David Lindsay - High Performance Coach & Speaker

This is episode 257 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast, where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider.

Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast. I'm your hostess, Kari Schneider. We're here with David Lindsay and this is going to be a fun one. We've got David Lindsay all the way from Australia and the magic miracles of technology today. And David is. Has a background that's so aligned with where I've come from as well. We've got this athletic background, a coaching background, being a trainer, and you've got a background as a footballer, an arm wrestler, a cage fighter. You are, you are doing things like motivating the public, keynote speaking. You are bringing the message that comes from high performance sport, which is that of discipline, fitness, resilience, all of these incredible attributes and characteristics that high performance sport thrives on, and you're bringing that to the public and to the workplace and to businesses. So welcome and tell us just a little bit more about where you came from to get to where you are now.

Certainly. Thank you very much, Kyrie. I'm excited to be part of this podcast and have this conversation with you. The chat that we had just before was brilliant. And looking at the alignment that we have, I think it's going to be sensational and hopefully we can give some little nuggets to all the listeners out there. Yeah. My background comes from sports. I start off playing rugby league, which for you guys it's like American football, gridiron, whatever you want to call it, minus all of the padding. It's just guys running at each other like bulls, and I really love that. And that is really part of who I am. It's the competitive side of it. I'm not the biggest bloke going around by any means, but I could always be people with my physical fitness, my mental fitness, my tenacity, and my unwillingness to say no and give up. And that has really taken me so many steps along the way. I was on my way to playing professional rugby league, was playing semi professional rugby league for South Sydney. You guys may have heard of it. It's the most successful NRL team in Australia. But I suffered two knee reconstructions. My first one was when I was 17, and then I got back on the horse, but I said, if it ever happens again, that'll be it for me. Then I think I was 21 when I suffered my second knee reconstruction. So my rugby league Career was gone in the blink of an eye. It was like flipped on its head. I was, as you can imagine, still super competitive at that point. And I was a lot bigger back then as well. I was about 25 kilos heavier than I am at the moment.

Wow.

And it was big, strong, muscly and. But because of that, a bloke at a shopping center came up to me, a complete random, and goes, excuse me, have you ever done arm wrestling?

And my mind just went, I don't need my knees. What the heck? My knees are out of the picture.

What are you talking about? Arm wrestling? Yeah. Have you ever done arm wrestling? And I go, yeah, I've done it for. With mates in a pub for drinks.

Yeah.

And I go, when I do, yeah, I don't buy drinks. And he just laughed and goes, have you thought about that as a sport? And I went, no, I didn't even know it existed as a sport, as you can imagine coming from, like, rugby league. It'd be like going from volleyball and going, oh, you've got. You've got strong hands. Have you ever thought about flicking cards?

No. Yeah. No. Thank you.

Yeah. And I went and bet. He handed me his card and he was the head guy at the Australian Arm Wrestling Federation. And that really got my mind ticking about seeing things from different angles and different perspectives and still being like, I'm still a super competitive guy to this very day. But I was big, I was strong, and I thought, yeah, let's use it. I'm not using my knees. So I went and I started training and I went really well. I'd be bodybuilders. I built guy. I beat guys that have been doing it for a long time. There was one bloke who, luckily he was a few weight divisions above me who I didn't quite beat, but I would push, push him to his limit. And I was around the world trip. I was going across to Greece for a mate's wedding, going to go to Barbados to see my grandparents, around to America to do some professional arm wrestling tournaments and back to Australia. And I was super excited about that trip. Unfortunately, when I was in Corfu, it was the day after the wedding, I was mucking around with. With a mate, arm wrestling. And I got him down, but he had his wrist cocked up and they go, no, David, you have to get his wrist down. They started counting down. 5, 4, 3. And I turned my body and. And snapped my arm.

Oh, wow.

So.

So you snapped your humerus. You snapped the upper arm bone, like, completely. That's crazy that. And that's like you had a hat. You had to have had the exact right, wrong, whatever torque force at the exact right time for that to happen. Because the amount of muscle mass you would have been holding you the amount you'd already been. Been wrestling, arm wrestling. That means that bone would have been really dense already unless it was overworked because it would have. It would have taken just an unbelievable amount of force at the right spot in order to break that humerus. That's crazy.

