Secrets of a Serial Entrepreneur & Pivoter with David Hackett

Welcome to the Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, best selling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markell. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your Conscious Pivot.

Welcome, everybody. Welcome back to the Conscious Pivot. Man, I am just jazzed today. I've got a dear, dear friend on the other end of this thing, which is way cool, and he's got an incredible story to share. I know you guys are going to be in a great position wherever you are right now. Buckle your seat or take your seatbelt off, get comfortable, whatever it is, strap in, strap out, because we're going to go on a little bit of a ride. And this gentleman, this. This gentleman is the perfect person to help us navigate that ride. He is a. I'm going to say it, a skateboarding legend. He and I, before we hit the record button and talking about the Skateboard hall of Fame, which he was instrumental in getting that thing up and running and emceed it for a number of years. But I don't want to be the one to talk about him. You guys know my style. Prefer to pass the baton and let our amazing guests share what's important to them as opposed to some canned introduction. So, David Hackett, welcome to the Conscious Pivot. And if you could share a little bit about what jazzes you up, a little bit about what you're. You know, I don't know that the word pride is a great, great word in my. In my dictionary. So I'm gonna change that word and say, you know, what's. What's something about your history, about your past that you feel good about, that you feel like you showed up big, you served big, and maybe the results were great, maybe the results were less than what you expected, but share a little bit about yourself, if you could, David, and thank you.

Well, thank you so much, Adam. It's such an honor and a pleasure to be here with you. And I love you and Randy, you guys are just such awesome people, and I just love hanging out with you guys. Your energy is just amazing. And so every time that my wife Zanna and I have the ability to hang out with you, we just love it. And you're just awesome. And so I really appreciate you inviting me to the show today. And. And so you know a little bit about myself. You know, I grew up in Malibu, and I learned to surf and skateboard at a very early age. And I grew up around considerable wealth and, you know, all the movie stardom and stuff like that. Just to give you an idea, my best friend growing up was Chad McQueen, Steve McQueen's son. So I hung out at the McQueen household a lot when Steve and Ally McGraw were together, and. And Chad and I were on the Malibu skateboard team. And, you know, I've been through. I've pivoted a lot in my lifetime. And that, to me, as we've spoken about, is really about taking what we all know as a given change and being able to utilize that change either instantly or incorporating it into. Into my life in such a way that it's going to support not only my lifestyle, but my family and more importantly, my heart and my path in this journey of life, you know, so growing up in Malibu and, you know, hanging out, surfing and skateboarding, I thought I was pretty good, but I didn't know how good I was until I entered the 1975 Hang 10 World Championships, and I ended up winning first place in the junior men's slalom. So at 15, I was instantly a world champion, and I instantly had sponsors, travel requests. I was doing demonstrations. By the time I was 16, 17 years old, I was making 10 grand a month. Skateboarding. That was big money back then in 1976 and 1977. So I was able to start investing the kind of money that I had and time into the things that really made my heart single. So I was, you know, and I'm also an adrenaline junkie, you know, So I was going skydiving and, you know, water skiing and racing motorcycles and doing anything and everything where you could almost die but live, you know what I mean? Like, I. Dude, I know I've been on a surfboard.

I've been on a surfboard. Surfboard next to you. And so I can surf together.

And it's awesome, right? So, I mean. And I believe for a fact, you know, that anytime you can experience, you know, almost dying, but living and being in control. I mean, I don't have a death wish, but I definitely like to do stuff that's more dangerous than others. And I feel that life is really real there. And it also takes a tremendous amount of consciousness of being right there in the moment, in that second, so that you don't die or get hurt. You know what I mean? And that's really living to me. So in my journey of going along in this professional skateboard world. My first major pivot came when in the life of any professional athlete, you only have so much time where you can be that professional. Whether you're a football player, basketball player, hockey, whatever, your time's limited. So you really got to cash in, and you really got to figure out what you're going to do after that all comes to a close, you know. So I turned pro in 1975, and I went around the world three or four times. I won a couple more championships, had all these sponsors and everything. But by the time I was 19, skateboarding died as an industry. So there I was at 19 years old, without a job, without a future, without a career, and I had to really figure out, what am I going to do? What does this change, this pivot going to look like?

So you knew you had to reinvent something about yourself at 19. That's early to be working on reinvention.

It was early, and it was scary, you know, because I didn't. I quit school and ran away from home to pursue a professional skateboarding career. My parents, they were not in support of that at all. Absolutely never. They wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer, you know, so you.

Dude, you were all in. I mean.

