Fiona is an adventurer, speaker and entrepreneur who loves to get outside and push her limits on expeditions big and small, meeting new people and discovering tasty cake stops en route. In 2017 she walked and cycled the length of Britain and in 2018 is due to set a new world record by becoming the first person to SUP Britain. When she’s not adventuring you’ll find her running Adventure Book Club and coaching entrepreneurs.
Show notes
• Who is Fiona?
• Being inspired by Al Humphries
• Being an entrepreneur and wanting to direct her own career and life
• Hating the corporate life & quitter her job after 6 weeks
• Setting up her first business
• Getting into cycling
• The freedom of Adventure and what she loves about it
• The self development side of adventure
• Cycling from London to Brighton
• How she ended up cycling the length of Great Britain
• Cycling home for Christmas
• Not being a runner or a swimmer
• Why she loves adventuring on her own
• The challenges she faced while cycling and why she had to stop on her first attempt
• Key learnings from her failures
• Getting to the end of her challenge
• Doing the same challenge again
• Social media and how it interacts on an adventure
• Mental resilience, mental toughness and mindset
• Walking from Land’s End to John O’Goats
• The pains from walking
• Planning at the last minute
• Getting injured
• What she thinks about while walking and why she wants to digitally detox
• People from Instagram
• The plan for 2018 – SUP Britain
• Stand up Paddle Boarding….
• The 3 Lakes Challenge- March
• Dealing with fears & funding for her challenge
• The Adventure Book Club
• #TakeAction
• Words of advice and why you shouldn’t be afraid of failure
Website- http://fionalquinn.com
T: @FionaLQuinn (https://twitter.com/FionaLQuinn)
IG: @FionaLQuinn (https://www.instagram.com/fionalquinn/)
FB: /FionaLQuinn (https://www.facebook.com/FionaLQuinn)
M: @FionaLQuinn (https://medium.com/@FionaLQuinn)
[Music] hello and welcome to the tough girl podcast which is all about motivating and inspiring you I’m your host Sarah Williams today I’m delighted we’re going to be speaking to Fiona Quinn in 2017 Fiona walked and cycled the length of Great Britain Solo in 2018 she’s got a very new and exciting world record that she is going after [Music] after Fiona you are an adventurer a speaker and an entrepreneur which is absolutely fantastic but could you just tell everybody maybe just a little bit more about your backstory yeah absolutely so um I’ve definitely not always been uh adventurous when I was younger um I very much wasn’t an outdoorsy kind of girl um I actually went camping when I was I think I was about 15 or 16 on the aisle of white for about two weeks and when you’re stuck in one0 in one place for that amount of time unfortunately it tends to fill with bugs and that very much put me off camping for a long time um but then it was back in I think 2014 I heard Al Humphrey speak about micro adventures and I thought oh just one night in in under the stars in a sleeping bag maybe maybe I could do that so um I went with some friends and we slept on a hill for one night and that’s really where I got into adventure and it’s kind of all spun from there really um I guess in terms of the entrepreneurship side of things I have always wanted to own my own business I’ve always been really independent and really very much wanting to direct my own career in my life um that Journey really started when I left University so I studied real estate at University very different to what I’m doing now um but I left and I did the typical thing I went and got corporate job I worked in the city in London for a really big corporate firm and I absolutely hate hated it to be honest like it just so wasn’t me I was doing a 4-Hour round commute every day from my parents house because I was on minimum wage and I couldn’t afford to live in London so that just really was not fun and and it only took six weeks for me to decide that that wasn’t for me so I quit just six weeks after I started my first graduate job and it was from there that I started setting up my first business um organic skincare business it all British Brands and um and the reason that I did that as I say I wanted to really be the director of my own life and this passion for business had really started very young so this was a great opportunity I had no commitments whatsoever to just have a go at starting my first business and um I run it for four years while I also had a full-time job working in research in the field that I had studied at University which was great because it was such a flexible job it allowed me to do the business on the side and the first business while technically it was a failure it was awesome like I learned so much about business about my myself about how I want to work where I want to work the kinds of things that I’m good at what I’m rubbish at it was a brilliant learning curve um and from there I’ve then gone on to start up some other businesses some have failed again uh but again learned huge amounts and others have been more successful um so they include I run a vbox scheme at one point and I now run a an adventure book club which I absolutely love and is doing really well so lots and lots of different um entrepreneurial experiences which have led me to be where I am today be interested going back actually when you were running a business still working full-time job were you getting much time to do Adventures or to do exercise were you managing to fit that in um really back at that point was before I kind of discovered Adventure um it was really only after I closed that first business and was made aund that I that I heard Al hrey speak about Mel adventures and then I got into the adventure side of things I guess at the earlier point in my life with the first business I at that point I was getting into cycling so my my boyfriend at the time was very into cycling so I got my first bike as an adult at that point and I started cycling uh into London or into the Sur Hills at the weekends and then we did s of London to Brighton and London to Cambridge those kind of big sportifs so I started to get into that side of things I wouldn’t say it was maybe like a kind of a training or a regular thing it was more just a sort of fun little thing that I did on the side every now and again um that’s kind of how it started really yeah what is it about Adventure that you love so much I think it’s the freedom because so when I started with that cycling I think it was really a combination of the cycling and then hearing Al speak about micro Adventures That kind of came together to lead me into