If You Want To ACHIEVE Your Dreams Faster WATCH THIS! | Ira Davis

And so, for me, I believe in fear less breaking the word in half and allowing fear to have less control over my next assignment, my next move. Because I know who's counting on me on the other side of what my fear is.

You know, one of the things I love most about, obviously, you and I have hung out quite a bit on Clubhouse, even off the channel, just because, you know, you have. You've already poured into me. We barely know each other. I mean, we've only got to know each other a few weeks, and we've already had that. That kinship bond already kind of show up. And, you know, there's this concept that I've. That I've heard you talk about repeatedly about overcoming fear and, you know, becoming fearless, but then you put another spin on it. So give by your spin on fearless.

Yeah, man, I don't believe in fearless, man. If anybody tells you they showed up to their assignment without fear, they're lying to you. And the truth is this, right? I was a Marine for 10 years. And whenever you get complacent, man, complacency kills. And so whenever fear is out of the equation, you become complacent, you become lackadaisical, you become familiar. And when you become familiar with something so much and you start to let your guard down, man, that's where, you know, death can occur and things can happen. And so for me, I believe in fear less breaking the word in half and allowing fear to have less control over my next assignment, my next move. Because I know who's counting on me on the other side of what my fear is. Yeah. So that's what I like to teach people, man. Like, listen, fears are a warning sign, not a stop sign. It means warning. You're about to grow past what you currently are at. You're about to do something that's bigger than you. You're about to stretch yourself. It's a difference between fear and just being inherent, either.

Ignorant to danger. And there's a difference between courage and just being straight, ignorant. And so, you know, I believe in fearless, man. Fear less, dude.

It's amazing. Yeah, and you live it, too. For those of you guys who haven't seen Ira operate on Clubhouse, you probably should check out Ira Davis room on Clubhouse whenever you get a chance. You know, one of the things I love about your story, too, is that it seems like most of the wisdom that you've developed in the last decade, you know, came from a pretty transformational moment when you were serving as a Marine. Tell talk a little about the importance of that. That particular episode in your life.

Yeah, man. It shaped the man that I am today. Thank God for that. I was literally pushed into purpose. And so what happened, Man, I was a Marine for 10 years, and I joined the Corps because as a young kid, man, I was a middle child, right? And I kind of couldn't figure out my place in the world. In my mind, I would daydream about being great one day. But when I looked at my life, Stephen, everything looked average, Below average. I say it like this. I had mastered the art of being an unfulfilled nobody. I want y' all to soak that in. I'd mastered the art of being an unfulfilled nobody, meaning I was great at wearing every mask that I was supposed to put on as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a Marine at a prestigious job, a prestigious title. Only the 1% in the world could ever say they were United States Marine. Then, on top of that, Stephen, I was a Marine Corps drill instructor, which means I made Marines, right? And so I was hiding behind all these things. But what I found out about my job as a Marine, I was 20% fulfilled, 80% unfulfilled, meaning I love to lead and to inspire, but I really wasn't there to shoot guns, to kill people, to go running around in the mountains and in the woods. And so. But I stayed because there was a certain level of comfort in the prestige, the paychecks, the awards and the accolades, right? For my friends, family, from my own spouse, right? There was. As a man, I'm like, okay, I have everything that I'm supposed to have as a man. I can provide, and my job title makes people go, right? And so I was like, okay, I am comfortable hiding behind camouflage of knowing that this is not what I was born to do. And so at my. About my eight year mark, I was a drill instructor down in Parris Island, South Carolina. And I got a little over too. A little bit too zealous, Stephen. And I started to break the kids down just a little bit too hard, a little bit too rough. I got kicked off of that duty, and it was a blow to my life because the only dream that I had at the time was to be a Marine Corps drill instructor. That's why I joined the Corps. Took me eight years to get to that duty, got there. I was phenomenal at it. And in an instant, it got taken away.

And my life card started spinning out of control. And I asked like, okay, Ira, you have three years to rebound your career before your contract is Up. So I came back to the Fleet Marine Corps. I did everything I could, Stephen. I won all the awards. Marine of the quarter, nco, Dakota martial arts instructor. You know, all this stuff. Came time for promotion in 2014. I had three months left on my contract on that current enlistment. And the Marine Corps said, no, thank you, right? You gotta roll out. The war in Iraq is over. Congress said we have to reduce the size of the fighting force. So anybody with any negative paperwork, the matter if it happened yesterday, today, or 17 years ago.

And so literally, it was June 2014 when I read this letter from Headquarters Marine Corps saying no, thank you, to three months later having to pack my bags and get out of the Corps. In August of 2014, depression set in, man. I'm a husband, father, didn't have a bank account, didn't have anything to fall back on. So I went to go see a therapist, man. Which is taboo, right, for men, taboo for people, taboo for African Americans, African American men to go sit down in front of a therapist. But I sat down on that therapist couch, man, just like we're talking, and I cried my eyes out, Stephen. Yeah, Like I had just been hit by a bus. I'm just big, semi buff dude back then, crying my eyes out. And I'm like, doc, I need you to help me. I'm a grown man with a wife and two kids. I don't know what I was born to do, and I have to get out of the Marine Corps in less than three months and provide a life for my family. I said, but I know I can't be just another number in somebody else's machine. In my heart, Doc, I've always felt that I was born to do something great. But when I look at what's coming out of my life, it's been average. Can you help me? And Stephen, we talked. We talked for about four or five days. And at the end of that, you know, those sessions, he came to me and he said, listen, Ira, I believe in my personal, professional opinion, you will put on this earth to inspire people down to their bones to go after their dreams. He's like, I don't know what that looks like for you, whether speaking or writing a book, but I challenge you to go on the journey, man. And so, man, I left his office that day. I'm a man of faith. Went in my car, and I cried and I prayed. I said, lord, the epiphany. Light bulbs are starting to go off in my life for the first time. I'm starting to see the things that I've never saw about me that you want to use in the world, man. And the rest was just history from that point.

