I want you to add this book, Shoedog, to your reading list. Why? Because it’ll light a fire under your ass and relight the flame in your head that tells you “yes I can.”

As a kid of the 80’s and 90’s I was a fan of Nike, a huge fan. I wore the shoes, the apparel, had the posters on my walls.

I’m not sure when or why it happened but we grew apart.

When we moved to Portland in 2018, Nike suddenly came to the forefront of my mind again. Every other person I bump into works there. Their swoosh is everywhere. I drive by their stunning headquarters several times a week.

Then, in the summer of 2019, I read this book. And the day I finished it I was doing an airport run to pick up my husband. The airport was about 75 minutes from where we were staying for the summer, and coincidentally the exact amount of time I needed to finish the audiobook of Shoedog, that I hadn’t been able to put down since I started it three days prior.

When I pulled up...

A monthly letter from the desk of Sarah Fejfar

Hey there

We spent the Labor Day Weekend camping on Mount Rainier, and it was as magical as I imagined it would be.  Gosh, there’s so much beauty in the Pacific Northwest.  I love it!

It’s fascinating to me that it took us 3 years to make it to Mount Rainier because it was one of the biggest reasons we moved here. We’ve been going on so many epic adventures all over this #pacificwonderland, and there’s just so much beauty to see, it took us this long to make it happen.

I took a Girl Scout trip from Milwaukee to Washington State when I was in middle school.  My time on Mount Rainier, following a mountain stream upriver during that trip, stuck with me forever and I’ve always looked forward to going back.

With all that said, wow, it’s already mid-September!

What did you learn last month?

Here’s a quick recap of my favorite learnings from August:

1. Making Plans Works! In early August I made...

You wanna know my secret to “acquiring” discipline?

It’s removing the decision.

That’s my trick.

Every time I make the decision to “remove the decision,” the discipline I’m looking for magically appears.

What do I mean?

If there’s an area of life or business I’m looking to be more disciplined in, once I remove the decision to do anything but the thing I’m wanting to do, magic happens.

Take breakfast. I’ve decided, that there isn’t a decision to be made there. I drink my green smoothie every day. Period. It’s not up for discussion. There's no decision to be made. I want to fuel my body with healthy things, so this is what I do.

There's no decision to be made.

Where do you need to decide, that there are no longer “options?”

If you're feeling brave, reply to this email and let me know. I promise I'll read it and I would honestly love to hear your story.

Sending you love and courage.

Make it an outstanding...

Ever sat at another influencer's event and been like, "this isn't me."

Or maybe you've sat in a bunch of influencers' events and you've said that every time.

They aren't speaking to you, yet, you're still feeling called to put on your own.

It’s not everyone’s fantasy to put on an event in front of hundreds in a hotel ballroom.

I get it. That’s totally cool. And here’s what I say to that:

DO THE WORK of figuring out what the live experience of YOUR BRAND would look like.

And then you do you.

Simple as that.

So what does that look like? The whole figuring out what the live experience of YOUR BRAND looks like?

I'm so glad you asked.

I like to call it R&D. Research and Development. Subscribe to other influencers' email lists.  Follow influencers who are putting on events on socials. Go to influencers' events.  Heck, go to non-influencer events. Lots of them.

Maybe the light bulb moment for YOUR BRAND's live event will come from going to a gallery...

Ever had the opportunity to go to a physical store of a brand you just LOVED? And you were like OH MY GOSH I’M HERE!

Something where you had to wait and you had a lot of anticipation building.

It's exactly how I felt when I went to a game at Lambeau Field for the first time or Nike Town in Chicago when I was a tween.

And I imagine that’ll be what it’s like when I venture into a farm stand or florist or restaurant in the Hamptons favorited by Ina Garten or Williams Sonoma’s test kitchen in San Francisco one of Chef Chloe's restaurants in New York City or Magnolia Market in Waco or Tiffany’s in New York City...ok, I’ll stop. I think you get the picture.

It’s kinda like when your kiddo got to go to Disneyland for the first time. Do you follow?

Can you imagine that feeling of pure elation?

THAT is the gift you give your community when you create the live event experience of YOUR brand.

