete kind of on my own terms. And
31:41
Speaker 3: that's really cool, especially when Oh I love that, Machelle. Yeah,
31:45
Speaker 3: especially because there are so few opportunities for female athletes
31:51
Speaker 3: in general, and also get to be a producer and
31:55
Speaker 3: lean into that artistic and business side of myself too.
31:59
Speaker 1: So I heard that it was the fitness that you
32:01
Speaker 1: got from cycling that eventually became challenge accepted.
32:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think I was sort of looking
32:08
Speaker 3: at there are a lot of shows about people trying things,
32:14
Speaker 3: or like celebrities trying something for a day, and those
32:18
Speaker 3: work because the talent is extremely comedically inclined or like
32:22
Speaker 3: they have very interesting stories, and I was like, what
32:25
Speaker 3: is my own unique take on this while I have
32:28
Speaker 3: this physical background, and what would happen if I did
32:32
Speaker 3: a version of that? But I committed for an extended
32:36
Speaker 3: period of time to really see how far an amateur
32:39
Speaker 3: can go under professional coaching. So Challenge accepted was honestly
32:43
Speaker 3: kind of out of necessity of what is the one
32:46
Speaker 3: thing I feel that I am uniquely positioned to do? Yeah,
32:49
Speaker 3: and that blend of reality.
32:52
Speaker 2: Doc and athlete.
32:54
Speaker 1: Is there a moment where you've really felt like a daredevil.
32:57
Speaker 3: I think the moment I felt most like a daredevil
33:00
Speaker 3: was doing the Houdini project and the moment when I
33:03
Speaker 3: took my last breath before going underwater with the handcuffs on.
33:08
Speaker 3: Because I am a you know, my idols are David Blaine,
33:12
Speaker 3: Evil can Evil, even Jeff Probes to be you know, Jeff.
33:16
Speaker 3: You might think Jeff Propes doesn't fit in there. I
33:18
Speaker 3: think he does because those are all people you say
33:21
Speaker 3: their name and there's no one else in their category.
33:24
Speaker 3: David Blaine is one of one. Evil Knievel is one
33:26
Speaker 3: of one, and Jeff Probes and the legacy he's created,
33:29
Speaker 3: not only creating Survivor but hosting it and producing everything
33:33
Speaker 3: behind the scenes is one of one.
33:35
Speaker 2: So I felt most like a Darededvil.
33:37
Speaker 3: Doing the Houdini thing because it was definitely inspired by
33:41
Speaker 3: David Blaine and Evil Canevel, and it's a very classic
33:45
Speaker 3: Dareduviel experience and it was unbelievable to watch Michelle thank you.
33:50
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe you were doing it, because when people
33:53
Speaker 3: do those things on network television, there are so many
33:57
Speaker 3: safety precautions, Like, it's such a huge production and you're
34:01
Speaker 3: doing this with your team.
34:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, unbelievable.
34:05
Speaker 1: Is there anything you've ever said no to? Do you
34:07
Speaker 1: have boundaries with these challenges?
34:09
Speaker 3: Of course, definitely. I think everyone needs to have boundaries
34:12
Speaker 3: of some kind.
34:13
Speaker 1: What have you said no to?
34:14
Speaker 2: What have I said no to?
34:17
Speaker 3: You know, saying no to challenges, or like when brands
34:23
Speaker 3: or companies come to us and say, hey, we have
34:25
Speaker 3: an idea for a big challenge.
34:28
Speaker 2: A lot of times the no is when they miss
34:32
Speaker 2: the mark.
34:33
Speaker 3: On what the show is about, in the sense of
34:37
Speaker 3: something I really want to make sure with every episode
34:40
Speaker 3: we create is that it's not positive for the world
34:42
Speaker 3: and that it's respectful of the community that we go into.
34:46
Speaker 3: And that requires at times, for one single YouTube video,
34:51
Speaker 3: I'm going to spend three months of my life living
34:54
Speaker 3: and breathing.