Love it. Love it. You know, it's. I've got three things resonating my spirit. Three topics. I'm gonna throw them at you.

Let's go.

I know you're gonna knock out of the park. Number one, identity. I feel like we're supposed to talk about identity. Let's circle around. Circle the wagon some there. What have you learned about identity both in shifting your own and helping people shift theirs?

Man, you. You cannot be all that you were created to be until you recognize who you were born to be. And for me, for 28 years, I told you, I mastered the art of being an unfulfilled nobody, which means anywhere that I went, I was a chameleon. I would morph into the atmosphere in the room, to the people that I was around. Therefore, at 28 years old, when this whole thing happened to me and my world came crashing down around me, I really had to go through an isolation period where God had to reintroduce Ira to Ira. Hey, Ira, meet Ira. And I had to figure out, no, that green wasn't my favorite color. It was red. No, I didn't like that. I like this. And so I had to come to an understanding of who I was called and created to be, which ultimately allowed me to be of service to other people. Because I now know that when I show up in a room that I'm not just. It's not just like, can I sit at the table? It's like, no. If you were invited into the room, baby, pull up with something with a dish, right? Pull up with a dish and put it on the table. So it's like a potluck. Don't just show up empty handed, being happy to be in the room. Come in and serve. Powerful means. So for me, I struggled with identity my whole entire life, but that was been one of the greatest pillars of me. Help being of helping me become who I am today is understanding who I am and who I am not and not compromising anywhere in between.

You know, there's this concept that, you know, you and I both share the same faith, and we've talked openly about that with one another, encourage one another with that. There's a concept from the Bible that says pressing out new wine or new wineskin, or, you know, take getting. Squeezing out the olives or the olive juice, if you will. You know, the olive is there to serve as a purpose. It's there to Grow. But then you're designed to squeeze it out, to press it, to put it under tension, to put it under pressure. What type of process did you find yourself going through in shaping the new identity? Because it's one thing that you know to say, hey, look, we. We know we're born to do something different. Right. Or we desire to do something different. Most people can't articulate how I become something different. Like, what type of process did you kind of flow into and follow yourself into?

Yeah, man. The process was, number one, understanding that where I was was not where I was supposed to be. That's number one. Number two is recognizing there's a shift that's happening in your life. Most people will recognize the shift in the need for surgery in their life, but they won't go get surgery. They'll get a band aid. Well, what if I get a different position or a different job or a promotion? Like, no, you need surgery. And so, for me, it was recognizing that there was something inherently wrong with what was happening in my life. And then understanding going from when I got forced out of the Marine Corps, going from blaming to taking ownership, going from seeing that everybody else was the problem and know that this was actually a gift.

Yeah.

Being pushed out of what I would have always stayed in.

Yeah.

Was a gift that happened for me, not to me. Right. Like, literally, if this wouldn't have happened to me in 2014, I would have been four years away from retirement as a Marine, which means I would have spent the last seven years miserable instead of the last seven years becoming who I was created and called to be, to be of service. And so, literally, I felt like, at the time, I felt like God was breaking me to kill me, but he was breaking me to rebuild me. And so a lot of people, like, in this pandemic time, they have lost a lot of what they thought they wanted and needed, but really, this was a reset that they would have never asked for. They come out of this pandemic the same way they came in. They failed the purpose of the greatest pause in our lifetime.

That's right.

And so for me, it was recognizing, oh, wait a minute. I'm not supposed to go run out and get another job. This is a time where I'm going to become who I was always created to be. And so I see the you back there that transformed you, that university I had to go through becoming university. It was a time period where I had to become who I was always created to be. I had to take my past, my experiences, my gifts, my Talents, my anointing, and I had to go through a transformational period of evolving into someone who can serve other people, man. And so hopefully that answers your question, man.

Yeah, I mean, it does. Like, one of the things I love about doing about the show and one of the reasons I called it Stuck to Unstoppable to begin with was because, you know, stuck is for people who. Who are not making progress. That's it. Maybe it's in their finance, maybe it's in their relationship, maybe it's in their brain, their mind. Stunstoppable, on the other hand, is consistently making progress. It's. It's always making progress, even if it's baby step after baby step after baby step. And, you know, it's. As a culture, we tend to celebrate the fame, but we don't celebrate the fortitude or what it took to make the fortitude, you know what I'm saying? So one of the reasons I love to hear the backstories, and I love for people. Other people to hear that there's, you know, for. And it's an old analog, not an old analogy, but an old adage that people say that, you know, your test becomes your testimony. I haven't yet to have a single guest on here that has not gone through immense suffering, even though they're incredibly successful now. Every last one of them have gone through their own immense suffering at some point in time. Which is another reason why I bring up the wine press, right? It's if you were going to truly go from stuck to unstoppable, right. That. That surrender. I surrender all that humbling moment, you know, that particular sector of life has got to be in such a way where you lean into the pressure instead of away from the pressure. Because I can only imagine, you know, just go back to the therapist moment. You mentioned this, you know, kind of the. The overarching statistics, if you will, about an African American man going in to potentially go see a therapist or men in general. Right. All of that, you know, that gives me actually the number, the second thing that I wanted to kind of throw at you. I know you hit it out of the park because you always do. And that is the element of pride. Feel like we're supposed to talk about pride. Let's talk about how pride impedes progress.

Go. Yeah, man.

