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January 15, 2025 61 mins

Two years ago, Dave Crenshaw started a journey with one heartfelt goal: to share what he’s learned about success—not just with the world but with his kids, as well. In this final episode of The Dave Crenshaw Success Show, he sits down with Stratton, Ella, and Darci for an emotional reflection on the lessons they’ve learned together. Together, they explore the top 10 principles of success—timeless lessons that anyone can apply to create a meaningful, fulfilling life. From practicing daily gratitude and turning failures into stepping stones to letting passion fuel your career and building meaningful connections, they share insights inspired by 67 amazing guests. Gratitude, pride and a touch of nostalgia fill the air as they wrap up this incredible chapter. Join Dave and his family for a heartfelt send-off packed with wisdom, warmth, and a fresh perspective on what success really means. 

Action Principles


1. Practice daily gratitude.
2. Let passion fuel your career path.
3. Break big goals into smaller steps.
4. Turn failure into opportunities for growth.
5. Find a mentor; be a mentor.
6. Cultivate meaningful connections.
7. Prioritize education, especially in business.
8. Define your "why" and let it drive you.
9. Take strategic risks for big rewards.
10. Build a schedule that promotes a healthy work-life rhythm.


Suggested LinkedIn Learning Course:

Time Management Fundamentals

Dave Crenshaw develops productive leaders in Fortune 500 companies, universities, and organizations of every size. He has appeared in Time magazine, USA Today, FastCompany, and the BBC News. His courses on LinkedIn Learning have been viewed tens of millions of times. His five books have been published in eight languages, the most popular of which is The Myth of Multitasking—a time management bestseller. As an author, speaker, and online instructor, Dave has transformed the lives and careers of hundreds of thousands around the world. DaveCrenshaw.com

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dave Crenshaw (00:00):
Every time you attempt, you gain something from
it, even if it didn't turn outthe way that. Speaking of which
man, we went and did thepainting on Saturday, we painted
some penguins for Christmas.
This is our tradition. Boy, Isure had a lot of practice
during that one, I felt like itwas probably the worst one.
Well, welcome back, everyone. Tothe Dave Crenshaw Success

(00:24):
Project. This is the show whereI have been interviewing people
to learn universal principles ofsuccess. And I think right now,
we've reached the end of thisproject. And so what I want to
do is do a wrap up episode withmy children. That was the whole
point of creating this thing wasto help my kids learn universal
principles of success. So we'reall sitting here in my office

(00:46):
together. Everyone say hello,hi, hello, and introduce
yourself. Starting with Darci.

Darci Crenshaw (00:55):
I am Darci. I'm 11 years old. 11

Ella Crenshaw (00:58):
years old. Ella, I'm Ella, I am 15

Dave Crenshaw (01:02):
and Stratton.

Stratton Crenshaw (01:03):
I am Stratton, and I am 19 years

Dave Crenshaw (01:05):
old. So when we started this, you were all about
two years younger, yeah. So it'sbeen going on for a while, and I
know that some of you havelistened to some of the
episodes. I know Darci hasreally been listening to the
episodes, because I saw herevery time she was folding
laundry, she was listening to Istill gotta do that today. Yeah.
So what I thought would be nicewas to sort of reflect back on

(01:27):
what I've seen, what we've allseen and heard in the various
interviews, and what we puttogether was a list, and I say
we, it was my assistant,Victoria, and I, she's been
helping so much with schedulingall of these interviews, and we
put together a list of the top10 principles. These are things
that kept coming back over andover in the interviews that I

(01:47):
did with people. And in fact, Iasked Victoria said, How many
people did we interview for thispodcast? Anyone guess at the
number?

Stratton Crenshaw (01:54):
I want to say 40 something. It's higher

Dave Crenshaw (01:58):
than that. It's

Stratton Crenshaw (02:01):
67 really.

Dave Crenshaw (02:05):
Like 48 or so.
Yeah, if you don't count, yeah,if you don't count, the a couple
of the episodes were double,like David Winford or Mike
Blumenfield, but yeah, 67 totalinterviews and and from a
variety of differentnationalities, variety of
different cultures, variety ofcareer paths, even ages. And
yet, some patterns started toemerge. So what I want to do is

(02:28):
we're going to go through theseone by one, and talk about them
and share what you have learnedabout these, and then maybe
answer some questions about it.
Sound good? Yeah. Okay, so thefirst one, and this came up a
lot, is one of my favorites, ispractice daily gratitude. One of
the more notable interviewswhere this came up was one of

(02:49):
the first ones, Tahani Abuja.
And she grew up as a refugee inJordan, and they had hardly
anything, and yet her familytaught them to be grateful and
talk about the things that theywere grateful for on a regular
basis, and she continued thatpattern throughout her life and
has taught it to her children.

(03:12):
So what thoughts do you haveabout daily gratitude? Let's
start with Stratton.

Stratton Crenshaw (03:17):
Yeah, I definitely feel like tahani's
example of practicing dailygratitude is kind of a testament
to how much it works, becauseshe came from nothing, like
absolutely nothing, yeah, and tosee her go from nothing but
still be grateful in that momentto when she does have, like,

(03:38):
everything that she needs, yeah,abundance, right? And still,
still be grateful for it. Like,like, the hard work and and the
gratitude together, I think issomething really cool. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (03:50):
any thoughts girls? In addition to that, I

Ella Crenshaw (03:53):
try to do gratitude and, like, my own
little way. I do it, like, afterevery single practice that I do,
and I feel like it's helped alot in the way of looking back
after like, something hard andrealizing that it wasn't all
bad. It wasn't a disaster. Itwasn't like, there wasn't a need
for me to, like, burst intotears. It was, Oh, that was

(04:17):
hard, but it wasn't all bad.

Dave Crenshaw (04:19):
Yeah, you learn things from it, and that's
something in and of itself to begrateful for. I like that.
Darci, any thoughts aboutgratitude? I

Darci Crenshaw (04:26):
just think that it's really cool, because if
you're just grateful for onething every day, even if you
think you've had a bad day, youcan almost always find something
that you're grateful for,whether it just be that you had
lunch or you got to talk tosomeone that day. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (04:45):
that's so true. I absolutely believe that. And I
feel like sometimes, wheneverI'm having a bad day, and I feel
like, oh my gosh, there's toomuch. If I just pause and think
about, what do I have? What am Igrateful for? That kind of
recenters me, were there anyquestions? Questions that any of
you had about that?

Ella Crenshaw (05:03):
Well, I know a lot of people like, keep like a
journal, and my question islike, what's the value in
writing it down compared to justlike saying it? Yeah, thinking
it.

Dave Crenshaw (05:14):
What do you think Stratton and Darci what? What's
the value of writing it downversus just saying it? Because I
do think there is value in it. I

Darci Crenshaw (05:22):
guess some value is you just get it out and you
can see it for yourself, and youjust have it there to know that
you're grateful. It's not justlike something that happened.

