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Indeed is a success story, partner. Now here's your tech hiring tip of the week from Indeed. 73% of tech workers say flexibility is one of their top priorities. So if your job posting doesn't mention flexible hours or remote options, you're basically invisible to three out of four candidates. Keep that in mind. Look, hiring tech talent right now, it's tough. You are competing for people with super specific skills. Everyone wants hybrid work and the salary expectations are through the roof. It's a lot. That's why Indeed actually makes sense. They're the number one place where tech people go to apply for jobs. We're talking 3 million tech professionals in the US and 86% of them have applied through Indeed. It's not just some job board where you post and pray. They've got tools like smart searching and their tech network that uses AI to connect you with people who actually have the skills that you need. Companies using the tech network saw over four times more relevant applications. That's huge. More qualified people, way less time wasted. Whenever I've needed tech talent in the past, Indeed is the only platform I choose. And if I needed to hire top tier tech talent today, I'd still go with Indeed. Post your first job and get $75 off at indeed.comtechtalent that's indeed.comtechtalent to claim this offer. Indeed. Build for what's now and what's next in tech hiring. In this lesson's episode, explore what it truly means to live undaunted in the face of fear, uncertainty and rejection. Discover how taking relentless action transforms curiosity into momentum. Understand why self belief and persistence create the foundation for lasting success. And uncover how embracing failure as part of the journey leads to genuine and resilience. It's a very important story. I think I'm going to ask a couple questions out of that, but the one thing that I noticed that really, really is such a great trait that you have is you mentioned the curiosity, but also just taking massive action. Like every single thing that you said you did in your life, it was a new job. It was figuring out how to get hint into whole food. It's just you just, you're curious and you just do stuff. You just do a whole bunch of shit like that's it. And you're. And eventually like not everything's gonna work, but if you, if you take enough action, if you do enough activities towards the thing that you want to do, it start. Things start to fall into place. Things start to start to come together, right? And that's really, that's I think that of course, you know, being successful, there's a lot of different things that contribute to that, but I think that that's pro. One of the main things that I pulled out that you just do continuously, that probably got you a lot of the things that you have right now, just taking that action again and again and again, as opposed to just ruminating on it, thinking on it in Whole Foods, you know, instead of, like, worrying about the process, you just went up to some guy who's stocking shells and you're like, hey, how do you do this versus trying to, like, cold email, you know, maybe trying to figure out, like, filling out forms or like, I don't even know what the process would be if I even had to start. But just like that, why not? Why not ask the guy? Sock in the shells, right? Like, why not do that? Well, I love that.
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I think even writing a book, I think you start to think through a lot of these, you know. Yeah, these things too. And, you know, people had asked me for years, just in interviews for hint, like, you know, how. How were you fearless? How were you, you know, so brave? And I think early on, look, my parents were 40 back when they had me, the last kid. And that was old. I mean, that was like, nobody had parents that were as old as my parents. And. And I think they always let. They gave me a lot of rope, right?
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They.
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They basically said, you can do stuff, but you, you know, you have to think about it, you have to explain it, you have to go and. And kickstart it in some way. Like, I remember even signing up for gymnastics classes. I would figure out, like, I. There was nobody who was going to sit there and say, okay, well, here's your choice. You have Monday or Wednesday. I'd be like, I need your checkbook like, now, because I just. I need this. I need to get in this class now. And I was always used to advocating for myself that I could make it happen. But I didn't have the helicopter, you know, parent over me, saying to me, here it is. Instead, I just. I would always look at life as, you know, I can probably figure it out. It wasn't that my parents weren't there, that if I needed help figuring stuff out, but I also got a lot of pride in actually going and figuring stuff out when other people waited. And I think that, you know, it's something that I think about today when, when things just seem a little, you know, tough or hard in some way. My next step, I guess, is to go and talk to people go and figure it out. Like, how do I make it happen? I am constantly, I do not allow the minute I start watching that wall and it still happens to this day in various, you know, situations. But when I see the wall starting to build and it starts to get higher and it starts to get scarier, I stop it. I try and figure out how do I, you know, knock it down, how do I demystify it in some way?