It was the most humbling thing of my life to sit on that therapist couch and cry like a baby. Here I am, big, bad Marine, former drill instructor, wife, kids, the whole nine yards. And to the outside world, I got it going on but in my heart I was in pieces. I was hiding from the fact that I felt like when God was handing out purpose and dreams, he skipped over me. Yeah, I was hiding from that. And so for me, I had to say, either I can sit here and self destruct or I can start taking the steps to rebuild and build. What I know has been brewing in me since the time that I was a kid, but I can never get to it. And I didn't know what the world of personal development was. I didn't know what the world of coaching was. I didn't know what any of this world was like. I had my faith. I wasn't super strong in it, but I knew I had to get to the closest person who could help me, see me. And so I had to lay down, you know, this, this macho mentality and go get help because I felt like I was a car running out of gas. Anybody ever been in a car running out of gas and it starts sputtering?

Yeah.

Kicking back and forth.

Yeah.

That's kind of how I felt every day. Like I was a car sputtering, kicking back and forth, just trying to make it. And I was like, I am not going to be able to offer anything to this world or my family. I don't go get fixed or go get help because I'm about to shut down. I mean, I got babies. I got a. I had a five year old and a three year old and a wife. And I have nothing to my name. Like I can't leave this institution and go out into the world broken or everything that has been put under my charge will crumble as a result. And so I think for men, for women, whoever's listening, you have to understand that you are not created in this world in a vacuum or alone. There are professionals and people around you who can help you stay afloat, who can help keep you from sinking. But it's a matter of reaching out for help, man. You know, we're men of faith, right? So I'm thinking about Peter and Jesus. When Peter was about to sink, he reached out for the master's hand.

That's right.

And some of us are so full of ourselves that we think, number one, we think that we were walking on water because of us. Aunt Wrong. Number two, that we're so afraid to reach out for somebody who is stronger, more wiser, more efficient than us to help us. And I'm the kind of guy who recognizes that if I don't reach out for help in areas that I'm weak in I'll never be able to accomplish anything. That's just how I live my life, is I'm a collaborative leader. Meaning, hey, this is the vision. Now I need all you great people to come in, poke holes, and sew it back together and build what I couldn't see in the first place. Right? So pride has to take a back seat or it's going to keep you literally stuck. Because nobody wants to come in and help you be unstoppable if it's always about you. Right. And so, man, that's. That's just kind of how I deal with the pride issue.

Yeah. I mean, look, the way I look at it, too, is. Is the evidence of your pain is probably also the evidence of your pride.

Come on.

Because if you're consistently in pain on a regular basis. And you're not. And you're. And you're not, you know, we'll call it the proverbial Ibuprofen doesn't cut it. The Tylenol doesn't cut it. The Advil doesn't cut it. Right. At some point in time, you have to understand that there's probably a different methodology or different conduit that you're not using right now that you need to be looking at. And sometimes that greatest conduit is actually back in the mirror. How did you find the courage to actually go and seek help, especially as a Marine? Especially as a male Marine? You know, I work. I was telling you before we hopped on air that, you know, I just got through working with some Marines yesterday, literally, and, you know, several of them, it took me a good 15 minutes to get the walls down so I could talk to them. How did you find the courage to even. To even go through that and bust through that pride prison, if you will, man?

It was. It was very simple for me. I am terrified of dying before I do the thing that I was created to do.

Very simple. I'm terrified of dying before I do the thing that I was created to do. And I knew that my camouflage, my crutch, my comfort zone, my safety net, my punk car just got pulled.

Yeah.

The minute the Marine Corps told me, you got three months, I knew my. My punk car just got pulled. Ira. You can't hide anymore. You have nothing to fall back on. It was easy to Sign up at 18 and join the court. They pay you. It was easy. Now your punk, you have nothing to fall back on. And so I just kicked in and said, okay, either you can die miserable.

Or you can go get the help that you need. So that you can be of service to your life, to your wife, to your children, and to the world. But I just made a decision, Stephen. I'm not going to die before I do the thing I was created to do. I need help. And that's the only thing in my mind that I knew that could help me in that moment, was to go see a therapist. That's. That was the epitome of it. I mean, I don't think it was because I had uber courage or I was super wise. I just knew that there was. There was a life jacket called a therapist, and I needed to go get one.

Yeah. So much of the. So much of life transformation. If I think back to all the things that I've been through, some of the stuff that you've even been through, you share with me.

The catalyst moment before things begin to go the opposite direction, in a positive direction, is this element of surrender. It's just saying, I know I can't do this all on my own. And a lot of times we have the evidence to prove it. We can look behind us and say, well, this is the mess that I created, and I was trying to do it all by myself.

Maybe I just try a different way. And so many times I think people get lost in their own. In their pursuit of transformation, whatever that breakthrough transformation, because they keep wanting to make giant leaps and giant strides and giant, like, you know, jump in a Grand Canyon kind of leap from who they are today to who they're really called to be in reality. Whether you're listening to my story, your story, any of the other amazing thought leaders like yourself, I've had on the show, there's always a catalyst moment. There's always a surrender. There's always an awareness, and there's always a willingness to take the first step. Not knowing if the first step is the right step. It's that blind faith a little bit. How has faith played a role in your journey?

Faith is the journey.

Say it again.

Say it again. Faith is the journey. It didn't play a role. It is the journey. You know, I'm a guy, if you haven't figured that out yet.