And that. That's exactly what it was. It's like, you know when pitchers blow their arm because the rotation that way. So as I turn down like a Kimura in fighting. So that. That's what it was. So I basically broke my own arm. I put everything into it. And at first, because you don't think that's going to happen. My ribs were resting on a bar and with the noise I thought it actually broken the bar. Until I looked at my arm and realized, hang on my elbows up here. My arm was bent at right angles. So obviously that was the end of my arm wrestling career. Went to the Corfu Hospital. We're in there for. For a week while I was waiting to. To organize stuff to fly back to Australia to get it operated on. And when they operate on it, it's quite. I found out afterwards it's not uncommon for them to hit the radial nerve. So they hit the radial nerve and my arm became paralyzed. And that took four months. But with that I went and got a nerve conduction study done where they put needles in your arm to see how the nerves are firing. And I did what you know you should never do. You never asked the radiographer what that X ray is. You never asked that person what that is. I asked the question to go, so how is it? And they said, unfortunately, David, I'm afraid the nerves are shriveled up and dying. And my life just got taken from me like I wasn't. Well, I still am. I was an athlete, I was a coach, I was a trainer, I was working in gyms. I was going around, who's going to want someone that can't use their arm? Everything got taken from me. My world got thrown upside down and shaken around and luckily I had the support. I went on that round the world trip with my girlfriend, which I'm so lucky that she hung with me through all of this. She's now my wife. We have a lovely daughter. But she was my support during that time because I went into a place that was low for Me, I didn't want to see my friends. I didn't want to see my family. I just tried to lock myself off from everyone. And that lasted for probably about two days. And then my wife, well, my girlfriend was going, david, come on, you've overcome this, this, this, it's only a broken bone. And I went, you know what? She's right. I'm going to overcome this. And after four months, I started to get some movement back. And after six months, I could even start doing a little bit of weight. But I got back into training and I was still competitive. And across the road from where I did my cert 3 serve for fitness training, there was a martial arts school. So I went, man, let's test this out. So I went and I did kung fu, jiu jitsu, kickboxing and wrestling. And after doing it for a couple of years, my competitive juices started going again. So I went in some jiu jitsu tournaments. I went and did. My ultimate goal was to fight in the cage, fight mma. So I went and did that. And I had quite a few. Well, I had a few fights in that I had more fights canceled than actual fights because of the mentality that people have. But what it did was it really put me in contact with my wrestling coach and he really, like, you can see along the way where things have. I've hit an obstacle and gone different direction. Meeting my wrestling coach was probably the biggest impact in my life to where I am now and where I'm headed in the future. And that's where all my ideas, my talk have come from.

My spot, my life in sports that is so powerful. It's not only the journey of. It is, I mean, you think of. It's not only the journey of overcoming the obstacle, but it's also just the re. Identifying with who you believe you are. Because those moments when you're, when you, you know, two knee reconstructions, when you go, okay, I am I still an athlete? What can I do? And then finding a way, and then still identifying as a coach, as an athlete, as a trainer in your arm wrestling career. But, you know, it's, it's funny because I, I can hear you describe the story and then also hear the turmoil at the time because that turmoil is going into. You asked yourself that question, who's going to want someone who can't use their arm? Because the identity is so, so tied up to that physical movement without having that bigger picture of, I'm more than my arm, I'm more. And you had to learn that. You're more than your knees. You had to learn that you're more than your arm. You had to learn that you're more than, than wrestling. You had to learn that you're more than just physical. That there's so much. Even though the physical is massive, the physical is part of what you're offering. But at the same time, there's still so much more to expand through by rediscovering your own identity and re tapping into that compet nature that really has that spark and that fuel for you. So it's really, really powerful. I'm curious, you, you mentioned that you were 21 when you had the second knee construction. You're 17, you're 21. How old were you when you broke your arm?

I was like 20, 23, 24. Around that age. So I was still. So I've been doing arm wrestling for a relatively short time and I've been speaking with my business partner as well, going over my life of the different lessons that I've learned. And you know, it's because I was still fresh in it. I was going to too much into it. I didn't know the final nuances. Like with, with volleyball, you know, there's nuances, there's times when you go up and you leave the ball intentionally as opposed to just going for the big spike. Or you might go over, I'll just go for the big spike. All the. I was just going for the big play. And that's really because I love the sport. I love training for it, but I hadn't been doing it long enough to find the little nuances and go ahead.

