March 24, 2024 • 50 mins
From the dizzying heights of early success to the crushing blow of losing it all, Daniel Mangena’s story is a testament to the resilience and growth that comes from life’s toughest lessons. Our exploration together takes you through the highs and lows of his extraordinary life journey, laying bare the raw and often unspoken truths about wealth, mentorship, and the transformative power of knowledge. As we unravel Daniel's experiences, you'll see how they mirror the broader themes of embracing unique paths, the necessity of evolving our informational diet, and the influence they have on personal development and success.
Opening my heart, I share the deeply personal challenges that come with adult autism, anxiety, and a harrowing period that brought me to the brink of suicide. It's a chapter of my life that spotlights the critical importance of emotions and intentions in shaping our existence, and the liberation that came in April 2015, igniting a new purpose that continues to guide me. We examine the lasting echoes of childhood stories, discussing how we can nurture the positive influences that enable us to break free from those ingrained behaviors and beliefs that once confined us.
We cap off our conversation by traversing the intricacies of entrepreneurship, the value of traditional employment, and the redefining of masculinity against the backdrop of societal expectations. Daniel introduces his Beyond Intention paradigm, a powerful framework for listeners ready to embark on a transformative journey towards personal excellence and fulfillment. This episode is a beacon of hope for anyone, from Mexico to Brisbane, seeking to navigate the complexities of life with courage, intention, and an open heart.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you finish school with the desire or the belief
that your life would change ifyou earned a million dollars?
I know I did come out of school.
That was like the pinnacle ofsuccess.
Today's guest, daniel Mangina,made his first million dollars
at 19, lost it, repeated it andlost it again, and the cool part
(00:26):
about all of his experiences isthat we can learn from it.
In this conversation.
Daniel had to go on this huge,I guess, journey of discovery,
of working out why he keptlosing wealth and what was
important to him.
So we speak about, obviously,him making his first million
dollars at 19 and what that waslike.
We talk about what stories doyou hold in your mind?
(00:48):
We talk about finding a burningdesire to grow, why you should
stop thinking that you knoweverything, change your
information input and why thejourney is different for
everyone.
Even though you may have asimilar goal, a similar outcome,
the journey is different and weneed to learn to be accepting
of that.
So this was a really funconversation.
(01:10):
So Dan joined us from America.
He's been on CNBC and a lot ofthe big TV programs around the
United States as a performancecoach as well, and I took away
so much from the conversation.
So I'm sure whether you'retuning in for the first time or
you're a old school, I was goingto say the OGs, the original
listeners.
(01:30):
I appreciate you guys comingback.
There's so much value for thisand also the feedback on last
week's episode with MaddieLancashire has been unbelievable
.
So if you haven't heard thatone yet, make sure you
definitely check that out.
And next week we have JamesHallwell, a former Wallaby
captain, which is the AustralianRugby Union team, coming on the
show.
Now I want to start doingsomething different.
One thing that I've neverreally done is read out reviews
(01:54):
that we've gotten.
So I'm going to read out thefirst three, and this was
obviously a couple of them areyears old, but if you want to
get in there and write yourreviews, you can do that over on
Apple Podcast or you can justleave a rating on Spotify.
So I appreciate everyone whotakes the time to do that.
One here from John Great onemate, your journey is impressive
and it's cool.
Sorry, it's good to know you'reachieving a higher level of
(02:16):
consciousness.
And the second one I'll readout is from Harp C71.
Love the content, the rawhonesty and the no BS Frank
approach.
The emotional intelligencepodcast has really helped me
with self analysis in areaswhere I'm dropping the ball, so
thank you.
So, thank you guys for leavingreviews.
It's awesome to read them.
So if you haven't done that yet, really appreciate it and you
(02:36):
might even get read out one week.
So I'm going to start doingthat.
Just a reminder we're kickingoff the next game plan tonight,
okay, which is Monday, the 30thof May, and we start that the
first Monday of each month.
I know it's the end, buttomorrow is the first, so we're
good.
I'm sorry, the next day is thefirst, so it's close enough,
we'll rip into that.
(02:57):
So if you're wanting to be apart of a community of men who
are ambitious, striving to bethe better version of themself,
which will, in turn, help you bea better father, better
business, own a better employeeor just better in any area of
your life, make sure you headover to the man that cam
projectcom forward slash strongman of value and hit your
application.
And then we've got a few to getback to today, which is
(03:19):
exciting as our community fromaround the world continues to
grow.
Let's get into today's episodethe man that cam project podcast
.
Podcast in power.
We're driven men to live morefulfilling lives.
We are here to challenge yourbeliefs, redefine success and
talk about the important stuffin a relatable way.
(03:40):
Don't forget to subscribe andleave a review.
My name's Lockies to it.
Let's get into it.
So, daniel, you're a podcasthost, a best selling author,
international speaker and asuccessful entrepreneur.
You've also been featured inForbes entrepreneur magazine and
appeared on Fox, cnn, cbs.
(04:01):
You've written multiple books,like I said, and your podcast is
incredible.
I've listened to, I think, fouror five episodes now and, as I
was just saying, to offline yourenergy and the way that you
communicated something that Iaspire to one day be able to
just be so engaging and reallyinspiring with your delivery.
So I'm excited for our audienceto get to listen to you today
(04:23):
and also I'm just excited to beon the receiving end of the
conversation, which is going tobe incredible, but with all of
that incredible stuff you'veachieved thus far, that wasn't
just given to you.
So I'd love to hear how youclimbed from the bottom, or your
rock bottom, to creating yourdream life today, and I'd love
to share, I guess, what thatjourney's been like.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Something Well.
Again, thank you for having meReally appreciate the
opportunity to speak to you alland to share a little bit of my
journey.
It's really interesting thatwhen we realize that by
listening to someone else, youcan take advantage of the fact
that they've gone through a loadof stuff and not have to go
through it yourself, a big partof my journey has really been
mentorship and listening toothers, whether it's through a
(05:07):
podcast like this, through aYouTube channel, through books.
There's so much wealth ofexperience that's available that
we don't have to go through thepain ourselves.
I'm glad for the opportunity toshare my story so people can
learn from it.
So, yeah, it was an accident.
That's how I got here.
I didn't.
It was a glorious accident.
(05:28):
Now, there's no such thing asaccidents.
You know what I mean.
I didn't plan it Right.
Yep, I was just like oh, I'mgoing to concoct a divide plan
for me to live my best life.
No, I literally this wholejourney that we're on right now,
although for the most part, itstarted in my teens, I was
reading books like Thinking GrowRich, and I was a teenager I
(05:49):
was studying books likePsycho-Cybernetics, ordering
Take from Nightingale Conant, soI made my first million when I
was 19.
I promptly lost it Like, oh, I'mfine, oh, good to go do it
again, did it again and thenlost everything a second time.
The second time, bro, I hitrock bottom because I became so
(06:12):
caught up in this identity ofbeing number one, the guy who
knew it all, number two, theyoung upstart success.
Number three, the guy whocouldn't get knocked down.
And here I was looking at thebismill, decimated pieces of
those illusions I was holdingbeing brought, and I was like
(06:32):
there's nothing more for me andI wanted to check out.
The only reason why I didn'tactually go through with the
suicide attempt is because I wasso beat down by those
experiences that I literallythought, if I try and do this
with the loserville that I'm inright now, I'm gonna cock that
up.
And I couldn't be the loser whocouldn't even kill themself on
top of everything else.
And so I set off on the journeythat leads to where we are
(06:55):
today, and the journey was beless of a loser so that I can
commit suicide without cockingit up.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So that was a motivator behind it.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That was a motivator and that's why I say complete
accident I had.
No, I wasn't like I'm gonna goand better myself so I can win
at life.
I'm like no, I was obsessed foryears.
Obsessed with understandingwhat was wrong, what I'd messed
up, what I didn't understand,where I've been lied to like,
where the holes were with thesystem, so that when I go
through with this suicideattempt it's perfect and I fade
(07:29):
to black.
I didn't want a big pomp andparade.
I didn't want someone to haveto cut me down from somewhere.
I didn't want any drama.
I wasn't gonna even do asuicide note, I was just gonna
just fail out and just be donewith it.
That was my plan.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And so prior to your, I guess, earning a million
dollars at 19 and having itcrumble and then doing it again
up until that point, had youever sort of struggled with
confidence or mental healthissues.
So it was really a response tohaving those two failed business
attempts, that sort of yeah,right, yeah, yeah, I mean, I was
(08:06):
diagnosed with Asperger's whenI was 27.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And the crazy thing is that my I truly believe it
was my Asperger's that saved me,because I don't have the
capacity to make impulsedecisions.
I can't do impulse decisions.
I literally don't have thewiring for it.
And so I sat there and was like, okay, I'm gonna do this thing.
Very calm, it was like, oh, Idon't wanna kill myself.
I was really calm, like okay,cool, logically, this is the
(08:29):
best thing for me to do, just tonot be here anymore.
And I ran through my optionsand none of them made any sense
as being something I could pulloff.
And that's literally because ofthe way that my brain works,
being an autistic brain, andthat's what happened.
It's insane, absolutely insane.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Just to even touch on Asperger's.
So Asperger's, from myunderstanding, is like
intellectually, like logicallyand rationally, everything fires
.
It's more like social cues andemotional cues where there's a
bit of a disparity.
Is that correct, yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
yeah, so we've got some of the wiring mix.
It's apparent for differentpeople in different ways, but
certain of the wiring for thosesocial interactions don't exist
naturally, and so they eitherhave to be hardwired through
practice or, like me, I studiedsocial dynamics.
It's how I got over my socialanxiety that I had for years,
and I understand the systems andstructures, and those systems
(09:19):
and structures reduce my anxiety.
And then the way that I hackthe system is I only really hang
out with people that I connectwith at heart and soul level,
but I've got the structure thatstops me having the anxiety, so
that I can find my tribe andthen just connect with them at
the heart and soul level.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's awesome.
So when you found out thatdiagnosis at 27, was that like a
shock to you, or how did thatimpact your influence?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Oh, even thinking about it now I just feel the
lightness that just came BecauseI was suffering with severe
social anxiety, severe generalhaving insomnia that would last
for periods, and it was actuallya particularly rough experience
of insomnia that sent me off tothe doctors to try and get
sleeping tablets.
He gives me the sleepingtablets.
They don't work.
(10:02):
He sends me off to go speak toa therapist.
The therapist he sends me to DrHelen McEwen.
Thank you, dr Helen.
Always shout out love.
It a bit Happened to be acognitive behavioral therapist
that specialized in working withadult autism.
Again, completely should justhappen to be the person that got
the call and happened to besomeone that specialized in that
Saw.
