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Unbreakable Success Podcast, Episode 50
World Champion Athlete, Sonya Looney – How to Build a Following with Authenticity.
There's nothing better than the idea of living a life that feels aligned with what you simply LOVE to do. It's just one of the many things I admire about my friend Sonya Looney. She's a World Champion athlete who has managed to build a dedicated following, a thought-leadership platform, a podcast and personal brand simply by sharing what she learns, loves, and believes.
There are so many lessons to learn from Sonya, but the first one is to make sure you're finding a way to do more of what excites you. Sonya has built (and is still building) her following with chasing like and follows, but by being herself and sharing her perspectives with the world.
TRANSCRIPT:
Aaron: 00:00 Alright you guys welcome back to another episode of Unbreakable Success. We have a pretty amazing guest today as we always do, but this one's really special. Her name is Sonya Looney. She's a world champion. I'm a mountain biker. She's a motivational speaker, professional athlete, adventure, author. Sonia is up to so many things. She just opened her a shop called Moxie and grit. Is that right? Sonya? That's right. I will talk about that in a few minutes. Um, but Sonya, you do some amazing things and I, I got a lead into this by saying seven day races, like you gotta, like give me a short segment of how that happened.
Sonya: 00:39 Yeah, 70 races. It's funny, it sounds really long, but when you're doing it, it doesn't seem like it's that long. But basically what happened was when I first started mountain biking, I was doing shorter courses like in it's called cross country racing and those are typically about an hour and a half long. So most people are familiar with running. They're familiar with 5k , 10k marathon, ultra marathon. So basically I started doing the ultra marathon style of racing in mountain biking and then from there there was these races called stage races where every day there's a set start and finish, but a different course and sometimes it's point to point or sometimes it's a loop from a central location, but you get to race on seven, seven different courses in a country or region and accumulative time at the end of the seven days is the final results of the race. So it rewards consistency over being crazy one day and then being tired the next.
Aaron: 01:36 Well there's got to be some great business lessons in there. I'm sure we'll share it. We'll definitely segue into that to talk about the consistency, but for anybody that doesn't know you or you got so much going on, but what is. What's the. What would be your definition of, of what you do? You know, Sonya Looney writing or speaking her own bio. How would you describe yourself? Right now?
Sonya: 02:02 I would describe myself as somebody who is trying to use what I'm passionate about, which is mountain biking and adventures, to use it as a vehicle to talk about things that I've learned to help me live the life I'm living, like I'm living my dream. It's incredible. Like never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be where I am today. So my why, my why when I wake up in the morning, I want to help make the world a better place without sounding cliche. I want to give people the tools and the confidence to take steps in their life to go after that thing that they want to do. It doesn't have to be a mountain biking, but just that thing that they want to do. Everybody has something in the back of their mind that they wished that they would do. And I want to help break down the barriers so people can go after that.
Aaron: 02:46 That's pretty awesome. That's amazing. I love that you're, um, you know, how, how you parlayed your, almost your, uh, your athleticism in and you're biking and turning into a much larger mission. I'd love to know because there's so much like when people go to your website, they'll see you, they'll see your shop, um, everything from, from eating plants to your blogging, to your podcast, which we'll also talk about in a second. Uh, you're speaking and then you see his world champion. How did all this, how did this start for you? Not to make you explain your entire life story, but from, from the platform you are, you're, you're on now. How did things kind of get started? Because of course it was like all things for all of us. I'm sure it's an evolution, uh, and multiple evolutions. But what was the beginning of, of all of this for you?
Sonya: 03:43 That's a great question Aaron and it has been a really interesting evolution. So my background, I have my masters degree in electrical engineering, so I didn't ride a bike growing up. I was in the school band and I played tennis, but I identified as an academic and as a musician, not as an athlete. And yeah, I, I, I realized through school that I really enjoy challenges and the irony was that I really didn't actually like the practical application of engineering, but I loved math. I love science and I loved just having to work hard for something and then put it all on the line for an exam or a paper or whatever that would be. But I, I was working after I finished my master's degree for a startup solar engineering company in Boulder, Colorado. And I wasn't very familiar with the startup industry and this was a while ago.
Sonya: 04:35 This was about a decade ago and I learned while I was working there that wow, I'm actually passionate about business. I'm passionate about how to grow a business and about marketing. And I was more passionate about that and I wanted to do that role more than the engineering job. And at the same time I had been racing professionally for just a couple of years on the side. So most professional mountain bikers don't make an income and there's a very select few of us who have made it to the top. But it's a hard road. So I had started a blog and this was in 2007 and I just wanted to tell people about my adventures and I wasn't really going anywhere crazy at that time. I was just traveling within Colorado, but my first couple years racing was very difficult. I was a perfectionist. I had always been a very high achiever and little did I know I had a fixed mindset.
Sonya: 05:28 So if people have read the book mindset by Carol Dweck, I was always chasing achievement and I was afraid to fail because a lot of times people with a fixed mindset think that, well, if they fail then they're not worth anything. And my first year of racing pro, I moved to boulder. I was in Grad school. I was racing in a very competitive environment and other ground fallow fell out from underneath me. Like I wasn't doing well in school like I had been in the past. I wasn't doing well as a racer. My relationship failing. So the bottom fell out and I had a choice to make. I had to figure out how am I going to. How am I going to start dealing with expectations whenever they don't go the way that I wanted them to go? So I started writing a blog about it.