Audacious dreams. That's in my DNA. That's a part of who I am. And so there's nothing about that that you can do without a level of faith. Right. We talk about, you know, there's a scripture that talks about mustard seed faith. And I believe that Jesus was given a minimum prerequisite. He wasn't given the maximum faith that it takes to do a thing and so, man, faith has been the journey. From the moment I stepped out of the Marine Corps and stepped into this, I went from videographer lost in a sauce to documentary filmmaker to coach diving out of planes and bringing people around the world to do the same thing with me and birthing some things that I couldn't even imagine. And so every time when money got funny and change got strange and I was ready to run out and go get a 9 to 5 because I'm a veteran, so I could easily get a government job that could pay me six figures and a pension and my retirement would continue. And God would just tell me, no, stay put, because I'm building as you're building the dream that I put in you, I'm building the man that you are. And so I had to stay put, Stephen. Seven times I went to apply for a full time job, God said, no, not happening. Because in the time that you would give me on your nights and weekends, it would take me double, triple the amount of time to make you into the man that I need you to be. If you just gave me your nights and weekends after that full time job, I'm like, but I, but, but I got a family and I want to take him on vacation and I want to buy the house. And he was like, you don't understand. If you give me this time, you just wait until you step into what I'm about to give you if you just stay in the process, man. And so for me, faith was not necessarily being able to see with my eyes the dream and the vision for my life, but being able to see it in the eye of my heart, my spirit and my soul, while reality was trying to smack me in the face, while I was trying to become and build what I knew was in me. And so faith is not a component of it. It is the journey of becoming who you were created to be. You have to have a belief in what you can't physically see, but what you see in here and what you see in here is the only thing that's going to help you go from stuck to unstoppable.

I love it, man. Well, look, when, you know, when it comes down to faith, why do you think faith is so scary for so many people? What is it about that unknown or.

That relationship with the divine that they just don't understand or what, you know, what makes it so scary for people?

It's scary because you can't control it. It's outside of your control. And anything that's outside of your control is scary because you don't have oversight of it. You can't manipulate it. Right. And so this is one of the reasons why skydiving is a critical component to the Dream Diver company, is because if you're going to go to a level that is beyond you, you have to learn how to lose control. You have to learn how to literally lose control so that what needs to come out of you can be birthed out of you. Right. A lot of times what's actually in you is bigger than what you have been able to fathom as you've gotten.

On me about several times.

Yeah. Right. And so if you try to keep the lid on it, as John Maxwell talks about, if you try to keep everything within this night, this nice and tight and neat box, what you actually end up doing is chopping the legs off of something that was ginormous because you only see something that was the size of a mushroom. And so learning how to step into the unknown is something that not everybody has the capacity to do. Let's just be honest, right? Entrepreneurship sounds cute. It sounds great, but. But everybody doesn't have the tenacity or the fortitude to step into a room that's completely dark and be the only light bulb in the room and go from corner to corner, right? Searching, creating and building and pioneering and building. It's scary inherently. And most people, and this is why most people will never achieve their dreams, is because they want to keep control and because they're afraid of having faith.

Now, you.

In our background of faith, right, In Christianity, we. Lots of people talk about faith, and we preach about faith and we read about faith, but when it's time to have some, we have none, right? We like it on a T shirt, like it on a post, but we don't have any. And what I choose to do when I go to 13,000ft is to put my life where my mouth has been, to put my faith where my faith has been, right? And so I think if people are going to go from stuck to unstoppable, you have to be willing to step into a realm that you cannot control, because what's there for you, whether it's up or down, is greater than staying stuck in your certainty. Those who want to live certain will never do anything exponential.

I just want to. I want to let that sit for a second.

When it comes down to it, you know, I'm looking back, I'm just. As you're talking, I'm reflecting about my own journey and.

My secret sauce, if you will. People, you know, because people. People Will ask. I know they've asked you. They asked me, you know, how did you get to where you are today? And what's the secret tactic? And what's the. What's the life hack? What's the business hack? What's this. This hack stuff? And.

The honest, true response, I don't think I've ever said it on one of our shows. I'm going to say it for the first time.

My honest secret sauce has always been Jesus. And here's what I mean by that. When I was sitting atop a bridge ready to take my life, it was Jesus that showed up. When I was getting ready to found my first company out of the trash piles, it was a whisper in my heart that I can't. That didn't come from me. That told me to start grabbing some stuff out of the trash piles with my father and we started building some stuff. When I looked at the time that the company, when I was growing the company we're five years in, I'd heard another whisper in my heart, says, one day I'm going to call you out of this. You know, every five years, I would be asking, what, is it time yet? Is it time yet? You know, 15 years in I get. I'll let you know when it's time. Right. Three years ago, get prepared. For what?

Get prepared. Okay. You know, four years ago, I never said you weren't going to use it, but you're not going to use it for your glory, you're going to use it for mine. These are all different things that I've heard in my spirit over and over and over again along my journey. Even now that if you look at the homeless, dyslexic, broken kid, there is no radical explanation, no logical explanation for who I was versus who I am outside of the faith that got me here.

And each one of those levels, there's this surrender, crush. I'm sorry? Crush, surrender. There's a crushing, then a surrendering, a crushing, and then a surrendering. And it goes crushing, surrendering, level up, Crushing, surrender, level up. Crushing, surrender, level up consistently, over and over again.

One of the things I love most about you is you are not bashful in the least with your faith, but you're also not hurtful with your faith. You know, there's an old adage that I've heard recently, and one of the reasons that people struggle with Christianity specifically is because of Christians.

Right? It's because people who call themselves followers of Christ or Christians oftentimes do not even try to do what Jesus told us. To do, which is love one another as I have loved you. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all the other commandments. Hang on these two things. If you think about greed, envy, jealousy. Right, Any. Anything. I'm convinced that.

The reason that God hates sin is not because sin hurts him. It's because it hurts us. It's the equivalent of you as a father, me as a father, you know, going to our kid. We see our kid about to put a pair of scissors in a light socket. We immediately go and jerk the scissors out and like, what are you doing? Kind of thing. And.

