WHY NOT Wednesday! with David Gorsage

There's a certain kind of coach who believes what we believe, who leads people to greatness, who gets people unstuck, who unlocks all of your passion. A coach who helps people discover what drives them to tap into their superpowers.

Knowing your why is the first step to untap potential.

To focus.

To breakthroughs.

A coach who's looking for a better way.

Are you that coach?

Hey, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to why Not Wednesday. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today. David Gorsuch, president and chief belief officer at Camp David. It is no longer good enough to be great. He says we must pursue the extraordinary technology, speed of information, and the growing competition requires of us to constantly innovate. What makes the best extraordinary. He believes it's the mindset, the rituals and the routines they have during unseen hours. And David Gorsuch knows what they are. David Gorsuch has been the performance coach of helio Castro Nevis, four time Indianapolis 500 champion and season five dancing with the Stars champion. So welcome to the show. David Gorsucic. How are you today?

I'm doing great. I always chuckle when I use that Elio reference because more people know him about the Dancing with the Stars than they know about him for winning four championships of the Indianapolis 500.

You know, that's when you know you've made it when something like that happens. Hey, David, I got a little treat for you because one of the things I like to ask people is what's your walk up song? If you had a walk up song? So I'm going to play that for a little bit. Let's rock out a little bit here.

That's it.

As soon as you are.

Music always gets us in the right.

Gotta go.

Yes.

A little bit of the lyrics.

Love it.

So roll, hold the changes, man. Is that, is that a great walk up song for somebody who does what you do to help people deal with the changes in their lives, deal with the changes in their careers, deal with the changes in their profession and, and overall, hey, you've gone. You've undergone a pretty big change yourself. We were talking about it in the pre show. You're, you're, you're sitting here looking pretty darn healthy. So congratulations. You know, we're not going to say how old David is, but he found out recently he's got the body of somebody who is 10 years older, younger than he actually is. So, so congratulations on that. What, what let, what led to that, David?

Well, I was an athlete in college my whole life and as an athlete. But it's, I guess, really what boiled it boiled down to was.

Mindset. As it said, mindset is probably the central core of what I do. And I realized, let's face it, what profession out there has probably the most unbeatable mindset, and it's Navy seals. So I was in a long story behind it, which we can also get into. But, but, you know, I was able to meet Mark Devine. He was Lieutenant Commander of the SEAL teams. And he, he wrote a book called the Way of the seal. And I'm telling you, it is the most comprehensive, complete mental, emotional, physical, intellectual transformation book I've ever read. And that was one of the key tenets, was that that getting your mind sharp is one element, but if you don't have your body sharp, you're not doing it justice to where you're really tapping into the core of change. So it's about, not just about the mindset, but it's about the physical transformation as well.

Hey, you know, we've got a couple of our wide coaches. One of. Chris Smith is a former Navy seal. His coaching practice is all about that. And then we got a couple of Navy guys that are. I know they're going to comment here soon, but so good that you brought that up. And, and you know, there's a, there's an old quote that, that's, that George Patton said that's fatigue makes cowards of us all. You can't be brave if you're not, if you're not physically fit, you can't. You can be as brave as you want, but when you're tired, you're just gonna fall down.

Yep.

Right. So you, you brought that fitness into, into your own life. And by the way, hey, let, let's talk about this really cool something that happened recently that, that, that I want to make sure we, we, we get to.

Accepted into the Navy SEAL Unbeatable Mind Coaching Certification program.

Yep.

We definitely want to hear about that. Tell us about that.

Well, it, it. This is where again, where Mark Devine years ago started SEAL Fit, which was originally the program. He saw that all those Navy SEAL wannabes that were entering buds were, were, they were. The failure rate was so high, it's like 60, even more than 60% failure rate. So he started this program, Seal Fit, which was designed to help close that gap, which successfully did, I want to say it approached about 90% success rate of actually getting their trident because they went through his program. So he then evolved that into the unbeatable mind, which is, again, it's taken from this. The, the, the Way of the SEAL book about how do we completely prepare ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually to really have this unbeatable mind. And his goal was to have over million people, to really embrace this, to have a complete transformation, frankly, of our society. So, yeah, I was, I was accepted into their coaching cohort to, to go through this certification process. I actually, I actually was accepted into the second cohort, but because of some things that happened with one of my sons and some of the challenges that he went through at that time, actually some physical challenges that, that I had to kind of put that off, but it's like, no, we, we'd like you to kind of come back and, and, and be a part of this.

