March 28, 2024 • 55 mins
In Episode 09, I am joined by Marcel Kuhn, a Swiss keynote speaker, bestselling author, and trainer. An expert guide to mastering change within corporate landscapes. As an adept surfer, Marcel weaves the profound lessons of the surf and the ocean into his approach to leading transformation. He motivates corporations to undertake the
'unthinkable', to ride the wave of change rather than resisting it. His insightful keynotes are rich with actionable advice, motivating tales, and a strategic roadmap tailored to the challenges of corporate change. With Marcel, prepare to catch the wave of change and surf toward a resilient and successful corporate future.
With 16 years of experience leading continuous improvement initiatives, and building his own company - Quantum Jump, Marcel has championed growth, disruption, and engagement across various industries. He guides and inspires organizations to unleash their full potential to achieve exponential growth through keynotes, workshops, corporate training and events.
This is an insightful episode and will bring a lot of value to anyone who has ever has thought about doing the 'Unthinkable'.
Hope you enjoy this one guys!
Thanks for listening.
Website:
https://unmodernpodcast.com
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/unmodern.podcast/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/unmodernpodcast
Resources Mentioned in this Podcast Episode
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations Book:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations
7 Day Water Fast:
https://www.menshealth.com/uk/nutrition/a60159221/7-day-water-fasting/
Guest Contact Information
Marcel Kuhn
Unthinkable Book:
https://geni.us/UnthinkableBook
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/master-of-unthinkable/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/unthinkablemastermind/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/marcel.kuhn.754
Tags: Father, Unthinkable, Stoic, Mindset, Fasting, Challenge, Author, Cold Exposure, Rumination
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alfred (00:03):
Hey, everyone, and welcome to the unmodern podcast,
the podcast where we haveunscripted, unapologetic and
uncomfortable conversations thataffects everyday people.
If you've ever had an outlook,thought or an opinion that
modern day society told you tobe silent on.
That you would get in troublefor, or if you've ever heard the
words, probably shouldn't saythat, then this is the podcast
(00:25):
for you.
My name is Alfred, a husband,father, and an adventure seeking
kind of guy, who over the yearshas learned to have a positive
outlook on life, regardless ofwhat society throws at me.
So if you're ready to listen,let's go.
(01:02):
Marcel, welcome to the UnmodernPodcast.
My friend, how are you doing?
Marcel (01:07):
I'm feeling really amazing today.
I'm happy to be here.
Alfred (01:11):
That's awesome.
I totally appreciate youreaching out.
This is crazy.
I think this podcast, the factthat it's even happening is a
testament to you, get what youput out in the universe.
We've actually never met inperson.
You reached out to, through amutual friend of ours, and I
absolutely think that yourcontent and who you are and what
you do is a perfect fit for thispodcast, and I'm so excited for
(01:33):
people to listen, but I justthought that was worth
mentioning is we've never met inperson.
This is the first time we'veeven talked to each other one on
one.
And we're doing it on a podcast.
How incredible is that?
Marcel (01:44):
That's cool.
Alfred (01:45):
Thank you so much for joining me.
Got some notes here.
You're a Swiss keynote speaker.
You're a best selling publishedauthor.
Your kind of motto isunthinkable.
And we're certainly going tounpack that at length today.
But for the people that maybenot have heard of you, or are
curious to know little bit moreabout Marcel, let us know who
Marcel is, where you come from,what you do.
Open mic, let us know what's allabout
Marcel (02:06):
Marcel.
So I'm Swiss.
I'm a 44 years of age.
But I stopped aging at 28.
So I, yeah, on my passport, I'm44, but I stopped aging at 28.
That's always what to say.
I always feel really young.
I'm a father of three boysdivorced one and a half years
(02:27):
ago.
And I'm a keynote speaker.
As you said, I'm a corporatetrainer.
I'm an offer.
As you see behind me, this waveis the cover of my book,
unthinkable.
Life teachings from a soulsurfer.
And this book is really talkingabout my philosophy that I teach
(02:47):
in my workshops, in my training,in my events, and certainly in
my speaking.
So that's, yeah, really myphilosophy to do the unthinkable
and the unthinkable is somethingthat you cannot think.
And when you can think it, itbecomes thinkable and therefore
possible.
So I teach people in myspeaking, in my trainings to do
(03:12):
the unthinkable.
So to expand what they think ispossible.
And I do this through challengesand corporate training.
So I'm happy to dive into all ofthat.
Alfred (03:21):
Perfect.
Thank you so much for thatintro, man.
We're absolutely going to diveinto that because I'm all about
the unthinkable.
I think positive mindsetspositive affirmations and
mantras.
I think that is the element topeople growing, people
expanding, finding newexperiences.
One of the questions I wanted tokind of dive into here real
quick, cause this is a questionthat I get asked a lot.
What gets people into this spaceor when you do something may be
(03:44):
considered fringe or as youmentioned, unthinkable.
What has been the element thatyou have found that gets people
to be receptive to this?
Cause I know even for myself, Iwas very closed door to some of
these possibilities.
Like for instance, getting intovery cold water.
Your mind immediately goes intoquestioning it.
It's very abstract.
What are the benefits?
Because everything's a resultsbased nowadays.
(04:06):
But what's been a method thatyou've found, maybe it's
reception to your book, or maybeit's through your keynote
speaks, other than, makingpeople, pay money to maybe do
something like this, what's beenthe one thing, or a couple
things that you've noticed thatopens people's minds to
something that is unthinkable tothem?
Because everybody's threshold'sdifferent.
Can you really point to one ortwo things that really starts to
Get the wheels turning to getpeople who maybe previously were
(04:28):
closed door to this, to nowthink of doing unthinkable
stuff.
Marcel (04:33):
For me, it's usually storytelling that brings people
to the unthinkable.
So that's what I do.
And I usually use the metaphorof the ocean and surfing to
bring people to think outside ofwhat they currently think.
But to be honest, I think we,you heard all the story of the
wounded healer.
(04:53):
Like everyone that has hadwipeouts in their life, they are
more receptive or more welcomingto, lessons or teachings outside
of the comfort zone.
I have thought about that.
How can you open people up thathaven't had a real crisis, but
it's usually those people thatopen up and.
For me, it was a family memberpassing away that really made me
(05:15):
think about my legacy and aboutmortality.
In Latin, they say Carpe Diem,like celebrate the day and this
you usually only get when youreally are faced with mortality,
then you start thinking about.
What it means to be fully aliveeach day because each day could
be your last one.
(05:36):
So it's really about enjoyingthe ride and enjoy enjoying each
moment of the ride.
Alfred (05:42):
I love that notion of storytelling because it's so
true.
I think every single onlinepersonality that people
gravitate to have had some sortof traumatic experience or
growth experience through theirlife.
That has allowed them to reachthese new heights and these new
points of interest.
Some minds that come to comeright to my head as a guy like
David Goggins.
I don't know if you know whothat is, but his story is
(06:03):
incredible.
I've read his book.
I haven't read his second book,but his story is just
unbelievable.
And so what that man can do.
He wouldn't be the man who hewas without those struggles and
without those, life stories andthat's his story, but I also
love how you touched on it wheresome people can gravitate based
off of your story, Marcel, ifyou're open and vulnerable and
(06:23):
willing to share, it can hithome for them and start the
wheels turning in the rightdirection of them.
Really opening new doors ofopportunity and starting doing,
really challenging andunthinkable things.
I don't know if you want tounpack that a little bit.
Marcel (06:35):
Yeah, I think it's interesting that the more
specific you come about yourstory and you share vulnerably,
then it becomes more universalthat that's kind of, it's a
paradox that the more specificyou become about your story.
And sharing what you've learnedand your difficult lessons and
like, where you've maybe feelashamed or about your failures.
(06:59):
If you share that peopleactually believe in more, trust
you more, connect more.
It's maybe sometimes unpopularto talk about those failures,
but it's those failures thatmake your story believable and
make it applicable for the otherpeople.
The lessons that you share,
Alfred (07:17):
I couldn't agree more.
I know that's been my story aswell.
Obviously probably not to yourlength.
I haven't really had manytraumatic life experiences that
have led me to do this.
I think just more of my positiveattitude, but it's been other
people's stories that havebrought me in our mutual friend,
Mike Prince.
He went through a Lyme disease.
Adventure and that's whatallowed him to kind of find his
current iteration of himself andI super gravitate towards that
(07:40):
because without him opening thatpart of himself and being
vulnerable and really bringingpeople in with that story, I
know I wouldn't be where I'm attoday.
To talk about unthinkable,obviously you've probably
reached a level that.
Most people would think beyondunthinkable.
It's probably a point where it'slike, how can he do this?
I know an example is I believehe just finished what an eight
day fast.
Marcel (08:01):
Yeah, I finished the eight day fast about one and a
half weeks ago.
And now I'm actually just doingthe next fast.
So it's going to be a five dayfast.
So I just realized that fastingis pretty cool for it to be
focused, to have actuallycounterintuitive.
You have more energy when you'refasting.
Yeah.
You know, and of course not forlike crazy long days, but for a
(08:24):
few days, you actually have moreenergy and you're more focused
and you have more time becauseyou don't use so much time for,
buying stuff and cooking,preparing and cleaning.
So, this gives you like 2 hoursadditionally, and also the
digestion takes about 2 hoursaway.
So when you fast, you actuallygain 4 hours per day and this is
(08:45):
amazing and I feel that.
When you're fasting, you're alsofree from, always having the
meals and maybe the sugaraddiction or whatever addiction
it is.
So actually you can listen moreto your inner voice.
Besides having more energy oryou can listen more to your
intuition.
So for me, it's kind of itbecame a really a secret weapon,
(09:05):
right?
It's not secret, but it's kindof a really powerful tool that
everyone has if they choose to.
Alfred (09:11):
Fasting is something I haven't explored yet.
I've done quote unquoteintermittent fasting where I've
gone about 16 hours without ameal.
I haven't noticed big changesthere, but one thing I did
notice is, like you said, thingslike food cravings go away
whether it be for good or bad,some days you crave a steak,
some days you crave a cake but Inoticed those don't go away, so
I don't really feel like I'mwalking past the fridge and
opening it three times kind ofthing, right?
(09:32):
My mind doesn't go to that placewhere it's like, I need X to
feel satisfied.
You kind of just ignore it.
So that's super cool.
It also keeps you veryregimented and on schedule.
One thing I want to kind of askyou, because I know I'm probably
in this phase right now, is youtalked about a previous life
trauma and a family memberpassing, giving you kind of the
perspective of mortality.
(09:53):
What did the first, and I don'teven know if you want to expand
on the timeline, what did thatlook like to where You went
through this and now you'reobviously doing this as a
business opportunity and sharingyour story with the world and
exploring new heights ofunthinkable things, longer time
and cold exposure, longer fasts,crazier adventures.
I mean, I seen your Facebookpage and I see the pyramids of
(10:14):
Egypt and I see the mountains inthe Swiss Alps and it's just, it
looks incredible.
And some of this stuff might bevery intimidating to people, but
what was that timeline like fromthe moment where you had this
newfound perspective and thisnewfound appreciation for life
and wanting to bring it to thenext level?
Because I talk about this withalmost every one of my guests is
at the time this happened youwere likely married you got now
(10:34):
you got three kids where doesyour mind go where like it's so
easy to create a false narrativeor an excuse to be like well I
can't do that I have theseresponsibilities I don't have
time for that and it's a veryvictim mentality very short
sighted storyline that somepeople may tell themselves but
if you want to unpack that atfirst where this life event
happens this new Marcel is bornout of it almost like a phoenix
(10:56):
rising out of the ashes is Andnow you have more things packed
on with life, with a divorce andkids and stuff, what did that
first iteration look like forMarcel and then where does your
brain go to keep this trainmoving to want to explore new
heights, even when you may havethe kids sick at home, or you
may have, all these things.
If you want to kind of touch onthose two things, I'm always
(11:17):
very curious about this.
Marcel (11:18):
Actually, this tragedy woke something up that I had my
whole life that was under thesurface.
I remember as a kid, I wasalways drawn to the cold water.
So I was jumping in the, we werehiking a lot in the Swiss Alps.
And I also loved, the water.
So whenever I had a chance inhiking, I would jump in the cold
water.
(11:39):
And then, I did surfing and whenI started surfing California and
when you surf, especially inEurope, in spring, you surf in
very cold water.
So it's, yeah, it's very closeto what I swim now.
And, but then when this tragedyhit, it really woke me up again
because I was in this rat race,trying to build a family, have a
(12:01):
house, have a career and allthat.
I was chasing this materialsuccess.
I was chasing it for years.
I tried to make it happen what Ithought I had to.
And this member of familypassing was kind of a wake up
call.
Hey you know, there are otherthings that are important
Because when someone dies, youstop everything and on that day,
(12:22):
I had a workshop.
I had to facilitate and then Ihad to call in and say, Hey
someone in our family died.
And, and this really woke me upto think about the deeper
questions of life.
And actually at the funeral, Iasked myself, who would even
show up at my funeral?