Dave Crenshaw (05:34):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Any
other thoughts? Stratton,

Stratton Crenshaw (05:39):
usually when I do my daily gratitude. I just
It's I don't write it down. Iusually just think about it or
talk about it, but there aresome things that happen that I
do write down because I'm sograteful for it that I want to
remember it in the future and Ican look back on it and go, Wow,
that was something really cool.
I'm grateful for that,

Dave Crenshaw (05:57):
right? Yeah, I have found that I am forgetful
about a lot of things. Mymindset is usually forward.
What's next, what's in thefuture. I don't remember what
happened in the past a wholelot. So writing it down, it
becomes a nice record to referto, and to say, oh, you know,
like, maybe I'm having a hardtime with gratitude. So if I

(06:18):
look at the gratitude journal,and I think about just last week
or the week before, oh, I wasgrateful for this. So that helps
me. It's almost therapeutic tobe able to look back and say,
remember this, you did havegratitude. There was something
good there. And I've also, Imean, this is not necessarily
related to gratitude, but ingeneral, there are some good

(06:38):
things that come from lookingback at that like, for instance,
when I decided to go back intobusiness coaching, I did that
because, actually, your mom sawthat Hi had, I had made a note
about how, if things had gonewell with my first attempt at
business coaching, I would havekept doing it. I had completely
forgotten about that, and herreading that and her telling it

(07:00):
to me. Do you know that you saidthis? It inspired me to go back
into business coaching, whichhas led to the the success that
I've I've had. Now, right? Allright, let's, let's move on to
the next principle here, letpassion fuel your career path. I
would also use the word love.
Let what you love fuel yourcareer path. And most everyone,

(07:22):
I don't actually, I can't thinkof anyone where that wasn't
applicable in their success. Oneperson that stood out to me, and
he stood out to me many timesover the last several years, is
Simeon Corey, who is CEO ofEvita, and he uses storytelling
and video and that sort of thingto convey stories for other

(07:44):
people, but it was his passionfor storytelling that led him to
do that, and the ability toblend that with video. And in my
courses on LinkedIn, learning inparticular, discovering your
strengths, I talk about howyou're going to have the most
success in your career if youfocus on three things, your
gifts, your love and yourskills. So loves is that really

(08:05):
important part? Because a lot ofpeople, they think, oh, I want
to have money, right? I want tobe successful. Who makes a lot
of money? Oh, lawyers make a lotof money. Oh, doctors make a lot
of money, and they pursue that,but maybe they don't love it,
and about halfway through theprocess, maybe a couple of years
into their career, they startrealizing, Wait, I'm doing

(08:26):
something I don't love, but ifyou flip that and you're doing
something that you're passionateabout, like I am with teaching
and training, I'll put up withthings that maybe I don't like.
I'm willing to work longer thansomeone else who doesn't love
their job. So having thatpassion really creates this
really strong foundation forbeing successful in your career.

(08:50):
What thoughts did you have aboutit?

Stratton Crenshaw (08:57):
So what if you're like passionate or you
love something, but it's notpossible to pursue it as a job
like the opportunity hasn'tarisen. Whether, like, let's say
someone loves music, or theylove writing, or they love they
they want to be, I don't knowpolitician. I don't know like
things that when opportunitiespresent themselves, maybe it

(09:18):
could happen, but in the moment,there's nothing they can do
about it. What? What do you dountil then?

Dave Crenshaw (09:24):
That's a great question, and I think it's
especially applicable for thingsthat also have a hobby element
to them, like music, like videogames, like, I don't politics,
but that that sort of problem.
The problem with that is that somany people can do it, so many

(09:44):
people want to do it. And thefirst thing that I would say to
that is, is this valuable? Isthere a way that this can be
tilted so that it's valuable toother people? The other thing
is, how good are. Are you at it?
There's a there's a classicmotivational speaker, author.

(10:07):
His name is Earl Nightingale,and he said, and I'm
paraphrasing, the amount ofmoney you make is directly
proportional to the demand forwhat you do, your ability to do
it, and the difficulty ofreplacing you. So we've got a
few problems with something.
Let's just take music which I'mfamiliar with, because I had a
band. Right? Number one, thedemand for for that, how many

(10:28):
people want to listen to greatmusic? The demand using that
formula is quite high, right?
The second, though, your abilityto do it, that's a big issue.
And if I reflect back, and I'mreally honest about myself, I

(10:48):
would say I was very good. Butthat's not enough, right? Like
you've got to be extremely good.
You have to be at the top of thetop of the top, because of the
third one, the difficulty ofreplacing you. How many people
want to sing, how many peoplewant to get like the it's an
Endless Pool, and all you haveto do is watch one of those, you

(11:10):
know, reality shows, like anAmerican Idol or whatever, and
realize that millions of peoplewant to do this. So the
difficulty of replacing you isreally, really instant. All
right, so if you're pursuingsomething, you really have to
figure out. Number one, dopeople want to pay for this?
Number 2am, I at the very, verybest of this? And number three,
How easily could someone comealong and replace me doing it?

(11:32):
If you can't answer those threequestions, all of them
positively, you're going to havea really hard time having a
career, no matter how passionateyou are about it interesting.
But there are sometimes ways totake something that you're good
at or that you're passionateabout and put it into a
different category. Again, Ithink Simeon is a good example
that just telling stories. Youknow, a lot of people can do

(11:56):
that. A lot of people want to dothat. But what he did was said,
companies want to tell stories.
I'm going to help companies tellstories now, all of a sudden,
it's very valuable. It's veryunique. There's a market for it,
and yet, he's still doingsomething he's passionate about,
right? Makes sense? Yeah? Otherthoughts, other questions, Ella

(12:17):
or Darci, I

Ella Crenshaw (12:19):
feel like, like, my question I have is, what if
you don't feel passionate aboutit anymore? What if you lose
that passion, or, like, gothrough patterns of having it
and then losing it? And yeah,that's a

Dave Crenshaw (12:32):
great question.
So I'm going to reflect back onmy time as a business coach, and
occasionally I would have aclient who was like, I don't
want to do this anymore. I don'twant to I don't want to keep
running my business. It's toohard. It's too stressful. I'm I
want to quit. The question Iwould ask is, if one thing
changed, would you be excitedabout this again? For example,

(12:54):
one business owner wascontinually having problems with
employees acting out, not doingthings, and it kept happening
over and over. And so she waslike, I want out of this. I
don't want to deal with it. Isaid, if we could solve this one
problem, would you be excitedabout it again? She said, Yes.
So I said, Great, let's fix thisone problem. And once we fixed

(13:14):
that one problem, guess what?
She loved it. Yeah, her passioncame back from it. But I've also
had situations with businessowners where I say, if we could
fix this, would that solve it?
And they go, No, I don't want todo it. I'm like, I'd explore
that a little bit more. And I'dbe like, Okay, well, what about
this? What about this? And itwas, the more we drove, the more
we realized they just weren'tthey just didn't care about the

