Ownership Is Your Word With Dave Anderson

This is the Own it show, where.

We tell stories of how everyday people.

Made ownership theirs to create extraordinary success.

Welcome back to another week of the Own It Show, Coach Conversations. And I'm Justin.

I'm Elise. And welcome to the show.

So, guys, I know a lot in the past, we've chatted with bunch of people and talked about their catalyst events that have brought them to that level of ownership. And there's a large spectrum, some things that just happen organically through living life. And all of a sudden, you experience something that just turns a light bulb on. And others are a little bit more distinct, a little bit more publicized, a little bit more nationally recognized. And today we've got a guy that's going to come on and speak about an event that everybody knows about, something that was really prevalent in pretty much the only city in the US that matters in many people's opinions. And the fact of how he's been able to change his life and bring it to a point of really. That rerouted. Everything is really, really unique. And. And so let me bring you back to kind of this day on US Airways Flight 1549 that ended up landing in the Hudson. And the guy we're bringing on today wasn't just a passenger, but he was really one of the people on this plane that helped everybody get back to their families that night. And I think that is what's truly, truly amazing. And this doesn't define him, but it's helped redefine what life means to him and how he truly lives in ownership every day. So, Dave Sanderson, thank you so much for spending time with us today, and welcome to the owner show.

Thank you, Justin. Elise, I'm honored to be here with you today. Thank you.

So, Dave, first off, I want to talk to you about what you just went through before we get back to that story. And it was really like a homecoming moment for you this past weekend where you swam across the Hudson with the Navy seals. And can you tell us a little bit about what that was like for you and the purpose and intention behind that?

Well, thank you. Yes, it was quite an amazing event. And really, a lot of the amazing events started back in April when I agreed to do it. I. When I was invited to do it, I just was really going to do it just to raise money for homeless vets. That was sort of the driving force. But as I started training and I was with the Seals and having Olympic coach who coaches Olympians, really break me down and help me raise my standard, it became a whole different mission. Because as I went through the training and they started from. Basically started from scratch. I learned really this thing was not only about raising money and supporting those vets, it was about going back and what my new books called Turmoil, Triumph, Turning. You know, being able to leave on your own terms. And that's really what it came about. Because, you know, as I was training and breaking myself down every morning at 5am with these tremendous patriots that I was with, I started realizing that going back into the Hudson river was going to allow me to do a couple things. Number one, like I said, leave on my terms. But the last time I was in the Hudson river, it wasn't on my terms. You know, I was put there in a place where I didn't have a vote, I didn't have control, and I had to deal with it first. And now I have a chance to go back and do that. But second, I want to really show people how, you know, I talk about how to turn turmoil into triumph, and I've done it, and I have great stories to tell. But this one really epitomizes how you have to go face whatever turmoil you've had in your life. And it could be a big one, it could be a small, but this was a big one. And you have to have to face it head on and own it and being able to not only own it, but make that commitment to accomplish it and complete it. And there are so many lessons that came out of this that I am really excited to be able to share that. Candidly, when I started walking up those steps in New York City, after swimming to the Statue of Liberty and then Ellis island and then the Statue of to New York City, it was. It wasn't relief, it was more a pride. It's like, you know, I did it, I put the time in, I made the commitment. And more than a commitment, Justin and Elise, it was a resolve. Because one of the things, you know, I talk about, I will be talking about is, you know, and we talk about owning it. You know, my dad taught me that my word was my bond. So when I made this bond back in April, I had to own it. It was done. The question was, how could I get it done? I needed a lot of coaching. And you got to. One of the things my mentor Bill always taught me, and this goes back to 1984, is you have to have the humility prepared to have the confidence to execute. You have to humble yourself. And that was another part of this big lesson that I had to humble myself. I thought I knew how to swim. I Thought I knew I could do this. But to be able to accomplish something major in your life, you got to humble yourself with people who've done it and walked it. Walk the talk. So that's a long winded answer to it, to a short question.

It sounds like an extremely powerful moment for you to be able to go back and as you said, the idea of control, the last time you were in the Hudson river, it was completely out of your control. And now you're doing it not only on your terms, but because it was the conscious decision you made to do it and a promise that you made to yourself. Like you said, you're only as good as your word to go back and do it. And so the pride that you felt in that moment must have been, you know, one of those once in a lifetime experiences.

