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The Small Business show is the official podcast of Garuda promo and branding solutions.
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Hello everyone, you're listening to the small business show.
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I'm your host swire. You can also call me the promo guy.
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My guest today, David S. From current Global LLC.
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David also led to a successful entrepreneur who product thestatgadplus.com is now available
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in over 3700 retail stores including giant like the Home Depot, Lowe's and true value
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hardware. He's currently working on his book titled the Guardians of Grit which aims to empower
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father in raising unquestionable young people.
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Granted, in science based approach that distinguish between grit and resilience, David
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explore how knowledge can fundamentally shape one calls identity.
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Welcome to the show David. Hey, thank you for having me.
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Pleasure to be here. Seems like you have a lot going on and you know, you're writing a book, you're running a
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business for listener who are tuning in, you know, how did you decided to start your own
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business? And can you tell us a little bit about the backstory?
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Yeah, sure. So, you know, it's interesting, I grew up in a little town in Minnesota.
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I now live in Nashville, Tennessee. But I was always drawn to people who were business owners and, and really the entrepreneur
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type. I was always fascinated by people that kind of had multiple revenue streams and things like
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that. And I kind of had this idea that someday I would kind of head in that direction, but I
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really didn't have any idea what that might be.
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So about ten years ago, my brother in law called me one day and he said, hey, David, where
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do I get a thermostat guard with a combination lock?
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He said, everybody keeps losing that little key.
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Well, what was interesting is I was actually working for a large telecom chain in
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facilities management and, you know, over, I don't know, multiple states.
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And of course, and, you know, every one of our locations we use thermostat guards because
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everybody kept messing around with the temperature.
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And of course it got pretty costly and caused a lot of problems.
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And I knew of course, when he brought that up, that that lost key problem was a real issue.
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So, long story short, he and I went into business together and developed a product.
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I ended up buying him out shortly after that and then ended up kind of fortuitously getting
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some traction in retail with Home Depot and Lowe's and just recently this year with true
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value hardware. I'm just grateful that I found something that was valuable in the marketplace and I'm one
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of those people that I don't care if I'm selling whatever widget it is.
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I just so appreciate just the, the opportunity, you know, to have product that is valuable
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and that people like. And I think I like being creative.
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I like marketing. I like shaking hands.
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I like selling. I like doing all the things that, you know, that go into selling a widget.
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And again, I'm just grateful I found something that was valuable in the marketplace.
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You know, classic entrepreneur spirit.
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You went all in into your ventures.
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I've been wanted to ask this question, and I think, you know, you probably can answer this
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pretty well. What makes you decided?
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I'm going all in. Like, I don't, just wanted to tiptoe into it.
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If I'm going to do it, I'm going to all in. Can you talk about that mindset a little bit?
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Yeah, you know, it was a little bit of a progression.
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So, you know, initially when, when I started that with a partner, you know, kind of the
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load, as it were, was carried by, you know, two of us, so it didn't necessarily seem as
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scary. What was kind of interesting, though, is there was a point in the business that I had a
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choice to make because our initial distributor went out of business and I had to, you know,
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on my own then say, well, I need to make new, you know, plastics injection molds for this,
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you know, thermostat guard and order some product.
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And, well, of course, that was tens of thousands of dollars.
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And, you know, it's funny, I hang out with a lot of, a lot of people whose risk meter is,
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you know, a ten. And I would say that mine is probably a three or a four.
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So that was a, that was a season for my wife and I that, you know, was, it was difficult
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because in order to do that, you know, we had to, you know, kind of put every penny into
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it. The nice thing is, at that point, of course, we had already sold some products, so I knew
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that it wasn't necessarily that we were going to just completely lose our money.
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At the same time, it wasn't guaranteed that we were going to find placement, you know, real
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quickly. And of course, in retail, which seemed at the time honestly like a complete.
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Pipe dream, what if you think you didn't go all in?
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Like, what do you think would happen? Yeah, you know, I probably would have had, you know, 10,000 thermostat guards sitting in a
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garage still. And, you know, it's, it's a hard thing.
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You know, when, when you say go all in, I think what's really the kind of behind all of
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that is, you know, the person in the mirror, right.
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It's like you're looking in the mirror thinking, do I have what it takes?
