Contributing To The Success Of Others And Making A Positive Impact In The World With Dan Dominguez

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Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover and then live your why. You see, we believe that knowing your why, that driving force behind every decision you make and every action you take, is the essential first step to really knowing yourself. It allows you to move forward faster and have a bigger impact. If you're already a fan of the show, then you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys, and then we introduce you to somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. This show will be more powerful for you if you've already discovered your why. If you still need to do that, head over to why institute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now, let's meet today's guest.

Welcome to beyond you'd why podcast. We go beyond just talking about your why and actually helping you discover and then live your why. So if you're a regular listener, you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys, and then we bring on somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. And so this week, we're going to be talking about the why of contribute. So if this is your why, then you want to be part of a greater cause, something that is bigger than yourself. You don't necessarily want to be the face of the cause, but you want to contribute to it in a meaningful way. You love to support others, and you relish the success that contributes to the greater good of the team. You see group victories as personal victories. You are often behind the scenes looking for ways to make the world better. You make a reliable and committed teammate, and you are often acting as the glue that holds everyone else together. You use your time, money, energy, resources, and connections to add value to other people and organizations. And so today, I've got a great guest for you. His name is Dan Dominguez. So Dan exists to positively impact the lives of others. How he does that is by challenging the status quo and looking at things from a different perspective. What he brings is the ability to make sense of the complex and challenging, to help others move forward faster. So Dan's diverse background as an academic scholar, college mascot, Army Ranger, sales leader, marathon runner, track and field, cross country coach, and rotarian allows him to connect easily with almost anyone. And he does that as the Chief Growth Officer right here at the Y Institute. Dan and his wife, Monica, are proud parents of their two daughters. Jazz 32 and Sophia, 9, along with 24 sheep, four dogs, and three chickens. Welcome to the podcast, Dan.

Great to be here, Gary.

This is going to be fun. So I have been looking forward to this. Why don't we do this? Let's start with telling everybody how you got to where you are today, how you got to the Y Institute, and start back with your childhood, because you've got a really fascinating path that you took along the way.

It's so great to tell this story, Gary, especially from the perspective of my why, how, and what. I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the South Valley. I went to Rio Grande High School, and if you're familiar with Albuquerque, the South Valley is more of the poorer side of town. And I always, even then, remember always wanting to help people, but always wanted to do things my own way. I was in the student council, but I was friends with all the game kids. And I also played football. And so I wasn't the kid that you could put into a group even in high school, because I knew the football players and I knew the student council kids. But I also was an honor student. I graduated number nine in my class, so I was that kid you couldn't really put in a box. But I love to help, and I think where it comes from for me is I always had great teachers and mentors that took time to mentor me and help me. And so I grew up always wanting to give back. It led to me wanting to be in the Army. I remember when people said, well, why do you want to be in the Army? You have a full academic scholarship to the University of New Mexico. And I said, well, I just feel like I want to give back because I feel like this country has been such a blessing for my family. As immigrants, we've done so well to be able to do everything we've been able to do, and I feel like I ought to give back. So here I was in the Army ROTC program at the University of New Mexico, and then I had an extra semester that I had one class I had to take. And I remember saying, well, I've got to be here. And I tried out for the cheer team and I became the mascot. So I'm probably the only person in history to be the commander of the ROTC unit at the university while at the same time being the college mascot. And there's so many stories that make more sense now in my life. So since I know my why of contribute, my how challenge, and my what of makes sense makes sense gets me in trouble with My wife all the time, because I want to just solve problems, you know, she'll come to me with something and I say, here's what you got to do. And she says, no, I don't want a solution. I just wanted you to listen. So, yeah, it's been a long journey. So it went from graduating high school, going to the University of New Mexico, going in the army, even there. Gary I was a quartermaster officer. Quartermaster officer in the army is a logistician. There is no reason for a logistician to go to Ranger school, except that it was offered and I did it right. Why do you want to go to Ranger school? You're not an infantryman, you're not in combat arms. But I was one of those rare people that was a quartermaster and also an airborne ranger, which I had no use for those battle skills as a logistician. But it was nice for me to have that background because it gave me a great perspective of what the warriors on the ground were feeling when we weren't getting supplies to them in time. So I guess I've always been an out of the box thinker and wanting to contribute to people. It's funny because when I have that introduction, people are like, you did this, but you did that also. And that happens all the time.