What was really going on wasn'tthat I had sleep issues, it was
(10:24):
my nervous system was offbecause I was a neurodivergent
person who was unaware,operating in a neurotypical
world and suffering from anxietyas a result, and that's all.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It's crazy how the world sort of points you in the
right direction.
If you're open to looking andreceiving that feedback, it all
seems to fall into place.
It's funny for me when I reallytune into that sort of stuff
and things start happening.
I'll go.
I wish I did this all the time.
Obviously my mood and emotioncan sometimes distract me and I
can get in my head a lot, butwhen things are going well I'm
(10:56):
like all I gotta do is just keepthis up, keep being open to
opportunity and sort ofprojecting what I want in my
life and it starts to happen.
But obviously we know that lifecan be challenging.
But one of the next steps foryou like after that diagnosis,
so 19, and then you made anotherbusiness and then you went
through a couple of rough yearsreally trying to figure out how
(11:18):
you could not mess up suicideWithin that process what changed
?
Because you're still here today.
You're thriving.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, so I mean.
So no shade at TEDx, just incase they let me do another one.
But I actually did a TEDx.
I recorded a TEDx that tellsthis whole story and speaks
about this whole thing, but thetitle it doesn't look like they
really agreed with the title, sothey're like nah, we're not
publishing this, so who cares?
I'm popping it, we're rippingthe audio, I'm popping it on the
(11:46):
podcast.
So we're still gonna share thestory.
And I actually decided today,on the 13th of May, that my next
film project I'm gonna build awhole film around this whole
concept anyway.
But when we look at who we areas humans, right, we've got our
physical body that moves throughtime and space.
Right, our little meat soup.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Everyone's familiar with the phrase.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Meat soup.
Everyone's familiar with thephrase mind over matter.
Right, it's a scientific factthat our mind has an impact on
our physical reality.
A mum in a crazy situation getssuper human strength.
Rips at the door of a car likeyour ability to move through
time and space can literallychange depending on the stories
that you hold in your mind.
Everything that we experiencedin our world began as a vision
(12:29):
in the mind.
Right, we've got mind intomatter.
But it's also a fact that wecan only think to the level of
our current emotional state, thethoughts going on in my brain
now and limited to the emotionsthat I have the capacity for and
that I'm feeling in the moment.
So we see that there's thissort of downward trickle effect
from the emotions into thethoughts, into the actions and
behaviors that become thereality, right?
(12:51):
So, like I said to you, Ididn't sit there and say I want
to choose life.
There was no point in thejourney that was like I choose
life now.
I woke up one morning I think itwas April 2015.
I just got back from Thailand,had an amazing trip with my
cousins the time that I wasthere, the business that I then
built up.
I've made over a hundred grand.
Over that time that I was away,I'd taken one phone call with
(13:14):
Joe, my assistant.
I'd lived my best life.
I was in a beautiful home inHighgate.
I had fancy stuff but alsogreat connections in my family.
I was working out and feelinggood in my body, great
friendships Everything was justworking.
And I realized, huh, oh, my God,like I'm actually enjoying my
life.
And I hadn't been in the darkplace for a long time.
(13:34):
And even when the dark placetried to rise up, I was like
yeah, yeah, I'm good, like I wasunconscious.
I'd become unconsciouslycompetent in my ability to live
life in my own terms.
And tracking back the journeyto that is now what my book,
that one here, steppenfieldIntention that's what that
puppy's all about.
It goes through that wholejourney and the four step
(13:55):
process that I actually builtoff the back of it.
But all of that to say that thethoughts had to have changed,
otherwise my environment couldhave changed, because my
unconscious habits and behaviorswouldn't have changed, which
means that my emotional statehad to have changed.
But what leads to our emotionalstate?
Our emotional state is impactedby our environment.
And here's the thing for acouple of years, all I was doing
(14:18):
was obsessively reading books,listening to tapes, having
conversations and havingdiscussions purely about this
kind of stuff personaldevelopment, spirituality,
evolution of consciousness,behavioral patterns, mindset.
I taught myself to translateArabic and Hebrew and all this
kind of stuff.
So I pummeled my brain andaccidentally reprogrammed it to
(14:41):
choose life.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It's such.
I can relate to that story somuch because, like that's
exactly the path that I wentdown.
It was more so.
I didn't necessarily the sameas you choose life, but I made a
decision that I just didn'twant to hate myself anymore,
Whatever that looked like andbooks, podcasts, audios and then
you do wake up one day andyou're like I'm actually proud
(15:04):
of who I am and like it's such aphenomenal experience and I
don't know whether you canrelate, Daniel, I'm sure you
probably can I talk about how Iused to think, act and behave
eight years ago when I wasreally not liking who I was.
It's almost like I'm sodisassociated from that version
of who I was.
It's laughable.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
But when I was going through it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It was the most painful experience ever so when
I see men and people who aregoing through turmoil, trauma,
pain, I'm like you know.
Obviously I can't alwaysunderstand what you're going
through, but there can be lightat the end of the tunnel.
There is exactly another wayyou spoke about the four steps.
In the book there Is thatrelated to the Beyond the
(15:45):
Intention paradigm.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, the Beyond the Intention paradigm.
That book breaks down theparadigm how it works, why it
works, where the steps came from, stories of it playing out my
journey, that's what it's about.
So for, someone.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Just to take it back a second.
The environment.
I'm massive on shifting yourenvironment, because we can all
read a book, we can all set agoal, but if you're hanging
around a group of people thatare doing the opposite to that,
you're generally going to fallback into that pattern.
And so for anyone who's wantingto improve themselves, be
happier, be fitter, I'm likechange your environment.
(16:18):
It may be hard, you may notknow where to go, they may not
even want to hang out with youright now, but what would your,
from your experience, or evenyour advice, what would you give
to someone who needs to changetheir environment, to go into
the person that they need to be?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Unless you really want it, you're not going to do
the work anyway.
So don't bother trying, becausethe frustration of you trying
and the failure of trying isjust going to double your
disappointment and make you evenmore miserable.
So if you don't want to be evenmore miserable, only go for it
if you really want it.
And here's the thing it's okayfor you not to want it.
(16:55):
Some of us are so deeplyprogrammed into the despair that
that's who we are, and if wejust gave ourself a mission to
do that, then that actuallycould give you the space to want
to be different, somethingdifferent.
But if you're resisting who youare, you're going to hit a
brick wall.
So the thing is wanting itenough, but wanting it because
(17:15):
you want to be better, notbecause you don't like who you
are.
It's about wanting to grow,being desirous of growth.
When you are desirous of growth, there's this weird thing that
happens because growth is ournatural order.
When we actually desire, whenit's actually burning within us
to want to grow, then thechallenges, the road bumps, the
speed bumps, the speed humps,all of the things that will get
(17:36):
in your way for growth tend toeither be dissolved or easily
navigated because you'll havethe momentum to go through it.
One of the illusions I hearpeople talk about is getting to
the end or getting over it.
It doesn't.
The journey doesn't stop, thegrowth doesn't end.
I don't heal myself completelyof magically of depressive
(17:57):
thoughts.
What happens is that mycapacity to navigate those
thoughts shifts wildly and whenthey show up it's like oh, that
again and I can navigate it.
Life doesn't get easier.
We get stronger.
That's the key.
But that strength has to bebased on a desire to grow, not a
desire not to be who you are,because that's just going to
keep you locked in more of whoyou are and keep you living the
(18:20):
same life over and over.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Such a good point.
I think, from my experience, weare trying to grow out of who
we are, but I think we can neverreally avoid that.
It is just how can we bestronger to deal with the
challenges that and ultimately,as you say, when we're growing,
we're bringing those challengesinto our life.
It's there to test us, to seehow strong we can be.
I think it's very important towhen you do hit a road bump or
(18:42):
you do hit that obstacle, whatkind of reps do I need to do in
order to be able to work throughthis?
Because it's all about sets andreps.
Sometimes you're fatigued andsometimes you're feeling like
you've just come off a three day, three rest days, and you're
feeling stronger than ever,moving forward as well.
After you got to that point andyou started realizing, hey, I'm
(19:06):
just living my best life.
Now I'm super, super happy.
What then led you into thespace that you're in now and
really helped you continue tomove forward and grow?
What's the burning desire now?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I recognize that growth is a natural order of
things.
If I'm not growing, I'm dying.
So I'm always looking toimprove.
I never accept or believe thatI know everything.
Anytime I go into conversation,come into this podcast.
I'm not coming to teach.
I'm coming to learn from theexperience.
I'm coming to grow in the space.
I do my best to go through allof my things.
(19:40):
My son's 18 months old onSunday coming.
I don't look at him as someonethat I need to show.
I'm looking at him as someonethat I get to co-create more
life with.
It just so happens that I'vegot some pieces of the puzzle,
but not the complete pieces.
He's got pieces that I don'teven know are possible, and
that's how I approach my life.
I approach my life at all timeslooking for how can I be
(20:03):
expanded by it, what can Icontribute to it?
What can I give because I knoweverything?
What can I contribute so thateverybody grows from the
experience?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
How did you develop that approach?
Because even just the fact thatyou're saying you're learning
from your son, that makes me sohappy on the inside.
I'm like this is incredible,because we can learn so much
from each other, but it alsoshows to me that you're an
engaged dad.
That's something that I justlove.
More than anything is the factthat now men are stepping up and
obviously the world's changing,but they're really wanting to
(20:34):
be engaged in their children'slives and even in their
partner's lives.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I think humility came for me in a really rough way.
My humble pie was stuffed downmy throat until I nearly choked.
It was a big part of my journeybecause one of the things I
came to realize about why Imessed up so many times when I
was younger is because I wasrunning around thinking I was
Johnny Big Sox that kneweverything.
That's what led ultimately tolosing everything twice.
(21:03):
Not being open to counsel.
I spent six figures a year on mypersonal development.
One thing that I invested inlast year alone was a hundred
grand just one of the things Iinvested in for myself.
I continued to do that, justseeing the results that come
from being open to what life cangive you.
If you just actually payattention.
(21:24):
It's like when something works,you do more of it.
That led me to continue thatjourney of growing.
I think there was a moment Iknow there was a moment when I
specifically made the consciouschoice to go in to learn a lot
from my son, ethan.
So when I came home from theoffice once and he waved at me
(21:45):
and now it seems very ordinary,right, but I want you, to anyone
who's listening to this, totell me do you remember the
moment that you learned to waveno.
And then I thought even thingslike do you remember the moment
that you understood what it wasto read?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Never.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You probably remember books that you read when you
were a kid at school.
But the point at which youstarted to look at these
squiggles on a page and assignmeaning to them my wife's
Russian, my son's mum, he'sRussian, and I decided I'd
refuse to be the only person inmy house that doesn't speak
Russian.