Yeah, I was just going to say that it's, it's interesting because, you know, I've been lucky enough to work with sports like hockey and volleyball and rugby and swimming and triathlon and all these different sports. And just like with sport and business or sport and the rest of the world, there's these nuances that happen that really only come over experience and wisdom because you can't. I was thinking about that with your knees and your broken arm and that those are formative years where a lot of athletes feel like they're bulletproof. A lot of athletes are just, you know, bring it and, and more is better, whereas they don't. Especially if they don't have a coach that's guiding them along, then they're in a scenario of risking those things. But still, you garnered incredible lessons at such a young, formative time for your brain. Your brain got this incredible lesson of, wait a second, I've overcome this and this is how I got through this. And this took so much time. I had to learn another skill called patience, let's say or I had to learn another skill called called trust. I know one of the toughest ones for us go getters 100 I was thinking that, you know, like one of the toughest ones. But you have to learn these other skills that are just as valuable as the, as the drive hard or as the tenacity or as the resilience. They're part of that toolbox and they just, we wouldn't have ever known at those early 20s ages, we would never have known to give those other skills as much credit as we give the drive hard, the persist, the tenacity, the, that kind of thing. So it's interesting how you know those challenges, those obstacles really gave you so much so early.

Yeah, they certainly did. Yeah. And like Steve Jobs as well said it brilliantly. Where he goes, you can't connect the dots. Looking forwards, but looking backwards, it's abundantly clear. Like I, like I said, I was very good at rugby league. I was on my way to go professional with that. But being a smaller guy, you know, your career is limited getting into arm wrestling, your career is limited getting into fighting. It gave me skills along the way and like you said, I hadn't thought about it until now, but the skill of patience because with all of those skills that I've bought, that I've bought into speaking, I've been doing speaking now for the last six years, but it's sort of so many people would have given up if it hadn't got there after two years. It's still pushing along, pushing along, honing your craft. Because I like to look at things as well, using the belt system. In martial arts, you don't walk in as a black belt, you walk in as a white belt and you start off with a minimum and then you build up your skill set, you build up and you work your way through belts. The same in business, the same in sports, the same in life. It's acquiring those skills as you go along. You're not going to be an instant success. And that's where I talk about people as well, about the long term gratification as opposed to instant gratification. And you know, working with athletes as well. If you want instant gratification, you go have that chocolate cake. You feel instantly gratified. Five minutes later you'll be rolling around going, why did I do it? As opposed to having those long term goals where you go, okay, I'M working for this thing. Like Olympics come once every four years, but you're working on it from the age of, when you're a youngster, you can set out. I know there's going to be the Olympics here. I'm going to aim for that. And that's 812 years in the future.

Yeah, yeah. And, and it's. We in our, in our community, in our group coaching, we call it the differentiation between true pleasure and false pleasure. So you know, you can. That chocolate cake might still be a true pleasure if, if you are managing that decision versus just some urge or some impulse and versus, you know, you might want way more than that chocolate cake. You might want the chin up or you might want the. You might want. Maybe that chocolate cake is a false pleasure because it's just a distraction from what you know you want to do right now, which is work on the business or do the, the connection with the, the loved ones or whatever. The thing that's the true pleasure. Sometimes it's just a distraction because the true pleasure that we really want can be a little scary. And, and that's something that comes up in, in the workplace, in business, in life all the time is usually the things we really, really want. Like the career that you were going after in arm wrestling, like rugby, like anything that we're truly going for. I mean cage fighting for sure, there's probably a bit of fear involved. Right. But if you really want it, then it becomes the true pleasure. So give us some of your. You've got a really powerful and popular five step system that you give as a talk when you're doing keynotes. Can you give us a few of those nuggets that really make a difference for people in the workplace, people who are entrepreneurs, people who are achievers. What does it take that you think are those key things that will help them get to their next level? Because you've talked about some things that are towards can I continuous and never ending improvement. Things that are all about growth, mindset, things that, that are, are making sure that we're not just going for the one thing, we're seeing the bigger picture and we're growing accordingly. So what are some of your nuggets that really your tips that really make that difference more clear or maybe more tangible for people?