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Not just, you know, literally financially, you know, scaring up some cash is not
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necessarily a hard problem. You know, if you have a product that is viable, the real issue quite often is, do I believe
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that I have what it takes to call a billion, multi billion dollar, you know, corporation
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and have that conversation to stand in that room and so out of the gate, you know, I mean,
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yeah, suffered a lot of imposter syndrome and, you know, just a lot of fear.
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And of course, you know, you just push through those things and once you kind of get a win
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here and here, win there, you know, the confidence kind of starts to build and so on.
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At the same time, you know, it was fascinating back then.
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I started doing some deeper work, you know, kind of internal work, building self awareness,
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you know, and that kind of thing as to who I am and who I'm not and to make decisions based
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upon, you know, the things that I value and to show up in a way that's authentic to me and
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not try to parrot, you know, or mimic someone else that I, you know, might have looked up
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to. I really want. I think that was a really interesting season of life.
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I really wanted to operate, you know, in a way that was, yeah, that was me.
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And to build relationships, you know, that were authentic and so on.
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And I still do that, but it was, it was kind of a neat season of life.
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I felt like there were two worlds colliding this, this external world, as it were, of
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entrepreneurship and then this internal world of, you know, me kind of rising into the, you
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know, the, the truest version of myself.
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So it was a real pivotal time of life for me.
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Yeah, that's very interesting. And I think I need to ask you this follow up question, and since you been through the
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experience and obviously don't give us all your secrets, right.
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Working with a larger organization, you know, in your case, maybe a hundred times bigger.
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Like sometimes we, we do come upon something like that, an opportunity.
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Right. So we're in business for a while, so we're doing good work.
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And maybe, you know, a competitor, not a competitor, maybe a company who is 100 times or
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much larger than us to buy from you.
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So obviously the term is most favorable to them.
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Right. You do a lot of things.
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You might need to get more machine, hire more people.
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You know, maybe you have to hold the product development phase for a little bit.
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Can you walk us through that process? Like, how do you make sure that at the end financially, it works for you at the end.
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I'm making money. Right. That's why I'm getting into it.
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And then you're able to produce or perform what they ask of you, like, can you talk to us a
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little bit about that? Yeah. Yeah.
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So I'll kind of tell you the story, really. So I remember the day that I got the call.
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You know, we had had multiple conversations and so on, and I was actually sitting on the
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tarmac at Nashville International getting ready to fly somewhere, and I got the call and,
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you know, they said, hey, David, we would like to move forward.
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We really like your product and we'd like to put you in our stores.
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And the one question from them was, can you do that?
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I mean, really, right. There's a lot of products out there that would sell.
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There's no question, right. The real estate on those shelves is worth a lot of money, and they're responsible not only
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to their own upper management, but to shareholders.
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So they protect that real estate very, very tightly.
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The question of, can you do that?
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It's a really legitimate question, meaning, do you have the money to buy inventory, to
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stock the shelves one time in 2000 stores, let alone keep another 20,000 units sitting
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around to restock in another container on the water?
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Do you understand supply chain management?
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Are you well capitalized in order to pull this off?
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And it's funny is in that moment, I remember listening to Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic,
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and he said, when an opportunity comes your way, say yes and figure it out.
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So in that moment when he asked me, can you do this?
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Well, on a very practical level, the answer was absolutely not.
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I've got a great job, but not only do I not have the business acumen to pull that off, but
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I didn't have the capital. But I said, absolutely.
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And it was interesting how, you know, the other opportunities kind of presented themselves.
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So I ended up finding a partner and licensing my product to them.
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And they've been a really great partner for, I guess, seven years now.
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So they handle retail, you know, for me and then, you know, other in manufacturing and so
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on, and then I can, you know, use those same units to sell elsewhere as well.
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So it's been a really, really great opportunity.
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And I remember, by the way, one of my mentors, it would have been his birthday today.
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He passed away a few months ago. His name is Dan Miller and he wrote the book 48 days to the work you love and no more
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Mondays. And I'm just a wonderful human being, but I remember when I got that call, I called Dan,
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and he'd been there, done that.
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He was an older man who'd been around the block a lot, kind of started asking me really
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helpful questions and starting to identify the gaps and, you know, things and people that I
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needed to, you know, to partner with and so on.
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And it's amazing, you know, this idea of saying yes to something and figuring it out.
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It's not how, you know, or there's that book.
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Right? Who, not how. It's rarely how.
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It's quite often who are the who's, you know, that you need in your life to help you enter
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that next, you know, that next phase and level up.