So I started to learn Russianand that was when it really hit
me that letters are justsquiggles that we've assigned
(22:34):
meaning to.
If I showed you the letter H,you'd say that's a letter H,
it's a half sound, it's a.
Really it's a nuh sound, right,what we look at as a P a put
sound, it's a ruh sound inRussian, and so it's like but
it's just a squiggle.
But the squiggle has acompletely different meaning.
I don't remember when thatmeaning became a sound that I
attributed this understandingand value of.
(22:56):
I don't remember it.
So I'm looking at Ethan waving.
I was like, oh my God.
At the time I think he wasabout one years old.
I don't remember being oneyears old, let alone being one
years old and learning whateverI learned at that age.
My stepdaughter's six and she'sgot these little crazy things
that she does.
I don't remember being sixyears old.
And yet in that period of timebetween about his age and about
(23:18):
her age is literally when thefoundations of who we are being
constructed, all of the programs, all of the patterns, all of
the foundations are being builtat that time.
And yet very few of us canremember the points of inception
of some of these ideas thatliterally become the habits and
behaviors that we exhibit asadults.
So when someone comes to me andis a bit of a douche speaking
from their pain body, I don'tknow what experience happened to
(23:41):
them where they thought it wasokay.
When someone expresses hate,whether it's for somebody's race
, somebody's religion,somebody's gender choices or
sexuality choices, I don't knowwhat the thing was.
My nephew was at school theother day when apparently my
nephew's nine KK is nine and hecame home and told him.
Apparently one of the kids atschool came to him and said well
, at least I'm not black.
(24:01):
A nine year old is spewing hateNow that nine year old is just
coming off the back of hisanalytical function building.
But that's purely what theypicked up from, whatever their
living situation is that theythen began to accept as being
correct behavior.
They probably don't even knowthat there's something wrong
(24:22):
with what they were doing.
They're just spewing whatthey're spewing, and yet that
person, in 20 years time, in 30years time, what are they going
to be doing?
What are they going to beshowing in the world?
And so it gave me a sense ofcompassion for the people around
me and also gave me a level ofrespect for what's going on with
my inputs, because every singleinput, every single environment
that I'm in is eithersupporting those programs that
(24:44):
were built when I was a kid ordisrupting them.
And all of these people thatare having these experiences,
this kid who was racist to mynephew.
I've learned something from himtoo.
Using one of these experiencesgives me the opportunity to
challenge, to engage, to supportor disrupt what's going on
inside of me, which is going tobecome an outcome, which is
(25:05):
going to go back and become moreof an experience, and it's just
so much to take from I went ona little bit there's so much to
take from our world and fromthese experiences that can grow
us or leave us small.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
That was powerful to listen to and I think it feels
like you just takeresponsibility for everything
that's coming your way good, badand indifferent and able to use
that experience, as you said,to better who you are and better
your outputs.
And for a long period of my life, I was really unaware of all
the stuff that I was consuming,from the news to the
(25:42):
conversations that I was havingwith mates at the pub, and I was
wondering why I was continuingto walk around really confused,
unhappy, unsatisfied and justlacking, I guess, meaning for a
better word within my life.
And the moment that I startedhaving conversations with people
like yourself or reading books,the input changed and I started
realizing that theconversations that I was having
(26:04):
was impacting my moods, wasimpacting my emotions and
ultimately impacting my output.
And while I'm still not perfectat it, I do.
Still I'm a bit of a I don'tknow how to say it yet but I
love to experience new thingsand often I might find myself at
events or meeting with peoplefor coffee where I'm like you
(26:25):
know as much as I can learn fromit.
I wish I was spending time inanother situation with, maybe
someone who is going to reallystretch me and really challenge
me.
That's one thing that I'mreally focused on.
Moving forward is being moreintentional with that, where my
time's going, what the input is.
So how important is that to you?
Are you I know you briefly justtouched on this, but with your
(26:47):
environments now?
Is there a lot of stuff thatyou'd look to cut out, or are
you just sort of yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I'm ruthless with my environment.
Ruthless have you.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I was going to say have you noticed any negative
impacts as a result of that?
Like, have you lost friendshipsas a result of that or
disappointed people as a resultof that?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well, I mean, first and foremost, if we're not
putting ourselves in a positionwhere we're nourished and served
, then how can we serve andnourish anyone else?
And so somebody may bedisappointed, but I'm actually
doing this both for service.
If I'm pulling us out of asituation where we're not
serving each other because we'renot even being expanded by the
situation, that time and energythat we're both putting into
(27:32):
this connection is holding usback from something that might
expand us.
So I'm actually helping us,regardless of how either of us
might feel in the short term.
There've been situations that Ihaven't necessarily wanted to
walk away from, but I recognizethe lack of alignment with where
I want to move with my life,which isn't for my benefit, it's
for contributive benefits.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Definitely.
So you talk about alignment.
How does that show up for youand how do you find that?
Because alignment's a word thatI've heard coming up a heap for
a lot of people and it'ssomething that I probably seek
to find.
So what does that look like andhow did you establish that in
your life?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I think, if we look at the breakdown of the word
alignment, the word alignmentrequires two points the thing
that we're aligning to and thething which is being aligned.
And a lot of people don't haveto think that they're aligning
to because they're not beingintentional, they're just
running on programs.
And so you can't, in my opinion, have alignment without an
actual conscious focus thatwe're moving alignment to.
(28:28):
Otherwise you're not aligned,you're just in flow with
whatever.
And so it comes down tointentionality.
For me, that's what's the lifethat I want to live, and for me,
the life I want to live is howcan I be of contribution in a
way that serves me, serves asI'm contributing to, makes the
world a better place.
Not for me to go like, hey,what a big world, a better place
, because I feel really goodwhen I'm actually contributing
(28:51):
to the world being a betterplace.
So it's selfish, right?
I think it's Adam Smith thatsaid it's not from the charity
of the baker in the butcher thatwe get our bread and meat, it's
from their own self-interest.
Self-interest can exhibititself healthily in this respect
.
So when I've got that vision,I'm saying well, all the parts
of me.
We spoke about my mentalexperience, my actions and
habits, my behaviors, myemotional state.
(29:12):
I'm aligning those up tosupport that outcome coming to
bear, that life that I want tolive coming to bear.
And that's what alignment isfor me.
It's all of me mind, body, soul, mental, physical, emotional
being lined up with supportingthe bringing forth of the
outcome that I've consciouslychosen.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So do you believe success is unattainable without
intention?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
No people put chance upon success, and I think
there's a weird danism that I'vegot, which is that you've never
found anything.
People say what do you mean?
I haven't found anything, Ididn't get that job, I didn't
get into the college I wanted togo to and my business didn't
work out.
Actually, your unconscious mind, which operates at 10,000 to 10
(29:58):
million times the speed of theconscious mind, never fails as a
terminator.
But what there is is there's adisconnect between what's going
on at the unconscious level andwhat I'm consciously choosing.
For me, intentionality isinterjecting with what's in the
program and consciously beinginvolved in the choice.
The program can be hardwiredfor success.
You can actually be one ofthose people who charges upon an
(30:21):
outcome that happens to feelgood for you consciously.
That also is what you'reprogrammed with unconsciously.
I was successful in stayingalive.
It wasn't what I wanted to doand I was successful without
that intention.
I've heard it said that successis getting what you want.
We're always getting what wewant unconsciously.
So I like to tweak it thatsuccess is really getting what
(30:46):
you want consciously.
But to get what I wantconsciously, I need to be
consciously involved.
So that requires intentionality, because I'm disrupting the
program with what I consciouslywant, rather than flowing
successfully into something thatI don't want.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So for that as well.
So you know how you justmentioned, some people can be
hardwired for success and othersnot so much.
Do you feel that's more, ifwhen you grow up, some people
grow up in wealthier families orentrepreneurial families or
sporty families, do you reckonthat sort of is a big indicator
(31:19):
as to why some people may behardwired for certain levels of
success across different areas?
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, but I do want to just quickly bring it like an
economic truth to the thing.
Like there's a lot of richhating right now.
They were born into the averagewealthy family.
Lose it after three generationsof the person who actually
created the wealth really beingborn with a silver.
Yeah, do the check, check itout the average.
You get the odd that managed tobuild a dynasty, right, that
(31:49):
lasts, but most is gone withinthree generations.
They say the first one buildsit, the second one breaks it, or
third one loses it, orsomething like that.
I don't remember exact exactwords.
So it's really funny that a lotof people are all that person
was born with a silver spoon.
They're so lucky and,statistically speaking, you are
better off as the personcreating a dynasty than
(32:11):
receiving it, because theprobability is that you're the
one that's going to be moresuccessful.
Now, are there certainadvantages to some of this?
Well, of course, you've gotaccess to different education,
different resources, but accessto something doesn't mean that
you're going to use it, or evenuse it positively.
So when you look at drugaddiction, you look at
alcoholism, you look at mentalhealth challenges, a lot of
(32:32):
those actually exist amongst thefamilies of the wealthy.
And yet people are betrayingtheir capacity to actually
create by saying I can't do itbecause I haven't got the leg up
, when the people who've got theleg up actually aren't doing as
well as you think they are?
Does that make sense?
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
So being in the position to create the dynasty
obviously means you knowfinances are important to a
degree is to create the lifethat you want and to create, I
guess, a life full of purposeand passion.
Even Do you believe financialfreedom is a big part of that?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I think it's a great place to be because you're in a
conducive space to create.
If you're not thinking aboutmoney, then you're good, and
it's one of the reasons why Imean.
People say why do you focus onhelping people to get rich and
be millionaires, daniel?
But it's not the most importantthing.
It's not.
But for years, all I washearing people say about why
they couldn't live their ideallife is that they didn't have
enough money.
And now, for years, I'm seeingpeople that have got financial
(33:32):
freedom, able to live their bestlife, not because of the money,
but the money gives them thespace to be able to do that.
Think about it the averageperson who works a 40 hour week.
You've got an hour each way towork.
That's 50 hours of the week.
If that 50 hours was back inyour pocket, you could go and be
a contribution, you could goand live your best life, you
could go and do that hobby, youcould go and start a charity or
(33:52):
play the instrument or be withyour family.
More Money is just a tool thatmakes things easier.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
That's it, and so a lot of you were saying as well
just a moment ago, like there'sa lot of people hating on the
rich at the moment or thewealthy.
Why do you feel?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
that is Because they don't have to take
responsibility for their life.
If the problems in the worldare the fault of the rich people
, then you're not responsible,you can get away with it and you
can stay the same and not haveto do anything because it's Elon
Musk's fault, or it's well,Jeff Bezos is going to space.