34:55
Speaker 2: With this community of people.
34:57
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of times when we say
34:59
Speaker 3: no is when people want us to speed up that
35:02
Speaker 3: process or you know, suggest doing in a way that
35:06
Speaker 3: we feel is not appropriate or respectful to the community,
35:09
Speaker 3: because I think what makes challenge accepted special is we're
35:13
Speaker 3: willing to sit and sink our teeth into something.
35:17
Speaker 2: You really immerse yourself as much as we possibly can.
35:20
Speaker 3: And sometimes we're only giving a little bit of access
35:23
Speaker 3: into something and we'll take what we can.
35:25
Speaker 2: But anytime we can, I'd like to really marinate on
35:30
Speaker 2: whatever the subject is.
35:32
Speaker 1: There's this Victoria Secret Swimsuit challenge that I want to
35:36
Speaker 1: ask you about. So you train for five weeks, yes,
35:39
Speaker 1: and like you just said, you really immerse yourself. And
35:43
Speaker 1: I think that's part of what separates you from people
35:46
Speaker 1: that are doing something similar on like a network show.
35:49
Speaker 1: They maybe do this for four or five days. You
35:52
Speaker 1: go deep in and at one point the trainer takes
35:55
Speaker 1: your initial measurements and he puts a level tool on
35:58
Speaker 1: your butt. Okay, I mean he talks about the unevenness
36:01
Speaker 1: of your class. I think the producer, my producer Gina,
36:06
Speaker 1: and I who were watching this, we were like so
36:08
Speaker 1: mortified watching and I think women around the world watching
36:12
Speaker 1: this video were like, oh, yeah, lost our bread. How
36:15
Speaker 1: did you feel?
36:17
Speaker 2: I don't remember.
36:17
Speaker 3: It was so long ago at this point, and I
36:20
Speaker 3: had a good relationship with the trainer before, so I
36:22
Speaker 3: felt comfortable with him telling me whatever I needed to hear.
36:26
Speaker 1: And it's part of it, like it's that's part of
36:29
Speaker 1: immersing yourself. But I'm kind of wondering, like, do you
36:32
Speaker 1: ever wake up and think, why on earth did I
36:35
Speaker 1: agree to this?
36:35
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, of course.
36:38
Speaker 3: I mean you look at some of the back analog
36:40
Speaker 3: or first videos you've ever made, and you're like, oh
36:43
Speaker 3: my god, they're online, but like they don't reflect the
36:46
Speaker 3: me I am today.
36:47
Speaker 2: But I think I.
36:48
Speaker 3: Heard someone say once that like, if you're not cringing
36:51
Speaker 3: at your old work, then you're not evolving.
36:53
Speaker 2: So I'll take that positive spin on it.
36:56
Speaker 1: I suppose I've heard that about your old emails too.
36:59
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, I'm not looking at those. I can't. I can't.
37:02
Speaker 1: Do you have something that you tell yourself when you
37:04
Speaker 1: need to be brave, like a like a quote?
37:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
37:09
Speaker 3: But when I need to be brave, what I do
37:12
Speaker 3: is I list all the reasons why, like over and
37:16
Speaker 3: over in my head, all the reasons.
37:17
Speaker 2: Why I can succeed at whatever I'm about to do.
37:21
Speaker 3: I can succeed at this because I've done the training,
37:24
Speaker 3: I have met with the right people. I have rested appropriately,
37:29
Speaker 3: I have researched, I have studied, you know, and leaning
37:32
Speaker 3: on those things even if you don't feel solid about
37:34
Speaker 3: them like that. I think, like is the mantra I
37:37
Speaker 3: tell myself before I'm about to do something crazy.
37:41
Speaker 1: It's so interesting that this is your line of work
37:43
Speaker 1: because your mind, I can tell, works so analytically, and
37:46
Speaker 1: you're so pragmatic, and then all of a sudden, all
37:49
Speaker 1: of that goes out the window and you like jump
37:51
Speaker 1: from an airplane.