Well, you left out a little piece in there that at least I think you did. Now, weren't you more than just one mascot?

I did both. Gary. Yes. At the time when myself and a good friend, Raven Choney, were. We were the mascots and we were Lucy and Louie Lobo and there were two guys. Usually it was a guy and a girl, but there was both of us that did it. And you never knew who was going to be in which costume. I did it for one semester and one of the best times I ever had being in that mascot costume and with the little kids where they don't know that there's a teenage guy or a 22 year old guy inside the suit, they just think you're Louie the Lobo and they want to just say hi and get your autograph and take pictures with you. It was a blast.

So I've been going to the Lobo basketball game since I was about 4 years old. And when you were the mascot, I was back here watching the games and so I had some pretty good seats where Lobo, Louie and Lucy used to come by all the time. And I do specifically remember there was a time when all of a sudden Lucy got taller. And now I know what happened. That was you.

That could have Been Gary, you never know.

Okay, so you went from kind of interesting high school to going to unm, leading the rotc, to being the mascot, to going off to be in the army and then becoming a Ranger. So how long were you in the service and then what happened to you when you got out?

Yeah, so that was about an 11 year journey, Gary, between the ROTC time, the time I was on active duty, I spent three years on active duty duty with the 3rd Armored Cab and then I was in the reserves again. So it was a total of about 11 years. And it was a time when junior military officers were very valuable to corporate America. I remember being in the army and coming from my background and I think I was making $34,000 a year and I thought I was the richest guy in the world because, man, they were giving me all this money after going through college and you're poor all the time. I was like, man, this is great. This is also 1993 when job market wasn't great. So a lot of my friends were graduating and didn't have jobs and I had a job and I could go buy a car and do all those things that you do when you get your first job. And then a recruiter comes talking to us and they literally target junior military officers and says, hey, we've got opportunities for junior military officers with your leadership to work in corporate America. And I get recruited out of the army and like immediately they like double your salary and you can make bonuses based on how much you sell as a salesperson. And I've always loved sales. So it was almost a no brainer. Because I remember talking to Monica about it and saying, well hon, here's the decision we have to make. We have this really nice, secure, I can stay here 20 years and I'll have a retirement and all this stuff. But I said the Travel is about 50%. And she said, so when they say 50%, will you be gone half the year? And I said, no, no, like maybe two overnights a week. And I said, okay. She's like, that sounds a lot better than being gone half the year and deployed. And she said, when you travel, are you going to be sleeping on the ground outside? And now I said, they're going to put us up in hotels. Well, that sounds better. And then the final is anybody going to be shooting at you? I said, no, no, they won't be shooting at me. So what's the decision here? Right, it sounds like a pretty good idea. So I left the active duty service and went to work for A pharmaceutical company. We launched a drug called Prilosec. At the time, it was new. Nobody knew about it, and it was dangerous because I had a black box warning. Now it's over the counter. So it was cool to be with a company that launched a product that revolutionized the way people treated heartburn. That led to me meeting people in the gastroenterology field and becoming a device sales rep. I started selling endoscopes to gastroenterologists, did that for a few years, and then landed it Baxter Healthcare, where I stayed for 17 years. And I really advanced there, leading small groups of salespeople to leading an entire national salesforce at a high level and meeting our numbers every year and really doing a job that I really love because we were helping patients all the time.

And then how did you end up at the Y Institute?