(34:28):
What about all the hungrychildren in Africa?
Blah, blah, blah.
Jeff Bezos isn't as rich richas you think he is.
Most of his wealth is tied upin shares in Amazon, which are
also propping up your pensionfund Right.
So his success is your success,which is propping up the stock
market, which is holding backthe tides of financial cataclysm
(34:51):
, which will be a mess when itfinally kicks in.
There was 10 times more toxicdebt running around in the world
before COVID than in 2008, whenthe world literally nearly
didn't make it, and it's thesepeople who are creating value.
Does he treat his work as well?
I've heard it said not too well.
Yes, and he's just one person.
(35:13):
I had the pleasure two, threeweeks ago I was on Necker Island
, Richard Branson's privateisland got to hang out with him,
Some other very, verysuccessful people who are
committed to supporting positivechange, who do look after their
employees, who do add value,who do pay fair value for things
, who do honor and respect thepeople that they serve as
clients and customers.
Not everybody's a twat.
(35:35):
That's the business person.
Not everybody's a twat.
That's rich and if someone haslike so.
Richard's made 400 companies, $7billion businesses.
If he wants to own a privateisland and play tennis all day,
he's earned the right to have aprivate island and play just but
to say, oh, we need to take allhis money to feed the poor or
(35:55):
whatever.
He's done his part.
He's created jobs.
Now again, some people aretwats.
You get it.
Jeff Bezos may be a twat, butthese small handful of people
who are twats are not an excusefor us to sit at home just
pointing angry fingers and notdoing anything about changing
our own life.
That's just a recipe fordisaster and staying the same.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Do you feel that taking responsibility is the
biggest thing holding peopleback from, I guess, creating
financial freedom for themselves?
One of them.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
What would be a couple of other ones.
Another one is, I love to sayaction is the least and the most
important thing at the sametime.
It's the least important thingbecause by the time we get to
the action piece, our mindset'salready set, our emotional
state's already set, theunconscious mind's already
kicked into the actions justfollowing on.
Without action, we don't getanywhere.
(36:49):
So it's the least and the mostimportant thing.
So I think action definitely isone, and another thing is being
obsessed with one part of thepuzzle.
One of the things I love toshare with people is I've got
catchphrase stop meditating.
What do you mean?
Stop meditating, daniel.
It changed my life.
It's the most important thingin the universe.
It's like well, yes, and Ifyou've got a goal and you just
(37:09):
sit and meditate on it all day,is it going to happen?
No, and even if it does happen,are you going to be able to
enjoy it if you lock tight inyour meditation?
No, it's one piece of thepuzzle.
You can meditate all you wantabout being successful.
If you've got a belief systemthat doesn't allow you to
believe that you're successful,you're not going to be able to
see it.
If you don't take any action,you're not going to do it.
I can sit here in lotus positionpraying for the love of my life
(37:32):
to show up If I'm just in anashram in the backwater
mountains of India and thatperson doesn't happen to be
there too, even if they walkpast the room, but I'm in lotus
position, I'm not going to seethem because my eyes are closed.
I mean deep prayer andmeditation in another dimension.
Dear God, I'm in this dimensionwith you, but where's the love
of my life?
I don't leave the dimension.
How can I enjoy it?
It's like it's ludicrous.
(37:53):
So definitely responsibility.
Action is the least and mostimportant thing.
Don't over rely on any onething to save you.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
That's so powerful.
I remember I was reading thatyou said don't meditate and I
was like what?
This is absurd.
I had that exact same reactionStop meditating, don't meditate,
stop meditating and then when Ilooked into it further and I
was like, okay, I can definitelyunderstand, because people get
so in the motion.
(38:26):
They feel like they're doingsomething, even if they become
like personal developmentjunkies where they go to every
event, read every book listen toevery podcast and they're
telling you about it and like so, have you implemented that yet?
No, no, no, no.
I just need to figure out thisnext step.
I'm in the river of change,right, you probably heard that
one yes, and it's all well andgood, but you've got to take
(38:47):
some action now to actually getthe next bit of feedback for you
in your because, based on ourexperiences, the people that we
get to network with or surroundourselves with, we've all got
different skill levels andexperiences levels.
So, creating financial free ifwe were both to go back to 19
Daniel creating, you're amillionaire at 19,.
I was far from a millionaire at19.
(39:09):
I was still the master of myelbow, but I was.
If we were to go, okay, let'screate financial freedom, this
is the roadmap to do it, thejourney would look very
different for us, based on thebeliefs, experiences and
everything that we had, for thatmatter, and we're not going to
understand what that looks likeif we don't just take action.
I could have sat there andcontinued learning about
(39:30):
business, reading about businessand getting mentored, but if I
didn't take the risk, I neverwould have gotten there, and I
think I'd love to actually knowyour opinion on this.
Do you believe not everyone,but people who want that
financial freedom should have acrack at entrepreneurship or
should have a crack at creatingtheir own business?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Not everyone, because a lot of people aren't built
for this life, man, A lot ofpeople aren't built for it.
I think it's 85% of businessesfail within five years, or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, I think it's even a bit more or less years.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
It's staggering, it's a wild thing, and yet
everyone's buying a course froma funnel that they saw on
Instagram or whatever.
Not everyone's built for thislife and if everyone's the chief
, then who's there to be theworker?
Right?
Everyone's a boss who's goingto get things done.
I mean, I love to talk aboutending job saving.
There's nothing wrong withhaving a job.
(40:23):
People, I've got my nine tofive.
I've got my job.
I'm an entrepreneur.
I've got my nine to five.
Own your job with pride.
Do a job that serves you andserves others and feels good and
meets your needs, but do itwith pride.
Not everyone's an entrepreneur.
A lot of people trying to beentrepreneurs.
Really, you're not.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
And that's why you're struggling.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I think I did an article I don't know if it's
been published yet inEntrepreneur About the nine to
five entrepreneur.
You just made a job foryourself and for most of it it's
a job that you don't like andyou're not very good at.
Yeah, yeah, but I thought you'dbe an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
So I was saying I sometimes go through this
thought process that I wishpeople would have a crack at
business just so they couldunderstand all of the decisions
and things that need to beweighed up.
Because as a business owner andI often see people who are an
employee and they're criticizingeverything and I can understand
both perspectives, but whenyou're running a business there
(41:25):
is a lot of pressure that peopledon't understand and think
about.
So I think to create moreempathy, it's like have a crack
at it and see just how much isgoing on there.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
I see where you're coming from.
Yeah, it's like that Walk in myshoes, walk in my shoes.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah, exactly Understand my pain.
So to bring more of thatempathy, but I really love it.
He said most people aren'tbuilt to be entrepreneurs and we
shouldn't be shaming the nineto five, because some people
I've heard Gary V say, like aposition two, an entrepreneur,
wouldn't be as successful asthey are without everyone else.
(41:58):
It's what drives everythingtogether.
A plane still wouldn't fly ifit didn't have an engine, even
though the pilot's in control.
So everyone sort of fits theirrole and I think if we can stop
shaming that, everyone will beable to really embrace and
thrive in their acquiredposition.
And I think about it or talkabout it regularly with men in
(42:21):
our community who are unhappyand they're working in a job
that isn't fulfilling.
They work extremely long hours,the sacrifices are stuff that
they don't necessarily want tolive with and I'm like well, why
don't you just literally gowork at Mackers?
You know you've got a certainshift and you'll be done at that
time and then you can spendtime with your children or you
can go for the run or do theadventure stuff that you want to
(42:43):
do.
Why do you feel the pressure tohave to keep the status in that
role?
So I guess why do you feel thatis for a lot of us, that we do
want to uphold status andposition and be the I guess, the
top dog?
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Because some of us give more credibility to the
thoughts and opinions about thepeople that we do for ourselves.
I mean, when I reflect back onmy dalliance with suicide, it is
my obsession with what Ibelieved other people were
believing and thinking and thatled me to thank God, not have
the capacity to do but nearly goto take my own life.
How many others are burning outto keep up with the Joneses
(43:20):
because they need the countryclub and the diss and that and
that they don't even really wantthose things?
But because society has givenus this lack of conscious
connection to what's going oninside of us, we're playing this
out.
Playing this out and burningout as a result.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, we really need to figure out what we want and,
once we get there it's like,solidify those beliefs and build
the environment to support usdoing that so we don't fall in
that trap of keeping up with theJoneses, exactly.
But, daniel, I know you're abusy man so I want to respect
your time.
I've got one last question foryou before we can find out all
your books and the podcast andeverything like that.
But what does it mean to be aman for you?
(43:57):
It's a quickly give you a bitof framing.
I ask everyone because,especially in Australia, we've
grown up with a stereotypicalbelief of what it means to be a
man, but obviously suicide ratesare continuing to grow.
So we need to get more peoplelike yourself, well respected
people who are thriving in lifeand definitely would have given
(44:20):
it some thought what it means tobe a man, because there's going
to be people out there whoresonate with it.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
I think the idea of what it means to be a man is
being challenged in recent yearsbecause there is all these
discussions going on aboutgender identity, gender
allocation, people I mean Ican't remember the name of the
trans woman who swam in theirswimming race and everyone was
getting mad because the thing sogender is becoming a very, very
(44:50):
different thing now.
So I don't think being a mannow can be locked into this
gender.
I think Elaine Page becametrans.
Trans man is now Elliot Page.
It's new for many of us, right?
This wasn't something that washappening a generation ago.
And so I think what we're reallytalking about when we say
(45:12):
what's a man is, we're lookingat a.
We've got the gender identity,but then we've also got the
natural manifestation ofmasculine, primarily masculine
energy, and for me, that's whatit really is about Not so much
being a man, but being a healthyexpression of the divine
(45:33):
masculine and how we show up.
And what is that?
That's a container, that's thedirection, but none of that
really matters if it's notplaying in harmony with a
counterpart energy.
That doesn't mean we need awoman.
Feminine energy is all around.
How am I in relationship to theidea of flow?
How am I in relationship tosurrender?
How am I in relation tointuition?
(45:54):
How am I in relation withnature?
So it's the container that I amthat's dancing with the divine
feminine energy that naturallyexpresses to, and then what I do
with that.
For me, that gets added to theidentity under that of a dad, of
a leader, of a brother, of ason, of a husband.
But again, all of these are allgoing to be based on how I show
(46:16):
up, initially under that guiseof a man, which is just a
physical manifestation of anaturally occurring container
for that masculine energy.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Thanks for sharing that.
Where can people find you?
So, if they want to listen tothe podcast, if they want to
attend your workshop, see, speak.
Read your books.
Give us a rundown.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Well, what I've done is I've just been making some
notes as we've been talking.
I'm going to have my teamproduce a resource page.
