at some point you’re gonna question your
existence and I don’t mean why or how
did I get here I mean why am I here now
for many my name is Cusco and i am
what’s called an adventuring
humanitarian get to that in just a
minute but it all started quite by
accident and it made me question why am
I here you see I had a very unfortunate
experience not so long ago I was a
creative director in advertising and I
was full on living my purpose life was
great right until it wasn’t the economy
turned and when it did I lost my job but
to make matters worse that very same
week my car got stolen and as I’m
standing there looking at this empty
parking spot I was probably thinking the
exact same thing all of you would be
thinking in that very same moment right
well the universe wasn’t done with me
yet whoever stole my car drove to my
house and cleaned me out of everything
of value everything as a creative that
really meant computers and photo/video
equipment you name it it was all gone
I had only identified as being creative
so in this moment I was incredibly lost
scared in fact where do I go from here
and it really made me stop and think how
I saw myself and how truly narrow it
actually was now it ultimately was just
a setback a painful one but just a
setback but it set me on a journey of
really trying to figure out what is this
all about
why am I here well when you think about
it when you think about the reason for
being you think about purpose what’s my
purpose in life right and you wouldn’t
be wrong I mean after all you start
pretty young you can probably remember
when somebody said to you what do you
want to be when you grow up you might
even remember the answer do you know
between the ages of 4 & 6 the top
answers in no specific order placement
fireman doctor teacher an equal to those
superheroes and it makes sense right
because there’s someone that young
they’re looking at being bigger in life
than they are and someone that does good
well well thinking about your purpose is
very natural
what if there’s one more step what if
we’re not thinking big enough I would
suggest that we take one step beyond
purpose and we think about impacts
what’s your impact in life let me
explain purpose is the reason for which
something is done or
or why it exists right that is a very
inward way of thinking it’s very
personal to you
but then there’s impact impact is to
have a strong effect on something or
someone well that is a very outward way
of looking at your existence it’s how we
connect to others by rethinking the fact
that figuring out our purpose is good
enough we can go beyond that and
consider the fact that it won’t solely
serve us to only think about our purpose
then we also need to think about impacts
now in terms of humanity
if purpose is why you aren’t created
then I would suggest impact is what
you’re created for how would you do that
well the simplified answer would be
self-awareness and action right and it
makes sense but if you want to cause the
biggest effects you’d want to create a
solid foundation a conscious solid
foundation for which to build from I
like to call that your impact power base
for no other reason than impact power
base just sounds really cool ok so your
impact power base requires three things
it’s your gifts your purpose and your
passion let’s talk about your gifts
these are your skills your talents
everybody has them but they’re
individual to you very unique to you
very authentic to you no two are the
same you can have two phenomenal
musicians and they will not create the
exact same music and some talents are
pretty obvious right I mean a stellar
athlete pretty much can tell still our
athlete some talents and skills maybe
not so obvious critical
thinkers problem solvers the objective
here is really to identify all of your
skills and talents you’ve got more than
one I like to say that once you identify
them you put them in what I like to call
your gift box this is your resources
your personal tools that you’ll use on
this journey time and time again and
you’ll evolve them as you go you know if
you struggle to find what some of those
gifts and talents are you can always
just use cues from other people they’ll
tell you right like for example um well
it would be a goodie yes you totally
remind me of Sheldon you know Sheldon
from Big Bang Theory right you are never
gonna get laid but my god you’re gonna
change the world second thing a Q right
all right you get the idea let’s talk
about passion now passion is typically
what you gravitate toward it could be
your activities events hobbies or like
me it could be your career path and then
finally is purpose statistically you are
going to find your gifts in your talents
with your passion into your purpose and
this is how it eclis happen your gifts
and your passion work together to drive
your purpose when these three elements
are there and present and you are
conscious about it this becomes your
impact base this is your strongest
foundation to affect the greatest
impacts let me tell you a story that
kind of pulls all this together
I think it’s a pretty neat story in it
it kind of ties it all up right not to
say I’m done yet but just ties it all up
April 15th 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers
signed a guy by the name of Jack