Sonya: 06:10 Just a very transparent personal recount or account of my, the things I go through in my races and I didn't actually know that people read the blog, but it was by accident, right? Yeah, I did. And it wasn't until I had gotten on this team and I got this backpack and I decided that this was a really cool backpack and I wanted to write a review about it on my website and it turned out that it s
ent so much traffic to this company's website that they contacted me and they said, wow, like you're selling tons of backpacks for us. We want you to be on our team, which is this like big international team. And we also want you to start doing some marketing projects on the side for us. So yeah, I was working as a, as an engineer, I was racing full time and now I took on this additional role as like a part time marketing person and that sort of growing so much that I had to tell them like I got to quit my job as an engineer and come work for you or I can't do this anymore.
Sonya: 07:09 So they said, yeah, we want it, we want to hire you. And I ended up taking the job and I traveled the United States. I was doing national sales and marketing for this brand, helping grow it with one other guy in the United States with no background, no formal background in marketing or sales except for my own personal experiences. Just working at that startup and just using my intuition and wow, it was amazing. It was an amazing experience because I got, I had the freedom to learn as I went and I wasn't being micromanaged. So I, I thrive in those situations where it's sink or swim, figure it out. And, and I had five years to do it and I got to start traveling around the United States. I would take my bike with me, so I got to build community, meet people, and I would plan my own events on the side, like my own speaking and mentoring events and rides, so I started building this brand without even really realizing that I was building a brand for myself because I was also trying to build a brand, this other brand that I worked for, but just by meeting all these people and then social media comes into the picture.
Sonya: 08:13 So I started posting about what I'm doing and it really just snowballed from there.
Aaron: 08:19 That's pretty amazing. I'm curious what, when you started doing, or creating these, these meets and gatherings while you were out traveling and you were speaking, what, what were you speaking about? Were you just speaking about what you doing as far as your, your racing and that activity or what was it, the topic, uh, if, if there was an ongoing theme that you were speaking about?
Sonya: 08:40 Well, it was funny because initially I wanted to create this. It was a series called on dirt and a lot of your listeners are probably like, what the heck is mountain biking? And how do you even get started and like what equipment do you need and, and how, how does that work? So I was in that situation, I started, there wasn't very many people to help me and I didn't want anybody else to be in that situation. So I'm passionate about my sport. I want more people out there on the trails and nature because I think that it really enriches your life in a really phenomenal way. So I just was doing mentoring sessions, q and a sessions and then it started morphing into these kind of motivational speeches that wasn't intentional. It's just that people would ask me these questions and then the way that I would answer them, we'll just come off in a way where people walked away feeling inspired.
Sonya: 09:26 So I decided that, okay, well people are actually more interested in these stories that I have. Um, you know, they're just sitting like how much tire pressure to run and all that stuff. But I decided that I wanted to do more inspirational type of speaking. But just talking about some of my personal experiences and how that's affected me in my daily life because it's not separate. They're not mutually exclusive, like everything that we do affects us in other places of our lives. So I just really wanted to talk about that and to connect with people in a really meaningful way.
Aaron: 09:58 Well, I mean, that is the key. I mean, without, it's funny how without attempting to build a brand, you probably, you built a very strong one just by being authentic just by being yourself. Which is funny because for many entrepreneurs, that's what they seem to have the most. Uh, not for everyone, but there's a, there's a significant enough segment of entrepreneurs that have, it's a hard, they feel like it's a hard time to put themselves out there and tell those stories about themselves and be vulnerable for lack of a better word, a about what you've been through and what you learned from it. And that's what people relate to for sure. So, so what happened after that? Because you're out there traveling, you're with this company, you're promoting their brand, but you're developing this following. How long did this, did this last?
Sonya: 10:55 That lasted for about five years and it was, it was interesting because I always also racing for their team, so this brand owned the team, so if I were to ride on a different team it would be a conflict of interest with this brand because you can't work for company and then ride for the company's competitor. It got to a point where like, you know, my team wasn't paying me any money and my team wasn't supporting me financially in any way. All of my racing was coming out of my, my small salary and I wanted to start racing internationally and seeing the world. So I had to put my, put my brain together into an a different way and think how am I going to actually do this? Because these seven day races, the entry fees are typically around $2,000 and that doesn't even include the airfare or the before and after.
Sonya: 11:46 So it's a pretty big expense to go to one of these things. So I thought, well I'm, I like writing been writing for like writing with a, a w for a long time and I'll, I'll pitch to these feature magazines, all these magazines that I want to write, like a 2000 word feature article on my adventure and then I'll go to the race and then I'll tell the race like, hey, I got this feature story. You're getting your magazines, you're gonna, get a lot of exposure in a magazine, so can I, can I have an a free entry fee in exchange for that, that media promotion. And that started working for me and I did a few of these international races which helped build even more brand and create even more stories. And then I had some sponsors is actually approached me wanting to give me money, which was a brand new thing for me.