So if they go todreamwooddancom forward slash
man, that can.
Dreamwooddancom forward, slashman, that can.
I'm going to pop on a.
We've got a program calledBeyond Intention Introduction.
It's about 90 minutes worth ofaudio but walks you through
(47:00):
learning my beyond intentionparadigm.
I'm going to put some otherlittle pieces in there as well A
couple of my articles forentrepreneurs and podcasts,
links and stuff like that.
But yeah, and also a link tobook a call with us and when you
register for that it will popyou on the email list.
If anything calls happen,you'll get to come to it.
But dreamwooddancom forward,slash man, that can pop some
resources that will support themapplying what we spoken about
(47:21):
today.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Awesome.
Thank you so much for your time, mate.
It's been a wonderful chat andhopefully when I get over to
Mexico one day, we can link up.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Sounds like a good one to me, man, and before I
come back to Brissy, we'll havea call If you do come back to
the Sunshine.
State yeah, it's not so sunnyat the moment.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
If you got value from that episode, be sure to share
it.
And remember do something todaythat's going to make you better
for tomorrow.
Did you finish school with the desire or the belief
that your life would change ifyou earned a million dollars?
I know I did come out of school.
That was like the pinnacle ofsuccess.
Today's guest, daniel Mangina,made his first million dollars
at 19, lost it, repeated it andlost it again, and the cool part
(00:26):
about all of his experiences isthat we can learn from it.
In this conversation.
Daniel had to go on this huge,I guess, journey of discovery,
of working out why he keptlosing wealth and what was
important to him.
So we speak about, obviously,him making his first million
dollars at 19 and what that waslike.
We talk about what stories doyou hold in your mind?
(00:48):
We talk about finding a burningdesire to grow, why you should
stop thinking that you knoweverything, change your
information input and why thejourney is different for
everyone.
Even though you may have asimilar goal, a similar outcome,
the journey is different and weneed to learn to be accepting
of that.
So this was a really funconversation.
(01:10):
So Dan joined us from America.
He's been on CNBC and a lot ofthe big TV programs around the
United States as a performancecoach as well, and I took away
so much from the conversation.
So I'm sure whether you'retuning in for the first time or
you're a old school, I was goingto say the OGs, the original
listeners.
(01:30):
I appreciate you guys comingback.
There's so much value for thisand also the feedback on last
week's episode with MaddieLancashire has been unbelievable
.
So if you haven't heard thatone yet, make sure you
definitely check that out.
And next week we have JamesHallwell, a former Wallaby
captain, which is the AustralianRugby Union team, coming on the
show.
Now I want to start doingsomething different.
One thing that I've neverreally done is read out reviews
(01:54):
that we've gotten.
So I'm going to read out thefirst three, and this was
obviously a couple of them areyears old, but if you want to
get in there and write yourreviews, you can do that over on
Apple Podcast or you can justleave a rating on Spotify.
So I appreciate everyone whotakes the time to do that.
One here from John Great onemate, your journey is impressive
and it's cool.
Sorry, it's good to know you'reachieving a higher level of
(02:16):
consciousness.
And the second one I'll readout is from Harp C71.
Love the content, the rawhonesty and the no BS Frank
approach.
The emotional intelligencepodcast has really helped me
with self analysis in areaswhere I'm dropping the ball, so
thank you.
So, thank you guys for leavingreviews.
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(02:36):
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So I'm going to start doingthat.
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I know it's the end, buttomorrow is the first, so we're
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I'm sorry, the next day is thefirst, so it's close enough,
we'll rip into that.
(02:57):
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(03:19):
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Don't forget to subscribe andleave a review.
My name's Lockies to it.
Let's get into it.
So, daniel, you're a podcasthost, a best selling author,
international speaker and asuccessful entrepreneur.
You've also been featured inForbes entrepreneur magazine and
appeared on Fox, cnn, cbs.
(04:01):
You've written multiple books,like I said, and your podcast is
incredible.
I've listened to, I think, fouror five episodes now and, as I
was just saying, to offline yourenergy and the way that you
communicated something that Iaspire to one day be able to
just be so engaging and reallyinspiring with your delivery.
So I'm excited for our audienceto get to listen to you today
(04:23):
and also I'm just excited to beon the receiving end of the
conversation, which is going tobe incredible, but with all of
that incredible stuff you'veachieved thus far, that wasn't
just given to you.
So I'd love to hear how youclimbed from the bottom, or your
rock bottom, to creating yourdream life today, and I'd love
to share, I guess, what thatjourney's been like.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Something Well.
Again, thank you for having meReally appreciate the
opportunity to speak to you alland to share a little bit of my
journey.
It's really interesting thatwhen we realize that by
listening to someone else, youcan take advantage of the fact
that they've gone through a loadof stuff and not have to go
through it yourself, a big partof my journey has really been
mentorship and listening toothers, whether it's through a
(05:07):
podcast like this, through aYouTube channel, through books.
There's so much wealth ofexperience that's available that
we don't have to go through thepain ourselves.
I'm glad for the opportunity toshare my story so people can
learn from it.
So, yeah, it was an accident.
That's how I got here.
I didn't.
It was a glorious accident.
(05:28):
Now, there's no such thing asaccidents.
You know what I mean.
I didn't plan it Right.
Yep, I was just like oh, I'mgoing to concoct a divide plan
for me to live my best life.
No, I literally this wholejourney that we're on right now,
although for the most part, itstarted in my teens, I was
reading books like Thinking GrowRich, and I was a teenager I
(05:49):
was studying books likePsycho-Cybernetics, ordering
Take from Nightingale Conant, soI made my first million when I
was 19.
I promptly lost it Like, oh, I'mfine, oh, good to go do it
again, did it again and thenlost everything a second time.
The second time, bro, I hitrock bottom because I became so
(06:12):
caught up in this identity ofbeing number one, the guy who
knew it all, number two, theyoung upstart success.
Number three, the guy whocouldn't get knocked down.
And here I was looking at thebismill, decimated pieces of
those illusions I was holdingbeing brought, and I was like
(06:32):
there's nothing more for me andI wanted to check out.
The only reason why I didn'tactually go through with the
suicide attempt is because I wasso beat down by those
experiences that I literallythought, if I try and do this
with the loserville that I'm inright now, I'm gonna cock that
up.
And I couldn't be the loser whocouldn't even kill themself on
top of everything else.
And so I set off on the journeythat leads to where we are
(06:55):
today, and the journey was beless of a loser so that I can
commit suicide without cockingit up.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So that was a motivator behind it.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That was a motivator and that's why I say complete
accident I had.
No, I wasn't like I'm gonna goand better myself so I can win
at life.
I'm like no, I was obsessed foryears.
Obsessed with understandingwhat was wrong, what I'd messed
up, what I didn't understand,where I've been lied to like,
where the holes were with thesystem, so that when I go
through with this suicideattempt it's perfect and I fade
(07:29):
to black.
I didn't want a big pomp andparade.
I didn't want someone to haveto cut me down from somewhere.
I didn't want any drama.
I wasn't gonna even do asuicide note, I was just gonna
just fail out and just be donewith it.
That was my plan.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And so prior to your, I guess, earning a million
dollars at 19 and having itcrumble and then doing it again
up until that point, had youever sort of struggled with
confidence or mental healthissues.
So it was really a response tohaving those two failed business
attempts, that sort of yeah,right, yeah, yeah, I mean, I was
(08:06):
diagnosed with Asperger's whenI was 27.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And the crazy thing is that my I truly believe it
was my Asperger's that saved me,because I don't have the
capacity to make impulsedecisions.
I can't do impulse decisions.
I literally don't have thewiring for it.
And so I sat there and was like, okay, I'm gonna do this thing.
Very calm, it was like, oh, Idon't wanna kill myself.
I was really calm, like okay,cool, logically, this is the
(08:29):
best thing for me to do, just tonot be here anymore.
And I ran through my optionsand none of them made any sense
as being something I could pulloff.
And that's literally because ofthe way that my brain works,
being an autistic brain, andthat's what happened.
It's insane, absolutely insane.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Just to even touch on Asperger's.
So Asperger's, from myunderstanding, is like
intellectually, like logicallyand rationally, everything fires
.
It's more like social cues andemotional cues where there's a
bit of a disparity.
Is that correct, yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
yeah, so we've got some of the wiring mix.
It's apparent for differentpeople in different ways, but
certain of the wiring for thosesocial interactions don't exist
naturally, and so they eitherhave to be hardwired through
practice or, like me, I studiedsocial dynamics.
It's how I got over my socialanxiety that I had for years,
and I understand the systems andstructures, and those systems
(09:19):
and structures reduce my anxiety.
And then the way that I hackthe system is I only really hang
out with people that I connectwith at heart and soul level,
but I've got the structure thatstops me having the anxiety, so
that I can find my tribe andthen just connect with them at
the heart and soul level.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's awesome.
So when you found out thatdiagnosis at 27, was that like a
shock to you, or how did thatimpact your influence?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Oh, even thinking about it now I just feel the
lightness that just came BecauseI was suffering with severe
social anxiety, severe generalhaving insomnia that would last
for periods, and it was actuallya particularly rough experience
of insomnia that sent me off tothe doctors to try and get
sleeping tablets.
He gives me the sleepingtablets.
They don't work.
(10:02):
He sends me off to go speak toa therapist.
The therapist he sends me to DrHelen McEwen.
Thank you, dr Helen.
Always shout out love.
It a bit Happened to be acognitive behavioral therapist
that specialized in working withadult autism.
Again, completely should justhappen to be the person that got
the call and happened to besomeone that specialized in that
Saw.
What was really going on wasn'tthat I had sleep issues, it was
(10:24):
my nervous system was offbecause I was a neurodivergent
person who was unaware,operating in a neurotypical
world and suffering from anxietyas a result, and that's all.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It's crazy how the world sort of points you in the
right direction.
If you're open to looking andreceiving that feedback, it all
seems to fall into place.
It's funny for me when I reallytune into that sort of stuff
and things start happening.
I'll go.
I wish I did this all the time.
Obviously my mood and emotioncan sometimes distract me and I
can get in my head a lot, butwhen things are going well I'm
(10:56):
like all I gotta do is just keepthis up, keep being open to
opportunity and sort ofprojecting what I want in my
life and it starts to happen.
But obviously we know that lifecan be challenging.
But one of the next steps foryou like after that diagnosis,
so 19, and then you made anotherbusiness and then you went
through a couple of rough yearsreally trying to figure out how
(11:18):
you could not mess up suicideWithin that process what changed
?
Because you're still here today.
You're thriving.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, so I mean.
So no shade at TEDx, just incase they let me do another one.
But I actually did a TEDx.