So. Love that man. Hey, listen, first of all, kudos on that. I know, you know, I always, I was a, I'm a former Army Ranger, and I've always said, you know, when you go, when you go to Ranger school and you get to meet some of these Navy seals, I mean, every single one of them that I had a chance to meet during training, they were amazing, just amazing people, amazing individuals. And when everybody else is falling down and tired, they're still going strong. And so that's such a great association for you. Let's talk about your yos, David, because, you know, that's one of the things I like to talk about in the beginning and how it impacted you. So let, let's, let's let the audience know a little bit about David. So David's why is to find a better way and share it with others. He's driven by innovating, taking things that exist and making them better and then sharing those innovations with the world. His how is to challenge the status quo. So how he finds those better ways that he shares with the world, that is by challenging the status quo and saying, hey, why do we have to do it that way? Is there another way to look at it? He's a creative person that looks at things from different perspectives in order to find better ways. And his what is contribute, which tells us that he's someone who wants to make a difference in the lives of others, in the lives of his clients. He wants to make a big impact. David, how accurate is that and how did that feel to you when you first found out?

It's spot on. I mean, I could not have.

Articulated what my passion is any better than that. That is the complete encompassing of my passion and what I do.

Yeah, and you do it so well and, you know, it shows in your Social media presence. It shows in your expertise, your area of specialization. I love this. Most of your one on one clients are women executives that are in a male dominated industry. But you also specialize in privately owned companies that have been bought by private equity firms. So you work with those new CEOs and existed executive management through that change management which is so important. Where, why women executives? Tell me what led you to that?

You know it's interesting because.

I have to tell you a quick story. So about 15 years ago I was brought into a very large, probably one of the top five accounting firms in the country.

Yeah.

And I was asked to by this, the manager, senior managing partner that to help groom the next CEO which is a female. And I said look, I don't, I, I don't want to meet her face to face. Why don't we, why don't we put together a meeting? So she's part of this meeting. I just want to be able to have her meet me and me meet her in a kind of a very non direct way. So I'm in this meeting and she is throwing these zinger questions at me and I was like. And I look at the managing partner, he goes I told you she was tough. I said tough. I've been married to her for 20 years. And I said because my wife was, is, is, is a very, she raised seven kids or seven kids and she, she was a corporate person that, that chose to be a stay at home mom. But I learned just from in, in those conversations, you know, really in that interaction, what is it that's missing in, in the challenges of the women today in leadership. So that's, it kind of really just evolved. And then of course it, it, it has really evolved in that respect in the past 12 months that, that I have so many different women executives that I work and I'm very proud of them and what they've accomplished and where, where they are right now in their careers.

Love that. So you, you kind of can blend the two. Right. And so you're working also with these private equity firms that have bought these companies and you're helping get that transition going. And some of those times the, the CEO or the leaders you're working with happen to be female, which is more and more common nowadays. So what's the, what's the, the biggest challenge you have when, when you come into that situation? I'm sure there's, there's a lot of different challenges. The most common challenge you see.

They, in having. Helping them to truly embrace their confidence. They, they and I tell them that this is what the challenge is. And I said, they're like, well, why should I work with you? I said, well, maybe you don't want to work with me, but here's. Here's what I will say. If this situation is yours, then we need some. We have something to talk about. And what I. I say, look, you're in a board meeting. You're in a. You're in a room with a bunch of male executives, and they are making comments about a particular initiative or maybe a particular challenge that's happening. And you're listening to this, and you're saying, this is the last place that we need to go. This is not the direction that we need to take. But you're really challenged by saying anything, because by your approach, they. You believe you're going to come across as a.

Bee, you know, a very demanding. And I said, I will teach you how to express yourself in a direct way where they're going to walk out of that meeting and say, wow, what. With the highest level of respect. Because how you say it is how we're going to help you insert yourself into these meetings with these men. And they're going to realize you have a lot to offer for what they really need, for what the change that they currently have to go through that is so important.

You just brought up something. Gary and I were just talking about this. Gary's our founder and CEO of Y Institute. We're running an errand together a little while ago, and we were talking about the difference between the top 1% of athletes and then the other 99%. And what they do is how they talk to themselves, the language they use when talking about their performance.