Sonya: 12:32 It was like a big, big deal and it was a conflict with my team. So I had, I had this pathway that was bumpy and dark, but I could see a little bit of a light at the end and I was hearing some, you know, I being back into that direction and it was scary because I had to leave something that was comfortable, something that, that I knew what to expect. I could probably stay there for quite a while doing the exact same thing. But the person that really helped push me and support me in that direction was my husband and he said, look like you know exactly what to do. You know, how to build a brand, you know how to work in marketing. You should just go on your own and get, get some more sponsors and see if you can get more financial support.
Sonya: 13:13 So that's what I did. I, I wrote a bunch of proposals and I submitted them to brands that I really resonated with and thought that we both could create mutual content and it went well and I was able to quit my job. But the interesting thing that, that I did at that time, this was about four years ago, was this is the beginning of kind of influencer marketing in some ways and a lot of professional athletes will get sponsorships based on their results. Like, I won this in that race and I love winning races and that's great, but does that actually sell product, does it sell? Is it going to drive their bottom line? And that is what a company is interested in. So my proposals had a different value proposition than what all my competitors and fellow racers were doing whenever they were going after sponsorships. So it was actually a lot easier than I thought and now the space has become more competitive because of how people are doing marketing and branding. But at the time it was, it was really cool to be one of the beginning, one of the early adopters of that. And then to be able to explain that to a brand and then also kind of helped them realize that there's a lot of value in this.
Aaron: 14:22 Wow, that's some serious, some serious innovation. Uh, I love hearing that story because there's so many, there's so many lessons to be learned in there from, I mean, we can start with the last thing you said, which was everyone else's is trying to get sponsorships by bragging about not necessarily bragging, but speaking about their actual, uh, their ranking, how they're, how many races are winning are where they're placing. Um, but you did something completely different which is talking about a different way to add value to what the sponsors would actually want. But you had, you had the backing for it though, because you've been, you've spent so much time and invested so much time developing this following, right? Because was, was your proposition affected x? Many people would be reading about their brand because of how many people have been following you at that point?
Sonya: 15:17 Yeah, no, it was also based on, like you mentioned earlier, authenticity and trust. So you know, if people are following you and they really resonate with you and you've connected with them on a true emotional level, then they're going to, they're going to trust you. They they ask you, hey, what, what should I buy? Like I needed advice and yeah, and it's hard because they know your sponsor, they know you're getting paid by a company to promote something, but the thing that I had going for me was I wasn't on a team and everybody else was on teams where the team said you will arrive this, this and this product and you will promote this product for us, period. Whereas you, whether you like it or not. Whereas for me I could say, well, I, I won't work with companies if I don't like their products. Like I just, it's just these are just the brands that I believe in and I would be writing and using all these things anyway regardless. So that builds a lot of trust and that's helps. That helps a lot of products in, in a positive way though. Not in a salesy way, in a way that's like, I really liked this because it really adds value to what I'm doing.
Aaron: 16:19 Wow. That's. I love that. And for a bunch of reasons, but one of the big ones that I'm thinking of is the fact that because you're only, you're basically pitching yourself as the person you are being and the value we're adding in a trust you developed with your, with your following. I gotta believe I gotTa believe it had to relieve some pressure on you compare to the other people that were getting sponsors because if you're only selling how much you're winning, then it's almost like you've got to keep up. That ended up arguing, but you don't have to stress to just keep being yourself. Did that feel like it was less of a. Did you notice that at the time the fact that you weren't selling, you know, I'm going to come in first, second or third place, and this is how many times I did it. You were selling you, which is not something you had to, to fight to keep doing, is being yourself. Was that something that. Was that part of your thought process at all or is it something you eventually noticed?
Sonya: 17:18 Yeah, it was. It was part of the process of longevity in the sport as well because I can raise for another decade if I want to, like it's amazing how, how endurance athletes can keep going even into their mid forties, but for me I didn't want to have that pressure and the irony is when you take away the pressure, you actually do even better. So yeah, for me the reason was because I wanted, I wanted to connect with people, I wanted to build a community and the hard part though Erin is interesting because it actually almost added stress that I was myself because now you have to negotiate with the company. You have to tell them I am worth this much money and that is very hard because number one, you don't want to seem like an egomaniac. You don't want to seem greedy. And also there's the rejection aspect.
Sonya: 18:06 You're being really vulnerable and it's being able to change hats. You have to put on your CEO hat when you're negotiating a contract and try not to take it personally. So yeah, it's, it's been really a great learning experience. I read this great book and I think everybody should read it. The book is called negotiation genius and I can't remember who the authors are, but I learned a lot about negotiation and I mean when in our lives are we negotiating something except for like buying a car, you know, so like having to negotiate your salary every single year is a skill and being able to speak with confidence about something even if maybe you're not feeling that confident about it.
Aaron: 18:44 Great. Beautiful lessons. Now were you, since, you know, you went through this journey from, you know, from the world of, uh, from engineering and in and in realizing that you enjoyed the marketing side and then you're working with the sponsor almost accidentally doing the write up about the backpack and then you really started getting innovative and we're able to, to create a lifestyle that you wanted to do. You got to travel and, and keep racing and writing and negotiating your own, your own contracts and selling yourself. Um, but now you're also, you're podcasting. You got your shop up now on, on your website. What was, uh, what was the next evolution? When did you realize that you were gonna just keep stacking on top of what you had already built?