developing my own adventures and for me what I love about Adventure is very much um the fact that I can decide how fast I go where I go what time I stop and all of those decisions are mine to be made whereas if you’re doing sort of a set challenge which are awesome um but you just don’t have that kind of same autonomy which I just love in life and also I think doing an adventure on your own versus with lots of other people is that it gives you that um the kind of self-development side of Adventure so like when you really are struggling at something uh and you’re absolutely hating what you’re doing but you’re in the middle of this adventure and the only choice you have is is to keep going forwards you learn so much from that from doing that on your own and surviving and and thriving then I think then you would necessarily with other people I mean one of the one of the rides that you did was the it’s a very classic ride from cycling from London to Brighton tell us a little bit more about that and how it came about yeah so um while I was doing that ride I was working um pretty much full-time and I just I really wanted to get out my bike again I hadn’t been out on it for a while so I just decided that I would just leave my my job um in London after work and just keep cycling until I hit the coast which is a really lovely thing to do um I think it took me about five hours door too so if you do it sort of height of Summer you’ve got plenty of daylight in in the evening to do it and it’s a lovely way of realizing actually you know we’re an island you’re never really that far away from the coast most people could probably do that it’s just a really nice way of getting outside even just during the week I mean I think what’s really interesting about you is almost is the progression like even if we just take the cycling for example you know sort of you know the first time you got on your bik then cycling lond to Brighton and then in 2016 you did cycle Great Britain um I just I suppose I’m really interested in understanding and getting you to share more about the steps of the journey and how you ended up doing that yeah so it was it was very gradual it wasn’t like I suddenly woke up one day and wanted to cycle the length of the country as you say it was it was definitely a journey and um it sort of started with just going out every now and again with my boyfriend at the time and and he was giving me that confidence to to be on a bike like I hadn’t been on a bike since I was probably 12 um so to even know like how the breakes work or how to change um you know Inu if you get a puncture all these kind of little things where I started and then that gave me confidence to go and do something bigger um so from doing uh London to Brighton as the the sport Eve I then uh decided to make up my my my own first real Adventure which was to cycle home uh for Christmas so from London to my parents I think it was about 80 miles it was great I mean I totally didn’t make it I ended up having to stop in a pub uh I was probably about 80% of the way I think because of the the horrendous hail of the storm that had come on Christmas Eve but it was again great fun the first time I’d ever navigated on my own with a bike um loads of learning learning from that and then it was kind of um the next thing was uh the triathon that I made up so I knew that I love cycling and I love that autonomy of doing your own adventure but I wanted to add some other kind of disciplines into it I’m not definitely not a runner or a swimmer so I knew that those kind of two elements of a triathlon would be out for me but I do like walking and the idea of stand up panel boarding down a local River was a great fun one to to think about so I decided Ed to travel down the length of the River cam which is pretty close to where where I grew up it’s about 70 miles in all so I walked the full length I cycle the full length and then I stand up parab boarded a bit in the middle and that sort of Adventure helped me see that I could do more I could take it to another level I could do something a little bit bigger and it was at the end of that um which was I think summer 2016 um that I was like right I want to do something really big now and uh I didn’t have a huge huge amount of time before Autumn set in so what’s the kind of classic British Adventure that I can do that’s super easy to organize what kind of lands ENT on the gr as you say is is the British Adventure that everyone wants to do and really it is pretty straightforward you kind of get on your bike at Land’s End and you just head north and then you keep cycling each day and it’s it’s such a fun and easy way of getting around on your bike it’s a really really lovely way uh to see the country and it’s so doable that you think a thousand plus mil is a long long way but when you break it down and you just sort of look at it dayto day and you’re maybe doing sort of 40 50 miles a day sometimes much bigger days sometimes much smaller days but you take it at your own pace and you go the direction that you quite fancy and the on the kind of roads that you enjoy cycling on then really is a it’s such an achievable thing to do um and I would definitely recommend as I say doing it on your own you meet so many more people when you’re adventuring on your own and it’s just a lovely way to get to know that the country that we live in yeah I mean what was the most challenge aspect of that whole ride of that whole cycle the L J gr yeah yeah so the first one that I did um in September 2016 definitely the most challenging thing was um when I get to got to the ks in Scotland so IID done I think about 800 miles at that point and I had roughly 200 left and while it had been totally challenging at the beginning so it’ been much harder than I expected on the really steep cornall uh the Hills in Cornwell and Devon but actually once you get past that bit and you kind of get into your routine it’s fine but when I got to that point in the ks it was I think it was day 18 something like that and um I was due to do my biggest day yet so I was trying to do I think 80 odd miles in one day in order to get from pit lockery up to all the way up to in vaness and it’s quite a sort of remsh region and there was this horrible kind of storm lots and lots of rain and I’d gone the wrong way and I realized that in order to get back to the path that I was supposed to be on I had to push get I couldn’t even Cy up this hill it was too siep I had to get off and push my bike for about half an hour 45 minutes up this hill in the rain I was absolutely soaked to the bone freezing cold and it was miserable and so I got to