Turbulence to Triumph: Amelia Rose Earhart's Journey to Success

0:28Welcome to the Big Success Podcast. flying around the world, crossing the equator more than seven times, 24 ,000 nautical miles. What we're going to do today is examine how she sees success. Some of the things that she's done, like raising$2 million for that thing, building her own foundation and putting lots of young women into flight school training, those sorts of things are phenomenal. But what she talks about turbulence, I think you're going to love how she uses turbulence as an analogy for how success happens. I think the way that she views the co-pilot relationship also, phenomenal stuff.

1:01And we'll get into that in just a moment in the podcast. Look, between her book on the ups and downs, between her podcast, all of the things she's doing, I know that you will love, especially the final question I ask her on this thing. Section two final question was a blinder as well. Listen in, learn from Amelia Rose Earhart about big success.

1:30And let's welcome Amelia to the podcast. Amelia, welcome and thanks for giving us your time today. Appreciate it very much. Hey, Brad, I'm excited to be here. And Denver, Colorado, nice and chilly today. Obviously, it's nice and warm where you are inside. But I want to start with our first question, which is always, what is success to you? How do you define success? You know, as a pilot and as an around the world pilot and now as a professional speaker, my definition of success is being willing to take off into whatever airspace I choose to fly metaphorically or literally and know that there may be turbulence, but taking off anyways, knowing that the bumps are going to be out there, but that I can handle them.

2:13And you know what? Every journey doesn't have to be perfectly smooth. It can be bumpy along the way, but as long as they finally make it to that destination, it may be nonlinear, but it's really learning to love the turbulence along the way. Yeah. It's interesting. When I was thinking about this and inviting you to join us on the podcast, I thought maybe her answer for success will be landing. You know, that's what I thought it might be. You know, that is a big part of it. Yeah. I will say that any landing is better than a crash landing, right? Right. So let's talk about success for you. What age or do you remember a time when you decided that success was going to be a part of your life when you said, yep, I'm going to be successful?

2:53I actually do. I was a high school senior and I was kind of a nerd at that point in my life. I never played sports. Weren't we all? Weren't we all? Yes. I know. Right. But no, the game changer came when I joined the high school debate team And I began competing in these local tournaments and, you know, interacting with other students. And there were these really very competitive tournaments where we went all the way to the state and national level. But I remember feeling that accomplishment and that feeling that if I worked hard and prepared, I could go in with this solid understanding of how I wanted to present myself and then be prepared in my responses as well.

3:33And ever since then, I've been one of those people that loves to show up with the research done and as much information as I can pack in there. You know, you think back to that moment. And how do you think your life changed because of that decision in that moment? Well, one of the really specific ways was that that was one of the first times that my name being Amelia Earhart was I noticed. Rose, not Mary, obviously. Yes, yes. My middle name is Rose. the first Amelia's was Mary, but that was the first point in my life where I was noticing that the adults who were judging these debate tournaments, they were taking notice in my name and they were asking me really specific questions like, what does this name mean to you?

4:13How are you inspired by the first Amelia? And what are you going to do with this name someday? And it was in that environment that I realized very quickly that I had to know what my answer was. And so I sat down and thought about it. And it was at that point in my life that I really made it the goal to eventually, when I could afford it, start taking flight lessons. And then that slowly snowballed into the eventual planning of the flight around the world. Yeah. It's like, I wonder if your parents knew what they were doing when they gave you the name. Well, I can tell you that answer. They did not.

4:45They did not. In fact, they didn't even really know if we were related. It had always just been this long story that we were somehow distantly related to Amelia. But my mom's goal was to inspire me to do great things. Give me a good positive female role model. My dad actually pushed back a little bit. He said, no, no, no, this is going to be way too much pressure on our little girl. And my mom went out and I'm so glad she did because even though it's been a turbulent ride to fully understanding my connection to Amelia, it's, it's, it's almost forced me to be out there and forced me to address it in almost every conversation I have in life.