Yep.

And when talking about the. The conversation that goes on in our head all day long. I'm sure you. You're a former Division 1 baseball player, and that's a big part of your background. You take. You take that experience of being an elite athlete into the work that you do. What do you think about that? That thought, the conversations that we have with ourselves, you know, and how we talk about.

Yeah. I will tell you, I do this assessment that is one of the most comprehensive assessments. It actually takes emotional intelligence, critical think, critical thinking, behavioral tendencies, personality tendencies, as well as creative thought. And it actually wraps it up into one. We actually call it the MRI of the Soul. But I will tell you, the first place I go in this, it will actually. It measures 78.

Markers, behavioral markers. One of them is called candidness, and that is that self talk. The candidness and the self talk.

Yes.

And I will tell you, women are at almost a 10 out of 10 in their. And I'm sorry, 1 out of 10 in their candidness, which means they are so negative. Self talk. They beat themselves up more than what we can even imagine. And I, those are the conversations I have with them, because then the, the counterbalance of that is their apprehension is a 10. So their candidness is a 1 and their apprehension is a 10. I'm like, and I, I talk about this with them. And I will tell you, I just had this conversation last week in Toyota down in, in Plano, Texas, right? And the woman, it brought tears to her eyes when I said, this is what your greatest challenge is. And guess what? We're going to fix this. And it really, it brought tears to her eyes because finally somebody got her.

Right? Yeah, we, I saw the comment from Donna Kapmeier says, love what you do. David, how you say this key. I can tell you Donna Kapmeier is not having any of those conversations. She's. She's an action coach and she's one of our newest Y certified coaches. What. What's. You, you mentioned women mostly do this. Do you find this in men, too?

Well, why probably more women are my clients is because I look at four criteria for you to be my client. Desire, commitment, humility, and decisiveness. And I hate to say this, my fellow man, but we fall down. And the greatest one of those, which is humility, we tend to believe our own bs. We tend to believe that we have it all figured out. And, and that's where I say, I can't help you. Yeah, I don't care how much you want to pay me, I can't help you because you're unwilling to get out of your own way.

Yeah, get that. That humility is so important. You know, it reminds me, I coach tracking cross country. I want to share this example with you. I remember one time, this was when my oldest, who's now, you know, now made me a grandfather. So it's been a long time ago, but I remember talking to the team, the track team, after a meet, talking about how we'd messed up on the relays, right? And almost by gender, all the guys were looking around like, yeah, it was your fault. It was your fault. And all the girls were crying because they thought it was their fault. So they look at it. I mean, do you see that, too?

Totally.

That humility, right?

Totally.

What can I do to make us better? What could I have done better? And the guys are like, yeah, you should have done it better. I did the best I could.

Well, I mean, look, I'm being really hard on my own, my own fellow men out there. But I will say though, there are some great leaders out there that are men leaders. And it's only because I think it's. I would say they have been forced to look within themselves and change the things that they needed to change to lead in today's companies. What is critical with those, the attributes that are necessary in leading this new generation and the change that's required again, to become extraordinary. It's no longer good enough to be great. Like we said, we have to be extraordinary. And that's. That. That is a critical part of that, that extraordinariness. Humility.

Yeah, I love that. So tell me about this. You know, humility and the different mindsets that we're. That you're dealing with. But how do we use that in families? You got a new initiative for families called Success to Significance. I want to hear about that because I think everybody here, we all have families and we've all got children and we, we want to see, hey, how do we get from Success to Significance?

Well, this is, this is a program that's been 12 years in the vision and making Dan. And I'll tell you.

It gets me emotional because this is not just about. It's about healing the wounds within our families. We all have families that have challenges and strife in some of these relationships, but this Success of Significance is about bringing the entire family together and helping them heal these relationships. We're actually going to go to an immersive experience in Africa. So this is about a program that has been working for 12 years to where we give an immersive experience. We really break down into the core beliefs that they have and the core challenge they have. But they have to. We're going to be forced to really work together, but in that bonding, it's. We're going to have processes and engagements to where these opportunities for healing can take place. So then when they come back to the United States and after about being in the country, in country for about 30 days, we're going to work with that family and how to go through it. We don't have enough time to go through this on the show, but this is where they're going to really see what was the experiences that they had there, what touched their heart and stirred their soul in. In these immersive experiences. So that what does that mean to them as an individual? Each member of the Family can articulate this on video. What was that event that was so critical to their.