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I was grateful to have someone hold my hand during that time and help me to find the right
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people. Thank you. David.
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I think you sounds really calm. You make it sound easy, but I think at that time you are running around and thanks for
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sharing that story. It's really wonderful to hear that you answered that call.
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You figure it out. And now you're successful in the products that you do.
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Yeah. And to your point there, right?
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Did I have a lot of sleepless nights?
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You're darn right I did. And I can't tell you how many nights I, you know, laid in bed at three in the morning.
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Like, what in the world am I even doing here?
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And, you know, it's kind of interesting, you know, when you start leveling up to certain
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seasons of life, you know, it's my, by the way, I mentioned earlier this imposter syndrome.
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My friend Chris Kelso, he actually wrote the book overcoming the imposter.
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And in his book it was super helpful for me.
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He said that you need to change your vocabulary from imposter to explorer, meaning if
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you're doing something new, you know, on any level, you're busting new ground, right?
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You're busting sod out west or whatever that is.
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You're not an imposter. Of course you don't have what it takes.
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Of course you don't know what to do. Of course you don't know how to handle something.
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You've never done it before. So you are an explorer.
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And, and that paradigm really started to shift, you know, my ability to lean in and do hard
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things and, and navigate the, you know, the man in the mirror, as it were.
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Yeah, I love that. And I want to use another sports analogy.
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I remember, you know, my daughter, one of her coach in soccer said, you know, you can never
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score a goal if you don't shoot. Like, yeah, you have to try it.
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Like, you'll miss. Right. You know, and then you might not able to score for a while, but if you never shoot, you
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never score. Yeah. And it's, you know, what's interesting, too, is, you know, this idea of shooting and
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scoring. A lot of people, you know, I'll just ask the question, why don't some people take the shot?
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And I think it's because they're just afraid that if they miss, somehow they will be a
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failure. Right. It's kind of an identity statement, you know, it's an internal identity dialogue that's
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happening that if I don't succeed in this area, I am something.
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And if I do succeed, I am something.
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You know, when you really start getting down to the kind of brass tacks, we realize, no,
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I'm not whatever that is.
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Right. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a plumber. I'm not an entrepreneur.
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That might be something that I do that's a context for how I express myself.
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And of course, I'm going to see wins and losses and things like that in, in all areas of
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life. But I think that, you know, when we, you know, are shooting for something big, you know, as
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it were, you know, we tend to have a lot of fear because we're afraid that if we fail that
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somehow we become, you know, something less than.
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And it's that fear that you just have to, honestly, you've got to get up in the morning,
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you know, grab that fear by the back of the neck and throw it out the window and just get
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rid of it because it's unfounded.
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It's a falsehood that we really need to understand for what it is.
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Well, but if you show me a person who miss or fail in what we're talking about but still
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remain in the game, I would say that person do the experience.
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Imagine that you're shooting, you're missing a.
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You still at it. So then, you know, that I learned from my mistake.
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Maybe I have to do this better or maybe I have to prepare in a different way so I could get
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better. So I would assure you that, you know, that person had that experience and eventually, you
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know, they're going to get better. Yeah. Yeah, I love that.
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And it's, you know, who do you want advice from, right?
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You want somebody who's got some scars. You want somebody who's been, you know, down the path and been punched in the face a few
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times and, you know, kept getting up. And quite often we, you know, we look to the people for advice that look all shiny and
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fancy and this and that, and it's just, it's a big facade.
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I want somebody who, who can look at me and say, david, I know where you've been.
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You know, you've got this. It's, it's going to be okay.
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And let's do this. This lead on to a great segue.
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You know, David, you have talked about the mentor that you have, and I know that you
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belongs to a couple of different mastermind group.
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And you put this on the notes that you sent me, and I think it really resonated with me.
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And elaborate on this, please. You became the people you spend the most time with.
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Why do you say that? And how do you think that really changes?
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By spending time with the right people.
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Yeah. So I got that from Jim Rohn.
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You know, you become, like the top five people you spend the most time with.
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Well, here's, here's, I'll just kind of drill into the ground, you know, why is that a law
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like gravity? Well, guess what?
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Those of us who have children, you know, we know very instinctively we don't want our
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children hanging out with the wrong crowd.
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Right. I don't want my kids hanging out with the thugs.
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I don't want my kids hanging out with people who look like you're going to rob somebody.
