Matt Corker » Great Companies

#38: Holla From My Malas!

Matt Corker — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:21:44 +0000

What’s a holiday without a little 100 before 100 list crushing!?!

For Christmas, the lovely Danielle LaPorte bought me two handmade wrist malas (or prayer beads) from Tiny Devotions and, by doing so, helped me cross off #38 – Rock out with some handmade mala beads!

The black cord mala has beads of carnelian. Tiny Devotions says:

Carnelian is a very strong stone of abundance that restores vitality, creativity and motivation. It aids in success in business and is believed to aid concentration.

The purple cord mala has beads of jasper and sandalwood.

Jasper is known as the supreme nurturer that sustains and supports during times of stress. Jasper also inspires determination of all worthy pursuits. Sandalwood brings the elements of meditation and peace. It is calming and draws us within.

Thanks to D, I have one more tool to keep me honest about my intentions this year. I think this also means that I am also one step closer to being a full-fledged corporate hippie – the perfect amount of Wall St mixed with the perfect amount of Woodstock
… or whatever the Canadian versions of those are.

Namaste.

Pick of the Post: Bonn Smith – Ex to Why? (my fave off his new album!)

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The Highlights of 2011

Matt Corker — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:23:59 +0000

Every year I love writing this post. It allows me to take the time to reflect on where I came from, who played a large part in my life over the last year, and remember the rad adventures that made me smile from ear to ear. It’s like a yearbook of awesome. I especially love it this year as it is making this layover en route back to Copenhagen fly by (pun intended?).

As seen through the highlights of 2008, 2009, and 2010 – lots has changed. With a humble heart and really huge dose of gratitude, I share with you the best moments of 2011:

January

Geeked out with Conor et all as we watched online when Sauder took home School of the Year at JDC West “one more time”
Presented another award-winning workshop at the UBC Student Leadership Conference

February

Got accepted into my MBA program at the Copenhagen Business School
Spread a little love for yogis on Valentine’s Day with NoMoSolo
Spent the weekend on Bowen with Zoe & Haas updating our vision + goals and laughing until we cried (I love that this is now a tradition!)

March:

Celebrated borderless friendship when my fav gents from Ontario flew out west to join us for a hippie party and a road trip to the Great Big Sea concert

Witnessed Peter’s epic surprise proposal to Joe. Holy love fest!
Met a man that reminded me what it feels like to fall head over heels in love.
Went up to Whistler to experience Camp Drishti 1 and to uncover my inauthentic leadership

April:

Cheered like a maniac at my first roller derby with Woo and DFern. Go Public Frenemies!
Headed back to Whistler for Camp Dristi 2 and experience the igolu principles by Susanne Conrad
Snowshoe’d and ear candled the weekend away with sis in beautiful Manning Park

May:

Cheered and clapped REALLY loud for Conor at his first performance with the Vancouver Men’s Chorus
Rocked the stage at UBC Alumni Weekend with a session on Why Goals Are Not Enough
Kicked an hour off my time at the BMO Vancouver Marathon thanks to a rad group of people

June:

Re-vamped my blog with the help of the brilliant artist Michael
Celebrated my Mom’s birthday out west. Real goodness + real conversations + real wilderness = real love.

July:

Played my first round of golf on Bowen with Joe, Peter, and Preston
Cheered on my best friend from a distance as he conquered the Spartan Death Race

August: (this month was E-PIC!)

Headed down to Portland for the weekend with the best group of friends a guy could ask for

Front. Row. At. Jason. Mraz. (need I say more?)

Raced around in mud at the Whistler Warrior Dash

Crushed my 100 before 100 – bungee jumping, hot air ballooning, making chocolate by hand…
Celebrated my birthday with a rad party and a hilarious camping trip
Said goodbye – to Vancouver, to my relationship, to my job – to say hello to the Life Europa

September:

Moved to Copenhagen to start my MBA at the Copenhagen Business School
Discovered Hamsa Yoga Studio - and the great people that are a part of that community
Supported imagine1day’s 1 School 1 Day event with a run around Copie

October:

Rocked out on a mat with Carlson when he came to visit

Was a tourist in my own town during Culture Night
Headed to London to rock out with the lululemon crew at the London Yoga Show and reconnect with friends from Van

November:

Lifted Martin with two fingers at “Leadership Bootcamp” with my class thanks to some Butanese magic
Made a Van-fam dinner with Calvin, Bonn, and Lanie

December:

Partied the night away at a memorable Julefrukost with my classmates – fake mustaches, snapps, and all

Had the best 2 weeks vacationing in Vancouver! Laughing with Steph at 6 am, getting sweaty with some of Vancouver’s finest people and instructors, dance partying (at every opportunity), eating great pie and sushi, meeting new friends who I believe will be shining in my life for a while, jamming on leadership theories, dating for 6 days, playing board games til the wee hours of morning (to FINALLY beat FLam at Settlers) – it was all so perfect. Thanks for the monumental end to 2011.

