David Wood: Looking For The Better Way Every Day

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 whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now, let's meet today's guest.

Welcome to beyond your why podcast, where 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 we can see how their why has played out in their life. And so today, we're going to be talking about the why of better way. So if this is your why, then you are the ultimate innovator. You are constantly seeking better ways to do everything from the most mundane task of brushing your teeth to improving the rocket fuel that powers the space shuttle. You can't stop yourself. You take virtually anything and want to improve it, make it better, and share your improvements with the world. You invent things and take what has already been invented and improve that, too. You constantly ask yourself the questions, what if we tried this differently? What if we did this another way? You contribute to the world with better processes, better systems, and operate under the motto often pleased, never satisfied. You are excellent at associating and taking from one industry or discipline to and applying it to another, always with the aim of improving something. You generally operate with a high level of energy because, after all, that too, is a better way. So today, I've got a great guest for you. His name is David Wood. He is a former consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies, including Sony Music, Chanel and Exxon. David left his cushy Park Avenue job 20 years ago to build the world's largest coaching business. He became number one on Google for life coaching, serving an audience of 150,000 coaches and coaching thousands of hours across 12 countries. Alongside his client successes, David is no stranger to overcoming challenges himself having overcome a full collapse of his paraglider and a fractured spine, witnessing the death of his sister at age 7, severe anxiety and depression and a National Gong Show. He is the author of Get Paid for who youo Are With a Forward by Jack Canfield. He was nominated to the exclusive Transformational Leadership Council alongside such thought leaders as Dan Miguel Ruiz, John Gray and Marianne Williamson. David believes that the tough conversations we avoid are the doorways to confidence, success and love. They become the defining moments which shape our world. He coaches high performing entrepreneurs, executives and teams and now prison inmates to create amazing results and deep connection. Achieve more by focusing on less. David, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, Gary. Happy to be here.

That's quite an introduction there. So I'm excited to hear about it. So why don't we start, Tell us, how did you take us back in your life? Take us back to your early childhood. Where did you grow up? What were things like for you as you were growing up and then how did you get into the different businesses you did and then as we can transition into how you got into coaching?

Sure. Well, the short version is I grew up in a country town in Australia where, you know, one of my main jobs was trying to avoid a fight and not, not get into a punch up at the, at the local pub. And years later, when I look back, I can see that one of the formative things that happened for me is my sister died in a traffic accident and I was there. So I was 7 years old and I saw it. And we didn't know about therapy back then, we didn't know about grieving, we didn't know about all sorts of stuff. And I grew up not feeling, and I didn't know that until I was 23 and went to therapy and said, what the hell's going on with me? And he said, well, I think you had a complicated grief reaction and you shut down your feelings as a way to survive. And so the first half of my life, I somehow became really good at school. I don't know what happened. I came top of the school, I got a scholarship, I got paid to go to university, which, like here in the us, people rack up massive debt. Well, university was free for me and I had the privilege of being paid by a company to go and I got really good at numbers and businesses and systems and making money. So that was great. And then at the age of 27, I think in New York, I went to a personal growth course by the name of the Landmark Forum. And Even though they all wore name tags and they smiled way too much. And I felt very weird going there. I thought I could use a change. I could use a new way of thinking. I could use whatever they have. Even though they look weird. And I'm sure it's a culture, I want to see what I can learn. Fortunately, they cracked open my cynicism. And I went from thinking, these are all self help junkies to I want to be a self help junkie. I want to learn how to be better at life. I want to learn about all the things that were missing in my life, like emotional intimacy, vulnerability, transparency, leadership, deep connection. I want to know about these things. So the last 25 years of my life have been a deep dive into the personal. So now when clients come to me, they say, I want more money. I say, okay, great, but if that's all you want, don't work with me. Because a lot of people can help you with that. We'll start with more money, then we'll work on doubling your time off. But I'm interested in how do you show up as a human?

What.

What would have you love your life twice as much? And what gets in the way, that's the stuff that really juices me.

So let's go back to high school here. What were you like in high school? Take us into your life as a high school student.

I was arrogant.

Still am thinking that I was really good. I was precocious. I would.