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Why? Because we know full well that our children will be, you know, they're going to rub off.
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So. But here's the funny thing. We often don't think about that for ourselves.
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You know, life kind of gets busy and, you know, you just, you become more of a human doing
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than a human being, and you don't think about some of those things.
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And I, what's amazing is, and I'm not saying that we can't have friends and acquaintances
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and so on, but that inner circle, the people that you let into your inner world, the people
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that you talk about, your dreams and goals and gaps and wins and pitfalls and struggles and
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things like that. You want people that are going to tell you the truth.
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You want people that are doing hard things. You want people that have some grit inside of them that are leaning in not only asking for
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your help, but saying, you know what, David? I want to help you cross the finish line.
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Let's do this. So it's a big deal.
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You know, again, those, the people that you let into that inner world.
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Yeah. I think you could put in a lot of different examples by what you just said.
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You know, for example, I'm in sales, right?
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So maybe there is an industry that I know nothing about.
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Like, if I go to people that seems to know what they're doing it.
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If I hang out with them long enough, I will probably learn more about that industry, learn
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more about the pitfall that I shouldn't be stepping in first.
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As with the kids example, our kids makes a joke.
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We're asian, say, oh, we only want to hang out with people who get AIDS.
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Right? It's kind of a joke, but we're nodding at the end.
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But not just for the AIDS, but a good person, good human being.
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Like people who, using elementary school analogy, the teacher said, you want people who,
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who fill your bucket, and you don't want people who dip into your bucket.
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So I think that really sticks into my mind, like, so simple.
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And then they teach it in, I think, kindergarten, but I still use that, you know, you want
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people to fill your bucket, so eventually, you know, you could share, you know, the.
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The water in your. In your bucket, so you know that what comes around goes around.
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Yeah, I love that. It's. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's interesting.
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There's some people, you know, when you come in contact with them that they have a, there's
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a generousness about their spirit.
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You know, there's a. They're, they seem like they're full and they're kind of just splashing out everywhere, as
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opposed to some people that you're around who are a bit more fear based.
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And, you know, they guard their words.
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They're, they're, they're really. It's like their eyes are just looking at themselves all the time, as opposed to looking at
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opportunity and ideas and, hey, what does that person need?
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And how can I, you know, connect that dot or do that kind of thing?
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And I. Yeah, that's a, it's a real paradigm, you know, shift, you know, for some folks, and I'm
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with you, though, that this idea that someone would, you know, add to the bucket, you know,
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as it were, as opposed to take away, is.
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It's almost kind of, it seems kind of, I don't know, hateful or something, to say that out
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loud. But guess what?
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That's the reality. That's the world we live in.
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And I think sometimes if you look hard enough, you could find the people that you think are
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close to you, and sometimes that will be scary.
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So, especially if we are depressed or if we feel the failure, if you look, there are a lot
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of people who looks like you. But ask yourself, do you want to be in that stage for a long period of time?
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And sometimes we have to break our own circle, because if you say you're going to be better
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if you say, let's say, for example, you want to quit smoking, then stop hanging around with
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people who smoke. Yeah. Yeah.
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Isn't that funny? That's a good way to, good way to put it.
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I remember for a, cease was back in my twenties.
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I started hanging out with some people who just seemed to complain a lot.
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And it was kind of funny. Like, there was, I mean, we would even go to a restaurant and nothing was ever good enough.
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They complained to the waiter about something, or I, you know, things like that.
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Not that there aren't moments where you might need to say something, but it was such a
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pattern. And I found myself, like, you know, trying to avoid them.
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And after a few months, I'm like, I don't want to.
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I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be somebody who's always looking for, you know, the negative and other
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people are looking for mistakes or things like that.
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And I felt like their radar that was up was, you know, kind of this dark cloud as opposed
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to, you know, man, I wonder if there's, this person needs me.
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Like, how can I encourage them? How can I, you know, give, give life to them?
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Let's talk about self awareness. I think this is a really important piece, not only to young people, to entrepreneur.
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It just, we're going through a lot, right?
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Every day we have operations that we handle, maybe we have families that we have to take
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care of, and then we have some alone time.
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And then I feel sometimes I catch myself, too.
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I talk down to myself. But if I know that with your example, if I hang out with people I know, that will cheer me
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up. And if I hang out with people I know, always they will have something smart to say.
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You know, if I listen to them just maybe talk for 510 minutes, I feel better.