Like who would care?
What's my legacy?
What will my kids talk about mewhen I leave?
(12:45):
Who would show up and what doesit all mean?
And when crisis strikes you havetwo choices.
You can either say, why me?
Why does it happen to me?
And why it's so hard and it's sopainful.
Why me?
Or that's kind of the victimmentality and many people go
into that.
And there is no judgment aboutthat.
(13:07):
It's just two choices.
And the other one is like, youcan choose to do something out
of this situation and to growand rise and help other people
that are mourning to maybe see adifferent perspective.
And I chose the latter from atthe funeral.
I asked myself, why are somepeople so successful and
(13:28):
fulfilled and other people justseem almost like walking dead
and just be being stuck in theirrat race.
And this question turned intothe book a few months later.
So this was in November, andthen a few months later in
January or two months later inJanuary, I started.
I thought about writing a bookand I wanted to interview a
(13:51):
thousand people around the worldabout success and fulfillment.
And the title that came to mindwas Achievers, A Thousand Ways
to Success and Fulfillment.
And within five minutes, I hadthe questions for the interview
questions for my book and Istarted right away.
So in February, I startedreaching out to people and then
starting interviews withouthaving a clear idea.
(14:12):
And at that moment, I was stillvery much in the chasing
success.
And over the next seven years,it totally transformed who I
became.
So
Alfred (14:21):
to give people context on the book, the book is a
culmination of a thousandinterviews.
Marcel (14:25):
The original plan was to have a thousand interviews, but
after 60 plus interviews, Istopped because I have material
for five books.
You can imagine like 80 hours ofinterviews 250, 000 words of
transcripts that's about fivenonfiction books.
I wanted to publish the book.
I had a ghostwriter who helpedme.
And in 2020, everyone has astory about 2020.
(14:49):
Usually it's about COVID andstuff like that.
And in that year, my then wifetold me that she wants to
separate and in exactly the sametime, my ghost writer, who has
become a dear friend of mine,because we worked every week for
a couple of hours for 9 months.
He got diagnosed with a braintumor stage 4.
And within the same time thatthe separation.
(15:12):
Unrolled then he died.
Because the book was about thefamily members, suddenly I
didn't want to use that storyanymore.
My ghostwriter was gone.
So I had to start from scratchthen it really became.
a different book.
So now the title is differentthan the metaphor of surfing and
the ocean came in and it's nowmore about flow.
(15:33):
In the beginning, I just wantedto talk about those achievers
and I wasn't even in the book,my story wasn't there.
So this pivot.
Changed everything.
And me talking in the book,talking more about the
unthinkable and living in flowand how you can navigate the
ways of life and how you can gothrough wipeouts and come to the
(15:54):
other side.
Alfred (15:55):
Yeah.
That's a hell of a story in andof itself, man.
Sorry to hear that.
That seems like a perfect seguethough.
It almost seems like fate.
It almost seems like that was aperfect way to kind of probably
honor a newfound friend and anewfound found relationship.
And again, it goes back to whatI was saying earlier, when
people tell themselves thesestories, it would have been so
easy for you to say, my ghostrider's done, the narrative of
(16:16):
the book doesn't suit meanymore, on to the next
adventure, and Rather than that,you chose the more difficult
road, the more unthinkable road,the more challenging road that's
commendable.
That's incredible.
And it sounds to me like thebook probably summarizes that
very well.
Marcel (16:29):
Yes.
And when I started out so theunthinkable term was with me,
like in the first or second yearthat I was writing the book.
So maybe since.
2017.
And in the beginning I was drawnto those people who did this
incredible things, like I wasinterviewing a few Olympic
champions.
Adam Creek, rowing Olympicchampion from Canada, Simon
(16:50):
Whitfield, triathlon Olympicchampion from Canada, and a
chiropractor from Switzerlandwho was Olympic champion, he's
blind, and he was Olympicchampion in the downhill skiing
in Lillehammer in Norway.
So just incredible people.
What I realized is actually theunthinkable is something
personal.
So it's not about climbing MountEverest and being Olympic
(17:13):
champion and doing all this,what is unthinkable for you.
And for everyone is it will besomething different.
And it's the most unthinkablethat you can be is actually
being your authentic self.
And.
Really, take all the layers awayof conditioning.
So, that's what I really foundout.
So in the beginning it was abouthustle, about chasing success.
(17:35):
And I thought my assumption wasthat you have to be successful
to be fulfilled.
And in my learnings or myjourney, I found out that it's
actually the opposite.
When you find your fulfillment,you will become much more
successful.
So it's about being yourauthentic self and going with
the flow.
Alfred (17:51):
That's perfect.
And it suits the book so well.
I'm not sure if that's anexcerpt from it, but it
definitely seems to serve thatreally well.
That's awesome.
So how have you applied the bookto kind of a business model now,
because it seems like that'skind of what you do you're a
corporate strategist and you usekind of the lessons of the book,
or what you've put into the bookas lessons to teach other people
to teach other corporations.
(18:13):
And you've really turned thisinto something.
What did that transition looklike?
How did you really go frommaking this a passion project to
turning it into a
Marcel (18:19):
business?
Yeah, I'm very much still on thejourney because I stepped out of
the corporate world where I wasa lean manager doing leadership
and team development and helpingteams to improve their
efficiency and productivity andhelp them to grow.
16 years in differentindustries.
(18:41):
And after separation anddivorce, it just didn't seem.
To fit anymore, what I wasdoing.
So I stepped out of that, whichis probably the worst moment to
become self employed.
But there is actually no momentthat is easy to be self
employed.
So I guess for me, it was justabout jumping from that cliff.
And when you do the unthinkable,you don't have a safety net, so
(19:03):
you don't have something thatyou can hold on to, because if
you believe that you can hold onto your safety until, you can
step out and build somethingnew, it actually doesn't work.
You have to let go and then,commit fully and go with the
flow.
So I'm talking a lot about thismetaphor of surfing and flow.
And actually this helps.
(19:25):
Organizations and leaders andteams to get out of the linear
and going into the exponentialthat's actually being in flow
state is about getting out ofthe linear.
So that what I focus on.
Alfred (19:36):
And you've been doing this since 2020, correct?
Marcel (19:39):
So now since two years, so I stepped out of corporate
two years ago, so it may, itwill be two years, but I just
continued what I was doing inthe corporate.
Just outside on my own.
Before I was talking more abouthyacinth and And lean, so it's
more linear and efficiency andnow and talk more about
exponential growth and steppingoutside of the linear.
(20:00):
So I help organizations to makethe unthinkable happen for them.
Alfred (20:04):
Do you have some examples that you can kind of
paint a picture for some peopleor some success stories you're
willing to share?
Marcel (20:10):
Yeah, so I, have this for individuals, I have this 21
day unthinkable challenge andyou, mentioned before we
recorded that sometimes you findit challenging to do challenges
like that, because it takes alot of time and I have this 21
day unthinkable challenge with,which is, do a skill habit or
activity for 21 days for 30minutes or more per day.
(20:33):
So there is no weekends becauseit has to be aligned with your
dreams, your vision and do this,commit fully do it every day for
30 minutes or more.
And you will be amazed what youreach in 21 days.
So for example, I mentioned mybook, it took me seven years to
write it not because of thewriting, mainly because of the
not writing that actually whattakes the longest and in
(20:56):
November, I did a challenge formyself, 21 days.
And I wrote the book in 21 days.
It's not published yet, but Ijust wanted to see what's
possible in 21 days for me.
And another example a friend ofmine so we met on a trip in
Morocco and he told me that hehas been wanting to build a
retreat for three years.
So he is a successfulentrepreneur he has been wanting
(21:19):
to do something like a passionproject, like doing a balanced
retreat.
And I told him, why don't you doit in 21 days?
And he said, it's impossiblebecause I couldn't do it in
three years.
So how could I do it in 21 days?
And I said, yeah, why don't youjust go for it and, start.
And he, in the end, inhindsight, he told me that
(21:40):
actually he just did it.
To, you know, to, to help me,you know, to have more people
doing this 21 day challenges.
And he made it happen in 21days.
He built a retreat and heinvited me as a speaker.
It was in Lisbon, Portugal.
And actually he just moved fourmonths previous to that he moved
to Lisbon.
So he didn't have a big network,but he made it happen.
(22:02):
He built a retreat.
So if you cannot make somethinghappen in three years and then
you do it in 21 days, that'sreally exponential.
I cannot even calculate what isthis in percent?
How exponential that is.
So that's an example.
And a friend of mine, she builta business after this challenge
within 21 days.
These are kind of examples thatI can share.
Alfred (22:22):
That's incredible.
What kind of retreat was this?
If you don't mind me asking thatyou were a speaker at, is it a
wellness retreat?
I think you mentioned the wordbalance.
Is that just like a work lifebalance kind of thing?
Marcel (22:31):
He has joined many retreats and sometimes they were
really spiritual and too muchinto yoga.
And, and sometimes it was thebusiness retreat that it was too
much business.
And the balance retreat for himis something that is balancing
this kind of.
Yoga and spiritual side with thebusiness side and public
speaking side.
So he wanted to have a balancedexperience.
(22:51):
I talked about the unthinkable.
We did the 21 day unthinkablechallenge.
I took the group surfing closeby there was the beach Benish
and and we had amazing food.
We had music and dancing, justreally amazing.
Alfred (23:06):
What's been the one common success factor you've
noticed about these things whenpeople tell themselves that
something is very challenging?
Like I've been trying to do aretreat for three years.
Why don't you do in 21 days?
Do you find that when they'resurrounded by other people who
are struggling and kind ofcommit to a challenge?
Or do you find that There's abreaking point, or is it just
you opening the door ofopportunity and supporting them
(23:26):
in that fashion?
Which one, if any, do you thinkis kind of a more, it leads more
to the avenue of success and theavenue of people wanting to do
it more?
Cause I feel like that's a veryindividualized thing.
Some people need.
Mutual support.
Other people need just that oneperson to give them permission.
That stranger that has no skinin the game is like, why is
Marcel telling me to do this?
(23:46):
If he's telling me to do thisand nobody else is in my corner,
like, I must do this, you knowwhat I mean?
Is there something that youfound that finds more people
going down
Marcel (23:53):
that route?
Yeah.
So when you do it alone, this iskind of my way of operating.
So I.
I always have multiple 21 daychallenges like now the
ketogenic diet and the fastingand working out the getting
strong with that.
So like the pushup challenge.
So I have multiple challengeslike that, always writing,
(24:14):
reaching out.
And so this is kind of my way ofhow I do it.
So as an experiment, but forother people that with this, my
friend who did the retreat, Icalled him each day.
So I was really a sparingpartner and if you do it alone,
you get quite far, but if you doit with a sparing partner then
you get much further, but if youdo it in a community, in a
(24:36):
company, in a big team, thenyou're unstoppable.
And I have example of that.
I was working with a startup andwith them, with each team
member, we did a 21 dayunthinkable challenge in their
private.
Life like a topic for theprivate life.
And then we broke down all the,all the must win battles, the
strategic must win battles forthe whole organization.
(24:58):
We broke it down to 21 daychallenge and then you can
really maximize.
So I think if you do it as aorganization, you, will be
Alfred (25:05):
unstoppable.
That's really cool.
Because I found the same, Ifound the same whenever I've
tried to do something solo orI've tried to do something with
one or two people.
The measuring stick of successisn't as long and isn't as
abundant as when you're doing itwith a big collective.
At first I thought that wascounterintuitive.
I, I know my brain goes to themore personalities, the more
(25:26):
thick headedness, the moredifferent even political views
that you bring into a, into ahodgepodge.
It can get really complicated,but I think when you agree on
the really, the overarching goalof whether it's fasting, health,
adventure, business, I feel likethat kind of, that mutes all the
other noise.
It mutes all the otherindifferences.
It mutes all the other failures.
(25:47):
Somebody might be on thispersonal journey for 10 years.
Somebody might've just got intoit.
There could be a bit ofanimosity there or something
where it's like, if only I wouldhave known.
I think, yeah, the key is thatcollective, I think the key is
the more people you get that arealigned and that you can feed
and bounce ideas off of andbounce individual successes to
bring people up.
That definitely seems to be thesauce in my recent experience on
(26:07):
this I don't know, I'll call ittwo year kind of, experience, I
guess, or this new awakening, Iguess, is a great way for me to
put it.
So that's super commendable.
So you had mentioned right nowyou have a keto challenge going
on.
Is that true?
Yes.
Marcel (26:19):
Yes.
I've been fasting regularly overthe last eight years, but when I
was fasting, I was coming out ofthe fast and I was just eating a
lot.
And so I just realized it's notreally healthy when you come out
of a 72 hour fast and then justeat a lot of stuff.
So now I decided to come out ofthe fast and actually change my
diet to less carbs and moreproteins and fats.
(26:43):
And this has been a reallyamazing, I feel more energized
and better than ever before.
And actually I do this pull upchallenge, pull up and dips.
And I was quite weak and now Iam able to do many more pull ups
and dips.