Mess around in class and throw balls of paper and whatever and then I do my homework at home in a few minutes. So I think for some teachers, I was a pain to be around. And for other teachers, I was their favorite. They're like, this guy's really, really bright. So I was also a bit of a dork. And I didn't know it and I didn't know how to deal with that. So I didn't. I wasn't like one of the nerdiest kids at the bottom of the rung, but I also wasn't in the cool gang either. Was one of the few kids who had friends in both groups. And I kind of straddled that. It was pretty uncomfortable. I didn't know how to ask girls out. I didn't date. I was trying to avoid bullies every day. Pretty awkward time growing up in a country town. And I was thrilled when I got to Sydney. The big city, capital city. Got to Sydney. No, actually, it's not the capital city of Australia.

Canberra is a capital city of Australia. But when I got to Sydney, And I realized I could grow my hair long, I could be gay if I wanted to be. It turns out I'm not. But all sorts of things were possible in Sydney and I didn't have to avoid a fight. So that was very exciting to get out of that, what I considered a backward country town and get to a more progressive place. And I realized now, Gary, my life has been about seeking those more progressive places. I eventually left Sydney and went to Byron Bay in Australia, and then I ended up in New York, San Francisco, Boulder, Ubud in Bali. I constantly look for communities where people are looking ahead and trying to grow and take responsibility for our own feelings and emotions.

Why do you think that is? Why are you in search of progressive places?

I remember a guru once looking at me and saying, you've waited your whole life for this.

This level of honesty and truth. You've waited your whole life for this. And I just started crying.

And maybe it's because my upbringing was so.

Stunted in terms of emotional growth. And also Australia is not really known.

For personal growth and transformation. And my family wasn't either. They grew up in country towns. And so I grew up like that. And then once I discovered what it was like to be self expressed, when I discover what it's like to share something that's scary for me and have someone receive it, now we're more closely connected. That was like a drug for me. It's like, oh my God. So the teacher was right. I had been waiting my whole life for this. And once I got a taste of it, I couldn't go back. Gary, Once I saw, oh wait, there's more possible, I got on this quest of wanting to know, what else am I missing now? I slowed down a bit at the age of 52, but it's still there. And my friends are people who want to know more. My clients are those who want to know more. They're like, I want to see my blind spots. I want to do things better than I did things yesterday. So I don't know if that answered your question, but that's what came up.

So take us into that moment where you realized there was more. There had to be a better way. There had to be something more than this. Why did it. When did this become important to you? What was that moment that flipped that switch for, for David that said, hey, there's got to be something better than this. And then you went out and found it.

One moment that comes to mind is when I did the second course because I said, I'll only do one course, I'm not doing more because I'm not going to. You know, these people are sheep. They can't think for themselves. Classic. You know, little did I know I was the one that couldn't think for myself.

But I stood up during that second course, and I said with tears in my eyes, I said to the teacher, everyone's talking about big things they want to do for the world. They want to solve world hunger. They want to create world peace. They want to do this. I don't care about any of that. What's wrong with me? And the teacher said, well, where did you get that point of view from? How do you know.

You don't care about that? And that's when I realized that the whole course was about your past and how your past is sitting right there in your future, and we're stuck in our past. And that's when I realized, wow, I got that from my past.

Maybe I do. Maybe I do care about others. Maybe I do care about the world. And now, 20 years later, I've devoted my life to helping make people's lives better. But that was a big aha moment. Like, my past is running the show. If the past is gone, maybe I do care about those things. And one other moment that came to mind, Gary, was I coached someone during that course and changed her life overnight.

She gave me a lift home from the course, and then in the car, before I got out of the car, I got talking about her life, and she screwed up her courage, and she confronted the possibility of confessing to a partner that she'd had an affair 10 years earlier, and she'd been using that to manipulate. Oh, and he'd had an affair 10 years earlier, and he confessed, and she'd been manipulating him for 10 years, and she never came clean that she'd also had an affair. And watching her confront that possibility of coming clean and risking her marriage for authenticity and connection, I was so inspired. My heart was open. And she went, and she did come clean, and she came back and reported to everybody in the course that they both felt like they were floating on air, six feet above the ground, in love for the first time in 10 years. And I was hooked. I was like, how do I learn how to do this officially? And so I went and signed up to do the third program where they would train me as a coach. And then someone had a business card saying coach on it. And I'm like, wait a minute. You can get. And this was back in 97. I'm like, you can get Paid to help make people's lives better. Show me how to do that. And that was 23 years ago. And I keep coming back to coaching. I just can't think of anything more rewarding for me than helping someone see what they couldn't see. And then off they go, and life gets better. That's. It doesn't get better than that.

