Tyrell Mara - leader, entrepreneur, digital strategist

Welcome!

I’m Tyrell Mara. I’m a big hairy audacious goal chaser, lifelong leader and learner, and self professed addicted Flow junky.

When I was nine years old, I decided that I wanted to play NCAA Division 1 basketball at an American university. Over the next 10 years, I pursued that goal like a pit bull. I trained, often failed, sometimes succeeded – and eventually, I captained the Portland State University team to two National Tournament appearances.

That experience taught me the power of setting audacious goals and pouring everything I have into achieving them. I realized that nothing is sweeter than inspiring a team to work toward a goal so big, it’s almost outlandish.

Two other things you need to know about me:

 I’m an Introvert

Leadership is in my DNA

Strange combination, right?

But these two qualities inform everything I do – as an athlete, business professional, and leader. I process, observe and strategize (introvert) and then share what I’ve learned to guide and teach people working to overcome a variety of challenges (leadership).

In my professional work at BuildDirect I lead and facilitate high performance teams to build world class technology products. As a leader and learner, I am constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I share my insights from these journeys with a community of passionate ‘game changers’ on the blog.

Think this this could be the start of a great conversation?

Say hi over on Facebook! 


I believe finding Flow is one of the game changers in life. Along with doing this in the boardroom and in competition you can find me traveling the world in search of adventure and the perfect wave. Usually with my amazing wife, Tash and newborn baby Olia, by my side.

Tyrell Mara surfing in Tofino

Recent Learnings and Insights

  • How to Navigate Life’s Big Decisions & the Hierarchy of Human Performance

    How to Navigate Life’s Big Decisions & the Hierarchy of Human Performance

    Life, for us all, comes down to decisions.   How are we going to choose to live our lives. What...

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  • How to Accelerate Your Learning & Growth Trajectory

    How to Accelerate Your Learning & Growth Trajectory

    Living Life by a Simple Hypothesis

    Sometimes I think we overcomplicate things in life. I find that when I live in tune with the hypothesis below, I am happy, fulfilled and feeling as if I’m doing my best work in the world. 

    I am at my best when striving towards a pursuit that intrinsically motivates me, is aligned with my values in life and challenges me beyond my comfort zone. 

    I refer to this state as “The Deep End” of life and I aspire to access this environment for as long and frequently as possible. Why? Because the opportunity it provides me for deep, paradigm shifting learning and growth is unrivalled. 

    I believe that over the long game of life — years and decades — this learning and growth compounds to create exponential value and results.

    So far so good? Hopefully you can think of an experience in your own life where you have experienced the rich learnings from a dive way out of your comfort zone in the Deep End. 

    There’s one problem I have encountered with the Deep End, it is not actually where we capture our greatest learning and growth. 

    Let me explain further.

    How We Learn: The Present and the Future 

    I believe our most significant learnings don’t actually arise when we are immersed in the present experience — but instead come long after, when we are intentionally reflecting back on our adventure in the Deep End. In my experience, 90% of my most valuable learning and growth comes through the act of pausing to reflect after the experience itself is over. 

    Had I not spent the time to intentionally sit down and think, reflect, journal, meditate and mentally deconstruct my experience – that learning and growth would remain trapped in my subconscious and eventually lost. 

    In a world that increasingly is too distracted, addicted to devices, ego driven, and without foundational framework or guide for living – we are losing sight of the art of learning. 

    Now let’s take a look at what we’ve learnt from the science. 

    Learning and The Conscious Brain

    Our brain’s are incredible. 

    They are the reason we are here, standing upright, talking with others, and the dominant species on this planet. The brain has adapted and evolved over millions of years to help us thrive in this world. 

    Kevin Simlar and Robert Hanson, authors of “The Elephant in the Brain” make an argument that it is in fact this very ability to learn “post-experience” that has differentiated us from all other species on this planet. As we developed this capability  hundreds of thousands of years ago to store and analyze past experiences we could update our set of actions to better optimize for survival. More on this shortly. 