Holy wow. What a year. Correction: what a LIFE!
And now it’s 2012! Here we go again…
What are you celebrating from this past year?

Pick of the Post: Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe

Creating White Space: Mike Desjardins

Matt Corker — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:17:44 +0000

corker #2: Mike Desjardins!

Mike and I first connected as part of an all-male panel discussion for YWiB. With such intertwined circles, its amazing we went for so long without running into each other sooner. One rainy Vancouver day, after a yoga class at his favourite studio, we jammed on staff development and what we, as people, are truly up to in the world. His insight is impeccable and his curiosity is humbling. In the video below, Mike shares with us how he, amongst a “busy schedule,” reignites his creativity.

Learn more from Mike, Driver of ViRTUS Inc, over here.
Check out the insight from corker #1, Steph, here.

Pick of the Post: Dan Mangan – Post War Blues

The Remarkable Journey: Steph Corker

Matt Corker — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:33:13 +0000

Could I have anyone else other than my wicked sister start off this series? Of course not. This iron(WO)man, attraction ninja, baker, and adventurer extraordinaire has dropped truth bombs on me for years now. As she traveled the globe in October, she stopped to share some lessons from her Journey with us.

I crave start lines and I live for finish lines; I write lists to feel accomplished when things are crossed off; I have defined myself by jobs I’ve loved (and hated!) and success by the size of my inbox. Yet what I know for sure is that the Journey is what makes it all worth while. I’m writing this fresh off a plane from a whirl wind trip to Asia, on the eve of lululemon’s Leadership Conference whilst totally jet lagged and concerned for the quality of my run in a few hours. None of these are line items to be checked off – in fact, they are remarkable experiences deserving to be savored because only from livin’ it up do i have the honour of being awake at 2AM!

In the last month, the brilliant Steve Jobs passed away and a world record was set by a 100 year old man who finished the Toronto Marathon. I’m pretty sure that Steve didn’t care how many emails were not answered and Fauja’s crossing of the finish line was about a whole lot more than 26.2miles. Our time is short and we don’t know when it will be taken away, so what I’m committed to is a really remarkable Journey…

Here’s is what I pack on my Journey:

1. Water – we are made up of 90% of it; it fuels our brain; and straightens our spins. Bottoms up, H20!

2. Vitamins – VitC + D, Apple Cider Vinegar, Psyllium, E3LiveBrainOn + a multi for good measure. Heaps of spinach + kale. Everything in a vitamix! Repeat daily.

3. Endorphins – I prefer to swimbikerun with a lil bit of yoga. You might prefer to skipjumpdance, lie in savasna with a bolster + a blanket, learn how to ride a bike, hike a new mountain, sign up for a new race….whatever you do, just move your body! Sweating is the by product – the sign of fat cells crying! It’s always worth it.

4. Rad Gratitude + Generous Enthusiasm, wrapped in Love. Period. Please + ThankYouThankYouThankYou, said with a smile…it is the universal language of Awesome and I wish everyone spoke it.

5. My Tribe – “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Family + friends; young + old; new + treasured. Your cheerleaders + motivators, your inspiration + accountability partners, your shoulder to cry on + hand to high five. They remind you that everything is recoverable + everything is remarkable. My life is so much sweeter because of them.

I’m so proud to be a Corker…especially related to Sir William Corker. You can find more of my random musings over here where I blog about Kale, Crunches + Kilometers on my journey to a six pack!

What are your Journey essentials?

Perhaps the sweetest of all is when the dream lands you on a beach for sunrise + sunset!

Steph

Stopped Down in London Town

Matt Corker — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:56:20 +0000

I headed to London on a whim and, as previously mentioned, these stories tend to have a happy ending.

I got off the plane, found my Oyster card from my bag, and minded the gap all the way to the London Business School. After getting off at the wrong stop, realizing my cell phone network doesn’t provide service in the UK, and getting lost for 15 minutes – I found my way to LBS to meet up with Derek. Did he tell me it was an open bar event for their MBA students and that another rad Vancouver-ite would be there to make my first night in London SO memorable? No, he didn’t. Life is great when it comes with surprises eh!

I made my way to the hotel where my friends from lululemon were staying only to discover that they weren’t back yet. (Party animals!) I found a glass of red wine at the hotel bar, my highlighter, and my Innovation & Entrepreneurship readings and went to town. Halfway done the glass (and two pages into the reading….) the crew arrives and we top up empty glasses.