(13:36):
business anymore. And in thatcase, I would say, then you need
to sell it. You need to get outof this, because if you're not
passionate about your business,no one else is going to be and I
think that's true not just withbeing a business owner, with
your career, it is important tomaintain that passion. Sometimes
all you need to do is just makesure you're taking more breaks,

(13:56):
like in my book, The Power ofhaving fun, right? You just need
to give yourself a break andthen come back to it. You'll be
passionate again. Maybe you haveto solve a problem, but if you
keep doing all those things andyou still don't have love for
it, you might want start to lookat a way to change what you're
doing. Maybe not quit, butchange it in a different way, or
look for a change, right? But Ithink that's the last thing that

(14:20):
I would go for if you used to beexcited about it in the past.
All right, let's move on to thenext one. The third one. Break
big goals into smaller steps. Ihave a course on LinkedIn
learning called making big goalsachievable, and the idea is that
you take something that's reallyhuge and you say, what do I need

(14:41):
to do today to move myselfcloser to that? One individual
that really stood out with thatwas Ben mayforth, who's a
climber for North Face, and hedeals with special challenges,
with his health, with hisphysical limitations, and. That
can be really overwhelming tosay. You know, I want to be a

(15:01):
fast climber, and yet I'mdealing with all sorts of health
issues and surgeries and thingsthat I've been through. And so
what he would do is break itdown into daily routines, these
little daily things that he needto do that would move him closer
to it. In fact, I know your momis a fan of this. I'm going to
put Ella on the spot, becauseright now she's on our mom's
swim team, or your mom's swimteam. She talks about root

(15:24):
versus fruit. Have you heardthat a lot? Oh yeah, yeah.
Darci, yeah. She got thatactually, from a book. And I
apologize I'm forgetting thename of the NFL coach who wrote
a book and used that phrase. Butthe idea is, you focus on what
needs to be done, the smalllittle things, and that will
naturally give you the fruit ofwhat you're trying to

(15:45):
accomplish. So I think that'sthat's a principle that's
universal. Doesn't matter whatcareer you're in doing the
little things. Breaking biggoals down into small parts that
moves you closer to it. Whatthoughts do you have about that?
Darci, I

Darci Crenshaw (15:59):
guess, like breaking up your big goals into
smaller steps. It just makes itso, like, not so overwhelmed,
because sometimes if you havelike, this big goal, they're
just like, looking at the end ofit, and you're like, Okay, I've
got to do this, but you don'tknow how. And you get stuck
there. And, like, you'reclimbing mountains, and like,

(16:20):
eventually you'll get over onemountain, but you still have,
like, multiple more before youreach your goal. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (16:27):
and that's not helpful, you know? It's
interesting. We talked abouthaving an imagination, right?
It's good. It's important tohave an imagination, but what if
your imagination is seeing allthe work that needs to be done
to accomplish something like, Iwant to be a best selling
author. I know a couple of you,a few of you want that as a

(16:49):
goal. And you go, that isoverwhelming. Think about how
many words you have to write,how many books you have to
write, how to market. All right,I'm I'm trying to make you feel
a little bit a little miserable,right? Because you have really
good imagination, so you can seeall of that. But is that helpful
in that moment to have thatimagination? Not really? Yeah,

(17:13):
it might help you plan. It mighthelp you think about what needs
to be done. But then what weneed to do is we need to step it
back and say, what's the halfwaymark to that. What's the one
quarter mark to that? What's theone month mark? What do I need
to do? What's the one day mark?
And you, you take that hugething and just break it down and
say, What's one thing that Ineed to do every day to move me
closer to being a best sellingauthor? And I'm going to put you

(17:36):
on the spot. What do you what doyou think is one of those things
I know Stratton and Ella are themost active with this. So what's
one thing that you need to do ona daily basis that's going to
move you closer to that goal,

Ella Crenshaw (17:48):
honestly? Just right? Yeah, yep, word vomit and
edit it later,

Dave Crenshaw (17:54):
right? Yes, that.
I think that's part of it too.
Is self editing, right? That'snot a good thing to do in the
middle of working on something.
Do the editing later. And I'mnot just talking about writing,
right? Like, sometimes we'redoing something and we're
talking to someone and we'rejudging ourselves while we're
doing it. Instead, do that laterand work on it. Stratton, do you

(18:16):
have any thoughts or questionsabout that?

Stratton Crenshaw (18:20):
Yeah, I mean, I really like, and I don't know
if it was Ben who said it, butsuccess is a series of small,
consistent steps towards yourgoal. I don't know if that was
you or him. I don't, I can'tremember, but I wrote that down,
and it's really good. I'll letthe listeners go back and find
that. Yeah, go find that,because it's really good. I
think, I think that really is agood way of encapsulating what

(18:43):
this whole goal is about.

Dave Crenshaw (18:44):
It's a great way to think about it. Okay, let's
move on to the fourth one here.
Turn failure into opportunitiesfor growth. Oh, my goodness, we
had so many things for that, somany interviews. One person who
I really admire, and was one ofthe first interviews, was Kwame
Christian, and he talked abouthow every failure moves him

(19:07):
closer. He used the phrase, it'sall practice, right? Every time
you do it, every time youattempt something, even if it
didn't work out, it's practice.
And he had a failed businessthat he sold for a few bucks,
and went and bought him thegriddle, right? And that was,
that was the most that he got.
But that whole experience taughthim things that have led to the

(19:30):
amazing success that he's now,right now, having with teaching
people about negotiation, andhis podcast and everything. So
it's easy to feel like, whensomething goes wrong, it's the
end, right? And I think I'veseen that a lot with kids your
age, right now, there's a littlebit of despair out there. Isn't

(19:52):
there like, like, I made amistake, and it's. Over. And
unfortunately, I think that partof that is the way that our
culture has been behaving towardmistakes. We're very quick to
jump on someone's error and go,Oh, you screwed up. That's the
end. We're that's the end ofyou, right? And I think I don't

(20:14):
know, you can tell me if you'rewrong, but when teenagers see
that, they're like, I cannotmake a mistake. I'm not allowed
to do that, when, in fact,making mistakes and continually
failing forward is actually theway to get to success. I don't
what. What thoughts do you haveabout it?

Ella Crenshaw (20:33):
Yeah, I've had many friends, like on the swim
team, where they'll come to mein tears and look, I didn't get
the time, I didn't do it. I wasso close, and I was like, okay,
they were like, it was a reallygood swim. It should have been.
It should have been that time. Iwas like, it was a good swim. It
wasn't like, What now, like, thenext step forward, and it takes
them a minute and they go backin there, like, oh, all I needed

(20:56):
to do that. And so they startworking harder and practices.
And they do get that time later.
But there's a lot of, like,instant panic the minute they
see something that they didn'twant, that it like, honestly,
like with the whole gratitudething, like, honestly going back
and being like, Oh, this wasn'tso bad. What can I do further
now?