And that's the essence of the why of better way. In search of a better way. And when you find it, you have to share it. You're compelled to share it. You cannot help it. You can't turn it off. It's just the way it is. So you first went into business, right? Tell us about the businesses you were involved with.

Yeah, well, initially I was like, how do you. How do you get started in this? And I met a guy who was in a training program, and I didn't really feel like I had the resources for a training program. And I wanted. I'm a big fan of shoestring budgets. So I said to him, what if I hire you? I'll be your practice client and I'll learn from watching what you do. And he's like, okay, great. And then I got my first client. I think the same week, she showed up to audition for a musical duo that I was putting together. And she was having some issues with her life. And I said, why don't you be my first practice client? So I was paying him very tiny amount per week just for practice, and she was paying me a small amount for practice. And I'd have my first session with her, and I'd have my first session with him. And then I'm like, all right, now I know what to do. I. I do my first session with her, and then she'd say, and what will happen in our next session? I said, ah, wait and see. Because I hadn't had my second session with him yet. I didn't know what was going to happen. And then after working with him for a few months, I realized if I'm really serious about this, I need to upscale. I need to upgrade my coaching. So I went and found one of the leading coaches in the country. And I, you know, it was a stretch for me, but I. I figured you need to invest money to make money. And she was amazing. She got me creating my first speech, getting out there and speaking to groups, which was very scary.

But I found that I was pretty good at it and I liked it, and I got really good clients out of it. At the same time, I was pushing it on radio, and I was going for search engine optimization and getting really good traffic from the search engines back in 1999 and the year 2000. So that's how I got started in the field of coaching.

And so then you were able to build one of the largest coaching organizations in the world. How did you do that? Was it all through the Internet like you were talking about?

It started, I think, with the speaking, and I would capture people's email addresses and. And the reason I call it one of the largest. Well, the largest provider to the coaching industry in the world was because Alex Mandosian, who's a really great marketer himself, he said to me, you got 150,000 people on your. On your mailing list. You are the largest provider to the coaching industry in the world. And I hadn't realized that, so that sounded pretty cool. But it started with just capturing email addresses and building a list, and it got up to a thousand. I was like, all right, that's something. And then the search engine optimization was working, and people are coming in from all over the world and joining my mailing list, and I'm giving them good content for free. That was a core part. That was before content marketing was a thing. And then I started with alliances. So once I had 5,000 or 10,000 people on my list, I was looking for other people who had lists of a similar size. And I'd market their stuff to my list, and they'd send my stuff to their list. And every time both of our lists got bigger, that just kept on going and going. It's an exponential thing. Once you've got 20,000, now different people want to know about you. I met Jack Canfield from Chicken Soup at a conference, and I dropped into the conversation that I had about 40,000 people on my mailing list. And I said, if I can ever help. And he said, oh, well, that's half of what we're at right now. He said, yeah, let's do some business together. Wow.

Right?

And it's like climbing a ladder. You do that. And then someone else saw me on. They saw that Jack promoted me. And Bill Harris from Holosync, which is a massive company selling parallel CDs, reached out, and he was a lot bigger than me. But because Jack had promoted me, he was interested. So now I got Holosync as a partner. You just keep on climbing, climbing that ladder. Oh, and then there was AdWords. AdWords came out, and paid marketing became a new thing. And back when life coaching was a penny a click. I know I'm dating myself, when I say it, but I really, really turbocharged my business by breaking even on the advertising. But building my mailing list over and over and over, that was the asset. That's the main asset of the business.

So then you went from coaching individuals to creating content for a massive email list, and then taking that and creating your own coaching platform or where did take us take us through what you did after you built this large list?

Yeah, well, once I had about 23 clients, that's the most I've ever had. Yeah, about 23, 25 is the most I've ever had at one time. And when I felt maxed on that.