Yeah, it's a defining moment. There was a picture was taken of me shaking hands with my coach, and that was sort of like the moment, right? Like. Because one of the things you learn when you do something like this, and you probably know this with the work you've done, is it's not about you. It takes a team. And it wasn't just my personal team, but it was my extended team. It was also, more importantly, my swim buddy and wingman, Suzanne. She was with me the entire time. And that's another part of the lesson, is if you're gonna really accomplish something big, you gotta have a wingman. You gotta have someone there to only encourage you, but also push you and also console you when you need a little bit of empathy. So there's so many lessons. But yes, Elise, it was. That moment was an amazing moment. When I got out and Suzanne got out, we hugged. It's like, okay, you know what? I left on my terms and what else can I do in my life now? Show people how, when life's getting them now, especially this last year. Because what I tell people last year wasn't just about COVID It was also about these justice, you know, social justice questions. It was about the election, it was about police. It always kept stacking on people. And all of a sudden, people didn't know which way to turn and they were locked down. So it was. I want to show people there are ways to be able to accomplish turning whatever turmoil you have into a triumph.

You're exactly right. I'd love if we could go back a little bit in time and if you could tell us about the story. January 15, 2009, what it was that happened. I'm sure many of our listeners are already Familiar. But for those people who are not, can you tell us about what that day was like for you?

Yes, it was a normal business day. It was end of a three day business trip, ending up in Brooklyn, New York. And that's how I got to be in the New York City area. We were working in a distribution center. And I don't know if anybody here has ever been or worked in a distribution center, but they opened up early in the morning because trucks start early in the morning. And we wanted to be there when all the action was happening. So we start our day at 5am which is pretty early for, you know, for people like me who usually start 8 or 9 o' clock in the morning. But we got done at 10 o' clock and that's what happened. At 10 o'. Clock. I called a travel agent. She put me on that flight. I wasn't supposed to be on the flight. I was, I had a first class seat at 5 o'. Clock. But I wanted to get home early because I've been traveling three days. I had three kids, four kids at that point in time, right. And it's like, you know, I was always traveling. My wife was at home handling all the other business. So I wanted to get home. And that's how I got on the flight. So I think one of the big things about it is I think I was destined to be on that flight. There's no reason I should have been on that flight. But there's nothing unusual about today. It was 11 degrees and snowing. And you're up in Canada, right? I mean, it's cold the winter. I mean, it's no big deal. And the flights were delayed. That's no big deal because you're in LaGuardia, right? I mean, so happens all the time. But, you know, about 60 seconds after we took office when I heard an explosion, and that's when I thought something was going on. But at that point, you know, I flew so often planes lose engines. And I knew that planes always have multiple engines. So, you know, we have another engine, we'll go back to the airport. But part of the story that doesn't get talked about a lot is those birds hit simultaneously. As Canadian, he said the same exact millisecond. Because I truly believe, and I tell people this, you heard bang, bang. And you're in New York City on a plane, your thought process probably is going a different direction. But we heard Bang. And 90% of the people on the plane were business people. And so it's like, okay, let's go Back, get on the plane. But until we started crossing over the George Washington Bridge. And when the captain said his famous words, this is your captain. Brace for impact. That's when it got real, I think for just about everybody on the plane. Because now you're only clearing the George Washington Bridge by roughly about 400ft. The plane was a thousand feet at that point in time descending. The bridge is 600ft up. So you're about 4,400ft above, and you're looking up and people looking down. You can see things. And it's like, wow, we're close. And that's the moment in time. You have roughly 60 seconds, but you could potentially be dead. And you know it, and you're seeing it. It's right there. It's right in front of you. It's not like what just happened in, like, in Haiti or something like that where the earthquake hits. And unfortunately, things happen very quickly. It's strong. You can see it. It's coming your way. And you could be going someplace different. And you have no control except for your mind. And I tell people that's. That's the thing about it. That's when you have to manage things and you're an entrepreneur, you have to take ownership. We talk about, like that. It all comes down to your mindset. If you can't control your mind in times of turmoil or things like that or things of turbulence, that's where things can go sideways pretty quick.