    The facilitator of this capability for conscious thought and decision making is called our pre-frontal cortex (PFC). Whenever you are engaged in active thought — focusing on a new task, considering a set of decisions —  this is your PFC at work. Unbeknownst to us, our brains have already done a lot of work in the milliseconds leading up to us forming a conscious thought. The main task is the parsing and prioritizing of millions of raw data points being collected by our brain via the brain stem at any given point in time. Before that conscious thought takes place our brain has already culled and stored 90% of the data it received and formatted the remaining 10% for our conscious processing in the PFC. 

    Here lies the gap.

    When immersed in the present moment, we only have access to the information our brain deems most important to navigate the immediate decisions at hand.

    This results in the “surface level” learnings and insights seen in the iceberg visual. 

    how to learn through reflection

    So, what happens to the 90% of information we don’t consciously get access to?

    Accessing the Iceberg of our Subconscious

    One of the most simple heuristics that has helped me understand how to access the iceberg of wisdom and knowledge hidden within our own subconscious mind is this:

    As long as we are mentally preoccupied with an activity in the present, we cannot access our the iceberg of subconscious knowledge. 

    In other words, whether we are pursuing a goal in the Deep End of life, drowning in thoughts of stress and anxiety, or immediately jumping from one task to the next without pause — we are forgoing the opportunity to learn and grow from the depths of our subconscious. 

    Sidenote: Dr.Matthew Walker, author of “Why We Sleep” suggests that this also has a significant negative impact on our ability to fall asleep quickly and get deep restful sleep. By foregoing opportunities to pause and reflect throughout the day, our brain’s are forced to begin this activity just as we are laying our head down on the pillow. 

    Reflection & Inquiry

    While we are only just beginning to understand the neuroscience of our brain’s processing of subconscious information, we have intuitively known the art of reflection tens of thousands of years how to access this information. The answer is simple and as a result is often overlooked.

    Pause. Be still. 

    Quiet the mind. 

    Find Flow. 

    Rest. Recover.

    Reflect. Inquire.

    Slowing down, stillness, a quiet mind

    A prerequisite to accessing the wisdom of our subconscious is the quieting of our conscious Pre Frontal Cortex powerhouse. This is one of the incredible benefits to breath-work, mindfulness meditation, and frankly any other activity that causes us to detach from our conscious thought — eg, going for a walk where you are simply focused on the awe of Mother Nature that surrounds you. 

    Non-Performance Flow States

    Finding ‘Flow States’, or more specifically the act of being fully immersed and focused on a task that is intrinsically motivating, engaging, challenging and rewarding is another way to stimulate our subconscious processing. Inherently, Flow States are partially subconscious by nature (to access a Flow State you must have practiced the activity enough for our brain to have laid some “unconsciously competent” neural wiring) and don’t need to be performing a sport at an Olympic level. For example the walk described above (walking and general navigation being two of the activities with “unconsciously competent” wiring — can provide the right person with a Flow state). When it comes to using Flow States as a vehicle for subconscious processing I think it’s important to make the distinction between Performance Flow (intentionally using Flow to access a Peak Performance state) and Non-Performance Flow (fully immersed and engaged in an activity without the intention or requirement of Peak Performance). 

    Sleep 

    It turns out that REM sleep, occurring in the latter half of a full 7+ hour of sleep night (not to be confused with 7 hours in bed), is where our brains begin making ‘new’ connections between different streams of raw data that have been captured in the previous day. Compromise on sleep and you automatically lose this super hero power. 