Dave Crenshaw (21:18):
Yeah, as you're saying that, I've never thought
of it this way, but failure isan indicator of where you are
towards success, right? It's anindicator that I'm not there,
but it's, it's also shows youwhat you need to do to get
closer to it. So, yeah, that's,it's okay. In fact, it's great
to fail. In fact, I think Iquoted it like three or four

(21:40):
times during the interviews. ButI'm going to pull the quote off
the wall right here. We'relooking at Mr. Bob Ross. Every
time you devote time topractice, you haven't lost.
You're always a winner. Everytime you attempt, you gain
something from it, even if itdidn't turn out the way that.
Speaking of which man, we wentand did the painting on
Saturday, we painted somepenguins for Christmas. This is

(22:03):
our tradition. Boy, I sure had alot of practice during that one,
I felt like that was probably aworse one. What questions do you
have or other thoughts that youhave about this idea that
failure is opportunity, is anopportunity for growth.

Darci Crenshaw (22:20):
One thought that I have is, I just think it's
like, really important. Becauseone of the things in school that
we've been working on, we like,read a book for something called
Wit and Wisdom and delicitiousprinciples. And one of the
things from our book called butnot buddy, is, how can enduring

(22:40):
hardships help with personaltransformation. And I think it
kind of relates to this,because, like what we've said
is, just by enduring hardships,you can become better at the
things that you struggled with,and in the future, you can
actually help someone else whostruggled with the same things,
and you can we a mentor to them?
Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (23:02):
another great example of that was sola
Mahfouz, who was an Afghan shewas basically in a society that
was not allowing her to learnand grow, but she used that
adversity to continually studyand get a degree, and then that
led to her having opportunityand getting out of that rough
situation. So if someone'slistening to this, and you're in

(23:23):
a place of hardship right now,by continuing to push and
continuing to work, it will payoff. It does pay off over time.
You don't know when it's goingto but it does eventually lead
to that.

Ella Crenshaw (23:35):
I have a question with that is, you talk about
using failure as an opportunity.
But I feel like sometimes, like,failure can just lead to more
failure. Like, how do you makeit into success? Because
sometimes it won't do anything.

Stratton Crenshaw (23:51):
This ties into my comment, so you're good.
One of the examples from theprevious section that you had
Hector Quiroga, he mentionedthat you have to view life as a
test, and that if you keepfailing in one area repeatedly,
you keep trying and trying, andit keeps failing over and over
and over, and there's nothingchanging. That means that you

(24:14):
need to adjust your approach tothat thing, like when you
experiment, you don't run theexperiment and it fails, and you
do the same thing again, and youtalk about that, yeah? Like,
what do you say insanity is? Alot of people say, a lot of
people, yeah, the definition

Dave Crenshaw (24:31):
of insanity is doing the same thing over and
over and expecting a differentresult, right? So

Stratton Crenshaw (24:36):
to progress, I would say, try something else,
experiment. And that would be myadvice. From what I've learned
from Hector is, is yeah, justtry something new. Yeah. And

Dave Crenshaw (24:47):
well, and that ties into the next principle
about finding a mentor and beinga mentor. And I would include
that with coaching. If you'recontinually failing at
something, find someone who canhelp you with that. So let's,
let's use. That as a segue to gointo that one. So finding a
mentor means finding someonewho's achieved what you want to
achieve, and is going where youwant to go and asking them to

(25:12):
help you. We could also put inthere be a mentor find other
people who are trying to achievewhat you've achieved and helping
them out. One notable example ofthat was Sam zarabi and Yaya
Mansour, who actually werebusiness coaching clients of
mine and have created a very,very successful franchise of
dental offices rodeo dentalthroughout the southwest United

(25:33):
States. And they talked abouthow the mentors that they had in
dental school not only helpedthem become great at dentistry,
but about business, and inspiredthem about business. So I would
say, Ella, we're going to usethat to answer the question, you
keep doing the same thing overand over? Find a coach, find a
mentor. Have someone outside ofyou look at this and assess what

(25:55):
you're doing, even on a on asimple level, this week, I had
it. I I like racing cars on thesimulator, right? We've got that
in our basement Stratton, and Ibuilt that together. And I kept
doing the same thing over andover. And so I hired a guy to
come in and look at it. He'slike, Oh, your braking is all
wrong. And having that personoutside of me, mentoring me,

(26:17):
coaching me, helped me make anassessment, and I gained some
time. It's it's a simple thing.
It doesn't really matter. Butthat same principle is true for
anything that you're trying toaccomplish in your career. What
impact have you had, or whatways have you gone out and seen
a mentor help you? So far, I

Darci Crenshaw (26:34):
have a teacher this year, and she is amazing,
like one of her things that shedoes is positive affirmations,
which can be kind of hardsometimes to do, especially when
you didn't achieve what youwanted to achieve in the first
place. But I remember when Iwent to my most recent swimming,

(26:57):
I went into that swimming and Iwas like, Okay, I'm gonna do
this. Like I can do this. LikeI'm not gonna look at the people
around me and I'm just gonna getmy best time. I am going to go
fast. And because of that, Idropped 50 seconds. Yeah, total.
So that was

Dave Crenshaw (27:13):
exciting when that happened, yeah, yeah. So
the mentor helped you do that,and they also to help you
practice. You've probably heardthe saying, practice makes
perfect, right? Well, imperfect.
Practice makes imperfect. If youkeep practicing the wrong way,
it's going to make thatimperfect more often, and it

(27:35):
also makes it permanent, right?
Practice makes permanent. So ifyou practice imperfectly, guess
what? You're going to do thatover and over again forever. So
a mentor can come in and helpyou change that. Also, a mentor
can help guide you in justdecisions that you're making,
choices that you make in yourcareer. Another example that

(27:56):
came up was Mike Blumenfeld, whowe had dinner with, love. Mike.
Yeah. Mike's fantastic, and hewas a guest on the show. Is also
a mentor to Joe landolina, whowas another guest on the show
and helped him create crestlawn, which is that invention
that helps stop bleeding. AndJoe credits his success to

(28:18):
Mike's influence, to Mikemeeting with him on a regular
basis and asking him questionsand getting him to think about
business in certain ways. Whatquestions do you have about
mentors?