We often. Your mind has to be stronger than your emotions. When we continue to talk with this, as you see this, you're like 60 seconds before you're going in. What is the atmosphere on the plane of everybody else? And then what is your experience?

Yeah, that's what's really amazing, because you could hear some people making phone calls. You could hear some people texting. It was. And it's eerily quiet. You talk to any pastor and they'll tell you it's eerily quiet. Because at that point, I think everybody was going internal right there. It's like, okay, me personally, I was like, locking down. I was like, okay, you know, A, I have to have a game plan. But B, what happened for me is I saw the movie of my life pass before my eyes. I saw things with clarity from when I was a child. I first dated my wife, Our kids were born. It's amazing. It's like 4K HD, and you see the movie of your life passing before your eyes. And that's what was really intense for me, because that's the moment I really Realized what my life was all about. And you could see things. And that's why I remember so much, because it was so vivid and defining moments. Those things really just lock in. So that's what happened to me, that 60 seconds I saw the movie and about, you know, a few seconds before we impact, because I was watching out the window a little bit, like, okay, it's coming, right? I can see it coming. And right before impact, it's like I put my head down, say the final prayer, and, you know, then we hit. And as we know now, fortunately, hit perfectly. Because if he didn't, and I tell people and, you know, just think one degree either way, he's toppling into New York City or toppling into Newark, which is a bigger disaster, right? Because it's rush hour, or he has one degree, his nose goes down just a little bit, he's going to the bottom of the Hudson River. You have no shot. So he hit it perfectly. But now you got part two of the problem. This is where the passenger makeup of the plane became so important, the mindset of the passengers, because, yeah, you got down now, yay, we're down. But water's in the plane immediately, you know. And now, you know, where I was, it was about knee to ankle deep. Water in the back was about chest to waistline with deep water immediately. Because somebody who actually paid attention, they read the brochure, right? I didn't go to the closest exit, which may be behind you. Someone tried to open up that back door. And I don't blame that person. Whoever it was, I don't blame them because they did exactly what they read to do, right? But as you thought, we found out in a plane and water, you don't open up the back door, it goes immediately down. And that's what happened. Water was so deep in the back of the plane, and it wasn't the term I used that night I was on with Katie Couric on cbs. I said it was controlled chaos, no one was losing their heads. But now you're in fast motion, right? Things are moving very quickly now because water's coming in, people are trying to get out, you know, and some people thought there's only a couple exits out. But the big lesson of that inside the plane was resourcefulness, because all things are people jumping on top of seats, walking down seats. And all of a sudden, instead of having one path out, you have multiple paths out. And that's a great metaphor for life, because when you think you only have one way to get something done, if you Open your eyes and you're resourceful. All of a sudden things start opening up. And that's what happened. But my game plan was aisle about. I just kept saying, aisle up, out, aisle up, out. When I got to the aisle, that's when the whole day changed. My fact, I think my entire life changed at that second, that millisecond, because that's the moment I heard my mom start talking to me. And my mom passed away in 1997. But when I was a child, she would tell me and my sister and probably my brother the same thing. If you do the right thing, God will take care of you. And I heard that in my head. And I grew up in small town outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, and outside of Washington D.C. so I grew up in small towns where everybody took care of everybody. So I climbed over the seats to the back of the plane to see if I needed help and people were moving. So I just got behind everybody to walk out with everybody else. And that's why I know water is about chest level deep, because it was chest level deep. And if you saw how the plane hit, hit the backside hit first. So the bins are broken open, right? All the luggage is floating out, right. And it's dark because it's underwater. Because if you look at the plane from the front, you can't see that look from the side, it's like this, it's underwater. So now it's dark. So that's like, you know, we just started making our way out and you know, I don't know if you have a question, but yeah, that's, that's how it all started breaking down inside the plane.

This is, this is January 15th. So this water is not warm, 36 degrees. And so with the big. Everybody's doing the cold plunges now and jumping in the cold water. And so you know what this types of water feels like. It is. It's debilitating. You can't move. I've got two questions. One, what was that like? How were you able to move through that? What was that truly feeling like for everybody? And how from a mindset side were you able to continue to keep moving and keep operating? And, and two, what was it like at impact? Because I know it's. Everyone thinks, oh, you just, you come down and we know what a rough landing on wheels feels like. What did that landing feel like?