And that's what it takes to be one of the best. That whatever it is that you're going to do, you have to be all in, mentally, spiritually, physically, the whole thing. And I committed completely to that. And as a result, it was very successful in skateboarding. Okay. But at 19, what was I going to do? The industry collapsed. So, you know, people were making millions of dollars selling skateboards and wheels and stuff. Overnight, that was gone. Okay. So I had actually had a friend who was professional skateboarder, but he had a house painting company. And sometimes while I was skateboarding professionally, he would ask me if I wanted to work when I was home from trips and stuff like that. And he taught me how to paint houses. And so I went to work for him, and I started running a painting crew in Malibu. So what we did was we advertised ourselves as professional house painters specializing in beach house preservation. Because when a house is on the beach, on the sand, it's susceptible to all that salt water and wind and weather and waves, and it really needs a lot of upkeep. Well, we specialized in keeping that home looking beautiful, and we were able to charge lot of money for house painting. So we looked at it as more of an art than it was a job. And being painters, we would never have that vision or that focus of Us being lowly painters, I was just. No, we were artists painting your home, which is our canvas, and we were charging you a lot of money to do so. And most of our clients. I mean, I painted Streisand's house, Nicholson's house, Larry Hagman, Paul Mislanski, all these big producers and actresses. And, I mean, it was amazing. And we were making literally thousands and thousands of dollars every week. It was awesome, right? So that was the first major pivot that I did. And soon after that, I got a call from a guy that I was starting to make art and stuff like that. And I was using my skateboard wheels to make these paintings, oil on canvas, and I was using my skateboard as a brush. And that turned into a whole thing in and of itself. And I met this guy, a Venice artist, contemporary artist from Venice, a guy by the name of Jim Ganzer. And he was starting to get really popular in his own art world, you know, and with his art. And he asked me if I would like to work for him, prepping his canvases and being kind of like his. You know, just kind of go for a guy, you know, an apprentice, really, you know, and it just so happened that he. In that same year, it was in the early 80s, he developed and designed a. Because he's a surfer also, like me, so we surfed a lot together. But he designed a short that had a Velcro waistband, so if you gained a couple of pounds and your shorts felt tight, you could loosen them up with this Velcro. It was really cool, you know. He called the company Jimmy Z. And I started working with him on this project. And within our second year, we were doing $20 million a year. So that was a major pivot for me because I was able to take my entire skateboarding background and all the people that I knew in skateboarding and build a skateboard and surf team using this company as our umbrella. And so that helped promote the product, and we went worldwide. It was an international success. In our fourth year, we were doing $40 million in sales. And it was unbelievable. It was just a crazy ride. And there I was. I was the art director, and it just turned out to be this incredible thing. And I'm making, like, almost 200 grand a year, you know, and so that was another major pivot in my life. And it was so much fun, I gotta tell you. Just going to all the trade shows and hiring the models and designing and developing the T shirts and the fabric prints, and I just was open to this whole new world where I had to learn really quickly on how to do this stuff. And along the path, I ended up winning this 1989 Tommy Award for men's sportswear in fabric prints because I did this fabric print using my skateboard. And we called it Rollerball and it ended up selling over a million yards of this fabric. And so all of a sudden I won this huge award and now I'm like this, like award winning artist designer. I was like, wow, this is great, you know, so that was another major pivot and we had an amazing time. Unfortunately, we didn't really know anything about business, especially in the, the rag business. You know, apparel business is really tough and there's, there's a lot of slimy people in that business. Yes, we got taken to the cleaners here and there and, and we mismanaged the business because we didn't know we were doing, you know, it was just all off, you know, the hip of our pocket. You know, we just, we just pretty much were really lucky, you know, and we ended up selling the company to Ocean Pacific Sunwear OP at the time because they were our major competitor. So they bought us out and shut us down. Of course, they made us all these promises like, oh, you're still going to be able to do all this stuff, and we just want you to be, you know, just a parent, you know, a sister company to us. And that was all bull. But anyway, they bought us out, paid off all our debt, and we walked away with a little bit of change. And then I knew it was time to pivot again. You know, it was like, what am I going to do?

Right?

And I had built this portfolio there of all the design work that I had done. And so I immediately thought, you know, I'm going to open up my own design studio. And so I rented a space in Westwood. It was about, I don't know, less than 1500 square feet. It was essentially two rooms and a bathroom. And I ended up actually kind of camping out there and making a go at it, opening my own design firm. And I went to a trade show and had this huge portfolio, made some cards, and within a week, I was in business. I went and I landed this big job with Speedo America, and I ended up designing their first young men's sportswear line. I had no clue what I was doing, but I got a partner, and he was a little bit of an apparel designer. And I had all the graphic stuff going. And together we put this thing together. And our first gig was like 120 grand. We were right back in business, on the next journey. And it was awesome. I ran that for about 10 years and had a lot of fun, designed a lot of stuff, met a lot of people, and it all kind of. As we talk about what is pivoting and how does it work, to me, it's really taking advantage of, okay, here's an open door, and I have all this history, and a lot of it can match up with what the future is going to be. If I go through this door, a lot of dots are going to connect. And I knew it's like, have you ever heard people say everything that you're doing now is just a stepping stone to what you're going to be doing later? Well, that's true if you take advantage of your pivot. Right, Right.

