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Tough Girl Podcast

The Tough Girl Podcast is all about inspiring and motivating YOU! I will be interviewing inspirational women from around the world, who’ve faced and overcome difficult challenges and situations, they will share their story, their knowledge and provide advice and essential tips for you to overcome your own personal challenges. Please check out the Tough Girl Challenges website - www.toughgirlchallenges.com and follow on twitter @_TOUGH_GIRL
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Now displaying: January, 2018
Jan 30, 2018

A former corporate business management specialist within the banking sector, she's now fully focused upon soul sustaining adventuring with purpose. Megan has mountaineered across the globe and has scaled some of the world’s most famous peaks such as Elbrus and Mera Peak. Megan is one half of the all-female adventure team Dare two Do. Megan is an advocate of adventures in any shape or size, is partial to an overnight bivi wild camp under the stars as well as an epic self-powered voyage, and is an avid fan of all that’s deemed a challenge.

Show notes

  • Walking away from her stable job
  • Being drawn to the outdoors
  • Heading to Borneo when she was 17 & getting to climb her first mountain
  • Getting distracted by university her job and her career
  • Deciding she needed to do something with her life
  • Running away to the mountains at every opportunity
  • Everest Base Camp, the preparation before hand and getting ready to go there
  • Arriving into Kathmandu & meeting new people with a similar mindset
  • Being changed by the whole experience and having a need to be in the mountains
  • Getting up-skilled and learning about alpine climbing
  • Her first taste of being scared in the mountains
  • How it changed her future expeditions
  • Deciding to quit and do adventuring full time
  • Having a purpose to her life
  • Heading of to Mexico to climb 
  • Taking the step and why it took her 4 years to get there
  • What will other people think?
  • Heading back to Nepal in April 2015 to climb Mera Peak
  • Taking some time out to figure out what she wanted to do
  • Going to Climb Mt. Elbrus
  • What did she want from her life - trying to figure it out
  • The decision making process
  • Feeling like an imposter
  • The Paddle Pick Up with Love Her Wild
  • Creating - Dare two do
  • The first Challenge - The Grand Union Canal
  • Plans for 2018
  • The Great Pacific Race!
  • Advice and tips for you to follow your own dreams

 

www.daretwodo.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mhoskin

Instagram: @meg_hoskin

Twitter: @meghoskin

 

Jan 23, 2018

Mina is a 36 year old Primary School teacher who discovered the beauty of long-distance running in her late 20's. She would say she’s very ordinary and just someone who has a love of long distance running and spending time outdoors. 

She hopes by sharing the different challenges and adventures she has, that it might in some way inspire you to take that step to actually do the things you really want to in your life. She believes that just by telling people the things you want to do it will start to make them more of a reality. 

So say out loud what you want to do with your life and see what happens! 

Mina is not a sponsored athlete, she doesn’t win the races she enters, she is a normal woman who has followed her passions!

Show notes

  • Based in Wellington in NZ
  • Being someone who loves being outdoors and loves running
  • Not being a runner & being un-sporty
  • Why it all changed in her mid - 20’s
  • Her first Half Marathon…& how she got into long distance running
  • What if she could do the Marathon des Sables?
  • 3 years to train.. the pressure?
  • Training in her final year.. including an ironman!
  • Becoming obsessed with her plan!
  • Training with her partner and by herself
  • Managing her nutrition and food
  • Her highlight from the MDS..
  • Why did you start? What are your reasons?
  • Taking it to the next level and deciding to run the full length of a country!
  • What if….
  • Getting to the start line on the 16th November 2014
  • 77 days on the trail!
  • Getting past the first 7 days and why day 8 she hit a low..
  • What’s going on in her head while she’s out on the trail..
  • Key moments on the trail
  • Dealing with the rivers…
  • The final day, the final 65K & reaching Bluff
  • What happened after the run?
  • Deciding to live on a boat!
  • Deciding on her next challenge!
  • Wanting to see more of Great Britain
  • Planning the GB run
  • Expectations verses reality
  • What’s she learnt from doing these challenges
  • Advice for other women
  • Future plans and ambitions
  • Emilia Lahti - https://www.emilialahti.com/ 
  • Sisu Not Silence - https://www.emilialahti.com 
  • What her role will be as a supporter of the challenge
  • Family Violence - #ItsNotOk
  • How to keep updated with Mina and her challenges - http://minaholder.com/index.html
Jan 16, 2018

Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent is a travel writer, TV producer and director of Edge Expeditions. She’s written three books, penned numerous articles for magazines, set an unlikely Guinness World Record for driving a tuk tuk 12,500 miles from Bangkok to Brighton and filmed in remote locations from Bolivia to Borneo and beyond. 

Her latest book, Land of the Dawn-lit Mountains: A Journey Across Arunachal Pradesh – India’s Forgotten Frontier.

Show notes

  • Living in Bristol and growing up in Norfolk
  • Being inspired by her parents and her grandmother
  • Family holiday
  • Going straight to University and using her holidays to travel
  • Deciding to drive a tuk tuk from Bangkok to London in 2006
  • “Ting Tong" the bright pink tuk tuk and raising £50K for the charity MIND
  • Quitting her job, planning the trip, and raising the funds!
  • Getting ill in Bangkok
  • Taking a month to cross China
  • How the trip changed her perceptions of herself
  • Adjusting back to real life after the trip
  • The Ho Chi Minh Trail adventure and how it evolved
  • Loving the history and the research behind the trips
  • Travelling by herself & being terrified
  • The day that stands out in her mind
  • Having a scary day in the Cambodian Jungle…
  • Treating writing like a job
  • Being a self motivated person and being consumed by what she does
  • Her latest book….
  • Money -how she funds her trips…
  • Getting to the remote parts in India
  • Getting drunk with the nuns!
  • How happy and content the people seemed
  • Her routine while travelling
  • Missing her boyfriend & hot baths while being away
  • Edge Expeditions
  • Future expeditions
  • Wanting to go to Pakistan
  • Advice and tips for travel
  • Talk on 2nd Feb -  London - Destinations Website

Social Media

Website - http://www.theitinerant.co.uk

Jan 9, 2018

Maria Leijerstam is a Welsh British polar adventurer and a Wales 2016 Year of Adventure ambassador. She was the first person to cycle to the South Pole from the edge of the continent in 2013.