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So how do you think that self awareness piece comes to mind, you know, for entrepreneur?
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Oh, man, great, great question. I think that, you know, there's, there's a, it might be one of the things that's missing
22:11
most in people. And so, you know, that's, which is kind of a big, a big statement to make.
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Let me dip into these waters this way.
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My favorite quote is by a guy named Benjamin Disraeli.
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And he says, the greatest good you can do for another is not to share with him your riches,
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but to reveal to him his own.
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So ultimately, what is self awareness?
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So if someone were to ask you the question, who are you?
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Well, what, what do you describe?
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Right? Are you, are you. Well, I am a plumber.
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I am a lawyer. I am a roofer, whatever.
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Oh, no, you're not. That might be what you do for a living.
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In fact, there's a funny movie called anger management that.
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Where they. They have a moment, you know, where this guy Dave sits down, you know, who are you?
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And he starts describing, you know, what he does.
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Wait, no, no, no. I want to know who you are, Dave.
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And he's, you know, it's Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler.
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It's absolutely hysterical. But it's.
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It's funny because I think as a society, we really kind of resonate with that, right?
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We become identified.
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Right. The word identity by extrinsic descriptions or nomenclature.
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Like, you know, we let other people define us.
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So one of the things that I do when I coach people, I work closely with doctor Andy
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Garrett, and I, he has a program that he called the true north blueprint.
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And I love this idea of true north versus magnetic north.
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Magnetic north, like a compass. You walk into a room, as it were, and the compass is kind of bouncing back and forth trying
23:53
to find north, and it's literally reading the magnetic field around it.
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Well, we often do that when we enter a room, and we're just kind of reading the room to see
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where do I fit in? And, you know, and if we're in a really bad place, it's like we're wanting someone.
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Would you please just tell me who I am or tell me that I'm good enough or, you know, we're
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looking for this extrinsic validation, and not that we don't need some of that, of course,
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but the true north is what?
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True north is a plumb line.
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Like, back in the day, right? They didn't have a level when they built a house.
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They literally used a plumb line, which is way more accurate than a level.
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It's literally 100% vertical.
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So, inside of us, when we describe, for instance, core values, and I like to say, what is
24:48
it that your core. I'm talking the essence of who you are, what does your core happen to value the most of all
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the roughly maybe 80 english words that describe core values, what are the hierarchy of
25:04
those things? And it's fascinating because those of us who've done some work in this area, if you start
25:12
identifying core values, convictions, they're different.
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What do you believe is right and wrong? Virtues.
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Virtues? Is this idea of what type of a dent do I want to have on someone else?
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It's outward focused. What is it that I like to say by the way, what is it that gives your goosebumps goosebumps.
25:30
What is it that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up in a good way?
25:34
What is it that puts that lump in your throat in a good way?
25:38
What is it that breaks your heart? What is it that you're willing to die for?
25:43
What is it that you're willing to live for?
25:46
When you start describing all of these things, guess what?
25:50
It's going to look very, very different from the person next to you.
25:54
And when all of those various things start colliding, right?
25:58
That's who you are. The context might be your career.
26:03
Right? The context might be whatever happens in your home.
26:06
The context is what we're doing right now. I'm having a conversation with somebody that I've never met in person, but I'm bringing, I
26:14
hope, the fullest expression of who I am, you know, to have a great impact on you and your
26:21
audience. And so self awareness is way more valuable than.
26:29
Yeah, than most things. And I'm going to actually dip my toe in the philosophical, spiritual waters here for a
26:36
minute. So the question is, where do we get the word authenticity?
26:40
Right? It comes from the word authorization.
26:43
We did not make us. Right?
26:46
I didn't make me. I didn't choose my eye color.
26:49
I didn't choose my taste buds. Guess what?
26:52
I didn't choose my personality. And those of us who have children know that our kids come out of the gate very different,
26:59
very hardwired. Within just weeks and months, you can tell, you know, their sweet little essence is so
27:05
different. And as children are growing, they're not thinking, you know, like you and me.
27:11
They're not thinking about being authentic. They're not thinking about, you know, their place in the world.
27:17
They're just doing their deal and acting out of alignment with who they are.
27:21
When life happens, right, they get slapped around a little bit and they get hurt.
27:26
Well, then you start to question, well, maybe I'm not enough.
27:28
Maybe, you know, I don't have what it takes.
27:31
Maybe the things that I love are I'm going to get laughed at.