Yeah, 100%. And something that people can use straight away is the first or they can use all of these steps straight away. But the first and most important one is creating routines and rituals to snap into action. Whether you're working from home, whether you're working from out in the wilderness. You need to be in the right space physically, mentally and emotionally in order to perform at your best. And you look at all the sporting teams that you've been associated with, they don't just turn up on the court or turn up on the field and hope to be in the right mind space. Yeah, turn up. They do their warm ups, they come in, they have their talk, they get ready and then they go. Same as with fighting. Imagine if I was to come out to the kj, close the door and.

I go, maybe, let's see how I feel like it.

Elbow you, take you down, get you in bad positions. So what's an easy way that you can snap yourself into action? The first one is music. Music is a great mood ultra. It can help pump you up if you're feeling a bit flat, or it can also help calm you down if you're feeling a bit anxious. So we all have our mobile phones with us. That means we all have access to every song that's just about ever been played. And even out there in the wilderness, you still have wi fi. You still. We're still talking across the world. We have access 24, 7, 365 to this, that we don't utilize it. And also, again, this time, the phone is for a negative. People with their phones, they're walking hunched over, they're sitting hunched over. So if you're walking slumpy, you're sitting slumpy, your energy is going to be slumpy. So get up, stand tall to this superman pose. Take up space, walk with power, passion and purpose with your headphones on, walk to the beat, whether it's from the train station, from the bus, from the car park, whether it's around your cabin, walk and you feel the difference. The great thing about this as well is you do that, you bring that positive energy to your work. You keep doing it, you keep bring it. The people around you are going to start feeling it and they're going to go, man, what's. Carry on. I want some of what she's on. I want some. And then it spreads. It spreads in a positive manner. So that's easy. Routines and rituals to snap into action. Use music, use posture, move with power, passion and purpose. The second step is napping for peak performance. When I say that, some people go, what are you talking about? And you know exactly how it is with athletes. It's the exact same in business. You don't see the same Bolt sprinting for the marathon. No. He works in short, intense chunks with his training, he does that sprint. He might even only do the first 20 meter sprint. But he's working on his start, working on his start, and then he comes back, he recovers. It's the same in work. Our mind is a muscle and we must treat it as such. So you work in short, intense chunks. Also, you focus on one thing. You utilize the pomodoro technique. And this has been scientifically proven to help you retain more information and be more productive in a given time. So you set a timer. You might start off with 15 or 20 minutes. During that time, you have no phone calls, no no distractions, no emails, just single focus on the task at hand. Then the alarm goes off. You get up, you go away, you move, you. You would have noticed that I've been drinking water as we go along because we need to stay hydrated. Most people are chronically dehydrated and that affects our performance in crazy ways. Ways you wouldn't believe. Well, ways that you would believe, but a lot of other people, I'm sure, wouldn't. Then after napping, having a lunch break. And it also comes to sleeping. Not necessarily sleeping longer, but sleeping better. Better quality of sleep. Because if it was just about the length of sleep, you'd go, okay, I slept for six hours, I'll sleep for another three, four hours. And you think you'd be jumping out of your skin. I get about six hours and I'm jump. Yes, that's what happens, because they get into the wrong REM cycle and they wake up and they feel like they've been hit by a truck. So it's about quality of sleep, not so much quality, quantity. Then we snap back into action. Then after that, the third step is tap in fighting. Like I might get caught in an arm bar. I can fight it for a certain amount of time. And the guy's trying to either dislocate my elbow or break my arm. With that, I can fight it, but there's a point where I have to tap. When I tap, that doesn't mean I'm going to give up fighting. That means I go back to my coach. I talk about what worked, what didn't work, how did I get caught in that arm bar? What can I do next time? And each time you get that little bit better, that little bit better, that little bit better. And it's the same in business. Businesses are constantly evolving. So you look at things like McDonald's, for instance, they constantly change their menu. It doesn't mean that they've never failed. They've failed but they fail fast and they fail forward. They tap and evolve because I talk about things like McPizza, McSpaghetti, McHotdog, McFettuccini, even McAfrika, they tried it. They fail fast, they failed forward, they tapped and evolved. But it's trying things now, especially what we've been to the last three and a half years is a perfect time to either be an innovator or an early adapter. And if it doesn't work, don't worry about it. What lessons have you learned along the way? Like with me, football didn't work out. What lessons did I learn along the way? Arm wrestling didn't work out. What lessons did I learn along the way? Fighting. I'm now no longer fighting. What lessons did I learn along the way? So I'm constantly tapping and evolving with speaking. What can I do each and every time? If you have had to tap, you can't worry about yourself, the rest of world doesn't care. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, snap back into action. The four step is clap, celebrating. It's about bringing the team together. And that is the same in work, is the same in business as the same in sports. A champion team is going to beat a team of champions. Because like you may have guessed, I'm a competitive guy. I don't go half in anything I do to save in work. But when I'm there with my mate, I don't know, I seem to find a superhuman speed and strength to if he misses a tackle, I'm there as opposed to if it's just an associate on that half a step slower. The same in work. People are willing to do more, put in more of an effort for people that they know like and trust me. And we spend so much time at work. Why don't you want to have that sort of sporting environment, that family feel, where people want to do it for each other? Then the fifth step is recap. All about continuous, never ending improvement. As you said before, we do it all the time in sports, but unfortunately very rarely in business. Because as a coach we want problems. We need problems, but we also need solutions. So when I was coaching a football team, I'd sit down on the sideline, write down what worked, what didn't. We'd watch it with all the other coaches because we all see things from a slightly different perspective. Then we watch a third time with the players. The players will get a hand out of the sheets. Then that opens lines of communications, not just top to bottom, but more importantly bottom to top. We get feedback from the athletes. Yeah. Things that we can't see, things that we can't hear. So we want problems. It's all about getting that 1% better and being aware that we're never going to play the perfect game. And that's perfectly fine. What we need to do, we need to get better. And carry, unfortunately, next podcast, I'm going to be a better guest because I want to get that little bit better, that little bit better, that little bit better. If I do a talk today, in six months, the talk isn't going to be the same because I want to be that little bit better each and every day. If I'm the same person now as I was six months ago, that's been a waste of six months. Same in sport, same in business, same in all elements of life. It's getting that 1% better each and every time you participate, each and every day. So the five steps towards Improved Vitality. There we go.