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SurveyMonkey is a success Story partner. Now look, we get it. You can hardly go anywhere or do anything these days without hearing about AI this or AI that. And if you're like most people when it comes to AI, you're impressed, but you have a few concerns. But what if AI was used not as a tool to replace people, but as a way to help understand people better? AI from SurveyMonkey is designed to do just that. From crafting the perfect survey, which is harder than you might think, to analysis that digs deep, finds patterns and services trends quickly. SurveyMonkey's powerful suite of AI capabilities makes it faster and easier than ever before to get insight from real people, helping you make confident decisions for your business. Try it today at surveymonkey.com/Scott HubSpot is a success Story Partner Now Success Story is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network. They have tons of other great shows. One of my personal favorites is the Hustle Daily Show. It's hosted by Juliet Bennett, Ryla Rob littrust, Ben Berkley, and Mark Dent. Now the Hustle Daily show brings you this healthy dose of irreverent, offbeat, and informative takes on business and tech and news. It's fun, it's topical, it's relevant, it's every single day. And it's news you'll actually enjoy and things that actually matter to you. The Hustle Daily show is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network. Listen to the Hustle Daily show wherever you get your podcasts. Uncommon Goods is a success story partner. Now listen, holiday shopping sucks. You end up buying the same stuff everyone else is getting from Amazon or Target. All the gifts are boring. But Uncommon Goods is different. They actually curate unique gifts from independent artists and small businesses. It's all stuff that you've never seen before. I was looking on their site and I found this cocktail smoking kit where you literally smoke your drinks with different wood chips. I had to get it. My brother, who thinks he's a mixologist is going to lose his mind. That's the vibe of the whole site. Things that make you go, wow, I Can't believe that exists. See, everything is handmade or it's made in small batches so the cool stuff sells out. And they've got gifts for everyone. Your dad, your weird cousin, your friend that's impossible to shop for. And here's the best part. They give a dollar from every purchase to a nonprofit you choose. Over 3 million donated so far. Get 15% off your next gift at UncommonGoods.com success. That is UncommonGoods.com success for 15% off. Don't miss this limited time. Offer uncommon goods. We're all out of the ordinary. Yeah. How. I want to ask you. I want to. This is a good. This is a good spot to just ask about undaunted. About that word that you chose because you describe all these other emotions. You describe fear. You just like a little bit of imposter syndrome mixed in there. Confidence, tenacity, persevere. Like all these things that have allowed you to be and anybody to be successful, really. But what does undaunted mean to you? Why did you choose that word for your book versus something like fearless? Maybe fearless is already a book. I don't know yet, to choose something else.
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Well, it's funny. I mean, even when I turned in my manuscript, I didn't have a word for. I didn't have a title for the book. I mean, I had been, you know, tossing around fearless, relentless. I mean, think words that people had called me over the years and had called me or who had sort of shared what I do that is different than what they can't do. And I would always have these, you know, one or two liners that I would say to people. You know, whenever I'd hear people say, oh, I. I could never do that. I think back on things like, yeah, I've thought about that too. Like, you know, getting over a fear of heights. You know, I. I'll go and hike the Grand Canyon, and people are like, whoa, you're. You're afraid of heights. Like, why. Why would you choose to do that? Because I don't want to live in fear. I don't want to not understand finance. So I go and take classes. I'm constantly looking for those things that I fear. And I think over time, what those things do when. When you take on situations, when you take on things that scare you and you go achieve those things, they don't necessarily always turn out the way that you thought, but what they do do is allow you to know that it wasn't as bad and it wasn't as scary as you thought. It was. Right? And so I think over time, people. People would say to me, but. But how do you do that? And. And that's when I really thought about, you have to be undaunted, right? You have to sort of like, purposely push yourself into that position because no one else is going to push you to do it, right? You don't push somebody who is afraid of heights to go and hike the Grand Canyon. It has to start with you. And it has. And you have to do it because it's something that you, you know, want to get over, right? And I think it's the same thing about People are like, how did you decide to be an entrepreneur? Like, I think for me, I saw it as. I'd seen other people do it, which I think was helpful. But I also. It just. It didn't seem as scary to me because I had watched these other people. But I thought, every single day I'm waking up and thinking about doing this, and I'm making progress. You know, I go to Whole Foods, I barely start talking to the guy stocking the shelves, and then he hooks me up with this guy that, you know, is talking to me about their local program. And I thought. And then I. It was fairly easy to connect with that person. And then I get, like, the next steps. And then every day I start on those steps, and I find that, like, two weeks before, I didn't know what I was doing. And then I just got in and I started moving it forward. So, again, if you don't choose to live undaunted, you're not going to hike the Grand Canyon. You're not going to start a company. I have a lot of entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs, who say to me, like, I can't raise money. And I'm like, it starts with you, right? I. I'm a female entrepreneur. I've raised a ton of money. Has it been easy? Do I meet with twice as many people that a guy meets with? I don't know, because I've never been a guy. I don't.
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I. But you're saying. But you're saying, you know what? If you do, you just do it. You're doing it anyway. It may not be. It may not be the. It may not be perfect. It may not be the best, but you're doing it. You're getting it done. Next step, you know, one foot in front of the other.