So this is a lot of fun. And I tell people this was the toothache that changed my life. This was what I think. 2019, Gary, you and I were at the country club right after the Ryder Cup, I think, and we were talking. It was in October, and it was a Saturday, and I had a toothache. And I said, gary, can you get me in on Monday? I think I've got something wrong with one of my teeth. And you were real nice, and you said, yeah, Dan, just call the office. We'll get you in and we'll get you looked at. So at that time, I had also made a decision that I didn't want to be at Baxter Healthcare anymore. I wanted to do something different. And I didn't know why, but I was no longer happy. I was about 30 pounds heavier than I am right now. I was stressed. My wife was stressed, my young daughter was stressed, and I wasn't really enjoying work. So I made a decision. I was going to leave that. And you found out through the grapevine and through our friends. So I sit down at the chair and you're like, so, Dan, what's this I hear you're leaving Baxter? I said, left. I'm done. I'm not working there anymore. And you said, so, what are you doing? I said, I don't know. I'm going to take some time off to find something I really love. And I said, whatever I do next, it's going to be something I would do whether I was getting paid or not. And then you asked the question, which was great. You said, dan, do you know your why? No. What is that? And you explained to me what the why was. But more importantly, you sent it to my phone. You said, hold on a second. Sent it to my phone. You said, take five minutes. So took five minutes. And I discovered that my why was to contribute to the success of others. And back then, you were busy with dentistry, so you didn't take me through my how and what. I actually went through your online course to discover my how and what. I even paid for it. I think I went on and did it, and I said, this is me. We've discovered my why, how, and what. And all of a sudden, a lot of things made sense to me. You asked me the question, dan, so you like to help people? And I said, well, yeah, doesn't everybody? Similar reaction to our friend Jerry, right? Like, doesn't everybody? You said, no, not everyone does. There's eight other whys. And everybody is driven by their why to do what they do. And so suddenly I realized that's why I wasn't happy in my corporate role, because I didn't feel like I was making a difference in the lives of the people that I was leading because I didn't have the freedom to do things my own way. Challenge. And it didn't make sense. When stuff doesn't make sense to me, I'm not happy. And I had dissonance. So I decided to leave. And it's funny, my friends were like, you had no plan. You'd literally just left. I said, yeah, well, I mean, a little bit of a plan. I went and I took my financial package, and I looked at it and said, okay, how long can I not work? And my financial advisor said, well, you can do it for a couple of years, Dan. And then you got to get back to work and start putting money back into your retirement. And so that's what I planned to do until I met with you. And we went to lunch at the Chinese restaurant just across the street from your old dental office, and we talked about it. And you were smart. You used my why of contribute to talk to me in my language. You didn't say, dan, I've got this great opportunity for us to do amazing things that are better and different. You said, what do you say to a contributor? You said, dan, I need your help. We could use someone with your skills and sales at a high level to help us get the Y Institute to where we want to go. And as soon as you said, we need your help, I raised my hand and I said, what do I need to do? Let's do it. And I showed up at your coaches meeting that you had that same month, I think, at the Canyon Club. Got to meet a Bunch of why coaches and I was bought in from then on.

So for those of you that are listening, Dan's why is contribute, which is what we've been talking about. He wants to help. He wants to be part of other people's success. He wants to contribute in a meaningful way. But his how is challenge. Right. To do things differently, to not follow the way everybody else goes, to beat to his own drum and then his what is what he does has to make sense. And so you can hear, I am sure, his how of challenging the status quo and doing things his own way coming through loud and clear. And so what was that like? Well, first of all, we had your why, how and what wrong first, remember? Yes.

I really wanted to be right way. So this was before we've done everything that we've done to make the y discovery and the yos so much more accurate at that point. When I did, I did an online course where I listened to you and then I got to pick my how and what off a list. And I said, well, I want to be right way because I was in the military. I've got to be a right way guy. And trust is important to me. I want to trust people. But that's not how you pick your why and what. So you thought you were getting a chief growth officer with a contribute right way trust, which would have been really a good fit for you because you're better way, clarify, simplify. And when we started looking at it, the more you saw the way I worked, you were like, dan, there's no way you're right. You don't follow rules. And we start even looking at the way we behave at the golf course. You said, dan, would you go to the golf course and play the holes randomly? And I'm like, yeah, I would. Why not? That's just fun. You don't know which hole you're going to. And then we really realized that my how was more challenging, the status quo. And like I said, there were so many things in my life that pointed to Dan. You just like to do things your own way. And if it's something people aren't expecting it, you're more than likely to do it because that's the way challenge, how's get things done. And that's how we contribute.