37:52
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And I think that's why it's important, you know.
37:55
Speaker 3: I like the challenges literally do challenge me, and if
37:59
Speaker 3: they didn't, it wouldn't be good TV.
38:01
Speaker 2: It wouldn't be interesting to watch.
38:03
Speaker 3: And unfortunately for me, it means I have to look
38:05
Speaker 3: in word constantly. But I think it's good for me,
38:08
Speaker 3: and I hope it's good for other people watching too.
38:11
Speaker 1: It's interesting to me when usually at there's like a
38:15
Speaker 1: hero's journey you take us on and at some point
38:17
Speaker 1: you cry during the filming of these challenges and you
38:20
Speaker 1: show us those very vulnerable moments. Is there ever a
38:23
Speaker 1: hesitancy to show that? Is that hard?
38:26
Speaker 3: I think so, of course, And I think that to me,
38:31
Speaker 3: there's a choice when there's a strong emotional reaction or
38:35
Speaker 3: a very hard day doing whatever this is, and the
38:40
Speaker 3: choice is to cut it out of the edit or
38:44
Speaker 3: allow people to see what it really is.
38:47
Speaker 2: I think that traditional presentations of.
38:51
Speaker 3: A lot of these communities we explore, or even seeing
38:55
Speaker 3: other people try them, they cut a lot of that out.
38:57
Speaker 2: But that's not the reality of the experience. It's not
39:00
Speaker 2: my reality.
39:01
Speaker 3: And I like being honest in the storytelling. And I
39:06
Speaker 3: am an emotional person and I'm a person with feelings,
39:11
Speaker 3: so to me, including those moments appropriately, I think is
39:16
Speaker 3: important to show the reality of the stress of the
39:19
Speaker 3: situation that I put myself in.
39:22
Speaker 1: To me, there's like a connection in that stress. There's
39:25
Speaker 1: like a mind body connection. It feels like even though
39:28
Speaker 1: you're putting your body usually through some type of challenge,
39:32
Speaker 1: there's like a lesson that comes through. The one with
39:36
Speaker 1: the hostage negotiation, I felt like it was about finding
39:39
Speaker 1: your true voice. Does that resonate at all or what
39:42
Speaker 1: came up for you with that one?
39:44
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
39:45
Speaker 3: And you know, our most recent episode about learning how
39:49
Speaker 3: to negotiate for a hostage with the FBI was very
39:52
Speaker 3: eye opening to me because it taught me a lot
39:55
Speaker 3: about having empathy for everyone that you deal with, and
39:58
Speaker 3: even empathy in their case with some of the most
40:01
Speaker 3: difficult subjects or perpetrators, victims and situations and having to
40:07
Speaker 3: safely find a way through to get everyone out alive.
40:11
Speaker 3: So it really challenged me in my communication. It challenged
40:16
Speaker 3: me in that empathy. Can you have empathy for someone
40:20
Speaker 3: who you're on the phone with who has hostages held
40:23
Speaker 3: in a bank and having to talk them through to
40:29
Speaker 3: help them make the right choice to release them? Is
40:33
Speaker 3: when you want to do the opposite right but that
40:36
Speaker 3: doesn't lead to the conclusion that you want.
40:39
Speaker 1: Have you used any of those communication tools in your relationship?
40:45
Speaker 3: There's the crossover between therapy and hostage negotiation is actually
40:50
Speaker 3: a very strong Venn diagram because it's so much about
40:54
Speaker 3: naming the emotions or reflecting back to people.
40:57
Speaker 1: So absolutely, I've heard you say in other interviews that
41:01
Speaker 1: it's really important for you to highlight the people in
41:04
Speaker 1: the communities and the everyday stories through these videos. The firefighter,
41:10
Speaker 1: a nine to one one operator, a ballerina. Why is
41:13
Speaker 1: that so close to your heart?