the other side of this massive Hill and I was back on the track I was supposed to be on and it runs next to I think it’s the A9 so there’s just tons and tons of traffic whizzing by but there’s no there’s no cafes there’s no hotels there’s like literally nothing other than people in cars withing past June when you’re so cold that it hurts just to hold on to the handlebars it’s it’s agonizing and so lonely and you just feel awful and I sort of saw this corner coming up ahead and I was like surely around the next Valley like there must be like a cafe or some sign of life other than people in cars that could help me and so I kept push pushing through I kept cycling in the rain and I got around the corner and just the Wilderness stretched out before me and there was nothing there was nobody there that could help me and in that moment you just fill up and I was just crying my eyes out into the wind and that was definitely the hardest part of the whole thing to to be in that situation you just feel so stupid like how did I get to this point that I’m this cold like I can’t stop shaking and there’s no one here that can help me and yeah that’s a pretty challenging place to be in but at the end of the day you know I made it out of there I kept going and I eventually found a B&B and they managed to give me a lift to a station like I think I was probably almost verging on hypothermia so it have been stupid to to carry on but looking back I’m so glad that I did that Adventure because um I know now that I would push on and I can keep going and I can achieve a lot more than I think I can and actually going I went back um last September in 2017 and I did the ride again slightly different route but I did actually do that section of the route again through the ks and this time made it all the way through so it’s um yeah huge learning curve a really tough point in that that particular Adventure but it it just re you know reaffirms in you that you you are very very capable do I think what I think is really interesting is when you’re is when you’re talking there is about the you know the toughness dealing with the storm and the rain and this you know being out there in the wilderness and and just being miserable and feeling Stu stupid but actually what I’m getting from when you talk is actually you look at everything as this learning experience so you know some people can say oh well that’s a failure you didn’t complete it but I don’t really look at it that way and I don’t and I’m sort of getting the sense that you don’t either and that it’s just this opportunity to learn um from it so what were the key learnings I mean did you want to go back the following year was it unfinished business or did it take you a while to almost Psy yourself up again to I you know can I can I face it I mean the key learnings were definitely very much the I am so much so much more capable than I give myself credit for um it’s it’s really easy to to view things as failings when actually it would be more of a failure to have not started in the first place and having traveled so far like 800 miles by bike is just it’s it’s an incredible like personal feeling even if I didn’t share my story with anyone like knowing that I’ve done that is incredibly rewarding personally um in terms of going back it was definitely unfinished business I felt like I could do this like if I just had another chance then I could definitely do it and when I went back I I did I managed to complete it and I actually went a slightly longer route um I went via London when I went back again um and I had a much longer uh longest day that I’ve ever done on the bike when I would did it the second time I think I did 118 miles in one day or something so um it was great to do it again but also to keep pushing as well in terms of what I’m capable of absolutely oh it’s fantastic I mean what was that like sort of you know getting to the end of that challenge and finishing it yeah it was great it was really it was it was kind of a double-edged sword in terms of that Adventure doing doing the route again certainly at the beginning it was it was quite tough mentally like I totally could physically do it at this point I’d been cycling for a while I had like my cycling legs so that was fine but um like mentally going back and doing the same thing again it’s like oh I’m doing this again you’re sort of on the road and you’re like it’s really just really familiar whereas I think the thing that I love about Adventure when is when it’s it’s new and and it’s exciting and it’s challenging um so certainly the beginning stages of that doing it the second time was a bit tough uh but getting to the end was amazing and actually one thing that’s come through my ventures in 2017 so both in the cycle but also in another one that I did in in the walk was um social media and the way that that interacts with an adventure and and but also plays out in real life so I’ve met loads of people through Instagram in particular who I’ve then met in real life through the adventures and that was wonderful um on that second bike ride I met a guy called Rory who was also cycling land and Sh greates at the same time and our past just happened to cross over for this day and then I met up with him at the end again and it was lovely to have that kind of someone to share it with in the camaraderie as well as those bits on my own as well yeah definitely I think that there’s like there’s pros and cons to you know doing Adventures solo and doing them together with other people I mean one thing I’d be interested in going back and discussing is you know you said it was tough mentally you know sort of going past the same areas which maybe you’ve done before and a lot of the challenges that you’ve done there is obviously the physical element but it does come down to to the mental side of things what have you learned about mental resilience mental toughness um or you know the your mindset why you’ve been out doing these walking challenges or cycling challenges yeah it’s it’s very much like kind of you’re always told when you’re growing up like have a positive mentality like how you feel about stuff affects the outcome but that’s so true but and it’s so heightened on an adventure if you feel like oh I hate this this is rubbish why am I here it’s raining it’s cold I don’t want to be here you’re just going to make it you’re going to make yourself feel rubbish while you’re doing it and you’re probably not going to get to the end as quickly as you could have done or you’re just not going to perform as well as you could have done whereas when if you’re really positive even if it’s a rubbish situation