It helps me gaining strength,being more,
Alfred (27:02):
lean.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Fasting seems to be a growingtrend for sure.
I think it started off withketo, but this whole fasting
thing, it sounds new, but it'sactually been around for years.
And I find that's a very commonpractice for almost anything we
talk about nowadays.
You talk about cold exposurethat's been around since
forever.
Like people, especially whereyou're at and you know, the
(27:24):
Nordic countries andSwitzerland, I feel like that's
a, that's just kind of a thing.
This whole fasting thing isknown.
We're finding now back inancient times that people did
this on a regular, I'm surethere was people that fasted,
they didn't want to, maybe theyweren't abundant, didn't have
access to food.
But I just find it veryinteresting that old tried and
true timeless methods.
(27:44):
are really now being discoveredin the age of information where
you think technology andadvancement would be what people
gravitate to.
And I don't know, I just, I seemore and more people gravitating
to the exact opposite.
They're going away fromtechnology.
They're going back to whatworks.
It's tried and true.
It's timeless.
It doesn't matter what economicstatus you're in.
It doesn't matter what part ofthe globe you're in.
Like you said, it doesn't costmoney to fast.
(28:07):
In fact, it's the opposite,right?
I think doing it with thecorrect intention, I think is
where people lack, people wantto do it because their friend is
doing it or people want to do itbecause they read about it in a
book.
And I think if people setindividual intentions around, I
want this to really benefit meand my body and my future, I
think that's really going to bethe game changer.
(28:27):
I don't know if you want totouch on that a little bit.
Marcel (28:29):
I think, with fasting, it doesn't matter really the
intention because it's justgood.
No, when you do water fastingfor a few days, it just, your
body.
The threshold is quite highbecause there is so much
distraction there is so muchfood around you, so it's really
hard to fast.
And you kind of also sociallywhen you meet friends, you go
for a drink, you go for food.
(28:51):
So when you don't have the food,it's really uncomfortable for
the other people to be aroundyou because you don't eat.
So, that has been challenging.
And when the kids are with me, Iusually, because it's such a
social activity to eat.
So it's really strange when Ijust cook for my kids and I just
don't eat.
Alfred (29:09):
When I think of fasting, my mind immediately goes to
mental blocks and you touched onit perfectly about the social
aspect of it.
This actually happened yesterdaywith me and my family is we went
out and I had a big breakfast.
So we went out and we got oureye examinations done just to
kind of check up on them.
And we went to have lunch and mydaughter got something, my wife
got something and I was like,nope, I'm good.
And it threw my wife off.
(29:30):
She was just like, well, Iwouldn't have bought something
if you weren't going to buy andI'm like, relax.
I'm like, this is me.
I was like, you do what youwant.
I'm like, you're hungry.
Eat.
I'm like, don't worry about it.
And I wasn't fasting.
I just wasn't hungry.
So it was one of those thingswhere I can see how the polar
opposite would happen and occurwhere I wasn't hungry, but I'm
eating to kind of becomesocially accepted.
(29:50):
And I feel like that can alsolikely be a story of why people
have an issue with food, whymaybe they've gained weight,
lost strength.
All these health factors thatcome from either eating too much
or eating the incorrect things.
So that's really cool that youtouched on that.
That social aspect is literallythis happened to me yesterday.
So that's super cool.
Talking about unthinkable, I'mreally curious now.
I know what my threshold forunthinkable would be.
(30:12):
Obviously yours is likelydifferent.
I feel like that's veryindividualized.
What is the most unthinkablething that Marcel has done that
you can really touch on that?
Kind of the extreme thing orthat one thing that maybe 10
years ago, you told yourself,I'm never like, that's not even
a door I want to knock on.
And now you've kicked it in.
What's one thing that reallyMarcel did that everyone would
just be like, Oh, what?
(30:33):
Like one of those things, that'dbe really cool.
Marcel (30:36):
There's a underlying question that I ask myself,
like, every day I think aboutwhat's unthinkable for me today.
So I, I've always kept thatgoing, but for me, the most
unthinkable, and that's maybenot, crazy for other people's
standards, but in the middle ofseparation, divorce, stepping
outside of my safe corporatejob, that's probably the most
unthinkable thing.
(30:57):
It's it feels many times itfeels very unsafe, I feel very
vulnerable financially, but ithas given me a lot of joy and a
lot of purpose to do this.
And there are times where I feelI'm not moving ahead, but many
times.
I hear people that are inspiredby, what I do or, how I show up.
That's my most unthinkable.
(31:19):
And I've done Ironmantriathlons, half Ironman, I've
done ultra running trade runsand cold water and this stuff.
In hindsight, all the sportsactivities there, the scope is
quite limited.
I think showing up as yourauthentic self stepping outside
of the, the marriage and,thinking about, well, what are
(31:39):
the values that you want toteach your kids and how you want
to do it with them?
That's much more challenging.
And really, trying to benonjudgmental.
And this is much more difficultthan doing any Ironman triathlon
or something like that.
Alfred (31:53):
I couldn't love that answer more.
That was awesome.
Cause I feel like that's soapplicable.
It's so relevant to almostanybody who's going to hear
this.
If you have any sort of dream,ambition, goal, I don't think it
matters what life throws at you.
And you touched on it perfectlywhere at a time where it was the
most inopportune moment.
To go down this path of, reallyno safety net, no security, you
(32:16):
went full bore and I thinkpeople would probably question,
were you in the right state ofmind?
And maybe you needed that.
Maybe you need everything tojust be crumbling around and
you're like, well, there'snothing to salvage here.
So let's just start anew.
And that goes back to, I think,that story that you mentioned
where people need.
That either that traumatic lifeevent, or they need that,
unexpected failure, unexpectedkind of change in direction that
(32:39):
maybe was outside of theircontrol that sounds very
relevant.
And what have you noticed sinceyou've made that change it's
driven you to go further andfurther.
So when we talk aboutunthinkable people's brains
automatically go to physical.
Or people's brains automaticallygo to endurance or they go to
fear.
What fear did you conquer?
And I'm sure there was a fearelement involved in this.
(33:00):
But since you've done this, andsince you've written this book,
you've laid out a blueprint ofhow it worked for you, which
isn't everybody's blueprint, butI think it's a story that people
can really listen to andhopefully have them inspired.
What's next?
What is your next unthinkable?
Is it to take this to the nextlevel?
Is it to involve your kids?
Is it to bring on otherpartners?
Start a movement?
(33:21):
What is something that in yourmind, that's the most
idealistic, but obviously it'sgoing to be a challenge.
What's next for unthinkable interms of your story.
Marcel (33:28):
What I want to do next is do a unthinkable summit.
So, build community around,Thinking the unthinkable and
living a more expensive life.
That's kind of what I want todo.
I'm organizing now on thinkablesummit.
I don't know exactly when it'sgoing to be that.
It's a very at the early stageis this year.
I will organize a retreat.
(33:49):
So to have a few days.
Where I want to do theunthinkable with people, the
different elements ofunthinkable and really create
the lifestyle out of that.
And then I want to go more intoorganizations and companies to
help them do that.
And you said, it's like whatmakes sense is usually the
opposite of the unthinkable.
(34:10):
When you do what makes sense,you actually stay in the box.
You stay in the safe place.
So actually the unthinkable orbeing in flow is following your
intuition and getting outside ofthe comfort zone instead of
doing what you think, or whatpeople think is the right way
thing to do, because usuallyit's exactly the opposite.
The unthinkable usually doesn'tmake any sense.
(34:32):
So this moving forward is aboutcommunity, about creating events
where we think the unthinkablethat that's what I want to do.
And you talked about control.
Actually, you will realize thereis that having control is only
illusion.
So in Switzerland, we have topension as you probably have in,
Canada as well.
When you step out, people askme, but what do you do without
(34:55):
the pension and all this?
It's an illusion of controlbecause you actually don't have
control about it.
When you don't have controlabout your job, the, company can
fire you.
And you don't have control aboutyour life at any moment,
something can happen to you.
That's what I saw if with,someone passing you, you
actually see, totally healthyperson, you know, at 32 years of
(35:17):
age, just, leaving us.
So when you realize thatactually you don't have control
about things and the onlycontrol that you have is about
your state, your reaction, youremotions, that's the only
control you have.
So if you manage that, andthat's why surfing is such a
good metaphor, because when you,when you ride a wave, you cannot
(35:39):
take anything with you.
You can only be in the moment.
You look in that direction whereyou want to travel, but you stay
grounded on the board, groundedin the present moment.
That's all you can do.
And, when a friend of mine justrecently had a heart attack and
she almost died and she told methat she has to really focus on
the present moment.
And I told her that's actuallythe only truth we have.
(36:02):
Everyone, if we feel we willlive to a hundred or, if we feel
old.
We only have the present momentwhere we can take action and
everything else doesn't reallymatter.
Alfred (36:15):
I love everything you just mentioned because It's so
true is the lack of control.
And I think, COVID reallyhighlighted that for a lot of
people.
And I know people don't everwant to hear that word again.
People are pretty dumb with it,but it's a great way to
highlight a time, a moment intime.
It's really a great way to bringpeople's attention back to
whether it was a, win or afailure, but it was really,
there was a lot of thingsaligned for a lot of people and
(36:35):
different people handled it indifferent ways.
I want to talk a little bitabout this concept that I
recently heard on a podcast andI think it's probably pretty
applicable and you can probablyexpand on a little bit.
It's this concept of rumination.
I don't know if you've everheard of that word before.
So there was this lady, she'swritten a book about it.
I can't remember her name, butshe was on a recent episode of
Joe Rogan.
So Joe Rogan, obviously biggestpodcast in the world.
(36:57):
She talked about rumination andhow that is everybody's biggest.
Block for anything they havegoing on in their life.
And the definition of ruminationis obsessive thinking or
pondering of a particularproblem or a strategic thought.
So you think about somethinglike depression, you think about
something like your book, youthink of something like people's
fitness goals or, or what to do.
(37:17):
You start thinking, and then youthink about your thought and
then your thought makes youthink more about the thing and
you kind of just go into in thismental state of the, almost a
hamster in a wheel.
And it's called rumination.
It hit home with me so much.
I probably listened to that fiveminute excerpt of the podcast
about a dozen times.
Cause it's true.
The moment she mentioned it, Icould think of times in my life
(37:38):
where I truly thought myself outof an opportunity.
Is you missed out on it becauseyou wanted to take the logical
route, you wanted to have everypossible outcome considered and
a plan for the 10 possibleoutcomes.
So, you know, for sure that ifyou go down this road, 9 of them
are for sure not happening.
You don't know which ones.
(37:58):
So, an example for you is youwant to write a second book.
Okay, what are the examples?
How well is it going to do?
What's it going to be about?
In your head, a person who maynot implore these sorts of
mindsets of unthinkable andchallenges may want to have
answers to nine questions or tenquestions that they know that
they're not going to have theanswer to, or they know that
they're for sure not going toexplore every option because one
(38:20):
of those options is to write thebook or not to write the book.
So one of those will be true andone of them will not.
But if you want the answers toboth of those questions, you're
likely going to think yourselfout of anything.
So I don't know if you want totouch on that a little bit,
because I thought that was anamazing concept.
And it's the first time I'veheard somebody put a definition
to it.
Marcel (38:36):
I love your questions because they are so expansive.
So most people overthink thingsand this brings them out of flow
because overthinking is from theleft side of the brain.
So in our logic brain, it's theleft side of our mind.
And it's process thinking isvery limited, it's very linear.
And actually, if you think aboutif it makes sense to do
(38:58):
anything, we will never do theunthinkable because the
unthinkable never makes sense.
So wanting to have absolutecertainty that you will be
successful, you will not everstep out of the comfort zone.
You will just.
Just stay in a box and justcontinue what you're doing right
now.
So, if you want to be in flow,if you want to follow your
(39:18):
intuition, you actually have toget.
Unstuck.
You have to get outside of yourmind into your heart.
Our left brain is very limited,but the heart is more expansive
and actually there are moreconnections from the heart to
the brain than from the brain tothe heart.
So actually being limitless isbeing in our heart and be doing
(39:39):
the unthinkable is actuallybeing.
Acting more from the heartfalling or your intuition.
So for me people say, oh, thereare a thousand reasons to not do
this.
And I say, if there is 1 reasonto do it, I do it.
So that's, that's thedifference.
And that's why I do things thatmaybe other people think are
unthinkable or impossible.
(40:00):
Because when, for example, thisunthinkable summit I have to
carry all the risks.
I don't know if anyone will showup to the summit, but I just
know I need to do it.
So I'm gonna go ahead and do it.
So, that's what I can say tothis topic.
It's about, having the courageto dive into the unthinkable.
So when you catch a wave.
(40:21):
You can paddle and then you haveto have the courage to get into
the wave and after that youdon't know how the wave will be.
You just go with the flow of theway, if you use the energy but
you have to commit and trust tobe okay in the unknown.
Do you think that
Alfred (40:37):
comes from training and it comes from experience?
So that's probably somethingthat you can touch on and let
people know is I don't thinkyou're expecting people to go
zero to 60.