41:15
Speaker 3: It's important to me because I don't feel like it's
41:18
Speaker 3: covered often in traditional media. I feel that a lot
41:23
Speaker 3: of shows will skim over the day to day, the benign,
41:28
Speaker 3: the whatever it may be, unless it's like has an
41:33
Speaker 3: element of glitz to it, or you can tell when
41:38
Speaker 3: a story has been bent by a producer to artificially
41:41
Speaker 3: add glutes to it. So I think we have the
41:44
Speaker 3: opportunity to meet with such cool individuals, why not share
41:48
Speaker 3: their stories as they are and share them in the
41:52
Speaker 3: way that they want to be seen. And also just
41:55
Speaker 3: from that tangible perspective of if everybody is covering this
42:01
Speaker 3: story one way, we should cover it in a different way.
42:05
Speaker 3: We don't want to just copy and paste to what
42:06
Speaker 3: other shows have done. We want to be additive to
42:09
Speaker 3: the media landscape because that's what people expect from Challenge Acceptance.
42:13
Speaker 1: You had your wedding as part of your series. Yeah,
42:17
Speaker 1: the proposal, the wedding planning, the dress shopping, which is
42:21
Speaker 1: totally different for you than a usual challenge. You married Garrett,
42:25
Speaker 1: who's your creative director. How did you guys decide you
42:28
Speaker 1: wanted to showcase this.
42:30
Speaker 3: Well, honestly, we thought it would just be really fun
42:35
Speaker 3: to document in the sense of like we have, yeah,
42:39
Speaker 3: this to look back on years in the future. Also,
42:43
Speaker 3: it was really really fun to film with our family.
42:48
Speaker 2: I will also say there's.
42:49
Speaker 3: A lot that's not in any of the videos that's
42:52
Speaker 3: just for us, which is really wonderful to have as well.
42:55
Speaker 3: But I'm also going to be totally real with you,
42:57
Speaker 3: like we were able to use one work hours to
43:00
Speaker 3: go do our wedding planning, and we were able to
43:05
Speaker 3: invest more in this really fun part of our lives
43:08
Speaker 3: because we made it a part of the channel.
43:09
Speaker 2: So it was very.
43:10
Speaker 3: Strategic of like we definitely sat it on like what
43:13
Speaker 3: are we comfortable versus not comfortable? But it was really
43:15
Speaker 3: fun and I think our audience enjoyed it, so we
43:18
Speaker 3: had a great time.
43:19
Speaker 1: What advice would you give somebody who wants to push
43:22
Speaker 1: their limits but is scared or has that fear.
43:26
Speaker 3: I would definitely recommend doing the Tim Ferris fear setting
43:29
Speaker 3: exercise and really get granular on why is this thing
43:35
Speaker 3: making you scared? And if that fear comes true, how
43:38
Speaker 3: would you respond and change course. I just think it's
43:42
Speaker 3: a really powerful thing to like fully confront the fear
43:46
Speaker 3: because a lot of us say, ooh, I'm scared of that,
43:48
Speaker 3: and then in the conversation there oftentimes when you dig
43:51
Speaker 3: a lot deeper. You can learn very specifically what is
43:54
Speaker 3: scary to you and maybe remove that one small pebble
43:58
Speaker 3: that allows you to pursue some thing with your full
44:01
Speaker 3: with full chest.
44:02
Speaker 2: You know, with your full chest?
44:05
Speaker 1: Is there a fear you still haven't conquered yet despite
44:08
Speaker 1: all the wild challenges that you've accepted so many.