Yeah. I remember specifically being on the tee box of the first hole and I'm like, so Dan, how are you going to play this hole? I'm just going to hit it over there. I'm like, what do you mean you're just going to Hit it over there. Now just hit it over there. Well, are you aiming somewhere? No, just when I get there, wherever it is, that's where I'll play it. And I'm like, okay, I never thought of that. I'm like, that's the right way, huh?

Right. A right way person. I mean, now I've done why interviews with hundreds of people. I've helped so many people discover their why. Their why, how, what? And there's no way I could be right way. Like you said, it's you hit it and then you go find it and then figure out what happens. Let's have some fun with it, right? It's fun to play a hole completely differently every single time. And that's why probably I'll never be a single digit handicapper, at least not consistently. Because I can go from a 73 one day to a 95 the next, depending on the breaks I get. Because I'll take chances that others probably wouldn't.

It was interesting when we both kind of realized that and then when we. So I was buying into the whole right way thing because of your military and whatnot. And then as we started to look back, I said, well, you know what? How did any of that path that you were on make any sense to a right way person who's going to go from boxer to football to ROTC to mascot to army to Ranger to all the steps that you've done along the way?

Right.

How does that fit together? And when we realized it's just a different way to think, then it became so clear. Then you've gotten to live into that right now you have fun with it, you understand it.

Yeah.

What was that like for you when you kind of had it the way you wanted it versus when it was right?

Well, the conflict, Gary, and you remember probably was as a right way person. There were certain things you were expecting Dan to do. Right. And, and then Dan was probably showed up on time. Half the time, you know, he's always running late cause he's doing something, helping someone, trying to do something extra. And I wasn't able to come up with the processes and systems and build them because that's just not my strength. Now I'll be creative and I'm a connector as a contributor. Challenge. I love to connect with people of all different walks of life. That's why I talk in my bio about the fact that I've got such a diverse background. It's really hard for me to meet someone that I don't have something in common with. If you Say, college mascot. Oh, well, he's got nothing. Oh, and by the way, I was in the military. And then if you say, well, you were in the military, what'd you do? I was a quartermaster. Oh, well, you don't know anything about combat. Oh, by the way, I was a ranger. Oh, wait, how did you do that? And so it always comes back to that. And so the big challenge, I think the feeling for me was I was feeling like I was letting you down because you'd say, dan, hey, did you get all that codified so we could repeat it? I was like, no, I didn't do that. Let me try to work on that. And then I'd sit down and five minutes later, something else would come up and I'd go work on that. And then you and I would meet a week later. And that wasn't done. So I knew that I was in conflict trying to be right way. And then once you said, dan, no, your strong point is to do it your own way, be different, and bring us all those ideas. And I love our pairing, Gary, because as a challenge, I come up with lots of ideas, and you, as a better way, can call those down to the good ones. Right. It's great for a challenged person to have a better way around to help them get rid of the crazy ideas, the really bad ones, and take the ones that are actually better and implement them. We've had a lot of fun with a lot of ideas that we've come up with in the 19 months we've been working together.

So take us back now to the time when you. Okay, you discovered your why, how, and what. And then you had a revelation about why you left corporate world. What was that revelation?