I mean, if you do, sure.
I think what you're touching onis people need to have a clear
mind of what they want to do.
I want to learn how to hit awave.
Okay.
Well, there's going to be astarting point that you're going
to fail.
(40:57):
You're going to suck.
You're going to get beaten oneday.
You're going to get thrashed andit's going to be like, why am I
doing this?
And there's going to be a lot ofdoubt creeping in.
Do you have a strategy or asuggestion or perhaps something
that can help people overcomethat initial doubt or perhaps
they're seeing a little bit ofprogress, but maybe they're not
trending as much as they wantto, maybe they're not
progressing as far as theythought they would, or maybe
(41:19):
they have a friend who's joinedthem and they're going much
further, much quicker.
What are some solutions orstrategies that you have to
implore for people to just stickwith it?
It's going to work outeventually.
Yeah, so
Marcel (41:30):
this 21 day unthinkable challenge is, really a good way
to do something.
Just showing up.
It's not about hustle.
It's just about showing up eachday and do it.
It's not about the hard work.
It's more about, the hard workfrom the heart.
So it's, about showing up anddoing it.
And for me, it's more, I haveintention.
So kind of a direction I want togo.
(41:51):
But when you step into theunthinkable, you don't know the
path because it's not It'sunthinkable.
It's outside of the comfortzone.
So for me, it's just intentionand direction I have.
And then there is also a certainkind of detachment.
So I have a vision, a clearvision, but I'm detached of the
outcome and just focus on thejourney.
(42:12):
So it's kind of a lot of thingsthat I was taught in my youth in
school.
I thought were correct.
I figured out they were actuallynot, how I experience it now.
So everything's paradoxical.
So having the balance betweenhaving a goal and then showing
up daily and, focusing on thejourney, but always look towards
(42:33):
the goal.
So that's how I do it.
So that's the balance.
And it always takes courage.
And actually when you want to bein flow state.
Then the only person that is inyour way is yourself.
So being in the ego, thinkingabout what will people think
when I fail the business in mycase, what will they say when I
(42:53):
have to go back to being anemployee in a big corporate.
For me, if that's the case atsome point, then it's just going
to be like that.
There is no judgment for myself,but many, many people let
themselves be stopped by thefear of failure, the fear of the
unknown.
And that's not what I'mfollowing.
So I just have an intention andthen I just go for it.
(43:14):
And it's kind of a muscle getoutside of the comfort zone is a
muscle.
And when you train it daily, itbecomes easier and easier, but
it's still always takes a littlebit of courage.
Alfred (43:24):
Yeah.
Training the mind like you trainyour body, I think is, massive.
I think that's a huge componentto success.
And that's been something that Ifound recently as well.
We have mutual friends to thankfor this, part of a community
that we're part of on Facebook,your mind can be your ultimate,
reason why you do something.
And it can ultimately be thereason why you don't take
(43:45):
advantage of something.
It's kind of like your finaldecision maker.
It's the kind of the CEO of yourcompany kind of thing, where
your brain is really the onethat if you train it correctly,
when you go to step into zerodegree water and there's ice all
around you and you have peopledressed in parkas up on the
sidewalk, questioning everysingle component of your life,
just by viewing what you'reabout to do, you need to let go
of the ego.
(44:05):
And I think the ego comes frominexperience this is a personal
example we had a push upchallenge through this mutual
group that we're a part of I wasdoing push ups in an airport.
I was actually coming back froma retreat and I was doing
pushups and I seen about five orsix people when I got up,
they're like, why would you dothat now?
And.
I think, why not?
What's the alternative?
(44:26):
I either read a book or go on myiPad.
Seems like a perfectopportunity.
I wouldn't have done that if Ididn't know how push ups made me
feel.
And I know that I feel better.
I move my body, my heart ratestarts increasing, my muscles
start feeling a little fatigued,you're gonna feel a little bit
stronger.
You're gonna have a little bitmore energy.
And I feel like when yougravitate to those little
feelings, but it comes withrepetition, it comes with
(44:48):
consistently doing it and doingit with your mind is such a
challenge there's no dumbbellsize for my brain.
It's so different.
It's all psychological.
It's all psychological.
And the more I've done difficultthings or things that people
have said, that's crazy.
I'm almost addicted to thatfeedback.
Like when they, when they saythat, I almost just like.
You know what?
(45:08):
You're right.
That's exactly what I need todo.
And I feel like you need to youfuel yourself through other
people's doubt.
You need to fuel yourselfthrough other people's,
insecurity, or theirinexperience, and use that as
motivating fuel.
Not to shame, not to push themaway, but more or less just to
say, watch this.
And when you can accomplishthat, I feel that's been a game
(45:30):
changer.
So do you find that that'ssomething that you try to
implore in your unthinkable, Inyour 21 day challenges, or even
in your corporate strategy is touse something where if you can
immediately feed off theirenergy, you're proposing
something to a business orproposing something to somebody.
And they're like, what?
And you're like, yes, hold ontothat right there.
(45:51):
That's it.
Is that a strategy that you kindof
Marcel (45:54):
implore?
Yeah.
So I just realized that everychange starts from the inside
out and it's, you cannot like aCEO, of course he can say you
have to change, but it's whenthe people find that they need
to change from inside out and bygiving them a challenge that
helps them to catch theirdreams, you will make them
experience the unthinkable andthe exponential growth on their
(46:17):
own.
And then it makes a lot of senseto do it.
In a corporate setting in yourprofessional career.
So that's why this 21 daychallenge is so beneficial
because everyone gets benefitsfor themselves to reach their
dreams to reach their vision,their goals, and then they will
be much more creative andproductive and motivated
(46:38):
employee.
And usually when companies bringin consultants, they just want
to have the people be moreefficient, a couple of percent.
But actually when you bring themmore fulfillment, more joy, more
flow, that what makes themmotivated to, show up as their
authentic self.
Alfred (46:57):
The, the overarching message I'm hearing is don't be
afraid to invest in yourself.
Don't be afraid to join achallenge, hire a coach, the
same way we hire personaltrainers.
Me and you were part of a freeFacebook group called the better
man community.
It's obviously geared towardsmen.
But it's free and there's tonsof resources in there.
There hasn't been a singleperson who's asked a question in
there that hasn't had itanswered immediately or had a
(47:19):
degree of support in some way.
And it's been fantastic.
So if people are tellingthemselves these false stories
that, I don't have the money, Idon't have the time.
I mean, my goodness, everybody'son their smartphones these days.
It's crazy, but there's freecommunity, but I know it's been
my personal experience as well,that when I invest financially
into something like this, itcalls me to show up more.
(47:43):
Because now I'm beingaccountable and I want to get
value for my dollar.
And I find that it shows thepeople who are guiding me a, I'm
paying for their experience.
Maybe I don't want to have to gothrough a divorce with three
kids so I can learn whatMarcel's learned.
I'll leave that to Marcel, but Ifeel like it also, it forces you
to show up in your best way andto really take that person's
(48:03):
goals serious.
So with that said, these 21 daychallenges it sounds like
they're virtual.
It sounds like you can, anybodycan join.
Marcel (48:12):
Yes.
So I do it with corporates forexample, this Wednesday, I have
a event in Engelberg,Switzerland, it's in a ski
resort, it's actually veryfamous for powder skiing.
A lot of digital nomads herestay there and I'm doing this
event in a coworking space inEngelberg.
And after the unthinkablesession, we go plunge in the
(48:32):
river.
Of course, now it's a skiresort, so it's surrounded by
snow and ice.
And there usually I have thiscommunity that the people that
joined this event will join thecommunity and I help them to do
this 21 day challenge.
Yeah.
So as I said, I started only twoyears ago with my business.
So yeah, I still at early stage.
But yeah, if you want to, if youwant to join me, you can reach
(48:55):
out to me and I do one on onecoaching, but mainly
organizations.
Alfred (48:59):
That's awesome.
And where can they find you?
Marcel (49:01):
Yeah.
Right now I just remodeled mywebsite.
I changed a provider.
So right now you can reach outto me on LinkedIn at Marcel Kuhn
or on Facebook under my name orInstagram under unthinkable
mastermind.
Alfred (49:17):
Yeah, I'll include all the links and everything in the
description of the episode andall that stuff.
So everything will be there forpeople to find out.
A question that I just popped upin my mind as I thought about
this and this might be acreative kind of run for you in
free flow state.
If you wrote a sequel to thisbook, what would that, or if you
already have, it says, it soundslike you wrote one that's not
published in a 21 day challenge.
But if you're idealistic sequelto a book like this, what would
(49:39):
that look like?
Marcel (49:40):
Yeah, so actually this is the book i I started writing
in November.
And so my subtitle is LifeTeachings from a Soul Surfer.
So I, will use that as a seriesand it'll be a sequel of that.
So actually the working title Ihave is Unshakeable to Stay
Unshakeable, or the other one Ihave is Alchemy.
And the book will take youthrough one complete cycle of a
(50:04):
wave.
So the buildup of the wave, thepeak, then going down and again,
to the buildup.
So I just want to share methodsand thoughts about what you can
do in each stage of the wave,because we say, when you're on
the top, that's good.
When you're down, that's notgood, but actually we never know
if it's good or not.
(50:24):
It's the meaning we put into it.
I wrote this book in flow state.
So it's not really from my leftbrain.
So it's from intuition and beingin flow state.
So, yeah, so it's really, maybeI've heard of Marcus Aurelius,
the philosopher Emperor.
He's a stoic one of the mostfamous stoic philosophers.
(50:46):
And he wrote the meditations asa, it was his journal during the
the wars that he was in when hewas emperor, Roman emperor for
19 years.
And the book I want to write iskind of like the meditations.
Just my thought about goingthrough the ways of life, so it
will be very similar, but alsototally different.
So that's the idea.
(51:07):
And actually the reason why it'salchemy, you mentioned about the
positive mindset and I was allmy life I trained visual
visualization and positivemindset, but what I recently
found in, I have a coach aswell.
And what I recently find isactually when you always stay in
the positive, it can be alsolimiting for you.
(51:28):
And that's why alchemy, when youlearn how to.
Surrender in the negative andreally dive deep into that and
then switch it.
That will make you reallyunstoppable.
So it's about the alchemy ofturning lead into gold.
So when you have a tough spot,you maybe you got scammed,
(51:48):
financial losses.
Or divorce or some anger, thenreally go into it and uncover
what's below that.
What's below that what's belowthat until you reach the source,
the root problem.
And then you can turn it there,the emotion from negative to
positive.
So that's why alchemy or beingunshakable.
Alfred (52:09):
That's awesome.
I love that, Marcel.
Before we close this one out, isthere anything you want to leave
anybody?
Kind of a suggestion, piece ofadvice something if people are
struggling or point them in thedirection of maybe tools and
resources that you haveavailable to them.
Just maybe leave people with alittle bit of a nugget.
Marcel (52:26):
Okay.
No, I'm going to leave you withthe nugget.
So I talked about the 21 dayunthinkable challenge and I want
to know from you what is thescale habit or activity?
That you want to commit toyourself from tomorrow morning
for the next 21 days for 30minutes per day, that is aligned
(52:46):
with your goal.
That feels uncomfortable.
That feels scary, but excitingas well.
And what would that be?
And what will you make happen in21 days?
Alfred (52:56):
That's a great one.
So in 15 days, my family and Iwere leaving to Florida to go to
Disney World.
So immediately, the first thingthat comes to my mind is, well,
I can't do this.
I'm going on vacation.
So if I commit to some sort ofmeal or, some fitness plan,
well, then there's obviouslygoing to be this roadblock.
To do something for 30 minutes aday.
What can I do for 30 minutes aday?
(53:18):
I got one.
I'm gonna do Spanish lessons for30 minutes a day.
So right now on my Duolingo, I'mon day 361 of doing a Spanish
lesson, but it's only about fiveminutes a day, so I'm going to
commit for the next 21 days, I'mgoing to answer the call of Mr.
Marcel Kuhn, and I'm going to do30 minutes.
Of Spanish lessons every singleday.
(53:40):
And I think that should be verydoable, but the timeline and
likely the amount of SpanishI'll learn is probably
uncomfortable.
Marcel (53:46):
So, yes.
And, and then I can share withyou that actually I had
unthinkable translated intoSpanish and I will launch it in,
about five weeks.
So it will be called Inpensable,unthinkable.
And yeah, so when you applyyourself and you reach this
(54:07):
exponential growth, you will beable to read unthinkable in
Spanish when I launch it.
Alfred (54:12):
That seems like a perfect timeline and it was
almost meant to be, that'spretty hilarious.
That's awesome.
Well, Marcel, thank you so muchfor your time today.
I'm super appreciative of this.
I know it's probably what almost10 o'clock past 10 o'clock where
you're at in Switzerland there,but this has been really, really
fun.
I look forward to chatting withyou more.
I think this is just thebeginning of a great
relationship and I hopeeverybody who listened to this
(54:34):
got a little bit of value.
I know I certainly did.
And I appreciate the call up aswell.