And especially if you look backwards. Right. So if you look in retrospect at your life from this point, backward things line up, don't they? I mean, the dots are all connected.

But if I wasn't clean and clear and had an open mind, okay, to see that door open and to see that pivot that could happen and take advantage of that, it wouldn't happened. Do you know what I mean?

Like, I know exactly what you mean. What I'm thinking is that a lot of people listening or watching this are thinking to themselves. Yeah, that makes sense. And yet getting clarity is one of the most difficult things for people. That's why we love the book, because the book gives people pretty comprehensive and concise way to create clarity, which is. Which is really amazing. And that's part of why we created online programs for that sort of thing, too. Because a lot of folks go, man, I just don't. I just wish I knew what I wanted. Like, they just don't know what they want. And then there's some folks that want so much that their issue is, how do I focus on just one thing? Like, I've got all these ideas. You got on two extremes. You got folks that have so many ideas and don't know which one they want to put their focus on, so. Or they try to, you know, play six different things at the same time, playing six instruments at the same time, and they're not good at any one of them. Right. And then on the other end of the extreme, you got folks that they've convinced themselves or for whatever reason, they. They're just unclear. They don't know what they actually want to do. And so then they just continue down the road of, well, if I can't make a decision for myself one way or the other, I'll just let somebody else make that decision for me, which is, you know, kind of call the job. Yeah, job. You don't have to worry about too much other than what do I have to do. What's the, what's the minimum that I can get away with doing to earn my paycheck? Yeah, that's, you know, the definition on some level of mediocrity or that's how media shows itself.

I could never live like that. I mean, for me, I could never go and have a job, you know, However, I have probably five times more responsibility being an entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur. I'm not just, I don't just have one business, I have multiple businesses. Because you're right, I have a hard time deciding what it is I'm going to be when I grow up or what it is I should do to make my heart sing or to make money. So my thing is do it all. You know what I mean? Yeah, but, but in a balanced manner so that it all supports itself. Every single business I have intertwines with each other. So they all support each other.

Yes. So this is, this is part of the theme that I wanted us to kind of unearth through our conversation, which is that if you're going to be a serial entrepreneur, what's the, what's, what have you learned about how to do that successfully? What can you share with others that may have that same gene? The gene of, you know, I've got multiple things I'm interested in. I have multiple talents. Where do they play together and how does it, how do they play together profitably? Because clearly you're not distracted. Clearly you can't run several businesses or be involved in different ventures if you can't do them each well. I mean, if you couldn't do them well.

Right.

Wouldn't be in any business.

Right.

And I know a lot of people that, that's their experience of things because they don't know how to. And I don't want to use the word juggle or multitask. I think those are overused terms and they don't really. And they're not really even positive. Like we don't think of those things as possible trades, master of none, that type of thing you can be excellent on at different things and have those things cooperate or cross pollinate or that type of thing. I'd love to get your thoughts and some distinctions in that area that would.

Help a bunch of people well, and I totally get that. And that's a really great question that you brought up. Because I think that a lot of people think it's too hard to own a business or run a business or be successful in a business. And the reality is, like, look, when I think of all the businesses that I have and how they work and what they do is one, I got to make money. I got bills, I have responsibilities. You know, I have a wife, I have four kids. I have a huge house, I've got a bunch of cars, I've got. I have a huge nut, okay? I love that because people have entrusted me with, you know, saying, okay, you know, you have bills, we know you're going to pay them, okay? So I have one of those businesses has to make money, okay? So I focus on that one, okay? And then I have other businesses that don't necessarily pay the bills. They do make money and they're in the black. But I do them more because they make my heart sing. I'm not giving up one to be in the other, okay? I'm having it all because I want to do it all, OK? You know, 90% of success is just showing up. There's a lot of people that don't even do that. And if you show up and you're dialed and polished and you've got new ideas and. And you're ready to take whatever it is that you're doing to the next level, you're going to be really successful at whatever it is that you're doing, okay? I think about Leonardo da Vinci a lot. You look at his life and you think, because I consider myself a Renaissance man, okay, I'm an artist, you know, I'm an entrepreneur. I do a lot of different things and I make money at all of them. But the one that I make the most money at, I don't really think of that as a job because once it becomes a job to me, it becomes boring and I don't want to do it. You know, that's the definition, I think, of a job is something that you hate waking up for and despise driving to. Then you have a job. Nobody wants a job.

It's an obligation. I mean, it's obligation, right?

But. But it's not something you're enjoying.

See, I don't know that any obligation is necessarily something that we enjoy. I'm not talking about responsibility. But when you feel obligated to do something, it's not necessarily coming from a place of I choose to or I get to. It's a, I have to, I must. And like you said, then you wake up in the morning with an Energy of, I have to do this, I must do this. I. I'm obligated to do this. And if the only thing that's obligating you is paying your bills, I can say from my own personal experience, having done that for a bunch of years, that ultimately it just. It erodes you.

Oh, yeah.