Sonya: 19:36 Yeah, that's it. That's a great question. And the next step was actually speaking and I realized that I wanted to connect with people outside of the bike industry because I think that a lot of the things that you face as an endurance athlete, you have to figure out how to set a goal, how to work towards a goal even when you don't feel like it, what to do if something didn't go the way you planned and how you pick yourself up and start over again and how to decide what direction to move. So yeah, I actually got to speak at some pretty cool conferences like at boalt and boulder, Colorado, they have something called startup week, so I got to speak to a bunch of entrepreneurs. I got to speak at a tech conference and I did a Ted talk about redefining success in your life and how you can, like, how do you define what it means to be successful?
Sonya: 20:21 Is it based on a result, a dollar figure, or is it based on something else that you've set up for yourself? And for me, success is, is focusing on the growth process and focusing on moving in the right direction, not necessarily the end result. So yeah, the speaking happened, um, but then yeah, the writing kept going and then I just thought to myself, well, I just feel like I still have more to offer. There's, there's still so much out there for me and it gets kinda boring whenever you figure something out. And that's one of the curse of being at, that's the curse of being an entrepreneur is once you've figured it out, you're like, okay, what's next?
Aaron: 20:57 Curse of creativity.
Sonya: 21:00 Yeah. Like for me that my, my biggest fear is failure. It's stagnation. So, so yeah, I started a podcast about a year ago, um, and it, it, I didn't want to make a mountain biking podcasts. It wasn't, that's not what I was interested in. I was interested in taking people's inspiring stories and the things that have helped them in their life lead lead a great life. And how I could bring that to my audience and it's been cool because I've gotten talked to talk to so many different people in so many different fields, psychology, nutrition, human performance mindset, and not only does it help me bring a cool message to the world, but it motivates me in my life. It's, it's almost selfish in a way
Aaron: 21:47 that is really cool. Now I'm curious, when you started speaking, you're going to these conferences conferences. Was that intentional? Did you start, were you also pitching yourself to, to speak or did you find yourself having people contact you? Like with the, um, some of the sponsorships.
Sonya: 22:05 It actually was intentional and it was funny because the power of intention is an amazing thing. And I want to do more reading about this because I've heard that there's some quantum physics aspect of it, but I don't really know enough about that. Maybe you do and you can describe it to me. Um, but I just decided one day, okay, I'm going to be a speaker. And so I put a tab on my website that said speaking. And then I had someone contacted me to be a speaker. I was like, oh my gosh, okay, I'm a speaker now. I better figure this out. So it's like jump and then figure out how to swim.
Aaron: 22:38 Wow. That is. So also I dare to you, there's, there's somebody listening right now that's going what? Because he said, I love this story because there's, it is so easy. And I, and I say this because I've been there myself and many people I speak to entrepreneurs I speak to, it's very easy and understandable to get caught up in the, you know. Okay. How do you accomplish a speaking career? How do you get sponsorships, and I'm, you mentioned inspiration. I'm deeply inspired by your story because at the end of the day you just decided to do what you enjoy. I mean, you were at a job and you realized you were drawn naturally towards marketing, etc. And, and you know, you, you found this product that you enjoyed and you talked about it. All these stages that we've been talking about is just you trying to create something that you would enjoy, like a lifestyle that you would enjoy and I'm hoping that our listeners are getting from this lesson that when you're, when you truly decide to just be authentic and add as much value as you can.
Aaron: 23:51 Like I mean, even when you spoke about reaching out to these, the negotiating for yourself, which, yes, you, you see the end game in a way is you're trying to get something for yourself. You're trying to get a sponsorship, but the way you're doing it is by giving some value and really just trying to articulate how much value you can provide for the company as opposed to, you know, talking about how great you are, et cetera. And I know there's a, there's, there's a fine line in there because you have to speak about yourself with confidence, but, you know, but if you, if you're not explaining or giving the value, it's just not gonna happen. Um, but I, I know for a fact, speaking is one of those things that so many people that I know, a and a bunch of different industries that they want to do and they keep trying to figure out ways and angles to get these, to get into these conferences and speaking, et cetera. But you just made it the intention and I think it really speaks to consistency. A bitch because you had been doing what you'd been doing for years at that point, right? By the time you started speaking and getting these conferences, how many years had it been that you had been basically building this platform? Uh, in, in some kind of way?
Sonya: 25:03 I'd say probably five years I think. I think you make a great point because a lot of times people look at somebody's success and they think, oh, they're so talented, or oh, they're so lucky. And even in sports, like, oh, that person's so gifted, but really there, they might have some level of talent, but I don't believe in talent. I believe in hArd work and chances are they've been working at it and maybe not having any level of success for a very long time. It's just that you didn't hear about them because they weren't successful.
Aaron: 25:32 Yeah. Yeah. I can guarantee you in one thing I, I've realized, and again, I mean just you speaking again as the example. You know, the people I know that have, that, you know, are practicing their craft and speaking to themselves for hours in their own home and recording themselves and, or like you building a platform where there is a following and you have a track record of success and a track record of, of influence and having people follow you listened to you and say, hey, I really like what he or she is doing and saying that takes work and it takes years and it's certainly a lesson that I'm still in the midst of and I, and I plan on always being in the midst of this, of that. Whether it's 10 or 20 years from now is just being willing to put in the effort towards something you, you love.