And yeah, if you have anythingelse, if not, we'll close it
Marcel (54:42):
there.
Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
It was really fun and yeah, Ihope everyone gets some insights
out of this and applies it intheir daily life.
Be really unthinkable.
Catch your dreams.
It's
Alfred (54:56):
perfect.
Love that.
Well, thanks again for listeningto the Unmoderned Podcast.
We'll catch you guys in the nextone.
Peace.
Well, that's it for thisepisode.
Thank you so much for listeningto the unmodern podcast.
If you like what you heard andwant to hear more, don't forget
to hit that subscribe buttonalso like, and follow me on
Instagram and Facebook atunmodern podcast.
(55:17):
Do you have suggestions forfuture guests, or if you're
interested in being a guestyourself, please visit unmodern
podcast.
com.
Thank you again, and we'll seeyou in the next episode.
Hey, everyone, and welcome to the unmodern podcast,
the podcast where we haveunscripted, unapologetic and
uncomfortable conversations thataffects everyday people.
If you've ever had an outlook,thought or an opinion that
modern day society told you tobe silent on.
That you would get in troublefor, or if you've ever heard the
words, probably shouldn't saythat, then this is the podcast
(00:25):
for you.
My name is Alfred, a husband,father, and an adventure seeking
kind of guy, who over the yearshas learned to have a positive
outlook on life, regardless ofwhat society throws at me.
So if you're ready to listen,let's go.
(01:02):
Marcel, welcome to the UnmodernPodcast.
My friend, how are you doing?
Marcel (01:07):
I'm feeling really amazing today.
I'm happy to be here.
Alfred (01:11):
That's awesome.
I totally appreciate youreaching out.
This is crazy.
I think this podcast, the factthat it's even happening is a
testament to you, get what youput out in the universe.
We've actually never met inperson.
You reached out to, through amutual friend of ours, and I
absolutely think that yourcontent and who you are and what
you do is a perfect fit for thispodcast, and I'm so excited for
(01:33):
people to listen, but I justthought that was worth
mentioning is we've never met inperson.
This is the first time we'veeven talked to each other one on
one.
And we're doing it on a podcast.
How incredible is that?
Marcel (01:44):
That's cool.
Alfred (01:45):
Thank you so much for joining me.
Got some notes here.
You're a Swiss keynote speaker.
You're a best selling publishedauthor.
Your kind of motto isunthinkable.
And we're certainly going tounpack that at length today.
But for the people that maybenot have heard of you, or are
curious to know little bit moreabout Marcel, let us know who
Marcel is, where you come from,what you do.
Open mic, let us know what's allabout
Marcel (02:06):
Marcel.
So I'm Swiss.
I'm a 44 years of age.
But I stopped aging at 28.
So I, yeah, on my passport, I'm44, but I stopped aging at 28.
That's always what to say.
I always feel really young.
I'm a father of three boysdivorced one and a half years
(02:27):
ago.
And I'm a keynote speaker.
As you said, I'm a corporatetrainer.
I'm an offer.
As you see behind me, this waveis the cover of my book,
unthinkable.
Life teachings from a soulsurfer.
And this book is really talkingabout my philosophy that I teach
(02:47):
in my workshops, in my training,in my events, and certainly in
my speaking.
So that's, yeah, really myphilosophy to do the unthinkable
and the unthinkable is somethingthat you cannot think.
And when you can think it, itbecomes thinkable and therefore
possible.
So I teach people in myspeaking, in my trainings to do
(03:12):
the unthinkable.
So to expand what they think ispossible.
And I do this through challengesand corporate training.
So I'm happy to dive into all ofthat.
Alfred (03:21):
Perfect.
Thank you so much for thatintro, man.
We're absolutely going to diveinto that because I'm all about
the unthinkable.
I think positive mindsetspositive affirmations and
mantras.
I think that is the element topeople growing, people
expanding, finding newexperiences.
One of the questions I wanted tokind of dive into here real
quick, cause this is a questionthat I get asked a lot.
What gets people into this spaceor when you do something may be
(03:44):
considered fringe or as youmentioned, unthinkable.
What has been the element thatyou have found that gets people
to be receptive to this?
Cause I know even for myself, Iwas very closed door to some of
these possibilities.
Like for instance, getting intovery cold water.
Your mind immediately goes intoquestioning it.
It's very abstract.
What are the benefits?
Because everything's a resultsbased nowadays.
(04:06):
But what's been a method thatyou've found, maybe it's
reception to your book, or maybeit's through your keynote
speaks, other than, makingpeople, pay money to maybe do
something like this, what's beenthe one thing, or a couple
things that you've noticed thatopens people's minds to
something that is unthinkable tothem?
Because everybody's threshold'sdifferent.
Can you really point to one ortwo things that really starts to
Get the wheels turning to getpeople who maybe previously were
(04:28):
closed door to this, to nowthink of doing unthinkable
stuff.
Marcel (04:33):
For me, it's usually storytelling that brings people
to the unthinkable.
So that's what I do.
And I usually use the metaphorof the ocean and surfing to
bring people to think outside ofwhat they currently think.
But to be honest, I think we,you heard all the story of the
wounded healer.
(04:53):
Like everyone that has hadwipeouts in their life, they are
more receptive or more welcomingto, lessons or teachings outside
of the comfort zone.
I have thought about that.
How can you open people up thathaven't had a real crisis, but
it's usually those people thatopen up and.
For me, it was a family memberpassing away that really made me
(05:15):
think about my legacy and aboutmortality.
In Latin, they say Carpe Diem,like celebrate the day and this
you usually only get when youreally are faced with mortality,
then you start thinking about.
What it means to be fully aliveeach day because each day could
be your last one.
(05:36):
So it's really about enjoyingthe ride and enjoy enjoying each
moment of the ride.
Alfred (05:42):
I love that notion of storytelling because it's so
true.
I think every single onlinepersonality that people
gravitate to have had some sortof traumatic experience or
growth experience through theirlife.
That has allowed them to reachthese new heights and these new
points of interest.
Some minds that come to comeright to my head as a guy like
David Goggins.
I don't know if you know whothat is, but his story is
(06:03):
incredible.
I've read his book.
I haven't read his second book,but his story is just
unbelievable.
And so what that man can do.
He wouldn't be the man who hewas without those struggles and
without those, life stories andthat's his story, but I also
love how you touched on it wheresome people can gravitate based
off of your story, Marcel, ifyou're open and vulnerable and
(06:23):
willing to share, it can hithome for them and start the
wheels turning in the rightdirection of them.
Really opening new doors ofopportunity and starting doing,
really challenging andunthinkable things.
I don't know if you want tounpack that a little bit.
Marcel (06:35):
Yeah, I think it's interesting that the more
specific you come about yourstory and you share vulnerably,
then it becomes more universalthat that's kind of, it's a
paradox that the more specificyou become about your story.
And sharing what you've learnedand your difficult lessons and
like, where you've maybe feelashamed or about your failures.
(06:59):
If you share that peopleactually believe in more, trust
you more, connect more.
It's maybe sometimes unpopularto talk about those failures,
but it's those failures thatmake your story believable and
make it applicable for the otherpeople.
The lessons that you share,
Alfred (07:17):
I couldn't agree more.
I know that's been my story aswell.
Obviously probably not to yourlength.
I haven't really had manytraumatic life experiences that
have led me to do this.
I think just more of my positiveattitude, but it's been other
people's stories that havebrought me in our mutual friend,
Mike Prince.
He went through a Lyme disease.
Adventure and that's whatallowed him to kind of find his
current iteration of himself andI super gravitate towards that
(07:40):
because without him opening thatpart of himself and being
vulnerable and really bringingpeople in with that story, I
know I wouldn't be where I'm attoday.
To talk about unthinkable,obviously you've probably
reached a level that.
Most people would think beyondunthinkable.
It's probably a point where it'slike, how can he do this?
I know an example is I believehe just finished what an eight
day fast.
Marcel (08:01):
Yeah, I finished the eight day fast about one and a
half weeks ago.
And now I'm actually just doingthe next fast.
So it's going to be a five dayfast.
So I just realized that fastingis pretty cool for it to be
focused, to have actuallycounterintuitive.
You have more energy when you'refasting.
Yeah.
You know, and of course not forlike crazy long days, but for a
(08:24):
few days, you actually have moreenergy and you're more focused
and you have more time becauseyou don't use so much time for,
buying stuff and cooking,preparing and cleaning.
So, this gives you like 2 hoursadditionally, and also the
digestion takes about 2 hoursaway.
So when you fast, you actuallygain 4 hours per day and this is
(08:45):
amazing and I feel that.
When you're fasting, you're alsofree from, always having the
meals and maybe the sugaraddiction or whatever addiction
it is.
So actually you can listen moreto your inner voice.
Besides having more energy oryou can listen more to your
intuition.
So for me, it's kind of itbecame a really a secret weapon,
(09:05):
right?
It's not secret, but it's kindof a really powerful tool that
everyone has if they choose to.
Alfred (09:11):
Fasting is something I haven't explored yet.
I've done quote unquoteintermittent fasting where I've
gone about 16 hours without ameal.
I haven't noticed big changesthere, but one thing I did
notice is, like you said, thingslike food cravings go away
whether it be for good or bad,some days you crave a steak,
some days you crave a cake but Inoticed those don't go away, so
I don't really feel like I'mwalking past the fridge and
opening it three times kind ofthing, right?
(09:32):
My mind doesn't go to that placewhere it's like, I need X to
feel satisfied.
You kind of just ignore it.
So that's super cool.
It also keeps you veryregimented and on schedule.
One thing I want to kind of askyou, because I know I'm probably
in this phase right now, is youtalked about a previous life
trauma and a family memberpassing, giving you kind of the
perspective of mortality.
(09:53):
What did the first, and I don'teven know if you want to expand
on the timeline, what did thatlook like to where You went
through this and now you'reobviously doing this as a
business opportunity and sharingyour story with the world and
exploring new heights ofunthinkable things, longer time
and cold exposure, longer fasts,crazier adventures.
I mean, I seen your Facebookpage and I see the pyramids of
(10:14):
Egypt and I see the mountains inthe Swiss Alps and it's just, it
looks incredible.
And some of this stuff might bevery intimidating to people, but
what was that timeline like fromthe moment where you had this
newfound perspective and thisnewfound appreciation for life
and wanting to bring it to thenext level?
Because I talk about this withalmost every one of my guests is
at the time this happened youwere likely married you got now
(10:34):
you got three kids where doesyour mind go where like it's so
easy to create a false narrativeor an excuse to be like well I
can't do that I have theseresponsibilities I don't have
time for that and it's a veryvictim mentality very short
sighted storyline that somepeople may tell themselves but
if you want to unpack that atfirst where this life event
happens this new Marcel is bornout of it almost like a phoenix
(10:56):
rising out of the ashes is Andnow you have more things packed
on with life, with a divorce andkids and stuff, what did that
first iteration look like forMarcel and then where does your
brain go to keep this trainmoving to want to explore new
heights, even when you may havethe kids sick at home, or you
may have, all these things.
If you want to kind of touch onthose two things, I'm always
(11:17):
very curious about this.
Marcel (11:18):
Actually, this tragedy woke something up that I had my
whole life that was under thesurface.
I remember as a kid, I wasalways drawn to the cold water.
So I was jumping in the, we werehiking a lot in the Swiss Alps.
And I also loved, the water.
So whenever I had a chance inhiking, I would jump in the cold
water.
(11:39):
And then, I did surfing and whenI started surfing California and
when you surf, especially inEurope, in spring, you surf in
very cold water.
So it's, yeah, it's very closeto what I swim now.
And, but then when this tragedyhit, it really woke me up again
because I was in this rat race,trying to build a family, have a
(12:01):
house, have a career and allthat.
I was chasing this materialsuccess.
I was chasing it for years.
I tried to make it happen what Ithought I had to.
And this member of familypassing was kind of a wake up
call.
Hey you know, there are otherthings that are important
Because when someone dies, youstop everything and on that day,
(12:22):
I had a workshop.
I had to facilitate and then Ihad to call in and say, Hey
someone in our family died.
And, and this really woke me upto think about the deeper
questions of life.
And actually at the funeral, Iasked myself, who would even
show up at my funeral?
Like who would care?
What's my legacy?
What will my kids talk about mewhen I leave?
(12:45):
Who would show up and what doesit all mean?
And when crisis strikes you havetwo choices.
You can either say, why me?
Why does it happen to me?
And why it's so hard and it's sopainful.
Why me?
Or that's kind of the victimmentality and many people go
into that.
And there is no judgment aboutthat.
(13:07):
It's just two choices.
And the other one is like, youcan choose to do something out
of this situation and to growand rise and help other people
that are mourning to maybe see adifferent perspective.
And I chose the latter from atthe funeral.
I asked myself, why are somepeople so successful and
(13:28):
fulfilled and other people justseem almost like walking dead
and just be being stuck in theirrat race.
And this question turned intothe book a few months later.
So this was in November, andthen a few months later in
January or two months later inJanuary, I started.