27:35
I mean, you, you know, we start to question all of that stuff.
27:37
Well, then you go through this phase, and doctors call it, you know, in your late teens,
27:41
early twenties, self actualization.
27:44
Well, I'll be honest, I don't. I think some people don't go through that.
27:48
They choose to, you know, they just choose to be a human doing and not a human being.
27:52
And what's neat, though, is when you self actualize and hopefully, you know, you have
27:59
parents, you know, who raise you right, cause you to rise.
28:03
They're asking you questions like, you know, hey, David, what do you value the most in this
28:08
life? Let's get out of pencil and paper and start identifying right identity.
28:13
Literally just writing these things down.
28:15
What is your, what does your core happen to value?
28:18
Let's talk about strengths. Well, let me tell you what I see, right?
28:20
You're holding up a mirror, you know, to those around you saying, do you see what I see?
28:25
This is awesome. And, you know, identity and authenticity is not formed in by answering great questions
28:32
alone. You have to. But it's.
28:35
We're made for relationships. So young people need to be raised.
28:39
They need to be told, hey, dude, you're awesome.
28:43
And I just, I not only love you, but I like you.
28:45
And let me tell you what I like and what I love about you.
28:48
And then they dare to believe that those, you know, the greatest good, you know, those, the
28:54
hierarchy of things in them is worth expressing and exploring and things like that.
28:59
And I just think that's, yeah, that again, self awareness is really, what is it, it's
29:06
labeling the richest parts of you and then living out of that richness and helping others
29:12
do the same thing. Yeah, thank you for sharing.
29:15
I think that topic alone, those two words, can, we can spend another hour just talking to
29:21
you. That I think you're right. You know, your parents, you're going through what the kids are going through.
29:27
And sometimes, you know, with self awareness, you know, now they have self image even for
29:31
entrepreneur, we grown up have an image of what a successful entrepreneur looks like.
29:37
They gotta have their private jets, they're gonna have like seven cars, they're gonna have
29:41
all these watches. But maybe that's, that's good.
29:45
It's nice to have, but you don't need all that to be able to be successful.
29:49
You know, a lot of people that names we might never heard of are very successful
29:55
entrepreneur only. If you get to know that industry or in that category, then you find these famous people who
30:02
you might never heard of. And I think by going through the awareness and a lot of time, our image, especially with
30:10
the day and age of social media, we have to appear to be success on our social media posts
30:16
and we have to have all this and that. We have something like that.
30:19
I think it kind of messes people up.
30:21
Like in that case, if you have your mentor, you develop your skills in the old days and you
30:28
develop maybe 510 years, then you on your road to success.
30:32
But now with social media, you have to be like that in the next 30 days.
30:37
If not, you fail. That's right. Sometimes we get people tell us that.
30:41
Sometimes I think it messes up the self awareness because as you mentioned, David, it will
30:48
take your time to go through that search.
30:50
Maybe to talk to the right people, maybe to fail a couple of times to be able to find who
30:57
you really are. And if you ask kids, teens, what a call value are, you know what they would say?
31:03
I don't know. Well, most adults don't know.
31:07
Honestly, it's really stunning when you start walking into these waters with people how
31:12
kind of, you know, kind of clammed up they get because it's, you know, they don't know how
31:17
to answer these questions. So here's what's fascinating.
31:19
You talk about success, you know, like I like that question.
31:23
What is your definition of success?
31:26
Well guess what? If you don't know who you are and what you value, right?
31:32
Your definition of success, your, your view of the world and identity and authenticity and
31:37
all that kind of stuff, it's going to be somebody else's and it's not going to be yours.
31:43
What's really fascinating is when Doctor Andy says, how do you know when you have
31:49
identified who you are and you start living from that place?
31:53
Well how about this? How do you know you haven't found it?
31:56
Well, anxiety, depression, avoidance apathy, social anxiety.
32:04
There's so many negatives that, that come with living outside of your own soul.
32:10
Well how do you know you found it? Well, you start to feel genuine, you start to feel free, you start to feel natural.
32:16
You start to enter situations in groups of people with, you know, a generousness as opposed
32:22
to, you know, a twelve year old standing in the corner like, you know, pick me, pick me.
32:27
So self awareness is absolutely vital.
32:30
You will never find success unless you are self aware.
32:34
How about this? What if you are living a successful life but you haven't given name to it?