These are so, so powerful. And what I love, too, is that they're, they're memorable because it's one thing for people to go, hey, I, I remember that, that we have, we have to do a recap, we have to do a retro on the meeting. But by the time everybody gets there, they're zapped, they're spent, they're exhausted by putting all the energy and effort into the project, because during that time or during that quarter end, all they were doing was grinding so hard that by the time they actually get the, the project or the result or the quarterly report in, they're done. It's like passing out. And so, and it's one thing to try and get to that finish line, but in business or work or life, that one thing isn't the finish line. We have an entire existence that we're still. That we're still going towards. So the fact that you're pointing to the other things, like the recovery, you know, when you're looking at napping, or you're looking at the hydration or you're looking at the positioning, not only the mental health perspective, but also the recovery. When you're looking at the tap, get some perspective. Because we live in our own bubble when we cannot, when we cannot see what we're experiencing unless we get that feedback from somebody else and be able to get a perspective break, then we could be completely on the wrong trajectory and go, well, wait a second. Thank goodness I paused because if I didn't pause, I would have been 20km forward instead and on the wrong path and in the wrong direction. So, so Some of the things you're saying are they seem so simple, but they are all founded in massive research. You know, I think of the naps alone, we don't have a culture. I mean, maybe in, maybe in Central America somewhere where there's, there's siestas. But in most of our cultures we don't society, most Western society, we simply look at a nap as being lazy and yet.

And it's a grind culture that's more, more, more. Let's work 18 hours a day. And people wonder why they're burning up, why they're not as productive on Friday as they were on Monday.