I was doing 50% coaching coaches who wanted to know how I was doing having such a successful business and 50% regular clients. And then because the coaches was going so Well, I registered becomeacoach.com and I started really gravitating towards that, because people were much more willing to pay.

For business stuff than they were for personal is what I discovered. So I spent 10 to 15 years really diving deep for coaches. And once I'd coached, say, 10, 20 people, I noticed I was saying the same things over and over. So I started writing the coach start manual and ended up selling half a million dollars worth of that manual. And I got really into information product because at some point you got to leverage your time. So I had 10 to 15 websites, 10 to 15 different products. I didn't know what I know now about the power of focus. Now I was focused on startup coaches, but I was so scattered. In all the products I'm doing, I'm just going so broad, and all the different marketing methods I'm using, I've learned a lot from. So my clients get to learn from my mistakes, but that's how it went. And then I started drifting away from coaching because I had all this automated revenue coming in, and while I slept, I'm getting paid. And then what happened is I burned out. I just got burned out. I did a book launch.

Raised $60,000 for the rainforest foundation, did some really good stuff, but I was just so done. And for years, I've been wanting speak about life. Gary. I wanted to give seminars and talk to people about how to communicate and how to be transparent and leadership, but the money was good and the money kept seducing me. And I'm actually grateful that I finally got burned out and moved to Bali, because then when the question came up, how do I reinvent myself and what am I going to do in the world? The answer is, I want to go Back to coaching. But I do not want to work with coaches anymore. I have done that. I have said everything I have to say about that. I want to work with business owners and I want to work with them on business because that is fun and their life. So when I have a client who we are doing a bunch of business coaching and then she gets diagnosed with cancer, I am doing a session with her and her partner to talk about, how are you going to handle this in your life? How are you framing it? What game are you going to play now that this has happened? I'm just so thrilled that now I get to really talk about life and it's not just pigeonholed because I felt so constrained with like always doing. I did coaches until it was time to not work with coaches.

And so now you are coaching on both business and life. Kind of combined it work, balance type stuff.

Yeah. I got one client. She never know what she's going to bring. She could be four different issues that we cover. I do lasered coaching sessions and the first thing that came up this week.

Was.

I think I have to fire a client because she's a real pain in the butt. How do I do this and not lose all the money invested so far? Okay, great, let's handle that. And then the next issue was her son's not keen that he's going to have two graduation parties because it's a split family and she wants to know how to empower him in that. Or is there another option? Okay, great. Let's brainstorm about that. That's fun for me. It's like, I know I. Look, I'm a business owner and I know sometimes the issues of business challenges that are keeping me awake or giving me grief. And sometimes it's other stuff. Like right now, it's how do I handle all the house repairs that I have happening and how do I have a tough conversation with the agent, like, where is it that I have to go to some tenancy tribunal and try and get some action on this? And, you know, those kinds of things come up all the time in life. And I love that we get to like, what's causing you pain. Let's get rid of those things causing you pain, and then let's look at what the opportunities are you want to take advantage of.

So tell us about Focus CEO. What is that?

Yeah, well, when I reinvented what I was doing three years ago, I had to pick a target market and I wanted to go broad. I was like, all right. Someone said, well, you should work with Business owners, because you've been an entrepreneur all your life and you understand. Well, not all your life, but since say 20, age 27, 28. That's been 20 something years. And so I understand the mindset. I was like, all right, that makes sense. But I want to work with executives because that seems really cool and that'd be really awesome to coach vice presidents at Warner Brothers, you know, and I'm sure that there'd be good money in it. And I want to coach leaders of any sort, you know, running a charity. But you see what's starting to happen. I'm getting spread thin already. And we're not even talking about products yet. We're not even talking about traffic sources. And so I realized if I want to avoid some of the mistakes I've made in the past, I'm going to have to focus. I'm going to have to pick one and go deep. And that's not something I'd done in the past. So I picked business owners. But then business owners are still very broad, so I had to focus even more. And I realized I want to work with people who are already up and running. If you're in startup, I'm not the best person to work with. I want to generate big wins for you quickly, so you have to be already up and running with revenue. 5,000amonth minimum. Between 5,000 and 80,000amonth is about the sweet spot for me.