5:19So let's look at that then. How in your mind does success happen? Is there a formula for it? Is there a way? Is there a step-by-step? What's your thoughts on success and how it happens? So really for me, it comes back to my flight training. I love aviation analogies. And one of the strongest for me that I learned in just the first few of my flight lessons in my early twenties was that every single plan, every single flight begins with a solid flight plan, right? We need to first identify where we want to go. We need to take a look at the environment that we want to head through. We need to see if there are storms along the way.

5:56What are the weather conditions? What are the obstacles? And then we need to assess ourselves, right? If we're thinking of ourselves involved in that flight plan, we're the aircraft, right? Do we have enough fuel on board? What kind of aircraft are we showing up with? Are we a small little training plane or are we an F-16 that can blast through anything, right? I think when we set our sights on something new, we have to ask ourselves those questions. But when I find that you do a lot of the pre-flight work, right, the work on the ground, asking ourselves, are we ready to head into this environment?

6:28Doing that first is the best way to be successful once you do take flight. So let's flip that over then. And obviously in flight, there's not failures, but there's challenges? How do we learn success from failure, I guess, or from challenges? Well, every flight that I took from the beginning training flights all the way through my commercial license, my instrument rating, everything was about, if not experiencing real challenges in the air, simulating those challenges, which is why pilots are so focused on doing emergency procedures, right? Following checklists if and when things do go wrong. And I think knowing that in aviation, it's all about redundancy and planning for things to fail.

7:13We almost get so comfortable with the reality of things going wrong that we treat the reality of failure as equally as we do the success, right? It's an incredible feat that every flight gets to where it's going all over the world every single day, right? Think about how many things could go wrong. But the reason aviation is so safe and pilots are so successful in reaching their destinations is because we address those fears head on. I mean, in preparation for my flight around the world, I went to open water survival training, getting tossed out into the ocean and, you know, simulating those conditions so that in the event of an actual emergency, my brain going into a fight or flight response wouldn't be in total panic seeing these things for the very first time.

7:57And I think that when we apply those same skills here on the ground, we can do the same, right? Research the things that we're scared of, see how others have made their way through and learn from that. Because as soon as we start looking that fear in the eye, we can break it down and find those solutions and really be ready for them. Wow. So I want to go back to something you said, your dad with the pressure on you and that sort of thing. I've always debated, do we need pressure to succeed? Do we need that? What's your thoughts on that? You know, I think we do. It can come in many different forms.

8:33For me, it just happened to come in the form of this name where from the age of maybe five years old, that's when I can first remember it. Every single adult that I would encounter would walk right up to me and go, you better be a pilot someday or even better fly around the world someday. And I think all of that affirmation of you should think about this over and over and over again, that placed it in my mind. But the thing that really kept me going was that when I started to lean into that response and say, yeah, maybe someday I will learn to fly. You know, I've been given this name and nobody wants to, as a little kid, have the attention on themselves for their name.

9:13It was a total pain for, you know, most of my childhood. But when I started to lean into it and say, yeah, maybe I will learn to fly. The people's faces I was talking to would light up. And I think I started to enjoy that positive affirmation of seeing that positive response. And maybe it's a bit of my people pleaser side coming out, which can be good or bad. But I find that when we encourage one another and we ask good questions about what our goals are and why you're pursuing these things and lean into it, so much can happen. Because if I were met with negativity and, oh, no way, that's too dangerous.

9:50You shouldn't do it. What do you think I would do? I would say that's too dangerous, right? Those things that we say to one another really stick. And I think they matter. Yeah. So when you leaned into now your artwork and all of that sort of thing, how do you put pressure on yourself then to succeed with things like that? Oh, all the time. I'm kind of an unusual pilot type, right? And I think the name pushed me towards aviation. I don't think I would have naturally found it without being named Amelia Rose Earhart. I think I probably would have gone down some other creative path. But because I'm a creative person who also sort of fell into this aviation world, I'm constantly trying to find new ways of seeing the same thing, right?

10:33Which is where my artwork comes from. On my around the world flight, I took a lot of photography, a lot of photos from the cockpit and all those aerial images after my flight around the world, they almost haunted me in a way, right? I'm staring at these things going, yes, I could print them out and hang them on the wall, blow them up really big, but how else could I represent them? And so I started painting those images. And then, And, you know, I started working on my book and telling the stories about the views I saw from the airplane. And so one single thing that we do in life can be seen through so many multiple perspectives.

