No Fear: With Michelle Poler

0:00So we didn't give you any, we didn't give you any background. we didn't give you any topics we gave you no questions you're coming in completely cold first question are you afraid are you scared i'm comfortable i love to talk so

0:21three two one kevin what's up i can barely see you you're camouflaged into the wall today hi it's good to see you still in cincinnati still in ohio uh we got a special guest in the house on the zoom yes we do i don't is this the first time we've ever had a guest on zoom is that possible no it's not no see it's not possible so uh but it's sorry michelle you're not the first but you are a very special guest and we're very excited to have you born and raised in caracas venezuela michelle puller is a creative and passionate social entrepreneur author keynote speaker, fear facer, and branding strategist.

0:57She's the founder of Hello Fears, a social movement that has reached over 70 million people worldwide. And she has done speaking engagements at places like Facebook, ESPN, Netflix, TEDx, Microsoft, Toyota, and a lot more. She is the author of a book. It's right behind her, over her shoulder. That's not a Zoom background. That's a real background. And it's called Hello Fears, How to Crush Your Comfort Zone and Become Who You're Meant to Be. She did all sorts of TV appearances. She was on Today. show, CNN, BuzzFeed, Fox News, Rachel Ray, everywhere. You've seen her. She's been there. And we're excited to talk to her about her eight years old project, 100 Days Without Fear, and how Kevin and I can get out of our comfort zone.

1:42Welcome to Front and Center, Michelle Puller. How are you? Thank you for having me. I'm excited. That's where we put the music in. oh we already played the music we already played the music actually maybe maybe applause insert applause here yeah insert applause here's some cheers you know i bring uh somebody always to my talks with me to cheer and like applause after my videos really a personal cheer section yeah because listen i'm on stage i just delivered like this amazing talk i put a video it's really emotional all and at the end some audiences don't clap and that's really sad and i need that to keep going right the encouragement so i always bring one person with me like my assistant my designer my mom i brought to my last speech or and i'm like you have to clap after each one of my videos because if one person claps then the whole room claps and then they feel much better after they feel like oh we clap we laugh we danced but we need the regiment so yeah get them you need somebody to get them going.

2:46This is genius. Michelle, honestly, of all the things right off the top, you have great advice here. You need someone to start the clap. I am one guy. Again, I don't know if you're looking for someone, if you're hiring for this job, but I've been known to start a clap very often when there's a moment in a presentation or if I'm at a conference. If there's something that's worth clapping, I'm super happy to be the first person to get that clap going. And then And everyone there takes, you know, they're lemmings. They follow. Yeah, exactly. And it takes courage to be the first one to clap. Like, it's not easy.

3:23Are they afraid, you think? They're afraid. Yeah. Yeah, but you have to trust. Afraid of expressing themselves. Yeah. So, Michelle, obviously, for those that aren't familiar with you, you went to SVA. And that's where you and I met a million years ago. You just said it was eight years ago. And so your project, 100 Days Without Fear, you tackled all of your fears and had a ton of success and now turned that success into a career and speed engagements and conferences and a book. Are you afraid of anything? Now, have you conquered all of your fears? I have to be honest. And at this point, I have one fear that I never thought that I could have and never even like believe that was a fear.

4:12And it's a fear of success. Have you experienced that fear of success? success? I have experienced some things with success that I don't know if I would describe as fear as much as like an emotional changing of the guard, if I could describe it that way. It's like, I think we're for a second, like, I think you work your whole life to try to achieve something. And then when you think it's going to change you and make you happy, we're about to get real therapy real quick. I do think that once I did achieve it, it made me feel bad, sad, scared, afraid, even a little bit of like, that it didn't necessarily change the way I felt in the way that I hoped it would.

5:00So are you afraid of, are you afraid of success? Are you afraid of what success has done to your brain, I guess? I think it's how it changes life. Like if we are already happy and we don't even know it and we want more and more and more, and then you kind of miss what you had in the past. Yeah. Sort of like that. In my case, after the project, after facing a hundred of my fears, I became a motivational speaker, a keynote speaker. I started getting hired at all these amazing companies, traveling all over the world, That was before becoming a mom in 2021. It was like my best years of my life. I did it with my husband.