Stratton Crenshaw (28:28):
So I have a comment from one of the episodes
Aisha Purcell. She talks abouthow having a mentor and being a
mentor are both really importantand like, I agree with that.
I've had teachers that reallyemphasized teaching other
students in the class when youhad figured it out, yes, and

(28:49):
when you have had enoughpractice, you've had mentorship,
you still have mentorship. Andpeople notice that you're doing
well at something, and they askfor advice. Like, I'd give them
advice because like, that helpsyou remember what you've
learned. Like they really talkabout that, especially at least
in the education system that we,like I grew up in, and the
program that they had, theytalked about how teaching was a

(29:11):
really important way to rememberthings. And so tying into that,
if you don't have a physicalmentor, like someone to mentor
you, what do you do? Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (29:21):
it's interesting, because I answer this very
question in one or two of myLinkedIn learning courses. I
can't remember which one, but Italk about mentorship from afar,
mentorship from afar. And theidea is that you choose someone
who's at the place where youwant to be, and you follow them
and not follow them in the waylike I just want to be

(29:43):
entertained, but follow them,and then I want to learn from
them, and I want to see whatthey're saying about things. I
want to think about things theway that they're thinking. And
there are lots and lots ofopportunities right now to find
someone who can mentor you fromafar. And I really want to
emphasize. This point too, youwant to find people who are

(30:04):
really achieving somethingmeaningful, that you've seen
that they've achieved somethingmeaningful. There are also a lot
of people right now who talk abig game, and they seem like
they've accomplished things, orthey're very energetic and
animated, but they actuallyhaven't done much, right? So you
got to be careful about who youattach yourself to when it comes

(30:28):
to that. But actually, I knowsomeone who's been mentoring you
from afar already. Who's that?

Stratton Crenshaw (30:34):
I believe that's Brandon Sanderson.
Brandon Sanderson, right?

Dave Crenshaw (30:38):
And he not only has a good social media
following and writes greatbooks, but his courses are
available online. You can gointo his classes, and he
regularly hosts a thing where hejust talks about writing and his
perspective on it. So that sortof thing is truly meaningful,

(30:58):
because he's not someone whojust talks a big game. He has
accomplished a great deal in hiswriting career. I'll give you
one more thing to this, and thisties into another principle a
little bit, but you can alsocreate sort of a level
mentorship with peers through amastermind, right? And Stratton
and I have been talking aboutthis recently, creating a

(31:19):
mastermind, a group of peoplewho are all trying to accomplish
a similar thing, and you allhelp each other out. You give
each other feedback, you giveeach other encouragement.
History is filled withsuccessful mastermind groups
where people have workedtogether and accomplished great
things,

Stratton Crenshaw (31:34):
right? And that ties really well into the
next next topic. Yes, it does.
Thank

Dave Crenshaw (31:39):
you for the segue, which is what's the next
one? Stratton,

Stratton Crenshaw (31:42):
cultivate meaningful connections. There
you go. Cultivate meaningful

Dave Crenshaw (31:46):
connections, meaning personal connections,
meeting people, getting to knowpeople, treating people with
kindness, not necessarilybecause it's going to pay off or
pay back, first, because it'sthe right thing to do. I'd say
second, because it's a wonderfulthing to do. And then, yes, in
the end, it does pay off. Italways does. You don't know

(32:07):
where it's going to come from.
You don't know who it is, but ifyou build meaningful
connections, eventually it'sgoing to come back to you. And
there were lots of people onthere. As I was looking at the
notes, I had to go back to myfriend, and you've all met him,
Dean, Karrel, LinkedIn learninginstructor. And I mean, I could
go on about how wonderful Deanis at building connections, but

(32:27):
I'll never forget that momentwhen Stratton I went in. We went
and had oysters with him incentral terminal, and then we
sat down. And what did Dean havein his hand when we sat down
with him? You remember this? Hehad, he had paper in his hand
and printed on the paper, was myLinkedIn profile, and that shows
you how you want to approachmeeting new people. I remember

(32:51):
that, look them up, get to knowthem. I don't think you need to
print it out on a piece ofpaper. That's a little old
school, but you do the research,you get to know someone. So when
you meet them, you go, Hey, Isaw the pictures of you and your
dog. I thought that wasadorable. Just making an effort
to get to know someone whenthey've already been posting

(33:11):
things online, shows that youcare. Shows that you are
thinking beyond just oh yeah,who are you? I can't believe how
many meetings I've showed upwhere someone wants to help me
in my career as an author and aspeaker. And I show up to the
meeting and I ask, I can justtell they don't know anything
about me. And I'm like, did youdo you have a chance? Did you

(33:33):
have a chance to look at mybusiness? Oh, no, I apologize I
didn't get to it. But right,right? That is not professional,
and that's not how you buildconnections. It's not about my
ego. It's about the fact thathere's someone who didn't take
the time to get to know who itis they were getting to know who
they were supposed to meet. WhatWhat thoughts do you have? Let's

(33:54):
turn it over to Ella and Darci.
What do you what do you thinkabout connections? Or what
questions do you have about it?
One

Darci Crenshaw (34:02):
thing that I've noticed with connections, it's
like I was actually talking tomom about this in the car the
other day, and yeah, there are alot of like, different groups at
school, and I think that theyall have their own connections.
And I think that's like, justright, like the right people for
them, like I have my friends,and those are the right people

(34:24):
for need. Like the footballboys, they have each other
because they're interested inthe same things. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (34:29):
I I used to have a lot of stress because I felt
like I had to make everyone myfriend. But that's not true. I
just need to find the peoplethat I connect with right, and
when I connect with them, thenreally focus on building that
relationship. It doesn't meanthat others are not valuable, or
that at some point I wouldn'twant to meet them, but I don't

(34:50):
think that we need to put thestress on ourselves to feel like
absolutely everyone needs to beour friend. I don't know if
that's it's even healthy to havethat, but. Every friend that you
make, you have a potential tohelp them. They have a potential
to help you, and you can buildeach other up. Ella, what? What
thoughts or questions do youhave? I

Ella Crenshaw (35:10):
feel like just using connections, like to help
with these other concepts aswell. If we have those good,
solid connections with people,then we can lean on them when we
have hard points, or they canlean on us and learning to rely
on each other, not extremelevels, to have that support for

(35:32):
just everyday life, yeah, andjust to have happy moments and
then feel sad moments with each

Dave Crenshaw (35:39):
other, yeah. I think that those connections can
strengthen each other, but Ialso agree too, like you said,
there are some things wheremaybe we're not equipped to help
someone, and that really getswhere to that mentor concept
comes in, or coaching, likehelping someone encouraged to
get that kind of help as well.
That also can contribute to thevalue of connections. But every
person that you meet ismeaningful. Every person that

(36:03):
you connect with has value. Andeven if you don't think you're
ever going to see them again,you treat them with respect, and
you build them up and let themknow that you believe that they
are great and can accomplishgreat things. I really think
that's incredibly valuable. Allright, let's move to prioritize
education, especially in whattopic, business, business,

(36:27):
right? I think you're all aretired of me talking about this,
but I have become a big advocatefor this now, and I believe it
too, and it's interesting. I waslistening to the replay replays
of some of these and Mark Simon,who as the godfather of
storyboarding, he says to hiskids, and now I say to you, I

(36:49):
will help support you inwhatever it is that you study in
college, as long as you alsostudy business, I would
encourage you, at the veryminimum, to minor in business,
no matter what else it is thatyou do. And one of the great
stories, one of the greatexamples of that, is Angie Ford,
who, again, was a client ofmine, a business client of mine.