if you just try and find little positives um then it just really helps you to move forward and also it kind of the energy that you put out is is what you get back and and particularly if you’re um meeting people or chatting to anyone if you can just be really open and and um really accepting of where you are and what’s happening then it’s I think it’s much easier to connect with people when you’re on your walk and and and that is such a huge part of Adventure is meeting people along the way and connecting with people so um yeah I think it’s it’s a really it’s a great way of developing your kind of mental toughness um and and being able to not only with understand bad stuff but just having a positive outlook and and being open to what could happen I mean 2017 was a big year for you not only going back to to cycle Great Britain but also to walk Great Britain yeah so that I think that’s quite different because obviously on a bike you’re you could cover well you covered like 115 or 118 miles in a day um whereas walking it’s a little bit slower so it is so just talk to us a little bit about why you decided to to go on this on on this adventure so um so the walking of Venture was to walk from Jonah Gres down to L end so heading south this time and I decided to do it because having done the first bike ride um I knew that I loved exploring in the UK there was so many places that I’d never seen that I got to see on that first bike ride but at the same time if you look at them out there’s so many places I still hadn’t seen and I really wanted to go back and explore those places but sort of a bit like that triathle that I made up along the River Cam I wanted to challenge myself in a new way so walking is it’s pretty pretty straightforward it’s pretty easy we most of us can do it we just put one foot in front of the other and eventually you get there um but it’s definitely a very different physical and mental challenge I knew that it would be slow obviously um but I didn’t quite appreciate just how slow walking is particularly when you’re in the wilderness of Scotland you’re in the highlands and so I didn’t come directly south like most people do from from JN gr I just decided to head uh West so I went all the way across the North Coast to Dess and then came down the west coast of Scotland which is a much trickier route it’s much hiler it’s much windier it’s much wetter um which is why most people don’t go that way but uh when I’ve been cycling I was told that West is best in Scotland so I wanted to go check it out and while I was in that area it was it was a very remote area and I had to carry about three or four days worth of food with me which again just adds um the physical strain so in terms of um cycling obviously all your kits on your bike and okay it might be a little bit exhausting to cycle and maybe your knees might hurt a little bit but generally there’s not sort of huge amount of pressure put on your body whereas when you’re walking as I’m sure you know um carrying everything on your back hurts a lot it hurts your back your neck your your hips your your knees your feet kind of hurts everything really um so there was definitely different uh physical pressures from that point of view and again the slowness of the walking was very hard to get used to but once I kind of found my rhythm I think it took me about two weeks to get into that walk so I didn’t do any training for for any of these really I think the most longdistance walking I’d done before I left was well it was along the cam so it would have been about four days um about 20 miles a day um and that’s it that’s all i’ done I didn’t I didn’t really want to train because it was such a long A Long Walk doing joh gra to Land’s End it took me 57 days in the end um but I knew that the first two weeks would be training in themselves and they definitely were it was hard um but I quite liked that initial physical challenge and then you feel like you get into it and then it sort of changes uh how how it feels as you’re going along which is quite nice talk to me a little bit more about the planning so your you know you mentioned a little bit about your route about going west but also you know what K kit were you taking what equipment were you planning to Wild Camp you know how how are you going to work it yeah so my planning was a little bit last minute I I my my plan was like I’ve been speaking to Sean K he obviously R the length of Britain and he took a ridiculously small amount of Kit and I was like oh yeah it be fine I can kind of do something similar I can like take a little day bag and that’ll all be under need um but it totally didn’t work out like that I borrowed a Friends Day bag and I couldn’t even fit my sleeping bag in it so I had to completely rethink about three days before I left um so I bought a new backpack I think I had about 60 ler backpacks something like that um and I borrowed a friend’s sleeping bag so it was much much smaller I borrowed a friend’s tent I just had super light kit um I did have a a sort of jet boil with me to to make food if I needed to um so I had as light a kit as I could in terms of like clothes so I had the clothes that I was wearing and then I had a nice set of clothes so I only had two two pairs of everything pretty much other than underwear um so yeah as light as I could and then in terms of route planning it was very much like I wanted to go to the West Coast so um I headed uh along that way and then coming south it was kind of um partly the most direct route but also I wanted to go along the um the West Highland Way and along the Caledonian Canal as well so I made sure that I sort of fitted those bits into my route and it was very much looking at how far do I think I can go each day and then just looking at where is there a town that could get food at the end of the day and that’s really how I planned my adventure um yeah so that was kind of the essence of it in terms of mileage I thought you know 20 miles is is a pretty average uh day for most people so I figured that would be my average uh but about halfway through I got injured and that’s kind of where things changed really oh tell tell us a little bit more about that what happened yeah so um I think it was almost exactly halfway in so it’s about 500 miles and I was in the Lake District which is absolutely beautiful I’d never never been there before so it was a wonderful place to get injured um but I had developed tontis on my left foot and it was just absolute agony I couldn’t move my foot at all and I was kind of Stranded by the side of the road not really knowing what to do I kind of threw my packed down