5:42It was great because we were traveling together. So all these engagements. So it was never just me. So we were like basically getting to know the entire world, mostly the US, but also outside. And then the pandemic came, things change. You want to adapt. You want to have more than one source of income just in case something happens again. is as you can imagine, the pandemic came and as a speaker, all of my events got canceled. Thankfully, virtually, like virtual speaking was a thing and that really helped. But at the same time, we also consider opening other sources of other businesses, etc. And now this year, I launched something really exciting.

6:22I launched a membership, a community. And so we launched in April, I thought I was going to have around maybe 100 members. That was my goal to get 100 people to join my membership and we got over 500 like in five days we got 500 people to join at this point now in September we are almost a thousand people we're like 900 in the membership it's insane that's me starting the clap for Michelle just putting putting my resume you know again thank you and then that really changed my life because now I had to hire more people to maintain the community to um like a marketing team to grow it and copywriters designers assistant um community managers all of that and like i've been experiencing a lot of like stress lately and becoming a leader of a community like this it's a new you know and it's a huge and all of that so now i'm like i feel like i'm either like either growing this community in the next years or not or downsizing So I go back to what I had before because it was like easier.

7:35I have a lot of questions here. So first and foremost, what's the community called? And then do you have like, what do you provide to the community? Do you have live meetings? Is there any sort of, you know, religious songs? Like, you know, like what kind of community is this? Yeah, it's like, it's a lot of girls, women that want to pursue their own definition of success and achieve that just like I have so I'm like their role model and they I'm teaching them how to how to how to be their most authentic selves and achieve what they actually want not what they society expects of them but what they want from themselves and the community is called it's in Spanish and means believe it just because that's where it all starts.

8:29And if I can do one thing for other people is help them see their own worth. I feel like that's the best thing I can do for them. And like the one thing I'm really good at is helping people see their own worth and see that they're already enough and that they have what it takes in order to pursue what they want. That's like a big realization that without that, you're hardly getting anywhere in life because if you don't believe it, you're not going to pursue it. And so first you have to believe it. And then I give them the inspiration, the motivation, the mindset, and then all the tools, everything.

9:04I share literally how I did everything in my life to create my own personal brand and launch that to the world. Wow. Powerful. Powerful. And how much of this kind of comes back to your sort of fears work and sort of that project? Is that sort of like part of the sort of beginning of the work that you do to help people? or is it like kind of moving beyond that a little bit? So it's definitely a start because without the right mindset, without the courage, you're not going to get far in life. You have to first like dominate your fears and feel confident about who you are, trusting yourself, reframing how we perceive the fear of failure and rejection.

9:48Those are the two biggest things that keep us from actually becoming our authentic self. and so that's the first thing that I try to like help my members is with the courage and after that I go into the authenticity part and it's all about understanding who you are as a person accepting and embracing that being so comfortable with who you are that you become unapologetically you and then like that's what you pour out into the world who you really are on the inside put it out into the outside. And from there, we're ready to talk about how to create your brand starting from there. So. Nice. Kevin, do you think we should sign up?

10:29Do you think we can? I mean, I could use, I could, I could certainly use that. Yeah. This sounds like all stuff that I, I, I'm, I'm searching for and I need, I have to learn Spanish. It sounds. Yeah, exactly. First you have to like Spanish first step. Yeah. I think this is going to be a roadblock for me, a pretty large one. Kevin how's your Spanish it's been better I'll bring the name at least you can read the name of the here you go oh you were not that's awesome you have so many props in your little zoom room this actually goes this goes here oh shit for the listeners at home Michelle has this decked out sort of like zoom conference room where she can just stick things to walls and sort of do promo for all of her businesses.

11:20I don't really take it out for English speaking, like either virtual speaking or podcast, but I'll just keep it there. That's awesome. Where are you living these days? Because I know you were a nomad for quite a bit. I think a little bit even before COVID, you were kind of just living on the land. So where is home based? Kind of a digital nomad pioneer, if you will. That's true. Yeah, it's true. So I started in New York when I did the project and all of that. And then we decided to become nomads when I was already speaking a lot. So we were never in New York. And my husband was like, why are we paying rent in a city?

11:58We're still paying taxes, though, in New York. But at least we're not paying the rent. So we became nomads for a full year. And then I really miss New York. I was like, I feel part of me is in that city. So I need to go back. we moved to Williamsburg. I was so happy there for two years. And then we at the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic hit, we were like, Oh, maybe we should relocate to Miami before I launch my book. So I'd have to move in the middle of launching a book. And then we think about family. So we were thinking already about becoming parents. So we moved to Miami in February.