I recorded a TEDx that tellsthis whole story and speaks
about this whole thing, but thetitle it doesn't look like they
really agreed with the title, sothey're like nah, we're not
publishing this, so who cares?
I'm popping it, we're rippingthe audio, I'm popping it on the
(11:46):
podcast.
So we're still gonna share thestory.
And I actually decided today,on the 13th of May, that my next
film project I'm gonna build awhole film around this whole
concept anyway.
But when we look at who we areas humans, right, we've got our
physical body that moves throughtime and space.
Right, our little meat soup.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Everyone's familiar with the phrase.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Meat soup.
Everyone's familiar with thephrase mind over matter.
Right, it's a scientific factthat our mind has an impact on
our physical reality.
A mum in a crazy situation getssuper human strength.
Rips at the door of a car likeyour ability to move through
time and space can literallychange depending on the stories
that you hold in your mind.
Everything that we experiencedin our world began as a vision
(12:29):
in the mind.
Right, we've got mind intomatter.
But it's also a fact that wecan only think to the level of
our current emotional state, thethoughts going on in my brain
now and limited to the emotionsthat I have the capacity for and
that I'm feeling in the moment.
So we see that there's thissort of downward trickle effect
from the emotions into thethoughts, into the actions and
behaviors that become thereality, right?
(12:51):
So, like I said to you, Ididn't sit there and say I want
to choose life.
There was no point in thejourney that was like I choose
life now.
I woke up one morning I think itwas April 2015.
I just got back from Thailand,had an amazing trip with my
cousins the time that I wasthere, the business that I then
built up.
I've made over a hundred grand.
Over that time that I was away,I'd taken one phone call with
(13:14):
Joe, my assistant.
I'd lived my best life.
I was in a beautiful home inHighgate.
I had fancy stuff but alsogreat connections in my family.
I was working out and feelinggood in my body, great
friendships Everything was justworking.
And I realized, huh, oh, my God,like I'm actually enjoying my
life.
And I hadn't been in the darkplace for a long time.
(13:34):
And even when the dark placetried to rise up, I was like
yeah, yeah, I'm good, like I wasunconscious.
I'd become unconsciouslycompetent in my ability to live
life in my own terms.
And tracking back the journeyto that is now what my book,
that one here, steppenfieldIntention that's what that
puppy's all about.
It goes through that wholejourney and the four step
(13:55):
process that I actually builtoff the back of it.
But all of that to say that thethoughts had to have changed,
otherwise my environment couldhave changed, because my
unconscious habits and behaviorswouldn't have changed, which
means that my emotional statehad to have changed.
But what leads to our emotionalstate?
Our emotional state is impactedby our environment.
And here's the thing for acouple of years, all I was doing
(14:18):
was obsessively reading books,listening to tapes, having
conversations and havingdiscussions purely about this
kind of stuff personaldevelopment, spirituality,
evolution of consciousness,behavioral patterns, mindset.
I taught myself to translateArabic and Hebrew and all this
kind of stuff.
So I pummeled my brain andaccidentally reprogrammed it to
(14:41):
choose life.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It's such.
I can relate to that story somuch because, like that's
exactly the path that I wentdown.
It was more so.
I didn't necessarily the sameas you choose life, but I made a
decision that I just didn'twant to hate myself anymore,
Whatever that looked like andbooks, podcasts, audios and then
you do wake up one day andyou're like I'm actually proud
(15:04):
of who I am and like it's such aphenomenal experience and I
don't know whether you canrelate, Daniel, I'm sure you
probably can I talk about how Iused to think, act and behave
eight years ago when I wasreally not liking who I was.
It's almost like I'm sodisassociated from that version
of who I was.
It's laughable.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
But when I was going through it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It was the most painful experience ever so when
I see men and people who aregoing through turmoil, trauma,
pain, I'm like you know.
Obviously I can't alwaysunderstand what you're going
through, but there can be lightat the end of the tunnel.
There is exactly another wayyou spoke about the four steps.
In the book there Is thatrelated to the Beyond the
(15:45):
Intention paradigm.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, the Beyond the Intention paradigm.
That book breaks down theparadigm how it works, why it
works, where the steps came from, stories of it playing out my
journey, that's what it's about.
So for, someone.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Just to take it back a second.
The environment.
I'm massive on shifting yourenvironment, because we can all
read a book, we can all set agoal, but if you're hanging
around a group of people thatare doing the opposite to that,
you're generally going to fallback into that pattern.
And so for anyone who's wantingto improve themselves, be
happier, be fitter, I'm likechange your environment.
(16:18):
It may be hard, you may notknow where to go, they may not
even want to hang out with youright now, but what would your,
from your experience, or evenyour advice, what would you give
to someone who needs to changetheir environment, to go into
the person that they need to be?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Unless you really want it, you're not going to do
the work anyway.
So don't bother trying, becausethe frustration of you trying
and the failure of trying isjust going to double your
disappointment and make you evenmore miserable.
So if you don't want to be evenmore miserable, only go for it
if you really want it.
And here's the thing it's okayfor you not to want it.
(16:55):
Some of us are so deeplyprogrammed into the despair that
that's who we are, and if wejust gave ourself a mission to
do that, then that actuallycould give you the space to want
to be different, somethingdifferent.
But if you're resisting who youare, you're going to hit a
brick wall.
So the thing is wanting itenough, but wanting it because
(17:15):
you want to be better, notbecause you don't like who you
are.
It's about wanting to grow,being desirous of growth.
When you are desirous of growth, there's this weird thing that
happens because growth is ournatural order.
When we actually desire, whenit's actually burning within us
to want to grow, then thechallenges, the road bumps, the
speed bumps, the speed humps,all of the things that will get
(17:36):
in your way for growth tend toeither be dissolved or easily
navigated because you'll havethe momentum to go through it.
One of the illusions I hearpeople talk about is getting to
the end or getting over it.
It doesn't.
The journey doesn't stop, thegrowth doesn't end.
I don't heal myself completelyof magically of depressive
(17:57):
thoughts.
What happens is that mycapacity to navigate those
thoughts shifts wildly and whenthey show up it's like oh, that
again and I can navigate it.
Life doesn't get easier.
We get stronger.
That's the key.
But that strength has to bebased on a desire to grow, not a
desire not to be who you are,because that's just going to
keep you locked in more of whoyou are and keep you living the
(18:20):
same life over and over.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Such a good point.
I think, from my experience, weare trying to grow out of who
we are, but I think we can neverreally avoid that.
It is just how can we bestronger to deal with the
challenges that and ultimately,as you say, when we're growing,
we're bringing those challengesinto our life.
It's there to test us, to seehow strong we can be.
I think it's very important towhen you do hit a road bump or
(18:42):
you do hit that obstacle, whatkind of reps do I need to do in
order to be able to work throughthis?
Because it's all about sets andreps.
Sometimes you're fatigued andsometimes you're feeling like
you've just come off a three day, three rest days, and you're
feeling stronger than ever,moving forward as well.
After you got to that point andyou started realizing, hey, I'm
(19:06):
just living my best life.
Now I'm super, super happy.
What then led you into thespace that you're in now and
really helped you continue tomove forward and grow?
What's the burning desire now?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I recognize that growth is a natural order of
things.
If I'm not growing, I'm dying.
So I'm always looking toimprove.
I never accept or believe thatI know everything.
Anytime I go into conversation,come into this podcast.
I'm not coming to teach.
I'm coming to learn from theexperience.
I'm coming to grow in the space.
I do my best to go through allof my things.
(19:40):
My son's 18 months old onSunday coming.
I don't look at him as someonethat I need to show.
I'm looking at him as someonethat I get to co-create more
life with.
It just so happens that I'vegot some pieces of the puzzle,
but not the complete pieces.
He's got pieces that I don'teven know are possible, and
that's how I approach my life.
I approach my life at all timeslooking for how can I be
(20:03):
expanded by it, what can Icontribute to it?
What can I give because I knoweverything?
What can I contribute so thateverybody grows from the
experience?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
How did you develop that approach?
Because even just the fact thatyou're saying you're learning
from your son, that makes me sohappy on the inside.
I'm like this is incredible,because we can learn so much
from each other, but it alsoshows to me that you're an
engaged dad.
That's something that I justlove.
More than anything is the factthat now men are stepping up and
obviously the world's changing,but they're really wanting to
(20:34):
be engaged in their children'slives and even in their
partner's lives.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I think humility came for me in a really rough way.
My humble pie was stuffed downmy throat until I nearly choked.
It was a big part of my journeybecause one of the things I
came to realize about why Imessed up so many times when I
was younger is because I wasrunning around thinking I was
Johnny Big Sox that kneweverything.
That's what led ultimately tolosing everything twice.
(21:03):
Not being open to counsel.
I spent six figures a year on mypersonal development.
One thing that I invested inlast year alone was a hundred
grand just one of the things Iinvested in for myself.
I continued to do that, justseeing the results that come
from being open to what life cangive you.
If you just actually payattention.
(21:24):
It's like when something works,you do more of it.
That led me to continue thatjourney of growing.
I think there was a moment Iknow there was a moment when I
specifically made the consciouschoice to go in to learn a lot
from my son, ethan.
So when I came home from theoffice once and he waved at me
(21:45):
and now it seems very ordinary,right, but I want you, to anyone
who's listening to this, totell me do you remember the
moment that you learned to waveno.
And then I thought even thingslike do you remember the moment
that you understood what it wasto read?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Never.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You probably remember books that you read when you
were a kid at school.
But the point at which youstarted to look at these
squiggles on a page and assignmeaning to them my wife's
Russian, my son's mum, he'sRussian, and I decided I'd
refuse to be the only person inmy house that doesn't speak
Russian.
So I started to learn Russianand that was when it really hit
me that letters are justsquiggles that we've assigned
(22:34):
meaning to.
If I showed you the letter H,you'd say that's a letter H,
it's a half sound, it's a.
Really it's a nuh sound, right,what we look at as a P a put
sound, it's a ruh sound inRussian, and so it's like but
it's just a squiggle.
But the squiggle has acompletely different meaning.
I don't remember when thatmeaning became a sound that I
attributed this understandingand value of.
(22:56):
I don't remember it.
So I'm looking at Ethan waving.
I was like, oh my God.
At the time I think he wasabout one years old.
I don't remember being oneyears old, let alone being one
years old and learning whateverI learned at that age.
My stepdaughter's six and she'sgot these little crazy things
that she does.
I don't remember being sixyears old.
And yet in that period of timebetween about his age and about
(23:18):
her age is literally when thefoundations of who we are being
constructed, all of the programs, all of the patterns, all of
the foundations are being builtat that time.