I thought about writing a bookand I wanted to interview a
(13:51):
thousand people around the worldabout success and fulfillment.
And the title that came to mindwas Achievers, A Thousand Ways
to Success and Fulfillment.
And within five minutes, I hadthe questions for the interview
questions for my book and Istarted right away.
So in February, I startedreaching out to people and then
starting interviews withouthaving a clear idea.
(14:12):
And at that moment, I was stillvery much in the chasing
success.
And over the next seven years,it totally transformed who I
became.
So
Alfred (14:21):
to give people context on the book, the book is a
culmination of a thousandinterviews.
Marcel (14:25):
The original plan was to have a thousand interviews, but
after 60 plus interviews, Istopped because I have material
for five books.
You can imagine like 80 hours ofinterviews 250, 000 words of
transcripts that's about fivenonfiction books.
I wanted to publish the book.
I had a ghostwriter who helpedme.
And in 2020, everyone has astory about 2020.
(14:49):
Usually it's about COVID andstuff like that.
And in that year, my then wifetold me that she wants to
separate and in exactly the sametime, my ghost writer, who has
become a dear friend of mine,because we worked every week for
a couple of hours for 9 months.
He got diagnosed with a braintumor stage 4.
And within the same time thatthe separation.
(15:12):
Unrolled then he died.
Because the book was about thefamily members, suddenly I
didn't want to use that storyanymore.
My ghostwriter was gone.
So I had to start from scratchthen it really became.
a different book.
So now the title is differentthan the metaphor of surfing and
the ocean came in and it's nowmore about flow.
(15:33):
In the beginning, I just wantedto talk about those achievers
and I wasn't even in the book,my story wasn't there.
So this pivot.
Changed everything.
And me talking in the book,talking more about the
unthinkable and living in flowand how you can navigate the
ways of life and how you can gothrough wipeouts and come to the
(15:54):
other side.
Alfred (15:55):
Yeah.
That's a hell of a story in andof itself, man.
Sorry to hear that.
That seems like a perfect seguethough.
It almost seems like fate.
It almost seems like that was aperfect way to kind of probably
honor a newfound friend and anewfound found relationship.
And again, it goes back to whatI was saying earlier, when
people tell themselves thesestories, it would have been so
easy for you to say, my ghostrider's done, the narrative of
(16:16):
the book doesn't suit meanymore, on to the next
adventure, and Rather than that,you chose the more difficult
road, the more unthinkable road,the more challenging road that's
commendable.
That's incredible.
And it sounds to me like thebook probably summarizes that
very well.
Marcel (16:29):
Yes.
And when I started out so theunthinkable term was with me,
like in the first or second yearthat I was writing the book.
So maybe since.
2017.
And in the beginning I was drawnto those people who did this
incredible things, like I wasinterviewing a few Olympic
champions.
Adam Creek, rowing Olympicchampion from Canada, Simon
(16:50):
Whitfield, triathlon Olympicchampion from Canada, and a
chiropractor from Switzerlandwho was Olympic champion, he's
blind, and he was Olympicchampion in the downhill skiing
in Lillehammer in Norway.
So just incredible people.
What I realized is actually theunthinkable is something
personal.
So it's not about climbing MountEverest and being Olympic
(17:13):
champion and doing all this,what is unthinkable for you.
And for everyone is it will besomething different.
And it's the most unthinkablethat you can be is actually
being your authentic self.
And.
Really, take all the layers awayof conditioning.
So, that's what I really foundout.
So in the beginning it was abouthustle, about chasing success.
(17:35):
And I thought my assumption wasthat you have to be successful
to be fulfilled.
And in my learnings or myjourney, I found out that it's
actually the opposite.
When you find your fulfillment,you will become much more
successful.
So it's about being yourauthentic self and going with
the flow.
Alfred (17:51):
That's perfect.
And it suits the book so well.
I'm not sure if that's anexcerpt from it, but it
definitely seems to serve thatreally well.
That's awesome.
So how have you applied the bookto kind of a business model now,
because it seems like that'skind of what you do you're a
corporate strategist and you usekind of the lessons of the book,
or what you've put into the bookas lessons to teach other people
to teach other corporations.
(18:13):
And you've really turned thisinto something.
What did that transition looklike?
How did you really go frommaking this a passion project to
turning it into a
Marcel (18:19):
business?
Yeah, I'm very much still on thejourney because I stepped out of
the corporate world where I wasa lean manager doing leadership
and team development and helpingteams to improve their
efficiency and productivity andhelp them to grow.
16 years in differentindustries.
(18:41):
And after separation anddivorce, it just didn't seem.
To fit anymore, what I wasdoing.
So I stepped out of that, whichis probably the worst moment to
become self employed.
But there is actually no momentthat is easy to be self
employed.
So I guess for me, it was justabout jumping from that cliff.
And when you do the unthinkable,you don't have a safety net, so
(19:03):
you don't have something thatyou can hold on to, because if
you believe that you can hold onto your safety until, you can
step out and build somethingnew, it actually doesn't work.
You have to let go and then,commit fully and go with the
flow.
So I'm talking a lot about thismetaphor of surfing and flow.
And actually this helps.
(19:25):
Organizations and leaders andteams to get out of the linear
and going into the exponentialthat's actually being in flow
state is about getting out ofthe linear.
So that what I focus on.
Alfred (19:36):
And you've been doing this since 2020, correct?
Marcel (19:39):
So now since two years, so I stepped out of corporate
two years ago, so it may, itwill be two years, but I just
continued what I was doing inthe corporate.
Just outside on my own.
Before I was talking more abouthyacinth and And lean, so it's
more linear and efficiency andnow and talk more about
exponential growth and steppingoutside of the linear.
(20:00):
So I help organizations to makethe unthinkable happen for them.
Alfred (20:04):
Do you have some examples that you can kind of
paint a picture for some peopleor some success stories you're
willing to share?
Marcel (20:10):
Yeah, so I, have this for individuals, I have this 21
day unthinkable challenge andyou, mentioned before we
recorded that sometimes you findit challenging to do challenges
like that, because it takes alot of time and I have this 21
day unthinkable challenge with,which is, do a skill habit or
activity for 21 days for 30minutes or more per day.
(20:33):
So there is no weekends becauseit has to be aligned with your
dreams, your vision and do this,commit fully do it every day for
30 minutes or more.
And you will be amazed what youreach in 21 days.
So for example, I mentioned mybook, it took me seven years to
write it not because of thewriting, mainly because of the
not writing that actually whattakes the longest and in
(20:56):
November, I did a challenge formyself, 21 days.
And I wrote the book in 21 days.
It's not published yet, but Ijust wanted to see what's
possible in 21 days for me.
And another example a friend ofmine so we met on a trip in
Morocco and he told me that hehas been wanting to build a
retreat for three years.
So he is a successfulentrepreneur he has been wanting
(21:19):
to do something like a passionproject, like doing a balanced
retreat.
And I told him, why don't you doit in 21 days?
And he said, it's impossiblebecause I couldn't do it in
three years.
So how could I do it in 21 days?
And I said, yeah, why don't youjust go for it and, start.
And he, in the end, inhindsight, he told me that
(21:40):
actually he just did it.
To, you know, to, to help me,you know, to have more people
doing this 21 day challenges.
And he made it happen in 21days.
He built a retreat and heinvited me as a speaker.
It was in Lisbon, Portugal.
And actually he just moved fourmonths previous to that he moved
to Lisbon.
So he didn't have a big network,but he made it happen.
(22:02):
He built a retreat.
So if you cannot make somethinghappen in three years and then
you do it in 21 days, that'sreally exponential.
I cannot even calculate what isthis in percent?
How exponential that is.
So that's an example.
And a friend of mine, she builta business after this challenge
within 21 days.
These are kind of examples thatI can share.
Alfred (22:22):
That's incredible.
What kind of retreat was this?
If you don't mind me asking thatyou were a speaker at, is it a
wellness retreat?
I think you mentioned the wordbalance.
Is that just like a work lifebalance kind of thing?
Marcel (22:31):
He has joined many retreats and sometimes they were
really spiritual and too muchinto yoga.
And, and sometimes it was thebusiness retreat that it was too
much business.
And the balance retreat for himis something that is balancing
this kind of.
Yoga and spiritual side with thebusiness side and public
speaking side.
So he wanted to have a balancedexperience.
(22:51):
I talked about the unthinkable.
We did the 21 day unthinkablechallenge.
I took the group surfing closeby there was the beach Benish
and and we had amazing food.
We had music and dancing, justreally amazing.
Alfred (23:06):
What's been the one common success factor you've
noticed about these things whenpeople tell themselves that
something is very challenging?
Like I've been trying to do aretreat for three years.
Why don't you do in 21 days?
Do you find that when they'resurrounded by other people who
are struggling and kind ofcommit to a challenge?
Or do you find that There's abreaking point, or is it just
you opening the door ofopportunity and supporting them
(23:26):
in that fashion?
Which one, if any, do you thinkis kind of a more, it leads more
to the avenue of success and theavenue of people wanting to do
it more?
Cause I feel like that's a veryindividualized thing.
Some people need.
Mutual support.
Other people need just that oneperson to give them permission.
That stranger that has no skinin the game is like, why is
Marcel telling me to do this?
(23:46):
If he's telling me to do thisand nobody else is in my corner,
like, I must do this, you knowwhat I mean?
Is there something that youfound that finds more people
going down
Marcel (23:53):
that route?
Yeah.
So when you do it alone, this iskind of my way of operating.
So I.
I always have multiple 21 daychallenges like now the
ketogenic diet and the fastingand working out the getting
strong with that.
So like the pushup challenge.
So I have multiple challengeslike that, always writing,
(24:14):
reaching out.
And so this is kind of my way ofhow I do it.
So as an experiment, but forother people that with this, my
friend who did the retreat, Icalled him each day.
So I was really a sparingpartner and if you do it alone,
you get quite far, but if you doit with a sparing partner then
you get much further, but if youdo it in a community, in a
(24:36):
company, in a big team, thenyou're unstoppable.
And I have example of that.
I was working with a startup andwith them, with each team
member, we did a 21 dayunthinkable challenge in their
private.
Life like a topic for theprivate life.
And then we broke down all the,all the must win battles, the
strategic must win battles forthe whole organization.
(24:58):
We broke it down to 21 daychallenge and then you can
really maximize.
So I think if you do it as aorganization, you, will be
Alfred (25:05):
unstoppable.
That's really cool.
Because I found the same, Ifound the same whenever I've
tried to do something solo orI've tried to do something with
one or two people.
The measuring stick of successisn't as long and isn't as
abundant as when you're doing itwith a big collective.
At first I thought that wascounterintuitive.
I, I know my brain goes to themore personalities, the more
(25:26):
thick headedness, the moredifferent even political views
that you bring into a, into ahodgepodge.
It can get really complicated,but I think when you agree on
the really, the overarching goalof whether it's fasting, health,
adventure, business, I feel likethat kind of, that mutes all the
other noise.
It mutes all the otherindifferences.
It mutes all the other failures.
(25:47):
Somebody might be on thispersonal journey for 10 years.
Somebody might've just got intoit.
There could be a bit ofanimosity there or something
where it's like, if only I wouldhave known.
I think, yeah, the key is thatcollective, I think the key is
the more people you get that arealigned and that you can feed
and bounce ideas off of andbounce individual successes to
bring people up.
That definitely seems to be thesauce in my recent experience on
(26:07):
this I don't know, I'll call ittwo year kind of, experience, I
guess, or this new awakening, Iguess, is a great way for me to
put it.
So that's super commendable.
So you had mentioned right nowyou have a keto challenge going
on.
Is that true?
Yes.
Marcel (26:19):
Yes.
I've been fasting regularly overthe last eight years, but when I
was fasting, I was coming out ofthe fast and I was just eating a
lot.
And so I just realized it's notreally healthy when you come out
of a 72 hour fast and then justeat a lot of stuff.
So now I decided to come out ofthe fast and actually change my
diet to less carbs and moreproteins and fats.
(26:43):
And this has been a reallyamazing, I feel more energized
and better than ever before.
And actually I do this pull upchallenge, pull up and dips.
And I was quite weak and now Iam able to do many more pull ups
and dips.
It helps me gaining strength,being more,
Alfred (27:02):
lean.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Fasting seems to be a growingtrend for sure.
I think it started off withketo, but this whole fasting
thing, it sounds new, but it'sactually been around for years.
And I find that's a very commonpractice for almost anything we
talk about nowadays.
You talk about cold exposurethat's been around since
forever.
Like people, especially whereyou're at and you know, the
(27:24):
Nordic countries andSwitzerland, I feel like that's
a, that's just kind of a thing.
This whole fasting thing isknown.
We're finding now back inancient times that people did
this on a regular, I'm surethere was people that fasted,
they didn't want to, maybe theyweren't abundant, didn't have
access to food.
But I just find it veryinteresting that old tried and
true timeless methods.
(27:44):
are really now being discoveredin the age of information where
you think technology andadvancement would be what people
gravitate to.