12:34And then in March, everything shut down. And we were just so happy. We were in Miami, sunny weather, a pool, bigger more space so that's where we spend the pandemic and here we are we bought this house this is my studio maybe you can see wow maybe you got your wheaties you got your drawing table you got a ring light you're just uh you know just a one woman machine and now a leader with a team with a team yeah not with a team and how big is your team subscription model is this a subscription model uh sort of a community yeah yeah this is sick i think i'm you've now inspired me uh unfortunately i have no one signed up to my subscription model for how to be a badass boss designer so i would sign up for that i mean listen i'm now inspired paywall is what i'm thinking here kevin what do you think i mean yeah so we have seven people now in the team that's seven people on the on the shoppers team congratulations that's super fun marketing team plus the marketing team that they have like five other people but you know it's different but yeah wow congratulations that's really exciting and obviously like i i was telling kevin a little bit before the show not to make this all about me but that's kind of what i do here.

13:58I remember meeting you and you were in the middle of this project and you were like, check out some of my videos. And I went on YouTube and I remember distinctly watching like two or three of them and being like, wow, I'm still watching these. Like I'm actually finding them entertaining and like inspiring. And like, and I remember you were shooting and editing all of this by yourself. And I was like, man, this is really good because listen, I've been a mentor at the School of Visual Arts for seven years now, and 100 Days is an amazing project. I thought your project was, from that first time I saw it, I was like, whoa, this feels on another level.

14:37We're talking about editing and making content, and then obviously the whole concept of you conquering your fears was pretty fucking smart and also just really made for some really solid videos. Yeah, very compelling. Compelling stuff. And I remember being like, I think she's got something here. And then next thing I know, I look up and you're on the Today Show. You're with like AC Slater from Saved by the Bell. You know, it's like you're just like, you know, talking about this amazing project. And so like, take me back to that like moment when you're just like all of a sudden go from like, this is a fun little, you know, student project where I'm making these videos to like, oh, my God, press and people are like, you know, trying to, you know, I'm doing interviews on television programs.

15:19Like, what was that sort of whirlwind like at that moment? Like, what did that I have to say you were the first one to believe in me and like oh man clap for me yeah I remember I went to that conferences the conference the how conference I saw it was my first conference in my life I've never been to a conference before like you know I come to Venezuela I moved here for college after college I started working in advertising I was at Y &R and then I I started the program, the SVA branding program, and then we are invited to go to a HAL conference. And I was like, this is so new to me. I started seeing people on stage and speaking.

15:59And I started seeing like, oh, I could speak like that. I could be on stage too. One day, why not? You know, I can be an expert on these topics. There was one talk about public speaking. I didn't think the speaker was really good. I'm like, she's talking about public speaking. She's not that good. Maybe I can be a public speaker. Who was it? Put her on blast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Name, name. Just kidding. Don't do that. but it was inspiring to see her I'm like I can do that I saw you you were really good really entertaining I connected a lot to what you were saying I saw Simon Sinek that day he was really good Brené Brown like a lot of amazing speakers and I was in the middle of a project I decided to face a few fears there like I challenged myself to meet like all the speakers approach them you know, that's a fear.

16:46Like people don't approach the speaker. Like a lot of people don't, even though they want to, they're like, I don't have anything interesting to say. It will be awkward. So I am the person that I would not approach speakers, but I was like, I'll do it as a challenge. So that's how I met you. And I met Jessica Walsh and I met like all these amazing speakers that day. And you were like, the next day I saw you and you're like, Hey, your videos are actually cool. And I was like, it meant so much. Like it made me believe in myself. The fact that you thought that so like yes I have something and that was like a week after this went viral it was like that crazy and it you know I dreamed about going viral and being famous my whole life I was like one day I'll be very famous people will know my name but when it happened it was like I didn't experience fulfillment as I thought I would that was interesting because I was like okay I'm everywhere I'm seeing my face you would open snapchat and go to like cnn channel and my face would be there like I was like this is insane people tagging me all over people telling me my friend in Spain is hearing your name in the radio people are naming you everywhere in Taiwan like and I was like I don't feel the fulfillment I thought I would when I become famous so and then it was interesting because what gave me a lot of fulfillment was the messages from people getting inspired.