    Reflection & Inquiry  

    Iceberg metaphor as it relates to conscious and unconscious learnings

    There’s something about the iceberg metaphor that is staying on my mind. The most recent thought is the idea that every experience, adventure and journey we go on in life has the potential to represent significant learning and growth. Whether the outcome is good bad or ugly it actually doesn’t matter. As we walk through the experience we have access to the top half of the iceberg, the 10% of conscious learning that comes from the immediacy and present experience of whatever we’re going through. The problem, however is that it takes longer for our subconscious, which is capturing 90 to 95% of the information that we don’t consciously process to make sense of what we’re going through. This bottom half of the iceberg, the 90%, can only be accessed through intentional reflection, inquiry, And self reflection over time. When we choose to raise from one thing to the other, or to avoid the challenging self reflection that may come with failure, negative stories or deep scary vulnerabilities we lose and forfeit the opportunity to capture the 90% of growth and learning that we could otherwise apply to the long-term trajectory of our lives.

    Where to from here?

    If you want some help establishing your foundation, upon which you are able to jump into the Deep End, I would recommend taking some time completing this free Human Performance Assessment I have developed as part of the Human Performance Project. 

    Once your direction is set and you are up the High Dive or off into the Deep End, it’s important to build in intentional reflection time at different periods. 

     



     

    I founded The Human Performance Project to equip humans, teams, and groups with the roadmap and tools required to pursue audacious goals, dreams and aspirations in the Deep End of life.

    You can learn more about this work here.

     

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  • Chasing a Goal, Hitting the Wall and the All-In Plan

    Chasing a Goal, Hitting the Wall and the All-In Plan

     Some topics in this post

    1. Hitting The Wall and giving up when it’s too hard to continue. 
    2. The importance of a Tribe, your support group. 
    3. Why chase after big audacious goals and ambitions. 

    The Slow Breaking of My Will

    “A dark premeditated celebration” -December 1, 2018 

    Upon reflection, this is the act my subconscious was committing as I walked out of the liquor store, scotch in hand. 
     
    An hour later I was sitting in my bathtub, glass full, tears streaming down my face. A mix of euphoria, shame, guilt and confusion swirled in my head. 
     
    I had conceited defeat.
     
    In that moment it was crystal clear to me that the pursuit of chasing the 2020 Olympics  to throw Discus (Track and Field) was too challenging, too far fetched – it was all over. 
     

    How did I get here?

    In short, the 1,500-day journey to date had worn me down. I had begun to crack in the relentless battle to drown out the gremlins of fear and doubt whispering in my head. And finally, the straw breaking my back was a briefing earlier that day at Athletics Canada where the perfect “Canadian Olympic Athlete” was described. In that moment, acknowledging how glaringly different my journey has been and will continue to be, I gave into the voices of despair, I felt my spirit and resolve crumbling in the room. 
     

    Begging to Let me Quit

    On the drive home from the briefing I hatched my escape plan. I had the perfect story to convince my inner Tribe – the group of people most closely supporting me in this journey – my wife, my coach, my parents – that letting me give up was the right thing to do. 
     
    And so as I sat in the bathtub with my celebratory glass of Scotch doing my best to convince Tash to let me quit. I put on the best show I could, displaying anger, sadness, and eventually peace, with the decision I told her I had already made. I then drafted a 2,000-word email to my coach explaining as much. I clicked send. 
     

    The Power of Our Tribe 

    What happened next is exactly Why a Tribe is needed in any epic pursuit we embark on to accomplish something extraordinary. These people can be our family, friends, mentors or colleagues – the criteria is that they understand why you must embark on this journey and they are there to support you in every step of that journey – even when you may have given up hope in yourself. 

    One by one, every member of my inner Tribe told me I wasn’t allowed to give up.

    Not a chance. In fact, they told me now would be the most illogical time to stop. I would regret the timing of this decision for the rest of my life. You see, they told me, you have made it this far while juggling a 25 hour training week alongside a +50 hour full-time leadership career. You haven’t even given this goal a fully committed attempt. 
     
    No, now isn’t the time to quit. Now is the time to go all in. 
     
    I could feel my cheeks flush and my throat swell as the reality of this feedback sank in. Initially in shock, my premeditated celebration was gone and the sobering future of struggle, despair and the relentless pursuit was back upon me.
     