There has to be a shift, I think, for where we're heading next in the global environment, the global economy and everything that's coming down the pipeline. I think there has to be a shift toward people who are walking out their faith and not necessarily having to talk about their faith. Their light. You know, a light bulb doesn't tell. Doesn't run around telling people it's a light bulb. It just is a light bulb. You know, I want to circle back on the third concept that's been resonating in my heart since we got started, and that's this concept of prestige. You mentioned it briefly in part of your story.

For me, it seems like prestige easily leads people astray. And it seems like it's not until you stop reaching for prestige that prestige finds you. Is that also what you're seeing with everybody you're working with?

That's a great point. You know, it's super simple for me.

It's not about prestige for me. It's about.

How big can we make this megaphone. People can get the message in them. Right. If you chasing applause, you. You're gonna be. You're gonna be sorely hurt by people because people are. Sometimey they'll turn on you like a lightning, like a light switch.

But. But our goal here at the Dream Diver company is we want to build a lighthouse so big so that the message can get into people.

Yeah.

You don't have to like me. You don't have to love. You don't have to believe what I believe in. But I need you to. I need you to get this message in you before I leave this earth.

And so I want to build an army of Dream Divers, people who want to get a miracle message inside of people's hearts.

Yeah.

And anything else that's a byproduct of that. Good. Good on you. Awesome. Wonderful. But if it doesn't happen. Did you get that miracle Message, where it needed to go, how we needed to get there, and at scale, like you were supposed to. And you know one thing early on in this journey, man, the Lord said to me, he was like, listen, I want you to build X, Y and Z. He was talking about my movie studio. I want you to build X, Y and Z. I don't want you to share it with the world, and I'm going to bring people to you, but in turn, I want you to bring people back to me.

Right.

I've heard a similar message.

Right. And so for me, it's been. I don't have to punch people in the face with what I believe in, but I have to tell you the truth of how I got to where I am. Unless I'm lying to you or I'm willingly leaving pieces out that are the secret to my success or to my significance or whatever you see it as. The secret to how I got in front of you today is not me alone, because I'm regular, I'm average at best. But there's some powers that are working in me that allow me to love you, that allow me to pour into you, that allow me to show up for you that are far greater than me. And we can call it personal development if you want to, but you're going to be about 80% there and be wondering why you're not 100% there, because it's deeper than just believing in yourself and trying to be a good person is deeper than that, man. So for me, it's not about prestige. And I tell people all the time, stop chasing other people's applause, man. Yeah, because people are finicky. If you brush them the wrong way, they're ready to flush you down the toilet. But you need to be in pursuit of the thing you were created to do. And all these other things that are supposed to be coming to you, they'll find you if they're for you. Yeah, but this is about the message. This is never about, you know, people putting you on a pedestal.

Yeah. You know, it's. I'm thinking again. That's one of the reasons I love talking to you, dude. You caused me to think and reflect like clockwork. And, you know, I had this moment in my mind in 2017. I think I shared. I may have shared this with you offline. I can't remember if I did or not, but I think it's relevant to what you just said. In 2017, I stepped on stage for the first time. Well, the night before I was set to step on stage. For the first time and teach for three days straight. The first Transform youm Live event we ever did. A couple hundred people, you know, set up to be there. Totally excited. We spent almost two and a half, almost three years getting the curriculum together, getting all the stuff done, getting. Making sure that we picked the right location, we got the lights right, we got, you know, we had that, we had all the, all the tech right, you know, the inspirational music, everything, right. A lot of effort. Well, the night before, I was told that my former executive team for my construction business was. Had decided that they would like to take my. Try to take my company out from under me. And.

Basically I would later learn that we have a $1.4 million of unaccounted war money, let's put it that way, that I've been unable to prove in a court of law. So I've got to be very careful about how I word things.

At the same time, I will never forget this for as long as I live. And this is where, this is where the glue of faith, I think, comes into place. I go to my office building that I had at the time was smaller, much smaller than the building that we're in now. And it's, you know, I get there, I don't know, seven or eight o' clock at night. We just. I just left the movie my wife and all this went down and it's raining. It's something like out of the. Out of the movie. Yeah, straight out of a movie. I mean, it's raining, it's thundering like crazy. I get there, you know, I lock them out of all the computer tech and all that kind of stuff because I had no idea. All I got was a phone call. Hey, these guys are about to do X, Y and Z. They're working with so and so and so and so and so and so. They're so and so and so and so is going to work for them and all this kind of stuff. And I never get that. I got back to my home about 1:30 or 2:00am and this is the night before. Before Transform you the first one. And my wife is in the middle of our master bathroom floor and she's crying on the floor. And I go put my arms around her and I'm crying. I began crying with her and I tell her, babe, I'm sorry that I failed you. Because she had tried to warn me two years earlier that a couple of the members of that unit were.

Let'S just put it this way.

How she put it, Devilish at best. Wolf and Sheep's clothing, like, they're dangerous. Get them out of your business. And of course, I had just met her at the time, and so I was like, well, these people have been with me for 12 or 15 years. You know, you're. I just met you. Like, how would you possibly know, Right? Oh, yeah, exactly. So that Proverbs 31 can. Can come in really handy.

Yeah.

And I'll never forget this for as long as I live. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and about as hard, like gritty as she could. And she said, let's get this straight. You didn't fail me, they failed you. Now go fight.

At 7:45am we're about to open the doors to let people in.

I'm thinking about giving up. I'm thinking about publicly going out to those people, opening the doors and being like, guys, there's no way I can teach you for three days straight. I just. I don't have it in me. All those thoughts were running my mind. And then a friend of mine who's also been a prophetic voice in my life, much like you have been, walks in the door, big old smile. She already had known what. What had transpired, because she was a friend. So I had a, you know, I got a little small group of prayer warriors that pray, right? And, you know, I go up to her to give her a hug and just like. So I can just break down, Just break down.