and sat there thinking do I get a taxi somewhere like what should I should I try and hobble on somewhere I can’t really walk um and amazingly about 5 minutes after I sat down this family drove up and they said you know do you need a lift anywhere and they were amazing they took me to the local minor injuries unit who diagnosed that I had um tendinitis and gave me crutches and some painkillers and then I had I think it’s about five days off at a friend’s house in the Lake District um and that that amazingly it it pretty much got better from there um and then I started walking again just just small days of sort of 10 miles each and then um after those 10 initial S 10 Mile days I tried to up it again and I sort of went to 15 and then 20 20 odd miles and at this point I looked at a map and I thought well I’m about a week behind and I kind of while I was getting into the walking I also didn’t want it to drag out any any longer than it had to um so I knew that having cycled it that between I think was roughly Charley and Bristol it’s pretty flat it’s a pretty flat area of the country so if I could up my mileage then I could possibly make up that that week that I’d had off and maybe finish on my original end date which which was um an interesting challenge having just had tendonitis and it kind of added a whole new challenge of level of challenge to the adventure but it was um yeah it was really really tiring so what I ended up doing was doing 30 miles a day for six days straight and amazingly I managed to do it it was about 11 hours of walking each day it was pretty bad weather unfortunately during that time but I managed to get there and then I managed to get to the end point I just one day behind my original schedule so I sort of almost managed to make up that time uh despite despite the injury issues oh my God that is epic and just as someone who’s walked those distances I’m always literally like oh I feel your pain when you’re out there um you know walking along what are you do you listen to music do you listen to podcasts audio books is this just thinking time for you you know how do you use that time it tends to be that I mean I don’t really listen to music or podast on anything I try to um digital detox as much as I can other than taking pictures and occasionally recording videos but when I’m actually just walking I try to just kind of absorb the environment that I’m in um whether that’s sort of looking at at the beautiful scenery or the wildlife or or talking to local people as I go through um but I I learned that the one thing that I absolutely shouldn’t do is think about walking so I remember I think it was just two weeks in and I hadn’t quite found my walking legs yet yeah and I was absolutely shattered and it was just one of those days where I was thinking about the walking and I was like right I’ve got 20 miles to go today until I get to elol and I’m and I’m really hurting and um I was like sort of oh it’s an hour in so that means I’ve probably got about 17 miles to go and then sort of like every 20 minutes I was like right that’s just one mile down so still still 16 miles to go then and I think that that really plays um tricks on your minds if you think about the walking too much so I try to avoid doing that as much as possible but yeah mainly mainly just kind of absorbing where I am and and uh what’s around me what would you say the Highlight was from that trip I mean I know it’s very very difficult when you’ve walked a thousand miles over you know over over eight weeks to pick up you know one point but is there a point maybe not the end not the Finish but something while you’re out there that really sort of just sticks in your in your mind or your memory um I think there was there was it’s there’s kind of a theme but there’s of little points where it happened um it was I kind of touched on early in terms of people from Instagram um so two people came and found me from Instagram while I was on my walk and they brought me cake which was amazing um but also I just kind of would sometimes rock into a cafe and just tell them what I’m doing and and have a coffee or whatever and they just bring me over like a free size of cake and they just say like they would say like I think what you’re doing is amazing like this is you know just to keep you going and those little gestures of kindness were just incredible like if you’ve had a really bad day if it’s tipping down with rain like I don’t think they really understand like how much that means to you like it might just be a slice of cake but it’s just so heartwarming and makes you feel like you know I’ve got this I can totally carry on um so yeah the healing power of cake is amazing and generosity from strangers yeah love that love cake and I love kindness of Str it’s amazing I mean 2017 what an you know an incredible year for you you know you walked and cycled the length of Britain solo absolutely phenomen but tell us about 2018 and what the plan is for you this year yeah so I was kind of I had a little bit of a a thing in my mind while I was walking last spring but I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted to do it and the plan or the idea at that time was to uh stand up handle board from lzone sta Gro to kind of top it off and and take that idea of my mini Triathlon on the cam those few years ago and just stretch that out to make that kind of length of Britain Triathlon so um since since that initial seed of an idea last spring I’ve been working on it and the plan is to leave in in mid April this year to set off from Land’s End on a sand paddle board and travel I think it’ be roughly about 800 miles um up the west coast and then cutting through the calonia canal and then round to the last little stretch up to to Jonah gr uh it’s never been done before so it would be settting a world record which should be quite nice if I’m successful um and I mean it’s pretty scary like I’m I’m a bit scared of a seat I don’t really know what’s in there and I could get swept out and die um so you know it’s a bit daunting that the idea of doing that but also it’s super exciting um and I won’t be doing on my own I’m gonna have a support boat and and two crew so uh that’s that’s a big challenge for me this year I think it’s going to take up to six months depending on WEA but we’ll see how I go fantastic and what’s your what’s your background with h with standup paddle boarding you know when did you start doing that yeah so I uh I think the first time I ever done it did it was on the sea in Barcelona so that was about six years ago um since then I have I did the the section of the cam by sign up P Board I have