Rocking out at the Yoga Show was the intention of the 3 day weekend. After 8 yoga classes (including 3 challenging workshops), a visit to one of lululemon’s partner studios, connecting with tons of cool instructors from around the world, chillin on bean bag chairs with new friends as they waited to try on PILES of clothing, and seriously kickin it up kitchen-party style – I would say we rocked it.

Being surrounded by, and working out with, such talented and hilarious people all weekend was like going for a run in my favourite sneakers. It reminded me what it feels like to be at my best, to be alive, and to be really truly sweaty! Thank goodness for silverescent. Just sayin.

After big days came big nights. A dinner with friends I’ve had since first year at UBC bled into a swank evening out at the Home House. More belly laughs, more great conversations, and, after all that yoga, my body actually lasted til 4 am. Time flies when time doesn’t matter! Before I knew it I was folding up my (un) mat and heading to the airport again.

As I boarded my last tube ride of the trip, I reached into my bag to put away my Oyster card and pulled out a bookmark left on my mat after one of the workshops I attended. It read:

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. – Rumi

BOOM!

Thank you to everyone who made this past weekend one for the books. (I told you these stories have happy endings.)

Pick of the Post: David Guetta ft Jennifer Hudson – Night of Your Life

$20,000 Down, Looking Up

Matt Corker — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:38:59 +0000

I was ready to share a blog post today about what I learned from my remarkable weekend in London with some stellar friends (both new and old). And BOY was this weekend worth sharing!

However, when I sat down, I checked my online banking to see what damage I did after the pounds had been converted to dollars, and that’s when I saw it. $20,000 withdrawn from my account to pay some “bill” in Ontario. Not being in Ontario or buying anything from Ontario … I think it is safe to say that this money was taken without my consent. (I don’t know what your relationship with money is like. For me, that is a huge sum of money – especially with tuition still not paying for itself these days.)

An hour call to CIBC (thank you Skype!) left me with no answers of why this happened. They reassured me, however, that the money will be back in my account soon, so not much to worry about now.

What was interesting was how flustered my service rep on the phone was. On multiple occasions she would say “thank you for being so calm about this” and “I feel like I’m more stressed out about this than you are.” I took the gratitude and re-assured her that it wasn’t my intention to add stress into her life. (I also told her she could try rocking out her favourite yoga pose or having a mojito if she wanted to de-stress a little … she told me it was 8 am her time … I said that shouldn’t matter.)

After we had a game plan of what was going to happen going forward and had hung up the phone, I was reminded that crappy things happen in life. Life is not all gum drops and roses. There are wars, break-ups, disease, and random money withdrawals that add some (albeit unwanted at times) twists and turns along the road.

I thought about what Deanne says in this video. “Before coming to lululemon, I would have let a flat tire wreck my day.” $20,000 gone, at a time when money is seriously limited, when I’m far away from my bank, … and I could have easily let it ruin my day. These twists and turns in life are a lesson in perspective. How I look at the situation is what it becomes. When I look at a situation as hopeless, bad, or insurmountable – that is what it becomes. When I look at a situation as positive, temporary, or easy to deal with – that too is what it becomes. So why would I want to create something as insurmountable and, in that moment, give up my ability to surmount it?

$20,000 down and things are lookin up!

Pick of the Post: Hedley – Invincible (so appropro)

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Full Out & Off To London

Matt Corker — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:14:24 +0000

Before I left Vancouver, a friend and colleague of mine looked at me and said:

Play full out over there. You don’t want to look back and wish you did something different.

BOOM! Words I’ve taken to heart since I’ve arrived in Copenhagen for sure!

To me, playing full out means dropping the excuses, the “shoulda, coulda, woulda”s, and reconnecting with what makes me, me. Playing full out means sharing my full self – the vulnerabilities and the strengths – with the people around me that will inspire and challenge me. It means taking care of myself in a way that allows me to giv’r when the time comes. Playing full out means getting out of my own way.

I got to live this mantra a few hours ago when the opportunity to head over to London to meet up with some great friends from lululemon athletica at the London Yoga Show arose. I knew I had to take it, yet there were tons of excuses why I shouldn’t. It wasn’t part of the plan. The logistics weren’t all confirmed. There is school work to be done.

I acknowledged the excuses and then chose to get out of my own way and book a friggin flight! It’s another classic “commit, then figure it out” story! (And those stories always have a great ending.)

So off to London I go. To reconnect with people that inspire and challenge me. To shake my asana and get my downward dog on. To live and love doing it.

Here we go!