11:09And I like to think of it in an analogy of a compass, right? We've all been taught that on a compass, we're supposed to follow this idea of true north, right? Follow your true north, trust your gut. And I think that's okay, but it's a very American concept that there's one way to do things. when I started thinking about a compass, it's pretty rare as a pilot that I fly a heading of true north because it's just one of 360 degrees. And the joy of aviation is that we can make these subtle little course corrections in life, two degree heading changes, five degrees here, 10 degrees here, and make this winding path.

11:45And so exploring those unusual headings on my personal compass is how I flew a plane and became a TV news anchor and started my artwork. And I I think it makes us a more well-rounded person when we can explore all sides and not just try to stay in our own lane, so to speak. I hate that phrase. Love it. You're on the Big Success Podcast. I'm Brad Sugars. We'll be back in a moment with Amelia Rose. We're going to talk about turbulence and how to be your best self. Without the proper methodologies and strategies, building a wealthy life can be difficult. If you're struggling with building wealth yourself, this is the time to join Brad Sugars 30x Wealth Program.

12:19The 30 videos in this program will help you learn how to make your money work for you rather than you working for it. Create the life of your dreams. And we're back on the Big 6S Podcast. You're here with Amelia Rose Earhart, who was around the world in 18 days, not 80 days. Was it 24 ,300 nautical miles to fly around the world? I imagine there was some turbulence in that. How do we succeed through turbulence? So the thing we all need to understand about turbulence, and I talk about this all the time when I'm sitting next to a fearful passenger on an airplane and they're gripping the handle of the seat, you know, they're worried about the bumps.

12:56I always remind folks that turbulence is kind of like a pothole in our car, right? When we hit a pothole, it definitely jolts us. It reminds us that we're driving, but it's not going to crash our vehicle unless it is absolutely major. And turbulence is kind of the same thing. Up in the air, turbulence is not the cause for crashes of aircraft. It's simply a disruption in the smooth airflow over the wing. Now, it can cause injury. And yes, it can be disruptive and it can be downright scary. But it's not going to cause your flight to come to an end 99.9 % of the time. So what I like to remind folks is that the only airplane that never experiences turbulence is the one that stays locked up in a hangar.

13:39Yeah. Right. And that's not what planes are built for. And I think the same is true for all of us. We can handle the bumps. We can handle a few bruises. But if we're protecting ourselves, that's the only way we're going to have a completely smooth journey. And that's a journey that I don't really want to be on. You know, we need those challenges to grow. So how do you handle that with confidence then? Because you talk about that a lot about handling that change and challenge with confidence. I mean, I just know that it's not going to hurt me. And planes experience turbulence all the time. And if you think about it, next time you're on a big commercial aircraft and you go through those bumps, when you look out at the wing, the wing will actually flex quite a bit, right?

14:20You may even see the wings bow a bit in some of that really rough air. But before that aircraft ever got certified to fly, before it ever got anywhere close to takeoff, that plane was put through stress tests that would stretch that wing so much further than we'll ever experience in a storm up there in the air. So for me personally, when I think about my own turbulence that I've been through and the major turbulence that I endured was learning that after many years of thinking that I shared a distant common relation with the first Amelia Earhart, I learned in a really public way on Twitter and a really embarrassing way that I actually shared no relation to Amelia.

14:58And this was right before I was about to launch on my flight around the world. I had already drilled a hole through the side of a four and a half million dollar airplane that I had borrowed from the manufacturer. A lot was on the line. And when I learned this new information, I was being criticized publicly, told you're a liar, you're a fraud, you're a fake. You don't deserve to fly. Amelia wouldn't want to share a name with you. And I had to recover from that turbulence. I wanted to cancel my flight at one point because I thought this is too much. This is embarrassing. But when I learned that new information, my first genealogical test that I hired a genealogist to do in college was disputed by someone in 2014.

