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100 Days Without Fear

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It all started with 100 fears.

Ten years ago, in April 2015, a Venezuelan girl (hi, it’s me!) landed in New York City with big dreams—and even bigger fears. While pursuing my Master’s in Branding at the School of Visual Arts, I challenged myself to confront 100 fears in 100 days.

What began as a personal project quickly turned into a global movement. My journey went viral, leading to a TEDx talk, a career as a keynote speaker on some of the world’s biggest stages, and a powerful reminder that courage is contagious.

Since then, I’ve published two books, launched a paid community for Latina entrepreneurs with thousands of members worldwide, and partnered with global brands to champion authenticity, bravery, and purpose. I also conducted a groundbreaking research study on the power of community in the workplace.

The project that started it all didn’t just help me overcome fear—it helped me become who I was meant to be.

It helped me become irreplaceable.

Featured
Day 100: Inspire others at TEDxHouston
Day 100: Inspire others at TEDxHouston
Day 96: Age
Day 96: Age
Day 89: Stand Up
Day 89: Stand Up
Day 85: Surf
Day 85: Surf
Day 80: Teach
Day 80: Teach
Day 78: Paint
Day 78: Paint
Day 77: Pose
Day 77: Pose
Day 72: Embrace
Day 72: Embrace
Day 65: Jump
Day 65: Jump
Day 59: Quit
Day 59: Quit

Click here to see the full list of fears

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Day 43: Go viral

May 20, 2015
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How was the experience?

Today I woke up with an email from DailyMail asking me for my permission to use my images and videos on their website. A few minutes later, I receive an email from A Plus asking me to answer some questions about fear to write an article about my project as well. Shortly after that (I was still not understanding the magnitude of the situation), I log into my Squarespace account and notice that the website has more than 300 views by 10am. That moment I started to freak out and grasp where this was going. I clicked on the referrers button and find out that tons of articles have been written about me in many languages. Then, I go back to Facebook and I see my face on posts by blogs I love and follow (Designtaxi, Boredpanda, Bustle). Of course I shared them all immediately and my friends and family start sharing them as well. By that point I couldn't concentrate on work anymore, this was getting addictive. Soon, I start to receive emails from people all over the world telling me how much I've inspired them and that they were going to start their own list of fears. I was so overwhelmed I couldn't even do my fear of the day. A few hours after, my page had around 6,000 views, I know!!!

The day after, the unimaginable happened, Ashton Kutcher posted my article on his Facebook account and it got almost 30,000 likes and 7,000 shares. I couldn't believe my eyes. At the same time, I started to read some of the comments and as you can imagine, they were not all positive, but, as Taylor Swift says, haters gonna hate, and I couldn't focus on those at that time. That day I got 27,000+ visitors on my page. The next day I got featured on Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, and Hello Giggles by Zooey Deschanel. And finally, by Sofia Vergara. 

(Sorry for the longest post ever but here comes the scary part) So, yes, as you can imagine, I'm freaking out. I am 100% excited but for some reason part of me is not believing what is going on. I'm afraid to wake up tomorrow and figure out this was all a nice dream, that's how it feels now, like a dream come true. Not only that is scary, but the fact that I'm influencing so many people adds a ton of pressure to my next move. This project started as something personal and now it outgrew the initial purpose which was to become a brave person. Now, my purpose is to keep facing my own fears but also to inspire millions while doing it, and that's a huge challenge and responsibility to take in. I have no clue of what the future will bring and I'm excited but nervous at the same time. For now, I'll keep doing what I've been doing, facing fears, writing about it and hopefully reaching more and more people that need some push to face their own fears.

Go to PRESS to read more about this, get the links and some fan love!

← Day 44: SpendDay 42: Get rejected →

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Why Fear?

A couple of reasons I wrote just to remind myself why am I doing this:

  • Fear keeps me from enjoying life

  • Fear will keep me from achieving success

  • I want to live courageously

  • Life starts at the end of your comfort zone

  • What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

  • NYC is not made for the fearful

  • Fear just doesn't make sense

  • If I don't do it now, then, when?

Instagram: @100dayswithoutfear

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Those are MY favorite events because I get to spend time with YOU! The Hello Fears community. And nothin
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All of them said something along the lines of: “Hello, Fears! An open hand waving hello to the unknown is the first th
View fullsize 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐈 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 — and it always ends up being one of the best weekends of our year⁣ 👇🏼
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This event is organized by Jos
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First of all, if it wasn’t for Adam we wouldn’t have done it. I even asked him to cancel the trip weeks before leaving. I fel
View fullsize Last time I asked you: photo or type? But these two designers said: why not illustration??? (Swipe for image #2)
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That is definitely something I never expected on my cover!! So my reaction when getting these was:
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😳➡️😬➡️🤔➡️😗➡️☺️➡️😍
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The first
View fullsize My motto 💙✌🏼⚡️
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@nikkimiles_
View fullsize If you’ve been following my trip at @michellepoler you probably noticed one thing I’ve been doing consistently 👇🏼
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Instead of posting “on the go”, I’ve been posting all my stories the day after.
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Enjoying this trip,
View fullsize What I loved about this cover is how well the little illustrations represent who I am, and what the book is about:
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🗽 The statue of liberty: it not only represents New York, where my story took place, but it also represents the freedom I felt once
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When I go on stage and p
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I think @paopaorosales nailed the photo cover — and of course, she is the EXPERT when it comes to mixing ph
View fullsize @haveanicedayy_ inspired me to write about this when she posted this lovely image 👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼
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And all I want to share with you is something that I learned from a friend that went through recovery. When I opened up with him about a situation I&rsqu
View fullsize When Adam told me we were going to visit some icebergs in Argentina, that’s what I pictured ⬆️
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I never thought we were actually going to climb that thing 🗻!!! And thank G-d I didn’t — I would’ve said no, at first.
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View fullsize This is one of the lovely covers I received! ➡️ The first decision I had to make when it came to the design of my cover was: should I use my photo, or typography only?⁣ 👀
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What makes more sense? What do people buy the most? What is most aligned wit
View fullsize Friendly reminder ✌🏼⬆️
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By @thepouf — genius!


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