32:44
Literally, you might have actually stumbled into a successful life.
32:49
Your family is happy and healthy, you're doing activities that you enjoy, you're using your
32:55
strengths to the fullest. But if you've not done the work, if you've not done the self awareness work to give those
33:01
things value and to hold weight to them and to name them, you won't be experiencing the
33:09
fulfillment that you're looking for. So it's kind of a complex subject in a lot of ways.
33:16
If you don't have self awareness, guess what your definition of success might be?
33:20
Joe Rogan's. It might be your dad's.
33:22
It might be your brother's, it might be whatever political figure you happen to look up to.
33:27
But once you. Again, once you've identified that plumb line, you've identified the goosebumps, you've
33:33
identified what you value, all that stuff.
33:36
All of a sudden, you know, success starts to look like something, and you can relax into
33:41
it, as opposed to white knuckle your life and try to generate something.
33:45
Yeah, I agree 100%, David.
33:47
And to the listener, you could have self awareness, the discussion inside your head in
33:53
different stages. Right? So when we talk about success, you know, for some people, $500,000, it's.
33:59
A lot of money, is successful, you know, but sometimes we have billionaires who have $5
34:03
billion things, they're not successful. So I think if you haven't figured out that part, do you spend some time on it to do that?
34:12
Because if you, let's say you are Elon Musk for a day, right.
34:15
Do you really want to go through all the things that he's going through in a daily basis?
34:20
Yeah. It's your relationship.
34:23
Or if you're little hobbies that you have, are you able to have time to do all those
34:27
hobbies? So even if you trace spot with whoever you think is successful, like, do you really want
34:33
that already for it today? Yeah.
34:35
You know what? You know, it's interesting. I'll just be a little bit vulnerable here.
34:38
So. So, a couple weeks ago, I bought a pickup from my brother in law, and it's.
34:44
It's 19 years old. It's, you know, it's almost two decade old pickup.
34:50
It's kind of rusty in the bottom and this and that, but I really liked it, and I wanted it.
34:56
Could I go buy a new truck? Well, sure, but.
34:59
So today, my wife was. She loves going to estate sales and yard sales and to, you know, thrift stores and
35:05
everything else. And I told her about a week ago, I said, hey, I kind of want to get one of those cabinet
35:11
things that sits in the back of a pickup. You can put your tools in, and I don't even know what you call those, but.
35:17
So Lisa was over at goodwill this morning, and she sends me a picture of this toolbox,
35:23
whatever, and she says, hey, you know, I think this will fit your truck.
35:27
It's only $30. And so here's.
35:30
Here's my definition of success today.
35:32
Right again. Could I go buy a truck and a, you know, one of those bed tool holder things?
35:38
Yes. My definition of success is my wife gets a total kick out of finding something at a thrift
35:45
store that I like, that's just.
35:48
She loves doing that. And I know full well that when she takes a picture and I'm like, way to go.
35:55
That's awesome. Like, she just lights up.
35:57
I found David something that he kind of likes. Like, she get.
36:00
She gets totally jazzed about that.
36:02
And I would much rather have that experience driving a 19 year old pickup with a dollar 30
36:08
tool holder, whatever, in the bed of the truck that Lisa found, because it brought her joy,
36:14
right? And a lot of people would think, wait a second.
36:17
If I don't have the latest and greatest everything, people are going to think that I'm
36:21
poor, or people are going to think that I'm not successful.
36:24
Guess what? I have a wife of 25 years who loves me.
36:28
I've got a son who just finished his first year in college who's just a magnificent human
36:34
being. I've got a daughter who I get to do concerts with.
36:37
I'm a vocalist, and she's a first chair violinist at Vanderbilt at Children's orchestra.
36:42
You know, the love that we share as a family inside of our modest home and the quality of
36:51
conversations and the bond that we have is so far superior to whatever pickup or whatever
37:03
object of choice, you know, that you could name that would somehow give me one dopamine hit
37:09
from somebody, you know, giving me the look like, oh, nice truck, dude.
37:13
You know, but guess what? That has come.
37:17
Because I've been through some hard times.
37:20
I've been through some fire. I've been.
37:22
I've been through a furnace of sorts that's.
37:24
That's burned away some of that silly stuff in my heart.
37:28
Back in my twenties and thirties, I guess what? I probably would have appreciated a really nice truck.
37:33
And because I would want people to think that somehow David Osk has arrived.