(37:10):
And what was Angie Ford great atpiano, and she was a piano
teacher, and she just taughtkids piano, but because she had
that mindset of business, andthe background of that business
study that she had in college,it led to her creating a
business, very, very successfulbusiness with multiple
locations, and she was able tosell successfully. That all came

(37:33):
from a piano teacher alsostudying business. Having that
background will educate youabout how to be successful and
make money, no matter what it isthat you do, thoughts,
questions,

Stratton Crenshaw (37:48):
have a question. Yes, sir. So why would
you say a minor opposed to,like, a major, or even on the
opposite end, like, just someclasses on the side, like, what
about a minor? Specifically?
Like, it's a good in between.
But yeah, yeah, I'm curious. Ithink

Dave Crenshaw (38:04):
that's the answer. I mean, I think if you
majored in business, you haveincreased the odds of your
success substantially, again, nomatter what it is that you
attempt to do, becauseespecially when you're still
young, like, when you're in your20s, you're still figuring out
what it is that you want to do.
That's where I was, and it wasactually, actually your Uncle
Steve, who recommended to methat I major in business, and

(38:26):
I'm so grateful for that,because when I was doing that,
that's when I stumbled acrossentrepreneurship, and that
opened those doors. So yes, amajor would be fantastic, but I
don't think that's necessarilyreasonable to expect of all of
you, especially when you're moreinterested in writing, right? I
think a minor is a greatexpectation, but not less than

(38:48):
that, because it createscriteria that you have to
complete. It's not just aboutjumping around and auditing a
few classes about business. Ifyou minor, you're going to have
to take some core courses.
You're going to have to takeaccounting, you're going to have
to take finance, you probablyhave to take economics, you

(39:09):
might even have to take a littlebit of marketing. So you're
going to get a really nice crosssection. And the school is
saying, here are the coursesthat you need to have in order
to maintain business knowledge.
And I think having those minimumcriteria makes it a whole lot
easier to make sure that you'relearning what it is that you
really need to learn to be setup for success in the future.
Cool, all right, let's move on.

(39:33):
Define your why. Number eight,define your why, and let it
drive you. What do you thinkthat means? Darci, I

Darci Crenshaw (39:40):
think, like, your why? Because you have your
angle, right? And we weretalking about, like, your fruit
and root goals, yeah, that's thedestination, yeah. So what's the
why? The why is, like, why doyou want to do this? Yeah, what

Dave Crenshaw (39:57):
drives you?
What's the point of this? And agreat example. Of this. I know
you read his book. Is Johnstraleki, yeah. I don't know if
the others had a chance to readit, but he talks about how he
went and took a trip around theworld and started meeting all
these different cultures, and ithelped him understand why he
does things and what reallymattered, rather than just just
pursuing a career, just becauseyou're supposed to pursue a

(40:17):
career. What did you gain fromreading John's book. What's one
thing you got out of that? I'd

Darci Crenshaw (40:26):
say the main thing that I learned there's
this thing called the Big Five,and he relates it to like the
African big five in the book.
And the big five, it's like whatyou want to do, see your
experience before basically, youdie. It's not like your bucket
list, but it's like the fivemain things that you want to do.

(40:47):
So, I mean, the why kind ofrelates to that. It's like, why
do you want to do these things?
Like, what are you going to doto make those happen? Yeah,
well,

Dave Crenshaw (40:59):
let's say that I want to visit lots of places in
the world, or I want to have acertain experience in my life.
Why pursue success in a career?
Well, part of the reason why isso that you can have those
experiences and be that kind ofperson. Now I'm going to put
Stratton Ella on the spot here,not prepared for this question

(41:20):
right now. What would you guess?
Is your reason why? Why do youwant to have, at this moment,
have a successful career as awriter? Why even pursue that?
What's the point?

Ella Crenshaw (41:37):
I've actually thought a lot about this. I've
I've done like little YouTuberesearch sessions, and a number
of people have been like, you'regonna fail unless you figure out
your while, like you're notgonna continue doing it. So I
was like, Okay, I gotta thinkabout this. And I think a big
thing is I just, I like doingit, just in general, but I like

(42:01):
creating something. I likecreating this world, these
characters, something that I canbuild, almost because I love
reading and so the idea ofhaving something of my own that
I did and I worked for, and thatpeople would love and cherish as

(42:24):
much as the books that I havecherished. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (42:27):
I think that's a fantastic motive to have. Yeah,
what do you think Stratton, isit? Is it similar to Ella's, or
is it a little bit different?
Yeah,

Stratton Crenshaw (42:35):
I would, I would say that mine is very
similar to Ella's. I lovesharing the things that are in
my head that I spend so muchtime daydreaming about and
writing about. I love thatshared experience. When someone

(42:56):
reads it and tells me, I mean,it's not always positive, but
sometimes they say, Man, that'sI love that I want to come back
and read that again. And in theend, it's creating more nerds.
I'm creating more nerds that arenerding and geeking out about
the same things that I'm nerdingand geeking out about. And I
love the thought of that andthat shared love for something

(43:20):
that I think is cool, and I wantthem to think is cool. I

Dave Crenshaw (43:23):
love it. And by the way, I would recommend to
all of you to take that why likea little statement, and just put
that up where you can see itevery day, so maybe on your
computer, next to that pictureof Brandon Sanderson shaking his
head. Sorry, that's an insidejoke, but we had a picture of
Brandon Sanderson and their momput SMH next to it, like

(43:48):
playing, yeah, stop playingvideo games. But you can put
that up create more nerds, yeah,right, and put that on your
thing. Pop quiz, what is my why?
Hint, you can see it in thisroom,

Stratton Crenshaw (44:05):
collecting random objects. No you can.

Dave Crenshaw (44:09):
You can see the phrase on the

Darci Crenshaw (44:12):
wall, change one person's life today. That's it.
Love that. That's

Dave Crenshaw (44:15):
why I do it. And one of the most notable moments
of that, at least in the lastyear, you know that I've gone
into prison and done done a lotof work there. I love doing
that. And I remember talking toone woman, and she was talking
about what she wanted toaccomplish. And I don't even
really know what the exactlywhat happened the conversation,

(44:36):
but I just encouraged her. I waslike, you can do this. I see
this for you. And at the end,people were talking about their
experiences, and she just saidtalking to Dave made sorry.
Getting a little choked up here,but she said talking to Dave
made me feel 10 feet tall, andthat. Why I do what I do, right?