Aaron: 26:24 And I, I even hesitate to call it work because when you enjoy doing it, yes, there is work as in, you know, definitely definitionally there's work because there's effort involved, but it's when it's effort you enjoy it to a whole different game and it's, it's pretty cool to watch you building this thing over over the 30 stages that you're describing for us. What was one of the biggest, what are some of the biggest lessons you've learned? Um, and I, I'm sure there's got to be a million of them, but you know, what are the things that kind of float to the surface in your mind that, that you've been putting together over these years?
Sonya: 27:00 Well, the first one and you were touching on this just a moment ago, is to start before you're ready. Yeah. Like you're never going to be ready. Just start, get started on it and it's not going to be, it's never going to be the right time. And the, there is a thing that I've been putting off and it's writing a book and I really like, I've written so many stories and I have so much to tell and I kept. I kept making excuses as to oh well I need to have more stories or I need to get more knowledge or whatever. I was making excuses and I'm starting and like the other things I've done, the podcast, I didn't. I didn't know how to do a podcast. I didn't know how to do marketing. When I left my engineering job. I didn't know how to do any of this stuff, but you figure it out as you go. And I think that what I've learned through all the, all the iterations, all the different things that I've done in my life is that you figure it out and confidence comes from trying something and just going along and figuring out, figuring it out. It's doing that repeatedly over and over. And that gives you something to build on that way. The next time you want to do something, you remember, well, I figured that other thing out and I'm capable. And then it gets you moving in the right direction.
Aaron: 28:10 Yeah. You're 100 percent right there to mind remembers and you make a great point because I've heard plenty of people say that confidence comes when you try something you've never done before. Um, which is, I think it's kind of hair for the story because I really think if we're going to be accurate about it, confidence comes from, like you said, consistently trying things you've never done before because you know, how many times have you heard somebody say, well, I tried it and it just didn't work and I'm not confident that it's, it's having the guts to keep doing that over and over and trying to things that you haven't done before. And then doing them again and doing them again and seeing the incremental improvements along the way. And I'm very much like you. When I started this podcast, I had no clue. I mean I was asking myself questions like, okay, where's the file hosted?
Aaron: 29:05 Like, because when you don't know, you just don't know. It's not because there's something wrong, but you have to be willing to learn these things. So yeah, it's defInitely, um, that's a, that's a huge lesson is be being willing to start before you're ready and just figure it out. So what, what's, um, how's the podcast for you? What are some, what are some of the things, because I know life tends to shift when you start bringing people in your life that you've never met before and having these conversations like this one, you know, it's, it's, it's called love. We got to talk before before we're doing this show today. So it kind of developed some rapport, but how's it been for you and building these interactions and developing these relationships. What have you been learning?
Sonya: 29:53 The interesting thing is that a lot of these things that we're talking about speaking, podcasting, even mountain biking, you don't make money initially doing it, you do it because you love it and because it brings value to your life. So to answer your question, I think I've learned most about podcasting is reach out to people and it's so important to have these conversations with people that aren't just about the weather or about somebody's kids. Like get into it, get under somebody's skin and a good way and figuring out who they are because in these podcast conversations that you get to have, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get to know somebody and figure out what makes them tick so it's actually really helped me in my life and my interpersonal relationships as a conversationalist or even like if I meet somebody new, how to make conversation in a way that means something and I think that that's valuable and I think I love listening to podcasts as well and I think that listening to people have conversations also just helps us in this world where we're so digitize. It's so much about texting and writing and not actually connecting one on one with a person and having a conversation. So that has actually the biggest, the biggest takeaway for me.
Aaron: 31:02 I love it. I'm totally with you there. It's actually, it's funny. I know about you have. One of the things that inspired me to start a podcast, I was listening to other ones, other podcasts that were. These conversations were going on and I almost wanted to jump in on so many conversations made sense like, well, I guess at some point I'm going to have to do this myself if I'm going to want to enjoy this conversation, so I'm kinda glad I did and I'm glad you're. You're experiencing something similar. Tell us about your, your brand now. We've been talking about you building this brand a. I'm using air quotes from when the school started and you didn't realize. Yeah, I'm sure. I know you weren't completely intentional like I'm sure you weren't sitting at work one day going, you know what? I'm an engineer now, but I'm just going to build a brand instead eventually are slowly and organically. That's what you began doing and here we are at the quintessential a multi year overnight success and you have, you have a brand now where you actually, you have products that you're. You've got up on your website now that you're selling. How did that start and and what does it represent for you?
Sonya: 32:18 That's an interesting way enough. It started with one of my sponsors, with me trying to bring value to them, so I said, I think I have some cool ideas, so let me give you some ideas and then you can end. It was a sock company. This company's name is defeat and it was a sock that said do epic and I don't know if I can use a cuss word on the show. Is that okay? Do you have to do a big shit? You can bLeep me out. And they said, well we can't put a password on a sock. And I said, well I think you should. And so and so they actually, they actually did and I believe it's our top selling stock in the world now. So I was like, wow, people actually like my ideas. This is kind of cool. So I did some other collaborations with some of my other sponsors, like some cycling gloves and like a hoodie and all, all of them were successful and that was a surprise to me that while people are resonating with my, with my designs to.