I answer number two first, because it was a very hard hit. It was a jarring hit because he hit at approximately between 100, 120 miles an hour. He hit backside first and cold water is actually a pretty hard surface. Oh, yeah. So it was jar. I went up, back up, back like twice, very quickly. It was that jarring. And that's when I looked up and I looked out the window and I saw light. So. But yeah, it was a hard, hard hit. And he says the same thing. It was, you know, some people say it was jarring, I say it was hard. He had another word for it. I'll let him talk about the word he uses. But how, you know, when it came to the water side, what I tell people, what I found out later, when I think it's exactly what happened, it was adrenaline, right? You just got adrenaline going because now you have a different mission. Because if you saw the movie, I don't know if you saw the movie or not. One of the captains of one of the ferries said the mission in the movie, which, no, unless you were listening quickly, you didn't really pick it up because no one dies today. He said that that was the mission. Excuse me. So everybody was like moving right, very quickly. So adrenaline's going, right? And so when I got to the door, excuse me, I looked out, it was my time to go. But the boat and the wings was only already filled up. I was no room for me to go out. That's why I was inside the plane, waist deep in 36 degree water for seven minutes, you know, because I couldn't get out until about seven minutes later. I felt the plane shift and water started going up my back. And what happened was I found out later one of the tugboats is part of the rescue. As he was backing out, hit the front of the plane and shook the plane. And that's what happened. Like, first thing I thought was Titanic, I'm like, this thing's going down, man. I gotta get out. Time to go, right? So that's why I jumped in, start swimming to the closest boat that I could find. And I tell people it's the longest 15 yard swim of my life because I had to swim to the end of the end of the wing to get to the ferry in 36 degree water. And now I'm submerged, right? And so I still don't feel the water. You still don't feel the cold, right? Because you still gotta go. And I didn't feel it until I got on the ferry. They pulled me up because I couldn't climb. Threw me over the side. Now I'm standing up in the ferry, like I made it. But that's the moment. And they'll tell you firemen will tell you this, police will tell you this, military will tell you this. Because I speak to a lot of them is, you know, you can go all day long on adrenaline. I mean, these fire guys are going into the fires, right? They got it going, but all of a sudden you see them on the curb. They have nothing left because it's all gone. That's what happened to me. Now the adrenaline's gone. It's 11 degrees outside, and you've been in water for over seven minutes. That's when I said I could barely breathe. It was my lack feel. Everything was sucking out because I couldn't breathe. But fortunately there was a guy there with a phone. And that's how my family found out because I got to leave a message that I'd been in a plane crash. And that's how they knew I'd been in a plane crash. But that's all I could get out.

What a again, what a. A life changing moment for you. And I think one of the things when Justin and I were talking about having you on, and again, we're familiar with story, the movie, all those types of things, but one of the things that we would really love to understand from you today is how did life change for you? And I'm not necessarily talking about changing career or whatever it may be, but the way that you started to approach life and see life and ultimately own your life, how. How did that change for you?