Yeah, and that's the thing that the research shows that we, we don't, we have what's called an ultradian rhythm, which, within our circadian rhythm. So we've got that circadian rhythm. But this is where the, the pomodoro technique is, is perfect because we have this all trade in rhythm where we're not. I mean business would love to be linear, but human. Right? But if you look at, if you look at any financial graph you look at, it's not linear. It goes like this and if you look, it's less spiky. But we, we have loops and peaks and valleys. We don't operate on a linear, a linear fashion. We, we build, we recover, we build, build, we over, we over reach in order to super compensate. But the only way you're going to super. These are the terms for periodization and physiology. But the only way you super compensate in sport is if you get the recovery. And so you're building in this, in your five steps. And I just wanna, I'm iterating it in a different way so that the audience can really hear how powerful this is. And simple it is and usable and effective it can be for performance, not, not just for. Oh well, that's a neat concept or neat idea. But for performance, if you ritualize something like what you're saying, you will and, and track it over time, you will inevitably see the changes in performance. You've got the hydration, you've got the mindset, you' check ins, you've got the perspective, you've got the, the posture, you've got, you've got all of these things, you've got the celebration, the reinforcing of the things that have worked, the checking in on the problems that haven't so we can gain growth. And they're all the things that are imperative for human growth, which I think are so, so powerful. And, and it's like I want I'm curious about some people. When, when you might be saying it, or I might be reiterating some of what you're saying. Some people will go, oh yeah, that makes sense. Or, oh yeah, I've heard that before. What. Why do you think so many people have such a hard time putting these things into consistent action?

Yeah, because you, you said it like just before as well, where you need to do it. But it's not instant gratification, you said, it's. You track it and you'll see the progress. People associate in their ways with their habits. You know, they, they believe that this grind culture is what it's all about because they see people on social media that are doing it, that are living these perfect lives and because of the hustle and grind, but they don't see the years of work that were done before and that were done in the dark. The, like, the ups and downs, then the knowing that it's actually going to work. Because I've done my talk plenty of times and I've had CEOs and CEOs come up to me and go, david, I love it, but now I can't afford to have time off. And I go, we all have choices in life. And then again, I had a recap and I modified my speech. And I add in things with Winston Churchill and also jfk, that they're two of many great world leaders without a nap after late lunch or early dinner. And they saw their performance go, because with Winston Churchill, he said it brilliantly. And this is when they were getting bombed as well. He goes, he go and have, get change out of his suit, into his pajamas and have a sleep. What it did was it enabled his second and third in charge to step up, knowing that they were only going to step up for a short amount of time. So they get a little taste of what it's like so the full responsibility doesn't go to them. So it's like in sports, someone, the captain might, might have gone off for a little break. Someone else has to step up and see what it's like for that little time. The troops are also aware that if the commander in chief, he's having a sleep, yes, it's bad times, but it's not terrible, terrible, terrible times. So it gives them confidence. And then after he sleep, he go and he'd have a bath, he put a fresh suit on and he'd go again. Enabled him to pick up his energy levels and work harder again. So it's not that sleep. And then that's it. It's nap recover. Nap recovering like you said, is with those rhythms that we go. So it's when you're at your peak, you optimize it. When you, when you're in a lull, you go out, you get some fresh air. And I say to the bosses, well, you can have a nap whether it's predetermined. So you might have a three day weekend, you might have a lunch break where you close your door and don't allow people in. Have these little bits during the day or yeah. Have an extended break due to being in hospital with stress being due to hospital due to all these other things. So choices. I know which one I'd rather the one that you set up as opposed to one that's been thrust upon you.

Yeah. Ultimately the body will stop you at some point from exhaustion, from illness, from the body is going to say sorry, but that, that was just too much. And I tried and I tried and I said how high? Every time you said jump. But I couldn't keep going. And the body will do something and it'll, you know, whether it's pneumonia, whether it's cancer, whether it's, whatever it is, but it's still, you know, it's still. We, there's a couple things we talk about in, in, in a high performance world, a lot of people are, are subject to fear of failure. And yet I think it's more of a distinction of fear of other people viewing the failure, their perception of your failure. It's fear of that more than it is of the failure itself. Because most of us who have been at something, we realize that there's some failure along the way and, and that I think is tied in with things like naps and that it's not that they don't want to, it's not, it's the, it's the I better not because of what someone might think of my work ethic. My, my, you know, whatever. If I'm doing that and this is where, you know, in dealing and I don't want to say it's all ego, but it's, it's, it's a legitimate concern that a lot of either company leaders or directors, especially in, if they're in that director role because they're not right at the top and they're still leading a group and so they're in this position that they're being an example but you know, to actually have a nap. So sometimes I'm suggesting things like do a 10 minute meditation and, and when you, when you do that or, or Maybe it's a 20 minute meditation, but you're going to have some of the same brain benefits as that actual sleep cycle. But you're also teaching your team around you that the number one rule in leadership is to lead yourself.