Sonya: 33:10 Yeah. So last year I thought, well I think I can take this yet another step because before, and I have to update it because it's super new, but on my side I just had links to all these others, other stuff, other things that I was designing, but it would go to somebody else's site. So I thought well maybe I'll just start my own brand. And again it's like, okay, well how do I do that? Like do I create. And it was funny because I, I paid for a wordpress site and a shopify side not knowing that you could just use shopify to design a website on there. so like there's still lots of learning going on, but I launched it officially two weeks ago. The brand is followup. Thank you. The brand is called moxie and grit m o x, y and grit. And that's what it, that's what it is.
Sonya: 33:51 It's about creating products that resonate with people in a fun and in an emotional way where when they wear it, it makes them smile and it makes them feel good. And first is going to be socks. So right now there's only two things up there because it's just the beginning, but I'm going to be designing a new pair of socks every four to six weeks and they don't have. You can wear them, like my husband wears them underneath his suits, but they're awesome socks because they, they're, they're wicking, but they're also really comfortable. So you can use it for sports, you can use them for whatever you want, but I just want to create gear that people that makes people feel good when they're using it. And it sounds really simple, but people really liked that stuff.
Aaron: 34:30 Yeah, for sure. We're, we're. Tell me about the name, where did, where the name come from? Democracy and grit.
Sonya: 34:37 Yeah, the name was, the name is. It was a hard thing for me, like kinda like titling a podcast or titling anything that's like, that's my weakness. I just started writing down everything that really like everything about what I did. Like whenever I'm in a race, I'm covered in mud and I've probably been out there for like eight hours, but I'm smiling and I'm still having fun and I have like energy and pep and I thought, well what's a word that describes that? And that was like, that's a great word to use that word, but I want to spell it differently because moxie is really mainstream so I want to use something in that kind of matches my name with a y and I thought that was fun. And then grit and there's where the word grit, going back to life lessons, gritty determination and perseverance will get you through anything. All of those failed attempts to start and then have it not work. Well, it's, it's that time that it does work that matters and it's going to get there only through grit, whether it be a bike race, whether it be trying to start a business, whether it be trying to potty your kid, like you have to have kind of grit and determination to get through something.
Aaron: 35:43 Yeah, for sure. That's definitely the truth. That's it. That's a great segue because one of the quote, one of the questions I do as everybody listening knows, I don't script my shows, but I do love to ask some similar questions at the end just to get some consistent perspectives about the same things and you know, having this sharon's conversation with you in this, in this journey and the story and all that you've been doing over these years. I'm sure if somebody is listening, thinking wow, it sounds like she's kinda had it an easy go because everything just kept falling into place for and I'm sure that is absolutely not the case. Hence the name, moxie and grip. So I got to ask what are some of the biggest challenges? I mean You had so many things that eventually went right and and you kept following. What I love is you kept following just the life that you wanted to create and you kept going in that direction and figuring it out along the way, but what are some of the biggest challenges that you've had to deal with and and how did you deal with them? Obviously with moxie and grit, but once you added those two ingredients, what else helps you get through some of the big challenges that you had?
Sonya: 36:58 No, I think number one is not chasing the money. A lot of times we will just chase money because money is flexibility and we can buy stuff and in some. In some. For some people that's a way that they are showing their success. Like, I've, I'm making this much money. Now I'm successful, but if you're chasing the money, it's for the wrong reason. Like there's nothing wrong with making money. I think it's awesome to make money and it's really nice whenever what you're doing starts monetizing in a big way, but do something because you love it first because when you have those challenges, people telling you know things failing, things just may. You know, things don't work out all the time if but if you're doing it for the right reason, it's easier to pick yourself back up and get started again because you're not doing it for the money or for the glory or for the thing.
Sonya: 37:45 You're doing it because you love it. So do something because you absolutely love it and be okay with it not working out immediately like it takes time for things to work out like I've been, I've been racing mountain bikes for 13 years. It took me a decade to get to where I wanted to get and I've looked around me and there's been lots of women and not just women but other racers who had the same dream that I did and the ones who are still standing are the ones who stayed in it and didn't give up. so it's okay if things, if things don't go the way that you want them to go or happen as fast as you want them to go and it's also okay to, to, to not have it be growing every year. Like you're going to have years where things are amazing and then you're going to have a year where maybe it's not so amazing, but that's okay. So just accepting that and, and, and not being too hard on yourself when those things happen as well.
Aaron: 38:38 Great advice. I can definitely agree with that. You know, I think, I think, um, we have to be willing to realize that things happen in seasons and you know, we gotta we gotta allow for those changes. Uh, and some of the most fun conversations I'll say have to do with, with money and especially, especially in the entrepreneurial world like, you know, should I do it for money to show I'm not, um, but I definitely think that you're, you're right when it comes to not just chasing the money and for a bunch of reasons. Number one, like you said, it's just do it because it's for the right reason because you enjoy it and because it matters to you. But, but secondly, I think today's, I hate to use the word consumers, but, but buyers today and just people that come in contact with businesses these days, I think people are a lot more savvy these days than they used to be.