Your energy just tanks, right?

Yeah. And I've had a nine to five, if you will. You know, I was a creative director at a big web development firm, and, you know, I'm making 180 grand a year, and. And it just wasn't even enough for all the drama and the office politics and the drive, you know, the commute and everything else I had to deal with. It was hell, you know. Yeah, I paid my bills, but at what price? You know, it was terrible. I actually had a party the day I got laid off. I got laid off because there was a big hiring spree in the Internet world, the dot com business. And so when the dot com bubble burst, you know, 300 other people got laid off at that company. I was one of the last to get hired, so I was one of the first to get laid off. But I got a huge severance package, and it just meant that, hey, the next thing is going to be great. I just have to stay open and ready to pivot. Where is it? You know, I'm ready. And I came home, I told my wife, hey, honey, I got laid off today. Let's go have dinner. Look at this check they gave me. You know, and immediately we had had some ideas about doing. Back then, we had some ideas about doing an ebay business. And this is back when ebay started in 2001. And so we invested a lot of that money in product and stuff. And within a month, we had an ebay business that was doing eight to ten grand a month. And, you know, we combined our love of thrift shopping and going to, you know, garage sales and going to the swap meet and buying things and selling them online. And back then, you know, ebay was like the wild west. It didn't have all the rules and regulations and associated fees that it has now. It's very difficult to do an ebay business now. You got to really have a lot of stuff. But back then, it was pretty easy. And that was our pivot then. And so that was the first time my wife and I actually worked together and had a business together, and it was so much fun. I think we did it for about two or three years before we decided that we really wanted to become life coaches. And she was working on her doctorate then and developing the technology that we own now. And that was our second thing together. It was really cool. But getting back to, you know, how does that work? Having multiple things again, I think of Leonardo da Vinci. He never said, oh, no, I'm not going to be an engineer. Oh, no, I'm not going to be a fine artist. Oh, no, I'm not going to be a scientist or a doctor or all the incredible things that he did. The only thing that I see that's holding us back is the lack of time. We only have so many hours every day. We only have so many years on this planet in this lifetime. I need five lifetimes for all the stuff I got to do. I mean, yesterday I was thinking, I want to get my boat captain's license, because I don't want to buy a boat. That's just like having a hole and throwing money into it. But I want to rent yachts. And in order to do that, you got to have a captain's license.

So that's.

Now that's on my bucket list. Captain's license so that I can rent a yacht. Okay.

Yes. Right.

Along with pilot's license.

I love boating, by the way.

Yeah. It's amazing, right?

And I know what the feeling is like, because we own a boat. I've shoveled a lot of cash into the boat.

Oh, yeah. I've owned a boat before. You know, when you own your own boat, you don't need the captain's license.

We can endure the pain of that one together, man. And other people who can commiserate with that one, they know.

They're smiling right now.

They're going, holy shit. What the.

But I mean, there's so many things I want to experience and achieve and do, and, you know, just mastering the guitar. There's one thing, you know, I mean, I want to play in a band, you know, before this life is over. And I want to be pretty good at it, you know? So am I good at playing guitar? No. Do I try? Yeah. Do I have a great time doing it? Absolutely. Do I think I'm Jimmy Page sometimes? Sure. I just don't want you to hear it because it's not good. But I have fun, so, you know, it's not all about making money. It's about having fun along the path, you know?

Well, I think, David, you've brought something up which is kind of cool, and it hasn't come up in a prior podcast. I'm glad it has now, which is this idea of, you know, having A money maker, having, having a business or I guess even a job. I mean, let's not, you know, discount that. That pays the bills, that gets the job done, whatever that looks like for you. And then having this ability to have other interests that are on the side, you pursue that. You don't just allow them to be interested that are, you know, dying on the vine of your life, but are actually fruit that you cultivate. And whether you're going to become Jimmy Page or you're going to make it into a band, or you're simply going to, you know, decide to partner up with a guy who knows how to make guitars and you're going to sell custom guitars. Right. Or whatever it is. I don't think there's a better time in the world than now to be doing that kind of thing because of what the Internet's allowed people access to in the way of resources and obviously people to market to and ways to have conversations and ways to be, to develop your, your, your voice and your, and your brand. I mean, it's just like you can do it almost for free, for crying out loud. If you're willing to do it, do it relentlessly and do it smartly and learn some shit from people that have done it well. Just pay good attention and model what's working.

Absolutely.

You could literally open up a Facebook group tomorrow and start cultivating a relationship with strangers and Facebook live into that group and share what you know about something you love, whether it's playing guitar or it's making guitars. Before you know it, in six months, if you put the time in you and you do it smartly. And that means to me, watching others who are doing it well, doing it successfully, you could have a community of several thousand people and then ultimately create an online product for them of some kind and blink your eyes and it's a year later and you've got something you love and you're interested in and you're making money. And it doesn't necessarily have to be the thing that's doing all the heavy lifting in your life financially. And that's what I'm hearing you say.