15:38And then I did another test and found out that this guy was actually right. I wasn't related. So I had to reframe my approach and that required a major course correction. I had to say, you know what? I'm no longer going down this heading that says I'm Amelia Earhart, distantly related to the first Amelia. I'm going to take a similar path. I'm going to still fly around the world, still support women in aviation, give out these scholarships. And everything changed when I decided that it was more important than I be related to Amelia, that I instead relate to Amelia, which was a shared interest in aviation and just going for it.

16:15And knowing that a journey can be imperfect and still be so very successful. Well, let's look at that. You know, most people when it comes to goals in life, don't set the massive goal. Don't don't do that. We could say you were almost forced into that massive goal, but that's not real. You chose a massive goal. What what's the difference, do you think, between someone who chooses just normal goals and someone who chooses that massive, successful goal? You know, I think there's a lot of deep psychology in it having a name like this, right? I've gone through lots of therapy as well, but I think my parents, they had good intentions with this name, right?

16:56But they never really took it that seriously. They never helped me with the research or said, Hey, here's a pile of money. Go learn to fly. Go embrace this name we've given you. They said, we're naming you Amelia Rose Earhart to be inspired by this great American hero, do what you want with it. And I think because my parents didn't take it seriously, I decided to take it very seriously. I'm a bit of an overachiever from those years in the debate team and then on through my whole news career and all of that. I've always liked to do a lot. And so I think to take myself seriously, I wanted to set the biggest goal I could think of, which was to complete this flight.

17:33And treating it like a business plan was really what I set out to do right from the beginning. I raised close to$2 million with all these different corporate and nonprofit partners around the world, high-level groups like Honeywell Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney Engine Manufacturers, Remova Luggage, these teams that could help me piece together this mission. And I think once I found myself in the midst of all this action and movement, suddenly I was like, oh, I like this. This is going to be my life, whether it's the flight around the world or becoming a speaker or whatever I set my sights on. And it's just fun because now that I've completed the flight around the world and took it so seriously and check that off, now I don't have to answer that question.

18:16Hey, are you ever going to fly around the world someday? Now I get to say, oh, I already did that. Now I'm working on my artwork or my book or whatever it may be. And I'm sure you can see there's a lot of peace that comes with that. Yeah, almost definitely knocking one off the list. So let's then think about that. that pretty much everything you're looking at requires the best version of you. How do we succeed at being the best version of ourselves? What's your thoughts? One of the things I like to think about is how we can ask ourselves what type of attitude we have going into any goal. Because one of the very first things you learn in pilot training is about the five most hazardous attitudes that a pilot can have when things start to go wrong.

19:00and I have them, I wrote them down here for our interview. They are anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, a macho attitude, or the feeling of resignation. So imagine that you're feeling any of those things when a challenge comes your way. If you're feeling that anti-authority approach, you're saying, I don't need to get permission. I'm going to fix this however I want. I'm going to break the rules. I'm going to go outside the line. I'm going to do it my way, no matter what the consequences are. Or if you're feeling that sense of invulnerability, you're saying, this can't happen to me. How dare they, right?

19:36How dare this challenge approach me this way? Well, when we ask ourselves, because look, all of our biggest goals are going to involve challenges. We know that. And when the frustrations come our way, we need to check, are we experiencing any of those five hazardous attitudes? Now they can all be recovered from except for one, and that is resignation. And so if you were to imagine a pilot flying through a storm and that feeling of macho comes along or impulsivity, right? You're making choices, you're holding onto the controls in the cockpit. You're saying, hey, watch me, I can get around this.

20:11Or impulsivity might be making a decision too quickly and making a mistake. But when it comes to resignation, when I throw my hands up off the controls and I say, there's nothing I can do, That's the only one we truly need to worry about. And so I hope all of your listeners, when you assess how you're handling the challenges and just the problems that come your way, know that your attitude and how you're responding makes a huge difference. But if you ever get close to that feeling of resignation, that's when it's time to reach out to a co-pilot, somebody who knows your flight, who you trust to maybe take the controls for a little bit, give you a little bit of guidance, say, hey, I can see things from a different perspective.