And she goes, oh, no, honey. Oh, no, honey. This is the cost of the calling. You have to do this where you're going next. This is part of the price.

Come on.

You are going to pay this price. She said millions of lives depend on it.

And you don't understand it now, and it'll probably be a decade before you fully understand it.

But this at the cost of the calling.

I firmly believe that on the other side of every dream.

Every dream diver, there is a cost to be, a price to be paid.

Come on, right?

Your price was with the Marine Corps. My price was in the homelessness. And then the, you know, this, this embezzlement thing.

Here's how I know faith is true.

I went from her arms to my wife's arms. They're announcing in the background, bestselling author, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All my, you know, the. All the prestige, right? Multimillion, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Right?

I am walking to the stage not knowing if I honestly have it in me to say a word.

As my foot touches the stair from the top of my head to the toe to the bottom of my feet, I felt what felt like just an overwhelming sense of just calm.

From top to bottom.

I got on stage and I proceeded to teach for three days straight. It's one of the biggest miracles that proved to me that the longer I operated in my own. Me, My own significance, my own identity, my own.

Sense of worth, like, my own, right?

Every bit of that, just like you were talking about with the Marine Corps, it was all stripped from me. And it was interesting because about two years later, in my prayer time, I had this situation where I was like, you know, it's. I don't understand why you'd have me create the curriculum if you want me to use it. And that's when he said, you know, well, here's the thing. It's not for your glory. It's for mine to begin with. So, I mean, my intent was wrong, which means my focus was wrong, which means I was operating in me, not operating in him.

But more importantly, everything that's come after that has been interesting because I remember this. Going through the worst of the battle, right? I had this situation where I was going through the worst of the battle, and I was like, I don't want the stage. You can have it. I don't want it. This calling, this whatever you say I'm supposed to do or whatever, I don't want it. Give it to somebody else. Those words actually came out of my mouth.

The next thing that I heard, my spirit was this. Now I know you're ready.

Yes, sir.

Now, because you don't want the stage, now you get the stage.

And I know that's been a huge truth in your life as well. As we're looking at dream Divers as we're digging into Dream divers, How do we help awaken other people to have those same experiences and to give them the courage to fight after that cost, that calling that crushing, if you will. What do we do to help them?

Yeah, it's. It's. It's. Same thing that lady said for you. Oh, no, honey. We. We have to remind them that very few people will ever be in the top 1% of pioneers, visionaries, and world changers. And there's a cost that is associated with. With stepping outside of the blueprint that was handed to you and creating one. There's a cost. You look at anybody who pioneered anything on this planet, there was a cost to build what didn't exist. And most people will never know it. They'll never be able to resonate with it. They'll just show up and buy what you have and consume what you have, experience what you have, but they don't know what it costs Walt Disney to become an enterprise. They don't know what it costs Steve Jobs to build an enterprise. They don't know what it costs Elon to build an enterprise and anybody else that you would consider as a legendary creator or pine. They don't understand the level of the assignment and the weight on your family and the weight on your finances, the weight on your mental capacity, the weight on your physical health. They don't understand that there is an inherent cost that great people have to endure and have to go through. But I don't want you to look at it as cost. I don't want you to look at it as sacrifice. I want you to look at it as an investment. Mm. And you can't give, buy or sacrifice what never belonged to you in the first place, right? And so, as any great investor will tell you, you have to act as if that money was already allocated, it didn't belong to you. Right? And so whatever you thought you had to give up or give up or have to go through, this is an investment that was always a part of the journey for you to become who you are. And so it doesn't belong to you. That. That house that you couldn't buy because you were building, that was. That's an investment. It was. That thing was never yours. Your time is coming after. Your investment.

Reaps a reward, right? And so you have to start looking at it differently. Like, oh, this is what I have to contribute in order to become. I have to go through transform University in order to transform. This is not a sacrifice. Nobody ever looked at college as going as a. This is a sacrifice. No. What is college an investment. And so guess what? In order for you to go from stuck to unstoppable, there is an investment of some pain, some monies, some heartache, some growth, some relationships starting and ending that you must invest into becoming who you know in your heart you were created and called to be. And so I'm like you, man. I had a similar experience where I'm like, really? Like four weeks ago when I dove out of the plane and I didn't execute my landing maneuver to perfection, and I completely dislocated my left ankle and broke it on the inside and outside. And when I hit the ground, all I could think about was, in six days, I have people from all over the country flying in to hear me speak and coach them and to take them to 13,000ft to dive out of a Plane. And here I am. My left leg is straight, but my left foot is completely turned to the left, and everything is out of its place. How in the world am I supposed to take the stage at my first event and do what I do as a speaker coach and skydiver, dream development coach? And I can't. I'm on. I know I'm going to be on crutches. I know everything on this ankle is completely crushed and broken.

I caught my breath five minutes later, and I slid out of my harness. And some people came over to help me. After I was screaming for my life, help.

After I caught my breath, the first thing that I said was. And my business partner just happened to be there. We were there for a meeting because we actually had our event at the skydiving location.

Yeah.