18:14So I started getting a lot of messages in my YouTube videos, and people I don't know. And they were like, this is so inspiring. I want to go out and face my own fears. Or Michelle, you inspired me to face my fear today. And I was like, wow, that feels cool to inspire other people. And that's something I never thought that I could do or consider doing. So then I realized this is the coolest thing about being famous is actually inspiring other people and not just being on camera. So it was really what you took away was like, it didn't feel like how you dreamed it would feel. And I think that's something that I think about a lot, like I'm by no means famous whatsoever.

18:53But when I do think there's a great quote from Jim Carrey said that like, I wish everyone could get rich and famous so they could find out basically that it's not what they ever dreamed of. And I think that's like, for me, again, I think that about success in general, not just being rich or famous, just being successful. Because I do think a lot of people think that that's going to fulfill them in a way that I don't necessarily think that it ever really does. And I think anytime I've had anything that felt like success, it would quickly, to your point, come and I'd be like, yeah. And then it very quickly disappears.

19:26And you're like, oh man, that didn't change anything. It just made me feel good for a very short hit of feeling. And so what you found is what I think is probably the most inspiring, what people should know is like helping other people actually is the thing that does feel good. Yeah. And paying it forward and, you know, truly making a difference in people's lives. That is a far better feeling than anything that would be selfishly for yourself. And also you would think to add to that, that inspiring strangers feels amazing. Like people that you don't know, but they know you for some reason, because you're like out there.

20:07But you know what feels even better? Inspiring and changing the lives of people closer to you. Actually inspiring hundreds of thousands of people. The ones that matter the most to me are the lives that I change that are like my friends, my parents, my brother, whenever I know that some of them saw my content and did something different and changed their life. That is the highlights of like my year. That's super interesting. I don't think I've had any of that effect on any of them. none of my friends or family or even kevin yeah and none of the people actually like yeah oh kevin yeah yeah me i've i've changed kevin's life for the better thank you kevin um i appreciate that uh question michelle like so when you started the project obviously you were uh you know came from a place of understanding that you were very fearful how much of that comes from you sort of like your youth how you were raised not to go again all therapy on you but like you grew up in Venezuela, right?

21:03You didn't grow up in America. I believe you're Jewish, right? I'm also a Jewish person. How much of that, like, I always say the reason why I'm anxious is because I've equated my anxiousness with my New York Jewishness. Like how much of your, like, how you were raised do you think made you sort of like fearful of life? Like once you were sort of like, you know, came to New York for the first time. Yeah. So I think I have already gave too much thought to this topic. And I do believe that my fears come from the Holocaust, like all the way, because my grandparents had to go through the concentration camps, you know, had to experience that, live that.

21:48My uncle, you know, my grandma, my grandma, all of them, they were able to escape. And then they moved to Venezuela, which is a very random country for them, they had to learn the language. And they lived with fear their entire life, thinking that the worst can actually happen because they experienced it. And that's how they raised my mom, who was born in Venezuela after the war. And, you know, I have all of that in my genes. And I've been hearing the stories since I was very little. I went to Jewish school. So every year we have, you know, we hear the stories, we bring survivors to share the stories, and it's very terrifying.

22:27So I grew up thinking and understanding that those things can happen at any point. And when you're the most comfortable, somebody can come and take you away from your home, from your family. And so I grew up with knowing that. And I think that had an influence, like a really big influence in my life. Also seeing my mom being fearful, you know, and so cautious of things. And it's not her fault. It's just the way she was raised. And then also living in a country like Venezuela, where there's a lot of insecurity in the streets. Since I was very little, they're all the time like, put your window up.

23:03You know, this is not a safe area or you can't even walk in the street. Like I never. And I would come to the United States every year and I would see the contrast. So I understood like this is not normal. this is just where I don't know why my parents chose to live here. Now I see there are a lot of like also positive things and I miss that. But yeah, it was very different. Were there a lot of Jewish people in Venezuela? Like growing up? Only like 24 ,000. Okay, so that's not a ton. No, it is a lot. It is not. I don't know. That feels like, again, I grew up in New York. So I'm like, that sounds like not that many.