Yeah.

And instead of grinding through exhaustion, which is the, it's the unintentional lesson, because it's like you, you have a, you have a child. You know that there are things that you're teaching your child, maybe how to drink from a cup, how to ride a bike, how you're intentionally teaching your child certain things. And then there's the majority of the rest of life where you're unintentionally teaching your child about all these other things because they're watching you, because they're sponging from you. And it's the same in a leadership role where, okay, you told us to take vacation, but you don't take your vacation. You told us to, you told us to not stay late at work, but you stay late at work. You told us to. And so this is where leaders, in whatever capacity they are, whether they're teachers, whether they're coaches, whether they're business owners or CEOs or directors, business leaders are teaching their teams a whole bunch of things that aren't coming out of their mouth that aren't. They're not intentionally trying to teach them, but they're teaching them things about what to do and not to do based on their actions. And sometimes those actions and what they're saying are not aligning. And that's where there ends up being a lot of problems. So, so sometimes I think that, that the simplicity and the ease of which you're delivering these five steps is so important because then it's like, okay, yeah, I could see this for my team. I could even see it for myself. Yeah, okay, if, if I could see it for myself, then that's the bigger thing. Because to, to, to say one thing and do another is one of the biggest problems we have in leadership. It's just not congruent. And, and that's where I think that this is so valuable because the leaders need to be able to do it. If they, you know, they could say all day long that I want to be high performance, but you're not actually being high performance. You're saying you want that. You're asking your, your, your team to do that, but you're not actually doing it. So what does that mean then? We don't, we don't understand. We're confused. Do we, do we act like you or do we do what you say for us to do? So I, I really, I really love this. Not only from the real results that it's going to bring but also for the ease at which it's presented because it's memorable, it's, it's simple, it's validated. There are just so many things that can be brought into the workplace with, to create more passion and purpose because the last thing that a business needs or a workplace needs is to be sluggish, to be slouchy, you know, and why you wonder why the, why the performance isn't there, why the outcomes or the profitability, why isn't it there? Well, let's take a look at how the humans are engaging in, in their lives. So it's really, really powerful. Exactly. Yeah. This is really cool. What else do you think could be those, you know, you've done this, you've done this and presented this multiple times in all kinds of different scenarios. What, what environments or what types of businesses have you or workplaces have you seen the most impact with this type of thing implemented?

Yeah, because I've been lucky enough and people always told me when I started to speak, you know, they go David, you have to niche down, you have to do. And I understand the idea of niching down but with this I go especially with the last three years, we can all do with some increased vitality, with increased energy, with increased vim, vigor and passion. And what I've been, I've spoken at a lot of nurses conferences, especially the last 18 months. I've done quite a few of them. So the impact on them because they were burnt out. But I've spoken at all different sort of industries, financial industries. I was actually surprised how well they picked up on it. But then that got me thinking as well where I don't speak about fiscal policy, I don't like, I don't know about finance, I don't know about this, I know about raising vitality and I know that sports as well is relatable. People, even if they're armchair sports, they still know the concept of that and that's why it sort of resonates with so many different industries. Like I said in the finance insecurity, cleaning companies, leagues, clubs of, you know, whatever industry, I've spoken at it and yeah, I sort of get really good results. I've actually added a whole nother layer to it that once I speak to them it's not a one and done. I like to do follow up emails just to again recap everything. So I practice what I preach. Like you said, it's about speaking it, but also acting in alignment with what you're talking about. So I send emails through about creating routines and rituals to snap into action, ensuring people are going on their lunch break, getting outside, walking for napping for peak performance. Learn where they tap, learn, grow and evolve with a clap. 1. I always love getting feedback from, from the bosses that I speak to. And I go, okay, give me two people that have taken this on board and have run with it. And I give, I celebrate them, give them public recognition because you know, when they get public recognition they go, they're so proud of themselves and they lift their performance even more. And then other people generally follow suit because they don't want to be left behind. And then I do a recap of it all. So, so those follow ups afterwards, because like I said, it's about practicing what I preach. Yeah. The people that have got the most from it, it's, it's hard to say because I see them all six months later. And the majority of them have picked up. Not everyone, because you can't say everyone, but the majority have definitely picked up. And you can feel it when you walk into the business. And that's what I love as well, is making those sort of positive impacts.