Pick of the Post: Pixie Lott – Turn It Up

Step Into Action: The Journey To Prostate Cancer Freedom

Matt Corker — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:31:55 +0000

My health is one of THE most important things in my life. Creating a difference in this world starts with ensuring I am physically and mentally able to do so. Having a healthy body and mind is like tying up my laces before a marathon. It’s the first and most important step to ensuring I can run the race (without falling on my face). My health ensures I can live this rad life and I will always be grateful for that.

In 2008, I had the pleasure of helping and watching Steph Tait and Matt Hill launch Run for One Planet and run around North America (for a year) to promote the simple steps of a sustainable life. Being at the finish line to welcome them home was simply amazing. Last month we saw the success of 1 School 1 Day in Vancouver (and Copenhagen!) when the fitness community came together to support education in Ethiopia. These folks truly achieved something remarkable in their athletic pursuits.

Now, my friend’s brother, Riley, has completed his cross-Canada run to raise awareness and research funds for prostate cancer. Vancouver welcomed him home on Oct 6th with the Olympic cauldron aflame and tons of friends and family eagerly waiting.

It takes courage to be a distance runner – both physical and mental. It also takes a huge heart to do it for a cause that will make a difference in people’s lives. I am so proud of everything Riley and his team (shout out to Lauren and Derek) have accomplished and learned over the past few months. Anything is possible and, by stepping into action, we can make it all happen.

If you’re like me, and couldn’t physically be there to see the journey unfold, check out the video below and the Step Into Action website. It’s all kinds of inspiring. It also doesn’t hurt to see that so much of his run was completed in lululemon run gear. High five to no chaffing!

Pick of the Post: K-OS – Holy Cow

Crossing Them Off: #85 and #91

Matt Corker — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:27:24 +0000

#85: Make chocolate by hand

Thanks to CocaNymph’s great workshops (and a Christmas present from my rad sis), me and some friends spent an evening learning about and making our own chocolate. We were given a little history lesson about where chocolate came from, tasted a few different grades of chocolate, and then got our hands messy. We were given the ganache, a large pot of chocolate and some decorative toppings. It was so simple, yet so intricate. A great balance of patience, creativity, and just throwin’ the ganache into the chocolate and seeing what happened! All in all -it was a relaxing evening of fun with great people (and delicious treats)!

#91: Pay for a random couple’s meal

The day before I left for Copenhagen, my best friend Haas and I headed off to an early morning class at Inner Space Yoga before sitting down at Milestones in Yaletown for brunch. It was an incredible start to my last full day in Vancouver. While eating our food, we kept an eye out for my prey – a random couple who would be getting their full meal paid for by me on that holiday Monday.

Target spotted. Their cute little dog sealed the deal. I passed the money to the waiter asking him not to mention who paid for their meal to them. He returned after the, now beaming, couple left to give me the change from their bill (which would later become his over the top tip).

An anonymous act of kindness just for the sake of making someone’s day a little bit happier. It was a great way to say goodbye to Vancouver.

Now – what 100 before 100 items can I cross off here in Europe!?! Oh the possibilities…

Pick of the Post: LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It (official music video)

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After One Year @ lululemon athletica

Matt Corker — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:00:20 +0000

A year ago, on my second day, in the hot upstairs room of the West 4th lululemon store, I wrote down the goal: “I complete my MBA by Sept 2013.”

I then jumped into the land of luon and proceeded …

… to welcome and train over 220 new hires from around the world.
… to create an internship program that brought in some rock star talent.

… to fall in love with the man of my dreams.
… to let my past be the past – and really step into a world where anything is possible.

… to set goals. And go after them – failing at many, crushing the others.
… to be reminded about how my word creates my reality and my choice in that.

… to sweat with the best athlete ambassadors. Everywhere.
… to get over comparing myself to others and find my own standard of greatness.

… to help others set goals, both on and offline.
… to deliver keynotes that reminded me I am powerful when I am vulnerable.

… to just “have a good breathe.”
… to find happiness in what is, today.

… to have birthday dance parties. Sometimes even to country music.
… to learn about where I am being inauthentic in my life.

… to work with my best friend.
… to transform my relationship with my parents.

… to watch new friends fall more in love.
… to be pushed every day by the people around me to be my best self.

… to have breakdown after breakdown, leading to some serious breakthroughs.
… to cross off items on my 100 before 100.

… to grow from a team of 3 to a team of 14(+)
… to live the dream.

A year and a bit later, I revisit that MBA goal as today is my last day at lululemon. (I can hardly believe I am typing this!) I am off to Denmark to make it happen.

To the friends I’ve gained in the last year: thank you for the memories, for the challenges, and for always standing for me living a life I absolutely, undeniably, truly authentically, and wholeheartedly LOVE!!

You have elevated my world.

Pick of the Post: The Overtones – The Longest Time (video below)