And then once I'd done that, I had to work out, well, what am I going to provide for them now? The true answer is I will listen and then I'll speak. And I don't know what's going to come out of my mouth. That's the true answer. But that marketing, that's not very good for marketing and for branding. So I had to look at what do they want? And over and over and over, the people that were coming to me wanted to make more money. That was the main focus. They wanted double revenue. Okay, great, so we'll start with that. But then what's next? Well, if they do that, but they're still working 60 hour weeks, then what has the quality of life. So let's also leverage. And both of those things require focus. So when I thought, what's different about what I'm providing? What's a key element of everything that I do? And I realized it's focus. I will help you focus on what matters and, and make an agreement with yourself to not put attention on those shiny objects.

And so I picked focus. And then I went looking for Websites and focus VIP was $5,000, Focus Ltd was $10,000, and Focus CEO was $19. And I'm like, are you kidding me? I work with business owners on Focus, and this is a sign from the universe and it up. And I kept waiting for them to email me saying, there's been a mistake, Sorry, you know, you don't have it after all. So that's how I came to Focus CEO.

That's a great name. And so it's achieve more and be more. How do you define focus? And then how do you help somebody get focused?

I love that. No one's asked me that before. I recently did a medicine journey, which usually is code for I did something illegal.

But this was actually legal in the state of Colorado and supervised by a therapist. And they give you this medicine. And one of the things that came to me on that, and this was just recent, was there are infinite things, probably literally in the universe that we could put our attention on. Infinite things. And then let's just take my iPhone. I can focus on the whole phone or a piece of it or an app. I could focus on it from a mile away or from all sorts of different angles, or I could just look like a little piece of it. So I got that there are infinite things in the universe, and then there are infinite ways to relate to each one of those things. And so infinity times infinity is infinity. But what gives us our world is what we choose to focus on. It's the lens that we're looking through right now. My world is Gary Sanchez and beyond. You'd why podcast and the listeners and this screen right now, that's my world after this. If I focus on the repairs in the house, and I'm viewing that as a problem, that gives me my world. If I focus instead on gratitude that I don't have to pay for those repairs, and I don't even have to manage those people and just trust that the agent with my prompting will manage that. Now I have a different experience. I have an experience of gratitude and surplus. If I focus on something else, a pain in my foot or something else, that's my world. So the lens that we're looking through.

Quite literally creates our entire universe. And that's a very important thing to know.

Because we often.

We often don't choose our focus. It's chosen for us. We're not in the driver's seat. We just react. We wake up, we react. Oh, email. Boom. Oh, now I'm lost. Whatever. If you want to be the author of your own actions, then it pays to put on your CEO hat and make some choices over 12 months. This is what I choose to focus on. This is what I agree to put in a draw over three months, over seven days. This is what I choose to focus on. This is what I agree to put in a draw over this day and over the next two hours and over the next 25 minutes. This is what I choose to focus on. This is what I agree to put in a draw. If we keep doing that, we can actually be the author of our own actions. Life tends to get better. We get better results in business, in life. And at the end of the day, you can feel really good about yourself because you were in the driver's seat, you were the author of your own actions. And it's just a great feeling to have that.

So if you're wanting to get focused, what is the sequence of. So I'm listening to this and I said, oh man, that sounds great. David, I love what you're saying, but okay, now what is the sequence that I go through to focus my life? Because you said focus is your reality and your reality is a choice. So what do I do to make myself focused?

Yeah. So let's start with a 12 month timeframe. You can pick any timeframe you want, but one year is a nice timeframe. And ask yourself, what would I love to be celebrating 12 months from now? What would have me do the happy dance that I would actually be caught calling my friends saying, check this out. I'm so pleased that this happened. And I often invite my clients to pick three business related goals and three personal goals. This act in and of itself, even if you only spent 20 minutes doing this, is such a wonderful.

It's something we can do that the animals can't do.