(45:03):
And sometimes you can't do thaton a personal basis. So for me,
doing a podcast like this andhaving this conversation with
all of you is an opportunity todo that on a on a broader scale.
So maybe, maybe, I don't know ifit happens every day, but maybe
it's going to happen while I'masleep. Maybe someone's life is
going to get changed because ofit. All right, let's move on

(45:24):
here. We're on the home stretch.
Last two take strategic risksfor big rewards. Now it's a big
concept. I put it near thebottom of the list because this
is maybe one of the moreadvanced concepts. But the idea
is risk and reward. If you don'ttake any risk, the reward is not
going to be very high, but youneed to be smart about the risks

(45:44):
that you take. Not just notgambling, that's not strategic.
That's guessing, right? Notguessing, but being strategic.
Strategic is saying I have thedata, I have information. And
I'm going to go after this. Onenotable example of that was Kara
golden, who's the founder ofhint water. And she talked about
how she worked on creating allthese different water flavors,

(46:06):
and it was just kind ofsomething she was doing on her
own. And then they went out andgot funding. They went out and
took risks. She talks about howshe went into Starbucks and took
a risk and did something thatthey told her not to do, which
was to bring a sample of hintwater, and that turned into a
lot of success. What thoughts doyou have about taking strategic
risks?

Darci Crenshaw (46:29):
I have a question. Yeah, what if your
risk like, what if you take yourrisk but it actually ends up
causing a problem and it messeseverything up? What do you do in
that situation?

Dave Crenshaw (46:42):
Can you give me a what if example of that so that
I understand what you mean?

Darci Crenshaw (46:47):
What if you wanted to open up a restaurant
or something? Okay, yeah, so yougo to this place, and you plan
the time to meet with someone.
You plan exactly what you'regoing to say, but you say it and
they get really mad at you.

Dave Crenshaw (47:04):
Okay, well, let's take it. Probably what I think
would be the more realisticversion of that is, let's say
that you're starting arestaurant and you have to go to
the bank and you want to get aloan, right? That's a risk.
You're putting yourself intodebt to do it. And you talk to
them and they say, No, I say,I'm not going to do it. Okay, so
what would you do in thatsituation? I think, a couple.

(47:26):
It's a really good example,because it it teaches us a few
things. First of all, if you goto a bank in that situation and
you ask for a loan, they wantdata, they want to see a
business plan. They want to seethat, you know, a pathway to
make money. They will not justgive you a loan unless you show

(47:47):
them the strategy. So banks dothat because they've had lots of
experience way back in the daywhere they might have given
someone a loan and they neverpaid it back because they didn't
do the work like you're talkingabout, then it created a
problem. You started this,you're in debt, the banks in
like all of that. I've also seenlots of situations where people

(48:08):
have started a business and itfailed. If it couldn't fail,
then it wouldn't be a risk,right? The trick is to take
risks that you can afford tolose out on. So that's part of
the reason why I encouragepeople. I know everybody has a
different philosophy, but Iencourage people to take those

(48:29):
risks when they're younger. Theyounger you are when you take a
risk, the less long term impactit's going to have in your life.
Yeah, that makes sense. If Itake a risk, and I'm married and
I've got three children, and itfails, and I go into a lot of
debt. Now I've brought you, allof you into this, but I took

(48:50):
risks starting businesses beforeyou were born, and the first
time I did it, it didn't workout, and I had debt, but it
wasn't so bad that I wasn't ableto recover and come back from
it, right? So take risks earlierrather than later. That's kind
of a general principle aboutthat. Did that answer your
question? Darci, yeah, otherquestions about this.

Stratton Crenshaw (49:14):
I do have one, yeah. Should you ever take
a risk where the outcome is outof your control entirely. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (49:25):
there always is an element that's going to be
out of your control, right?
Right? I could start pursuing acareer, and then something
happens suddenly, and it changesthe world, and it's no longer
needed anymore, right? Likesomething happens with AI, I
took a risk. AI came in and itwiped it out, and I don't have
that opportunity anymore, right?
So there's always an elementthat isn't under control. If you

(49:47):
think you have total control,you don't, right? But what you
do have is the ability tocalculate odds, and you can look
at certain careers, certainbusinesses, and say these odds
are really high. These odds ofme making money off of this risk
seem much higher than the oddsof me losing out. A good example

(50:09):
of this actually, is RosalieGuillen. She has a franchise,
and the franchise is to sellmacarons to people, which is
fun, yeah. But the thing about afranchise, if you buy into it,
is that a lot of the risk, notall of it, but a lot of the risk
got, got smoothed out becausesomeone already built a business
model that you're buying into.
So now the question really is,is this a good business model?

(50:33):
Am I putting this model into theright place, rather than I'm
just going to jump in cold andstart a French pastry shop with
no experience whatsoever. Doesthat make sense? Yeah, that
makes sense. So it's all aboutincreasing the odds of success.
I overheard this once from amentor, someone who was speaking
when I was going through theentrepreneurship program, and
I've always remembered this,which is the probability of

(50:55):
success equals one minus theprobability of failure. It's
kind of a complex way of saying,If you decrease the odds of
failure, you're going toincrease the odds of success.
Okay, last one, and this one'sreally important, and it's
something that kind of weaves athread through everything that I

(51:18):
teach, and I heard it from allthe guests, which is, build a
schedule that promotes balance.
I might say that a littledifferently. I'd say build a
schedule that promotes a healthywork life rhythm, meaning
there's a pattern in your lifethat's healthy, where you're
working and you're taking abreak, you're working and you're

(51:38):
taking a break, you're workingand you're making time for
yourself, for the people thatyou love, and to relax and have
fun. And one of I know you'reall gonna love this example,
because you're all Formula Onefans. My interview with peer to
Sam Ella, and I'm probably notpronouncing the name quite
right, but peer to is awonderful guy, and he helps

(51:59):
Formula One drivers findsuccess, and one of the keys to
that is balance, taking time foryourself, taking time off,
making sure that you'resleeping, making sure that
you're exercising, you're takingcare of all these things, and
that opens up the door to besuccessful in every other area
of your life. Someone like toshare some thoughts about

(52:20):
balance.

Darci Crenshaw (52:21):
I think that balance, like having a balanced
schedule, is very importantbecause, like, I know there are
a lot of interviews where you'veheard people say that they were
working themselves too hard, andthey would work like, a lot of
hours in one day. And it canactually, like, I think it can

(52:43):
distract you from having fun anddoing things other than work
that's like, healthy for you andgood for you to do, and it can
cause problems. So it's always agood idea to step back and,
like, think about yourself.
Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw (52:57):
there's a word that I think is a little
overused these days, but it isaccurate here, which is
sustainable, and sustainablemeans that can you keep doing
this long term? And if you'reworking yourself 12 hours a day,
six to seven days a week, thatis not sustainable in the long
run, your body's going to giveout, your mind's going to give

(53:19):
out, you're going to beexhausted. So maybe you get a
short term benefit from thatkind of effort, but the long
term impact is really poor, andyour body is going to revolt,
and maybe the relationships thatyou have in your life are going
to start to decay. So you wantto make sure that the schedule
that you create is sustainable.
And that's what we heard fromseveral guests, is it used to be

(53:39):
like that, and then they say, Irealized that that wasn't going
to work. I made a change and andoddly enough, that not oddly
enough, but interestinglyenough, that change corresponded
with a lot of the success thatthey had in the future.