And I don't know, I just, I seemore and more people gravitating
to the exact opposite.
They're going away fromtechnology.
They're going back to whatworks.
It's tried and true.
It's timeless.
It doesn't matter what economicstatus you're in.
It doesn't matter what part ofthe globe you're in.
Like you said, it doesn't costmoney to fast.
(28:07):
In fact, it's the opposite,right?
I think doing it with thecorrect intention, I think is
where people lack, people wantto do it because their friend is
doing it or people want to do itbecause they read about it in a
book.
And I think if people setindividual intentions around, I
want this to really benefit meand my body and my future, I
think that's really going to bethe game changer.
(28:27):
I don't know if you want totouch on that a little bit.
Marcel (28:29):
I think, with fasting, it doesn't matter really the
intention because it's justgood.
No, when you do water fastingfor a few days, it just, your
body.
The threshold is quite highbecause there is so much
distraction there is so muchfood around you, so it's really
hard to fast.
And you kind of also sociallywhen you meet friends, you go
for a drink, you go for food.
(28:51):
So when you don't have the food,it's really uncomfortable for
the other people to be aroundyou because you don't eat.
So, that has been challenging.
And when the kids are with me, Iusually, because it's such a
social activity to eat.
So it's really strange when Ijust cook for my kids and I just
don't eat.
Alfred (29:09):
When I think of fasting, my mind immediately goes to
mental blocks and you touched onit perfectly about the social
aspect of it.
This actually happened yesterdaywith me and my family is we went
out and I had a big breakfast.
So we went out and we got oureye examinations done just to
kind of check up on them.
And we went to have lunch and mydaughter got something, my wife
got something and I was like,nope, I'm good.
And it threw my wife off.
(29:30):
She was just like, well, Iwouldn't have bought something
if you weren't going to buy andI'm like, relax.
I'm like, this is me.
I was like, you do what youwant.
I'm like, you're hungry.
Eat.
I'm like, don't worry about it.
And I wasn't fasting.
I just wasn't hungry.
So it was one of those thingswhere I can see how the polar
opposite would happen and occurwhere I wasn't hungry, but I'm
eating to kind of becomesocially accepted.
(29:50):
And I feel like that can alsolikely be a story of why people
have an issue with food, whymaybe they've gained weight,
lost strength.
All these health factors thatcome from either eating too much
or eating the incorrect things.
So that's really cool that youtouched on that.
That social aspect is literallythis happened to me yesterday.
So that's super cool.
Talking about unthinkable, I'mreally curious now.
I know what my threshold forunthinkable would be.
(30:12):
Obviously yours is likelydifferent.
I feel like that's veryindividualized.
What is the most unthinkablething that Marcel has done that
you can really touch on that?
Kind of the extreme thing orthat one thing that maybe 10
years ago, you told yourself,I'm never like, that's not even
a door I want to knock on.
And now you've kicked it in.
What's one thing that reallyMarcel did that everyone would
just be like, Oh, what?
(30:33):
Like one of those things, that'dbe really cool.
Marcel (30:36):
There's a underlying question that I ask myself,
like, every day I think aboutwhat's unthinkable for me today.
So I, I've always kept thatgoing, but for me, the most
unthinkable, and that's maybenot, crazy for other people's
standards, but in the middle ofseparation, divorce, stepping
outside of my safe corporatejob, that's probably the most
unthinkable thing.
(30:57):
It's it feels many times itfeels very unsafe, I feel very
vulnerable financially, but ithas given me a lot of joy and a
lot of purpose to do this.
And there are times where I feelI'm not moving ahead, but many
times.
I hear people that are inspiredby, what I do or, how I show up.
That's my most unthinkable.
(31:19):
And I've done Ironmantriathlons, half Ironman, I've
done ultra running trade runsand cold water and this stuff.
In hindsight, all the sportsactivities there, the scope is
quite limited.
I think showing up as yourauthentic self stepping outside
of the, the marriage and,thinking about, well, what are
(31:39):
the values that you want toteach your kids and how you want
to do it with them?
That's much more challenging.
And really, trying to benonjudgmental.
And this is much more difficultthan doing any Ironman triathlon
or something like that.
Alfred (31:53):
I couldn't love that answer more.
That was awesome.
Cause I feel like that's soapplicable.
It's so relevant to almostanybody who's going to hear
this.
If you have any sort of dream,ambition, goal, I don't think it
matters what life throws at you.
And you touched on it perfectlywhere at a time where it was the
most inopportune moment.
To go down this path of, reallyno safety net, no security, you
(32:16):
went full bore and I thinkpeople would probably question,
were you in the right state ofmind?
And maybe you needed that.
Maybe you need everything tojust be crumbling around and
you're like, well, there'snothing to salvage here.
So let's just start anew.
And that goes back to, I think,that story that you mentioned
where people need.
That either that traumatic lifeevent, or they need that,
unexpected failure, unexpectedkind of change in direction that
(32:39):
maybe was outside of theircontrol that sounds very
relevant.
And what have you noticed sinceyou've made that change it's
driven you to go further andfurther.
So when we talk aboutunthinkable people's brains
automatically go to physical.
Or people's brains automaticallygo to endurance or they go to
fear.
What fear did you conquer?
And I'm sure there was a fearelement involved in this.
(33:00):
But since you've done this, andsince you've written this book,
you've laid out a blueprint ofhow it worked for you, which
isn't everybody's blueprint, butI think it's a story that people
can really listen to andhopefully have them inspired.
What's next?
What is your next unthinkable?
Is it to take this to the nextlevel?
Is it to involve your kids?
Is it to bring on otherpartners?
Start a movement?
(33:21):
What is something that in yourmind, that's the most
idealistic, but obviously it'sgoing to be a challenge.
What's next for unthinkable interms of your story.
Marcel (33:28):
What I want to do next is do a unthinkable summit.
So, build community around,Thinking the unthinkable and
living a more expensive life.
That's kind of what I want todo.
I'm organizing now on thinkablesummit.
I don't know exactly when it'sgoing to be that.
It's a very at the early stageis this year.
I will organize a retreat.
(33:49):
So to have a few days.
Where I want to do theunthinkable with people, the
different elements ofunthinkable and really create
the lifestyle out of that.
And then I want to go more intoorganizations and companies to
help them do that.
And you said, it's like whatmakes sense is usually the
opposite of the unthinkable.
(34:10):
When you do what makes sense,you actually stay in the box.
You stay in the safe place.
So actually the unthinkable orbeing in flow is following your
intuition and getting outside ofthe comfort zone instead of
doing what you think, or whatpeople think is the right way
thing to do, because usuallyit's exactly the opposite.
The unthinkable usually doesn'tmake any sense.
(34:32):
So this moving forward is aboutcommunity, about creating events
where we think the unthinkablethat that's what I want to do.
And you talked about control.
Actually, you will realize thereis that having control is only
illusion.
So in Switzerland, we have topension as you probably have in,
Canada as well.
When you step out, people askme, but what do you do without
(34:55):
the pension and all this?
It's an illusion of controlbecause you actually don't have
control about it.
When you don't have controlabout your job, the, company can
fire you.
And you don't have control aboutyour life at any moment,
something can happen to you.
That's what I saw if with,someone passing you, you
actually see, totally healthyperson, you know, at 32 years of
(35:17):
age, just, leaving us.
So when you realize thatactually you don't have control
about things and the onlycontrol that you have is about
your state, your reaction, youremotions, that's the only
control you have.
So if you manage that, andthat's why surfing is such a
good metaphor, because when you,when you ride a wave, you cannot
(35:39):
take anything with you.
You can only be in the moment.
You look in that direction whereyou want to travel, but you stay
grounded on the board, groundedin the present moment.
That's all you can do.
And, when a friend of mine justrecently had a heart attack and
she almost died and she told methat she has to really focus on
the present moment.
And I told her that's actuallythe only truth we have.
(36:02):
Everyone, if we feel we willlive to a hundred or, if we feel
old.
We only have the present momentwhere we can take action and
everything else doesn't reallymatter.
Alfred (36:15):
I love everything you just mentioned because It's so
true is the lack of control.
And I think, COVID reallyhighlighted that for a lot of
people.
And I know people don't everwant to hear that word again.
People are pretty dumb with it,but it's a great way to
highlight a time, a moment intime.
It's really a great way to bringpeople's attention back to
whether it was a, win or afailure, but it was really,
there was a lot of thingsaligned for a lot of people and
(36:35):
different people handled it indifferent ways.
I want to talk a little bitabout this concept that I
recently heard on a podcast andI think it's probably pretty
applicable and you can probablyexpand on a little bit.
It's this concept of rumination.
I don't know if you've everheard of that word before.
So there was this lady, she'swritten a book about it.
I can't remember her name, butshe was on a recent episode of
Joe Rogan.
So Joe Rogan, obviously biggestpodcast in the world.
(36:57):
She talked about rumination andhow that is everybody's biggest.
Block for anything they havegoing on in their life.
And the definition of ruminationis obsessive thinking or
pondering of a particularproblem or a strategic thought.
So you think about somethinglike depression, you think about
something like your book, youthink of something like people's
fitness goals or, or what to do.
(37:17):
You start thinking, and then youthink about your thought and
then your thought makes youthink more about the thing and
you kind of just go into in thismental state of the, almost a
hamster in a wheel.
And it's called rumination.
It hit home with me so much.
I probably listened to that fiveminute excerpt of the podcast
about a dozen times.
Cause it's true.
The moment she mentioned it, Icould think of times in my life
(37:38):
where I truly thought myself outof an opportunity.
Is you missed out on it becauseyou wanted to take the logical
route, you wanted to have everypossible outcome considered and
a plan for the 10 possibleoutcomes.
So, you know, for sure that ifyou go down this road, 9 of them
are for sure not happening.
You don't know which ones.
(37:58):
So, an example for you is youwant to write a second book.
Okay, what are the examples?
How well is it going to do?
What's it going to be about?
In your head, a person who maynot implore these sorts of
mindsets of unthinkable andchallenges may want to have
answers to nine questions or tenquestions that they know that
they're not going to have theanswer to, or they know that
they're for sure not going toexplore every option because one
(38:20):
of those options is to write thebook or not to write the book.
So one of those will be true andone of them will not.
But if you want the answers toboth of those questions, you're
likely going to think yourselfout of anything.
So I don't know if you want totouch on that a little bit,
because I thought that was anamazing concept.
And it's the first time I'veheard somebody put a definition
to it.
Marcel (38:36):
I love your questions because they are so expansive.
So most people overthink thingsand this brings them out of flow
because overthinking is from theleft side of the brain.
So in our logic brain, it's theleft side of our mind.
And it's process thinking isvery limited, it's very linear.
And actually, if you think aboutif it makes sense to do
(38:58):
anything, we will never do theunthinkable because the
unthinkable never makes sense.
So wanting to have absolutecertainty that you will be
successful, you will not everstep out of the comfort zone.
You will just.
Just stay in a box and justcontinue what you're doing right
now.
So, if you want to be in flow,if you want to follow your
(39:18):
intuition, you actually have toget.
Unstuck.
You have to get outside of yourmind into your heart.
Our left brain is very limited,but the heart is more expansive
and actually there are moreconnections from the heart to
the brain than from the brain tothe heart.
So actually being limitless isbeing in our heart and be doing
(39:39):
the unthinkable is actuallybeing.
Acting more from the heartfalling or your intuition.
So for me people say, oh, thereare a thousand reasons to not do
this.
And I say, if there is 1 reasonto do it, I do it.
So that's, that's thedifference.
And that's why I do things thatmaybe other people think are
unthinkable or impossible.
(40:00):
Because when, for example, thisunthinkable summit I have to
carry all the risks.
I don't know if anyone will showup to the summit, but I just
know I need to do it.
So I'm gonna go ahead and do it.
So, that's what I can say tothis topic.
It's about, having the courageto dive into the unthinkable.
So when you catch a wave.
(40:21):
You can paddle and then you haveto have the courage to get into
the wave and after that youdon't know how the wave will be.
You just go with the flow of theway, if you use the energy but
you have to commit and trust tobe okay in the unknown.
Do you think that
Alfred (40:37):
comes from training and it comes from experience?
So that's probably somethingthat you can touch on and let
people know is I don't thinkyou're expecting people to go
zero to 60.
I mean, if you do, sure.
I think what you're touching onis people need to have a clear
mind of what they want to do.
I want to learn how to hit awave.
Okay.
Well, there's going to be astarting point that you're going
to fail.
(40:57):
You're going to suck.
You're going to get beaten oneday.
You're going to get thrashed andit's going to be like, why am I
doing this?
And there's going to be a lot ofdoubt creeping in.
Do you have a strategy or asuggestion or perhaps something
that can help people overcomethat initial doubt or perhaps
they're seeing a little bit ofprogress, but maybe they're not
trending as much as they wantto, maybe they're not
progressing as far as theythought they would, or maybe
(41:19):
they have a friend who's joinedthem and they're going much
further, much quicker.
What are some solutions orstrategies that you have to
implore for people to just stickwith it?