Well, there were a couple of things, Gary. First, as a contributor, I want to help people. And I was lucky that at Baxter, where I spent the majority of my corporate career, I had bosses that were always very good at allowing me to do my job my own way. And it was always like, okay, Dan, here's the quota. Here's the timeline you've got to do. Lead your team. Don't break the law. See you at the end of the year, and let's celebrate. Right? Don't Break the Law was pretty much, those are good bumpers for me. Then I went into a situation where we changed leadership, and it was nothing wrong with the new leader. He just had a different way that he wanted to do things, and he was more of a, let's do it my way, and if we don't do it my way, we're not going to get along real well. Well, when you put those kind of barriers on a person who wants to help others pretty much at any cost wants to do it his own way, and it has to make sense. It really was in conflict with my yos. So I suddenly started not having fun. We'd have meetings in. I mean, I had the whole country. So where do you think I would want to have a meeting if it was December? I'd want to go to Florida. Let's go to Florida. Let's go to Phoenix. That's where I'd bring my teams in, and we'd have our December meeting or our January meeting. Now I was like, well, we're going to have our meetings in Chicago because that's where our headquarters is. And we save on hotel, we save on flights, like, but who wants to go to Chicago in December? Not me. And neither do any of my team. And so all of a sudden, my autonomy was gone, My ability to do things my own way, and it didn't make any sense. I'm like, well, if you're going to tell me exactly how to do everything, why don't you just tell the people that you're telling me to tell how to do things, and then you can get rid of the middleman? So I kind of took myself out of that loop and said, I don't want to do that again. And it was so great that I met with you. Just, I mean, literally. I remember it was October 21, 2019. I discovered my why in my official last day at Baxter was October 19th. So, you know, serendipitous. And then we had those great conversations, got to know, meet some of the coaches that we work with now and learn from them. And I still keep in touch with them.

Well, let's talk for a minute about this concept of bumpers, because that really came from you. When we talk about somebody with why of that has challenge in their yos. So you. So for those of you that are not intimately familiar with it, again, Dan wants to help, but he wants to do it his own way so that you can't really tell him how you want it done because he's going to find his own way to do it anyways. Tell us about this concept of bumpers, because this came from a conversation you and I were having when we were kind of struggling a little bit with saying, how the heck do we keep you on course? Then it dawned on me. I said, wait a second, he was in the military. How the heck did they keep him on course? In the military. And that's when you said, so the.

Concept of bumpers for anybody, if your child has challenge in their why, how or what, or if somebody you work with has challenge in their why or their how or their what, you got to understand that for us, if you just tell us where the boundaries are and then give us room to play and don't tell us exactly how to do it, tell us what needs to get done, what are the rules, and then let us play and then we'll have some fun, right? I posted about this just Friday, just my yos kind of day. You know, my Friday was I woke up at four in the morning and I was on my computer answering emails and I talked to, I set some appointments with clients. I worked till 6 o' clock in the morning. Then I had chaos going on because Sophia wakes up Monica and I get them out the door. They have from 6 to 7 to get ready. So I spend family time with them from 6 to 7. And then I had a golf tournament. I went and played for a golf tournament for about four hours and then I had some meetings, but then I also had to go meet with Sophia's principal at school. So I went to the school and I set up my computer at their school in a room that they allowed me to borrow and I did some appointments and then I sent out some more emails, did some more communication with clients and then I met with the principal and then I had coffee with Monica and then we picked up Sophia from chess practice and then we went to dinner. So if you're somebody who's right, way simplify makes that probably sounds like chaos to you, but for me it was so nice to say, you know what? All I need is a flat surface and an Internet connection and I can do my work from my car, I can do it from the office. We have a great office here at the Y Institute. So I can go there and do it or I can do it from my home office. And at the end of the day, what does Gary want? What do you want for your Chief growth officer, Dan? Let's go make connections with people that want to join the why Institute. Let's share our message and let's grow. Right. Chief Growth Officer and let's grow this business so we can help a billion people discover their why. What does that feed? That feeds my why of contribute. When I see what a difference knowing my yos made for me, I want to give that to everyone I can. And the best way we do that is to get amazing coaches like the Ones we've got in our first 97 to 100 that we're getting to help us get to a thousand coaches, to help us get us to thousands of coaches so we can help the world know their why because it makes such a difference.

So as you're having the opportunity to talk to coaches really around the world, what are some of the challenges that you're seeing they're having in helping people discover their why? Because they're talking about the concept of why. But then what's it like for them? What are you hearing when it comes to actually discovering somebody's why?