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If you don't believe that you can actually achieve anything, then it. Then it doesn't get done right. If it starts with you and people can read it they can. If you don't believe. If you walk in to go raise money and you believe, like, oh, you know, experts, a very low percentage of women, you know, are able to raise money. And whatever it is, if you have that in your head, it's never going to happen. I can guarantee you it will not happen. My daughter is in college now. She'll kill me for talking about this, but she's majoring in storytelling. She's at Brown. She's an incredible writer, and she's tried out for a few things and hasn't gotten them. And she's chosen to live undaunted, picked a profession of storytelling and theater, and wants to do this. It's a choice. And it's hard because rejection is really hard. But I think that what I'm sharing with her too, is you have a choice. You can actually. It's a numbers game. You gotta just keep going. Or you can just decide, I'm not gonna do it anymore. I'm not gonna try out for any more plays. I'm not gonna submit my manuscripts to festivals anymore to try and, you know, get money. And she was really bummed out at me, by the way, when I. She was talking to me about this last night. I said, you know what? You'll get exactly what you want. You'll get the play where you'll act in, you'll get your script picked up, but then, you know, what will happen? And she said, what? And I said, you'll be happy for a week. And then somebody will. Somebody will review it and they'll say it was terrible, right? And I said, and. And this is the world, right? And. And if you let these things take you, instead of appreciating the journey that. That you're on and continuing to figure out, how do I keep going? How do I keep moving forward? Then you won't live the life that you'll be totally happy with. Instead, you'll go figure it out. Go figure out what you want to do. Try it. And if nothing else, I always said to people, when people. People would say to me when I was launching a beverage company, you don't stay out of tech for very long. Cause you'll never get back in. You'll never. You'll be. You know, people think you're, you know, not focused. You. You don't have experience, whatever. I'm like, 10 minutes ago you were telling me I'm awesome, and you were recruiting me for a job. Like, all of a sudden you've decided, you know, based on me telling you that I'm gonna go all the skills, all the things that I learned along the way if it doesn't work out. And they're like, well, I don't know. I mean, don't stay out for more than six months. I'm like, why six months? I don't know. Like, I'm like, have you. Are there statistics about six months? Maybe it's a year. I'm like, you have no idea what you're talking about at the, at the end of the day. And anyway, I just think, like that the challenges of, you know, building a startup, some of these stories that I'm sharing now are things that I really wanted to write out in my book too, because I think no matter what you think about entrepreneurism, it's way harder than you ever are setting out to think about. And there's, there's plenty of unicorns out there, but there's way more, way more failures. And the journey. Even if you're a failure, it could mean that you had a product that didn't do well during the pandemic. You could have supply chain issues that, you know, you relied too much on Asia, which, whose factories were shut down for whatever it is could sink your company. But I think that that's another thing that I talk about too. It's just, it's not, it's not black and white. It's not that you've got the unicorns or you've got the failures. It's the people that get back up again are really the ones that you have to watch.
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Success Story with Scott D. Clary — Lessons: Why Living Scared Is Actually Killing Your Dreams | Kara Goldin, Author of 'Undaunted'
Episode Overview
This episode dives deep into the mindset and practical habits required to live “undaunted”—a concept explored by Kara Goldin, entrepreneur and author of Undaunted. Host Scott D. Clary and Kara unpack why fear, uncertainty, and rejection often hold us back from pursuing our dreams, and how relentless curiosity and action separate those who achieve lasting success from those who simply dream. Key takeaways include actionable strategies for transforming fear into momentum, fostering self-belief, learning from failure, and taking pride in figuring things out for yourself.
Scott D. Clary highlights Kara's proactive approach:
Kara on Self-Advocacy and Early Lessons:
Defining ‘Undaunted’:
Embracing Challenges and Moving Forward:
Success Requires Internal Confidence:
Rejection Is Inevitable—Keep Going:
Scott on Kara’s relentless action:
Kara on demystifying obstacles:
Kara on pushing yourself:
Kara on critics and risk:
Kara Goldin’s journey illustrates that success hinges less on innate fearlessness and more on the willingness to take action despite fear. Curiosity, consistent effort, and reframing fear as a motivator—not a barrier—are recurring themes. The distinguishing trait of "undaunted" individuals is not their immunity to obstacles, but their resolve to push through, learn, and keep moving forward, regardless of setbacks or skepticism from others.
For entrepreneurs and dreamers alike, Kara’s advice is clear: Take action, embrace rejection, and find pride in figuring things out for yourself.