From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2022. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL’s in these archive episodes are still relevant.
Melanie Curtis is a coach, speaker, author and professional skydiver with over 11,000 jumps and 26 years in the sport. Melanie is a passionate entrepreneur and voice in personal development.
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Guest Resource
Gift for Fire Nation – Sign up and get $100 off on a sample session with Melanie!
3 Value Bombs
1) Be brave. Break down. Crack up. Be free.
2) Do your best to interrupt your auto-pilot. We tend to not think about intentionally reflecting on what values, ideas, or fears are driving our choices and actions.
3) Preparation is awesome, but it’s not great when preparation seems like perfectionism, and then ends up keeping us from ever launching whatever it is.
Sponsors
ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring Football Star, Tim Tebow, and President Trump’s son, Eric Trump, at ThrivetimeShow.com/eofire!
Airbnb: Your home might be worth more than you think! Find out how much at Airbnb.com/host.
Public: Build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and more. Go to Public.com/fire to fund your account in five minutes or less!
All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash Account where funds from this account are automatically deposited into partner banks where they earn interest and are eligible for FDIC insurance; Public Investing is not a bank. Cryptocurrency trading services are offered by Bakkt Crypto Solutions, LLC (NMLS ID 1890144), which is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the NYSDFS. Cryptocurrency is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and has the potential for loss of the entire amount of an investment. Cryptocurrency holdings are not protected by the FDIC or SIPC. Alpha is an experimental AI tool powered by GPT-4. Its output may be inaccurate and is not investment advice. Public makes no guarantees about its accuracy or reliability—verify independently before use. *Rate as of 6/24/25. APY is variable and subject to change. **Terms and Conditions apply.
Show Notes
**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.
Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: How Being Brave is our Access to Being Free.
[1:15] – Melanie shares something that she believes about becoming successful that most people disagree with.
- Do things that don’t scale – as it relates to people. Over time, doing things that don’t scale in the realm of relationships and connecting and showing up for people builds into a power that we can’t access in any other way.
[2:51] – The effect skydiving has had on Melanie’s relationship with fear.
- She was in the camp of people who thought “there’s no way I would jump out of a perfectly good airplane.”
- Our brain is naturally designed to find threats and to be negatively biased.
- When fear is trying to stop you from doing something, you have to at least question whether it’s right or not, or what you can’t do.
- We are so much more capable than we think we are.
[7:21] – Finding success, and how it’s passed along to clients, students, and our audience.
- Be on a growth find.
- Fun and excellence are not mutually exclusive. Not only that, fun also helps magnify progress and results.
- Be brave enough to look into your own darkest corners.
- The things we are afraid of – and that we are afraid to do – are almost always where the biggest breakthroughs are found.
- If we don’t open our minds, it is guaranteed that we will stay at our current level of impact, influence, income, and depth of relationship.
[12:15] – A timeout to thank our sponsors!
- Airbnb: Your home might be worth more than you think! Find out how much at Airbnb.com/host.
- Public: Build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and more. Go to Public.com/fire to fund your account in five minutes or less!
- All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash Account where funds from this account are automatically deposited into partner banks where they earn interest and are eligible for FDIC insurance; Public Investing is not a bank. Cryptocurrency trading services are offered by Bakkt Crypto Solutions, LLC (NMLS ID 1890144), which is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the NYSDFS. Cryptocurrency is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and has the potential for loss of the entire amount of an investment. Cryptocurrency holdings are not protected by the FDIC or SIPC. Alpha is an experimental AI tool powered by GPT-4. Its output may be inaccurate and is not investment advice. Public makes no guarantees about its accuracy or reliability—verify independently before use. *Rate as of 6/24/25. APY is variable and subject to change. **Terms and Conditions apply.
[14:43] – What motivates Melanie to stay the course?
- Her core values keep her on her course.
- It’s not about the outcome, but about being in action in the proverbial arena. That’s the actual victory.
- Being in action is how she leads, influences, and impacts others.
[21:47] – Melanie talks about other ways to be brave.
- Feeling afraid and needing to be brave is something we all experience.
- Do your best to interrupt your auto-pilot. We tend to not think about intentionally reflecting on what values, ideas, or fears are driving our choices and actions.
- Going with the flow, in some ways, is a really good thing – but when it comes in the form of being on auto-pilot, we blindly use up years of our lives, which almost always leads to regret.
- Preparation is awesome, but it’s not great when preparation ends up being perfectionism, and then ends up keeping us from ever launching whatever it is.
- “If you’re not embarrassed by your first launch, you waited too long.” – Reid Hoffman
[27:28] – Melanie’s key takeaway and call to action for Fire Nation!
- Be brave. Break down. Crack up. Be free.
- Feel your feelings. It involves breaking down.
- The only way for the growth path to be sustainable is for us to know that we’re not going to be unrelentingly tortured by the path. We need a break sometimes.
- We can be brave so much more easily when we feel we are supported by someone we trust.
- Gift for Fire Nation – Sign up and get $100 off on a sample session with Melanie!
[32:26] – Thank you to our Sponsor!
- ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring Football Star, Tim Tebow, and President Trump’s son, Eric Trump, at ThrivetimeShow.com/eofire!
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!
3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!
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