Came out to me in a van with somebody like the GM and some other people. First thing I said to him, Stephen, was. I said, sean, are you filming this? The paramedics were there, the sheriffs were there. Yeah. Ankle was crushed and completely out of place. The first thing I said to him, are you filming this? Because everybody here is feeling sorry for me. I said, but guess what we just wrote. This is a book. Guess what this is. A new series. Guess what this is. Ten more keynotes. I said, bro, you better be filming this whole thing. And if you go to my Instagram, you can see it on my IG stories. Like, literally, as they're putting me in the ambulance, I'm speaking to the cell phone, telling you that no risk, no reward. Like, what are you willing to put in to get out of this thing? What? You know you're supposed to be. I could have been average on a Saturday morning, sitting in my bed, comfortable. But I said, you know what? I've been called to do something that most people wouldn't do. So let me get up out of this bed and go do what most people would never imagine doing. And if it cost me a bump or a bruise, then so be it. But I'd rather be bruised and bumped up and lumped up than to be regular and die before I get this thing out of me. And so there's no sacrifice, there's no cost. It's just investment, baby. What do you have to put into it so you can get something on the other side?

Dude, let me just grab my pen and drop the mic. I'm out.

Man. I tell you what, dude. You and I could talk for days. I think we probably will in the near future. I got some exciting news that includes you and Here in the coming up, in the few weeks, I'm going to make the audience wait just a hot more minute so I can get a few more things in order.

You know, we've mentioned a term called assignment. Now for people of a Christian faith, that's a word that's used on a regular basis.

So when we talk about the word assignment, calling, purpose, and we're talking about it in layman's terms, how does somebody find it?

Yeah, great question. So purpose for me, and this is how I teach it here at the Dream Diver Company. It's that one thing that you were born to do, to serve other people, that's your assignment. That's your calling, that's your purpose, that's your mission. All words synonymous for the same thing. See, that's your purpose. Number one. You have to start by discovering who you are. You have to start discovering by recognizing who you are, what do you bring to the table? Right? And I have a formula. It's called the Dream Diver purpose formula. It's. It's purpose equals capabilities plus your cause plus your solutions. Purpose equals your capabilities plus your cause plus your solutions. Right? Capabilities being the talents and skills, the things that you were born to do, things that you learn how to do that you are great at and that you would absolutely do for free even if nobody paid you. Yeah, right. That cause being the thing that, you know, in our lives are things that either excite us or fire us up, get us, make us emotional based on some things we had to overcome. Now experiences that even if nobody paid you because of your capabilities, you would show up for free and serve with all your heart, mind, body and soul for free. 99. If you could and take care of your family. That's what I'm making a T shirt.

Out of that free 99.

That's, that's where the cause comes from. And the solution says, okay, I know what I'm great at. I know, I know what I bring to the table that I would love to do. I know the cause area and the people that I'm supposed to serve. Now how would I create something at the intersection of those that could serve people in a way that's not happening? And that's for the purpose driven entrepreneur for the Intrapreneur. It says, I'm going to take my capabilities and my cause and I'm going to go out and find a great purpose driven or mission driven organization that's already serving in this area and I'm going to come in and I'm going to help Fulfill my purpose and my dream by expanding and exploding the mission and the dream that's already happening here. Right? And so that's how a person finds their purpose, that thing that they were born to do, to serve other people. And most people think, oh, well, if I operate in purpose, then I'm gonna have to give up all this stuff and be homeless. And the problem is that most people don't understand is that once you figure out what your mirror, the miracle that you are supposed to be for the world, and then you combine great business acumen to it that you can actually not do this for free on nights and weekends, this is how you can show up and take care of your family, your legacy, while also taking care of the world, man. And so hopefully that answers your question, bro.

Yeah, of course it does, man. I think, and I think it's. I think it actually touched a lot of lives already. There's just, there's. There's certain bits and pieces of wisdom that when it falls, you don't. No one has a choice but to pick it up. They just don't, you know? You know, one of the things that I've seen as a stumbling block to purpose, assignment and calling is two things is twofold. A counterfeit comes along, something that looks, smells, and seems like it's the right thing. Yeah, right. And the next one is the area where people get involved, people who don't understand your call, you know, the, you know, going back to faith a little bit. You know, the Bible says that a prophet's never known in his hometown, so people that don't know you will automatically see you as the carpenter son. Right? Or sorry, people that know you will see you as the carpenter's son. People who don't know you tend to receive more of what you put out there. How do we overcome the counterfeit or how do we acknowledge or even see the counterfeit coming our way so we, so we can make sure we're focused in the right lane. And then after that, how do we, how do we deal with people who don't understand what we've been called to do?

Yeah, first part of that question is I said like this. A lot of people have the right skills in the wrong industry of people have the right heart in the wrong industry. Right? And the problem is we're trying to make what we know is in us fit a monetization model because it's already been pre laid out for us. This is where you see a lot of people who have a heart to teach, serve and help people with certain things and they end up in these crazy businesses selling this or selling that. And I'm like, what do you. Why? Well, because I can, I love to teach. And then they can, they have this model that no, you're trying to take a shortcut. Instead of being the pioneer that you are, you're trying to take a shortcut and fall into something that somebody has already pre built that you can make a living off of. No, you, sometimes you're gonna have to pull away, do the hard work of creating what doesn't exist. You're gonna have to invest into your next level. For me, it took me seven years to show up on the Steven Scoggin show, right? What if I, what, what, what if I would have went and tried to fall into somebody else's umbrella that they built because I could. It was an easy monetization model of what I felt like a part of my assignment. No, sometimes you have to stay put and understand that there is no blueprint. You're about to build it. Right. And so we have to get comfortable with understanding that it may take us 5, 10 years to fully emerge at what it ought to be instead of thinking that we can just step into something that's already pre built. And so for some of you will like, well, okay, I hear you, Ira, but how do I take care of my family? Well, here's the truth. Here's the politically correct answer. Stay where you are and become who you're about to become. And when it's time to transition, you'll know that's the politically correct answer. The not so politically correct answer is if you can afford to walk away from what's good and start building what's great. If you can afford to. If you can't stay where you are and build, everybody's assignment won't be that you can just walk away. Right? So that's number one. Number two is you said, what about those people in your life who don't recognize what's in you? I say it like this. The two types of people in the world, those who see reality and those who see possibility. When you have a God sized dream brewing in you, you need to be around people who see possibility. Because the reality people will snuff your dream out. They'll choke you out on accident and not even understand how they did it. It's called they love you but they can't see you. Yeah, they love you but they can't see you. And so most of the time, the people around you will recognize who you are before you do recognize who you are before you do. It's you that has to catch up to you. And then you have to catch up to the fact that everybody can't go where you're going because they don't honor what's in you. They see it, but they don't honor what's in you because you've always been. Oh, that's. Oh, that's Stephen from down the street. Oh, that's cousin Stephen. Oh, that's Stephen from ninth grade. Right? That's Stephen. He was my spiritual son. Right. No, they don't. They. And I had this issue with certain people in my lives who didn't see me as I am. And so when I had to cut ties with them, they thought I was being egotistical, not understanding that I cannot reduce my assignment and. And my calling to your perception of what you've known me as. You'll catch up to it later, but for now, I gotta keep running the race. And I had literally had a pastor come to me and said, hey, man, I thought when you left the ministry, it was because, you know, it was pride or whatever, but I've been watching you on social media, and I've really started to understand that your assignment is much bigger than the box that was on you. And so I had to catch up to. Well, thank you so much for realizing. I still love you. God bless you. Right. You know, and so it's not. It's not hard feelings.