And yet very few of us canremember the points of inception
of some of these ideas thatliterally become the habits and
behaviors that we exhibit asadults.
So when someone comes to me andis a bit of a douche speaking
from their pain body, I don'tknow what experience happened to
(23:41):
them where they thought it wasokay.
When someone expresses hate,whether it's for somebody's race
, somebody's religion,somebody's gender choices or
sexuality choices, I don't knowwhat the thing was.
My nephew was at school theother day when apparently my
nephew's nine KK is nine and hecame home and told him.
Apparently one of the kids atschool came to him and said well
, at least I'm not black.
(24:01):
A nine year old is spewing hateNow that nine year old is just
coming off the back of hisanalytical function building.
But that's purely what theypicked up from, whatever their
living situation is that theythen began to accept as being
correct behavior.
They probably don't even knowthat there's something wrong
(24:22):
with what they were doing.
They're just spewing whatthey're spewing, and yet that
person, in 20 years time, in 30years time, what are they going
to be doing?
What are they going to beshowing in the world?
And so it gave me a sense ofcompassion for the people around
me and also gave me a level ofrespect for what's going on with
my inputs, because every singleinput, every single environment
that I'm in is eithersupporting those programs that
(24:44):
were built when I was a kid ordisrupting them.
And all of these people thatare having these experiences,
this kid who was racist to mynephew.
I've learned something from himtoo.
Using one of these experiencesgives me the opportunity to
challenge, to engage, to supportor disrupt what's going on
inside of me, which is going tobecome an outcome, which is
(25:05):
going to go back and become moreof an experience, and it's just
so much to take from I went ona little bit there's so much to
take from our world and fromthese experiences that can grow
us or leave us small.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
That was powerful to listen to and I think it feels
like you just takeresponsibility for everything
that's coming your way good, badand indifferent and able to use
that experience, as you said,to better who you are and better
your outputs.
And for a long period of my life, I was really unaware of all
the stuff that I was consuming,from the news to the
(25:42):
conversations that I was havingwith mates at the pub, and I was
wondering why I was continuingto walk around really confused,
unhappy, unsatisfied and justlacking, I guess, meaning for a
better word within my life.
And the moment that I startedhaving conversations with people
like yourself or reading books,the input changed and I started
realizing that theconversations that I was having
(26:04):
was impacting my moods, wasimpacting my emotions and
ultimately impacting my output.
And while I'm still not perfectat it, I do.
Still I'm a bit of a I don'tknow how to say it yet but I
love to experience new thingsand often I might find myself at
events or meeting with peoplefor coffee where I'm like you
(26:25):
know as much as I can learn fromit.
I wish I was spending time inanother situation with, maybe
someone who is going to reallystretch me and really challenge
me.
That's one thing that I'mreally focused on.
Moving forward is being moreintentional with that, where my
time's going, what the input is.
So how important is that to you?
Are you I know you briefly justtouched on this, but with your
(26:47):
environments now?
Is there a lot of stuff thatyou'd look to cut out, or are
you just sort of yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I'm ruthless with my environment.
Ruthless have you.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I was going to say have you noticed any negative
impacts as a result of that?
Like, have you lost friendshipsas a result of that or
disappointed people as a resultof that?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well, I mean, first and foremost, if we're not
putting ourselves in a positionwhere we're nourished and served
, then how can we serve andnourish anyone else?
And so somebody may bedisappointed, but I'm actually
doing this both for service.
If I'm pulling us out of asituation where we're not
serving each other because we'renot even being expanded by the
situation, that time and energythat we're both putting into
(27:32):
this connection is holding usback from something that might
expand us.
So I'm actually helping us,regardless of how either of us
might feel in the short term.
There've been situations that Ihaven't necessarily wanted to
walk away from, but I recognizethe lack of alignment with where
I want to move with my life,which isn't for my benefit, it's
for contributive benefits.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Definitely.
So you talk about alignment.
How does that show up for youand how do you find that?
Because alignment's a word thatI've heard coming up a heap for
a lot of people and it'ssomething that I probably seek
to find.
So what does that look like andhow did you establish that in
your life?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I think, if we look at the breakdown of the word
alignment, the word alignmentrequires two points the thing
that we're aligning to and thething which is being aligned.
And a lot of people don't haveto think that they're aligning
to because they're not beingintentional, they're just
running on programs.
And so you can't, in my opinion, have alignment without an
actual conscious focus thatwe're moving alignment to.
(28:28):
Otherwise you're not aligned,you're just in flow with
whatever.
And so it comes down tointentionality.
For me, that's what's the lifethat I want to live, and for me,
the life I want to live is howcan I be of contribution in a
way that serves me, serves asI'm contributing to, makes the
world a better place.
Not for me to go like, hey,what a big world, a better place
, because I feel really goodwhen I'm actually contributing
(28:51):
to the world being a betterplace.
So it's selfish, right?
I think it's Adam Smith thatsaid it's not from the charity
of the baker in the butcher thatwe get our bread and meat, it's
from their own self-interest.
Self-interest can exhibititself healthily in this respect
.
So when I've got that vision,I'm saying well, all the parts
of me.
We spoke about my mentalexperience, my actions and
habits, my behaviors, myemotional state.
(29:12):
I'm aligning those up tosupport that outcome coming to
bear, that life that I want tolive coming to bear.
And that's what alignment isfor me.
It's all of me mind, body, soul, mental, physical, emotional
being lined up with supportingthe bringing forth of the
outcome that I've consciouslychosen.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So do you believe success is unattainable without
intention?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
No people put chance upon success, and I think
there's a weird danism that I'vegot, which is that you've never
found anything.
People say what do you mean?
I haven't found anything, Ididn't get that job, I didn't
get into the college I wanted togo to and my business didn't
work out.
Actually, your unconscious mind, which operates at 10,000 to 10
(29:58):
million times the speed of theconscious mind, never fails as a
terminator.
But what there is is there's adisconnect between what's going
on at the unconscious level andwhat I'm consciously choosing.
For me, intentionality isinterjecting with what's in the
program and consciously beinginvolved in the choice.
The program can be hardwiredfor success.
You can actually be one ofthose people who charges upon an
(30:21):
outcome that happens to feelgood for you consciously.
That also is what you'reprogrammed with unconsciously.
I was successful in stayingalive.
It wasn't what I wanted to doand I was successful without
that intention.
I've heard it said that successis getting what you want.
We're always getting what wewant unconsciously.
So I like to tweak it thatsuccess is really getting what
(30:46):
you want consciously.
But to get what I wantconsciously, I need to be
consciously involved.
So that requires intentionality, because I'm disrupting the
program with what I consciouslywant, rather than flowing
successfully into something thatI don't want.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So for that as well.
So you know how you justmentioned, some people can be
hardwired for success and othersnot so much.
Do you feel that's more, ifwhen you grow up, some people
grow up in wealthier families orentrepreneurial families or
sporty families, do you reckonthat sort of is a big indicator
(31:19):
as to why some people may behardwired for certain levels of
success across different areas?
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, but I do want to just quickly bring it like an
economic truth to the thing.
Like there's a lot of richhating right now.
They were born into the averagewealthy family.
Lose it after three generationsof the person who actually
created the wealth really beingborn with a silver.
Yeah, do the check, check itout the average.
You get the odd that managed tobuild a dynasty, right, that
(31:49):
lasts, but most is gone withinthree generations.
They say the first one buildsit, the second one breaks it, or
third one loses it, orsomething like that.
I don't remember exact exactwords.
So it's really funny that a lotof people are all that person
was born with a silver spoon.
They're so lucky and,statistically speaking, you are
better off as the personcreating a dynasty than
(32:11):
receiving it, because theprobability is that you're the
one that's going to be moresuccessful.
Now, are there certainadvantages to some of this?
Well, of course, you've gotaccess to different education,
different resources, but accessto something doesn't mean that
you're going to use it, or evenuse it positively.
So when you look at drugaddiction, you look at
alcoholism, you look at mentalhealth challenges, a lot of
(32:32):
those actually exist amongst thefamilies of the wealthy.
And yet people are betrayingtheir capacity to actually
create by saying I can't do itbecause I haven't got the leg up
, when the people who've got theleg up actually aren't doing as
well as you think they are?
Does that make sense?
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
So being in the position to create the dynasty
obviously means you knowfinances are important to a
degree is to create the lifethat you want and to create, I
guess, a life full of purposeand passion.
Even Do you believe financialfreedom is a big part of that?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I think it's a great place to be because you're in a
conducive space to create.
If you're not thinking aboutmoney, then you're good, and
it's one of the reasons why Imean.
People say why do you focus onhelping people to get rich and
be millionaires, daniel?
But it's not the most importantthing.
It's not.
But for years, all I washearing people say about why
they couldn't live their ideallife is that they didn't have
enough money.
And now, for years, I'm seeingpeople that have got financial
(33:32):
freedom, able to live their bestlife, not because of the money,
but the money gives them thespace to be able to do that.
Think about it the averageperson who works a 40 hour week.
You've got an hour each way towork.
That's 50 hours of the week.
If that 50 hours was back inyour pocket, you could go and be
a contribution, you could goand live your best life, you
could go and do that hobby, youcould go and start a charity or
(33:52):
play the instrument or be withyour family.
More Money is just a tool thatmakes things easier.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
That's it, and so a lot of you were saying as well
just a moment ago, like there'sa lot of people hating on the
rich at the moment or thewealthy.
Why do you feel?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
that is Because they don't have to take
responsibility for their life.
If the problems in the worldare the fault of the rich people
, then you're not responsible,you can get away with it and you
can stay the same and not haveto do anything because it's Elon
Musk's fault, or it's well,Jeff Bezos is going to space.
(34:28):
What about all the hungrychildren in Africa?
Blah, blah, blah.
Jeff Bezos isn't as rich richas you think he is.
Most of his wealth is tied upin shares in Amazon, which are
also propping up your pensionfund Right.
So his success is your success,which is propping up the stock
market, which is holding backthe tides of financial cataclysm
(34:51):
, which will be a mess when itfinally kicks in.
There was 10 times more toxicdebt running around in the world
before COVID than in 2008, whenthe world literally nearly
didn't make it, and it's thesepeople who are creating value.
Does he treat his work as well?
I've heard it said not too well.
Yes, and he's just one person.
(35:13):
I had the pleasure two, threeweeks ago I was on Necker Island
, Richard Branson's privateisland got to hang out with him,
Some other very, verysuccessful people who are
committed to supporting positivechange, who do look after their
employees, who do add value,who do pay fair value for things
, who do honor and respect thepeople that they serve as
clients and customers.
Not everybody's a twat.
(35:35):
That's the business person.
Not everybody's a twat.
That's rich and if someone haslike so.