Absolutely. I'm all into balance. I mean, you know, Zanna and I, we're both also life coaches and you know, professional business life coaches too. And the thing that we focus on with our clients is fourfold, you know, health, wealth, love and perfect self expression. You got to have your health. I mean, if you don't have your health, everything is really hard to do. Wealth, you got to make money to pay the bills and do the things. You know, having wealth, freedom from, you know, bondage, it really is, you know, money's a great thing, but it's only a tool. It's not everything. I know a lot of people that are billionaires and they're unhappy. You know, wealth doesn't bring happiness. So love, you got to have love. I mean, you got to connect and be, you know, connected, either with a loved one or a family or whatever. We all need that connection, we all thrive on that. We all want to be either helping somebody or connecting with others. And then lastly, perfect self expression, to me, that's playing guitar, I'm expressing what's in my heart, in my soul, things that I want to do. So those four things, health, wealth, love, and perfect self expression, really all connect together. And I think when a human being has those things, they're really whole, you know, And I think because if you just put all your time and energy into making money, it just. Nobody's ever happy just making money.

It's not an authentic life. I mean, they don't want to put words in your mouth. But when I hear that self expression piece, a part of that, what drops in for me is that people are, you're living an authentic life. Like I'm wearing a shirt that says I love my life. And that's not a slogan, that's my intention 24 7. And I don't wear the same shirt 24 hours a day. But if I could, I mean, if we have enough style of shirts which we're developing, I might just wear an I love my life shirt every day, you know, that I'm blessed to be standing upright or whatever, to be alive. And it's because that's the authentic life that I want. And when I, you know, I know why it is on some level that we've connected and why it is that we get each other and enjoy each other's energy is because we both are chasing the same thing, which is the love of our lives, the love of living our fully expressed lives, our authentic lives. I think that's really where the economy, you know, we're talking about lots of things about business and the share economy. There's, you know, terminology has been used for where we are as a society. And I think we're moving in and have already moved into what you might call an authenticity economy or a truth economy, where the generations of people that are making decisions now are on the Internet making buying decisions. And then the ones that are yet to be doing that are so much more Capable of recognizing bullshit when they see it, when they hear it, they can smell it farther away than we could. And because of that, you're on display. I mean, we put our lives on display just by what we do on Facebook and Twitter and in Instagram. I mean, we're displaying ourselves to the world. And that's so we're marketing ourselves all the time. We're putting ourselves out for some reason, I'm not entirely clear on that. I mean, I think there's some really interesting sociological implications of all that. And it's going to be great to see 20 years, 50 years from now what that all kind of looks like. And where does it fit in Maslow's pyramid? Where does it fit in the forgetting Maslow, but just in the movement that our movement as human beings is toward actualization, it's towards self expression, toward the realization of our true, of our truth purpose, our true being. Where does Facebook and Instagram and all the things that we're putting out there in those platforms, where does that fit in the process of us being a more fully realized, actualized, self expressed person? I can't answer that question. But what I can say is that it won't take us very far to be full of shit, to be fake. And that's where I think even from an economic standpoint, where people are making decisions about who they want to hang out with and whose products they want to buy and all that kind of thing, it's going to come from that place of reality, of sort of nakedness, of vulnerability, of honesty, of truth. And yeah, there are people that can portray image of their business or their product or themselves that that is fake. Yeah, and there's definitely that out there for sure. And yet I feel like the best thing that we can do to be better, better at business and better marketing our business is to just be more real, be more of the truth of ourselves and have the express, you know, have that expressed through our product, etc.

Yeah, thinking about it, you know, earlier today I was listening to the radio and they were talking about how, you know, Twitter doesn't really have the kind of traffic that it used to. And it's not really growing. In fact, you know, it's really down in the number of people. And they were really hoping like, you know, Facebook now has over 2 billion users, you know, and when you think about, it's like, okay, so I have a Facebook account, I've got six of them. You know, all my businesses have one. I don't really do Twitter. I have an Instagram account. But when you think about, look, we only have so much time during the day. How much time am I going to use creating content for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, this, that? I mean, at some point, you got to pick and choose what's going to work. A lot of people are just doing that because it's just sheer vanity. They just are putting them. They just can't take enough pictures of themselves. I myself, personally, I try to touch at least one person through a positive message. You know, type something that's gonna really affect somebody in a positive way. I think that's the best thing that social media can be used for, you know, like.

Yeah. And sometimes the message that you convey could be just your challenge. Right. Like, I'm.

Yeah.

You know, whatever it is, it could be the thing that you're dealing with. And your honesty about it might set somebody free to be honest and more open about what's going on with them. Because I was on the phone with somebody earlier today talking about just the numbing that's around. She lives in a very wealthy community, and she's surrounded by people that don't have money issues, but they drink and use drugs all the time. So they're just constantly numbing themselves out, dumbing themselves down, you know, stuffing their emotions. They're just stuff. They don't want to deal with it. And so money didn't cure that. Money didn't cure it. It gave them action, in some ways, made it worse. It made it possible for them to hide. They've got. You know, money is a great tool for a lot of things and some really positive things. And it also has other things that it's capable of doing, which is to mask and, you know, allow people to mask things or hide from things, because they can do that. You know, you can just.

