Butterfly Migrations, Surfing With Dolphins & Ancient Tribal Ceremonies

Transcript:

Hi everyone.

Parag asked me to share a few words with you from my current location which is Mexico City airport waiting for a flight to Cuba. So excuse the background music or lift music in which you might hear renditions of carols… but it’s how they celebrate in this French restaurant in Mexico airport.

I’m the founder of LDR Creative which is a global communications agency based in Soho, London. I’ve just turned 45 years old and I’ve always been passionate about travel, photography, and conservation.

For 20 years, I had a dream about living in Latin America, but 10 years ago, I started my own business, and I prioritised financial security over everything else and that is when I started my business in 2005.

The downside of that was that I had no time to do the things I loved and that was pretty soul-destroying and made me frustrated, depressed, angry, and all of those things in different measures at different times.

So in 2012, I worked with Parag on focusing on a goal that I wanted to achieve. It was a goal I set myself and it was to start a creative sabbatical.

The sabbatical would be not 3 months or 6 months, but 12 months. 12 months of time for me to do the things that I love, the thing I want to do, when I want to do them; time to travel and to explore my creativity and to realise my lifelong dream living in Latin America.

Of course there were plenty of major obstacles, all of them supported by negative mindsets – could I really do this? Would my business survive without me being there? Wouldn’t the clients leave? Wouldn’t the staff leave? Would my business partner who is young and incredibly capable and fantastic support for me and the business, would she be able to cope without me?

And yeah, shouldn’t I be getting married and having children and settling down and doing what everyone else is doing?

Well, I listened to my instincts and the answer is no. And the answer to all of those questions about doubts about whether I could do what I really wanted to do and the answer is a resounding massive yes.

You all deserve to be able to do the things your heart’s desire.

I listened to my instincts and after 3 years of coaching with Parag, I smashed it with the help of my business partner, Edwina, who has been incredible. And on the 1st of May this year, 2015, I took a flight to Costa Rica to start the sabbatical year. Super exciting!

8 months in, I am now sitting in Mexico airport and I have been around the world, and I am back in Latin America.

I have done many incredible things. I’ve lived with locals on an orangutan conservation project in the Sumatran rainforest. I’ve seen the largest butterfly migration in the world – millions and millions of butterflies flying from Canada to the mountains of Mexico, I’ve surfed turquoise waves with my twin brother who lives in Australia.

I’ve been to Indonesia and been riding waves when whales are jumping out in the not-too distant horizon, dolphins riding next to me. I’ve gone deep into two ancient tribal ceremonies in Latin America and learned valuable life lessons from the experiences which have been amazing and will be with me till the day I die. I’ve learned to cook with a leading Mexican chef.

I met incredible, talented, and creative people who have given me confidence to explore my creativity in film, photography and in self-expression. I’ve been speaking Spanish every day, I spoke Spanish anyway, but now it’s better than it’s ever been and I am super happy with that achievement and I have made new friends not just for these travels but for life.

I’ve been introduced to one very exciting business opportunity. I have also afforded myself the time to explore other business opportunities and one in particular that will allow me to leverage all the work that has been done by myself and Edwina over the last 10 years and Edwina over the last seven years with me.

I have been introduced to new experiences and I’ve actually achieved 6 out of the 8 sabbatical goals that I set myself and I still have four months to nail the rest of them.

So what about LDR creative during this time? Well, my business is thriving and it’s strong with Edwina at the helm; exhausted but jubilant. Also an incredible year – 2015 was our year of the team. It’s all about the people who work with us and empowering them and working to develop them both as a professional person but also the individual outside of work.
And 2016, we billed as our year of frame, getting rewards and all the respect that we deserve from all the work that we have done. So it is going to be a super exciting year that will bring obviously other rewards and dividends with it as well.

So it’s already forecast to be, in our business plan, the biggest year. And we’ve got – I don’t want to jinx it, but yes – our forecasts look incredibly strong and that is based on existing relationships and relationships that have been developed in my absence by Edwina and the team.

So how do I feel today? Well, I feel incredibly happy and incredibly lucky to have achieved this huge life goal.

And to close I just wanted to share this post with you to start 2016, if any of you who deserve more from your busy lives and your demanding businesses, the confidence to clarify your personal goals, but also to prioritise them most importantly and then setup your business or re-engineer or restructure your business so that the business helps you to achieve your personal goal because if you are not achieving your personal goals in life then why are you working so hard?

I’ll finish by saying that I am living proof that your dream can become your reality.

Sending you a big, happy New Year from Mexico from a very happy Louis. Good luck in 2016!