Richard's made 400 companies, $7billion businesses.
If he wants to own a privateisland and play tennis all day,
he's earned the right to have aprivate island and play just but
to say, oh, we need to take allhis money to feed the poor or
(35:55):
whatever.
He's done his part.
He's created jobs.
Now again, some people aretwats.
You get it.
Jeff Bezos may be a twat, butthese small handful of people
who are twats are not an excusefor us to sit at home just
pointing angry fingers and notdoing anything about changing
our own life.
That's just a recipe fordisaster and staying the same.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Do you feel that taking responsibility is the
biggest thing holding peopleback from, I guess, creating
financial freedom for themselves?
One of them.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
What would be a couple of other ones.
Another one is, I love to sayaction is the least and the most
important thing at the sametime.
It's the least important thingbecause by the time we get to
the action piece, our mindset'salready set, our emotional
state's already set, theunconscious mind's already
kicked into the actions justfollowing on.
Without action, we don't getanywhere.
(36:49):
So it's the least and the mostimportant thing.
So I think action definitely isone, and another thing is being
obsessed with one part of thepuzzle.
One of the things I love toshare with people is I've got
catchphrase stop meditating.
What do you mean?
Stop meditating, daniel.
It changed my life.
It's the most important thingin the universe.
It's like well, yes, and Ifyou've got a goal and you just
(37:09):
sit and meditate on it all day,is it going to happen?
No, and even if it does happen,are you going to be able to
enjoy it if you lock tight inyour meditation?
No, it's one piece of thepuzzle.
You can meditate all you wantabout being successful.
If you've got a belief systemthat doesn't allow you to
believe that you're successful,you're not going to be able to
see it.
If you don't take any action,you're not going to do it.
I can sit here in lotus positionpraying for the love of my life
(37:32):
to show up If I'm just in anashram in the backwater
mountains of India and thatperson doesn't happen to be
there too, even if they walkpast the room, but I'm in lotus
position, I'm not going to seethem because my eyes are closed.
I mean deep prayer andmeditation in another dimension.
Dear God, I'm in this dimensionwith you, but where's the love
of my life?
I don't leave the dimension.
How can I enjoy it?
It's like it's ludicrous.
(37:53):
So definitely responsibility.
Action is the least and mostimportant thing.
Don't over rely on any onething to save you.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
That's so powerful.
I remember I was reading thatyou said don't meditate and I
was like what?
This is absurd.
I had that exact same reactionStop meditating, don't meditate,
stop meditating and then when Ilooked into it further and I
was like, okay, I can definitelyunderstand, because people get
so in the motion.
(38:26):
They feel like they're doingsomething, even if they become
like personal developmentjunkies where they go to every
event, read every book listen toevery podcast and they're
telling you about it and like so, have you implemented that yet?
No, no, no, no.
I just need to figure out thisnext step.
I'm in the river of change,right, you probably heard that
one yes, and it's all well andgood, but you've got to take
(38:47):
some action now to actually getthe next bit of feedback for you
in your because, based on ourexperiences, the people that we
get to network with or surroundourselves with, we've all got
different skill levels andexperiences levels.
So, creating financial free ifwe were both to go back to 19
Daniel creating, you're amillionaire at 19,.
I was far from a millionaire at19.
(39:09):
I was still the master of myelbow, but I was.
If we were to go, okay, let'screate financial freedom, this
is the roadmap to do it, thejourney would look very
different for us, based on thebeliefs, experiences and
everything that we had, for thatmatter, and we're not going to
understand what that looks likeif we don't just take action.
I could have sat there andcontinued learning about
(39:30):
business, reading about businessand getting mentored, but if I
didn't take the risk, I neverwould have gotten there, and I
think I'd love to actually knowyour opinion on this.
Do you believe not everyone,but people who want that
financial freedom should have acrack at entrepreneurship or
should have a crack at creatingtheir own business?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Not everyone, because a lot of people aren't built
for this life, man, A lot ofpeople aren't built for it.
I think it's 85% of businessesfail within five years, or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, I think it's even a bit more or less years.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
It's staggering, it's a wild thing, and yet
everyone's buying a course froma funnel that they saw on
Instagram or whatever.
Not everyone's built for thislife and if everyone's the chief
, then who's there to be theworker?
Right?
Everyone's a boss who's goingto get things done.
I mean, I love to talk aboutending job saving.
There's nothing wrong withhaving a job.
(40:23):
People, I've got my nine tofive.
I've got my job.
I'm an entrepreneur.
I've got my nine to five.
Own your job with pride.
Do a job that serves you andserves others and feels good and
meets your needs, but do itwith pride.
Not everyone's an entrepreneur.
A lot of people trying to beentrepreneurs.
Really, you're not.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
And that's why you're struggling.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I think I did an article I don't know if it's
been published yet inEntrepreneur About the nine to
five entrepreneur.
You just made a job foryourself and for most of it it's
a job that you don't like andyou're not very good at.
Yeah, yeah, but I thought you'dbe an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
So I was saying I sometimes go through this
thought process that I wishpeople would have a crack at
business just so they couldunderstand all of the decisions
and things that need to beweighed up.
Because as a business owner andI often see people who are an
employee and they're criticizingeverything and I can understand
both perspectives, but whenyou're running a business there
(41:25):
is a lot of pressure that peopledon't understand and think
about.
So I think to create moreempathy, it's like have a crack
at it and see just how much isgoing on there.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
I see where you're coming from.
Yeah, it's like that Walk in myshoes, walk in my shoes.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah, exactly Understand my pain.
So to bring more of thatempathy, but I really love it.
He said most people aren'tbuilt to be entrepreneurs and we
shouldn't be shaming the nineto five, because some people
I've heard Gary V say, like aposition two, an entrepreneur,
wouldn't be as successful asthey are without everyone else.
(41:58):
It's what drives everythingtogether.
A plane still wouldn't fly ifit didn't have an engine, even
though the pilot's in control.
So everyone sort of fits theirrole and I think if we can stop
shaming that, everyone will beable to really embrace and
thrive in their acquiredposition.
And I think about it or talkabout it regularly with men in
(42:21):
our community who are unhappyand they're working in a job
that isn't fulfilling.
They work extremely long hours,the sacrifices are stuff that
they don't necessarily want tolive with and I'm like well, why
don't you just literally gowork at Mackers?
You know you've got a certainshift and you'll be done at that
time and then you can spendtime with your children or you
can go for the run or do theadventure stuff that you want to
(42:43):
do.
Why do you feel the pressure tohave to keep the status in that
role?
So I guess why do you feel thatis for a lot of us, that we do
want to uphold status andposition and be the I guess, the
top dog?
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Because some of us give more credibility to the
thoughts and opinions about thepeople that we do for ourselves.
I mean, when I reflect back onmy dalliance with suicide, it is
my obsession with what Ibelieved other people were
believing and thinking and thatled me to thank God, not have
the capacity to do but nearly goto take my own life.
How many others are burning outto keep up with the Joneses
(43:20):
because they need the countryclub and the diss and that and
that they don't even really wantthose things?
But because society has givenus this lack of conscious
connection to what's going oninside of us, we're playing this
out.
Playing this out and burningout as a result.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, we really need to figure out what we want and,
once we get there it's like,solidify those beliefs and build
the environment to support usdoing that so we don't fall in
that trap of keeping up with theJoneses, exactly.
But, daniel, I know you're abusy man so I want to respect
your time.
I've got one last question foryou before we can find out all
your books and the podcast andeverything like that.
But what does it mean to be aman for you?
(43:57):
It's a quickly give you a bitof framing.
I ask everyone because,especially in Australia, we've
grown up with a stereotypicalbelief of what it means to be a
man, but obviously suicide ratesare continuing to grow.
So we need to get more peoplelike yourself, well respected
people who are thriving in lifeand definitely would have given
(44:20):
it some thought what it means tobe a man, because there's going
to be people out there whoresonate with it.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
I think the idea of what it means to be a man is
being challenged in recent yearsbecause there is all these
discussions going on aboutgender identity, gender
allocation, people I mean Ican't remember the name of the
trans woman who swam in theirswimming race and everyone was
getting mad because the thing sogender is becoming a very, very
(44:50):
different thing now.
So I don't think being a mannow can be locked into this
gender.
I think Elaine Page becametrans.
Trans man is now Elliot Page.
It's new for many of us, right?
This wasn't something that washappening a generation ago.
And so I think what we're reallytalking about when we say
(45:12):
what's a man is, we're lookingat a.
We've got the gender identity,but then we've also got the
natural manifestation ofmasculine, primarily masculine
energy, and for me, that's whatit really is about Not so much
being a man, but being a healthyexpression of the divine
(45:33):
masculine and how we show up.
And what is that?
That's a container, that's thedirection, but none of that
really matters if it's notplaying in harmony with a
counterpart energy.
That doesn't mean we need awoman.
Feminine energy is all around.
How am I in relationship to theidea of flow?
How am I in relationship tosurrender?
How am I in relation tointuition?
(45:54):
How am I in relation withnature?
So it's the container that I amthat's dancing with the divine
feminine energy that naturallyexpresses to, and then what I do
with that.
For me, that gets added to theidentity under that of a dad, of
a leader, of a brother, of ason, of a husband.
But again, all of these are allgoing to be based on how I show
(46:16):
up, initially under that guiseof a man, which is just a
physical manifestation of anaturally occurring container
for that masculine energy.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Thanks for sharing that.
Where can people find you?
So, if they want to listen tothe podcast, if they want to
attend your workshop, see, speak.
Read your books.
Give us a rundown.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Well, what I've done is I've just been making some
notes as we've been talking.
I'm going to have my teamproduce a resource page.
So if they go todreamwooddancom forward slash
man, that can.
Dreamwooddancom forward, slashman, that can.
I'm going to pop on a.
We've got a program calledBeyond Intention Introduction.
It's about 90 minutes worth ofaudio but walks you through
(47:00):
learning my beyond intentionparadigm.
I'm going to put some otherlittle pieces in there as well A
couple of my articles forentrepreneurs and podcasts,
links and stuff like that.
But yeah, and also a link tobook a call with us and when you
register for that it will popyou on the email list.
If anything calls happen,you'll get to come to it.
But dreamwooddancom forward,slash man, that can pop some
resources that will support themapplying what we spoken about
(47:21):
today.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Awesome.
Thank you so much for your time, mate.
It's been a wonderful chat andhopefully when I get over to
Mexico one day, we can link up.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Sounds like a good one to me, man, and before I
come back to Brissy, we'll havea call If you do come back to
the Sunshine.
State yeah, it's not so sunnyat the moment.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
If you got value from that episode, be sure to share
it.
And remember do something todaythat's going to make you better
for tomorrow.
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