Well, they never hit bottom.

You could stay on Jimmy Buffett time all day long, man.

Exactly.

And, yeah, and bottom looks like, you know, bottom is a different thing to different people. I'm. I'm intrigued about this conversation, but I want to kind of shift. I want to pivot us back for a moment, which is that, you know, you've identified inability to pivot successfully. And what I mean by that is that you keep pivoting when you've pivoted from the age of 19 forward and maybe even earlier than that, you've been able to pivot not necessarily to more money, even though that's happened, or to pivot to greater success, but you've. Looking back and connecting those dots, the progression is an up one is upward. Right. Meaning it's more. You've lived an interesting life, a life filled with a lot of excitement, joy, love, passion. And it's been anything but boring. Right. And so pivoting to this higher ground, to this higher state of self expression has been a process. And I'm wondering whether you can identify what the recipe, and maybe not the whole recipe, but just some of the ingredients in the recipe. And I'll state just two of them that I heard you say. And that is a way to prime the pump. Maybe we'll pull out a few more. One, you said several times open, that you've been open. You used the analogy of an open door, that you've been open, that you've been able to see things, space, opportunities. I mean, if we told everybody listening to this, hey, I've got a magic wand, we're going to give you the magic wand. You can pivot in any area of your life so you could do more of what you want to do and make money doing it and have a lot of fun doing all that kind of thing. Here's the magic wand. Everybody, I believe, would take that magic wand. And the fact is we don't have one of those and we can't give them one of those. So the best we can do is share here, look, I know how to cook this recipe up for myself. I've done that continuously. Like you didn't pivot once. And this is a story about your one pivot. This is a story about a trail of pivots. So what I'm saying is what are the common denominators? What's in that recipe for the resilience that you've had and for the ability to continue to pivot successfully over and over and over again. What's in the recipe?

That's a good question. And like you said, yeah, being open, I think is the very first thing to that equation. Ok. Because I knew that, okay, something's going to happen here. Change is going to happen, obviously in life, in the world, on the planet, in the universe, change is inevitable. Okay? So the earlier that we know how to embrace change and use it to our maximum benefit, the better. Ok? Because it's going to happen. Whether you like it or not, change is going to happen. So remaining open and recognizing there's a change about to take place, that's the first part.

Yeah. So instead of the bumper sticker that said shit happens, right? This is like change happens.

Yeah.

Okay, so what I heard, embrace it. Embrace it.

Embrace the change that's gonna happen. Okay, that's the first part of the pivot. Second part is, okay, recognize the path of where it could go, where it's going, what's happening, what are the possibilities? Make a list of, okay, this is this. I see this door opening. I'm going to embrace that change. Be fearless in that. Okay? So don't let anything get in the way of, you know, your inner voice telling you, this can't happen, it won't happen. It's never going to happen. Get rid of that fear brilliantly and valiantly. Go forward in that, knowing that this is a good thing and it's going to happen. Okay, so that's the other thing. The second thing is, or third thing is I look at, okay, this is probably the direction that my life is going in. So who's doing this already? Who can I model? Okay, So I pick out the number one, number two people that are already doing that in that space, whether it's designing clothing or making an art piece or being a coach or whatever it is that I see this change is going to face and then do what they did. Okay. May not necessarily be the exact results that they're going to get, but if somebody's doing something that I know they're successful at and these are the steps that they took to make them get there, I can do those same steps, and I'm going to probably get the same results.

Right?

So definitely do that model that, do the research, and then throw my own flare of creativity into it that makes me unique and makes the end pivot that I'm going to do my own. You know what I mean? Give it my signature thing. What am I going to do to raise the level of consciousness within that or raise the level of style, that new thing that I'm going to embrace and do, you know, and then really use my connections. You know, they used to say that, you know, there's. What's it called? Six Degrees of Separation.

Yes.

Movie about that. Meaning that, you know, we all know thousands of people and I know, for example, I'm connected to, well, let's just say Brad Pitt, for example. I'm sure that I know one person that's really good friends with Brad Pitt. So if I wanted to get to Brad Pitt and have a conversation with him, if I really racked my brain and went through all my contacts and asked everybody that I know, hey, you know, Brad Pitt, I'm sure one of my friends does. And if that's what I needed to successfully get to the next place that I'M pivoting to. I need to have a conversation with Brad. I know I can make that happen, you know, because it's no longer six degrees of separation, one or two degrees of separation. So using our contacts and what we've already done and who we've already come across to know, that's really huge. Because when it comes down to it, it's all about who you know and what you're willing to do and connect with and take a chance with, you know, so our network is really important. So connecting with you and Randy and people in your network is really important for me and you. Connecting with me and Zan and my wife and our network is really important for you guys, too. We're all connected already. So why don't we use those connections to our benefit to not only help ourselves, but to also help others? That's what we're here for.

