Legendary Performance Institute-by Be Legendary
Legendary Performance Institute-by Be Legendary
4/16/135:30:24 PM---Carter Carssbad boys and girl club - Calsbad, CA Photo by Lamont Wharton

James Carter

Boulder, Colorado

James focuses on shifting mindsets of leaders and teams who are willing to challenge the status quo and change this world for the better.  He has co-authored books with Steven Covey, Ken Blanchard, Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracy.

James is the Founder & CEO of Be Legendary and the Legendary Performance Institute.

Through the 15 years of research into legendary people, James has discovered first, a common mindset of legendary people, then other habits, rituals that make up what he calls your ‘Legendary Operating System’.

He has worked with over 35% of Fortune 100 companies, hundreds of mid-size and small business, school districts, every branch of the military and even youth leadership across the country, helping anyone and everyone be more engaged in life.

James continues to push the envelope through ‘extreme’ experiences, is the creator of Shakubuku, was recently featured in CNN and his company was called “The Stuff of Legend” by Business Destinations.

A serial social enterprise entrepreneur, James has founded:

  • Repario / Be Legendary
  • DIY Team Center
  • Community Bike Build
  • Legendary Performance Institute

James has co-authored three books, created Shakubuku (see video below), the Roadmap to Legendary, Legendary Operating System, over 15 experiences that have become products and several dozen custom experiences that are used worldwide by companies to engage their people in authentic ways.

Along the way, the main company, Repario Ltd DBA Be Legendary, has completely collapsed 5 times while his wife, daughter, son and himself all developed debilitating Lyme disease that was ultimately treated in Germany.  You can see them in the timeline below.

In his words, “What is legendary to me? Being the person my daughter believes I am, even when she is not looking.”

Shakubuku

Many people are interested in the Be Legendary journey and, like many entrepreneurs, my personal life is inextricably interwoven into the fabric of the company.

The timeline below shows the five implosions of the company – the company crashed with every world event since 2000.  It also shows some personal challenges that created company problems and also shaped the direction of the company.

Timeline of Be Legendary

Company Founded
Repario Ltd was formed.  Repario is Latin meaning ‘to rediscover or find again’.  Somehow I knew, even then, that I wanted to help bring people our of their shell.August 2000
9/11 Twin Towers
Since inception we had focused mainly on large federal organizations, officially landing the company’s first $250,000 executive coaching engagement with the USGS on 9-9-01.  On that day, 9-901, he was pitching SSA in Seattle in the Bank of America building (now the Columbia Center) for the company’s first 7-figure coaching engagement.  We never saw a dime from that first $250k.2001
Internet Bubble Burst
The company was located in San Francisco so after 9-11, it made sense to go after technology companies.  Once we recovered from 9-11 and changed our marketing, business started booming.  All the internet companies wanted all kinds of support and we were there to provide it.  Until…  the bubble burst and ALL client business was lost, again.2003
Products Launched
Recovery was fueled by taking our knowledge, turning it into products and selling it to our clients (about 10% of the cost of hiring us live) as well as other tech clients in the SF Bay area.2004
First large bike build
2,400 people building bikes, 400 children receiving bikes in Dallas.  Group was split into 4 separate rooms divided by air-walls.  Reveal of children had to occur at exactly the same moment, so had to sync up 4 live speakers who were not our staff.  This one was TOUGH.April 2005
China's Avian Flu
Our work in the tech industry caught the attention of a marketing company in China.  We founded a three way partnership with ourselves, the marketing company and a Chinese university with locations in Beijing, Shanghai & Shenzhen.  We would provide our English business coaches, educators and facilitators for Chinese business people.  Two weeks before we were to begin the Avian flu emerged all over East Asia and every class was cancelled.  We did not completely collapse as we had diversified but the vast majority of our energy and focus has not be on marketing and we lost 80% of our staff.Summer 2005
Co-authored First Book Contribution, One Great Idea
One Great Idea published with a focus on Making Business Personal.2007
Financial Meltdown
Lost every contract we had, just like many businesses.  I bought out my partner using every dime I had and every nickel in the company bank account.  I was starting over from scratch and NO ONE was spending money.  I had to let my entire staff go and barely made it through.2008
Contest for the Symbol of Be Legendary
We held a contest online in 2009, knowing only (for sure) that ‘It takes Courage to Be Legendary’.  We received over 110 designs and almost 100,000 votes on those designs.  The snail symbol you see got almost 83% of the votes cast.  Clearly the winner.  I was devastated!  It took me years to learn to love it.2009
Co-authored Discover Your Inner Strength with Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard and Brian Tracy
My focus was on emotional strength.  As we were deep in our research of legendary people, I was looking at resilience and strength in all areas of a person’s life.Fall 2009
Change name to Be Legendary
Repario Ltd continues to be our corporate entity but our trade name is now and forever Be Legendary.January 1, 2010
First Executive Shakubuku Retreat
This was HUGE!  Our first ‘extreme’ Shakubuku for a client was in the San Juan mountains in January – COLD but avalanches, snow caves, dog sledding, snow machines – all choreographed into one single transformative experience was a milestone.  We had run elements of extreme retreats prior to this but our first real Shakubuku was an amazing experience for everyone involved.2010
Co-authored Roadmap to Success with Ken Blanchard and Deepak Chopra
This was the first time the Mindset of a Legend – Awareness, Beliefs & Courage – was put into writing except for workshop materials.2012
Company moves to Boulder!
After 10 years of searching for a great community, we decided upon Boulder Colorado.  Also in the running was Encinitas, CA, Ventura, CA and Austin, TX.  We loved them all but Boulder was the winner.

We also shut down our Dallas warehouse, our Nevada warehouse, Nevada office, lost our key Operations boss to maternity leave and were booked 100% solid.  It was a VERY busy time.  So busy, I did not realize our website had accidentally deleted from Google.Fall 2013

Marketing Implosion
Google deleted us from their index.  All our inbound marketing was lost.Q1 2014
Broke Guinness World Record
Be Legendary worked with 5,000 adults to build bikes and 1,000 children onsite to receive them, in only 60 minutes.  It was also held at 7:00 PM on a school night!  New record is 979 bikes assembled and given away in 60 minutes (21 were unridable without repair).April 2017
James is treated in Germany
Hyperthermia treatment in Germany is two weeks long at the Klinik St Georg in a small town called Bad Aibling.

By the time I went to Germany, I was no longer able to read and write.  I could take care of emails and proposals but could not write any of my book and being unable to read was devastating.  That was the main source of my personal growth.  I switched to audio books but found I spent MUCH less time listening than I did actually reading.

After I woke up from my first hyperthermia treatment in Germany until I got home 7 days later, I read 8 books – leadership, organizational development, mindset, etc – and wrote 50,000 words.  Plus, I was still in treatment at the Klinik.  The treatment worked!December 2017

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