done sections of the temps um and I’m due to do the Three Lakes challenge before I leave so I’m going to do that this March as sort of like a little bit of training coming up to the big the big paddle um but that’s kind of it really I haven’t had huge amounts of um set up pan a board experience but like the other two Big Adventures I think they’re so long that I can certainly learn to a degree as I go um although I am definitely having uh some training sessions in terms of technique which I think will be particularly important given the waves uh but yeah that’s that’s about it really tell me a little bit more about the three lat challenge that you’re doing in March is that like a challenge that you’ve created yourself or is this something that other people can join in with and do yeah so I didn’t I didn’t create that um somebody else created that and it was initially created um uh for kayaking I think but obviously you can do it by any means in the water or on the water um it’s essentially taking the idea of the Three Peaks challenge but translating it um onto Lakes so it’s the longest lake in Wales England and Scotland um and as like the Three Peaks you could do it in 24 hours if you wanted to but I’m going to be doing it with two friends um over roughly three days so we’re just taking a leisurely Pace but it’s it’s a nice way of seeing different parts of the country again and uh a little bit of a challenge cuz certainly the one in Wales is quite small uh the one in England is windir so I think that’s about I think it’s 16 miles or something like that um and then Lo or is the one in Scotland which is about 26 miles so that’s sort of roughly two days worth of paddling um so yeah so a nice little challenge in the leadup oh fantastic and what an incredible way to see more of Great Britain um you did talk about you know some of the fears that you’ve got you know fear of the sea fear of being washed away you don’t know what’s underneath um are there any other fears or worries that you’re sort of working through at the moment in in the runup and and if so like how are you managing those those fears yeah I guess um this this adventure this stand up P length the brand is is very different to the last two big ones that I’ve done one it’s just much more logistically challenging like if you’re on the land something goes wrong like you’re you know you’re pretty much okay now there’s nothing immediate that’s prly going to going to happen if you’re on the sea and the weather changes um it can change very dramatically and very quickly so you’re quite vulnerable out at Sea so there’s a lot more planning that needs to be done but also with the last two I’ve just kind of got up and gone and I’ve not really needed much kit or any support uh whereas with the stand up panel bing one I need a support boat and two Crews so I need to find those members um I need to find a boat and I also need to find sponsorship to cover the cost of this it’s quite an expensive Expedition um so it has lots of other challenges as well and of course there there can be fears around that in terms of what if I don’t get the funding what if I can’t find people that want to join me on this Expedition um so there’re definitely challenges but I wouldn’t I don’t know if I would say that I’m I’m scared of not making it I think just the process to get to the start line is an incredible thing to go through um and to be able to put myself out there in such a way that like I want to do this thing will you support me is um again it’s like it’s another learning curve and another skill that I’m developing and it’s a really exciting one actually like I think it comes back to like I am a little bit worried maybe that that maybe that won’t happen maybe it won’t come together but it’s through facing um that worry and any potential fears and just going you know what I’m going to try my hardest like I’m going to push everything to make this happen and if I can say that I’ve done that and at the end of the day it doesn’t work well you know what I gave my best shot so um I think that’s the best strategy to have is just to go with the idea that this is going to happen like I’m going to make this happen um but be okay with the fact that it that it might not I think that’s always a possibility and whatever we do in life but being having that positive attitude to start with and driving it through and then just being okay with whatever the result is um it’s just a nice way to approach life I think yeah what sort of advice do you have around I mean do you know how much you have you worked out how much the trip is going to cost you to do yeah I have a rough figure in mind I mean it it varies depending on like I mean the boat is a huge cost if I can find somebody that wants to lend me a boat maybe if my Skipper happens to have their own boat and they want to bring that along then that will definitely change how much it’s going to cost um but yeah the boat is a big cost and then uh the expenses in terms of myself and my crew um like food and travel and and accommodation and leave things are the biggest cost and also like the opportunity cost of you because you won’t be working I imagine while you’re on this while you’re doing the challenge so it’s taking that time out from your business yeah so it’s there’s definitely that opportunity cost there but I I’m I mean in terms of Adventure like I I love it in terms of the personal Challenge and what I get I get so much from it personally but also um um I think going forward professionally so I really love sharing my stories and doing talks at festivals at schools at corporates lots of different places and like I think Adventure has so many benefits for so many different areas of Our Lives that I just I think this is going to be a great way of helping other people to see that too yeah so while it does take my time I think there’s a lot of benefit for it there afterwards no 100% 100% or best of luck with it because um thank you it’s is it is tough but the key thing is actually that you’ve started it that you’re giving it a go I think that’s awesome and you know one of the other one of the other great things that you started in 2017 was the adventure book club do you want to just share a little bit more about how that came about why you started it and and yeah how people can get involved with it yeah absolutely so it started as an idea between Dave Corr and myself um so Dave uh for those of you that don’t know he runs the yes tribe and say Yes more which is a great group of people who are champing people to get outside and helping them get outside and go on campouts and that sort of thing