Well, don't you think that a lot of people who are pivoting, whether they're being forced to pivot or they're pivoting, because they choose to keep it. Keep it kind of to themselves, you know, the whole comp. That the connotation of pivot sometimes is one of something didn't work, so I had to change. You know, in Silicon Valley, it's the. It's the epitome of, you know, the business model or the app or the, you know, whatever it is crashed or it didn't work, or they. Nobody came. You know, I built it and nobody came.

Right.

And now we are going to change directions, create a business that might actually work. And so it's almost like a word that describes a failure of sorts. And I think a lot of people. I don't know if this is your experience, but a lot of people keep their pivots hidden. They keep the changes that a lot of the things that they will be thinking about changing to themselves for a variety of reasons.

Yeah, I think some people do that. I think some people do that because of, you know, certain industry and trade secrets. Maybe some people are afraid to put it out there, you know, because they feel fear that they're going to be judged because they may be successful or unsuccessful in that pivot, that new business or whatever it is they're doing. I don't know. I say go for it and go for it hard. I mean, I've, you know, I don't ever use the word fail. I have experienced things not being as successful as I would like them to be. So what. What's next? I'm open. I'm ready to change, you know? You know, so I think the combination of being open and always being fearless, ready to change, that's a lethally successful combination.

And then you combine that with a few of the other ingredients here, which are modeling people that have been there and done that, people that have done it well, adding your own signature, your secret sauce to the mix. So it's not just you copying somebody else's thing, which is not authentic, but you putting your signature on it. And then again, getting out there, being big enough, being bold enough to actually use your connections. Because so much about declaring to the universe or, you know, getting on Facebook with a bullhorn and saying, I'm pivoting, I'm changing, start a new business, etc. It's really about who can you connect with or how do you leverage your connections in your network. And you can't do that if you keep it to yourself, right?

Absolutely right.

Who's going to help you? Just, like, if they don't know that you're asking for that support or you're looking to be connected to Brad Pitt? I mean, people probably listening to this go, I don't know anybody that knows Brad Pitt. No, I can't relate to that. Well, the truth of the matter is, if you called every single person in your network and you said, listen, I'm pretty clear that you might not know Brad Pitt. I mean, and if you do know Brad Pitt and you never told me, then you suck. Right? It's like, you should have told me that long ago that you know Brad Pitt. Right? But it's like, well, who do you know that might know Brad Pitt? Because that's how that network thing works, that when you start to think about how many people we each know, that every person, you know has 4, 600, 800 contacts themselves. You know, you start to do the math. You have access to hundreds of thousands of people. Somebody's gonna have somebody that's a PA For Brad Pitt, right? Or was the au pair for Brad Pitt, you know, like whatever. Cooked for Brad Pitt, painted Brad Pitt's house, like painted people's houses. I mean, whatever it is. I painted Brad Pitt's agent's house.

Right?

Whatever it is, Right?

Yeah. And I just use that as an example, you know, I mean, but it's all possible. I don't think that people are really leveraging all their true gifts, you know, And I think that's part of the thing in being successful in a pivot, you know, you really gotta look at that and say, okay, what do I have available to myself. And how can I utilize those gifts and those things that I have to the maximum ability? You know, that.

That to me is the true alchemy. Change is the only thing that is a full on constant. It is inevitable. And the rate of change is exponentially greater all the time. We use the word disruption, change, disruption, etc. And you can either embrace it, embody it and utilize it, which is the truest alchemy, or you can resist it. And we know, you know, Buddha said all suffering comes from attachment. To resist.

Yeah. The ability to not change. Yeah, exactly.

To have, to have things be.

That's a hard life.

It's a tough life because it actually is rubbing up against what is natural, like the nature in every place.

And it's also unexciting.

For sure. And yet it's also going against the stream of life, which is that things are constantly in a state of becoming and changing. And the only thing that we know that is, you know, dead is something that's stagnant.

I think I want to interject this because I think one of the most powerful tools that we have in this universe, and I know this for a fact, is the power of our word. And when we use our words with clear and clean intention, we can achieve anything we want. And that is scary for people because they don't believe. First of all, it's just too simple. Second of all, it blows their mind that they could be able to say what it is that they want and create things just with words. It's terrifying for people, you know, but it is that simple and it absolutely works. So if we could, if everybody could harness the power of their word, combined with their clear and perfect intention, they could create whatever they want all day long, every day.

Why do you think it scares people, David?

Because I think people don't really know how powerful they really are. And I think by having that power, I don't think there. I think a lot of people are afraid of having that much power available to them when they really already have that power and they just don't know it and they don't know how to utilize their true gifts and their tools.

Yeah. Again, alchemy.

Yeah.