It's something that to my knowledge, monkeys, fish and birds cannot do this. They cannot say, what do I want the future to look like and how am I going to create it? Now you might come up with 20 other goals as well that you would like to have those go in a draw. Those are your bonus goals. You want them, they want to get in the door, they want to get out of the drawer. But you can't do everything. You're going to get scattered and you're not going to do it well. So this is where some discipline comes in. And you might want to work with a coach to get clear on that. Talk to your partner, talk to friends, whatever. However you do it, get clear on that. That's the first step. The second, and by the way, I Have a cheat sheet. We can give it away if you like, at the end of this episode.

Let me ask you something while you're going through that. Because to me, one of the most challenging things, and I hear this over and over and in my own world as well, it's so hard to figure out what do I want? I have unlimited options and unlimited choices. How do you narrow it down to what do I want? That seems like the most challenging part of the whole thing. And how do you help people through that?

One way is you can start with what you don't want. A lot of people have easier access to that. I don't want to be stressed. I don't want to be frustrated about money.

I don't want fights with my partner.

And then you turn it around. Okay, that's what you don't want. What do you want now? Most people have a financial goal. Pick a number. Pick a number for how much you want to be earning per month in a year from now. I think time off is another great area. So write down how many hours a week you're working now and how many hours you want to be working a week a year from now. So this is a way you can break it down. All right. Money, time off. Health. You may have a health related goal like weight loss or fitness or something like that, or nutrition.

Highly encouraged. Have something like that. Exercise. You might have a relationship goal to find a relationship and be in a relationship. Or to be 50% more intimate with your partner or have your partner feel 50% more supported and loved or to have your kids trust you 50% more. These are some ways you can like break down the areas and come up with some goals. And I've got some dreams. Sometimes these things take a few months to come out as well. I've realized for the past few years I've had this secret desire to do a two year acting program and live the life of an actor for two years and go and audition and date actresses or fall in love with an actress. I just want to live that life. So, you know, you might have something that you've always wanted to do. You've always wanted to go and live in Nepal for six months or do.

I realized when I quit my job back in 97, I thought what would I do if I had six months to do anything I wanted? And I realized those guys in the ski fields who put on a black afro and sing Blame it on the Boogie and get everyone singing along to Piano Man, I want to do that. And so I went and did that for a year and a half.

I asked myself once, oh, here's a good question. If I had six months to live, what would I do with my life? And I asked that five years ago. And the answer was, I would spend more time in Bali. I loved Bali. I would go back to Bali. So I booked a ticket and I went there for a couple of months. And hey, while I was in Bali, people kept saying to me, do you live here? And I thought, well, I don't, but let's see what it feels like to say yes. So I started saying yes. And you know what? It felt pretty good. So I went home. My girlfriend and I broke up for other reasons and I sold everything and got two suitcases and moved to Bali. So you never know where this process will lead you. But you start with a blank piece of paper, blank canvas, and start painting. You can ask your friends, what do I really want? You can ask your men if you're in a men's group, or your women if you're in a men's group. If you have a coach, this is partly what a coach is for, to ask you some questions so you can start to see what comes out.

That's great. So now you've narrowed down into what you want. And so then you start looking at how do I focus my actions, my energy towards gaining that.

Yeah, yeah, right. Let's make it real. Because one year out, that's like pie in the sky. That's fantasy. It doesn't mean anything. How do you relate it to today? That's the real question. So.

One answer is to layer your goals. So we've got 12 months out. What are some milestones that you could celebrate 12 weeks from now to have you fully on track? Now this is starting to get real because 12 weeks is coming up. It's coming up quite fast. So you work out. All right, let's say I want to be in a two year acting program a year from now, three months from now, I'll have the program chosen and I might have a date planned for moving to Los Angeles. Right, so you work backwards and then the next step.

What are you going to do this week for the seven days? What's your seven day plan? I've got post it notes on my board right now and there's a seven day column. This is what's made it into the priorities for the next seven days. And so look, if you're listening to this recording right now, you might want to pause the recording and go and do your 12 month goals. Just 10, 20 minutes. And then do your milestones and then write down, all right, the next seven days, what matters?