um so we came up with the idea for adventure book club to inspire and Fuel and support people to get outside more often so it’s um a subscription service so you pay5 PS a month and that gets you uh a Kindle version of whatever book that we’re reading that month and we also have um a London Meetup so you can come and meet adventurous like-minded people every month get inspiration but also support for your ideas um so it’s a lovely way of meeting people and unfortunately Dave left because he’s he’s super busy with his own Adventures but so I now run it on my own and uh we have lots of people coming from all over the adventure world coming to join us each month and we have lots of different books that you get to vote on each month so again you know it’s a really lovely way of um reading about other kinds of Adventure as well so we read a book uh last year called one breath which is about free diving and I would never have picked that book up if it wasn’t for book club but it was absolutely fascinating and a really really good read so it’s it’s a great way of kind of broadening your adventure Horizons oh fantastic which other books have stood out for you so we read uh Adventure man um I don’t know if you’ve heard of that one J McDonald he’s going out with Anna mcnuff yes absolutely so I loved his um his run you know he was it was such a tough run and I was reading actually one while I was walking so it was kind of interesting look at him having to deal with sort of like being completely snowed in and stuff and um living off I think it was butter and tuna or something and I was just like walking Bri like oh well you know I haven’t got any problems then it really gives you perspective on your own Adventures so that was an awesome book oh that’s super cool and so which other books have you got coming up so we um which one are we just read wild um which is about the PCT which is great and we’ve got a vote for next month’s book and then we’ve got our seller lineup for some books coming in March um given it’s International women’s day in March so we’ve got some some books by some lovely ladies um so yeah lots and lots of different types of Adventures this year we’ve got coming for our book folks we’ve got everything from cycling and walking to rowing um some food based Adventures even so we’ve got lots of things lined up um you do coaching as well which is amazing and one of the hashtags which is on your website is you know hash take action which I think is phenomenal I’m very sort of I think an action type of person but just love to get your you know your input in what advice that you have for other women and girls listening who do want to take action to move forward to achieving their goals yeah so I think um the reason that I use that hashtag take action is that we can it’s it’s great having loads of ideas um but sometimes it can be a bit scary like they become really these big things and we and we kind of um almost put ourselves off from from even starting whereas certainly throughout the whole of my journey whether that’s entrepreneurship or Adventure I’ve always started small and um just thought about what’s the one thing that I can do today to move me forward like what’s that one little action um that is actually going to make me move forwards it’s and and so for example in terms of like a business sometimes it’s really easy to get distracted by stuff that isn’t actually moving you forward so just having that kind of focus is super super helpful I find um in in continually taking those actions to move forward so thinking about um who you can speak to is a great one like speaking to people is a great way of moving forward and as I say taking that that one little action every day will definitely help you build momentum over time and keep you motivated yeah no and sometimes it’s just breaking it down and just find you know that one small step that you’re going to take to move you forward so with your standup paddle boarding what’s the next step that you’re taken with regards to that um so I’m currently looking for my support crew I’m I’m after a media manager um so someone who can do sort of PR and photography that sort of thing and then I also need a coastal Skipper so um that’s my focus at the moment to try and get these guys on board with me fantastic now where is the best place for people to find out information about you and if they’re you know interested in in social media and skippering and coming along to be part of your adventure challenge when you Su Britain Su Britain where’s the best place for them to go um just head over to my website it’s probably the best place it’s just Fiona quinn.com um and exactly the same on all uh social media handles just at Fiona elquin oh fantastic Fiona what an incredible year 2018 is going to be best of luck with your world record attempt I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you you um yeah and just finally is there any final words of wisdom words of advice or you know any saying or phrase or Mantra that you live by that you’d like to share I think don’t be don’t be afraid of failure like like with the kind of take action Mentor like just keep trying things because it’s only through doing that you’ll learn what works for you um and and where you know the dots join up through action so just keep trying um and don’t be afraid of failure absolutely and hasht take action love it VA thank you so much for coming on the tough girl podcast to share more of your story thank you very [Music] much tribe thank you so much for listening to the episode a massive welcome to all of our new listeners in 2018 I am so excited to have you here I’m just going to give you a couple of updates and recommendations for previous podcast episodes that you could listen to which I think will add some value and almost considering on from the theme of theas which is staying in Great Britain to have manyi Adventures at home so I’m just going to share some different Adventures that some of the incredible women of the tough girl podcast have done so please do go check a listen to Arie barisford web who’s now known as Kane um Ari was the first person to run around the coast of Wales absolutely fantastic achievement she shares so much great um advice about the reasons why she did it what she gained from it and why you should also get your trainers on and get out there and get running we’ve also spoken with zo Langley wam um who’s done a lot of walking throughout Great Britain she’s done the Southwest Coastal path she’s done the Wales Coastal path she’s done offers Dyke again lots of practical tips lots of information and zo happen to be