Aaron: 39:36 And it almost, a lot of times I, I, you probably seen this before where people just don't smell it. Pass the smell test. And when it's really obvious that, to use a crude analogy, but if they're just after the money in and it becomes obvious that they're just doing something for the money, uh, I think it becomes really noticeable these days and you make a great point. There's nothing wrong with making money. And certainly once you've built your craft and you're adding amazing value, you can ensure, you know, charged for it. You make a living off it and be able to enjoy your life because you're providing something x, it's great. But initially there's gotta be some fish. Got to be something genuine about it. Otherwise people won't notice. And I think if we look around, we look at you as an example and, and the companies like apple, uh, at, at our that we've seen explode over the years and, and facebook in these companies that get ridiculously large, whether it's, you know, because they become a multibillion dollar company or if the entrepreneur that is just loving life legitimately, it all comes down to how passionate they are and how much they actually enjoy the product or service that they're providing.
Aaron: 40:50 So I think that's a great lesson to hear from you. Yeah, yeah, definitely is.
Sonya: 40:57 Yeah. The interesting thing though about like passion is that it's like, this is a great example. So I work with a sports psychologist and I've done a couple awesome podcast episodes with her and the last session we had I said like, I am burning myself out. I'm working like between working and training. I'm working like 12 plus hours a day every single day, but it's not a bad thing. I'm not like slaving away. I love it. Like I love what I'm doing, but sometimes your passion can take over your life in a way where you're now, you're not being social and maybe you're not taking care of yourself in the right way, but you're addicted to it because you love it. There's the other side of the coin of, oh, I'm so passionate about this, but then you can't stop yourself and her analogy was, “well, you love cookies. Are you going to just eat cookies all day everyday? Is that going to be good for you just because you love cookies?” And I was like, that's a good point and that, that helped me, um, in the last couple of days, kind of bring it down a notch.
Aaron: 41:54 It's one of those things. And, and I've definitely been there myself where either I find myself spending a ton of time on the business and things like that. But I think as long as you become, as long as you remain aware, like, okay, I actually think there's a few things, especially when there's a family involved, that's one awareness. How much time are you putting in there too? Are you actually taking care of yourself physically? And three, you know, communicating a lot with the people in your life and making sure that you're intentionally spending time in all the places where you have passion because, you know, we all have families that hopefully we're passionate about husbands and wives and the kids that take care of and friends. So, uh, yeah, I think that's a great lesson that you probably didn't intend to bring up is the fact that we, hopefully we have more than one thing in our life that we're passionate about and keeping all of them.
Aaron: 42:57 Uh, keeping into Contact and keeping our, our time invested in all of them at different times is an important thing to remember. YeAh, for sure. Yeah. It goes back to two seasons because there's times you know, it if you've got a book launch coming out or something that you're working on, there's going to be times where we're investing a ton of time and In the business or are our quote unquote passion projects, uh, and then there'll be time to back off and, you know, breathe a little bit and observe the results in and jump back into it. So, but that's the fun of it. Right?
Sonya: 43:32 absolutely. And I think that surrounding yourself with people that can help support you in multiple ways is. And like I said, I work with a sports psychologist because she helps keep me grounded because I'm so driven and so many different ways. And having an objective person, whether it be a life coach or a sports psychologist or whatever like it, it helps to have an objective opinion to keep you sane.
Aaron: 43:57 That's for sure. I'm very fortunate. I love those moments where my wife looks at me and she's like, why don't you just relax for the rest of the night?
Sonya: 44:07 Yeah.
Aaron: 44:09 I can see my brain going a million miles a minute or she can see the, you know, the, some awkward look of exhaustion on my face because I've been thinking about too many different things. Um, so yeah, it's important to have that, uh, those types of people in your life, whether, you know, both families, friends, coaches, you know, mastermind group or people that can get that can know and help keep you in line because yes, it's easily, it's easy to get things, let things kind of run away with you when you're enjoying doing it. So we gotta keep those cookies and check, right? That's right. I'd love to know something that you've been, something that's been working great for you and your life and it could be anything, a habit, a, an app, a practice. What's been great for you in life that you could share with the listeners.
Sonya: 45:02 I'm going to give you a short term and a longterm. So the short term is that this year one of my goals was to start delegating and building out a team around me giving away, you know, you have to give away some of the money that you're making, you're getting a service in return, but we want to like hold onto the money we're making because now we're actually like, we're actually making it. So delegating has been awesome having hiring people to help me because that helps me build out what I'm doing and it helps it scale. And also it's nice to actually work with somebody. It can be really lonely as an, as an entrepreneur working on your own. So that's been really awesome. And then number two is, is my nutrition and I eat a whole foods plant based diet. So that means no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no processed foods.
Sonya: 45:48 And I've been eating that way for about five years. And my husband who's also an entrepreneur, he's the one who told me about this and he eats that way as well. And both of us have noticed, I mean I'm a professional athlete, like I'm able to to really perform at a very high level eating that way, but from an energy perspective and a clarity perspective, it really improves blood flow. That's one of the most advantageous things about eating that way because it reverses any type of heart disease or plaque you might have in your body and everybody has some form of that by the age of 10. So if you can, if you can just start adding in healthier foods, the fuel you put in will affect what comes out. So I think that if you take care of your body or whatever, whatever works for you. For me, it's eating a plant based diet, but whatever works for you, I'm taking care of yourself, will, we'll give you more energy. You're going to sleep better, you're going to show up in your life differently whenever you're taking care of yourself. So I think that that's a really important thing that's really worked for me.