44:12
Speaker 3: Of course, I'm still very scared of heights, no matter
44:16
Speaker 3: how many skydiving things we do every time, I'm terrified
44:19
Speaker 3: of heights. I'm scared of loved ones dying. I'm scared
44:23
Speaker 3: of the YouTube channel, like flopping out of nowhere, all
44:27
Speaker 3: of the normal things. And that's I think that's the
44:30
Speaker 3: thing about fear is it in many ways? Unless maybe
44:34
Speaker 3: David Blaine doesn't have fear, But I think for most
44:37
Speaker 3: people you always have that fear. It's just how loud
44:41
Speaker 3: is it and how much can you turn the volume
44:43
Speaker 3: down on it? But I think it will always be present,
44:46
Speaker 3: and learning how to mitigate that volume.
44:49
Speaker 2: Is really where the emotional and mental strength comes in.
44:53
Speaker 1: I'm going to do some rapid fire with you. Okay,
44:55
Speaker 1: what's one thing every woman should try once?
44:58
Speaker 2: Oh my god, this isn't rapid fire. You don't need
45:00
Speaker 2: more real on my head already failed the rev fire.
45:06
Speaker 1: Usually it's like the first thing that comes to your heart.
45:08
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you can't be real with you.
45:10
Speaker 3: The first thing that came to my heart was opening
45:12
Speaker 3: a retirement account.
45:13
Speaker 2: That's great. Literally everyone needs to do that. I love that.
45:17
Speaker 2: I'm a retirement investing account.
45:18
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, what's the most unexpected lesson that you've learned
45:22
Speaker 1: through your challenges?
45:24
Speaker 3: Some of the things that look the scariest aren't favorite
45:29
Speaker 3: YouTuber or channel that you follow. I have too many
45:31
Speaker 3: to say one Cleo Abram Colin and Semeir Defunct Land,
45:36
Speaker 3: Ryan Trahan, Mark Rober.
45:38
Speaker 1: Okay, I love this list. You picked all really smart channels.
45:41
Speaker 1: If you met Mindy Kaling in real life and you
45:44
Speaker 1: could ask her one question bo to.
45:46
Speaker 3: Be if I could ask her one question, Gosh, there
45:50
Speaker 3: are too many I would want to ask. I would
45:52
Speaker 3: ask her if I could just shadow her on set
45:55
Speaker 3: for one day at video village, just watching what she does.
46:00
Speaker 1: A book that changed your life something you think everybody
46:02
Speaker 1: should read.
46:03
Speaker 3: Several four Hour work Week by Tim Ferriss, Subtle Art
46:06
Speaker 3: of Not Giving Fuck by Mark Manson. I'm also big
46:09
Speaker 3: into romanticy, so just any of the big romanticy is happening.
46:13
Speaker 2: It was really fun to speep.
46:15
Speaker 1: A little smut. I love it. Okay, grab the question everything,
46:20
Speaker 1: card game, Please pick a card which everyone calls you?
46:23
Speaker 2: All right, let's see these are so cute by the way,
46:28
Speaker 2: you so official. Oh my god, what's.
46:31
Speaker 3: Your favorite scentse ooh, I actually really like mint.
46:37
Speaker 2: One of my favorite ice creams is Mental go Chip.
46:39
Speaker 2: So love mint.
46:40
Speaker 1: You're kind of rocking a mint chocolate. Oh yeah, right now.
46:44
Speaker 1: What's the smartest decision.
46:45
Speaker 2: You've ever made? Making my YouTube channel and starting Challenge Accepted?
46:50
Speaker 1: I think was there a moment it popped off?
46:52
Speaker 3: Honestly for Challenge Accepted, we had a few viral moments.
46:58
Speaker 3: I suppose, like videos performing really well. For the most part,
47:01
Speaker 3: it's been slow and steady.
47:04
Speaker 2: I suppose.
47:05
Speaker 1: So that's awesome. Yeah, Michelle, thank you, thank you.
47:10
Speaker 2: For having me. Thanks everyone.
47:17
Speaker 1: Okay, you know what time it is. Today's a good day.
47:20
Speaker 1: To have a good day. I'll see you next week.