Yeah.

It's just, you have to understand what is your race.

Mm.

And you can't. You can't allow people to pull you into other lanes that you don't belong into, because ultimately, you allow them to live two lives, and you get to live zero. They get to live their life and yours when you allow them to steer your life. Right. Bump that. No, give me my life back, because I only get one. I'm working on a book right now. It's called what's your dream? And the subtitle is, you only get one life. Make it count. Do something epic. Right. And so stop giving your life to other people who don't honor or understand the level of your assignment.

Dude, I need more mics. I got to drop more. No, no, no, no, no. Serious. I mean, look, here's the reality.

I've always said people are where they are today because that's all they've allowed themselves to be.

Come on.

And if they're going to go any further, they're going to have to allow themselves to be bigger than they ever thought they could imagine.

You'Ve actually said those words differently. Same words, same concept to. Even to me. You know, I started telling you about this, the new live event that we got brewing that's going to be epic. Right? We started with. We've been dreaming about that a little bit with some of our mutual friends and even together. And, you know, we started talking about the possibilities. And I said, well, you know, I think the attendance is going to be X. And you're like, bigger. You really think so? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Bigger. What. What would you know? And then you said something along the lines. He goes. And then I was considering. I was like, well, you know, so. And so does an event this way. And it's cool. It's a cool experience. And you're like, you're doing it your way. I'm like, what do you mean, my way? You're like, you're doing it. You're doing it the way that you've been called to do it. And you're. And your event will end up outperforming the other event because it's real, it's authentic, it's the assignment. And because you care enough to care enough about the people who are coming to it as a way to kind of like, branch it out and make it special, you know, and these are. These are. Like I said, these are people. People are listening and watching now, are getting a little behind the scenes about our norma conversations that we have behind the scenes and how powerful they are. I want to send as many people your direction as possible. I want people to know more about Ira Davis. I want more people to know about. More about dream divers. What is the best way for people to stay connected, learn more, you know, get engaged, get going? What's the best way?

Yeah, man, let me say this, and then I'll give you my contact info. Guys, let me tell you something. There's. There's a. You see a lot of people on the Internet and you see their followers, you see their numbers. But, you know, one of the things I love about Clubhouse is you get to really put a face with the thought leadership, with the heart and intent behind what you see out in Internet land. And when Stephen and I met, it wasn't about follower count. It wasn't about any of this crazy crap we could hear in each other. The authenticity, the integrity, and the conviction to do something audacious. And that's how we connected, man. And I'm gonna tell you what Stephen has up his sleeve about to blow y' all minds, man. So listen, if you are A part of the stuck to unstoppable family. If you're part of transform you family, you need to follow Stephen on every platform on this planet. Wherever he goes, you must go because he has something in him that you need. Let me just say that. So. But how do you find ira Davis? Listen www.dreamdiver.co just like it sounds co I do a free Miracle Monday power coaching call every Monday morning for the audacious ones. People who are like, listen, bro, I'm a business professional, I'm an entrepreneur. But I feel that I was born to do something greater. I need your help. Every morning free 99. Every Monday morning I do a group zoom call where I give a fresh new 30 minute keynote to you. Plus you get to ask live Q and A with me. It's about, it's about a 45 minute call every Monday. So if you want to be a part of that man, just go to my website. You'll see it there. Miracle Monday. Sign up for it and then on all socials at Dreamdiver co and at the chief Dream Diver on all social platforms, man.

Ira, dude, I love you as a brother, as a mentor, as a friend. Everybody that I know should be connected with you 120%.

You are someone who walks out even more than they talk out.

And it's one of the things I admire about you most, man. We will keep doing this. We got to do more show more shows and more episodes, especially as we get towards the fall. Let people know a little couple of the secrets. But wink, wink, wink. That's right.

I love you, dude. Man, thank you so much for hanging out with me for so long. I can't wait to spend more time with you, man.

Love you too, man. Appreciate it, man. Thanks so much for having me.

All right, see you, buddy. Guys, I told you that guy's legit. And if you enjoyed that interview with Ira Dream Diver Davis, I know you're really going to like this one right here. So go ahead and check it out. What has worked out is in any situation I go into, whether it's a conversation, whether it's a business deal, whether it's something with sales, like in anything I do, my key philosophy is how do I just add value?