Their process of beginning this transformation? Then we're going to see how the entire family sees this and be able to help them extract. You know, if I'm telling you a story Dan, there's a theme that comes out of that story. There's a phrase, there's maybe a thematic element to this that, that we are going to actually do something called brain tattooing. And now some of your business where they actually can actually in a, in a non permanent tattoo but write the phrase the word on there. And we're going to have professional photographers black and white this again to memorialize this for that family. But this then leads them through a couple other exercises to help that family really determined the legacy of their family determine what it is the humanitarian give back to society is going to be because of this collective process that they've gone through in healing in those relationships. But what is the stir the touching of the heart and stirring the soul means to their legacy? How they want to continue to impact society. That's this process that's going to happen with success to significance.

Man. David, I hear your yos there. You found a better way and it's different. You're going to Africa. Gosh sakes.

Right.

We're going to do it very differently. But at the end of the day I can hear your passion about making a difference for these families and I could definitely see the emotion and how much you care about this. What was the genesis for it?

I was thrust into the role as a CEO of a not for profit called Ambassadors for Children Children and they went around the country or the the world and they did these immersive experience but they called it voluntourism. So you actually had trip leaders that would, would help guide and this was probably more of a, a small. It's not really there was a couple instances that have been families but it was really more just a group of people that really wanted to go travel together and volunteer and have these experiences. But that's when it clicked is like can you imagine a family that did this? Could you imagine a family went through this? And that's where the again the beginning of this process program that started. And every year it, it has kind of keep. And this is a good thing to talk about that why not moment.

Right.

This is where the why not really came in and, and I can tell you more about that whenever you want to go there. But it, it, it's 12 years in the making and each Year has been a why not moment to guide us to where we are today.

Well, I love that because, you know, one of the things I do, David, and you know this, and if you've been a guest on the show, I send out a, a kind of an idea of what our outline is going to be. One of the questions I like to give people a heads up on is I'm going to ask you what's your biggest why not moment? Your moment. Your, your answer was I've had a lifetime of why not moments. So tell us about the most significant one or tell us about this specific one.

Well, I, here's what I will tell you. I'm going to tell you. Mine has been an entire career. I mean I've been, I've been a manager of a Wall street investment firm in Newport Beach, California for God's sake. And I, but I've also went from there into investment banking there did a 180 degrees into medical device. I mean I was in surgery with plastic surgeons, orthopedic surgeons. And each one of those steps was why not? Each step was basically why not do this? And that's where it also led me.com era was there were companies that really needed to really develop their leadership, but they were failing at integrating them into their leadership culture model.

Right.

That's where we developed an onboarding process and a coaching process to help integrate those, those individuals in it. Well then it was like, this is what you do best and why not go do it? And that's where I started Camp David, my own company to continue to do this on a regular basis. But it's interesting, I only want to say one more thing with that and that is to the listeners out there. And I've had this on a regular basis, you know, and I mean this could be anybody that's just right out of high school and right out of college and a professional is 10, 15, 20 years into their profession. And that is whatever you believe in your mind, you have an idea, you have a thought that can make a change in business, in people's lives. And companies use what I call the bird cage concept, meaning tell people about that bird cage. Tell people about that piece of the puzzle that you have because the more people you tell about that, the more people go say, hey, I have another piece that fits into that or I have a bird that's going to fit into that bird cage that you're, that you're telling about. So don't think that your idea is crazy. Don't think that your Thought about something is, is, is that people are going to laugh at it, share it, because other people have another piece of that puzzle. That's the why not. Why not share it? Because somebody has another piece to add to it.

Spoken like a better way guy. One of the characteristics that people with the why a better way is when you find a better way, you want to share it. You can't help yourself. Right. You want to share it with the world. And it's so interesting that you brought that up because I hear the time, you know, ideas, everything that's ever been invest. Invented started out as an idea. So you have to take those ideas and you have to give them life. Right? Because they're, they're, they're embryos and, and you've got to feed them. You got to nurture those ideas in order to give them life so that they can become the Camp David, so they can become success to significance. I love, I love all, everything about that and I love the fact that your entire career is a why not moment. One of the things I put in the show description is, you know, at the end of our life, we're not, we don't regret the things we did, we're going to regret the things we didn't do.