It's not so much the challenges they're having. It's the contrast between knowing it now versus before they knew it. I literally just got off the phone with one of our newest coaches, Bill Summers in Texas, and he said, dan, I'm using the why, how and what as a framework for everything that I do. He's writing a new book. He's literally organizing his chapters that way with his co authors. Tell us why you do what you do, tell us how you do it, and tell us what you bring. And that's what's so nice about this process. What coaches tell me is when I know the why, how and what of my client, I can plan my coaching around their why, how, and what. For example, if you're coaching Dan, you don't want to give Dan a step by step, this is what you got to do every day kind of plan. He's just probably not going to do it. But if you tell Dan, hey, Dan, this is how you can help help people. This is how you can do it your own way. The only rules you got to follow, do it your own way. And does that make sense to you and explain it to me, then you're going to have a great client that's going to be happy because you're talking to me in my language. And that's what they find is so gratifying about learning their clients. Why? Because they can talk to them in their language. What we call the platinum rule. Don't talk to people the way you want to talk to them. And you could talk to them about better way, clarify and simplify. But if their contribute challenge makes sense, you're going to talk to them like you did to me. Dan, I need your help. Right? I'm not going to tell you how this is better. Let me tell you how this is going to help a billion people. And when you talk to me about that stuff, I was bought in. And so it's the Unfair advantage of helping people by talking to them. It's not about lying about your product. We don't lie about what we do. We just highlight what appeals to you based on your why.

So that if they only spoke Spanish and you only spoke English, it'd be tough to communicate. But imagine being in a country where you don't speak the language, and maybe you had that experience when you were in the army.

Yeah.

And then you run into that one person that speaks English, and you're like, oh, my gosh, so nice to talk to you. I can actually get something accomplished here because we speak the same language. Has that ever happened to you?

Oh, that happens all the time. You know what I have found, Gary? And this is stuff we talk about when we share all three of the nine whys as our yos. I have amazing conversations with people. If I share one, for example, I meet a fellow contribute. We talk the same language. So we tend to have a good conversation. If I meet a contribute challenge, then we have an even better conversation. We're like, we've been friends forever. If I meet somebody who's contribute challenge makes sense. We're, like, literally finishing each other's sentences. It makes so much sense that we connect. Alex, who's a mutual friend of ours, he's got the same top three as me, just in a different order. I would have never thought that we would get along so great just from looking at it. He's an attorney. He's a tall, athletic guy. He walks around like he owns the place, and he's. Well, he's different because his wife's challenge. And when I met him, I didn't know what to think of him, and I didn't know that I would get along with him. But his contribute is really strong, and it shows in his work as a personal injury attorney. When we worked with him to get to his yos, I realized he really cares about people. But because he leads with challenge, it doesn't come across right away. So the more I got to know him, the more we got along. And then when we figured out his entire yos, we have the exact same top three, just in a different order. So we click, we hang out, we text each other all the time, and we have a good time because we think alike. And so I think that's a key factor that I'm sure our coaches are finding is when they talk to people who have similar whys, they get along great.

So contrast for the listeners. What it was like selling for 17 years without knowing somebody's yos. And now selling and connecting with people. When you do know their yoshi, it.

Is a completely different world. Gary, I'll say this. If I'd had this tool when I was in the army to know my soldiers better, it would have been extremely helpful. But definitely in sales, because like you said, it is so nice to be able to present to someone in a language that they understand that they are listening for, versus in sales, especially working for a Fortune 100 company where we have a huge marketing program and everything we put out has to appeal to everyone, right? And so you're throwing stuff against the wall and you hope something appeals to them. But when you know their yos, you talk to them in what you know is going to appeal to them. And so this is what's important to them. And it doesn't matter what why. It is as why Institute. We found a better way to help people discover their why. It's a clear way and it's simple. So that's that we lead with better, clearer, simpler. But if I'm talking to someone whose why is mastery, I will spend time on the nuances. I will send them the full definitions of every single why, because they're going to want to know that. And then before we talk, they've already got their questions. They've done all the reading. I know that they've read our entire website and every link because that's what they do. So I'm concentrating on how. This is going to help them learn at a deeper level how to talk to their clients. And the same goes for every one of the whys. We just adapt our presentation to that person because that's what they're listening for.

What's it like for you to meet somebody now and not know their why or yos?