Such a gift. And they’re dying to open...

Call me crazy.

But I believe Serendipity, or the Universe or God has a hand in our success.

I believe that if we cast our vision for what we want and get it as clear as we possibly can in our minds and on paper, that Serendipity, or the Universe or God shifts things in our favor.

I just had a monumentally freaky coincidental thing happen for me.

Now don’t get me wrong, the thing that happened, caused me to cry tears of “why is this happening.” Because at this moment, it’s not a good thing.

But, and that’s a big but right there, I believe in the pit of my soul, that this thing that just happened FOR me, while isn’t what I thought I wanted or needed TODAY, has some bigger purpose in my life and someday, maybe, I’ll learn why.

No, I wasn’t a philosophy major in college. Yes, I’m a very grounded, no-nonsense person. No, I don’t usually talk woo woo or like anything woo woo, but…

There’s a big piece of me that just KNOWS...

A monthly letter from the desk of Sarah Fejfar

Hey there,

We’re back in Oregon after four weeks away and enjoying our first taste of an Oregon summer after living here for almost three years!  We’ve got lots of “new to us” summer adventures planned for our family this month which I’m excited about and I hope you do too (yay for novelty!)

But I have to say, one of my favorite Oregon adventures of all time happened last month. We walked a section of beach in Cannon Beach that we hadn’t travelled before (because it entails walking through a river to get there.)  Taking the risk was 100% worth it to experience new terrain (sand dunes and lava rocks to climb) and less crowds.  Gorgeous. 

I think that’s what I love about living here the most is that there’s seemingly no end to the options for adventure.

With all that said, welcome to August!

What did you learn last month?

Here’s a quick recap of my favorite aha’s:

1. ...

I feel safe in this community of Live Event Leaders. Safe enough to pronounce once and for all that seashells spray painted in florescent colors are NEVER OK.

Agreed?

I was hosting this swanky dinner party at a beachfront private club on a gorgeous patio overlooking the ocean. I had connected with a DMC (Destination Management Company) to provide centerpieces for the event.

We had a build your own flower arrangement bar set up for guests (so they could each make something to brighten their hotel rooms for the weekend) so more floral arrangements didn’t seem like the right fit for centerpieces.

The thought was to have square vessels filled with sea shells on each table instead.

Pretty and classy, right?

Well…not so much.

You see my vision of what that looked like and the vendor’s vision of what that looked like wasn’t in alignment.

When I saw the centerpieces the day of the event my jaw dropped in horror. They had used seashells that were spray-painted in a variety...

Have you heard of Jesse Itzler? 

If not, you should start following him, like today.

I'm absolutely smitten with his work in this world.

Here's why. His work is a mashup of so many of the things I love: live events, adventure, family, personal growth, biohacking, and the power of eating plants.

You know I'm obsessed with the idea of everyone in this Live Event Leader community doing "R&D" as I call it...researching other influencers' events.

Well, I practice what I preach and I do my R&D and you know what I noticed about this dude? This dude does his events OUTSIDE!

He mashes up personal growth and physical fitness and endurance and the great outdoors. So flipping cool.

When I first learned about 29029 Everesting I couldn't take my eyes off it. The live event producer in me was all  over the thing.

I came from an event space where events were inside hotel ballrooms like 90% of the time, so to see the mold "I" was used to, broken, actually, shattered, just ...

Have you seen Dave Asprey sporting his signature yellow lenses?

You know those yellow eyeglass lenses that have become sort of the ‘in’ thing?

I got some. My eye doctor casually mentioned they’d be a good idea given how much time I spend staring at screens all day and I jumped at the opportunity to look this hip.



But, seriously though. Isn’t being an entrepreneur hard enough as it is?!

I’m kinda like, if there’s something out there that’s going to make it a little easier on me, make my body a little healthier, make me feel a little saner, I’m in.

Green smoothies. Sleep. Meditation. Exercise. Eating more plants. Breathing air in the great outdoors. Drinking spring water.

Are you all over things that might give you the competitive edge as well?

If not, I’d encourage you to start.

I mean come on, it's what all the cool kids are doing.

Make it an outstanding day.

Sarah :)