It changed in a couple of different moments. And there's like two major shifts. First it was when I actually got back to Charlotte, and I see my company didn't check in with my wife for me, so I didn't know they even knew I was in a plane crash. So I went by the office with a couple of my daughters, and my wife did not want me to drive alone, which was a very smart move. I should have been driving at all. But that's another story for another day. And I went by the office and my manager down, you're going to Michigan next week, right? And he didn't even acknowledge that I've been in a plane crash. Now, fortunately, the vice president did, but that also told me I was just a number. So I said, I have to, you know, something's not right. Right. Something's not right adding up because one of the things. Have the opportunity to be a head of security for Tony Robbins for 14 years. Tony would always ask, when are you gonna do something for yourself? Time to get out. Time to do it for yourself. And he would sit on me about this and I always gave him excuses until there's no more excuses right now. Now I really got an excuse. Like, I'm just a number. That was number one. But number two actually happened about two weeks later. In fact, number two actually happened the following weekend. And then number three happened two weeks later. So number two, what happened was I got. I spoke at my church that next Sunday, and all of a sudden, 500 people show up to this thing, and I don't even know what I'm going to say. And I say, God, give me something to say. Please just give me something to say. He did. And all of a sudden, at the end, I was talking to two gentlemen. One was from bank of America, one was from Wachovia, and that's no big deal. But there's this elderly lady in the back of the room staring at me, just locking me down. And all of a sudden, she caught my eye and came up on my left and grabbed me, grabbed my arm. I'm like, whoa. She starts grabbing me, right? I'm like, what? It's like, what's going on now? We're only a week out from a plane crash. I'm, like, a little goofy anyway, right? But she looked me in the eyes, and I was questioning if there's a God. I don't believe in miracles, but your physical evidence there is a God, and he does miracles. Thank you. Thank you. And she looked at me in the eye and just walked away. That's the moment I realized the bigger, bigger purpose of my life was I could impact somebody's life right now. What I. What I happen to me. So that's when it really started shifting. That was the moment. Start shifting for me. But it really started kicking in two weeks later, because two weeks later, I was on Good Morning America with other passengers. We're in the green room, and all of a sudden, one of the passengers just goes off. Goes on. He starts yelling. And I'm, like, looking at him like, what's wrong with this guy? Right? I mean, you know, we survived a plane crash. We're on national tv, right? I mean, how bad is it? But I found out shortly after that he was going through a divorce, he lost his job. And I started realizing how many times in my life I judged somebody so quickly, before I could find out their backstory, understand what their life's all about. That was the moment I said, if I become less judgmental and just focus on relationships and understanding people, how could that impact my life? All of a sudden, I started really focusing in on how can I serve People instead of being served. And that shifted because all of a sudden I'm speaking at the Supreme Court, I'm doing things, I'm meeting people from all over the world that I would never, I would never met you. So that those three moments really started shifting my direction. And that's why now my, you know, I, my new book is really about the lessons my mentor started teaching me in 1984 that he learned from his mentor in 1929. And that impacted everything that I did. But I never realized it until that moment, that defining moment.

Dave, I want to go even dive into this a little bit and give people the understanding of kind of your life cycle. And it wasn't that you had never been exposed to this type of stuff, the judgment, the self development, all this. You worked head of security for Tony Robbins. You're listening to one of the greatest self development coaches and mentors out there speak on a regular basis. Even before this moment, you were a very successful high level position at a major, major company traveling over 100 times a year. And ultimately it took an older lady in a church to grab you and say a couple words that made all of these lice lessons start to click. And we often talk about it is, it's it. You can, you can be taken to water all the time, but you can't be made to drink. You can hear these lessons over and over again. You can be in the rooms, you can go to the conferences, you can read the books, you can be exposed to the information. But it takes you truly owning it. It takes you truly taking ownership of that moment and of those lessons to create that change for you. And I would love to just get your take on that and how it's, how that journey for you and what it's meant for you.

Thank you for opening up that for me because that's actually what my book's about. My new book in addition, of course, some other things. So here's the short version. So as I mentioned, I had a mentor, Bill, that came into my life in 1984. For 14 years, he mentored me and told me these stories and really taught me these life strategic lessons, right? But in 1997, after my mother had passed away, he called me to his office here in Charlotte, North Carolina and he said two things. First thing, it was a beautiful office. I'd never been to his office. He said, first thing I want you to know, I've got lung cancer. Now, he smoked two packs a day since the 30s, right. I mean, so he could understand why. But the Second thing, he walked over to his desk, which is a beautiful big roller dell. It's one of these big old beautiful desk. Pulled out these crumpled pieces of paper, sat down next to me and gave these to me. He said, I want to give this to you. I said, what is. He goes, this is what I've been teaching you. These are the lessons that I wrote down in 1929 for my mentor. I'm going to pass on to you, but you got to promise me one thing. You know, don't let it die with you. Don't let it die with you. He passed away in September of that year. What do I do with these notes? I put them in a journal. I don't look at them until 2015. And I started writing my book. Moments Matter. I found these notes, and I'm like, what an idiot I am. I've had gold, gold in my hands, and I haven't done anything with it. So I called my current mentor, Don up. Said, don, let me share this with you. I shared this with him. And he said something was so profound. And, Justin, this is the answer to your question. He says, God doesn't give you the lesson until you're ready. You weren't ready. And I think that's what happens in life. I think we learn all these things. I mean. I mean, I was with Tony for 14 years. He taught me everything. I was with him side by side, traveling with him. Right. I got insights that people would pay millions of dollars for. And I knew it. But maybe it takes that one trigger, one something happened to trigger it all of a sudden open up. Because I think really that's what happens. God gives you that lesson when you're ready to do it. And all these years, I wasn't ready. And that was the moment when that lady came up. That was the moment she woke me up. Right. Okay, this is it. What are you going to do with it now? Right. And that. I think that that's what happens to people. So I think you start owning it, because you already have it. You own it, but you don't employ it and take action until God gives you that reason to do it. And that's what happened to me.