an incredible Storyteller as well so it’s a real joy to listen to her speak I actually met both Ari and zo at the women in adventure expo back in 2015 and and it’s just great to get them both on the podcast I’d also recommend taking a listen to Elise Downing elely was the youngest woman to have ever yeah no sorry the youngest woman to have run 5,000 miles around the coast of Great Britain absolutely fantastic another running podcast um the London marathon is coming up an incredible event I’ve run it myself five times absolutely love it the atmosphere is like none other so if you are training for the London Marathon or you’re thinking about entering a marathon take a listen to tanith Facey on the tough girl podcast she went from going from the couch to running the London Marathon which is absolutely amazing if you’re still not sure what it is that you want to do we spoke with Sam Taylor who ended up trying over 100 different sports in a year to find out what her interests were what her passions were and what she wanted to continue doing well worth listening to that as well equally you might like your sleeping Phoebe Smith who we’ve had on the tough girl podcast talks about her her passion for sleeping Outdoors for wild camping and she has slept in in some of the most extreme places in the world um she’s got some great stories to share and also again lots of tips lots of practical advice to help you to go on your first wild camp and um I’d also recommend there’s so many great episodes to recommend take a listen to Mikey Stones as well who recently just completed powered by me so she spent a whole year only using her human body and a bike to travel basically so there was no cars no trains no planes it was basically her on her bike so that involved or commuting or traveling anything she was the one who was doing it so there’s so much inspiration out there if you are new to the podcast um then let me tell you that the podcast was started on the 4th of August in 2015 so in August 2018 we’ll be coming up to our through Third Year Anniversary which is pretty epic massive thank you to everybody who’s been listening since we started this um and thank you to all our new listeners now we are in February let me tell you a little bit about what is going to be in February I’ve got the awesome Fay sheeper coming on the tough girl podcast on the 13th of Feb and Fay sheeper traveled with Anna mcnuff throughout the Andes on this incredible cycle Journey um we get to learn more about Fay how she met Anna you know the challenges that she faced she’s also cycled the full length of New Zealand as well so she shares more about that we also talk as well um around mental health which is a hugely important topic that we want to talk more about 14th is obviously Valentine’s Day if you are single awesome if you’re you’re attached awesome but there is going to be a prize draw happening on the 14th of Feb I have got an incredible piece of jewelry I suppose I would call it from boing B iing their website is Boing B- in.com and it’s pink obviously because it’s tough girl podcast but I’ve got a piece of boying je jewelry which will be in a prize draw for the patrons of the tough girl podcast so if you are a financial contributor a financial supporter of the tough girl podc and you are a patron via patreon www.po n.com podcast your name will be automatically entered into the draw um very exciting we’ve had a number of draws since beginning of January we had um we had Lois um on the loose her book written by Lois price um her book went out to one of the winners in January in March there’s going to be a very awesome map coming out I thought that was quite cool like March maps and in February it’s this awesome piece of jewelry so you if you are a patron your name automatically gets entered into the draw every single month and you can stand um the opportunity of winning one of these fabulous prizes so please do sign up to become a patron this is how I fund my lifestyle basically through the kindness of patrons who support the tough girl podcast every single month please do go check it out now I’ve also got another exciting announcement so on the 15th of February it’s a bit of a a love over three days got 13th we’ve got faay happening 14th Valentine’s Day we’ve got our prize draw on the 15th of February we’ve got the awesome Anna mcnf coming back on the tough girl podcast tough girl extra to share more about what she’s been up to since we last spoke to Anna she’s written her book the paner perspective she has did an incredible cycle throughout Europe based on social media which was very very fascina fascinating to him more about and she’s obviously uh spent six months over in South America cycling the Andes with Fay as well um so lots of great information lots of great advice we also talk about the adventure Queens um and just women supporting women it’s incredibly inspiring episode um which was awesome to record and I can’t wait to share that with you so there is so much happening if you want to keep updated with what is happening then please do go check out tgirl challenges.com you can sign up for the email newsletter I’m notoriously bad at emailing out newsletters I do it very very infrequently um but when I do I just share more about whats what is uh what is happening equally you can also go and like the Facebook page tough girl challenges where you get updates of new podcasts which are coming out we also share inspiring articles about other women out there who are doing incredible challenges but who maybe don’t get the necessarily necessary media support from mainstream media so it’s all about promoting and supporting other women and increasing amount of female role models in the media so there is a ton of stuff happening thank you to everybody who’s listening thank you to all my patrons I really do appreciate it whatever you are whatever you are doing have an awesome day just give it your all if you haven’t subscribed yet please do subscribe go and leave me a review I always love reading the reviews and send a tweet yeah send a tweet to Fiona send a tweet to me I love hearing about it and I love getting the tweets it does make a huge difference to get that feedback that people have found it inspiring or they’ve taken some advice or some tips um you know it’s great to hear that um but enough talking from me have a wonderful day and I’ll be back with you next Tuesday for another episode of the tough girl podcast new episodes come out every Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. UK time have an awesome day all right take care lots of love and I’ll speak to you soon [Music] bye