Aaron: 46:48 Nice. I love that. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's definitely one of those things my wife would love for me to completely go plant based and we've, we've toyed with a lot. We were both foodies, so we enjoy experimenting with different foods and things like that. Nothing really crazy, but I can tell you that, you know, over the years, gosh, 15 years ago compared to how we eat today is completely different and I'm sure you can attest to the fact that once your body's used to eating things that are better for you, if you have a moment where you fall off the rails and eat something that you know isn't going to fuel you correctly, you feel it instantly. Um, have you ever experienced that?
Sonya: 47:32 Oh my gosh. Awesome. Definitely. You're like, why did I do that? I knew that I wouldn't feel good after I ate that, but I stopped myself.
Aaron: 47:39 It's funny because, because for me, there's times I looked back and I think, oh my gosh, how did I eat like this all the time? Because it can, it can really drain you. But that's, it's so true. And I encourage everybody definitely take science advice about that. Um, uh, just started looking into your nutrition because the energy that you're, you're the food that you put in your body, it makes a huge, huge difference. Sonya, what's a, what's something big coming up on the horizon for you? That and I mean really big, like not something you maybe haven't even told that many people about yet that you're excited to, to plan and I know you're one of those creative thinkers, so you got to have something good coming up your sleeve that you're thinking about bringing into the world down the line. What is it for you?
Sonya: 48:28 Yeah, I guess I can't use moxie and grit because that happened two weeks ago, but building that out, it was like a massive goal and I have like, yeah, over the next five years I want to see where that's going to take me. I'm coming out with a book so that I keep saying it out loud because I want that, that, that helps you motivate whenever you say it out loud. That way you have to have integrity and hold yourself accountable because you've said it out loud. So writing, writing a book is really important to me and something I really want to do. Um, yeah. And then I don't know, like kind of. I think that I think that's good for now. There's lots of things but I don't want to overwhelm. You're going to list all these different things but we'll just keep it at that.
Aaron: 49:08 Alright. We'll let you keep it to yourself or at least tease us about the book. What can we, um, what types, what type of book can we expect from you? Just so we can get a bit excited and look forward to reading it?
Sonya: 49:21 Yeah. So the book is basically going to be almost kind of like my podcast is going to be, it's going to be all I've raised my mountain bike and more than 25 countries around the world from the sahara desert to the himalaya and Nepal to Sri Lanka and Haiti, like all these places. And I've learned a lot of cool things in these places. So I want to talk aboUt some of these adventures that I've had in a fun way. Not in like, oh, this is a boring bike racing book and and how those can be applied to your life, and then takIng, takIng those lessons and taking them a step further with all these other authors who have written supporting data and supporting stories to go along with it. So how to live a high performance life and the things that have helped me do that.
Aaron: 50:04 Nice. I love it and I look forward to look forward to both reading and, and pushing it out there for you when it's. When it's wrapped up, I'm excited for you. You're welcome. What are most important questions I can ask for sure is how can people get ahold of you? Learn more about what you're up to, check out the shop and get themselves some new socks and other gear into their life. How did they find you?
Sonya: 50:30 Yeah, and the best way is go to [inaudible] dot com or just google me. There's a lot of, uh, of different things on google that you can find mostly good. So yeah, go to google or go to google, go to SonyaLooney.com. You can go to my instagram. Which is @Looney_Sonya. My shop store is moxieandgrit.com. M o x y a n d g r I t.com. I love connecting with people. I respond personally to every single message within 24 hours. So you're going to be getting me. I'm the one who's actually there on all my accounts. Um, or you can contact me through my website. I love, I love talking to people I love, I love connecting. So please, if there's anything in the show that you liked, um, check out my podcast and send me a message I'd love to hear from you.
Aaron: 51:15 Beautiful. Thank you so much Sonya. For everybody listening. I'll make sure if you go to aaronkeithhawkins.com look in the upper right corner, there's a search bar, just type Sonya and you'll get a link to this episode and I'll link up all those ways to contact Sonya through websites, social media, Moxy & Grit. So check it out and we'll make it easy for you to get ahold of Sonya. Sonya, I can't thank you enough and I need to take a second and just publicly recognize you for all this amazing stuff that you've been doing in this journey that you've created and most of all for sharing all of this, with the world through shows like mine and your own podcast and really showing people what's possible through intention and moxie and grit and being willing to just say, you know, this is what I want my life to look like, what do I need to do to get there? and just continuously doing that daily and consistently and you're a great example of what can be done when we really commit to wanting to design our own life instead of just settling for what comes naturally. Uh, I definitely appreciate you for it.
Sonya: 52:28 Yeah. Thanks Aaron and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come on your show and meet you. And also thank you for the listeners. You guys, thanks so much for paying attention and listening and just being a part of this awesome community.
Aaron: 52:41 Thanks. So you're definitely welcome anytime and we'll talk again soon. Alright. Okay. Alright. Take care for now.
I can't thank you enough for listening, and am so grateful to Sonya for sharing with us. If you're still in that process of learning how to build your following, or are just trying to give your growth a boost, make sure you're scheduling time to consistently share something that helps your desired audience get the solutions or information they want. It sounds so simple, because it is. Keep learning, sharing, growing and giving tangible support to your followers, and you will attract the right people into your world.