Amazing.

It really is. And your story itself and just your journey, Right. Like you said, I mean, as kind of as Justin was saying, you would think that somebody was that much access to Tony Robbins would be living in the ownership state that you are now. But it did. It took something completely separate from that. A moment in time, an event for you that was completely separate. That is now your physical gold to live in the life and like you said, serve others the way that you are, into the level that you are now.

Well, thank you, Elise, because, you know, one of the things we talk, I talk about is that day on the Hudson river in 2009, pretty much everything that I learned from Tony came into play. Whether it's resourcefulness, right. Or having faith or certainty, all these things he talks about came into play that day, right? So I had it. I had it, right? I knew it. But I think you need something to jar you, right? It's like, okay, yeah, you got it. Yeah. And one of the things, I don't know if you believe in the Bible or not, but, you know, it's all about taking action. Tony talks about it. You have to take action. You know, Jesus said, follow me, right? Take action. Don't just sit around, you got to do something with it. So, Justin, at least I think that's what happened when that lady came up, that was a trigger. And when I found my notes and I gave them the children with Don, Don's like, you weren't ready. Now you're ready do something with it.

That's what happened, David, so clear that you, as of you know this event and even prior to that, but really since this plane crash that you were in, you have lived in a true ownership lifestyle. Now, this is one of our listeners favorite questions. So we really want to hear from you. What in, you know, a word or a phrase or, you know, a quick snippet, what is your definition of ownership?

I think it goes back to something my dad told me when I was a child and I live by as your word is your bond, you own your word. And so when I say something, I want to do something, my family does know this now when I say it, it's going to happen. It may not happen right now. It may happen a year from now, right? But I think owning is when you make you make that promise to yourself, that word, to yourself. And the second part of that at least is this, you profess it because back in April when I said I want to swim with the Navy SEALs, and people look me like, you can't swim with the Navy seals. What are you crazy, Right? These guys are the elite. And you're going back to the Hudson river and the waves and the current, I said, I want to do it right? My word was my bond. There's no way I wasn't going to do it. It goes from commitment to resolve, and that's it. When you own it, it's resolved, it's done. Now you just have to have a strategy to figure it out.

I've got one last question for you, Dave. And so often people that go through trauma, they go through something really hard. It can take them one of two ways. They can take a far left turn and go into a real negative space, or they can take a hard right turn and go the way that you have to serve people, to take care of people, rather than being served to go and make an impact in a really positive way. What is it that you've been able to do and able to harness this and be able to take that right turn?