It's tough. I literally will give people the why, even if I'm only going to work with them for a little bit, because I want to know how they tick. I want to know what's important to them. And it's interesting you say that, because as I'm working with Sophia's school and the principal is a very nice lady that I've known for. She was so jazzed, my oldest daughter's third grade teacher. So I've known her for a long time and I said, janice, I'm sorry, but if you want me to help, I need to know your why. And so I had her take the why discovery and we found her. Why is trust. And all of a sudden, a lot of things make sense. And so working with her, it Is trust mastery. Right way. So very different for me. But I needed to know that because now I know how I can help her. All this challenge stuff that Dan does, I have to tamp it down a little bit for her because trust is very important. I can't show up late. Right. Mastery is important. I can't just pretend I know stuff. I better know stuff before I show it to her. And right way, follow the process. So that's how she runs a very successful school, and that's what's important to her. So I know how I want to make sure I present myself to her so she doesn't say, get out of here, Mr. Dominguez, I don't need you here.

Well, let's talk for a minute about relationships. How has knowing your yos and your wife Monica and your daughter Sophia and your daughter Jaz, how has it helped you as a family to connect, to work together, to understand each other, to just in every aspect of the relationship?

Yeah. So I mean, Sophia knows her why. Her why is challenge. And she's nine years old.

And how old is she really?

Well, people say she's nine going on 40. She's an old soul. She's read all the nine whys. She considers herself a pet biologist. She's challenged, clarify. What's challenge? Clarify makes sense. You're thinking, why did you do this with your 9 year old? Well, she reads at a high level and we let her take the wired discovery and then when we came out with our yos, I said, let's have her take it. So we have her yos. And it's so nice to understand why. She always says, dad, why do I have to do it that way? I'm that way and that's okay. But as a somebody with the how of challenge, I don't like it when other people do it to me. Hey, I asked you to do it. That's why you should do it. Well, why, dad, what if I can do it this way? Right? And so now I understand both her and my oldest had the why of challenge. And so I understand that they see the world differently. And I understand to allow them and give them bumpers as soon as you give them bumpers and let them run. Look, just don't burn the house down. Right? Don't break the law. That was so simple. Don't break the law and we're going to get along just fine. And then with my wife being a why of clarify, I realize now why it's so important for her to ask all the questions. Right. When I left the army. She's okay, so they're not going to be shooting at you. You're going to get to sleep in hotels. She asked all the questions to get me to come to my own conclusion. She asked the right questions so that I understood the decision I was making. But then she also understood, and it used to drive me nuts how many questions she asked, but now I see it as a positive. We just bought a car recently. Gary and I knew that if we went to the dealership, she was going to take that poor salesman through a three hour torture session of lots of questions on everything before we invested in that car. So I did the smart thing, knowing her. Why I dropped her off with the dealer and I took Sophia and me and my challenge daughter went and had lunch and did something else for a couple hours. And then when we came back and we talked to the nice gentleman who was selling us the car, and then she'd had all her questions answered. I didn't have to sit through it because I knew it was coming and so I didn't sit through it and she was satisfied. And then we were able to buy our vehicle and drive it home after she asked all her questions because once she was clear, we'll move forward. But I needed to let her have time to do that. Where in the past I might have said, hey, it's blue, it runs and we have the money, let's buy it. That would drive her nuts. And now I know it'll allow her to ask the questions she needs to ask so she can move forward.

I think there's one flaw with that plan. The flaw is you need to send her in to ask all the questions to beat him down so that by the time you walk in, he's just like, take the car for free. Just take it.

Well, as you know, Gary, the gentleman we bought the car from is a mutual friend, so I'm not allowed to disclose the terms, but I can tell you she did a pretty good job of that.

Awesome.

Okay, perfect.

So, Dan, I know we're running out of time here. So what do you see? You're right in the mix of everything. And so what do you see as the future for where we're going and what we're wanting to accomplish and how quickly we're going to get there?