Roosevelt Robinson to first base in
doing so he becomes the very first
African American to play in Major League
Baseball I mean that’s huge impacts to
the sport right
but bigger impacts a society at the time
we would know him as Jackie Robinson he
would later go on to say that a life is
not important except for the impact it
has on other lives his undeniable
talents his passion for the sport drove
his purpose if any one of those three
things weren’t there the significant
impact could have been lost and who
knows he could have ended up being a tax
thanks for staying with me on that
all right so discovering your impact
journey can be ever-evolving
as you grow as a person
life experiences you just be open to the
flexibility of it
but just stay conscious as you go for me
finding that impact was a bit by
accident and it all happens as a double
dog there is everybody familiar with the
double dog there it’s like the worst
kind of dare I was going on a business
trip to London and right before I left I
happen to be talking to my dad on the
phone and he says you know you should
try and get a picture with a Bobby a
London police officer I was like all
right he goes no no I think you should
creep up on him and a tiger outfit and
of his legs what do you not I’ll get
arrested to which he replied oh yeah
yeah probably so I got off the phone
pretty much saying I really don’t think
okay maybe one and that started Tiger
nabbing I would tagging up
famous landmarks points of interests
World Heritage Sites didn’t really
matter and all I was doing was just
posting on social for my friends just to
have fun I didn’t really think that much
about it but in the process I realized
something
there was connection an in connection I
would meet random strangers here’s the
thing they didn’t see me they saw Tiger
but they didn’t see a race they didn’t
see a religion they didn’t see a gender
they saw a tiger and by golly they were
gonna hug that tiger hard sometimes too
hard
well that became the start of happy
Tiger tales very unintentionally as a
middle-aged woman dressed as a tiger
not exactly my plan but in that there
was connection and happy moments and it
was at that time that I became more of
an adventuring humanitarian and it made
me wonder what would it look like if I
was intentional if I actually designed
the next steps of a happy Tiger Tail
saga what would that actually look like
so I created an adventuress to go around
the world in 28 days my plan was to post
clues on Instagram not tell anybody
where the destination was and they can
guess and me and they would some of them
did pretty well something just had no
clue I was saying you need to get a
globe man but anyway because some of
them were pretty obvious but I would
reveal in an epic Tiger NAB where that
destination was and through this I
thought can I go bigger now that I had
that plan can I create more impact and
so I did I created a parallel experience
for Sick Kids the local Children’s
Hospital so that they could go along
virtually with the tiger and see
everything the tiger sees without ever
having to leave their beds I called it
the little tiger team explores I figured
maybe 30 kids no problem but the request
was for over a hundred and there was no
way that I could financially cover that
so I posted my dilemma up on social and
my friends and family showed up big time
they sponsored over a hundred and fifty
kids and they all became little tiger
team explores that’s Lucas in the middle
and he was my best Explorer along the
whole trip so off I went around the
world Stonehenge to the Great Wall of
China Luke Skywalker’s island you knew
that was gonna happen
and then Harry Potter’s hallways cuz why
not and from the Taj Mahal to the Great
Barrier Reef I would like to point out I
almost died there but it happens
and a whole bunch of places in between
but through this adventure
there was impasse to date I’ve covered
over 180,000 miles just for Tiger tails
alone tiger nabbed hundreds of locations
and I’ve met people from all over the
world and if I could also say a little
off the record I don’t feel like I’m
exactly a cuddly Tiger but I have been
honored to receive more hugs than I care
to count and through all of this impacts
for me when I look at my gifts my
passion and my purpose it’s that my
passion is really about adventures and
exploring I just happen to do it in a
very creative way that drove my purpose
which is really about connections
nothing big nothing grand it’s not a
Jackie Robinson size effect but it still
impacts small ripples in the water that
carry on I like what the Dalai Lama has
to say if you think that you are too
small to make a difference try sleeping
with a mosquito all right I’d like to
leave you with this be everything that
you were designed to be your authentic
individualistic self create a path that
is solely you forgive the bumps in the
road the wrong terms bad decisions
they’re all part of the journey and in
my opinion I think they end up making
the best memories eventually trust in
your gifts your talents after all your 4
year old self would say those are your
superpowers and you grew up to be
exactly as you imagined back then that
you would be those through purpose be
intentional about your impact and in the
end you can answer the question thank you