 Leijerstam started her expedition on the Ross Ice Shelf at the edge of the Antarctic continent. She cycled for 10hrs to 17hrs each day with no rest days, and the total distance cycled was 638 km (396 mi).

Leijerstam cycled a uniquely designed, three wheeled Polar Cycle, a modernised form of polar travel, demonstrating that cycling can be more efficient than skiing to the South Pole.

 

Show notes

  • Why she doesn’t call herself an explorer
  • Growing up and wanting to be an astronaut 
  • Her childhood
  • Getting into more extreme adventures
  • Always living in a mans world
  • Joining the Officer Training Corps
  • Learning how to look after herself
  • How she started her journey into adventure
  • Doing the Marathon des Sables!
  • The lead up to the race, dealing with nerves and preparing her body for the heat
  • Knowing how your body responds during a challenge
  • Learning how to manage pain
  • Why you put your body through the extreme challenges?
  • Being the 200th person to ever reach the South Pole
  • Doing an adventure race & what she loves about it
  • The last wild race in Patagonia
  • Handling team dynamics during adventure races
  • When races fall apart…
  • Dealing with discomfort and managing your pain
  • Colour therapy
  • 4 years preparation to get to the South Pole
  • Testing out equipment and figuring out what was going to work
  • £100,000 needed to do the expedition and how she paid for it
  • Dealing with rejection
  • Getting onto the ice and the relief she felt
  • What she leant from the experience of planning and doing the polar expedition
  • Coming home and returning to Wales
  • Future goals and plans
  • Being a mother of 2 and how she fits fitness into her life
Jan 4, 2018

Follow Beth on Social Media

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If you have questions about me, the podcast, what I’m doing… then please check out my website

https://www.toughgirlchallenges.com/

If you want to do more to help increase the amount of female role models in the media, please, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, so you won’t miss a single episode. If you’re loving the podcast, please leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with your friends, to spread the #ToughGirlPodcast love. 

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If you have questions regarding the Marathon des Sables - Please read  - Tough Girl Sahara Challenge 

http://amzn.to/2mwP0hd 

If you have questions regarding climbing Kilimanjaro - Please read - Kilimanjaro Tips for The Top

http://amzn.to/2mPfKFO

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Want to do more?

Become a Patron and donate a small fixed amount every month to help fund my mission

https://www.patreon.com/ToughGirlPodcast?ty=h

If you want to support my mission - you can also donate via PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/toughgirl 

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You can listen to the Tough Girl Podcast on the go via iTunes, Soundcloud & Stitcher!

 

Jan 2, 2018

Beth French, an ultra-marathon open-sea ocean swimmer who was once a Buddhist nun, a single mother who home schools her autistic son and an adventurer who suffered from a crippling illness (M.E. aka Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) in her youth. 

During this podcast we speak to Beth about her journey to swim across the seven most dangerous sea-channels in the world, an official challenge called ‘Oceans Seven'. For extreme swimmers it’s the ultimate test; only a handful of people have ever completed it, but it took them many years.

In September 2016, Beth set out to become the first person ever to conquer Oceans Seven in a 12-months period.

Her motivation: to prove to her autistic son that you are not determined by your circumstances and that you can fulfill your dreams and ambitions by confronting obstacles head on.

Show notes

  • Not living close to the water
  • Self employed single mum who home schools her son with autistic needs and sea swims for sanity
  • Having ME as a teenager…
  • What life was like growing up - the challenges she faces and how she overcame them
  • Not being able to walk..
  • Coping strategies to numb the pain
  • Hitting rock bottom
  • Going to see an alternative therapist 
  • Being told it was her fault at 17
  • Writing a wish list 
  • Having a wake up call and taking responsibility for her life
  • Becoming a Buddhist Nun - meditating for 17 hours a day, 7 days a week for 6 months
  • Having a 2 week holiday which turned into an 8 year adventure!
  • Swimming in the ocean and falling in love with it
  • Learning the mental side of endurance
  • Being told she couldn’t have kids… Getting pregnant and being terrified
  • Wanting to adventure with her baby
  • Can she do it with a baby? How did she?
  • Her version of motherhood
  • The Channel Swim! Generating the right emotions to push her through
  • How to be true to you and to live your truth
  • Why you should be full of yourself
  • Not celebrating
  • Heading to Hawaii for the winter
  • What’s going on inside her head while she’s swimming
  • Tattoos and why she has them
  • Vulnerability as a strength and what’s she learn’t
  • Why she stopped her last project - Oceans 7
  • Going for the world record and pulling the plug on it
  • Making the toughest decision she has even made
  • The next challenge/adventure!
  • Top tips… advice..
  • Learn more about Beth via her social media channels- see below!

 

“I'm in it to swim it and it's not over till I run out of water.” 

 

Social Media

 

 

On Thursday - hear more from Beth on Tough Girl Extra - The Quick Fire Round!!

 

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