Well, listen, this has been incredible. I love this conversation. I feel like we could talk about this for.

We could talk for days. Come on.

Days about it, man. Days. And we probably will because we're going to have dinner tonight. I can't wait.

That's gonna be so fun.

Maybe we should podcast from the, from the, from the restaurant, man.

Let Everyone in on the periscope, in.

On the day, on the dinner, conversation with beauty. We get to be with our Bellas tonight. So.

Ah, that's gonna be great.

Add some beauty to this space.

Yes.

Yeah. I gotta tell you, I think this recipe is really important. I want to. I want to restate what I believe the recipe or part of the recipe is, and I want to add one ingredient that you're probably aware, but I'm noticing it, so I want to point it out. So first piece of this recipe for being able to pivot successfully, pivot elegantly even, is to be open. So you're open, open. You know, the door is open. Sometimes you're looking at an open door and deciding whether you should walk through it. And sometimes the door gets open and the universe pushes you through it. All right? But either way, being open, being able to embrace that situation, embrace that opportunity. And Randy and I always ask this question, what is the creative opportunity, this change in this pivot? So embrace it. Number two, three. Being fearless. Being able to act in spite of fear, not to remove fear. Fear is going to be with us. I don't think that ever goes away. But how do you act in spite of fear? Number three. Number four, modeling it. I should say, modeling what has worked. And so seeing who's the master in that space, who's the best in the space that you're interested in, and then modeling them, and then putting your own signature on that. Number five, so that it's authentically you. What's your signature? What's your secret sauce? Number six is the connection to utilize the power of your network and to fully ask for that support. Putting it out there that you're doing something you're excited about and who is it that can actually assist you, help you, introduce you the six degrees of separation that you chunked down to maybe two or three degrees when really fully engaged in it. And number seven, which is the one I want to add to your. To your recipe, which is what you've modeled again and again, as I can see it, resilience. You know, just the way that you look at something like failure. A lot of people have done things in their life that they regret or feel like they do again, let's say. Or they want to be different. And they sometimes put a label on that and it's a negative label. And sometimes the word is failure. I replaced the word failure with feedback long time ago. Or find out. It's another one. You find out what doesn't work when you know what doesn't work, you know what does work? It's simple equation to creating great clarity and getting, you know, what's the essence of the lesson. When you know what doesn't work, you know what does work the same moment. So then you've got a lesson that you can use for moving forward. And so you have consistently reframed your situation, whatever it's been, reframed it into some positive light, into some learning experience, so that you utilize that learning to continue to progress and develop in your life. And I know you take good care of yourself physically as well. You take care of your body, you're active. So that resilience is built from three things that we teach in the book Pivot. We teach that you reframe, you frame up, you get the lesson, the learning, the nugget, the golden nugget. And that you take care of yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually even. And that combination of things makes you able to just deal with the change that is not, you know, that can knock a lot and knocks a lot of people down. Change. And when the storms come or the wind blows or things just are different than you want them to be at the moment, you know, and you're wanting, you're preferring comfort and you're preferring things to be settled and easy and predictable. And the universe says no, they're not going to be settled, they're not going to be comfortable. And you've got to deal with it. Either you're going to, either you're going to thrive in that environment the way a willow tree will bend with the wind, or you'll be an oak and your branches will break off. And then when a big enough wind comes by, it uproots your whole life. And you get that choice. So, buddy, I just love that what we unpacked today was a recipe for something that people can utilize their whole life, which is the art and the science of changing, of pivoting and of living a passionate and beautiful life. Self expressed life.

Well, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. I love you, buddy. You're awesome. And I always love when I get to spend time with you or come to one of your events, which is just so incredible. I just can't wait to see to be at the next one. And I'm looking forward to dinner tonight with you and Randy and the angel goddess of divine love, my wife Zanna. And we're gonna have a blast. It'll be fun. So thanks again so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

David, what a Pleasure. Everybody please go ahead and check out the community, the StartMyPivot community. So I know this conversation resonates with folks and they wait, but sort of go from podcast to podcast and we're doing them weekly, which is great. So of course haven't yet gone ahead and registered to receive those notifications. Subscribe. Subscribe to the Conscious Pivot podcast. You don't have to just sort of remember to go into itunes or go to the website and find it, et cetera, subscribe. And then you'll get those. You'll get access to it anytime you want. So that's first. And secondly, if this conversation about how it is that you intentionally, you purposefully, you clearly, you elegantly, you effectively and successfully pivot again and again and again in your life, that conversation still sitting with you in a place that is of greater and greater interest. And go to the StartMyPivot community on Facebook, where you're gonna find a lot of other people just like you being very vulnerable and intentional about what they declare and how they support each other. And we look forward to seeing you in that community. So ciao for now, everybody, and we'll see you very soon again.

Foreign.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own Pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over@adammarkel.com podcasts for more tips, strategies and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love. Join our Pivot Companion community on facebook@pivotfb.com.