It's, it's so I love this positive ripple effect because the kind of energy you bring and the kind of information that you bring, even if, you know, even if you raise it by 3%, raise that, that whatever the spark is, the culture, the energy, the information, whatever you raise in that energy of a business by that little bit, then that starts to build some momentum. It's that tiny little bit that starts to shift and starts to grow. And, and all it takes is one or two other people to be continuing to grow a little more themselves and then they're influencing the next person that either sits next to them or their, their co worker, whoever it is. So it's this, it's this message that instead of supporting the messages of blame, victimhood, of, you know, why is this happening and, and, and focusing too much on the things we can't control, all of these things we can control. All of these things we can control. And these are the things that in a workplace, if these are consistent in a workplace, then you have a culture that's unstoppable because it doesn't matter what economic circumstance comes your way, life circumstance comes. These are the little tools that build structure, that allow someone to get back on the horse just like you did over and over again to show that level of tenacity that, that is the example and we all, we all have the capability. It's whether or not we've got the inspiration from someone, whether we've got just that, that little extra want or desire for the next thing. So it's really powerful. I'd like to wrap this up with any, any last words that you'd like to say along with the question, question of, you know, you've, you've seen some key life changing obstacles. What, what advice or, or tip or what thing would you like to say to your 20 or 25 year old self from your now self? So what would you tell that version of you when you were 20 or 25? What would you say to that young man?

Yeah, that's a great question. And it's funny because I thought about that only a few days ago and it's that obstacles, obstacles aren't there to stop you, they're there to teach you, there to see how resilient you are. So every obstacle that you have, there's a meaning behind it. So learn from it, grow from it, become a better person as a result from it. And maybe it might be this big boulder that's just, it's not even stopping you, it's just deflecting you in a slightly different direction. And yeah, these lessons that you learn along the way, take it, embrace it and also just enjoy the time. Because as I spoke about early on, my career got stopped in a heartbeat with my knee, with the ligaments in my knees snapping, with my bone in my arm getting like absolutely smashed. It happens so quickly when we're in the moment. You said it earlier on as well. We believe that we're bulletproof, that it's going to be like that forever, but you blink and that was like 20 years ago now. So it's just enjoy the time. Take life, life's lessons, life's obstacles, learn from it and you do become a better person. And as a result from that, if life was all easy peasy. Yes, yes, yes. You don't learn anything about yourself. You learn more from the nos and the failures than you do from, from the yeses.

I love it. How can people reach you? I think you're on LinkedIn and how else is there anywhere else that you like to be hanging out?

Yeah, I'm Most active on LinkedIn because I'm really about pushing out this message, getting this as far and wide as I can. So I am on Facebook and Instagram as well, but mostly on LinkedIn or if they do have any questions they can feel free to email me at David at David Lindsay Lind S a y.com and I just love communicating with people, helping people. And if it's going over there and speaking, I love doing that as well. I'm looking at going over there to America in November this year and early next year as well to hopefully get a speaking tour all set up.

That's amazing. Well, if you do come over this direction, let us know so that we can reconnect and and we will when we get our show notes with this, we will pop the link to you you in the show notes as well as you have a great video on YouTube that just highlights some of the what your talk is about. It's fantastic. And from from us way over here in Canada to you way over there in Australia, we want to say thank you for what you're doing. Not only thank you for coming on this episode, but thank you for what you're doing. The world needs more of this. This is powerful, it's impactful. And keep doing what you're doing because we need it. We need this ripple effect, this kind of energy and this kind of information and support. So thank you so much, David and we will chat with you soon.

My absolute pleasure. Thank you very much.

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