Scott Duffy interviews David Corbin: Self Reflection in Personal & Business Growth, SLIDER 1

David Corbin is best known as the Chief Illumination Officer. Sit down and grab a slider and watch David dispense priceless advice on self reflection and personal and entrepreneurial growth.

So I'm really excited to have one of my really good friends and mentors, people I look up to the most with us today, Dave Corbin. There are maybe four or five conversations I think a person has in their whole life that really get them to pivot, that are so eye opening and that they decide something has to change. And I remember sitting down the first time I met Dave and I was talking about a situation that I was in in business where something I worked really hard on, it didn't work, and it was hard and it was embarrassing and I felt like I was. I just was hiding. Right. Because it was so hard. And I said this to you, Dave, and you said to me, you said, take that and shout it to the world and illuminated. And it changed my life.

Yeah. The crazy thing is what kicks you in the butt as an entrepreneur, as a family person, is not facing certain things in your life and face it. Just put your nose towards it and face it and deal with it. And if it happens, don't hide from it. So we teach face it, follow it, and fix it. It's so simple, but it's so profound because, you know, I told you once about a pizza company and their profits were down. They were not going to be able to sustain their thing. So I came in and I came in as their chief illumination officer. Face it, follow it, and fix it. We found that 70% of Americans don't know what they're having for dinner by 4:30pm and this was a big pizza company. I can't tell you the name, but it rhymes with shmanose. And so they thought they were in the fast food business. No, they were in the crisis intervention business. So when we faced it and followed it, they're in crisis intervention, then we can fix it. So instead of you calling up, I got three kids and my neighbor's kid and my wife's coming home and I need something and you're put on hold. You call crisis intervention. You don't want to be put on hold. So we taught them to go, that's no problem. That's what we do. You want our package three?

Look at this.

Whoa. Wow.

Nice, right?

Wow.

Beautiful.

Oh, my.

Right. Thank you so much.

Appreciate that.

Look at that.

Do you want some water for the table too?

Yes, please. Thank you. So, you know, I want to know about the boy, Dave, because all of this Amazing brilliance, this intuitive something had to come from somewhere.

Where's the wellspring pain? Seriously, A lot of growth and genius. I don't claim to be one, but a lot of growth and genius come from pain. I grew up as a kid with low self esteem, feel I was worthy. And I fought to see where am I? Where could I be? Thank you. And through that heightened sense of awareness and observation and you and I talked about this a while ago. Observation is key. Whether it's in sales, marketing, management, leadership. The power to observe, fueled by the power to serve with love is critical.

But how did you get to illuminate who does that?

That started with my baby girl. Jen and I were watching TV and we're watching Disney show and there's the dancing bear. You've got to accentuate the positive, right? But I realized, you know, most of my clients who did effectively sustained effectiveness from my consulting were those who didn't eliminate the negative, but rather they illuminated the negative and they were willing to go with me and dive into the dark areas that most people don't want to look at. And I'm able to say, dude, the way you just spoke to your executive there as the owner, that dog don't hunt. And we would have to look at that and we'd find out what's behind it and what's behind it. We shifted it and voila. It's not rocket science.

One of the things that I know you're phenomenal at is like cutting right to the heart of the matter. You don't let anybody BS you, right? You cut straight through it. How do you teach people how to be honest with themselves?

That's a big question, Scott. I personally believe lifestyle is king. I do not live to work. I am authentic with the work that I do. And I start my day with a routine, actually starts the night before. And in the next morning, that morning, I start with the meditation. Sometimes a meditration meditation, you're supposed to go out there, woo, woo, right? And that's cool. Meditration is you stop, close everything off and you just think.

And what do you think about everything?

Who am I? What am I doing? How am I doing?

Wonder.

How did I just. Yeah, the wonderment of life. How am I getting along with my children, my spouse, my business? What issues? If I'll say to myself, if there's something I'm not facing, what is it? My unconscious mind goes, well dude, if you knew what it was, you wouldn't be, no, what is it? And I go and stuff comes up so I'm all about get real. There's three things that I'm teaching right now. One is get real. The next is be authentic. I mean, not fake it, but be authentic. You know, I mean, I like to sit here cross legged. It's just the way I feel. And it's like, and you guys didn't mind, it's like I'm just going to be me. And the third is be healthy. I see people killing themselves one fork at a time.

So, Dave, I've always thought of you as the mentor to mentors. Like if you look around the country, the top people in our industry and thought leadership in business, they look to Dave as their coach. But you also have a background in technology that not many people know about. Tell us about that.

Well, you know, I'm into people and I found that there was an issue with optometry and ophthalmology where there was lack of connection between the doctors and the and the patient. So I invented some software, used a touchscreen environment, patient interview using what I called synaptic software. And we won this big award. Margaret Thatcher and Tom Peters and all presented me with this crazy award that was the application of technology. Now because of what Microsoft is doing now with their cloud technology, I could never have done that. Right now what Microsoft is doing, linking doctors and patients and in a connection like I was into, Microsoft has set that environment up right now, which is so cool. And I bless them for that because I went into that because I saw there was a radical need and I invented something, did pretty well and now it's gone farther and a little company called Microsoft has taken it a little bit further than me.

Dave, what are you most proud of in your life? Because you've done so many awesome things, but what is that one heartfelt thing that maybe we don't know about you or you don't brag about?

A lot of most proud of. I released 40 pounds and shifted my entire life for five years. I gave up all news, all television, all coffee, still don't drink it. All alcohol, mostly meat and whatnot. I just shifted my life and I started exercising. Right now at 64, I'm in the best shape of my life and I believe in the unencumbered entrepreneur. It's tough enough to be an entrepreneur, but when you're carrying the cinder blocks and you're not eating the right food, almost impossible.

So Dave, you mentioned be authentic. How does that show up in business?

From the business perspective, I say you are your brand, your value is your core. It's a major asset. You're either building your brand, which I call brand integrity, or you're killing your brand. And I call that brand slaughter in the first, second, or third degree. I wrote a book called Preventing Brand Slaughter. And we show you how to do an audit of brand integrity. Okay? This is my position. This is my core job function. How does that brand live? In my hands, you see? And so they do an audit of that, and they say, like, where am I killing my brand? Where am I building my brand? That's brand integrity.