23:38But like, I guess that's a very close community. So in my school, we were 100 kids per class. So that was pretty good for me. My entire world was very Jewish growing up. Did you go to high school there? Yeah. And so you said you came to the US a little bit. It's not that far, actually. No. It's like two hours. Yeah, it's not that long. So was SVA the first time you ever lived in America or you had lived there? No, I came for college in 2007. I went to study at SCAD in Savannah, Georgia. Got it. Their graphic design and art direction. Graduated, got married that year in 2011 to Adam, and then moved to Miami.

24:29Lived three years in Miami. And then I was like, I'm done. I need to move to New York City. I need to do something else with my life. And that's when I went to SBA. Nice. And so for you now, this whole new career opens up and you are sort of, like you said, immediately on TV. And then speaking engagements came pretty, to me, I think actually watching your evolution of how you were turning this into a business and a life and a career, speaking engagements quickly became the first thing. And the next thing I know, you're on stage. And I mean, not just on stage. I mean, in front of crowds like eight, 10 ,000, 4 ,000 people, it seemed like at these giant, giant arenas.

25:10I was like, whoa, again, having seen you do television, I was like, what the, like, holy shit, this blew up. And then next thing I know, you're like dancing and performing and like doing your talks in front of giant, giant crowds. Is that terrifying? Because public speaking, I've done a lot of it over the last 10 years. I did a talk yesterday in front of like 50 people and I was still nervous. Like I still get nervous every single time I'm about to hand it a microphone and a clicker. Do you get nervous still? Well, I have to say I get more nervous with smaller audiences. Like you see and I'm shaking.

25:44I don't want to do 50. I need thousands to be calm. Like on the inside, I'm like, okay, 30 ,000. This is much better. No, but I like to see like large crowds more than having a few people closer to me. I don't know why. That seems more intimidating to me than like larger crowds. And it all depends. Like, yes, I still get nervous sometimes, but it depends. The level of nervousness depends on the crowd. For example, if you put me in front of like last year, I did a thousand men in the oil industry. I was very nervous. I don't know why. And it was an experiment. Like even the board that chose me as a speaker, they were very nervous.

26:29They were like, we don't know what we're doing. Why? And they're like, we're trying something new. And then it was amazing. I had all of them dancing by the end. And it's mine, you know, to talk to me. And the organizers told me like, they never approach a speaker. This has never happened before. This is the first time we see a line at one of these events. So seeing those things help me calm down next time that I need to talk to a crowd like this. Of course, I've done already hundreds of speeches in front of all different crowds. So I am not nervous anymore. If you put me in front of like all women, I am definitely very comfortable and excited and not nervous at all.

27:08It all depends. Like if I go to a very conservative place, for example, or, you know, I don't know, a place where I don't feel they will relate that much to me, then that makes it a little bit harder. But also, it's because I've been delivering my same talk, which is called Fear Less, Do More for the last eight years. So you know, you got it down. Yes, I can tell you my entire thing, you know, thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow next. So that's easy. But now I built a new talk. So every time I have to deliver that one, I get really nervous every single time, because I don't know it by heart, I have to really think about it.

27:47I'm more nervous. And I don't know how people will react now with a courage one. I know exactly when they're going to laugh, cry, you know, emotional, get excited, dance. I know everything. But for the new one, I'm still testing that out. The new one is about personal branding, and it's called irreplaceable, like how to become irreplaceable by owning who you already are, and not trying to be anybody else. And then now I'm building a new one. And that's very scary to build one from scratch also because now I compare the new one to what I already have. And what I have is really good. Like the bar is really high.

28:24So nothing kind of competes to that. And I don't know. Yeah. It's like being a comedian. Like at some point you have to like throw out your material and sort of build a new hour. And I still have bits and, you know, images and slides that like I've been doing for 10 years now. And I'm terrified of throwing them away, not just because like, I know I should because, but then it's like, I know they work. right? I know that they're going to get that laugh that I'm looking for. Yeah. I wouldn't throw it away just because you're bored of it. If the audience, they haven't heard you, it's worth keeping.

28:57I've been saying the same jokes for eight years and people still laugh out loud. Play the hits. Yeah, play the hits. Yeah, exactly. So no need to change that. Do you always open up your speaking engagements coming out in dancing? Yes, I will start dancing. And the reason why I do that is because I want to get the audience very uncomfortable because I want to talk about the comfort zone. So the best way is to get them uncomfortable so they experience what the comfort zone feels like. So I start dancing reggaeton, like all out. I am like, and they don't stand up ever unless it's like a very specific kind of crowd, like network marketing crowds.