What's been exciting, Gary, is I've been here for 19 months and I knew nothing about the why discovery. I knew nothing about executive coaching. I knew nothing about this world. You introduced me to a whole new world. And going from absolute Zero knowledge to now, having done more why Discoveries than anyone else other than you and Jerry, and having worked with so many coaches and learned so much, I see the immense value that the Y Discovery and the YOS Discovery have for the coaches that we talk to. We went through an exercise recently where we took testimonials from coaches and to hear them talk about the difference that the Y Discovery and the YOS has made in their lives and in the lives of their clients just gives me tremendous confidence that we're on the right track. We got a tremendous team working on the back end to make sure that our website works, all our links work. Everything that we send out looks professional and good. And when I look at where we were in December of 2019 when I joined the team and where we are, it is by far. We have made leaps and bounds. And then where we are going and the people we are working with now, the organizations, we have got coaches from icf, John Maxwell, Marshall Goldsmith. We've got coaches from every major coaching organization in the world. We've got people that are certified in Colby DISC strengthsfinders, all the assessments that are out there, and they all say one thing. As long as I start with why, everything else falls into place. And so I can't wait to see where we take this. But I don't see us being able to hold back. We've been really careful about not launching something so big that we couldn't handle the growth that we had, the infrastructure. And now that we're building that infrastructure, I can't wait to present this to the world at large and get to a billion people knowing their why.

That's awesome. So, Dan, one last question. What is the best piece of advice you've received, the best piece of advice you have ever given?

The easier question is probably best piece of advice I've ever received. And that's actually someone you recently talked to, Paul Allen, and he talked about how important it is to take advice from people that think like you. And I would have never thought of that without the why, because somebody with a why of clarify, for example, could have great advice on how to do something, but it's not going to resonate with me because I want to contribute. So however valuable that advice is, I may not be able to apply it because it doesn't resonate with me. And so just like we talked about those people that we connect with, it's more important that we connect and take advice from people that think like us because it's going to be easier to implement, not that I couldn't implement clarify advice or better way advice or advice from somebody whose why is mastery, but it'll be much simpler, easier, because they've traveled that same path that I have. And so I love that. So I literally. Not that I don't take advice from other people, but I really listen intently. When I do get that opportunity to talk to people with my why, how, or what because they resonate with me, it's a lot easier advice to implement. I mean, just Mike Koenix, who you're working with, and I listen to him, he's a challenge guy. So a lot of what he says I can take and implement. I work really closely with one of our coaches, Melanie Aker, whose why is also challenged. She and I click. And so I can take some of what she does, the hacks that she has created in order to get through and be productive with the why of challenge. Same thing that probably Mike has had to do. It's very helpful.

Awesome. Thanks, Dan. I appreciate it. That's really good. Dan, thanks so much for being here and taking the time and obviously I'm going to see you every day, but we've wanted to do this for a long time because you get to meet so many people, but now even more people are going to get to know you and everybody loves you and it'll be just fun to see how you progress as we progress on this journey. So thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me, Gary.

Great job. It's time for our new segment, guess the why. And so I thought we'd do somebody kind of fun. And if you've been watching TV right now, one of the great new series that's out there is one called Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso. My wife and I have been watching that and a lot of our friends have been watching that, and it is so funny. If you haven't seen it, start watching it. But I'd love to hear your perspective on what you think. Ted Lasso's why is. I think I know what it is. And I think it's very similar to Dan's why, which is contribute. And he just wants to help. He sees the positive in everybody. He wants to uplift the team. He wants to uplift them individually and as a team. And he always wants to make things better for people any way that he can, whether that's picking up a broom and sweeping or sitting and having a conversation with somebody. He loves to make the world a better place by helping each person get better. So for me, his why would be contribute. So thank you so much for listening. If you've not yet discovered your why, you can do so@yinstitute.com with the code PODCAST50. If you love the beyond your why podcast, please don't forget to subscribe below and leave us a review and rating on whatever platform you're using so that you can help us bring this message to the world and help 1 billion people discover, make decisions and live based on their why. Thank you very much for listening. I really hope you enjoyed today's episode and that through today's guest, you heard how important it is to know your why and how impactful it can be in your life and the lives of those around you. Be sure to head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. Remember, the more you know about yourself, the more you'll know about others. I'm Dr. Gary Sanchez and I'll see you on the next episode.