50 things. Want to make it onto that wall? Don't let it. Just pick what really matters, what the priorities are. The rest goes in a drawer, or I call it the waiting room. This goes in a waiting room. Now, that'll serve you for the next seven days, but then you're going to run out and you're going to be lost for the next seven days. So it's very important. And again, this is on the checklist. Book a date with yourself once a week for 20 minutes. I call it a CEO date. 20 minutes could be Friday, 4 o', clock, you get a cup of tea, a cup of coffee. Could be Saturday morning, Sunday morning, 9:00am you pick. And this is where you pat yourself on the back. Literally, you can reach over and pat yourself on the back for everything that you've accomplished because you've probably forgotten 90% of what you've actually done. So you pat yourself on the back and go, dude, nice one, legend. And then for the remaining 10 minutes of that date with yourself, you create your post it notes or you put it on your trello board. This is my action plan for the next seven days. Here are the things from last week that didn't get done that are going to make it back onto this week. Here are some things I'm going to take off because they're just not. I don't have room, I don't have time. And this is what my priorities are. Then I want you to have a weekly action plan. Even if you don't fulfill it all, I want you to know what matters to you for that week because it feels really good. And then if you actually show up and do those things, that's a whole other thing. That's where you need the rest of what's on the checklist. But if you actually show up and honor that list and do those things before other things that want to crowd in, that's what I call integrity. Because you're doing what your own mind has told you matters most. That's integrity. When you don't do it, when you know what matters is calling those 10 prospects or getting the taxes done or whatever else it is, and you go and check email instead. That's how we create stress in the body, because the mind knows that this isn't the highest path for you and so it's stressful. Then we need sugar and alcohol and nicotine and all sorts of things and TV and video games to Medicate, because the body's, you know, body and mind are out of alignment. I love that.

I hadn't really thought of it in those. Those terms of using those to medicate because you're not on the right path that you said you would be on, which is. That's pretty. That's fascinating. So, David, if people are listening to this and they want to get ahold of you, they say, you know what? I love what he says. I love the way he's approaching this, and they want to connect with you, what is the best way for them to connect with you? Yeah.

Thank you. I've created a gift basket of goodies for listeners. So I'll give you a link that'll take you right to a hidden page on my website. There's the checklist that I mentioned on how to get twice as much done in half the time. There's a free training on how to double revenue. I think that's still on that page. And if you want to get on a call with me and see if we'd be a good fit as a coaching client, I'm happy to do 15 minutes. With most people, if you're already up and running, you got a good product and a service, I'm happy to see what the strategy would be for you. And for some people, that's all they need, that one call. If it looks like we can really do good things together, I'm happy to talk about a coaching relationship, but you can do all of those things. Plus, check out my podcast, Tough Conversations with David Wood, at this special link. And the link is myfocusgift.com myfocusgift.com take you straight to that hidden page on my website.

Love it. David, thank you so much for taking the time and spending an hour with us. It's been awesome hearing your story, diving into it. We've been on very similar paths. It's kind of interesting when I hear you say things very similar to some of the directions that I went. Better way. People think a lot alike, so it all made sense to me why you did what you did. But thank you so much for being here and thank you for the gift for the listeners, and I'd love for them to reach out and work with you if it feels right. So I appreciate that.

Thanks, Gary. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for the great questions.

Okay, so it's time for our new segment where we guess the why. And so for this one, we're going to guess Elon Musk. What is Elon Musk's why? What do you think it is? From all the stuff you've seen him do, from the new bitcoin thing he's doing to the SpaceX to the cars that he's built, to Tesla, I mean, what do you think his why is? Because I have my own feeling and sometime I'm going to meet him and have him discover his why. I know that because I know some people that know him. And I believe that his why is to challenge the status quo and think differently, to think outside the box, to imagine extraordinary, to see no limits, to see possibilities, to bring in existence stuff that the rest of us can only dream about. So I believe his why is to challenge the status quo. And I remember hearing a story about him that when he was in high school and in college, how he was kind of an outcast. And that's part of that why. So what do you think his why is so I really want to thank you for listening. If you've not yet discovered your why, you can do so@whyinstitute.com you can use the code PODCAST50 and you can do it for half price. If you love the beyond, you'd why Podcast. Please don't forget to subscribe below and leave us a review and a rating on whatever platform that you are using to listen to our podcast, because that will help us have a bigger reach. So have a great week and we will talk to you next week.

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.