37:37
Now my badge of honor is driving an old pickup where the stereo doesn't even work and
37:44
there's a tape deck in it. And my wife just found me a $30 tool holder that I don't even know what the name of that
37:49
thing is, because it gives her joy.
37:52
I feel like that moment today, especially when I go out there and, you know, in the
37:57
driveway here and put it in there, and she gets the joy of seeing the expression on my
38:02
face, that's rich.
38:06
You know what I mean? That is rich.
38:09
And it has nothing to do with money, has nothing to do with anything, except I have a great
38:16
relationship with lisa. I'll say one other thing here, too, and I forget where I first heard this.
38:21
So I think that if someone wants to start this journey of self awareness.
38:27
I'll just make a big truth claim here and I'm quoting someone else and I just forget who it
38:32
is. But they said that life is all about relationships, period.
38:37
It is, period. Like the entire point of the human existence is relationship.
38:45
And what's really fascinating is the rest of it can be a really nice context.
38:51
I mean, some of it's actually pretty horrible, but there's a lot of beauty and stuff in
38:56
life. But when you put the relationship, well, hopefully with you and God first, and then that
39:01
relationship with me, myself, and I. Right.
39:03
Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Get to know who you are and the riches that God put in you, then you know what you can give
39:13
away. You know what's inside of you to hand to someone else.
39:18
And that's when life starts getting really rich.
39:21
The rest of it is just a context to experience relationship in.
39:26
Thank you so much for sharing, David. Like, you open a big box of question that I can no longer being general and individualized
39:36
for that question. So for a listener who really wanted to ask you more about finding themselves, what the
39:43
success looked like, what would be the best way to reach out to you?
39:46
And can you talk a little bit more about your new book?
39:49
Oh, yeah. Thank you. So I'm writing a book called the Guardians of Grit, and I'm really excited about it.
39:56
There's a larger movement that I'm working on with some partners here, but this book is
40:01
largely driven toward men, to dads.
40:05
Again, it's going to benefit anybody, but it's this idea of what is grit?
40:11
Well, grit is I'm going to do hard things over a long period of time, because what's on the
40:17
other side of the hill, as it were, is worth fighting for.
40:21
Why is grit important? It's because your life is built on decisions.
40:26
If you don't have the ability to make decisions in the face of fear and hardship, you're
40:31
not going to have a good life, period.
40:34
And if you do have the ability to do hard things over a long period of time, you're going
40:39
to build not only a home, right?
40:42
You're going to build a castle. You're going to build a kingdom.
40:44
That's really fun to live in. And again, back to the book here.
40:49
It's like this idea of a guardian. Well, what is that?
40:51
What's a guardian of grit? A guardian of grit is kind of what I alluded to earlier.
40:56
It's someone who is holding up a mirror, you know, to their son or daughter or to their,
41:01
you know, the athlete, if they're a coach, right, to their, if they're a mentor to whoever
41:05
they're mentoring, and they're saying something like, hey, look at this.
41:09
Do you see what I see? You know, let me.
41:12
Let me mirror back to you the riches that I see in you and validate those things.
41:17
It's if you see something, say something.
41:19
And again, it's not nice shoes or nice shirt. It's you're galvanizing and validating character strengths and those things that, again,
41:29
convictions, values, virtues, goosebumps, all that kind of stuff you're saying, hey, by the
41:33
way, when you said this yesterday, that was awesome.
41:36
I hope you do more of that. So I'm really excited about that.
41:39
And as far as getting a hold of me, my website is David, ask David a s K.com and you can
41:46
email me@helloavidask.com.
41:48
Dot David, thank you so much for coming onto the show today.
41:53
Like, we had discussed a lot of open ended question.
41:57
There's no right or wrong. And I think, you know, the most important takeaway that I, that I have for everyone today
42:03
is, you know, just to really go through our self awareness journey and, you know, really
42:08
find out who you are. Do you really want seven cars or do you only like, David won one car that he wanted, and
42:16
then he will be happy. So it could save you a lot of money, too, at the end.
42:21
Yeah, that's right. Sure can.
42:23
Yeah. Thank you so much for coming onto the show today.
42:26
Pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to the show.
42:31
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends or
42:36
colleagues who might benefit from the conversation.
42:39
Any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.
42:43
I'd love to connect with you.
42:45
00 p.m.
42:50
pacific standard Time. I'll see you next time.
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