Ella Crenshaw (53:55):
I feel like this one is particularly hard for me.
Ella, right now, there's a lotof stuff I have to do, I have to
go to school, I have to go toswim practice, I have to eat
dinner, I have to go to bed andget enough sleep for the next
day. And so I'm left with thislittle bit of time that I'm
like, Okay, I gotta do homework,okay, I gotta write, Okay, I

(54:16):
gotta do all these things. I allthese things that I want to do.
And I'm like, okay, but I don'thave enough time for all of it.
And then I'm like, Okay, I havea little bit of time on the
weekdays, and then on weekends,I can have free time so I can
rest. But then my friends arelike, Hey, we're here. Yep,
you've been swimming. You wantto hang out? And I'm like, Um,

(54:37):
no. Basically, my question is,how do I find that balance when
there's a lot of importantthings that I do need to get
done and I cannot neglect?

Dave Crenshaw (54:47):
Yeah, a couple of thoughts, Ella, and I'm sorry
that you're experiencing thatright now, although I feel like
it's going to be useful in thefuture for you to figure this
out. First, a comment. It. Therehave been moments when your mom
and I have talked about perhapshaving you involved in something

(55:07):
right, like maybe it's doingwork for my business. And we
always come back to the factthat you already have enough. We
don't need to put more things onyour schedule. You're probably
not aware that we've had thisconversation, but it has
happened, and that is because wehave seen, I have seen people
get out of balance and trying todo too many things at the same

(55:30):
time. And I have a saying insome of my courses, which is,
don't fight the truth of time.
People pay me to teach them thetruth of time. What is the truth
of time? It's really complex.
There are only seven days in aweek, there are only 24 hours in
the day, and there's only oneyou That's it. And yet, a lot of

(55:55):
people try to fight it. They tryto pretend that maybe there are
eight hours in the week, theytry to pretend that there may be
25 hours in a day. Fact, youexperienced this yesterday.
Hopefully you're okay with usingthis example. You were trying to
cram in making, she knows whereI'm going. You were trying to
cram in making some ginger breaddough, right? Yes, and we were

(56:17):
in a hurry to get out the door,so you were rushing, and you
underestimated how long it'sgonna take. You went over the
time that we needed to leave andwhat else happened. I

Ella Crenshaw (56:26):
forgot to put some of the ingredients exactly,
so this morning I had to redo itall our ginger bread,

Dave Crenshaw (56:34):
right? But think about that, if you had not tried
to cram that in, how much lesstime would you have spent making
that gingerbread hours Exactly?
And we see that all the time. Isee that all the time, when
people try to cram too much in,they make mistakes, and then it
almost doubles the amount oftime it takes to do things. So
slow down and ask yourself, Whatcan I not do or what can I do?

(57:00):
Less. That's the first thing.
The other thing, I want to justchange some of the wording that
you used. You used have to, haveto have to, I have to do this. I
have to do this. I can't dothis. It was, it's all the
absence of control, right?
Someone's forcing you to do it.

(57:23):
The reality is, you are choosingto do this. I chose to do this.
I chose to take the theseclasses. I chose to enter the
Honor Society. I chose to swim.
Right? You recognize that thesewall your choices, no one's
making you do it. So becauseit's a choice, that means that
you have a choice whether or notyou're going to do it okay. So I

(57:43):
feel like taking just thatperspective opens up the door
quite a bit, because you go,Wait a minute, I don't have to
do all these things. I canchoose to do it, or I can choose
not to do it. The other thingthat I would say is, along that
list of the things that youchoose to do that are very

(58:04):
important, you choose to havefun. You choose to make that a
priority. I wrote a whole dangbook on this concept called the
power of having fun. The book istoo long. I admit it. I'm sorry
if someone's read it, it's toolong, but, but the truth is in
that book, and it's veryimportant truth, which is, you

(58:25):
choose to make that a priority,it's a top thing, so that when
you look at your schedule, alongwith swimming and along with
homework, you see in there 30minutes to watch some Japanese
anime show, right? But it's apriority. It's something that
you're saying. I can count onthat whatever time that is, 730,

(58:48):
to eight o'clock, I'm going todo that, and everything else has
to fit around that. Anotherchoice that you're going to make
is sleep. This is how much timeI choose to sleep. All of this
is a choice. And now I'm notjust looking at Ella, I'm
looking at my kids. I'm lookingat everyone listening. It's all
a choice, and even if you don'thave I've talked to people who

(59:11):
are in tough situations, maybethey have to work two jobs,
three jobs, you can still chooseto have a five minute window
that's an oasis that you counton and say, for these five
minutes, I'm going to watch asilly YouTube video, and I count
on that occurring at that point,and that break allows my mind to
be refreshed, my body to berefreshed, so that I can go back

(59:31):
and do all the other prioritiesthat I have. So that was a
really long answer thatquestion, but hopefully it was
helpful for you. Did it feellike I helped. Yeah, okay. Any
last thoughts, kids, this is,this is the end. We're wrapping
up this, this adventure that Istarted, we talked about risk. I
took a risk and created thisshow and did this with you. It's

(59:53):
been really fun. Have you? Haveyou gained something from it? I
would hope so.

Stratton Crenshaw (59:59):
I've. Think I have I haven't, I'd be
surprised. Yeah, yes.

Dave Crenshaw (01:00:03):
And the nice thing is, it's always here,
right? You can always come back.
You can always listen to theepisodes. Repetition is a
powerful teacher. Just becauseyou heard it one time from
someone doesn't mean that's theonly time you hear it. You can
always go back and listen to it.
So pretty cool, huh? Yeah, I'mglad that we I'm glad that you
gave me the why to do this. Thatwas the reason why I was not

(01:00:26):
excited about doing a podcastuntil I thought about helping my
kids with it. So thank you forthat. Why? Yeah, and thank you
everyone for listening. If thisis the first episode that you
heard, I recommend that you donot make it the last go back and
start listening to these otherwonderful episodes that these
wonderful interviews that werecorded, and remember always

(01:00:49):
when you're listening, focus onthe action. It's not just about
the inspiration that youreceived. It's about the action
that you take. So if you chooseone action, you'll make their
success story a part of yoursuccess story. Thanks for
listening.

Darci Crenshaw (01:01:07):
You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw
Success Show, hosted by my dad,Dave Crenshaw, and produced by
invaluable incorporated researchand assistant production by
Victoria Bidez, Sound Editing byNikic Wright, voiceover by me
Darci Crenshaw, and the music isby Ryan Brady via pond five.

(01:01:28):
Licensing, please subscribe tothe Dave Crenshaw success show
on Apple podcasts, Spotify,wherever you like to get your
podcasts.
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