It's going to work outeventually.
Yeah, so
Marcel (41:30):
this 21 day unthinkable challenge is, really a good way
to do something.
Just showing up.
It's not about hustle.
It's just about showing up eachday and do it.
It's not about the hard work.
It's more about, the hard workfrom the heart.
So it's, about showing up anddoing it.
And for me, it's more, I haveintention.
So kind of a direction I want togo.
(41:51):
But when you step into theunthinkable, you don't know the
path because it's not It'sunthinkable.
It's outside of the comfortzone.
So for me, it's just intentionand direction I have.
And then there is also a certainkind of detachment.
So I have a vision, a clearvision, but I'm detached of the
outcome and just focus on thejourney.
(42:12):
So it's kind of a lot of thingsthat I was taught in my youth in
school.
I thought were correct.
I figured out they were actuallynot, how I experience it now.
So everything's paradoxical.
So having the balance betweenhaving a goal and then showing
up daily and, focusing on thejourney, but always look towards
(42:33):
the goal.
So that's how I do it.
So that's the balance.
And it always takes courage.
And actually when you want to bein flow state.
Then the only person that is inyour way is yourself.
So being in the ego, thinkingabout what will people think
when I fail the business in mycase, what will they say when I
(42:53):
have to go back to being anemployee in a big corporate.
For me, if that's the case atsome point, then it's just going
to be like that.
There is no judgment for myself,but many, many people let
themselves be stopped by thefear of failure, the fear of the
unknown.
And that's not what I'mfollowing.
So I just have an intention andthen I just go for it.
(43:14):
And it's kind of a muscle getoutside of the comfort zone is a
muscle.
And when you train it daily, itbecomes easier and easier, but
it's still always takes a littlebit of courage.
Alfred (43:24):
Yeah.
Training the mind like you trainyour body, I think is, massive.
I think that's a huge componentto success.
And that's been something that Ifound recently as well.
We have mutual friends to thankfor this, part of a community
that we're part of on Facebook,your mind can be your ultimate,
reason why you do something.
And it can ultimately be thereason why you don't take
(43:45):
advantage of something.
It's kind of like your finaldecision maker.
It's the kind of the CEO of yourcompany kind of thing, where
your brain is really the onethat if you train it correctly,
when you go to step into zerodegree water and there's ice all
around you and you have peopledressed in parkas up on the
sidewalk, questioning everysingle component of your life,
just by viewing what you'reabout to do, you need to let go
of the ego.
(44:05):
And I think the ego comes frominexperience this is a personal
example we had a push upchallenge through this mutual
group that we're a part of I wasdoing push ups in an airport.
I was actually coming back froma retreat and I was doing
pushups and I seen about five orsix people when I got up,
they're like, why would you dothat now?
And.
I think, why not?
What's the alternative?
(44:26):
I either read a book or go on myiPad.
Seems like a perfectopportunity.
I wouldn't have done that if Ididn't know how push ups made me
feel.
And I know that I feel better.
I move my body, my heart ratestarts increasing, my muscles
start feeling a little fatigued,you're gonna feel a little bit
stronger.
You're gonna have a little bitmore energy.
And I feel like when yougravitate to those little
feelings, but it comes withrepetition, it comes with
(44:48):
consistently doing it and doingit with your mind is such a
challenge there's no dumbbellsize for my brain.
It's so different.
It's all psychological.
It's all psychological.
And the more I've done difficultthings or things that people
have said, that's crazy.
I'm almost addicted to thatfeedback.
Like when they, when they saythat, I almost just like.
You know what?
(45:08):
You're right.
That's exactly what I need todo.
And I feel like you need to youfuel yourself through other
people's doubt.
You need to fuel yourselfthrough other people's,
insecurity, or theirinexperience, and use that as
motivating fuel.
Not to shame, not to push themaway, but more or less just to
say, watch this.
And when you can accomplishthat, I feel that's been a game
(45:30):
changer.
So do you find that that'ssomething that you try to
implore in your unthinkable, Inyour 21 day challenges, or even
in your corporate strategy is touse something where if you can
immediately feed off theirenergy, you're proposing
something to a business orproposing something to somebody.
And they're like, what?
And you're like, yes, hold ontothat right there.
(45:51):
That's it.
Is that a strategy that you kindof
Marcel (45:54):
implore?
Yeah.
So I just realized that everychange starts from the inside
out and it's, you cannot like aCEO, of course he can say you
have to change, but it's whenthe people find that they need
to change from inside out and bygiving them a challenge that
helps them to catch theirdreams, you will make them
experience the unthinkable andthe exponential growth on their
(46:17):
own.
And then it makes a lot of senseto do it.
In a corporate setting in yourprofessional career.
So that's why this 21 daychallenge is so beneficial
because everyone gets benefitsfor themselves to reach their
dreams to reach their vision,their goals, and then they will
be much more creative andproductive and motivated
(46:38):
employee.
And usually when companies bringin consultants, they just want
to have the people be moreefficient, a couple of percent.
But actually when you bring themmore fulfillment, more joy, more
flow, that what makes themmotivated to, show up as their
authentic self.
Alfred (46:57):
The, the overarching message I'm hearing is don't be
afraid to invest in yourself.
Don't be afraid to join achallenge, hire a coach, the
same way we hire personaltrainers.
Me and you were part of a freeFacebook group called the better
man community.
It's obviously geared towardsmen.
But it's free and there's tonsof resources in there.
There hasn't been a singleperson who's asked a question in
there that hasn't had itanswered immediately or had a
(47:19):
degree of support in some way.
And it's been fantastic.
So if people are tellingthemselves these false stories
that, I don't have the money, Idon't have the time.
I mean, my goodness, everybody'son their smartphones these days.
It's crazy, but there's freecommunity, but I know it's been
my personal experience as well,that when I invest financially
into something like this, itcalls me to show up more.
(47:43):
Because now I'm beingaccountable and I want to get
value for my dollar.
And I find that it shows thepeople who are guiding me a, I'm
paying for their experience.
Maybe I don't want to have to gothrough a divorce with three
kids so I can learn whatMarcel's learned.
I'll leave that to Marcel, but Ifeel like it also, it forces you
to show up in your best way andto really take that person's
(48:03):
goals serious.
So with that said, these 21 daychallenges it sounds like
they're virtual.
It sounds like you can, anybodycan join.
Marcel (48:12):
Yes.
So I do it with corporates forexample, this Wednesday, I have
a event in Engelberg,Switzerland, it's in a ski
resort, it's actually veryfamous for powder skiing.
A lot of digital nomads herestay there and I'm doing this
event in a coworking space inEngelberg.
And after the unthinkablesession, we go plunge in the
(48:32):
river.
Of course, now it's a skiresort, so it's surrounded by
snow and ice.
And there usually I have thiscommunity that the people that
joined this event will join thecommunity and I help them to do
this 21 day challenge.
Yeah.
So as I said, I started only twoyears ago with my business.
So yeah, I still at early stage.
But yeah, if you want to, if youwant to join me, you can reach
(48:55):
out to me and I do one on onecoaching, but mainly
organizations.
Alfred (48:59):
That's awesome.
And where can they find you?
Marcel (49:01):
Yeah.
Right now I just remodeled mywebsite.
I changed a provider.
So right now you can reach outto me on LinkedIn at Marcel Kuhn
or on Facebook under my name orInstagram under unthinkable
mastermind.
Alfred (49:17):
Yeah, I'll include all the links and everything in the
description of the episode andall that stuff.
So everything will be there forpeople to find out.
A question that I just popped upin my mind as I thought about
this and this might be acreative kind of run for you in
free flow state.
If you wrote a sequel to thisbook, what would that, or if you
already have, it says, it soundslike you wrote one that's not
published in a 21 day challenge.
But if you're idealistic sequelto a book like this, what would
(49:39):
that look like?
Marcel (49:40):
Yeah, so actually this is the book i I started writing
in November.
And so my subtitle is LifeTeachings from a Soul Surfer.
So I, will use that as a seriesand it'll be a sequel of that.
So actually the working title Ihave is Unshakeable to Stay
Unshakeable, or the other one Ihave is Alchemy.
And the book will take youthrough one complete cycle of a
(50:04):
wave.
So the buildup of the wave, thepeak, then going down and again,
to the buildup.
So I just want to share methodsand thoughts about what you can
do in each stage of the wave,because we say, when you're on
the top, that's good.
When you're down, that's notgood, but actually we never know
if it's good or not.
(50:24):
It's the meaning we put into it.
I wrote this book in flow state.
So it's not really from my leftbrain.
So it's from intuition and beingin flow state.
So, yeah, so it's really, maybeI've heard of Marcus Aurelius,
the philosopher Emperor.
He's a stoic one of the mostfamous stoic philosophers.
(50:46):
And he wrote the meditations asa, it was his journal during the
the wars that he was in when hewas emperor, Roman emperor for
19 years.
And the book I want to write iskind of like the meditations.
Just my thought about goingthrough the ways of life, so it
will be very similar, but alsototally different.
So that's the idea.
(51:07):
And actually the reason why it'salchemy, you mentioned about the
positive mindset and I was allmy life I trained visual
visualization and positivemindset, but what I recently
found in, I have a coach aswell.
And what I recently find isactually when you always stay in
the positive, it can be alsolimiting for you.
(51:28):
And that's why alchemy, when youlearn how to.
Surrender in the negative andreally dive deep into that and
then switch it.
That will make you reallyunstoppable.
So it's about the alchemy ofturning lead into gold.
So when you have a tough spot,you maybe you got scammed,
(51:48):
financial losses.
Or divorce or some anger, thenreally go into it and uncover
what's below that.
What's below that what's belowthat until you reach the source,
the root problem.
And then you can turn it there,the emotion from negative to
positive.
So that's why alchemy or beingunshakable.
Alfred (52:09):
That's awesome.
I love that, Marcel.
Before we close this one out, isthere anything you want to leave
anybody?
Kind of a suggestion, piece ofadvice something if people are
struggling or point them in thedirection of maybe tools and
resources that you haveavailable to them.
Just maybe leave people with alittle bit of a nugget.
Marcel (52:26):
Okay.
No, I'm going to leave you withthe nugget.
So I talked about the 21 dayunthinkable challenge and I want
to know from you what is thescale habit or activity?
That you want to commit toyourself from tomorrow morning
for the next 21 days for 30minutes per day, that is aligned
(52:46):
with your goal.
That feels uncomfortable.
That feels scary, but excitingas well.
And what would that be?
And what will you make happen in21 days?
Alfred (52:56):
That's a great one.
So in 15 days, my family and Iwere leaving to Florida to go to
Disney World.
So immediately, the first thingthat comes to my mind is, well,
I can't do this.
I'm going on vacation.
So if I commit to some sort ofmeal or, some fitness plan,
well, then there's obviouslygoing to be this roadblock.
To do something for 30 minutes aday.
What can I do for 30 minutes aday?
(53:18):
I got one.
I'm gonna do Spanish lessons for30 minutes a day.
So right now on my Duolingo, I'mon day 361 of doing a Spanish
lesson, but it's only about fiveminutes a day, so I'm going to
commit for the next 21 days, I'mgoing to answer the call of Mr.
Marcel Kuhn, and I'm going to do30 minutes.
Of Spanish lessons every singleday.
(53:40):
And I think that should be verydoable, but the timeline and
likely the amount of SpanishI'll learn is probably
uncomfortable.
Marcel (53:46):
So, yes.
And, and then I can share withyou that actually I had
unthinkable translated intoSpanish and I will launch it in,
about five weeks.
So it will be called Inpensable,unthinkable.
And yeah, so when you applyyourself and you reach this
(54:07):
exponential growth, you will beable to read unthinkable in
Spanish when I launch it.
Alfred (54:12):
That seems like a perfect timeline and it was
almost meant to be, that'spretty hilarious.
That's awesome.
Well, Marcel, thank you so muchfor your time today.
I'm super appreciative of this.
I know it's probably what almost10 o'clock past 10 o'clock where
you're at in Switzerland there,but this has been really, really
fun.
I look forward to chatting withyou more.
I think this is just thebeginning of a great
relationship and I hopeeverybody who listened to this
(54:34):
got a little bit of value.
I know I certainly did.
And I appreciate the call up aswell.
And yeah, if you have anythingelse, if not, we'll close it
Marcel (54:42):
there.
Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
It was really fun and yeah, Ihope everyone gets some insights
out of this and applies it intheir daily life.
Be really unthinkable.
Catch your dreams.
It's
Alfred (54:56):
perfect.
Love that.
Well, thanks again for listeningto the Unmoderned Podcast.
We'll catch you guys in the nextone.
Peace.
Well, that's it for thisepisode.
Thank you so much for listeningto the unmodern podcast.
If you like what you heard andwant to hear more, don't forget
to hit that subscribe buttonalso like, and follow me on
Instagram and Facebook atunmodern podcast.
(55:17):
Do you have suggestions forfuture guests, or if you're
interested in being a guestyourself, please visit unmodern
podcast.
com.
Thank you again, and we'll seeyou in the next episode.
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