20:51Here's where I would go if I were you, because a co-pilot can make such a big difference in your journey, especially when you feel like you're out there all alone, which I felt that way so many times. And it was only when I called a mentor, called a friend, called somebody I looked up to and said, Hey, what would you do in this situation that I was able to recover from that feeling of resignation? And I felt that resignation when I learned about my name. Like I said, I wanted to cancel the flight and say, no, I'm done. But I called up a mentor of mine and he said, look, you've done the hard work.

21:22You have put in the hours. You've got your licenses. Look at this. You love aviation. Do this flight around the world because you want to, not because a genealogical connection granted you permission to, right? Just because your name is whatever it may be, doesn't mean you can fly an airplane, right? And so that outside perspective, I think can be such a great way to recover from some of those attitudes. I love that. I love that perspective. You're on the Big Success Podcast. We'll be back in just a moment. We're going to talk about scaling up and going big. Amelia Rose Earhart is an accomplished pilot, speaker, and author.

21:55She's flown across the world and back, following in the footsteps of her namesake, Amelia Earhart. She's also the founder of Fly with Amelia Foundation, which provides flight training and scholarships to young women. Listen as Amelia shares her experiences as a pilot and how they've influenced her approach to entrepreneurship. And we're back, Amelia Rose Earhart. Now, flying around the world is one way to scale up and go big. what have you noticed in your life is a difference between people who are good and people who are great at what they do? Well, I think it's a fuel tank. Okay. When I went back to the flight analogy is good.

22:31I love it. Oh, everything is a flight analogy here. I can't get out of it, but it truly does come down to a fuel tank because when I set my sights on completing that flight around the world, I had established a relationship and a little bit of a partnership with the Pilatus aircraft company, right? The single engine airplane that typically couldn't cross the oceans and the stretches of oceans that I wanted to fly around the equator. The range just literally could not cross those stretches. And so in order to make that aircraft that I had already established a relationship with their team, in order to make that plane work for my mission, I proposed adding an extra 200 gallons of fuel on board that plane, which would allow me to go further and be able to deviate around storms and literally just go from South America all the way to Africa, crossing the South Pacific Ocean and beyond.

23:28And so if a physical fuel tank in an airplane can make it go further, I think when we ask ourselves, how much fuel do we have on board for each and every day? That is a big question because energy, especially in the work from home environment, I know it's been so challenging for me. I have these lazy days where if I don't show up with the right attitude and the right energy, if I'm not eating well, sleeping well, working out like I should, I just kind of mope through and get from one call to the next and it's nothing meaningful. But if I ask myself what fuels me and make sure that I've got as much fuel in my tank as possible, people can feel it in these calls, right?

24:06You show up with better energy, more enthusiasm, more attention, more creativity. And so when we think about what fuels us, it's not just the idea of having more energy. It's what drives that energy for you. What really fires you up? Is it listening to an inspiring podcast like this one? Is it reminding yourself of affirmations? Is it self-care? Is it checking in with friends and family? Try to remember what those things are and ask yourself in the beginning of the day, how much fuel you have. And if you're feeling a little bit low, figure out a way to fill up that fuel tank before you take off.

24:40Because at the end of the day, it's so much harder to find it. Yeah, I doubt you want to be halfway through a trip and looking for fuel right there. That's definitely the case. So let's think about that from just taking your artwork on. You didn't just decide to be an artist and do artwork. You decided to go massive with it or go great with it. Is that just who you are as a person now? Or what's your theory on that? Oh, where did the artwork come from? I think, to be honest, the art came from missing being up in the air all the time. You know, there was a certain point in my life where I was flight training, right?

25:16Working on the private license, the instrument rating, the commercial rating, the rating in the Pilates, and then training for the flight around the world. And that was so invigorating and so colorful and so just intoxicatingly exciting. Then when it comes back to real life, right? When I took on my TV job, when I returned from my flight around the world, I was back on the air again. I didn't have a particular license that I was working towards. And for pilots who fly as a hobby, it's not a good idea just to throw all your money out the window and just go fly around for fun every day. So I needed to find that excitement somewhere else.