Good question. And I'll end up and share a quick. Another one quick story, because it had about five years ago, probably now, six years ago, 2015. About six years ago, I got a phone call where I'm sitting right now from the gentleman who's the editor of AARP magazine. And he asked me if he could interview me. I said, why you want to interview me? AARP is for old people, right? I'm not old. Number one, how am I going to teach old people? Right? They already know everything. He said, we want you to talk about ptgs. I said, what is ptgs? He goes, post Traumatic Growth Syndrome. He said, there's two universities have done studies on you. UNC Charlotte, North Dakota State University. But how did you grow from a traumatic life experience while so many other people went a different direction? What's the difference that you did? So I did this interview with AARP magazine, which led to me doing my ted talk about PTGs. And I shared some of the strategies. Of course, you know, doing a TED Talk yourself, Justin. Right. You got 18 minutes. You better get in quick. So I shared two of those strategies. But I think really, it came down to really five different things that I talk about. But the one thing I'll leave is this is the meaning you attach to something produces the emotion of your life, and emotion is your life. So the meanings I started attaching to things were different, such as, I'll give you the example of the gentleman in Good Morning America. He attached a plane crash to devastation in his life. He lost everything in his mind. Where I attached is. It was a blessing to me. And all of a sudden I started telling people if I could help people reframe meanings that started changing. So I'll leave you with one example because you're sitting in Canada right now. I was on my way back from speaking in Florida. I was in Savannah, Georgia. I got a phone call from a Friend and said, you need to talk to this lady. She's up in a cabin in northern Canada. She won't come out. She just survived the avalanche in Nepal. One of four people. You got to talk to her. So what can I offer? She said, you survived the plan. I said, I know I did, but what can I offer? Talk to. Just please talk to her. So I talked to this lady and she was, she was rigid, she had survivor's guilt, she wouldn't come out of this cabin. Why did they die and I didn't. I had that question from a TV station in Montreal. I heard that one before. So I said, okay. I said, give me a few days, let me call you next week. So what I did over that next week, I worked on talking to somebody who got me connected to somebody in Ethiopia. And I got on the phone with this gentleman and every day he's got to go get water, he scrapes for clothes and food. So I said, would you be open having a phone call with me? He would. So I connected this lady in some cabin in northern Canada with this gentleman in Ethiopia. We had a three way call. I let him tell her what it's like every day in Ethiopia. And all of a sudden she's like, wow, I have something to live for. I've got food, I've got shelter. And all of a sudden it shifted her mindset. She reframed it. Like I have a reason to live now instead of wallowing on why I didn't die and that the meaning I was helping. So that's what I help people now is how to reframe meanings to what you're doing. Helping people grow from traumatic life experiences.

It's amazing and it's no wonder that you've been able to take this. And at least I always believe nothing ever happens by coincidence. Everything happens for a reason. You've seen, done and be in places that you were supposed to and really everything you had been through experience, working with Tony, working at. I won't mention the name of the company, thank you. But working at the company that you did, the life that you had lived so far had set you up for that moment. And that moment set you up for everything else. And it's so great to see where you've come and see the impact that you're making. Where can our listeners access more of you, access more of your message, find your books. I know you've got a couple out there already and obviously coming up with the new one. Turmoil, the triumph. Where can people access these and get more Access to you.

Well, thank you so much, Elise and Justin, for giving me that opportunity, for having me today. First, I always encourage people just check me out on LinkedIn @DavidSanderson, because every week I write a, a new blog and I share some additional content of some of these things, such as what I'm doing now with the Navy SEAL swim, some of these distinctions that I learned because they are life lessons. So number one, check me out on LinkedIn. I would really encourage that. But second, my website is davestandersonspeaks.com and of course, like everybody's website there, it's always under construction, but we're really putting some of the new content out to not only about the SEAL swim, about turning turmoil to triumph, and that's where my mission is now leading me, because I'll leave you with this. My mission. As you talked about, what's changed, Elise, I think you asked that question. You know, my mission is now, how can I teach what Bill's taught me, what Tony's taught me, but put this together to a million people in 10 years, that's my mission. So I began putting that together, how I'm going to do it. We talked about making the big bold statement and owning it. I own it now. I've got to figure out how to do it. So check me out on my website and I'm sharing some ideas on how I'm doing that with people right now, helping them understand some of these mindset success that I was very blessed to be received.

It's amazing. And for everybody listening, you don't have to go through something as traumatic, as national, newsworthy as a plane crash. It could be something much smaller. It can be something that is truly traumatic to you, something that truly changes the way in which you look at things. And ultimately, every single thing that happens to us, we attach a meaning to it. And that meaning is going to give us an emotion. And we have control over that. We have control of how we approach things. We have control of what our mindset is and how we do it. But going back to this notion that Dave's mother told him, if you do the right thing, God will take care of you. And being so true to what your values are, having those distinctions so deep, it will make your work your bond and allow you to show up in a place of service. And service is what allows you to impact, which allows you to be truly fulfilled and truly take and find the success that you want. Because as we always say, success is different. So be different. End of it.

Thank you very much. I could have said it even better than you just said it. Justin, thank you so much.

You're welcome. And, everybody, we'll see you guys next week.