Right.

And having a lifetime of why not moments is a great way to not have a whole lot of regrets when you get to the end of the road. Right.

That's a really. Yep. No regrets. Amen.

Well, tell me this because we just talked about family and personal impact. How has understanding and learning your why operating system impacted your personal life?

Oh.

I have seven kids that have continued to live their life with a why not moment. And that's the greatest joy that I have is seeing, I mean, my kids. I, I tell people, I said, if you want to know if I'm any good at what I do, look at my kids lives. Because that is the greatest testimony that I can give is what they have accomplished and how they see their lives. That's, that's, that's the greatest testimony to what living that why not life is, has done for me.

Man. I love that and I love the, the candidness. I love how true you are being, David. And I can see your family is important. How old are your kids?

34 to 22. Seven kids. 34. Five boys and two girls.

Wow. And so you got one just finishing college or just finished.

Yeah, just, Just finishing. Yes. Yeah. In fact, the funny, the funny thing about that is that's Jack.

Yeah.

So when we all gather together for the holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, you know, whatever holiday they. These boys are extremely accomplished. I mean one's a CPA that worked M and A on Wall Street. Another one's a robotics engineer that, I mean y. I mean these guys are. But they all say, let's face it, at the end we're all going to end up working for Jack anyway.

But that's, that's again, that's the benefit of the last born of seven is that you get all the great kudos, all the great benefits of their success and failures all dumped into your lap and you know what to do and what not to do.

I love that. No, and that's. You're so right. When you're the youngest kid, you get to learn from everyone. You get picked on the most probably, but you also are getting the benefit. And I don't know if it's the case with you. Our two girls are 34 and 11, so there's a big gap in between. I didn't fill it with five kids in between the way you did. But the youngest kid gets the more chill parent. Would you agree?

Oh, absolutely. But also by birth order you've got two firstborns because six years separation. So you got, you got two powerful kids there because they both displayed firstborn tendencies even though they're siblings.

So. Well, what I tell people is, look, I'm not good at multitasking, so I got one through undergrad and as soon as she. Then we had our second one we just did. It's a 22 year project for us.

Oh, good for you. I'll tell you. And I've got now four grandchildren with two on the way. So you know, again, the name and everything is continues to multiply.

So isn't that absolute best? So I've got a 2 year old who just turned 22 on Father. I'm turned 2 on Father's Day and then a brand newborn that's a month old and just those grandchildren, man. What, what a blessing, right?

Absolutely. That's, that's, that's that one of my other friends, I just talked about that, that you, you can't even explain what it is to be a grandparent until you have one.

Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. Hey man, we've made this hour, this half hour fly by. But you know, David, if somebody wants to work with you, if somebody wants to work with Camp David and, and bring David Gorsage in for a talk or they want to work with you as a coach, what's the best way to get a hold of You.

Well they can, they can go to my website. I think there's a con which is Camp David LLC dot com.

Perfect.

Which that's also going to be probably completely transformed here but you can still reach me there. You know my email address is D. Gorsage. My last name at camp david llc.com so I mean you know, or go through my Facebook or Instagram. Facebook page. David Gorsuch. Obviously Instagram. I think I'm it's conviction coach on Instagram but you can still pull it up through my.

Hey, there we go. Look at that. Sunil's on.

There you go.

There's your Instagram and you're on LinkedIn. Also LinkedIn. Yes. That's how we connected originally. David, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you on. I am looking forward to learning more about what you do. I know we've got a follow up appointment on Friday but I got to tell you, this has been one of my favorite interviews in a long time. I want to thank you for sharing what you do, what you're working on, your, your, your drive, your what, what you're doing to make a difference in the world by finding better ways, by challenging the status quo and then help succeed. So thank you very much for being on. We look forward to continuing to work with you and I know you got a big program coming up that we're, we're going to talk about on Friday. So I can't wait to do that. Guys, I want to say have a happy Wednesday, have a great rest of the week and then don't forget to join us next week when we got April Yvette on next week. She's the founder of the School for Thought Leadership. She does a lot of work too on healing wounds. So I can't wait to continue that conversation with April. Thank you so much for being on David and we'll see you soon.

Thank you, Dan.

Have a great week everyone.