    I was thrust back into the darkness. 
     
    But through the fog of feelings and emotions, the upside started to sink in. Something was going to change, I was going All In. It would be one of the scariest and most challenging decisions to navigate in my life – but this is exactly the decision my goal deserved. 

    It exhilarated me.  

    And so the new plan was hatched. 
     

    The All-In Plan – effective January 1, 2019 

    At this point, the reality of this new plan was staring me in the face. 

    If I was serious, I would have to leave my full-time career and dedicate the next 18 months to being the very best Discus athlete I can be. I would have to break the news with my team at Digital Hot Sauce that counted and relied on me that I would be drastically reducing my involvement and availability. I would have to reach out and rely upon those around me to support our family financially, and finally, with blind faith I  would have to fully commit to being All In. 

    The risk felt almost unbearable. 

     
    And yet, this is exactly what pursuing our loftiest ambitions takes. As we seek clarity in our life and identify the adventures we want to strive towards, risk will not be a potential factor, it will be woven into the fabric of the road you travel. It will not be a precaution to prepare for, it will be a necessity to embrace.
     
    And so as of January 1st I have stepped away from full-time work.
    I am relying on a critical Tribe of individuals and organizations to support our family in this next chapter.
    My coach and I have increased our training volume to 6 sessions a day, 4-5 days a week, with 5 international trips in the next 5 months.

    Every aspect of my life is becoming optimized to foster world-class performance over the next 17 months. From each every calorie and nutrient with Married to My Macros through to daily therapy and recovery from MVMTlab, the Stretch Space and Thomas Tran, to working with one of the top Sports Psychologists in the world to build up my mental game. 

    I am blessed with an incredible Tribe of financial supporters who are making this chapter possible for my family including Guardian Angel Consultants, Fitness Town, DSL, Janzen Insurance, GLC Solutions, Advance Flooring, Recreation Excellence, M&L Painting, Lloyds Travel.

    I am in need of financial support immediately in this next 5-month chapter. Please shoot me an email (tyrellmara@gmail.com), or a message of Instagram/Facebook to learn how you can support. 

     
    My life has become a solitary pilgrimage towards the 2020 Games. And my 2019 goals reflect this new reality: 
     
    1. Throw 60 meters by June 2019
    2. Throw 62 meters by September 2019 
    3. Throw 64 meters by January 2020 

     

    Zooming Out and the Gift of Perspective 

    Why do I choose to do this?

    From day one, I told myself this journey is not about the destination itself, but what I will learn along the way. I take a breathe now and acknowledge just how powerful that statement is as I reflect over the last 3 years. 
     
    I have learned more about life, about how we function as human beings, and about the internal and external equations required to go out and chase our ambitions (The Deep End Framework, The Human Performance Project, the Pursuit of Fulfillment). 
     
    And I continue climbing the mountain for this reason. Not because of the potential to accomplish something remarkable, but because when we embark on journey’s that stretch well beyond what we ever thought possible, in any direction, we grow, learn and expand as human beings. 
     
    This is my sweet spot. My uncomfortable, scary, unknown, and risky sweet spot. This is where we invite magic to exist in our lives. And not just magic in the sense of what is possible, but about what we uncover within. 
     

    Questions to Consider

    1. What was the first “audacious” journey you went on in your life?
      1. What did you learn from that experience?
      2. Is there anything from that experience that still shapes your life today?
    2. What is the next mountain on your horizon? Have you written it down or told anyone?
    3. What is stopping you from jumping in to chase your next adventure or goal?

     

    The Next Step

    1. Want to learn more about being a part of our financial Tribe?
    2. Want to explore me sharing my story with your community, team or group?
    3. Have a question about my journey or need support in your own pursuits?

    I’m only an email or message away! 

    Email | Instagram | Facebook

    Learn more about The Deep End Mindset™

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  • You are the crown jewel
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